We Fight, The Enemy Fights Back

By David Hobbs

8 Once more war broke out, and David went out and fought the Philistines. He struck them with such force that they fled before him.
9 But an evil spirit came upon Saul as he was sitting in his house with his spear in his hand. While David was playing the harp, 10 Saul tried to pin him to the wall with his spear, but David eluded him as Saul drove his spear into the wall. That night David made good his escape. (1 Sam. 19)

Early on in David’s relationship with King Saul, he found himself in a quandary. Every time he was successful in his ministry of battling the Philistines and delivering Israel from their domination, it only heightened Saul’s fear and jealousy of him. So David was tempted by mediocrity: be successful, but not too successful; kill the Philistines, but not too many. Lose a few more of your own men while you’re at it so you won’t look too good; maybe Saul won’t be stirred up against you.
David however, rose to the challenge, resisted the temptation, and “struck them with such force that they fled from him.” God was surely pleased with David’s integrity. But what was the immediate result for David? Once more Saul was back on the warpath against him and David had to flee for his life, never to return to Saul’s service, now to be a hunted fugitive for 13 long years until Saul’s death.
As the Bible so succintly puts it in Revelation 12:7—“And there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought back.” We fight and they fight back. And I don’t mean that David was ultimately fighting the Philistines. We know from the New Testament that our enemies are not human, but spiritual principalities and powers. David too was fighting the dragon by fighting the enemies of God’s people, as God’s proxy on earth. And David enjoyed great success. But then the dragon fought back through one of his proxies on earth, which in this case was not the Philistines, but the backslidden King Saul! David resisted his temptation to mediocrity, scored a great victory, and then was forced to flee by the enemy scared to death of his powerful anointing (1 Sam. 18:28).
I tell this story because I have found it to be true in my life. When the anointing of the Holy Spirit comes on me in power, it makes the devil furious! I’m talking about the anointing in such power that I am literally set free of everything that usually holds me back from complete abandonment to the service of God—like my mundane human personality.
For a long time I was going over to Cheryl’s every morning to pray for an hour. One morning the anointing came on me in power as I as driving through Marysville. I was set free, singing and worshipping . . . I know in the Spirit my countenance was shining as much as Moses’ countenance used to shine when he spent time with God. Brother, believe me, Satan is always on the lookout for such things, and can be counted on to respond immediately. And he is not called “the god of this world” for nothing!
In the place where 5th Street narrows down from 2 lanes to 1 as it starts to cross the 5th St. Bridge into Yuba City, I looked in my side mirror and saw a car coming up fast behind me. There was no way he could overtake and pass me because the road was already narrowing. But to my amazement he kept coming! He passed when it was only a lane and half wide. But there was traffic coming the other way. To avoid a head-on collision with oncoming traffic he cut right in front of me and would have hit me if I hadn’t slammed on my brakes to avoid the accident. Then he turned and shook his fist at me, his face snarled in a curse! Well, needless to say I lost it, blasting on my horn and yelling back at him in indignation. With the rush of adrenaline the anointing went right out the window and I arrived at Cheryl’s shaken and angry, but also amazed at how quickly Satan had sent someone to shut down the Holy Spirit’s anointing.
That was a year ago. But just 2 weeks ago I had a similar experience. I was driving to Sacramento early Thurs. morning for our weekly prayer time in the state capital. It’s often my best time in God for the whole week. Once again the anointing came upon me in power. Cruising along the freeway at 65 mph, I began declaring the victory of Jesus Christ: His power, His glory, the absolute surety of His promises . . . I was having a great time. Nothing could stand against me in the Spirit—I was walking in total victory!
Eighteen miles south of town is the little burg of East Nicolaus with a 4-way stop. As I pulled up to the stop light it sounded like I was sitting beside a diesel pickup; I could hear that loud engine noise diesels make. But as the traffic beside me pulled away, the sound continued just as loud, even when there was no other vehicle close by. “I’m making that noise!” I thought, suddenly alarmed. I looked down at the temperature gauge—it was pegged out! Immediately I pulled over to the side of the road and shut off the ignition. Steam was rising from the motor.
Fortunately I was only ¼ mile past Nicolaus. I walked back and was able to borrow a bucket from the guy who runs a little restaurant there. I filled it up with water, lugged it back to the car, filled up the radiator, and limped home.
The mechanic checked out the car: it had a hole in the radiator. With the new radiator and thermostat the bill came out to $650.00. Now here’s where it gets interesting. For those of you who still believe in “coincidences” rather than spiritual warfare: that night when my son Daniel (who works for me) came home from his job in the paint van, he came into my office and told me the radiator in his paint van had sprung a leak! When I took it to the mechanic it too needed a new radiator, another $400.00.
A week later, the next time the car was driven, it stalled suddenly going over the 10th St. Bridge and the police had to come and push it off the bridge. Some computer that controls the gas had gone out, another $400-500. We fight, the enemy fights back!
Do we give in to the temptation to mediocrity or do we continue to seek the anointing regardless of the cost?

