The Lord had alerted me to the fact that I was facing increased enemy counter attack right now, and that I needed to be aware of ways that the enemy might try to attack. He told me that this increased attack was for assorted reasons--one of which is the launching of the His-Lordship site where we invite people to put out of control areas of their life under His lordship. The enemy doesn't like that because as people get free from his oppression and bondage in various areas of their life, they become more powerful for the kingdom of God, and that makes them more of a threat to the enemy.
[Some of you may find that you also face a higher level of enemy attack when you first choose to start walking out God's lordship in this area of your life. The enemy of your soul does not want you getting free from his oppression over you, so when you first start out in giving God control (over an area that the devil thinks he has control over), he is likely to resist you and try to discourage you. So my advice is to expect a bit more warfare the first week or two, but don't let that discourage you. Stand firm in your commitment to continuing to give God lordship over this area of your life. The intensity of the battle will usually decrease after a few weeks, it isn't a "forever" thing. Remind yourself that God wants to give you a great victory here, but you usually have to fight a battle in order to win the victory...so don't be afraid of the battle and move forward expecting to win.]
Anyhow, I am facing a few extra battles of my own, and I wanted to share a subtle way that the enemy "got me," because I think it might help you to be more aware of his tactics against you.
Last Tuesday (2 days ago), the enemy used a lady who I did not know to curse me. It came in the form of a two-pronged attack. I saw (and broke) one aspect of her curse. But I totally missed the other part, and it landed on me. It was so subtle that I would have probably never figured it out on my own, but God explained it to me last night in my prayer time. Let me share the story with you...
I went to a pastor's luncheon on Tuesday, and then I ran a bunch of errands on the way home. I was making a left turn out of a shopping center onto a very busy street, and we had a traffic light saying it was our turn to go. There was one car in front of me, and even though we had a green turn light, she stopped in the middle of an intersection for a pedestrian who was crossing against the light. But instead of just letting the person cross in front of her and then completing her turn, she sat there in the intersection--blocking me from completing my turn. I was in the intersection as well and there were cars behind me waiting to enter it. The pedestrian was very far away from where our cars were, but was still in the cross walk. Our light turned red and the oncoming traffic's light turned green. But the lady in the car in front of me was still sitting there and our cars were blocking the other traffic from going.
The street we were turning onto had 2 lanes going in our direction, and the lady in front of me appeared to be turning into the right lane. She still wasn't moving and I wanted to clear the intersection so that the cars who had the green light could go. So I maneuvered around her and turned into the leftmost of the two lanes.
I actually thought I was being really nice about it...I never honked my horn or made any type of gestures at her. But apparently she was very offended that I would go around her instead of waiting for her to go. So she pulled up behind me and followed me to the next store on my errand list, which was about 7 or 8 blocks away.
When I arrived at the store, I did not realize she followed me into the lot. I parked in the spot farthest away from the entrance...a practice that I have to help me get a bit more exercise by walking a bit farther.
The lady parked near me and jumped out of her car. She ran up along side of me (as if we were friends walking together) and began to lecture me about turning before she did. She said that it is illegal to enter a cross walk when there is a pedestrian anywhere in it. She told me that I needed to relax and slow down and enjoy life In fact, she said that over and over, as well as criticizing me repeatedly for turning around her instead of waiting for her to clear the intersection.
She went on and on, and it was a bit of a long walk to the entrance. She also kept telling me that I should have gotten a ticket for entering the crosswalk before the pedestrian completely cleared it. While she used a pleasant tone of voice, she was sharply rebuking me as if I were a small child. And her "information" is not correct...unless the state traffic law has changed since the beginning of the year, I don't believe that there is a law against a car entering a crosswalk when someone else is in it walking away from you and very far from your car. There is, however, a law against impeding traffic, but I choose not to mention that to her.
I finally said to her, "I'll tell you what...you be concerned with your own driving and I'll be concerned about mine." She actually followed me into the store, still rebuking me for her perceived "infraction".
She still would not stop, so I told her that my driving was not really her concern and I wasn't seeking her for inputs on it. But she still persisted, and seemed to take delight in scolding me as if I were a naughty small child. So I finally stopped in my tracks, turned to face her and said, "Shut up." I said it in a gentle tone, but with authority in my voice. Then I started walking away from her. She stopped following me and said "have a nice day" in a very sarcastic way.
What I did next was definitely a flesh response, but it felt "well merited." I called over my shoulder to her, "I will...as soon as you stop taking to me."
At that point, she stopped following me around the store. I got my 3 or 4 items, paid for them and left. But as I was getting into my car, I felt impressed that I should break any curses she may have released about me getting a ticket for my driving, so I did that. I ran another errand at a different store about 3/4 of a mile away. Then I went home.
I figured that was the end of it, but it wasn't. She had actually released two things that could be empowered against me as curses, and I'd only caught (and dealt with) one of them. The other one was very subtle and I missed it until after it already landed. The other thing that she had said over and over was "You need to slow down and relax." I did not recognize that as a potential curse. But the next morning when I woke up, I felt terrible. I was weak and tired, and had symptoms like a mild stomach flu (nausea and a headache).
I was mostly ok as long as I stayed in bed (or laying down on the sofa). But if I tried to get up or do anything, I felt sick really sick. At one point in the evening, I wanted to go upstairs to the bedroom to tell my husband something, but when I tried to climb the stairs, I got dizzy and it seemed like a huge effort to climb the stairs. I made it 2/3 of the way up, then turned around and went back to the sofa. As soon as I got back to the sofa and laid down, I felt a lot less sick.
Later that night, I was in prayer (even though I wasn't feeling "all that spiritual because I'd had such an unproductive day both physically and spiritually.) The Lord decided to review my day with me...and He pointed out now I was only sick when I tried to do things, but if I just sat on the sofa and did nothing, then I did not feel that bad. He reminded me of that lady's words that were spoken over and over "you need to slow down and relax" and I saw the similarity between what she spoke and what the feeling sick was causing me to do. So I broke the curse and released forgiveness and blessing to her, and then had a sudden "instant" recovery.
The curse wasn't completely "undeserved" because I had allowed her to goat me into a carnal response (in finally telling her to shut up and in making the side remark about the "nice day.") But the fact was that the whole situation with this controlling lady was an enemy setup, a form of enemy attack against me. She was probably an unwitting pawn, and she probably had no intention of cursing me. In fact, she may have been surprised at herself for following me all that distance to scold me for passing her and turning left before she did. Whatever her intentions, the devil planted her in my path and empowered her words against me as a curse. He is the real enemy, not this lady.
At any rate, the fact remains that curses are real and can have an impact on us. And at times, the things spoken over us may be so subtle that we don't realize they are being powered as a curse against us. Fortunately, God is smart and faithful, and as we draw close to Him, He will point these things out to us so that we can deal with them.