“Behold, I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.” – Luke 10:19
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od has been working on me to stand in the authority He’s given me. If you can recall, about a week ago I shared with you how the Holy Spirit told me to take authority while I was undergoing demonic attack (titled “A Call to Take Authority”). This happened as soon as I woke up one Thursday morning. The enemy was using intimidation tactics in hopes of making me too scared to do the things that God was leading me to do, such as prophesying, evangelism and writing. That morning I woke up overwhelmed with doubt and fear and didn’t understand why until I began to realize that I was undergoing an attack. When the Holy Spirit told me to take authority, I did and the attacks against me ceased; however, the enemy tried to attack my children but was unsuccessful. The Holy Spirit led me to taking authority over matters, even those that didn’t really seem to be spiritual. All that day I was taking authority and was successful in battle. However, what I didn’t’ know was that the real battle wouldn’t occur until a few days later.
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t the end of the weekend, the Lord led me to prophesy to one of my sisters-in-Christ. While prophesying another person came up to us and in a roundabout way tried to stop me from prophesying. I immediately yielded to the person out of intimidation and stopped prophesying instead of obeying the leading of the Spirit. Though I didn’t realize it at the moment, my yielding caused the quenching of the Holy Spirit within me. About an hour later, I was crying out to God asking Him why as soon as He tells me to open my mouth, someone comes to try to close it. Then the thought came to me, “Would not the enemy want to shut you up, Naima? Has he not tried to shut you up before? Has he not been really working hard to keep you quiet recently?” I began crying out in frustration telling the Lord that I was tired of the resistance I was experiencing, especially from those who are supposedly on the same team with me – God’s team. God then asked, “Do you believe I told you to prophesy?” “Yes, Lord” I replied. He then asked, “Then who are you trying to please, them or Me?” “You, Lord”. Though I believed in my heart that I had spoken what God wanted me to speak, I was still hurt, upset and starting to feel defeated. Then doubt began to rear its ugly head and shortly thereafter, the haze of confusion fell upon me.
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hat night I felt very burdened, but the next morning I woke up feeling like that burden increased. I didn’t want to pray, I didn’t want to praise, and I didn’t understand. When I opened my mouth to pray anyhow, it felt strange. “God, what is going on?” No response. I continued to press believing that I’d be ok later on in the day; however, it just got worse. When I tried to pray, it was as though my prayers came out of my mouth and hit the floor. The anointing eluded me. What makes all of this worst is that I didn’t feel the communion and closeness with the Lord as I did prior to the incident. The next day, I woke up still feeling heavy and still in a haze of confusion. I tried putting on the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness, but that didn’t work. “What is going on, Lord?” No response. I began to repent and tell God I was sorry for wallowing and for not standing my ground. Still no response. I tried binding up the enemy and rebuking him; however, I was the one who felt bound. I felt powerless, spineless and hopeless. Making matters worse is not only did I once again feel rejected by my peers, but now I am no longer experiencing the closeness to God. It was awful.
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ater that day, I stepped out to visit a friend. As I was about to leave, I went over to her home library and grabbed a book that seemed to jump out at me. It was almost as if I did this without really paying attention to what I was doing, for the last thing I needed was another book to read since I am still trying to get through the 5 books laying on my bed. When I got the book, which is titled Breaking Intimidation by John Bevere, I read the table of contents and seen how I could greatly benefit from the book. I asked my friend could I borrow it and she said yes.
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he following day, still feeling heavy and hazy, I went into prayer and asked God again to forgive me for all that I had done including being so easy to give up what He’s given me. I cried out because I missed and needed His closeness, and though I still didn’t understand what was going on, it was very apparent that something was very wrong. I asked Him to please help me understand what was going on. It took such enormous effort to pray, yet the prayer didn’t seem to go anywhere. The enemy kept taunting me by reminding me of my failure to stand and how weak I was. I’d rebuke and bind him but that didn’t seem to work. I knew I wanted to make things right, but I didn’t know how. At this point, I was willing to do anything to experience the closeness of God. I just didn’t know what to do.
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ater that day, I opened the book I borrowed from my friend. I read the 1st chapter with my jaw to the floor, as the author’s shared testimony written in this chapter was the very thing I was currently experiencing. He explained how he was visiting and preaching at a particular church for several nights and God was moving powerfully in each service. One night while he was preaching, the Lord spoke through him, giving the church’s praise and worship team a prophetic word. The next day, just before he had to preach again, one of the elders told the preacher and the pastor that the praise and worship team thought the visiting preacher was too hard on them and that he should’ve spoken to them in private. Right then and there, the preacher began to question and doubt himself, so much so that it greatly impacted (negatively) his ability to preach later. From there, he experienced the same things I did, such as prayer not going anywhere, lifeless praise, feeling heavy and bound, and as though his God-given anointing had left him.
