Discernment

     Over the last year, while trying to find healing, I have learned as much about Satan and his army of demons as I have learned about God.  The first time I asked God to speak to me in my dreams I heard a voice say, "Pray for discernment."   Later, I dreamed a local pastor was being run over repeatedly by an evil man in a truck and nobody would help.  The crowd standing there was distracted by other things.  When I asked God to explain the dream to me I had another one where a group of people were laughing and dancing while an evil being was lurking in the trees behind them, but they didn't notice.  The funny thing was that the group of people was the cast of "Happy Days"  He has a sense of humor.  These dreams make me wonder if part of my purpose is to tell people demons are lurking everywhere.  Another dream I had was during a time when I was backsliding.  I was suddenly angry and frustrated.  I prayed God would reveal to me what had stopped my progress.  I dreamt that while I was lying down there were some kind of slimy animals crawling all over me and without looking, I was trying to figure out what they were.  I decided they were snakes.  Then a voice asked me how I knew they were snakes and I told them it was because they moved so fast.  I knew when I woke that my focus was being interupted by demons.  They had snuck up on me so fast, I hadn't even realized what it was.

     Let's say you go to see a ventriloquist's show, happy you were able to get seats in the front row.   Not very far into the show, the puppet looks at you and makes a remark about your shirt.  You get a little embarrassed but you let it go.  Then the puppet goes so far as to talk about your weight or your bald head or your big nose or some other sensitive area of your appearance.  When you have had enough, he pushes it further.  The puppet laughs at your scars.  You've had them from childhood and you don't share the story behind them, because it's just too painful.  You jump up from your chair, storm up on stage and rip that puppet off that guys arm ... wait a minute... you forgot there was somebody with his hand in this puppets back controlling his every move?  And he looks very scary.  You slowly back off the stage until you're a safe distance and then you put your mad face back on and storm out of the theater.  You drive home thinking about that stupid little puppet, wrap yourself in duct tape and pout.   Should you really be angry at the puppet?  Or the ventriloquist?  The puppets eyes are made of wood, he can't even see your scars.   But the ventriloquist has known you from birth.  He knows what those scars mean to you.  
     Maybe that's why God wants us to be quick to forgive.  Maybe your puppet friend is unaware of the demonic hand in their back, controlling them.  If we were all given the gift of seeing demons and they were no longer invisible to us, if we could see what they were doing and hear what they were saying, would we understand each other better and become more united in the battle?  Just sayin'