Power of a Praying Woman 10/17/06 9:02 AM Page 72
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The Power of a Praying Woman
upon the words in Isaiah about exchanging “the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness” (Isaiah 61:3), I knew in that instant I was dealing with a spirit of heaviness. There was nothing wrong with me or my life, but the enemy was trying to get me to believe there was. For the next 20 minutes I sang praises to God and spoke His Word out loud. I told the enemy to get away from me, and I thanked the Lord for giving me the authority to do that. Then, as clearly as I have ever felt anything, I sensed the dark, heavy blanket of spiritual oppression lift. It lifted so suddenly and completely that I realized I had been dealing with a direct and speci?c attack from the enemy. As I look back, I believe it was because I was in the middle of writing The Power of a Praying® Wife and the enemy was trying to make me give up. But the opposite happened. In the days ahead I had new vision for my life and my future, and a renewed commitment to identifying and resisting the enemy’s lies. I realized I should have caught his lies the minute they entered my mind instead of entertaining them as truth.
Take Control
A big part of standing against the enemy of our souls is taking control over our minds. As the Bible says, we must learn to bring every thought into captivity (2 Corinthians 10:5). It was an astounding revelation to me as a new believer when I learned that I didn’t have to entertain every thought that came into my head. I had a choice about whether to listen to them or not. Many serial killers talk about how they heard a voice in their head telling them to kill and they just followed orders. When people are not raised to discern the voices in their head, they don’t recognize the voice