Encountering God

by Carley Clark

My name is Carley and I've been a Christian for over 30 years. My personality was always pretty low key, nothing much ever excited me. I tried to be a good wife and mother but was going through life almost like on automatic pilot. Over the years I started to suffer from a number of maladies such as anxiety, high blood pressure, fibromyalgia type of body pain, and insomnia, just to name a few. I've been taking medication for all these illnesses. My favorite activities in the past were reading secular books, going to movies, shopping and lunch dates out with friends. Several years ago I began to get stirred to seek a deeper walk and relationship with Christ. I heard stories of others who were attending Christian conferences where very anointed and prophetic speakers were speaking, and they were being touched, healed, and moved into greater anointing themselves. I started going to conferences myself. I remember in particular attending a conference at Bethel Church in Redding, Ca. where Bob Jones was one of several speakers. At one session, as the worship band was rehearsing before the evening meeting, I felt drawn to the front of the room and was standing there worshipping when one of the Bethel intercessors walked up to me, put her prayer shawl over my shoulders and her flag in my hand, and prophesied that I would take a greater measure of worship back to my home church and lead in breaking open the dance and flag ministry. She said, “Now do it: run and dance across the front!” And I did.
The next day, while standing in line to go into another session, an intercessor from another church said, "May I speak something over you?" He said he saw me wearing a full suit of armor and that I was a “worship warrior.” He said the Lord had actually shown this to him the day before as he saw me worshipping. I got very excited and picked up my Bible and showed him the large label I had glued to the top of it saying "WORSHIP WARRIOR," which is something I had been declaring over my life ever since my husband, Charley, first gave me the label. After this I ordered a book by the same title written by Chuck Pierce, and my personal prayer time and hunger to know Jesus grew deeper.
During this time our pastors were being stirred to lead our whole church deeper and higher than we'd ever been before. Our ladies' Tuesday morning Bible study meeting’s name got changed to "Women Encountering God" because that’s what started happening. Our pastor Cheryl would come into the meeting and say "I don't have any agenda today; let’s just pray and ask Holy Spirit what He wants to do" (see "Ladies Intercessory Prayer Meeting" posted 3/23/08). Thus we positioned ourselves to be wide open to whatever God had for us each week and we began encountering Him regularly.
I kept going to conferences that hosted speakers who had come and ministered in my own church, and also other prophetic speakers that I know my pastors stand with. About 2 years ago I attended a meeting in San Diego with Pastor Cheryl and some of the other ladies from our church. The main speaker was Jill Austin. One afternoon between sessions I went back to my hotel room to rest, but while dozing in and out of sleep I received 4 very clear picture visions from the Lord. In the first one I saw myself on a stairway into Heaven with an open door at the top. In the second vision I saw myself with my head tilted way back and my mouth wide open and a big spoon coming toward my open mouth. This transitioned into vision #3 in which I saw myself bent over in labor pains and then giving birth to a baby. Lastly, in the 4th vision, I saw my head with a huge ladle spilling oil all over it. At that point I woke up and thought "Oh wow! You have just shown me some amazing things, Lord." (I am now seeing several of these visions come to pass. I am one of the ladies in our church who has been experiencing birthing something in the Spirit. This is a very intense experience of labor-like pains and crying out as if in childbirth.) Pastor Cheryl was also overcome by the presence of the Holy Spirit at this conference and went down under the Power as the glory of God was released over her. She could not walk or stand for some time during that meeting. We had to drag her back to her seat as she couldn’t walk under her own power.
Since then I have prayed continually to be filled and used by God and for His will to be accomplished in my life. My hunger keeps growing and the realm of His presence is opening up to me.
\Last month I attended another conference in San Jose, Ca. on "Empowering Supernatural Women." The theme of this gathering was joy and celebration. There was much "drunkenness in the Spirit" as well as much laughter and dancing. Each night we were invited to come up to worship and dance, and hundreds did. One night in particular I was up front dancing to a song about soaring on eagles’ wings. I literally felt like I was soaring; I had my arms extended and was lost in the moment when I heard a woman next to me say, "Oh wow! You really are flying with Him!" She could sense what I was feeling. Portals of God's glory began opening all over the meeting room. In some places people were weeping while at others they were laughing. As the night got late, some people got out of their seats to leave. But when they reached a portal of glory in the aisle they just fell down to the floor! They couldn’t get up in spite of trying to.
During a session where Patricia King was speaking, a misty rain began to fall and the smell of fresh rain filled the room. There were other manifestations such as feathers falling. I saw 2 of them myself. After we sang a song about the sweetness of God's wine, many could smell the fragrance of new wine.
While standing at my seat one afternoon worshipping, a woman in the seat ahead of me turned around, took my hands and started speaking prophetically to me. She spoke of a new level of intercession and said there was a roar of the Lion of Judah deep within me getting ready to sound. I opened my eyes and realized it was the same woman who had spoken that initial word to me up at Bethel Church in Redding. I reminded her of that incident and she thought it was pretty amazing. At that point she began praying “more” over me and I shook violently. I continued to tremble after coming home for several days especially when sharing my experiences about this conference with anyone.
People ask how these experiences have changed me. I have an increased hunger to know Jesus more intimately, and a burning desire to be in His presence daily. There is nothing that gives me more joy than getting lost in worship. I am consumed; I am obsessed; I am addicted to the lover of my soul and I can NOT get enough of Him! At the same time, many physical things that I have been fighting in my body are showing improvement. I have been able to cut back to half on the meds I take for pain, anxiety, and high blood pressure with no ill effects. I have constant joy, zest for life, and excitement about what God is doing in the earth. The things of this world hold no more attraction for me. I feel like I have come alive from the deadness of my previous existence. My heart’s desire now is to see Jesus lifted higher, to see others set free as I have been, and to see the lost come to know Him and His amazing grace.

