While I was creating this artwork, I realized that there was a parallel between the creation process of the paint and my spiritual life. When it was quite advanced, I saw the lions, the skulls, the main character, and I felt discomfort, frustration, fear, and hopelessness. Then, when I drew the beam of light that descends upon the central character when I saw the painting already finished, I felt something different, I felt hope, I felt peace.
I was born on a Christian family and for many years I heard people testimonies that broke the chains of vice and sin with God´s help. But I grew up not knowing what it really meant. It was this way until I noticed that I had my own vices and sins, thus I wasn´t a good person and I was lost. I could see just two things: the sin that harassed me and my own fault. I fell on my knees, not just my body but my heart. It was then that I saw Jesus, and then all was different. Now there was hope.
This painting represents the same experience that every human who faces sin lives. The lions and the skulls represent the satanic hosts who leave death and destruction in their way. In the center, surrounded by a turquoise “plane”, it is the main character, a man who wears the armor of God, and recognizes his powerlessness in the battle and kneels in prayer. From above we can see the beam of light that descends upon the character and it represents God´s anointing that he needs to come out victorious in the spiritual battle.

Satan and his evil hosts, “as a roaring lion” (1 Peter 5:8) surround us, assault us and intimidate us. Their objective is “to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10) our lives. But, we have the promise to receive “the whole armor of God, to be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). We know that Jesus fights beside us because he promised “I am with you, even unto the end of the world” (Matthew 28:20). Paradoxically, this is not a battle that we fight on our feet but knelt. “Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit” (Ephesians 6:18) is how we can receive the anointing that will lead us to win.

My friends Luis Mortero, Abner Reyes and José Adames, and my girlfriend Estefani Ruiz, whom I interviewed to learn their own point of view on the spiritual battle and how they related to each other and me.