Have you ever gone to the moon and back? Probably not; me either but I feel like that’s what happened to me in the past 48 hours.
Yesterday I wrote that I was undergoing severe satanic attack and made a plea for you to pray for me. I was so filled with anxiety that I even began hyperventilating, which makes you feel like you are smothering to death. When it happens, you quite naturally try to breathe deeper and take more rapid breaths, which is exactly the wrong treatment. Hyperventilating causes you to get too much oxygen in your body and breathing deeply makes it worse.
The solution is to breathe slowly into a paper bag to reduce the oxygen intake. Try that when you feel like you’re smothering to death. I couldn’t find a small paper bag anywhere in our house and instead found a large paper grocery bag. I didn’t care I was panicking, so I promptly put a large grocery bag over my head and held it tightly around my neck and tried to breathe slowly.
Anyone who had seen me sitting at my desk with a large grocery bag over my head at 1:30 a.m. would have thought I’d lost my mind. I considered cutting some holes in it so I could see and maybe read while I waited for the attack to subside, but didn’t because I felt the holes would emit too much air. So, I just sat there with a grocery bag over my head. LOL
I sat there praying to God to fill me with His Holy Spirit and finally decided to read the Bible and see if that would help. I removed the bag and began reading. Initially it was difficult, because all I could think about was breathing and I couldn’t focus on God, however, slowly but surely, I made progress.
I’ve been reading through a chapter of Proverbs daily with a friend, and each day we send each other a verse from the chapter we’ve read for that day that stood out to us, and comment on what it meant to us. Focusing on listening to God through His word and performing this task began to calm me down and the hyperventilation began to ease up.
After that I wrote Words for the Day and asked for your prayers to battle Satan’s discourage-and-depress-Bob assignment. After WFTD went out the response was overwhelming and soon people were literally praying for me all over the world! They e-mailed, texted, and called to tell me they were praying for me. It was a tremendous encouragement and greatly appreciated.
I normally sleep 3-4 hours per night and have been like that all my life. Last night I slept like a baby for a solid 6 hours. I woke up refreshed and ready for battle. The work I’m doing has not changed; however, my attitude is entirely different. The transformation of my attitude from one day to the other is difficult to describe. To me it is liking going to the moon and back. Depression to optimism overnight. Prayer works my friends!
So tomorrow I head to Orlando for a television interview where I will be able to recount my testimony to thousands of viewers, then to a prison ministry event this weekend where we will go into the jails and prisons surrounding Orlando to bring the hope of Jesus to those incarcerated souls, then on to Virginia to two high level meetings for the Jesus Alliance, and then back to Orlando to meet with the pastor of First Baptist Church of Orlando to introduce him to the Alpha representative from Arizona, then another television interview to share my testimony, and finally back home to meet my son and his family for a short vacation and fishing trip to the Keys over the Memorial Day weekend.
Satan loses and the Lord triumphs. It is all the result of the power of prayer my friends. It will work for you too. You can go from feeling as though you just can’t go forward anymore to the moon and back through prayer. The Bible tells us to ask and believe and you shall receive. Anyone can ask for prayer and believe it will be answered. Christian believers want to help and will pray for you. No greater thing can be done on your behalf to resolve your problems and quickly, so, don’t delay – ask someone to pray for you today!
Thank you from the bottom of my heart for your prayers. I will be eternally grateful for such caring friends. It provides the fuel in my engine and removes the grocery bag from my head. Selah . . .
Phil. 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
May 16 2017 – Click here to listen