Recently, Leland and I have been reading a chapter a day from the Book of Proverbs. It has been VERY eye-opening. There are so many scriptures about how danger, trouble, hurt, distress, and the like, are NOT supposed to touch us as children of God.

Yet if you look around, that certainly is not what you see out there in the world, this supernatural protection that Proverbs talks about. More people are getting beat-up by the enemy than ever before. It is as if people think the world has more power than God and just accept being beat up.

At the same time we have been reading Proverbs, we are also reading our Chapter a Day Monday through Friday that our pastor challenged us to do as a church family. We just happened to be in Luke last month and it also talked about our authority, especially in Luke 10:19

^“19 Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”  I want to add that this also means your stuff, your kids, your family, your life.  It is all-encompassing. And nothing means NOTHING, nada, not a thing. God gave us power – authority, over our enemy (John 10:10) and to live a fantastic life here on earth.

So this is a deep topic. I’m going to lighten it up by telling you a story where we enacted our authority and how the devil had NO right to steal from us or destroy our things. It was visible proof that angels will protect our stuff.

In 2006 Leland and I were in a meeting in New Mexico. We were driving my new (to me) car that we’d purchased in late 2004. It was a beautiful vehicle and I really enjoyed this car (and still have it; it’s now 18 years old and still a blessing).

We were leaving New Mexico to head to our vacation spot in Texas and on the way, it suddenly, out of nowhere, began to hail. It was a sheet of quite visible chunks of hail, about an inch to inch-and-a-half thick.

Everyone was rushing to get their vehicles under the overpass but we were stuck out in the open with several others. We all pulled over to the side of the road because we couldn’t see to drive. All we were able to see was right in front of us, watching hail bounce off the car.

As soon as the hail started, first we were stunned then we both began shouting, “No, no, devil! You are not going to destroy our new vehicle with hail damage! We are tithers and you have no right, permission or authority to attack us in this way. Angels, we command you to surround and protect our car from this hail storm. There will be no damage! God, we thank You that in Jesus name, we have a right to come boldly to Your throne and ask for protection for our car!”

Then we sat there and watched as the hail battered at the hood of our car. It was loud and noisy. We watched the hail bounce off the hood but it was as if it had a shield of protection, some sort of strong covering that kept the hail from putting dents in the paint and metal. It was a LOT of hail; more than I’ve ever seen before. Raining hail stones.

As quickly as it started, the hail stopped. Everyone else began moving on but we sat there in our car, stunned. Finally we both got out of the car to look at the hood, then the rest of the car. There was ONE tiny little dent from a piece of hail that apparently hit right before we took authority and commanded protection for our car. It was there as if to say, “See? The hail was real and should have done tremendous damage to your car – but it couldn’t once you took authority.”

Lest you scoff, we have had hail storms many, many times since that day in 2006 with supernatural protection. We even had a recent one last year that looked like a wall of ice rather than rain, with golf ball sized hail on the porch. It stripped trees and… but I’ll tell you about that protection next week!

Let’s begin to realize that we have power over the enemy. He has no power over us, except what we give him. Just as angels are activated by us speaking God’s words (angels are to protect us, Psalm 91:11), the enemy is activated by us speaking his words (I’m afraid we’re not going to be able to pay our bills this month”. Or “I heard there are going to be lay-offs. Sure as shooting, I’ll be one of the first ones laid off” or “My kids are going to hell in a handbasket”).

We have more power and authority than we realize and it is time for us to start utilizing this gift God has given us through the shed blood of Jesus. We are going to need to know this more than ever in the times we are living in.

♥