When Satan Attacks

“In addition to all of these, hold up the shield of faith to stop the fiery arrows of the devil.” (Ephesians 6:16 NLT)

Recently I had the privilege and honor of being among the ones who spoke at my mentor’s Celebration of Life. While the message the Lord gave me came quickly, I struggled for weeks to pray through my inadequacies and feelings of inferiority and just plain fear. Jim (my mentor) was a giant man of God in my mind and the hearts and minds of many others. He was among the most powerful orators I’ve ever heard. He was known nationwide and traveled abroad to teach and preach.

As the day approached, I became physically ill and wasn’t sure if I would be able to attend. But the Lord was merciful and enabled me to make the trip. When it came my turn to speak, I nearly fell on the couple of steps up to the platform. My hands seemed useless in separating the few pages of notes that I had, and when I began to speak it was as if I had cotton in my mouth.

It was like I was in middle school again trying to give a book report on a book I hadn’t read when the girl I had a crush on was sitting in the front row. I literally felt like running away. Then I saw someone walking down the aisle towards me with a bottle of water in his hand. Immediately, the verse came to mind about God giving a reward to anyone who would give a drink to the least of these.

Ironically, I didn’t even connect the proverbial “dots” until after the service, but I believe Satan’s emissaries were doing their best to distract me, for fear the message the Lord had given me would be a usable tool in the Spirit’s capable hands.

As a result of this experience, I would like to make a few observations. First, obey the Lord to the letter! What do I mean by that? Early in my preparation the Lord laid on my heart to open the message with prayer. I even wrote it on my notes and highlighted it. But instead of doing that, because there had already been five other speakers and I was trying to save time, I decided I would pray silently before getting up to speak. Big mistake!

Please don’t misunderstand. It’s not that the Lord was disciplining me for disobeying. Without thinking, which is often the way we get in trouble, I had let down my guard and given Satan the opportunity he needed to attack. It was embarrassing and humiliating, but the Lord enabled me to share His message and I believe He was honored and some of those present were blessed.

Another observation is, we don’t always know how important the message is that God has given us. For example, He may prompt us to make a call, send a text, email, or post on social media, but we don’t think there’s any urgency and/or we may not see the relevance of what He’s leading us to share. But we never know who will see it and how the Lord is stirring in their heart at the moment they receive our message or read the words the Lord has given us.

Faith is built in the details. Never question or disregard (like I did) the things that might seem optional to us but are vital in the accomplishment of God’s purpose in using us. By the way, He had also prompted me to pray at the end of my message, which I DID! 😊

Remember to always put on the armor God provides, because we have to be constantly aware that Satan is no respecter of persons and can attack when we least expect it.

Blessings, Ed 😊