Blessings and Battles: My 40th Unexpected Birthday Experience
Many of you know by now that on June 7th, 2024, I turned 40. Yay! I just finished a decade and started a new one in the Lord. I wasn’t going to make a big deal out of my birthday, but I felt it was a big deal to end a decade, especially when it was loaded with challenges, sicknesses, and many lessons, and start a fresh new one. God celebrates us daily, monthly, yearly, and decade-wise. He cherishes our time on earth and considers it a valuable asset for His glory. I know a birthday is precious because it reminds us of God creating us, but I always thank the Lord for my second birth 20 years ago! Both are important.
So, my birthday is on June 7th, and this time it fell on a Friday, which is a Sabbath, entering the rest of God. Also, 7 means completion, and turning 40 is meaningful because it is the number of ending a wilderness, and it feels like that. Not only that, the month of Sivan 5784 started on my birthday!
The Lord has been talking to me a lot about rest and entering my promised land, and I couldn't wait for a fresh new beginning in the Lord. As many of you saw, I even created a webpage declaring and prophesying all those goodies. You can still leave me a birthday prayer there and enjoy my gifts for you. (Click here)
Friday came, June 7th arrived, and I NEVER expected that instead of experiencing the goodness of the Lord and the promised rest and freshness, waves of demonic temptations would bombard me. Oh my God, pressure from every side, sexual temptations, oppression, ups and downs, swirling emotions, and even the strong feeling of going back to Egypt, my place of bondage. My soul was in agony, confused, asking the Lord what was going on. I even told Him, “This is not real because I feel like 20 years of being on the potter's wheel feels like a waste.” Wow! What is going on, Lord?
I forgot that a new beginning and new levels are a threat to Satan. Forgot! I, who teaches the Bible and about the ways in the Spirit, was caught off guard. The devil was at the gate of this NEWNESS of Life to abort it and destroy it. To discourage me and compel me to hate it and expect nothing but death, pain, and curses.
Please read this carefully because you will learn something powerful here:
I am a free man. Not that I won't be tempted anymore—everyone will—but it took me years to establish my transformation and freedom in my character and mind, especially in my places of bondage. I greatly appreciate my freedom because sin was never fun and will never be. It was a tormenting cycle! Pleasant to the eye and feelings but deadly when you partake of it. This is how sin works! Remember when we all fell in Eden?
So when you feel a sudden urge to go back to Egypt after years of freedom and enjoying your transformation, KNOW that there is a demonic presence and oppression here because it doesn't make sense why there is this strong stirring in you to do something this strong you forgot about, prayed over with tears for long, went to conferences for freedom, read the books, rebuked the devils, etc. So when it is a sudden urge, discern that there is a demonic activity. But if you are still in your journey toward freedom, know that you still have strongholds and wrong mindsets that are not yet touched by the Lord or renewed. So it is natural to feel frequent desires to sin. Those urges can sometimes be demonic but not necessarily. It is mainly because you are not there yet and your flesh is still active.
This was not the case on my birthday—three days of oppression, entertaining sin, and old behaviors. Sometimes I made it, sometimes I couldn't. I never experienced a level of oppression like that before.
Why am I sharing my vulnerability with you here? Because many of you are and will start a fresh NEW strong beginning for the glory of the Lord, and the devil is at the door, not just the Lord. You need to be aware of this, be watchful in prayer, and seek help, intercession, and a faith community to take out your giants.
We all want to enter the promised land, but no one wants to confront the giants. I was focusing on my promised land and forgot giants were waiting for me. But greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world. Even though you go through battles, the final say is the Lord's. Remember that the dragon is WAITING for the woman to give birth to kill the baby(Revelation 12) and tried his best and caused lots of trouble, yet we have read the last chapter and Jesus wins!
Don't feel discouraged because with God things will get better and right on track if you keep pressing in. I am writing you this in the belly of the whale, knowing that any moment now, with your prayers, love, support, and giving, I will experience resurrection life and power because it is my portion and yours in Christ.
God bless you,
Tony Francis
We'd love to hear from you! Share your experiences, new beginnings, and thoughts in the comment section below.
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Tony Francis is from the Middle East. He is grounded in the scriptures and has a licensed degree in biblical studies from MTI, the school of ministry, and a certificate in EPL (effective personal leadership) from LMI. He has authored many books and is the founder of Healed Nations Ministries (www.healednations.com). Tony mentors people in the prophetic and served as the prophetic leader of Patricia King's ministries. Tony is studying to be a mental health coach.
www.healednations.com
Guys, kindly SHARE my testimony here with many. Send them the link to this article! Let's cast as many devils as possible. There is power in a testimony!
Thank you for your vulnerability in sharing this, Tony! I thank God for you, and know without any doubt that at this very moment He is with you right where you are, just as He was with Daniel in the den, with David facing Goliath, and with the young Hebrew boys in the fire. Great shall be your testimony, and great the numbers who shall come to Him from its knowing. I feel His pleasure in you – greatly pleased is He in you, my brother in the faith, and greater still will He give you to steward! I see His radiant and joyful smile upon you, such warm tenderness and love. I hear Him singing over you! This ‘next level' is one that will tear to shreds strongholds of the enemy in your nation and will set the explosive charges around the world. You stand victorious upon the dust of these strongholds, and the enemy flees from you seven ways in terror! We stand with you, as one in Christ, in the belly of that fish! Be strong in the Lord, be courageous in His might with your face set toward Him as flint! And we rise with you, up and out of that belly with shouts of praise and worship! Alleluia!
Thanks, dear Erin for your birthday wishes and LIFE decrees. God bless you in Jesus' name! God protects us for his glory. Feel free anytime to submit your christian devotion on my website: https://healednations.com/index.php/publish-free-christian-articles/
You can bless many with your anointed writing.
Thank you for sharing, many blessings for your birthday and may the Lord increase you in every way! The devil IS a liar but he can't hold you down, you are more than a conqueror! Blessing is your portion.
Thanks, Diana. God bless you!