Helen's Encounter

(For an understanding of "Encounter" please see "Introduction to Encounter")

Here's my story...It's a long one...

In recent years, God has made a lot of headway with me in my weak areas which are fear and doubt. Seems odd since one of my spiritual gifts is Faith, but maybe it makes sense since the enemy likes to steal.

Anyway, I still had lingering "voices" that continued to plague me in stuff that I have settled with God and pretty much gotten His say on. Somehow they keep coming back around...When that happens I battle with it thinking "well, maybe it wasn't settled" and then it goes into this whole internal conflict that distracts me and drives me into self-focus. During worship I found myself there, once again, turning it over to God because I was tired of the conflict and was ready to give up my dreams if that's what God was asking of me.

Somewhere in the midst of this intense praying I got a picture of Jesus putting his hand on the back my head and pushing it forward. At first I thought that seemed so rough I was concerned it was the enemy but quickly realized what was going on. In the Sozo ministry we have a tool called a "divine edit" where the minister places a hand on the back of the person's head, asks the Holy Spirit to come in and "edit out" abnormal concepts/beliefs and exhange them with Truth.

Jesus was performing a divine edit on me!

He spoke into my ear, words that flowed like a stream, the truth about me, how He made me, how the things that He'd placed in my life - the people, experiences, etc - had been placed there for a purpose and that they'd all pull together in a way that would amaze me. I needed to stop second guessing and worrying. He trusted me to do what was right, he knew my heart was to please Him, but that I'd also fallen into a religious mindset that placed a lot of fear into my motives. He cleaned all of it up.

I saw angels there with us in that moment. Then the angels were gone and Father God and the Holy Spirit were there. I could only see God's feet. But he was standing next to me. The Holy Spirit was in front of me, placing his forehead against mine if that makes sense. Jesus began sealing up my ears - I guessed so that I would not be able to hear the enemy's lies anymore. YAY!

But then from within my head I heard a solitary, clear voice that undermined all they did and I was afraid that maybe I was just seeing what I wanted to see and the voice was actually that of God. But it contradicted everything that had streamed into my mind as the "sozo" was happening. That sent me into more conflict because I then didn't know what to believe or whose voice it was. I was discouraged and thought "This is just never going to end." I felt a dark heaviness in the front of my head that stayed there for most of the rest of the night.

Since I was on the prayer team I set that aside so I could help pray for other people. Later Don called out for anyone who was dealing with "voices" to come up. so I went up. I thought of how many times I had gone for prayer for this crap. Part of me thought "why bother?" But then Don commanded the voices to be gone...FOREVER...

"Forever," I thought sarcastically. "That would be nice."

Then Don clarified "Yes, they can be gone forever". I knew I hadn't spoken outloud so I knew that this was something from God. There was a power, a truth, in those words that was warm and comforting to my spirit. I did NOT have to live like this forever, in this place of confusion. I then felt peace in the area of my head where the "junk" had been. I felt the heaviness lift.

Later, a mild headache began in that area of my head. Knowing that Don has an anointing for dealing with headaches I asked him to pray with me. As he was praying, the headache seemed to move from my forehead to under my eyebrow, like it was trying to escape from under Don's hand. That was when it was clear that this conflict did in fact come from the enemy. He gave himself away at that time, the lying, stealing, counterfeiting mongrel. I had proof positive that all of it was from him...That there was no conflict with God. God was not asking me to lay down any dreams. My dreams and desires were from Him and for Him.

This experience has left me able to discern without a doubt when I am facing crap from the evil one. Darkness and heaviness in my chest and head are not the conviction of the Holy Spirit. They are evidence of being messed with. And I will not be calling God the devil by telling them to shut up and leave which had been my biggest fear when I was unsure who the voices were.

ENCOUNTER ROCKS!

Let me clarify: ENCOUNTER ROCKS...But JESUS IS DA BOMB DIGGITY.... :)

Helen