By Sister Joanne Orhue
It all started during consecration week, when I became a high level threat to the enemy. As God helped me close off areas of weakness, the enemy began to focus all his energy on taking me down in those that remain. I couldn’t remember any time in my history when I have had my mind assaulted as much as it is these last few months and weeks. It’s almost exponential in the consistency of which I have been distracted and weakened by the thoughts in my mind. I’m surprised there’s room left for the message to get in, which I guess is the point: the more stuff in my head, the less room for God’s Word to effect change inside of me.
I’m fighting attacks against my self-esteem, my life aspirations, and my spirituality. I’m rehashing last night’s awful dream, fleeing past mistakes and troubles, worrying if I will ever live up to my potential or wondering why I’m always hungry. It’s a virtual minefield, where my fears show up to deafen me from hearing the Word. The truth is that we can’t defeat our fears except we have faith, and the enemy KNOWS that. He’s using that against me – for faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God being spoken into your heart, according to Romans 10:17.
In a sermon I heard recently, God was talking squarely to ME. He said that I can’t fight a spiritual fight with natural methods. And that is so true. I try to laugh off the fight because I’m quite laid-back, but that only works for a while until it gets serious. I’ve also found that telling myself “I’m a decent person” does nothing for my self-esteem in the heat of the battle. The enemy goes right to the area where I’ve been consistently unable to put up a defense and drives a million stakes through the soft tissue, as if I had more blood to give. I guess that’s my fault, I wasn’t wearing my shield of faith, or the breast plate of righteousness. That’s what the armor of God is for, to keep that kind of thing from happening.
So I say ok devil, take this: I die daily. And what. Paul said that too, although he said it first. The enemy may think he’s fighting a mortal, but I have “put on immortality” by consecrating myself to Him! That’s why I am grateful for the time of consecration we had in January, where I had an organized opportunity to suit up my armor and really give it to the devil. When I denied my body the comfort of food, it was like heaven opened to me like a highway. A heavy weight was lifted spiritually. Plus I lost a couple of pounds, which was nice too. Praise was like an adornment more precious than diamonds and pearls, and I had real power in God. The devil couldn’t touch me with a ten foot pole. If you missed out on it, you MISSED OUT. I tell you, consecration is really good for you.