THE CIRCLE : finale - THE IGNITION

Pastor Gabriel drove his wife and the girl to church silently. He has always been a man of few words. He looked at his rear view mirrow to be sure the young girl was okay. Her face was a complex mixture of relief, shame, guilt and worry. There was no doubt she had more battles to fight in future and her life would often be in grave danger. He knew he had a lot of work to do on her or else the coven would be boiling her hide in a cauldron in no distant time.

He had tried to convince the Richards to keep her for a while but they would have nothing to do with her again. Frankly he didnt blame them. They'd been through alot lately. Finally his wife had graciously suggested the girl come over. Their house would be a city of refuge for her and she would in turn help them with chores around the house. The couple didn't have any child of their own.

They had wasted no time. She had over 15 foundational classes to complete and she was already in stage 2. The idea was to help her begin to gain knowledge and consciousness of her new life in Christ and she was learning pretty fast. He believed part of her ability to absorb the lessons fast was because she was no novice to the spiritual realm. For example he didn't need to waste time trying to make her understand the 3 dimensions of man. She had lived it in the negative supernatural.

Driving in through the church gate he could tell the church was packed full by the sound of the people singing praises. Some teenagers lounging outside quickly ran inside when they saw his car driving in. He parked carefully and let his passengers out. He walked briskly to his office, bowed his head and began to pray.

The worship leader took the microphone and began to belt out worship songs. Something unusual was happening tonight. Almost everyone was keying into the Spirit as the songs progressed LION OF JUDAH LAMB UPON THE THRONE , WE HAIL YOU MOST HIGH...

Pastor Gabriel mounted the pulpit and joined in the worship , a slim set man with eagle like piercing gaze. A lot of people found it difficult to stare into his eyes because he often gave the impression he could see right through them. A few minutes and songs later he raised his hand and signaled them to stop . There was a hush and he began to speak. 'I'm not here to preach a sermon , we are here to pray. But I just want to make one thing clear to us before we pray. The battle has already been won, our duty is to enforce it. We are more than conquerors. We are not warfaring saints , we are the TRIUMPHANT saints and no circumstance will make us loose our position of authority. We are seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus, from there we issue decrees in the name of Jesus to the beggarly elements and spirits and guess what...THEY MUST OBEY.' The congregation roared Hallelujah with excitement. Their faith gauge was rising high.

'The only, I repeat, the only singular time the enemy can discomfit or defeat us is when we are not united...I want 10 people here' , he pointed at the space between the altar and congregation. 10 young people , both male and female came out, among them Tari and Gladys. He was pacing the altar with raw excitement, the anointing was on him.

'Form a circle...and hold each other's hand tight...very tight' He approached the circle from behind two young men.

'...lets say, I am the enemy, a wolf , a witch, ...whatever. I want to gain access into this church to steal, to kill , and to destroy, I am going to be looking for the weakest link' He made a move for two brothers holding each other fiercly and lounged at them. The link held. The brothers gritted their teeth as their hands bore the weight of the pastors body. The link held. He tried with two more people but they did not give in. He then noticed Tari and Gladys holding each others hands. He smiled, he had found his weak link. The two of them saw him looking at them and realized he was coming for them next. They desperately tried to tighten their linked hands but it was too late, the pastor was already flying towards their arms. Tari screamed and quickly disengaged her hand from Gladys. Everybody started laughing except the pastor. He had a fierce look on his face. 'THIS ....IS ....NOT ....A ...JOKE!' He spoke slowly and deliberately into the mic.

He walked back to the pulpit.
'When we refuse to grow spiritually we become the weak link, when we chose carnality over spirituality we become the weak link, when we are prayerless we become the weak link, when we give in to temptation we become the weak link , when we live selfishly we become the weak link. When we fail to watch out for each other we become the weak link. What our sister did is what most of us do on a daily basis, may God help us' .

He handed the microphone to the assistant pastor to lead the prayers. He didn't need to work the people up. Pastor Gabriel had struck a match and all the matchstick heads were ignited.

EPILOGUE.

The high witch stood at the base of the grotesquely formed tree. A recent thunder strike had done more damage than its predecessors and at the base lay hundreds of dead and rottening birds. The tree would never recover from this. A mighty storm was coming and it filled her heart with dread as she went over the events of the past week. 'Blast that young girl , blast her to hell....'she screamed unwriteable obseneties into the moonless night. There was no response. Most of the sisterhood had dispersed, most had skipped town in terror, aware of the possibility that a part of the town's population would be whipped into a blood thirsty frenzy that would lead to a witch hunt. Every where she went she saw thousands of angels looming large and tall. They knew her , they knew she could see them and they stared menacingly at her, watching her everymove. This was a clear indication that fervent prayer had returned to the town. She melted into the darkness and transformed into a vampire bat and screeched into the night. There was no more room in this town for her.

THE END 