“You won’t stop me, demon.”
I’ve said this aloud several times in the last eleven years, for it was eleven years ago when God called me to write. But even though I know demons can’t hurt me unless God allows it, it still can catch me off-guard. And it still creeps me out!
One particular bone-chilling experience was when I was losing precious and much needed beauty sleep (like I’m doing right now! haha) late one night because I was preparing for a writers’ conference. (Yes, it’s true I am the queen of procrastination!) The house was cricket-quiet and the only sounds– besides the cricket– were the tapping keys of my laptop and the occasional printing of my profound writing ; ). I had paused to think about something for a moment when the tiniest of creaks came from the opposite corner of the room in which I sat. I looked in that direction, but found nothing amiss. But before I looked away, the books on a bookshelf jumped off the shelf as if they’d been pushed from behind, and crashed to the ground. The shelf those books had been on then broke loose from the bookshelf, landing on top of the pile.
“You won’t stop me, demon,” were the only words I said as the goosebumps on my arms slowly subsided. You see, fallen angels want to distract and disarm Christians. The more influential the Christian, the harder they try. Demons know we are saved; they can’t win our souls for Satan, but they can discredit us and cause us to be ineffective for Christ… if we let them.
We all have different spiritual gifts: teaching, service, giving, leadership, or hospitality, etc. I have always believed I have the ‘gift of discernment’– that I might be a tad more privy to unspoken and unseen things. The Holy Spirit and random people I’ve known have also confirmed my thoughts on this. Only God truly knows if He has given me this gift, and in the end, what really matters is that I’m following God’s path and not just acting on ‘feelings’.
It’s not good to dwell on dark things, but we must not ignore them either. Spiritual battles occur all around us, all the time, but demons shouldn’t stop us from doing the job for which God has called us.
