Don’t Shoot The Messenger?? By MaryEllen Martyn Replenished Hope
I was at a Prophets and Apostles conference in Atlanta all this week. God had many assignments for me there and even before I left, I felt opposition growing in the kingdom of darkness. I purposely ordered six new worship and warfare flags because I knew what I had in my arsenal was not what was needed going into this conference. I was prepared to face one battle that I would encounter. I chose to ignore, as to not allow this distraction to stop what I was sent to do. Just like clockwork, when this expected person entered the sanctuary, the demons on her came to infect me with the same poison on her. They did not succeed but it was an annoyance, as this person was determined to get my attention and do whatever her and the enemy’s agenda was.
However, I carry power and authority that will not submit to such nonsense. By Thursday, those demons were weakening just through my resistance to partake. Thursday afternoon, another prophet gave me a word about the spirit of comparison and how I had done well to not let it fall into my life. The next day, she asked me about why God said that, as it did not seem to make sense. So I told her briefly that God had given me an assignment with a certain person in this church last year.
This person wanted to “friend” me only so that she could learn or “take” my mantles and anointing. Not possible in any situation as God creates every anointing unique to that person. She liked having a prophet “in her pocket”, but God had shown me that her heart was really against me mostly with jealousy and competitive comparison. God removed her from my life after I had finished the last assignment earlier in the year. Since I introduced her to this church, I expected some sort of issue with my presence. So I explained what was currently happening since I arrived without pointing out who it was. She was grateful because now she knew how to pray for me. As I was set up to do my Flagging that morning, I felt a wall now in front of me and those same demons could not reach me this time. They were just bouncing off of this clear force field in front of me. It was truly wonderful. I was still not going to give focus to this, but I was grateful for the backup so I could continue on with my current assignments.
As this battle was winding down, I knew one much bigger had been stirring in the background. The enemy was hoping I would jump at the first battle and I did not. It would have kept me away from the more important matters of Heaven during this conference. Now, I had mentioned bringing a whole new arsenal of flags. The last time I was at this church, there was some in fighting and a leviathan spirit drawing confusion between leadership and staff when they tried to communicate and get on the same page. I did not sense that or see this at anytime during the week. However, I could feel a spirit rising up to stop my flagging. Many people thanked me for my ministry and how much it meant to them, but I sensed in the spirit that not everyone felt the same. It was strong around me. Now, I will mention that this church very much believes in using flags and stand on the Bible’s importance in this, but for some reason not as many were doing it during this week. I was not sure of the reasons why. No one seemed alarmed and a few asked to borrow my flags during service.
During the night sessions of the conference, I would go up into the balcony so I would be out of the way. This balcony was more of an after thought. It is not really considered as part of the sanctuary seating, and the staggered steps were so poorly made that it is easy to trip or twist an ankle. I had been up there all week and no one seemed bothered, but again I sensed that this was not going to last. So Friday night, I went up there to set out the order of my flags an hour before worship started. All week I had flown my King of Glory flag either first or second, but tonight God told me to fly it last. I could feel the warfare in the room and it was gunning for me heavy in this moment. Suddenly, a volunteer was before me stating I had to leave the balcony. He kept saying we don’t want anyone up here unless there is overflow. I explained that I was not sitting up here and just like every night this week, I was just flagging during worship and then would go sit down in the sanctuary. After 5 minutes of us both repeating our same speeches, he felt I should be there and said he would go fight my case. He came back a few minutes later and gave me a hug and said if anyone tells me to leave, tell them that Robert said I could stay.
I was not settled as I still felt that spirit moving against me. I am now in the middle of worship. I have two flags left to fly, and they had 2 or 3 songs left from what I heard when they were practicing. Suddenly another volunteer was in front of me and he had an ugly spirit on him. Let me pause here and say, the spirit will always state its name in the coming against you. For instance, if you are not a liar, but someone is loudly claiming that you are, it is the lying spirit that is on that person accusing you. If someone calls another a false prophet (and they are not), it is the spirit of Jezebel to name one or many that will rise up against in attempt to stop God’s anointed.
So this person did not look me in the eye, but I felt rebellion upon him as he projected the notion that I was being rebellious by not leaving the first time. For rebellion is as the sin of divination (1 Sam 15:23) This was the root of this spirit on him. More than likely this is a sin that started through the bloodline that has an open gateway to this person. He told me point blank that I needed to leave the balcony now. He was rude, mean, and nasty. He did everything to try to intimidate me fully. I knew God did not want me to stand my ground, but to give it over to Him. So I finished packing up my last two flags. I went into the bathroom to gain my composure and went to my seat. The worship team finished the last two songs. God had taken me out of my solemn mood by this point and gave me peace about the whole situation.
Now it was time for the speaker to take the stage. Apostle Dr. Matthew Stevenson walked up and immediately took over the assignment that I was not allowed to finish. He said, first we need to address the elephant in the room and he commanded everyone to pray in tongues as this evil spirit was cast from the room. You see, the devil had others to agree with the second heaven to shut me down, but there was nothing he could do about the speaker on the stage, who walked in full sight and an open heaven as well.
So now, what does this have to do with the messengers sent to remove me? The first person, Robert, was following orders, but quickly realize that telling me to leave was violating the Throne of God. He went down and fought for my right to be there. The second person, was in alignment with the person behind all of this and in doing so, aligned with the kingdom of darkness to remove me. So why is he responsible before God as he was just following the orders of the originator?
Genesis 3-7; 14 3 Now the serpent was more crafty than any other beast of the field that the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” 2 And the woman said to the serpent, “We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, 3 but God said, ‘You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die.’” 4 But the serpent said to the woman, “You will not surely die. 5 For God knows that when you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.” 6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate, and she also gave some to her husband who was with her, and he ate. 7 Then the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked. And they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loincloths.
14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, cursed are you above all livestock and above all beasts of the field; on your belly you shall go, and dust you shall eat all the days of your life.
Here, we see that because the serpent came into alignment with satan to be used for his purposes, God cursed the serpent as well. He was not innocent just as being the messenger or vessel of satan.
It is our responsibility to not lose our authority by allowing satan to use us for his purposes. The first person saw it was wrong and came into agreement with Heaven, so satan needed to find someone willing to push me out no matter what. And since I was forced to stop before I was finished, God was faithful to use another that no one could stop.
So why didn’t I just war against the demons another way? God told me not too even the first day at the conference. I even asked if I should fast, and He said no. Yes, I am fully able to remove the demons many many different ways, but God wants our obedience. He told me to only use my flags, and I didn’t know why until Friday afternoon when I got a prophetic word about a new way to worship that God was going to download to me to teach the Body of Christ to do. I don’t have to understand the why, I just have to obey in the moment, even when it leaves me sitting without recourse that I could take in other situations.
Consider carefully what you do and say in every situation. Refuse to be used no matter what reasoning someone gives you to justify using you against something with Kingdom purpose. You do not have to be a pawn of the enemy. Yes, there will be consequences to saying NO, but God will honor you taking the correct position. There will be times that God tells you to submit just as He told me not to fight this second time. It was not the place for one. And God had another way in mind. I carry no ill will towards this church or her people. I will continue to participate in many of their events in the future. All of hell could not stop me.