having a bad day . If I stay up too late , I might be more edgy , but many people are in prolonged seasons of attack and don ’ t realize it .
I know you wrote the article to give others insight , but were there certain symptoms that you personally experienced and recognized as a spiritual attack ? Absolutely . On both sides of my family , there were longstanding battles . I inherited some of those same battles . As a young minister , in my 20s , I ’ d get hit with this stuff . The thing that I always noticed was an overwhelming feeling of fatigue . What I recognize now is that you start to question the direction of your life . Things that were crystal clear before you got in that situation are now not so clear . That was my point of reference . My eyes were open to understand that there were actual demon powers coordinating this — like a chess game . They were actually saying “ We ’ re going to move this piece here and that piece here . The ultimate goal of any attack is to get you totally outside of the purpose for which you were put on earth .
People seem to have an issue recognizing that they are under a spiritual attack . Are you saying that one of the first things we should watch out for is a lack of clarity or purpose ? That is one of the eighth symptoms and one of the ultimate aims . But it is always multifought . Here ’ s the difference in a natural situation :
Those of us who have demanding lives , careers , families , etc ., we go through that . [ It can feel like a challenge ] raising children or being an owner of a business . But a spiritual attack is always multi-focused . It hits you on three or four fronts — something is going on with your family , your finances , and other areas . In the middle of that you start questioning what previously was clear to you . That is part of the purpose of the attack [ to destroy destiny ]. Destiny is one of the most powerful things that we have in life . We were created for destiny . When God creates Adam and Eve , he puts his hand on them and blesses them . He speaks into their destiny , and then Satan comes with a spiritual attack in the garden . When they disobey God , their whole identity is changed . They have a spiritual death — they ’ re not even who they were before that act of disobedience . That ’ s the struggle of mankind . So , the enemy is really terrified of you and I knowing who we are . And identity is two-fold .
1 . There is a common identity . We are all children of God as it relates to the blood of Jesus . There ’ s an individual identity . I can ’ t open my bible to the Book of Ryan . There is no written identity . That is the spirit side of my life . But I can pray and get revelation . The enemy doesn ’ t want you to know you are a child of God , that you have all the rights , privileges , inheritance , and relationship . You ’ re no longer a servant but sons and daughters .
2 . Once you come into that understanding , he doesn ’ t want you know your specific identity [ purpose ]. Because there is power in identity .
You also discuss the discernment of attack through visual leadings . How do these ( inner visions , night visions , open visions , trances , and prophetic dreams ) play into our awareness of the attack ? Just like we have a sense of smell or taste , God has wired us to hear from Heaven . I don ’ t have to pray for an iron to get the wrinkles out of my shirt because it was made for that . The voice of God is multi-faceted , and we are hard-wired to hear from God . Visual leadings are forms of communication . An inner vision is when something like a movie plays out on the inside of you . A lot of people believe that it is just their imagination , but thing you must do when you start asking God for direction is to be audacious enough to believe that it is more .
An open vision is when your entire being is caught up in the Spirit and you are transported into the spirit realm to receive a divine message . Dreams are fascinating because this is something that people overlook so often . We were endeavoring to do something in my ministry , and my wife had a dream . So , we begin to research dream symbols and the meaning of cheeks ( one element of the dream ). We found that , in the context , cheeks meant persecution / accusation . But at the end of her dream , I had told her that I was okay . I knew then that no matter the persecution , that I would be fine .