The Wreath and the Picture: Keep Praising When Worship Is Interrupted
Biblical Support for Spiritual Warfare and Discernment
The Bible teaches that our world includes spiritual realities beyond what human beings normally see. Scripture describes both God’s servants and spiritual forces of evil. However, God remains sovereign over them all.
In the Old Testament, the prophet Elisha’s servant was frightened when an enemy army surrounded them. Elisha knew that God’s unseen protection was greater than the visible threat:
“Don’t be afraid,” the prophet answered. “Those who are with us are more than those who are with them” (2 Kings 6:16, NIV).
The following verse says that God opened the servant’s eyes, allowing him to see the hills filled with horses and chariots of fire around Elisha. The New Testament also teaches that angels serve God and minister according to His will:
“Are not all angels ministering spirits sent to serve those who will inherit salvation?” (Hebrews 1:14, NIV).
Scripture also describes spiritual opposition. In the book of Job, God permitted Satan to afflict His faithful servant, but God established limits that Satan could not cross:
“The Lord said to Satan, ‘Very well, then, he is in your hands; but you must spare his life’” (Job 2:6, NIV).
Job’s suffering was far more severe than anything described in this story, and I do not intend to compare my inconveniences with his tremendous losses. Nevertheless, Job reminds us that spiritual opposition is real, that God remains in control, and that faithfulness matters during times of trouble.
In Luke 8, Jesus confronted a man who was tormented by demons:
“When he saw Jesus, he cried out and fell at his feet, shouting at the top of his voice, ‘What do you want with me, Jesus, Son of the Most High God? I beg you, don’t torture me!’” (Luke 8:28, NIV).
The demon’s outcry was loud and disruptive, but Jesus remained completely in control. Later, Jesus permitted the demons to enter a herd of pigs, and the herd rushed down a steep bank into a lake.
This account demonstrates Christ’s authority over evil spirits and their destructive intentions. However, the passage does not say that demons picked up and threw ordinary objects. Therefore, Luke 8 cannot prove what caused the unexplained events I experienced.
Scripture encourages us to take spiritual warfare seriously while practicing careful discernment:
“But test them all; hold on to what is good” (1 Thessalonians 5:21, NIV).
We see that God allows us to experience the demonic forces trying to opposed God’s good people. This is best demonstrated in Daniel chapter 10. An angel appeared to Daniel and said, “Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them. But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me twenty-one days. Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”
Here, an angel describes demonic forces trying to stop Him from blessing Daniel. Ellicott’s Commentary for English Readers on that verse says, “Perhaps no single verse in the whole of the Scriptures speaks more clearly than this upon the invisible powers which rule and influence nations.” This tells us that the demonic do actively try and stop good people from doing good things. This happens to me too.
Every minister I’ve talked to attests to an increase in unexplained spiritual warfare aimed at stopping them from doing ministry. Most non-minister I talk to rarely experience that principle, but every minister I know does. That is OK if people don’t know much about it. Nonetheless, I must talk about it for benefit of the future generation.
With that balance in mind, I will describe what happened as accurately as I can. I cannot prove the cause of these events. I can only explain what I observed, how I interpreted it, and how it encouraged me to continue praising God.
Recording My Worship Music
While I was recording a praise and worship album, I encountered an unusually large number of interruptions.
People would suddenly text or call me, needing immediate attention—often about matters that did not actually involve me. If I responded, the conversation could consume all the time I had set aside for recording. Telemarketers sometimes called immediately before I began. At other times, a dog would suddenly start barking, making the background noise too loud for recording music.
Every interruption had a possible ordinary explanation. People make telephone calls, telemarketers interrupt our days, and dogs bark. Nevertheless, the frequency and timing of the interruptions began to feel oppressive. I wondered whether spiritual opposition might be attempting to distract me from recording worship music that could encourage others.
Paul writes:
“Put on the full armor of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes” (Ephesians 6:11, NIV).
