I am learning the hard way about how Satan is so sneaky that he sets traps that don’t look like a trap.  Truly I am dealing with this now in my marriage and relationship with my children and I know that it is Satan and the demon angels that work with him to seek to destroy and wreak havok on lives, especially those who are the children of God.  The first time I had an encounter with Satan, was when I first became a child of God in the name of Jesus.  I saw Satan and his many demon followers in a vision of the night.  I was for the first time getting ready to start a 7 day Daniel fast for spiritual strength for my former church.  The night before this, Satan and his evil angels were surrounding me with their bows and arrows.  They did not look scary at all, infact, they looked beautiful, but they were dark and ugly on the inside because nothing on the outside suggested they were evil.  Once surrounding me, they simultaneously shot their bows and arrows at me, but amazingly they bounced right off of me and didn’t hurt me.  Satan spoke to me face to face and said to me, “you will not do the Daniel fast and you will not pray to God.”  Looking at him directly in the eye, I said, “Get away from me Satan in the name of Jesus.  I know what you are trying to do.”  He thought that he could scare me with his many followers and their weapons of spiritual warfare and him demanding me not to do the Daniel fast and pray to God.  Satan conviently forgets how God made him beautiful on the outside and evil itself cannot be detected just by looking on the outside.  The myths of how the devil looks is absolutely not true, but his heart is so dark and evil on the inside, hard and full of pride.  Satan does know that those who are children of God have been given the authority in the name of Jesus to drive out demons and to resist him and his evil schemes.  Some people think that driving out demons is only for the disciples who were with Jesus and right after his resurrection.

But this is not true and another lie of the devil because he does know this and will attempt any and all things to cause problems and calamity.  Before Jesus ascended to heaven he gave the disciples many instructions and authority of power in his name and is given to believers who accept the gospel to be saved, baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; truly they shall have signs to follow them.  All believers have one or more spiritual gifts and those are the signs that will follow them.  God is the same today, yesterday, and tomorrow.  These signs are not just for those in the Bible, but for the believers who are given spiritual gifts as signs.  Those who reject this truth are like those whom the Bible speaks of in the last days as having a form of godliness but denying its power.  We cannot deny the power of God regarding all the signs in the new covenant of believers in Jesus.  Not all have these signs, but today there are those who have the gift of healing in the name of Jesus, today there are those in the body of Christ who have the gift of miracles, speaking in new tongues, driving out demons, and yes there are those who are prophets today with the gift of prophecy.  The prophets today do not add to the Bible or take anything away, but are guided for edification in the church.  Do not be decieved as those in the last days who deny the power of Jesus and is God the Son regarding this warning in 2 Timothy 3:5 having a form of godliness but denying its power.  Have nothing to do with them.

Instead we ought to pray in the Holy Spirit who reveals the truth in our hearts and have faith in the power of the name of our Lord and Savior regarding all spiritual gifts in the new covenant.  Mark 16:15-19 He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the good news to all creation.  Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved, but whoever does not believe will be condemned.  And these signs will accompany those who believe: In my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people and they will get well.”  After the Lord Jesus had spoken to them, he was taken up into heaven and he sat at the right hand of God.  Then the disciples went out and preached everywhere, and the Lord worked with them and confirmed his word by the signs that accompanied it. 

The Bible tells of how the Lord worked with the disciples and confirmed His word by the signs that followed the disciples.  The last statement doesn’t mean it was the ending for the signs to follow, but in the Bible it is speaking of the Word of God and with the disciples that did this and confirmed it.  Prayerfully read verse 17-18:And these signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will drive out demons; they will speak in new tongues; they will pick up snakes with their hands; and when they drink deadly poison, it will not hurt them at all; they will place their hands on sick people, and they will get well.  This says that when the disciples went into the world and preached the good news, for those who believe they were baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit were believers and followers of Jesus, another name is disciple.  They also then were to obey the words of Jesus to go and make disciples and had the signs of those who believe in the name of Jesus and his authority and power.  Truly this is not just for the first disciples because it clearly states those who believe.  These are the Spiritual gifts of God to His children as it states in 1 Corinthians 12:7-11 Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.  To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues, and still another the interpretations of tongues.  All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.

That was the last time Satan tried to frighten me in a vision of the night.  Full of pride, Satan thought that he could scare me or trick me somehow, but he is limited in his knowledge and God allowed me to see Satan and the many fallen angels that surrounded me, using their bows to throw the many arrows at me at the exact same time, the accuser Satan watched as they all bounced right off of me and right back to them.  Satan, knows ever since then that he doesn’t accomplish anything in coming directly to me with many angels, so he is now using other methods to torment me and God does allow this as it does keep me humble in God, although I am still a work in progress, that God uses bad things to refine His children with.  Ephesians 6:11, 16 Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.  In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.  

God has given me the gift of prophecy from which He has given me visions of the night and day regarding the truth in the Bible.  What He shows me does not add nor take away from the Bible.  He puts words in my mouth to speak to others regarding their lives and His Word in the Bible.  The Lord shows me visions of things directly related to me and others in their lives.  I have seen in my visions of the night of both heaven and hell.  The Lord is instructing me when to share these things I have seen, which only confirms directly what is already written in the Bible along with scripture that Jesus spoke to me regarding the day of redemption, and I had only just became a child of God, not knowing much about what is written in the Bible, only to read later in the Bible what Jesus said to me in a vision of the night which confirmed what I heard from him and had seen about heaven.  There are many more things I will share, and write exactly all about it later as the Lord guides me.  What I write and speak of, I have not planned or thought out, infact it is only confirming the Spiritual gift of prophecy that  God has given me because everything that God reveals to me is already in the Bible.  His perfect timing is when messages are given for me to speak regarding the scripture that is already present.