This week while standing in a long line outside waiting to vote, I tripped over an elevated joint between two sidewalk pads and fell. Fortunately, I fell on the grass and not on the cement. Such falls can be traumatic for me because of my history of back injury. The first thing I did while lying on the ground was pray: “Lord, please help me to get up without hurting myself.” Benny was asking me if I was okay, but I had to pray first; also a lady standing in line who came to help. Turns out she is a physical therapist and knew how to get me up without causing more harm.
There was a time when such a fall would have sent shivers of fear up and down my spine and a sickening feeling in my stomach. I lived in chronic pain and suffering, so the least little jerk of my body could bring on more pain. The fear of this kept me bound in my spirit, which prevented my faith from activating properly. I feared greatly, and my fears often came to pass.
Some of you may remember that this very same time last year, October 20, 2019, I had a very serious fall in the street. I had ministered that Sunday morning, and it was raining when we came out of church. Benny went to get the car as I waited at the door. I noticed a man wearing a hoodie that was pulled up around his face, standing near the curb looking down at his phone. When I saw our car, I walked towards the street, and just as I was stepping off the curb to the street, the man who had been standing still, started to walk toward me while still looking down at his phone. In an instant, he was upon me, tripped me, and I fell flat on my face onto the street. I felt and heard the awful thud. My legs were stretched out, with my feet still on the sidewalk. My forehead, nose, and left knee took the brunt of the hit, but my whole body was severely jolted by the hard landing on the asphalt.
I knew that I might be seriously injured, and I called on the Lord to help me to know how to get up from my awkward position without causing more harm. People came running to help, and some of them were trying to yank me up. I hollered for no one to touch me, and let me figure out the best way to get me up. Everyone was saying to do this and to do that, but no one thought to pray. I guess they were all so upset in seeing me in such a predicament, they just wanted to get me out of the street. It was raining, and a stream of water was running down the curb, soaking my lower body.
They brought out a chair so I could lean on it to get to my knees. Then Benny on one side and another guy on the other, pulled me up to my feet. I could stand and walk. I didn’t want to call 911 or go to the ER, because I knew I could be there for hours before being seen. Benny took me home, and packed my face, back, and knee in ice. After an hour, the cut on my nose was still bleeding, so we went to a walk-in clinic where I got five stitches on my nose. They took x-rays of my face and wrist, which was hurting, and thankfully, no bones were broken. My knee was banged up, and although it was sore, I could walk on it without pain.
I put a call out on social media for prayer, and the response was wonderful. Scores of people were praying that I would recover and that my back would not be damaged. It was a rough first week. I could not sleep because every position was painful. Being a woman, I was concerned that I would have a big scar running down my nose, and whenever I looked into the mirror, I fought back tears. After a week, I went to get the stitches out, and the doctor was amazed at how well it had already healed. Today, you cannot even tell I ever had stitches.
I share this event with you to tell you two things of paramount significance: First, I am a huge believer in the power of the prayers of the saints. I believe James 5:17 that says, “It avails much,” but the Greek is stronger and says, “It prevails!” It is the first thing I do whenever I come under a physical attack, whether sickness or injury. I know it was the prayer of the saints that got me through the cancer saga, and these falls.
Secondly, even though I had a very rough time when I fell last year, and it took two difficult weeks to fully recover; I cried more than a few tears, and I couldn’t understand why the Lord allowed it to happen. (Although after I thought about it, I realized I could have broken my neck and been paralyzed. I could’ve broken a hip which would have greatly complicated my back situation. I could have broken my nose, and everyone was surprised that I didn’t.) …Yet during that whole episode, I was never besieged with fear. Deep down in the core of my spirit, there was a cushion of peace—the peace of God that passes understanding (Phil.4:7). God gave me this supernatural peace in 2016 when I was diagnosed with breast cancer, and it has never left me.
So when I fell again this week, I did not give into alarm. The same peace was there to comfort me and assure me of victory. I am still healing, and right now my lower back is very sore. But I know that my body is the temple of the Lord, and I present to Him every day of my life. He is responsible to keep me, protect me—and if I am attacked—to deliver me and heal me.
The Evil Attacks
I would prefer to never come under attack. But it has been my experience that when I go on the offensive against Satan’s kingdom of darkness, he pushes back, and sometimes he pushes back hard. In fact, he even told me recently, “If you wouldn’t preach so hard against sin, such as abortion and homosexuality, you wouldn’t have all these attacks.” (Because I experience many demonic attacks in the night.)