I was convinced that the interruptions were spiritual attacks on my ministry efforts. Instead of surrendering my recording time, I became more determined to pray, concentrate, and continue the work.
The Wreath
One day, I was having a prayer session at my parents’ house. I anointed the house with oil and continued praying.
A few moments later, I heard a loud noise at the front door. When I opened the door, I discovered that the wreath had fallen to the ground. The nail from which it normally hung was bent downward. It looked as though someone had pulled the wreath from the door in frustration.
I had been standing near the window, where I could see the only path leading to the front door. I had not seen anyone approach the house. The air was also still, so it did not appear that a strong gust of wind had knocked the wreath down.
I stood there wondering, “If it was not the wind and no person approached the door, what made that loud noise? Why did the wreath suddenly fall, and why was the nail bent downward?”
I could not determine the cause. Perhaps there was a natural explanation that I had overlooked. Because of the timing, however, I also wondered whether it could have been a desperate attempt by the enemy to distract me from prayer and worship.
Either way, I knew how I wanted to respond:
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you” (James 4:7, NIV).
The fallen wreath did not need to end the prayer session. Whatever had caused it, I could keep worshiping God, resist fear, and sing songs of praise about His everlasting ways.
The Picture
On another occasion, a friend and I were singing a new worship song in my home. We were trying the song for the first time and working out the notes and melody.
The lyrics asked God to remove the devil’s influence from our situations, our lives, and our homes. As we sang and prayed, giving the song our full attention, we heard an unusual noise elsewhere in the house.
At first, I thought my roommate had arrived home and dropped something in another room. I immediately got up to investigate. Only about two seconds passed between hearing the sound and leaving the bedroom.
I checked every room, including the bathroom, but nobody else was in the house. There would not have been enough time for someone to run away. The house also had hardwood floors, so I would have heard footsteps if anyone had moved quickly through it.
Because the sound seemed to have come from the bathroom, I returned and examined the room carefully. A framed piece of artwork normally hung on the right side of the wall. It displayed this Bible verse:
“Sing to the Lord a new song, for he has done marvelous things; his right hand and his holy arm have worked salvation for him” (Psalm 98:1, NIV).
The picture was no longer hanging on the wall. It was lying on the floor approximately five feet away, on the opposite side of the bathroom. It had not simply dropped directly beneath the place where it had been hanging.
I was not aware of any wind, vibration, person, or other natural cause that would explain why the picture fell or traveled that far across the room. I considered several possibilities but could not identify the cause.
The timing made the event especially striking. We had been singing a new praise song while praying specifically against Satan’s influence in our lives, our home, and my ministry. It appeared as though someone had flung across the room a picture that said, “Sing to the Lord a new song.”
I cannot prove that a spiritual force moved the picture. Nevertheless, I assumed the event was a spiritual attack intended to disrupt our praise.
Instead, it had the opposite effect. The experience made us more determined to praise God.
Keep Praising God
Christians should recognize that spiritual warfare is real while remaining humble about events we cannot fully explain. We should consider natural explanations, test our interpretations against Scripture, pray for discernment, and keep our attention fixed on God.
The central truth is that Jesus Christ has already triumphed over the powers of evil:
“And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross” (Colossians 2:15, NIV).
What I interpreted as spiritual opposition ended up strengthening my determination to worship God and encouraging me to teach others to do the same.
When we praise God, our obedience matters in ways beyond what we see and calculate. Edwin Hubbel Chapin writes that “every action of our lives touches on some chord that will vibrate in eternity.” Therefore, we should respond to darkness by drawing closer to God and continuing to do what is good:
“Do not be overcome by evil, but overcome evil with good” (Romans 12:21, NIV).
No matter how someone interprets the wreath or the picture, the lesson remains the same: keep praising God. He is worthy, His authority is greater than every spiritual power, and nothing should silence the songs we offer to Him.