Demonic Attack

By David Hobbs

If I asked 100 people if they had ever experienced a demonic attack, how many would say yes? The truth is we all have, probably many times, but usually we’re not aware of it. We attribute it to something else—the blues, a stomach bug, out-of-sorts, worry, anger: the list could go on and on. All of these things could be legitimate in and of themselves, but Satan uses such things as cover for his attacks. What starts out as simple anger can, under the right circumstances, escalate into demonic rage. How else do you explain a person killing someone in a rage over some inconsequential thing, like when the Battle of 1812 was fought? “Oh he has an anger problem,” we say. No, he has more of an anger opening—his anger opens him up to the devil to use for his murderous attacks. In the case just mentioned there are 2 demonic attacks going on. The first comes against the man with the “anger problem” whose anger opens him up to the demonic realm, and the second comes through him against the man he is angry at and ends up killing. Two attacks, two victims: one dead and one guilty of murder.
But this is not an essay on demonic attacks, but rather a story about one. Most of the time the devil attacks in subtlety so that we hardly know the origin of what’s coming against us. But there are times he opens his mouth against us and roars! These can make for some hair-raising experiences.
One Saturday the church family was at work building our all-purpose gymnasium. I had worked there all day with my mentor boy, Kou, and now I was driving him to his home in Olivehurst. I drove through the last signal light in Marysville and was about to start up the E St. Bridge over the Yuba River when I noticed a hitch hiker standing on the corner of the street with his thumb out. Since both the 2 seats of my paint were occupied by Kou and me, I never thought twice about stopping to pick him up. But as I got nearly opposite the hitch hiker, he suddenly looked up at me, making eye contact, and I was face-to-face with the devil! His eyes projected hate, his lips snarled, he was mouthing bitter words, and with the hand that he had been hitch hiking with, he suddenly thrust out at me “the finger.”
It all happened in a moment of time and then I was past, not quite sure what had just happened. “Wow! He’s going to have a hard time getting a ride like that,” was the thought that went through my mind.
I continued over the bridge and picked up speed as the road became a freeway with a 65 mph speed limit.
Just as I got to cruising speed there was a terrible clatter on top of the van. It sounded like the roof was coming off! “What in the world!?” I looked in the rear view mirror just in time to see my 28 foot extension ladder slide off the back of the van with a final crash and plunge into the street. I slammed on the brakes and veered to the side of the road, the ladder still sliding down the road behind me. I had been leading a clump of cars going through town together and now the cars behind me started swerving in panic trying to miss the sliding ladder.
Now off to the side of the road, I slammed the van into reverse and gunned it backward toward where the ladder had finally stopped in the traffic lane. But as the van lunged backward, we were heading right into the path of several cars that had swerved around the ladder on the berm. “Look out!” my brain was screaming as I spun the wheel sharply right and slammed on the brakes yet again to avoid the careening cars.
There were cars in the fast lane, and we had the berm blocked. An SUV came roaring up, unable to stop with no place to swerve. “Crash!” It hit the ladder with a wicked smacking sound at about 40 mph and kept going.
Then, just as suddenly, it was over. No cars stopped, and when the cluster that came through the green light with me was past, the road was empty. “Let’s get the ladder!” I shouted to Kou as I threw the shift lever into “Park.” We bailed out and raced back to the ladder, pulling it out of the road before the next batch of cars could come. Then we secured it to the ladder rack and I drove Kou home, still shaking from the adrenaline rush.
We hadn’t used the ladder that day. In fact we hadn’t used any ladder from the van that day. In thinking back, I realized that it had been weeks since I had last used that ladder, since in most cases the shorter 20 footer is sufficient. I always kept each ladder tied down with 2 straps in case one broke. But there were no broken straps anywhere. (In fact there were no straps at all, like they had just disappeared.) In my 13 years of running the painting business, I had never had a ladder come off my van before. I’d even driven 11 miles from Live Oak to Yuba City once with a ladder not tied down and not lost it!
Then I remembered that strange, demonic hitch hiker. “That sucker cursed me; that’s what happened. That’s what he was doing--mouthing curses and projecting hatred from every pore of his body as we passed!” And it was effective too! “That sucker’s ‘prayers’ had some pop to them.” Only the grace of God kept there from being a multi-car pileup, which would have been entirely my fault.
“The effectual, fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much (Jas. 5:16).” And likewise: if it’s fervent enough, even an unrighteous man’s prayer can be quite powerful! And I still have a ladder with a broken side-piece to prove it!
The question is, How powerful are our prayers? Are we using live ammunition yet, or are we still firing blanks?