It makes sense. And for His reasons, the Lord allows it. But He has promised in His Word that He is faithful to not allow me to be tested above that which I am able to endure, but with every temptation He will also make a way of escape for me to overcome (Ref. 1Cor.10:13).
Moreover, I understand what Jeremiah meant when he said: “Then I said, I will not make mention of him, or speak anymore in his name. But his word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones…” (Jer.10:9). We often hear people in church use this to describe their uncontainable joy that makes them leap or run or shout. But that’s not what Jeremiah meant. He had told the Lord that he would not deliver His hard messages anymore!
And another thing I have learned:
Satan has no power over my body unless I allow it. Let me put this in perspective: When we are born again, we get a new heart, a new spirit, but we don’t get a new body. Our bodies will not be redeemed until the rapture resurrection. Then we will receive new bodies that are fashioned like unto Jesus’ glorious body (1Cor.15:51-54, 2Cor.5:1-5, Phil.3:20-21).
With these earthly bodies we operate in a world that is under the curse. Paul said that “our outward man is perishing, even while her inward man is being renewed every day” (2Cor.4:16). We cannot escape the aging process, the decline it brings, and ultimately, death.
Yet Satan has no direct authority over our bodies to bring us harm. We can open the door to harm by things we do or neglect to do. But when we come under a direct satanic attack (which I believe these falls were and the breast cancer diagnosis), we must rebuke it and call on God to deliver us. We should declare: “No weapon that is formed against me shall proper, and every tongue that shall rise against me in judgment, I shall condemn. This is my heritage as a servant of the Lord, and my righteousness is of him” (Isa.54:17).
I think the best illustration in the Bible is that of the three Hebrew boys who refused to bow down to Nebuchadnezzar’s idol statue. As a result of their non-compromise and bold testimony, they were thrown into the fiery furnace that was so hot, it killed the men who threw them in. God miraculously delivered them, sending His angel into the furnace with them.
The king said, “Lo, I see four men loose, walking in the midst of the fire, and they have no hurt” (Dan.3:25). He commanded for them to be taken out of the furnace, and they had suffered no harm. Not even their clothes smelled of smoke. The only thing the fire burned was the ropes with which they were bound. The Hebrew word for “hurt” is chabal which means “no injury, no damage.”
Why did their bodies suffer no harm or damage?
Dan. 3:27: “…We saw these men upon whose bodies the fire had NO POWER…” The Hebrew word is shalet. Its verb form means “to rule, to dominate, to have the mastery over.” In other words, “to have authority over.” The fire had no authority over their bodies!
Likewise, Satan has no power—no authority over our bodies. If our bodies are the temple of God (1Cor. 6:19-20), Satan has no authority over us. “Who has delivered us from (Greek—out of) the power (Greek: exousia—authority) of darkness, and has translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son” (Col.1:13).
And in His Kingdom, we have “righteousness, peace, and joy in the Holy Spirit” (Rom.14:17). The Hebrew shalom refers to wholeness and soundness. 1Thess 5:23 states that this shalom preserves us in our “spirit, soul, and BODY.”
Satan will try to usurp authority over our bodies, and being the coward that he is, he waits till we are vulnerable, i.e. after an injury, to attack (which happened after I first injured my back). He waited till Jesus had fasted 40 days before confronting Him in the wilderness, tempting Him to turn the stones into bread. After the temptations were ended, “he departed from Him for a season” (Lk.4:13). The Greek kairos refers to “an opportune time—an opportunity.” Satan sizes things us and waits till he sees an opportunity to attack.
When he attacks, we must remember that he has no authority over us unless we give it to him, whether by speaking negative things, or by not speaking up at all and letting him get away with it. We are to resist and rebuke him like Jesus did—speaking the written Word: Saying what God’s Word says about our bodies, our healing, and our deliverance by the stripes upon Yeshua’s back. Our arsenal of Scripture is ample, against which our enemy has no defense.
Jesus said, “The prince of this world (Satan) comes, and has nothing in me” (John 14:30). And I say the same thing! He has nothing in me, and nothing to say about my body!
Grab hold of this revelation—not just with your mind—but in your spirit. God is no respector of persons. Satan has nothing in you, so don’t give him anything through fear or doubt.
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