The power you already have

I think there is a very blurred line between thinking that “the devil is attacking me” and our own souls just feeling burdened.  We were created to be empathetic.  And as spiritual beings, we are sensitive to the spirits and energies around us.  We give the devil too much credit, though.  Jesus has already won.  The devil is defeated.  Yet how many people in the world say that “the devil is tormenting them”, when in reality, he is NOT omnipresent so to say that he (satan) is attacking several of us at the same time can not be possible. 


So what is it then?


The Word speaks very clearly that we don’t wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the cosmic forces of the present darkness, against the evil spirits of the unseen world –
and this includes fear, depression, anxiety, doubt, oppression, discouragement, shame, etc. 

These are NOT from God, but they can still affect us if we allow them to. 

This is why it is so important to put on the armor of God that He has provided us with – spiritual battle gear so that our eternal souls can fight through speaking truth, living righteously, sharing the gospel of peace, fearlessly praying, etc. (read Ephesians 6, people)

The last few days have been some of the most emotionally difficult ones that I have had in quite some time.  It kind of hit me out of nowhere, honestly.  And as I pondered why I was feeling so drained, I recalled that I had been made aware of two suicides over the weekend, overheard a girl being verbally torn down by her ex-boyfriend, was asked to pray for a friend who is following God’s calling to move across the country even though she is penniless, experienced betrayal and confusion in my personal life, and was also told that my future plans for the next few months were going to change drastically.

To say I’ve been “overwhelmed” is an understatement. 

To say I felt weighed down and oppressed and lowkey stressed would be very accurate.

I challenged myself to spend more time in the Word, to journal and write out my thoughts and feelings, to ground myself in nature because these are my usual go-tos for getting out of funks. 

But none of them seemed to work. 

And honestly, it took everything in me to unravel myself from a fetal position in bed and go in to work with a smile on my face.  I was dragging.  I felt on the verge of a breakdown.

When my lunch break arrived, I clocked out, almost ran to my car and blasted some worship music (another strategy of mine).  Still nothing.  I felt a darkness continue to loom over me.  A cloud of oppression, tinged with this odd guilt that I realized was coming from knowing that I – a strong, Spirit-filled woman – couldn’t get out of this stupid mood. 

That’s when it hit me.


I paused the worship song and declared this out loud:


“You know what?  Oppression and fear have NO place in my body, mind and soul.  At the name of Jesus, every fear is defeated, every negativity crumbles, every dark force is shunned by light, and I am filled with His Spirit and holy power!”


Immediately, I felt that blanket of darkness lift and I was filled with joy.  It was like I had switched a light on in a pitch black room.  There was an instant reaction.  A physical change.  I can’t even accurately describe it.  This gives the moment no credit whatsoever but gosh, I smiled.  I was set free.  I took back my identity and wielded my power.  

There is a certain kind of authority in speaking words of life out loud over yourself and your situations.  I think because we rely too heavily on pushing thoughts away, keeping feelings to ourselves, not letting our emotions control us, that the thought of taking a verbal, physical action like that can seem strange.  But when we stop and gather our words and release them into our environment, they are brought to life. They are weapons of victory.

We have everything we need to fight against the evil in this world.  We have the power to defeat the dark spirits.  Imagine how different this world would be if every person who claimed to know the life-altering love of God would claim their identity as spiritual warriors and went to battle as one body?!  There would be a radical awakening of empowered believers.

–

This is just one personal testimony (among many!) that I have, and honestly, it started out as an Instagram caption but God was like “Naw, you have to share this on the blog.”  So here I am.

Oh and the icing on the cake was that He painted a gorgeous sunset for me to watch on my drive home from work.  I was like “Mmmmkay, I see You, Jesus.”