So, in the past couple weeks, and literally just in the past couple of days, God has been teaching me about, opening my eyes, and giving me first-hand experience (don't you love how he does that?) in spiritual authority over the enemy. Honestly, it's not always fun, but it's so valuable. Let me tell you about it.
It started two weeks ago when I was working at the vacation Bible school that my church puts on every year. It lasts for a week, and Thursday is traditionally "salvation day" - the day when we share the Gospel story with the kids and give them the salvation invitation, etc. Personally, I was praying for the Spirit to come and fill our mouths, and open the hearts of the kids, and He definitely did. It was awesome. I didn't feel like I had a whole lot, practically, to do with giving the salvation message and praying with the kids, but I was okay with that. So the day went on and it was great, and that night I went home exhausted, physically, mentally, and emotionally. I went to bed early, figuring I'd just fall asleep and feel renewed the next day. Not so. I didn't fall asleep - instead, I was confronted with the deepest, most awful fear I've ever experienced; not fear of anything in particular, not in relation to the happenings of the day, not for any particular reason, just random, awful, fear. Not panic. Suffocating, deep-seated fear. Honestly, I have never felt so alone and so attacked on all sides. After trying to deal with it myself for a while, I went to my parents and as usual, received some of their wisdom - this was an attack of the enemy. It all made sense. That day, my friends and I had done some major spiritual warfare, and the enemy was angry. My amazing parents prayed for me, and God rescued me from the attacks. The next morning talking to my friends, I found out that I wasn't the only one who had suffered an attack - others had been attacked with random health issues, discord among them, and loneliness like me. So that morning we prayed for protection from further attacks, and rebuked the enemy.
That was eye-opening. I've heard that the biggest lie that Satan can tell is that he does not exist. How true that is. I think at times it can get so bad that he attacks us and we immediately blame God. How twisted is that? My friends, we have to constantly be aware that we have an enemy, and he isn't just sitting on his couch eating potato chips. He's active, and he's vengeful.
So what are we supposed to do? Be afraid? Shy away from doing anything that would make him angry and attack us? No! The enemy's attacks are just another opportunity to trust God and take hold of our royal identities.
But before I go into that, let me tell you the rest of the story. After VBS, I pretty much forgot about the attack of fear, and went on to the next thing in my life. The next week I went to Minnesota and had a great time. I was supposed to fly out on Sunday night, and on Sunday morning, my amazing friend and sister-in-Christ sent me a text with a Bible reference - Joshua 1:3. This friend knows how to listen to the Lord, and so usually the things she tells me in reference to God/Scripture/whatever are pretty spot-on. So I looked up the verse, and it says, "I promise you what I promised Moses: 'Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you." Honestly, it didn't make much sense to me. It really didn't apply to anything that I could see in my life at the time, so I sort of forgot about it. Well. Fast forward to that afternoon, as I'm waiting in the airport to get on the plane...when all of a sudden a random fear starts to creep up on me. Honestly, I had no reason to be afraid, but for some reason, I was terrified and I didn't know why. Well hey there, Satan. Suddenly the verse that my friend had sent me that morning came to mind - wherever I set foot, I will be on the land the Lord has given me. I have authority where I stand because God has given it to me through His blood - wherever I am, I have authority over Satan. Without me even intending it, God used that verse, and even that attack, to show me my authority He's given me over the enemy.
Ironically, I have an application on my phone that's called Identity in Christ, and it posts random Bible verses everyday, and guess which verse it had for that day - Luke 10:19. "Behold, I have given you authority to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall hurt you." Heck yes. Thank you, Lord, for planning it all out and basically plastering it in neon in front of my eyes that you have given me authority over the enemy.
Attacks from the enemy are never fun. And honestly, fighting him isn't too fun either - but authority over Satan is something that God has given us. A gift, but also a tool. God has given us all the weapons we need to have victory over the enemy, and they all come from His blood. It's time that we as sons and daughters of God, as princes and princesses in His kingdom, take authority and take hold of our identity!
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