My favorite all time quote is from Ronald Reagan in response to Muammar Qaddafi’s far out plans of taking on America, “He counted on America to be passive and he counted wrong”.

This was inadvertently brought back to mind last night. It is par for the course over the last few weeks and it seemed perfect for today’s topic.
The enemy, and sometimes other people seem to believe they can put you in, what is their perception of your place, and you will passively stay there but just as Libya soon learned the meaning of those infamous words, there are times that we have to stand up for ourselves or be trampled into the ground.
To be honest my first day out in this new adventure I almost gave up. I had the awesome privilege of receiving enough, how shall we say, unwanted drama through social media that I seriously questioned whether the good would outweigh the bad.

These were the very waters I had tried to avoid having to tread because I knew I’d have to fight some battles that I would have preferred to sit out.
Bad on my part, that is why Satan throws stuff like this at us, he knows what buttons to push to shut us up, back us off, and set us down.
I truly thought once about deleting it all and trying another route, but you know what, God did not create me to be a coward, sure, as the old saying goes they can kill you but they can’t eat you!

Well, I actually guess they could but hopefully you would at least taste bad!!

God sent me wonderful encouragement through others with his word and uplifting thoughts they shared that were right on time.
Once God’s spirit started rising up in me and I grew a better backbone, I decided that I will not let anyone take from me what God gave.

 I can take the remarks about the pants, I can deal with the old school belief that if you wear make-up you’re a quote unquote Jezebel, I can deal with the boys only club of ministry society.

What I can’t deal with is anyone touching the anointing and that is where the fight will get bloody.

If you are battling oppression in any form today, I want to hopefully encourage us all with this list of people who stood up to not just THE ENEMY but to all those who wished to interfere with the preordained work of God.

The Pharaoh counted on taking Abraham’s wife for his harem, but when God himself appeared to this pagan in a dream letting him know assuredly that he was a good as dead because she belonged to another.

As he counted up the gifts he gave trying to gain favor as he sent them on their way, he realized when he had accessed just how easily he thought she could be obtained, he found out with the loss of his riches that he had counted wrong.

Joseph’s brothers counted on destroying him, but upon discovering his new identity as second in power over all of Egypt they learned they had counted wrong.

Pharaoh counted on killing off the Hebrew sons, but with God’s sovereign plan the one baby he missed, that would grow up in his own house would bring about Egypt’s downfall. When he counted babies, he counted wrong.

Pharaoh counted on continuing to enslave the Hebrews after being commanded  from God to free them, finally having been hit with nine plagues, he conceded that he may have counted wrong.

Pharaoh counted on the Red Sea to allow his armies passage, but he and his host all drown there, and for his last time he counted wrong.
Korah counted on overthrowing Moses. 

Then the ground opened up and swallowed all that pertained to him.  Guess he too counted wrong.

Balak counted on hiring Balaam to curse Israel. Only to discover his plan had been intercepted by a Holy God and now only blessing could be spoken, yep, counted wrong.

Balaam counting on getting by disobeying God, and beating a donkey, once his eyes had been opened to the angel who informed him that he would have gladly killed him, not even aware how close he came to death and he surely regretted that he counted wrong!

Depraved men counted on forcibly taking and sexually assaulting Lot’s angelic house guests, only to blinded through the door and the entire place destroyed from the face of the earth, they had counted wrong.

Philistines counted on enjoying their “Let’s torture Samson” party and invited thousands of guests, Soon they would discover their careful calculations were only a bad misguess.
As party sayings go, he really brought the house down, counting on torturing God’s anointed for the fun of it, as God gave Samson the strength to cave the entire place down, as the laughter turned to horror as they were crushed to death.

Sisera, the enemy of Israel counted on a nice warm resting place when Jael took him in, had he lived through her nailing his head to the floor, well he would have known when he counted her as a friend, he counted wrong.

Goliath laughed hysterically at David’s small size counting on taking this boy down. God’s guided stone sending this beast to the ground and when his head came off, all of his army knew when they counted on destroying Israel that they counted wrong.

Absalom who counted on overthrowing his father, soon found himself suspended from a tree branch, caught by his beautiful hair. I’m sure before being ran through by the sword, he knew he counted wrong.

Nebuchadnezzar counted on torching the three Hebrew boys, once he saw not only were they fireproof but also not alone, to his horror he realized he counted wrong.

Haman counted on hanging Mordecai and killing all the Jews, after a chat between the King and Esther lead him to his gallows, those who had encouraged him in his plan knew they all had counted wrong.

Belshazzar counted on using vessels of the Lord as stemware  for his pagan party, his death warrant was soon written upon his wall,
that’s what happens when you count wrong and attempt to defile a vessel, any vessel that is consecrated unto God.

Darius’ overseers counted on ridding themselves of Daniel by turning him lion food, but once morning came and Daniel was still very much alive, they themselves were thrown in the den, these are men who counted wrong, once again.

Satan and the armies of hell counted on taking all power once they had Jesus dead, but to their surprise he tore down their stronghold taking the keys to their kingdom, all the sting of death, overcoming the grave by resurrecting from his death.

They counted on defeating him and there will never again be doubt of just how badly they counted and they counted wrong.We could go on for days, but I hope this encourages someone.

We do get discouraged, but when that happens give it to the Lord, let him raise up his spirit in you.
Think of it as spiritual wrestling, you may down but never let them make it to the three count.
You may be growing weak and losing strength fast and your enemies may think you’ve been counted out but with God as your Captain you can let them know really fast, if they really believe your out of the match and down for the count then obviously they have very badly counted wrong.

Φλογιζω/ All rights reserved. Reverend Nina BrownJohnson/ baresoulphlogizo 2015

Revisited 02/17/2021 Because sometimes people need to be reminded that is not who were are or who we fight or rather whom tried to fight against us, it is WHO we serve! So if you need a little encouragement today, I hope this will remind you of what you already know, everyone mentioned in the Bible were people, men and women, JUST LIKE US, different time period, different battles but still prone to fera, worry, and confusion but in all their trials God came shining through and if you serve him he will do the same for you. Φλογιζω