The Night My Soul Cried
Dr. Verlyn Fontaine Waterman
“In His presence there is fullness of joy; at His right hand are pleasures forevermore.”
Psalm 16:11
The Breaking Before the Dawn
I was awakened at 2 a.m. by an excruciating pain—one so intense, it moved me to tears. Sleep fled. Comfort was nowhere to be found. As has become my custom in the sacred hours of suffering, I turned to the only place I know to go: into the arms of God.
I prayed.
I praised.
I cried.
But this wasn’t just physical agony. As the hours passed and the tears deepened, I began to discern what was truly happening: a spiritual travail—a pain that had no name but carried the weight of unseen war.
I cried harder. And it broke.
But not until the breaking of the day.
The Revelation: Unclean Hands and Spiritual Shockwaves
In the quiet aftermath, I asked God, “What was that all about?”
And He showed me something both terrifying and clarifying:
A defiled hand had touched me.
Not in the natural—but in the spirit.
It carried contamination, spiritual interference, and demonic assignment.
He revealed that this touch sent shockwaves through my body, triggering a pain deeper than nerves or muscles—it struck my core. And then He said:
“The forces of hell are trembling because of your light.”
The pain I felt wasn’t just attack—it was evidence.
Evidence that I’m a threat to the kingdom of darkness.
Evidence that my obedience, my silence, my awakening, and my allegiance to God are causing tremors in hell.
They tried—again—to erase me.
But God allowed it.
Not to destroy me, but to mark the next level of my calling.
What touched me became the very thing God used to testify through me.
A Day in the Presence: Soaking, Cleansing, Listening
There was no going back to sleep.
So I didn’t try. I turned inward and upward—into the holy place.
I soaked in His presence, I cleansed my soul, I repented with reverence,
And I listened for heaven’s instructions.
I was already drained—physically, emotionally, spiritually.
But I chose to remain in that place, not just for refuge, but for refreshing.
I couldn’t leave. I wouldn’t leave.
His presence became my oxygen.
The Sacred Truth
This is what I know today:
I am marked by God. I am feared by darkness.
I am kept by angels. I am clothed in fire.
And I am unshakable in Him.
The hand of the enemy tried to defile me.
But the hand of God has covered me.
Furnace Reflection
Sometimes, pain is the passage to presence.
Sometimes, the night must press us so that morning can anoint us.
And sometimes, God allows the unclean to come close—not to harm us, but to expose the deeper power we carry.
I didn’t choose this fire.
But I was chosen for this fire.
And now I rise—refined, restored, and fully aware.