As I lay flat on my back, I knew I was fighting for my life. My breath came in snatches. My lungs were filling up with fluid, and I felt like I was drowning. I felt as if an elephant was sitting on my chest. I was very weak, but I lifted my arms as far as I could, bending them at the elbows. Clinching my fists, I shouted with barely a whisper, “I shall not die, but live, and declare the works of the Lord” (Psalm 118:17, KJV). But at the same time, I didn’t understand why this was happening. I had been free of this infirmity for quite some time. “Lord, I thought you healed me of this?”
All of a sudden, I had a vision. In my mind’s eye, I saw a door. I was on one side of the door, and Satan was on the other. He had one foot on the door jam and with both hands on the doorknob; he was trying with all of his might to open the door. I could see the door slightly buckling under the strength of his pressure.
At the age of seven, I was rushed to the hospital, I would be told later that I had almost died. I had double pneumonia. But something strange happened from that time on. I would suffer year after year with the common cold. Only, my common cold wasn’t like everyone else’s. It wasn’t so common. My lungs would seem to fill up with mucus, and the cold would last for months during the winter seasons. I would cough until I was exhausted trying to clear my lungs. In school, I remember being embarrassed as I would have to excuse myself from class until the coughing stopped. Often, the cold would turn serious with fevers and chills, and I would have to stay home from school. Though I was never sick enough to return to the hospital, I nevertheless suffered with these prolonged colds well into my thirties. I had figured that my lungs were weak and I was easily susceptible because of the pneumonia I had had as a child. I had learned to live with this infirmity all of these years.
But God was about to show me another amazing piece to my healing.
And, behold, there was a woman which had a spirit of infirmity eighteen years, and was bowed together, and could in no wise lift up herself. And when Jesus saw her, he called her to him, and said unto her, Woman, thou art loosed from thine infirmity. And he laid his hands on her: and immediately she was made straight, and glorified God. Luke 13:11–13 (KJV)
The Lord took me back to the time when I was seven when I had double pneumonia. He reminded me how the pneumonia had left me weak and frail. He revealed to me that during my illness, a spirit of infirmity attached itself to my lungs continuing to render me subject to debilitating colds. As the Lord revealed this to me, I was astonished at this insight. The word infirmity means “feebleness of body or mind, a malady, or frailty.” It means “disease, sickness, or weakness.” The root of the word infirmity in the Strong’s Concordance means “without strength.” In my weakened state as a child, Satan had taken advantage of me. He had moved in, so to speak, took up residence, and exerted his power and influence in this physical area of my body. When God shone his light on this, the spirit left immediately and I was free for quite some time. The spirits are subject to God, and when he reveals truth to us, the spirits can no longer stay. They can no longer pull the wool over our eyes. His truth will indeed set us free.
But here I was lying in bed, sick again, and this time, deathly sick. I could actually feel what little strength I had ebbing from my body. I was perplexed for I knew that God had healed me. As I weakly boxed the air with my fists, I suddenly saw Satan himself standing in the doorway to my bedroom. As he stood there, I could feel the heaviness of his thick black presence. I could sense his mocking stare as he stated with such certainty and finality, “I’m going to kill you!” he said.
As I continued declaring the Word of the Lord, “I shall live and not die!” the Lord spoke to me. “Forshia, you are healed. I have healed you. But Satan is trying with all of his might to open that door again. Don’t believe him. Stand your ground.” Indeed, as I resisted the lie, he eventually left and so did the symptoms. I would declare the works of the Lord! I have been free ever since.
Satan didn’t have the last say. God did. Satan was subject to God and his Word. Satan stood at the door or gate of my weakness that day. His desire was to kill me. Through resisting him, he could not cross over the threshold. He stood, and I stood. He resisted, and I resisted. I found that when I resisted long enough, he had to flee. I won. I began to glory in my weaknesses. I saw that my weaknesses were an opportunity for Christ to live big in me. They were no longer my enemies. The Apostle Paul talks about this.
But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. 2 Corinthians 12:9–10
How could I lose if even in weakness I was made strong? Listen, Saints, Satan can’t cross over the covenant threshold of your purchased life. He can only go so far and no farther. Resist him, stand firm in the faith…1 Peter 5:9. Don’t give up! Give in to the mighty power that lives big in you through Jesus Christ! So be it! Amen.
Forshia Ross
Excerpt from The Wilderness Shall Blossom Like the Rose by Forshia Ross.
