She was asking me what I thought it was. I was kind of busy, so I asked a few questions like, “When did it first appear?” She thought a moment and replied, “The last time we killed roosters. These roosters were a nuisance, killing the chickens and causing problems, so I just killed them and offered them up as a sacrifice to whoever.”

An alarm bell went off in my spirit. For one thing, it was October and very close to Halloween. I told her that Satanist offer sacrifices, and especially at this time of the year. By offering the sacrifice to “whoever”, she had invited, as many people unknowingly do, the wrong spirit into her life. I explained how Jesus died and shed his blood to protect us from Satan, and that when we offered a blood sacrifice of any kind, we were negating the blood of Jesus and saying it was not enough. Also, we gave up the protection provided by the blood of Jesus, and the enemy was able to come into our lives to cause problems. I went on to say that the devil walks about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour, and when we unknowingly do things like that, we open a door for him to enter our lives. She said, “That’s it, that’s what it sounded like, a lion!”

That might be the end of the story, but it isn’t. On the way home from work that Friday, I was able to think, and I remembered how a week or two before, I had walked out of my home and the hair on my neck stood up. I had the weirdest feeling something was watching me, and as I looked into the woods surrounding my home, I thought, “Something’s out there”. For a moment, I was afraid. But then I remembered the blood of Jesus, what it did for me, and I refused to be afraid. I used the name of Jesus and commanded it to leave, then thought no more about it. I knew it could not harm me because I was protected. It was such a passing thing that it had slipped my mind.

However, it may have backed off into the woods and hung around a few more days, even though it had lost any power to harm me or my family, because I heard it too. My husband heard it. We even discussed it, and I asked him what it was. We’ve lived in the woods all our lives, and he’s very good at recognizing sounds, but he didn’t know what that one was. And something else was the way our cats acted. They spend a lot of time inside, but always go outside to do their business. But they wouldn’t go outside. They would stand in the door when it was opened, then run back inside. Or if they made it as far as the screen porch, they would stare at the woods, then run back inside. My husband finally went outside with them. They did what they needed to do and came straight back in. This continued for a day or two, then stopped.

Now back to my co-worker. She lives about two miles through the woods from me. A lot of questions come up. Did it leave me and go to her? Was it just because she lived close by? Or did it know our association through work? There are a lot of things in this life that we may never have answered.

Something similar has happened to me before. Read “The Cartoon Creature” to learn more. The cats knew then too.

Later, I hurried out the door so I’d be there by noon to hear my favorite speaker. Except I didn’t make it by noon. An hour and a half into my journey, when I stopped at a post office to buy a stamp, I realized I HAD forgotten my purse, just like I’d said I would. I called my husband, and he agreed to go home for my purse and bring it to his place of employment. That saved me an hour. But I still wasted two hours coming back for my purse. And I missed my favorite speaker.

I’d been listening to a preacher talking about angels and how they obey what we say. So when I said, “I’d better get my purse right now or I’ll forget it”, and then I didn’t get it, did they think I meant to leave it?

And is that the same as when I tell my cat not to get in my path when I walk through the house in the dark or I’ll step on her? And I do? Or when the assistant pastor says no one shows up for church when the regular pastor is gone? And they don’t? Or when a mother tells her child not to go into the street or they’ll be run over by a car? And they are?

God used words to create. We are created in his image. Are our words creating our world, both good and bad? Are we limiting what God or His angels can do for us by the words we say? I wonder.

In the Bible, it mentions that God’s word does not return void but accomplishes what he purposes. Do our words also accomplish something? Are our words tearing down the people around us? Are our words destroying our health? Are our words shaping destinies without our realization? Saying is praying and praying is saying. I think I’ll pay more attention to what I’m saying.

While we waited in the doctor’s office (back then they did drug tests in doctors’ offices), I noticed a man sitting by himself. You could tell by looking at him that he was VERY sick. He sniffed, coughed, and generally looked miserable. God spoke to me very plainly, he said, “Pray for him”. Now that was not something I was comfortable doing. First of all, there were the men who worked for me, they would witness it all. And second, I’d have to take off my helmet. Have you ever had a bad case of helmet hair? If so, then you know what I’m talking about. I had a lot of reasons not to pray for that guy.

But God wouldn’t leave me alone. It got so bad I walked out of the doctor’s office and went to my truck. I put my hand on the door handle and then heard the Holy Spirit say very sternly, “I said pray for him!” Somehow I knew I’d better obey, so I turned around, went inside, took my hardhat off, knelt down, and with helmet hair exposed asked, “Sir, may I pray for you?”

What happened next took me by surprise. The guy lit up. He said, “I’ve been asking God over and over to send someone to pray for me. Yes, please pray for me!” So, we bent our heads and right there in the doctor’s office, I prayed for him.

????????

That was the first time God spoke to me like that, but it hasn’t been the last. Sometimes I’m busy or it isn’t convenient, and maybe sometimes I miss God and don’t obey, but the times I have followed the direction of that inner voice have been very rewarding. I’d like to get a 100% follow through rate.

It was just scary, I had that dream the night before. My husband thought I could see into the future.

We talked about it for awhile and realized that what he really wanted to do was martial arts training. If he joined the police force, he would have to start at the bottom and work his way up to the position of office training. As we talked we developed a plan wherein he could train under a local master for a year and a half, and after that time, he could open his own martial arts school.

That night I had another dream. In it our entire family was at the Grand Canyon. We jumped off the edge and were paragliding across it. What a wonderful feeling! I took that to mean we had made good decisions and were on our way to where we should be. Also, I realized I had squelched my husband’s spirituality and made the decision to go to church with him, maybe not every Sunday, but enough to get him back on track.