HEAD.
It all started one Monday in September. The day started out like any other Monday, just working at the pharmacy. My partner pharmacist, Callie, came in around noon after having the weekend off. We had our typical exchange of greetings and catching up. She told me she’d had a headache all weekend long. It sounded absolutely miserable and I felt genuine sympathy for her. That’s when it happened. The headache started. My headache started and there was no end in sight…I woke up day after day with this awful headache. I tried everything and nothing seemed to work. After two weeks, I finally made an appointment with my primary care provider. She prescribed Fioricet and told me to come back in a week for additional testing if there was no relief.
A week passed. The medication only seemed to dull the pain for short periods of time. I was ready for testing and feared the worst. Had I developed a cyst or tumor? A ticking time bomb of an aneurysm? What could be causing this?!?! However, testing wasn’t an option because I was en route to WR Training Camp in White, GA.
The first couple days of training camp were absolutely miserable. I was trying to be high energy as I met my squad and took in the AIM culture. I wanted so badly to be myself, but sometimes I just couldn’t fake it. The pain seemed to be amplified by the lack of sleep, the weight of my pack, the loud music…I wanted to give up. The pain was ridiculous and my fears were getting the best of me.
Then one night during worship, everything changed. It was day 23 of my headache. I had trouble focusing on the incredible teaching because of the pain. The sound of worship physically hurt me. I found it difficult to surrender to God in worship because of the pain. I begged Him to take it away.
It dawned on me that this was spiritual warfare. Satan was attacking. So in my head I said, “Flee from me, Satan.” The pain dulled. I cried tears of joy and smiled at my God. I was rejoicing. The pain came back. “Flee from me, Satan.” The pain dulled. I rejoiced then Satan attacked again. This went back and forth for ten minutes. The worst pain I’d felt during the 23 days came on me in that moment. I audibly said, “Flee from me, Satan!” I felt the burden being lifted. Satan was defeated and the pain was gone for good.
He was trying to steal stealing my joy. He wanted nothing more than to keep me from encountering God that week at training camp. He wanted to keep me from experiencing the fullness of JOY that God had for me. Satan lost that day.
How is the enemy stealing your joy TODAY? How is he keeping you down?
YOU can have the POWER of the KINGDOM to DEFEAT the enemy TODAY. Have you asked Jesus to help you? Why not?