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od finally revealed why this was happening to him. “John, you are intimidated by those people on the platform behind you. You’ve been knocked out of your position of authority, and the gift of God in you has been quenched.” (Breaking Intimidation, Page 7) As I read this it was as though a light bulb came on. I began to realize that at the moment I yielded to the person that day, I yielded my God-given authority over to the enemy, which quenched the Spirit within me. Shortly afterward, I was reminded of what the Holy Spirit told me a few days ago, “Take authority”. The Lord has been dealing with me to take authority, and at the first given chance, I handed over my authority to the enemy out of fear and intimidation. The author writes in his book, “Satan seeks to displace us in order to regain the authority Jesus stripped from him.” He also writes, “If you don’t walk in your God-given authority, someone will take it from you and use it against you.” This is exactly what happened to me.
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rom that point, the Lord began showing me how this spirit has set up strongholds by using intimidation in order to control (or have a degree of control over) people and even ministries. Up until that point I had been looking at this from a “me” perspective; however, the Lord was showing me that this was much bigger than just me. He began to show me how these spirits (spirit of intimidation and spirit of control) hinder the body of Christ, and how the spiritual gifts He’s given to His church are hindered and made dormant due to these spirits. The Spirit within the believer can even be quenched should a believer encounter these spirits and do not confront them. By definition, intimidation means to make timid or fearful: frighten ; to compel or deter by or as if by threats. It implies inducing fear or a sense of inferiority into another (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). Control, by definition, is to exercise restraining or directing influence over: to have power over (Merriam-Webster Dictionary). These spirits, intimidation and control, can manifest in a number of ways, and is often camouflaged and very subtle. This is why they are effective, as they are easily overlooked, minimized and / or often ignored.
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ne thing the author did was give several Scriptural examples of how intimidation affected a man/woman of God. The greatest example to me was the story of the powerful prophet, Elijah.
Elijah was not afraid of the nation of Israel when the Israelites were given over to Baal worship. What tremendous courage—one man against a nation! Nor was he frightened by the 850 false prophets. What resolve—one prophet against nearly a thousand religious leaders! He wasn’t concerned in the least with the anger of the king of Israel either. All this would be more than most people could handle. However, he allowed one woman to intimidate him into running away and wanting to die! (Breaking Intimidation, Page 71)
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he next day, I went into prayer and began to cry out to God. I began to repent and tell the Lord that I was so sorry for easily giving away what He has blessed me with as if it were nothing. How dare I, I thought to myself. You see, last year I had my “burning bush” moment wherein the Lord had told me which office He ordained for me. While I may have several giftings, it is the prophetic office that I am called to. I cried asking Him to forgive me. Still nothing. I laid on the floor praying with tears running from my eyes, wondering when all of this would be over. I missed His closeness. I missed His fellowship. I missed Him. Though He was revealing the cause of what I had been experiencing all this week, I still wasn’t in sync with Him as I had been previously. All I could do is say how sorry I was, and then I finally something came to mind and I thought about it carefully before I said it. “Lord, I promise I will protect the gift you have given me and will not be so willing to easily give it away.” Just then, it was like an internal volcano had erupted from the basement of my spirit and out of my belly came out an abundance of praise. The haze was lifted and I began to rejoice, praising and thanking God. I felt His presence again. My joy was full because I was in the presence of the Lord. Halleluyah!
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here is still so much more to this story, however, the bottom line is to stand in your God-given authority. One thing I learned is that though NO man, nor woman nor demon can take what God has given you; however, you yourself can give it away. This is what happened to Adam. God created Adam and gave him authority over all things on earth and the only One over Adam was God. But being deceived by the enemy, Adam forfeited his authority to Satan, and lost his position and authority.
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lthough I hated experiencing what I just shared with you, it was good for me to be afflicted (Psalms 119:71). I learned to value what God has given me and that there is no greater authority than God Almighty. Yes, we all know that there is no higher authority than God, but do we actually operate in that knowledge? Sometimes we let people have a higher authority than God in our life, and we also sometimes let fear supersede the mightiness of God. I was guilty of doing both, and have been guilty of doing both for as long as I can remember. Being raised in an abusive home, fear and intimidation was planted at a very early age; however, now God is helping me to break the grips of fear and intimidation from my life. “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.” (2 Timothy 1:7) I look forward to living a life that is free from intimidation, as I stand in the authority God has given me!
© 2009, Naima Williams. All rights reserved.
