Last week in a meeting I had with two different saints in our church, I recognized the fingerprints of the enemy in a very indirect way. The attacks were not strong or even extremely clear, yet I sensed their presence, almost in the sense that a splinter is sensed as opposed to the stabbing of a knife. The splinter causes irritation and discomfort, while the stabbing of a knife produces excruciating pain. The problem is that we sometimes delay in dealing with the splinter because we learn how to cope with the pain.

I am convinced that recently the demonic attacks have been more irritable and uncomfortable, but we have felt it was easier to cope with the discomfort than take the time to root out the problem. As a result, we don’t even realize the weight we were carrying, and we were unaware of how distracted we were becoming.

Frankly, for the last few weeks something has felt “off,” but I believe this epitome, which I believe was God-given in the middle of the night, is the answer. We have become distracted by little hang-ups. The devil hasn’t thrown us off a cliff; he just placed something in our paths that caused us to stub our toe. But while we tend to turn to God in those cliff-hanger situations, we tend to try to cope with the distractions of our stubbed toes.

I sincerely believe we need God to remove from us the stubbed toes…the little hang-ups…the distractions, so we can remain focused on the mission. The kingdom of God must move forward, and we cannot afford to be hindered by distractions.

-Pastor Wilkerson