When God is Moving in Your Life then You Can Bet the Enemy is Too!

When I was newly saved back in 1996, I saw God do one miracle in my life after another and my faith in Him increased mightily!  But as I saw God’s hand in my life, I also saw the Enemy hard at work looking to come to steal, kill, and destroy.

But then the miracles were not all that noticeable, and, let’s just say that things in my life changed.  When the trials came, they didn’t go away after a day, week, month, or honestly, not even years.  It seemed like when they came into my life they were here to stay.

For the majority of my Christian life I have felt like I’ve walked through the valley waiting for God to show Himself.

Waiting for God to move on my behalf.

Waiting for God to give me a reprieve.

In looking back over my journals from 2001, 02, 03, 04, 05, 06, and so on, I could see my scribbled words asking the Lord to give me a reprieve and deliver me from the trials that had taken up residence in my life.

And though I earnestly sought the Lord, intentionally walked in His ways, and stayed in fellowship with other Believers…

Many times I felt forsaken by Him.

Many times I didn’t feel like I could go on for another day.

Many times I was frustrated with the plans He had for my life.

And many times I listened to the lies of the Enemy.

But God, in His sovereignty, knew exactly what His daughter needed during those times of purging, refining and strengthening.

In those 12 long years of pain and sorrow, He taught me a tremendous amount.  Yet the one thing that stands out to me the most is this:

To look for Him to show up in my life.  And to watch and wait for His mighty Hand to display His glorious works.

But those were hard lessons for me.

Lessons that tried my patience as well as my faith.

Lessons that brought me to my knees.

Lessons that caused me to no longer be self-reliant but rather God-reliant.

Lessons to hold fast to the Scriptures regardless of what family and friends were saying about me or how they were treating me.

Lessons to remind me that God does not owe me anything.

And lessons to remind me that no matter how hard I try to fix something, I am NOT God, and I need to be okay with His plans for my life.

So after all these years because of all the trials, heartaches, the persecutions, and the attacks,  I have just gotten used to walking with Christ while I’ve been under the shelter of His wings.  Like a young child being protected by Her father, I wait on Him to pick up the pieces of my life and put them back together.  AND HE DOES!

He will cover you with his feathers. He will shelter you with his wings. His faithful promises are your armor and protection.  Psalm 91:4

But something unusual and out of the ordinary happened not too long ago…

God showed His hand in my life before the attack came.  I’m not used to seeing His miracles manifest in my life first.   (And quite honestly, sometimes I don’t recognize His hand at all because I’m either distracted, exhausted, or too wrapped up in myself.)   But in any case, God moved first, and boy, was I was shocked by the battle that quickly followed!

Let me give you the back story.

About 10 days ago just before the end of the New Year, I pinned an old post I had written back in August to my Pinterest boards.

And that’s when it happened….

God took that post and spread it all. over. the. place!

There was so much traffic coming here that it made my head spin!

Here’s some numbers for a better understanding.

My little blog receives about oh, I’d say 600 views a day, give or take.

Now here are the numbers on the post, Are You a Wife that’s Easy to Love that I pinned on Pinterest:

On day one I think it had been viewed about 10,000 times.  On another day it had been viewed over 21,000 times.  Within a 10 day period it had been viewed over 100,000 times. (I guess it went viral!)  And two days out of that 10 day period the entire Pinterest site shut down and I believe all Pinterest users lost all of their boards for awhile.  I was thankful that my blog slowed down during that time period!   That post is my #1 viewed post.  In comparison, my #2 post has been viewed less than 7,000 times for the entire year!

Wow, God was sure moving it and it was crazy!

But then, anytime that God is moving in your life, you can bet the Enemy is going to move too!  And that’s exactly what that nasty Snake did!

One attack after another came in the form of comments on the blog (and Facebook!) At one point I became so discouraged and disheartened by this that I couldn’t come back to my computer to minister to you.  I wrote about how the criticism was affecting me (and ways to handle it in a Godly manner.)  And through the writing of that post, God strengthened me through His words of Truth, as well as using you, the Body of Christ to minister to me.

So I was back in the battle!

As much as possible, I continued to follow up with comments that warranted my response; those that were actually seeking help.  Of course I was honored and humbled by the opportunity to minister to them.  And then there were wolves that showed up in sheep’s clothing.  Those that perverted the Truth that needed my response because I didn’t want any of the thousands of women who came to my blog that day to be swayed by the lies and misconceptions that the wolves had written.

It was wild what was taking place in this ministry.  I was being bombarded with one comment after another and it was like a battlefield in the comment section.

It felt like that little post took on a life of it’s own.  Other blog’s were even blogging about the post!  Some good, but most just hurled insults and mocked me.

The Enemy showed up at my blog for many days on end.  At one point I even had a commentor that went by the name of ‘Lucifer’ leave me a comment!  I kid you not! (You won’t see it in the comment section because of the profanity that was used.)  I threw ‘Lucifer’s comment in the trash!  And I smiled as I did so because I know full well that Jesus Christ will be throwing the real Satan into the lake of fire!

The devil, who deceived them, was cast into the lake of fire and brimstone where the beast and the false prophet are.  And they will be tormented day and night forever and ever.  Rev. 20:10

3 Tips to Help You When the Trials Come

• Look for the Lord to show up in your life because, really, that’s His job!  He’s here to protect you, love you, comfort you, and He’ll fight your battles, that is, if you let Him!
• If you’re living for Jesus Christ, then don’t be surprised when the trials come because, you, my friend, are a threat to the Enemy’s work!

Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. 1 Peter 4:12,13

• Be prepared!

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.  Eph. 6:11

Remember that you’re in a spiritual battle.  What took place on my blog these last few days had ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with me!  It was a battle between Good and Evil!

Oh, and if you’re wondering why the comments are turned off on that post, well, it’s because the Lord told me to shut it down and move on.  My work there is done.

Live a poured out life for Christ,

Jolene Engle