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Earlier in the week I had an audible dream where God spoke two significant statements to me, the first thing I heard the Lord say was “Watch out for the spirit of intimidation that is coming in full force and surrounding the body of Christ right now”
It reminded me of 1 Peter 5:8;
“Be sober-minded; be watchful. Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” 1 Peter 5:8
The word “around” had my attention which in this passage means “to surround, encompass, or coming from all angles”
You see, the enemy is a counterfeit lion, and when he roars, it is to scare us into submission. It is to intimidate us so that we give up and his tactic is to SURROUND us, or corner us so we break down.
I believe what the Lord was showing me in this audible dream was just to be watching, to be vigilant, be sober minded, because the enemy was right now trying to bring this spirit of intimidation to the body of Christ in a critical moment of advancement.
This intimidation Is the of a lion that is seeking to disassemble those that God is launching, those, that God is building, those that God is moving through in a powerful way.
When I think of the spirit of intimidation, I think of Goliath who cornered Gods people in the valley of Elah in a critical moment of advancement.
Goliath shouted taunts and mockery at Gods people all day long to intimidate them and stop them in their track and it was working. They stopped. They gave up. And the worst thing was they begin believing the things that Goliath was saying.
I WILL NOT BE INTIMIDATED!
Then David entered the scene in his zeal for the Lord and the justice that he carried;
“For who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the living God?” 1 Samuel 17:26b
And we know what happened next - he showed up Goliath to be nothing more than just a counterfeit lion with one tiny stone. He took Goliath down and cut off his head. Right now we need to do the same in the spirit.
Here are some of the ways that the spirit of intimidation works;
Intimidation comes at you through accusation and slander. That's where suddenly people are talking about you. They're belittling you. They're dragging your name through the mud.
Then there's mockery where the enemy literally laughs at the things that God has you doing, the way you are doing things. It comes to try to psych you out of the methods or the ideas or the ways that God has led you in.
The third way is fear and worry. Intimidation will make you try to tempt you, bait you into stepping into fear and worry. The enemy will parade before you many foreboding outcomes and situations that wants to bait you into believing, so that you'll entertain it and take your eyes off where God's leading you.
And the last one is insecurity. It's where this intimidation will cause you to begin to point that intimidating arrow inwards and begin to examine your own heart and life. It's where it triggers the issues that you're still walking through with the Lord.
PRESSED ON ALL SIDES
So this intimidating spirit right now is trying to surround the body of Christ. It's like a surround sound system of chatter and noise. It's trying to bait the body of Christ into becoming part of its symphony against its own body. Have you noticed that? But we need to be those like David who will say, “I see you, and I will not be baited by you”
In 2 Corinthians 4:8a it says;
“We are hard pressed on every side but not crushed, perplexed but not in despair. Persecuted but not abandoned. Struck down, but not destroyed”
Let me ask you, are you facing this pressing on every side right now? Are you feeling surrounded? The word here that says, pressed on every side means this. It's the Greek word Thlibo.
It means to press or afflict. It means to persecute, and to constrict. It means to literally suffer tribulation and trouble.
It's where the enemy plants affliction and discouragement at every single side of you till you feel pressed. But the good news, my friends, is it does not crush us. It does not defeat us.
CAN YOU HEAR MY ROAR ALL AROUND YOU?
The next part of the dream is what the Lord wants to say over you today. I heard the Lord say to me, “But Nate, can you hear my roar all around you?”
Isn't that amazing? When we go through things like this, the enemy will want us to feel defenseless, powerless, or that God is not looking out for us. The only thing he wants us to hear is the the roar of chatter, the roar of noise, the roar of lies, but there is a roar unlike all others. It is the roar of the lion of the tribe of Judah.
It is the roar that silences the roar of the enemy, so when we're facing this spirit we can lean into the lion. We can say, “Father, what does your voice sound like today? What are you saying over me today?”
It's where we get off social media in those moments where it's just all consuming and you can feel the spirit of witchcraft just circling and trying to bait people into divisive talk.
It’s where you feel muzzled and and silenced, and you just go, “You know what, I need to break out of this bombardment of noise. I need to get away. I need to just tuck away and listen to the voice of the Lord”
“They shall go after the Lord and he'll roar like a lion. When he roars, his children will come trembling from the west” Hosea 11:10
This is what happens when you listen to the roar of God's voice. In Amos 3:8 it says;
“ The lion has roared who will not fear the Lord. God has spoken, who can but prophesy?”
The fear of the enemy dissipates when you hear the roar of the lion of the tribe of Judah and it causes your spirit to come alive and your spirit to prophesy.
ROAR AT THE ENEMY & THE TROUBLES AROUND YOU
I believe right now that God is leading us into an awareness of his roar. This is a protective moment of the Father where he's leading us into places and spaces that we've been praying and dreaming about for years. The enemy would so love to get our eyes and our ears off Jesus and onto the things around us. Let me encourage you today if you have been facing the whirlwinds of intimidation. Shut off your phone after this, lay on your living room floor. Put some worship on and simply say; “Father, let me hear your voice. Let me hear your roar surrounding me. Silence my adversary. Silence the accuser. Silence the lies. Disarm this intimidating spirit that's trying to bait me into something that i don't need to be distracted by right now. Deliver me from this tormenting spirit in Jesus name!” And you will become reacquainted with the voice of the lion, your protector, your safe refuge, and watch as God begins to shift and realign what has been in chaos and mess. We pray and we prophesy this over you today in Jesus mighty name! Now begin to ROAR at the things trying to intimidate you. Prophesy, shout, worship, and let Gods voice inside you out, and the enemy will RUN!
Nate Johnston
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