The Enemy's Camp

I realized a pattern about the devil's strategies against my life, as I was reading Battlefield of the Mind by Joyce Meyer. He attempts great ravage in the days/events leading up to something divinely important.

This time last year, I was getting ready to go on the trip that would completely change my life--onething '08 at IHOP, Kansas City. But it cost literally sweat and tears instigated by the enemy trying to deter me from going. You see, after I booked my ticket, I got a confirmation email, but strangely, it had my friend Angie's name on the ticket instead of mine, possibly because we booked our tickets from the same website at the same time. It was a big mess, so I called the airline agency about it and they said all I could do was buy another ticket. When the lady told me that, I was completely speechless and started tearing up because I had already paid for a $244 non-refundable ticket. It was completely preposterous and I couldn't believe I lost so much money. I still remember staring at my phone in tears, heading back into the library, and crying some more in front of my computer. But the only thing I could do was try to forget it and decide whether it was worth buying another ticket to go to IHOP..

I couldn't explain it, but there was just something in me, a hunger for more of God, that I just had to go. So I made the decision and went online again to buy another ticket. And this time, I actually found one $50 cheaper than the first time (kayak.com scans the web for the best deals btw:). Anddd get this: the airline, for some reason, never charged me for the first ticket. I guess that was how God blessed me for deciding that, despite $244 down the drain, I was still willing to fork out more just so I could go to Kansas City to find Him.

Considering how IHOP changed my life in ways words can't even express, I can understand why the devil would conjour a scheme like that against me before my trip. From Battlefield: "He has a strategy for his warfare. He has studied us for a long time. He knows what we like and what we don't like...He knows what bothers us most." At that time, I was wrapping up a semester that had been particularly exhausting because I worked so much between and after classes. To have lost that much money to a mere glitch on a website was definitely something of the enemy, something he thought would have made me give up on going to IHOP. But the tie between Father and daughter, the calling of deep unto deep, is greater than any scheme of the enemy, and thank God I made that decision to buy another ticket. I would still be struggling with the same old matters of flesh and blood if it weren't for the words I received in KC last year. Desperation for the love of God unlocks the heart of Him who wants even more desperately to pour His love onto someone who wants it.

Another instance was STP..I wrote about it in a prior entry, but the enemy's scheme in deterring me from going this time was the news my mom gave me right before taking me, that my grandma got cancer so I should say goodbye to her in case, by the time I got home from the conference, she would be gone to Taiwan to live and get treatment there. I was about to say nevermind to STP just so I could be with my grandma. But to make long story short, there was intercession involved, and a win for Jesus&me. :) What a way to try to get me where it hurts..my beloved grandma--cancer and moved across the ocean? Lucifer went loww on that one.

Gives me perspective on it all, and new strength to know that when i'm experiencing spiritual warfare, it just means God has something pretty awesome coming and I should press on through the storm.