Tongues and Warfare

The passion and fire of God burned within me. I am but a vapor and the presence of the Holy Spirit filled that vapor. It was like when He breathed, I breathed. His indignation was my indignation, His joy my joy, His sadness my sadness. And I wanted nothing to ever come between us. But it did. Every morning when I had to leave prayer time to open the office I could feel the presence of the Lord lighten. By noon, I felt numb. By closing time, I was exhausted.


I stood in faith that the Lord was always with me, even if I could not sense His presence. I knew that if I called out, He would be there. But as the days events went on, I felt further and further away from Him.

In moments of the day, I would try to read a word, or to be still and allow Him to hug me, but there would be times that I would find myself not even thinking about Him.

After the day was completed, I would rush to sit down with Him and renew His presence within and upon me, but I was tired and had very little energy to sit still and soak. But, I would try. I would pick up my studies and begin to dive deep into the word where I could tell I was touching something precious of Him. But, then there would be a knock at the door, or a phone call that would pull me out of this great feeding of my spirit. I lived onsite and it was my responsibility to deal with these issues or it could cost me my job. And the Lord had said this is the job I was suppose to be in.

This went on for a long time. Interruptions came like a well designed plan to hinder my feeding. It was like putting a baby on the mother's nipple, allowing a few sips of nourishment, and then pulling the baby away, teasing it with the nourishment of life and then denying it the fullness it's body demanded.

Soon, it became a fearful thing to even attempt any nourishment. I feared the pain of being so close, but never getting full. At the end of the day, I would drop exhausted into a deep sleep, rising in the morning to begin the day again. Over and over, this was the pattern. I don't understand why it did not destroy me. It was only by the grace of Jesus and rising to seek Him in the morning that I was able to survive and keep my faith. This went on for ten years... ten long years.

What you have read above is a strategic attack from the enemy with the intent to destroy me. My task now is to look back and discover it's power over me, destroy the stronghold within me, or my life, in order to prevent it from ever happening to me again.

First, we should have never allowed ourselves to give ground to the enemy in our conversations. When the work day was done, topics from the office should have never been discussed. If an issue rose that needed to be taken care of, we should have said yes to doing it, or no and not done it. If we had to attend to it, then just rise, deal with it in the power of God, and go on about our personal business.

Second, we should have never allowed these pressures to steal from us the desire to pray in the spirit. During those hardest of times, I did not feel like praying in the spirit to build myself up in the Lord. I enjoyed the warm feeling of His presence and wanted to be alone with Him to pray in the spirit, but I neglected my prayers in the spirit. Not praying, left me weaker and unable to fight the fight of faith. I might not have felt like praying in tongues, that I was not 'in the spirit' enough to do so, but that is a lie. I was in the spirit, whether or not I felt it or not.

Third, I should have kept the faith fully. By looking back now, I can see a few key areas that truly benefitted me. I remember the words "God seeks to prosper us, not deminish and take away from what He has already given." Standing on those words prevent several things from happening. In addition to those words were, "God is not setting us up for a fall" and "God will supply all our needs even if He has to send an angel or raven to deliver us in this situation."

That said, I can see now now what I needed to overcome. God has given us a gift to get us through all things. Praying in the spirit, no matter where you are, how you feel, or what you now think of a situation. When we pray in the spirit, we are conversing with the Lord in a perfect way. We may not understand what we are saying to God, but He hears our perfect prayers rising to Him. The angels hear these words and are directed to assist us. If we will press in and continue to pray in the spirit, God will take us from glory to glory ... small little things will begin to happen, and in the background of life, the large things are being formed by our words in the spirit. God hears and is ready to perform, and angels hear and more than willing to assist in the building up of those things we are praying for.

It is the wagging of that little tongue that bring forth the blessings of God or the curses of this world. Our silence prevents growth and prospering. I can assure you, my lack of praying in tongues during that great trial of testing that I went through for all those years could have been changed by praying 'more' in the spirit than the 'less' that I actually did. Mixing prayer with faith that God would send an angel to deliver the situation, or a raven to provide the financial means would have closed the door to many of the onslaughts of the enemy.

There is another element also that played a key factor. We had to please man. Each of us have employers that have to be satisfied or we will lose the jobs the Lord has provided. Know that God will give you favor in the sight of your boss, and then pray in the spirit more. Thank the Lord for this favor, even before you begin to see it. Praise Him heartily when you begin to notice it in the natural realm, and then keep praying in the spirit. Do not allow your little tongue to utter evil words like, "He favors that other employer more than me." If you utter them, they will come to pass just as you have said. We are walking in the natural realm, but we live in the supernatural. Believe what I tell you.

And, if you are where the Lord wants you to be and undergoing severe trials, rise higher and pray more. I can look back and see very clearly how when I became the weakest and prayed in the spirit the least, the enemy grew stronger and did more evil. Short of the grace of God, Who indeed did not allow me to be overcome, the enemy would have stopped the Lord's purpose in my life forever, right here, in this place.

SJ

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