I have gained such a victory over the enemy that I have to write about it. I would have to say that it is world-class, and it’s important enough that it might even change the course of history for me and for others, too.
The fact that I was able to hear God on this is stunning. I attribute it to my church family praying for me. It was so important that I don’t know how I didn’t ignore it totally.
Yep, that’s exactly what I meant to write.
There have been people in my world who seemed to bring rain with them wherever they go. Up until this point in my life I would pray and pray for God to release me from them because their negativity was so profoundly oppressive. He used to do that, but it was never pretty. For the past few years though He didn't seem that worried about my feelings. Especially since I decided that I have to master speaking the truth in love if I want to walk in answered prayer.
It's like this: If we pray according to His will we know He hears us and we have what we ask.
His will is Mercy because He loves. He loves with a generosity that is mind boggling and He won't hear me work against His agenda in prayer. Doing it His way is a lot more satisfying than doing it my way -- what a waste of time and breath and everything. My way. Rubbish.
So, a few months ago I had a random encounter that changed my life forever. I was on my way to work and I had a piece of mail in my hand. I saw the mail carrier and asked her could she take it. Her hand reached out reluctantly and the barometric pressure changed. A bitter cloud drifted across her eyes that never met mine, but as she looked for a place to lay the blame for what was troubling her she found my hand. No words, but oh, her meaning was unmistakable.
I walked on, caught in the rain. I heard myself, defensive and full of self-doubt, starting to criticize her in my mind, giving it right back to her. Then all the sudden a lightning bolt of revelation hit me: she never saw me because she was being tormented in her mind by a storm of accusation, lies and judgment leveled against everyone and everything around her.
She had entertained these lies as an explanation for the cause of the cloud she'd seen pass through others’ eyes all her life; it had fended off feeling misunderstood, abused, condemned. All this I could see clearly, felt the weight of it, but thanks be to God, in that moment He showed me ME, my own sites trained on her, more than ready in my own defense to take up the same accusations against her. Before I knew it I had shifted my eyes off of her and onto the source of her torment and began speaking life and healing and protection over her mind. Immediately I felt the weight of the judgment flee and the sun come out again.
The Spirit brought to mind the scripture on resisting the devil as I watched his flight away from the whole situation. I could feel the change in her heart toward me and the relief and lightness of joy replacing it in her, and me -- just as I had felt the heavy bitterness in her spirit a moment before and my own bitterness rise to meet it. A whole layer of darkness was removed from my own spiritual eyes right then and I could finally see the point in being able to discern spirits. It was paradigm-shattering.
This began a running discussion with the Holy Spirit that has carried on up to now, but it didn’t seem to be growing easier to distinguish and extinguish the daily, sometimes hourly battles that take place in the spirit realm. I have still struggled with my response to people who seemed to ooze wild, arbitrary judgment against me, and didn’t really like my progress at all until I found myself explaining it to my dear friend Denise in detail as if I had known, before that moment, what the problem was.
With uncanny regularity I have experienced that if I will pray peace and safety over a person's mind and confess to God that I know it is not them causing me pain but a lie that they are being tormented with, it all just dissipates. Poof. But get this: often I would rather let that person oppress me and judge them for it than to pray peace and protection over their mind and not experience the pain. It was too much work and frankly I didn’t want to be responsible for their well-being. I certainly didn’t want to be responsible for the way they acted toward me.
That was the revelation.
Nasty isn’t it?
But no more. Today, in front of God, the brethren, angels and vermin I totally accept my spiritual authority in the atmosphere around me. I accept my post as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, and I wield His authority to forgive sin in the lives of people I come in contact with who are tormented. I will administer grace and peace to them and they will be set free on my watch. I will no longer succumb to those lies and I will not grieve the Spirit by being lazy about what I know to be true or pretending that I have no authority in the matter.
And I am going on the warpath, for real. Care to join me?
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