Hezekiah and his Angel

2 Kings 19

1 When King Hezekiah heard this, he ripped his clothes, covered himself with mourning clothes, and went to the Lord’s temple. 
¹⁴ Hezekiah took the letters(asking for surrender)  from the messengers and read them. Then he went to the temple and spread them out before the Lord. ¹⁵ Hezekiah prayed to the Lord, saying, “Lord God of Israel, you sit enthroned on the winged creatures. You alone are God over all the earth’s kingdoms. You made both heaven and earth. ¹⁶ Lord, turn your ear this way and hear! Lord, open your eyes and see! Listen to Sennacherib’s words. He sent them to insult the living God! ¹⁷ It’s true, Lord, that the Assyrian kings have destroyed many nations and their lands. ¹⁸ The Assyrians burned the gods of those nations with fire because they aren’t real gods. They are only man-made creations of wood and stone. That’s how the Assyrians could destroy them. ¹⁹ So now, Lord our God, please save us from Sennacherib’s power! Then all the earth’s kingdoms will know that you, Lord, are the only true God.”

³⁵ That night the Lord’s messenger went out and struck down one hundred eighty-five thousand soldiers( 185,000) in the Assyrian camp. When people got up the next morning, there were dead bodies everywhere. ³⁶ So Assyria’s King Sennacherib departed, returning to Nineveh, where he stayed. ³⁷ Later, while he was worshiping in the temple of his god Nisroch, his sons Adrammelech and Sharezer killed him with a sword. They then escaped to the land of Ararat. 

How to defeat the Evil in our lives 
a) Asking
I am amazed by this simple act of surrender by a king. Simply by asking the Creator, Almighty God of the Universe for help before he planned some sort of reaction he was given an angel. This angel has no name but he does have a sword. The most powerful army  at the time was about to wipe out tiny Israel.And then God showed up!!! after he was invited.

We often don't see the need for prayer until after we get attacked by an evil force. We might not be battling the most powerful army, but we are attacked by cancer,  arthritis, broken and missing limbs, unemployment and debts. And these individualized enemies limit us in not only pursuing our own goals but also limits us in seeing God's provision.  And sometimes our children are attacked instead of us.  Then most often our response is to agree with those around us and go to the doctors. And we agree with the doctor's diagnosis before we take our enemy before the Lord.  

Just think of the power we have. We too can kill 185,000 enemies in one night if we ask. We often don't ask. We just go alone with world's ideas. But the world is not the same as the Lord.
And today we do not have to go to a priest as, King Hezekiah did.  We just need to go to a quiet place in our house so we can hear God talking. 
We have God's power within us if we have accepted the Blood of Christ as our covering.  And we need to tap into that power. We do not need to meditate either. Just ask Him to heal you. Ask him to heal others you know.  "Remind" Him of his promises to you, His little lamb. 

b) Acting
And even if we are surrounded of every side by the enemy He will give you the strength to overpower them.  And sometimes we need to act kindly to the enemy. God will show us how to defeat the mean boss,  the unhappy husband, or rebellious child by placing heaps of coal on their head.

 ²¹ If your enemies are starving, feed them some bread;   if they are thirsty, give them water to drink.²² By doing this, you will heap burning coals on their heads, and the Lord will reward you.(Proverbs 25:1-2)

I have done this my husband. I was afraid of him and shaking in my slippers while I ordered my hands to rub his head and his neck, shoulders. I am no longer shaking but I continue to rub him. 

c)Anticipating
  We need to keep asking until we get a positive response. If we know that God is able to heal, fix us and He is not doing so then we need to keep on asking. I have done this with the Little old lady with Alzheimer's. I have had the  Sacraments on her behalf a few times, I have laid hands on her and anointed her with oil a few times.  Both with her husband and alone. And now she is getting better. She has started to gain weight slowly.  
 I am not sure what stops God from acting. I thought it might be something about me that I need to take care of. But if we are in-tune with Christ then we are as he is.(1 John 4:17)
But I do know that  

 ²¹ Then (Eljiah) stretched himself over the boy three times and cried out to the Lord, “Lord my God, please give this boy’s life back to him.” ²² The Lord listened to Elijah’s voice and gave the boy his life back. And he lived.( 1Kings 17)

I am not sure why he was on top of the boy but that is not really needed today. But sometimes we need to touch the location of the pain, or if it is the whole body then both hands.
I sometimes wonder if more healing is needed then what we see. Sometimes the whole family needs healing as well. The guilt also needs to be removed-healing of the Spirit as well. And then there is the community witness. 
Someone has made the observation that the begger was always at the Temple while Jesus was going in. But he did not heal the man. The man had to wait until Peter and John were ready to say the words. 

 1Now Peter and John went up together to the temple at the hour of prayer, the ninth hour. ² And a certain man lame from his mother’s womb was carried, whom they laid daily at the gate of the temple which is called Beautiful, to ask alms from those who entered the temple; ³ who, seeing Peter and John about to go into the temple, asked for alms. ⁴ And fixing his eyes on him, with John, Peter said, “Look at us.” ⁵ So he gave them his attention, expecting to receive something from them. ⁶ Then Peter said, “Silver and gold I do not have, but what I do have I give you: In the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, rise up and walk.” ⁷ And he took him by the right hand and lifted him up, and immediately his feet and ankle bones received strength. ⁸ So he, leaping up, stood and walked and entered the temple with them—walking, leaping, and praising God. ⁹ And all the people saw him walking and praising God. ¹⁰ Then they knew that it was he who sat begging alms at the Beautiful Gate of the temple; and they were filled with wonder and amazement at what had happened to him. (Acts 3)

                                                  So start standing on the Promises of God!