Hey everybody, I’m Anne-Marie Michaelis, a Christian author and coach. Welcome to the Hidden Battles Podcast, a weekly podcast about the hidden battles of spiritual warfare and the struggles that go on in our minds and hearts, and the truth to overcoming these hidden battles. My life was radically transformed during a supernatural encounter with Jesus.

God allowed my eyes to be spiritually opened long enough to see the truth of these hidden battles and to scare the rebellion against him right out of me. In each episode, I share a true story about a real life experience, a teaching, and a final takeaway. This podcast will reveal the hidden battles that lurk in our minds and hearts, and the way out.

Hidden Battles, revealing what the enemy does not want you to know. Please take a moment to follow me on Facebook, Instagram, and subscribe to my channel on YouTube, at GodDesign LLC. Podcasts are available on YouTube, Spotify, and Apple Podcasts.

For a free download of my memoir, visit my website at goddesign.org.

In this episode called “God’s Warm Bubble”, I’ll share the very beginning of my awareness of the spiritual realm.  The small crack into the hidden battles that God allowed me to experience, and the trust He challenged me to have for Him when my thoughts cried out to Him alone. This small crack into the hidden battles, unknowingly, would turn into doors and windows wide open.  The nightmare that I called  hell on earth.  Although, God is putting on my heart stories and episode topics not in what I would call chronological order, we’re going to roll with whatever comes next in His order!  So, after my story, we’ll look at relevant scripture to this story and then end in reflections.

Cold Breeze in House – Spiritual Awareness Begins

The cold breeze in the house was the first sign of something happening that I could not see and give reason to, but nonetheless was happening. It was mid-summer, and I was a single Mom. I had recently met someone with whom I was very taken and what seemed like a real-life Prince Charming. During one of the weekends that my children were with their Dad, and after many weeks of talking on the phone for hours and meeting up for dinner, I was comfortable with him picking me up from my home for our date.

We arrived back at my house after dinner and sat in the family room on the couch talking for a bit. It came time for him to leave, and all seemed well. He left the house, and I locked up and went upstairs to bed.

For some reason, I went back downstairs before calling it a night and noticed a cold breeze in the hallway and family room. I checked the air conditioner, and I did not have it on. So I checked the windows to see if one was open, letting in a cool summer breeze. I found no windows open. Then my phone rang.

He was checking in to tell me he had a wonderful time. I asked if it was cool outside because a cold breeze was running from the hallway through the middle of the family room. He said it was not cold outside at all. Then asked what the cold “felt” like. I was a little confused, wondering how many types of “cold” there could be, so I responded, “It’s cold like a cold breeze.”

He then asked how I felt about the cold breeze. Again, I was a little confused, wondering how I was supposed to feel about a cold breeze, so I responded: “Confused about why there’s a cold breeze in my house that hasn’t been here before.” It was late, and I was getting tired. The conversation made little sense to me, so I ended the conversation and said goodnight.

Fast Forward – Relationship Advances

As we continued dating, we eventually fell in love. Or fell into what we called love at the time. There were slight hints of a different side to him that appeared here and there. But nothing significant came out right away. We started arguing as time went on. Several lies came out of him that did not even make sense. They were simply random lies that were irrelevant. Nevertheless, each time I caught him telling a lie, it made him enraged when I called him out on it. We eventually began arguing regularly, and soon we were exchanging abusive words back and forth like venom. We had good days in between, then numerous bad days, and this cycle continued for quite some time. One day I caught him telling another useless lie. He was so angry that he threw me across the room and tore my pajamas, taking abuse to a new level. This began many years of verbal, mental, and physical abuse. I will call this person my nemesis throughout the rest of this season of my life because of the extreme mental, emotional, and physical destruction – twisted up in the distortion of love.

Shortly after the violence elevated, things started happening. The truth of what was around me would become exposed and revealed. Things that would scare the rebellion and stubbornness out of me.

God’s Warm Bubble – Demonic Attack

It was a fall night, and after working with my nemesis all evening outside, we ended the night in a massive argument. My boys were with their Dad for the weekend. He went to sleep in one of the rooms in my house, and I went into another because the fighting had gotten so bad.

The temperature outside was cold enough to require the furnace to run, and the room I chose to sleep in was the warmest and coziest room in the house. I went under the covers and closed my eyes to try to fall asleep, hoping to wake up to a better day. A few minutes into trying to fall asleep, I started feeling abnormally chilly. I thought that the furnace was not working. I kept lying there, thinking I should get up and check the furnace. But then, within a few minutes of contemplating checking the furnace, something terrible happened.

My thoughts started to become few and far between. The only way I can describe what it would be like would be to imagine a dark tunnel. At the end of the tunnel is a light. That light at the end of the tunnel was getting smaller and consumed by the dark. This was how my thoughts were becoming. You usually have thousands of thoughts flooding your brain. I was struggling to create and form any thoughts. But that isn’t all; as this happened, my arms and legs were immovable. I could not even get my arms and legs to move. It was like my body had become paralyzed.

I started feeling massive indescribable panic inside my body as the struggle worsened inside my mind. Then, when I could not even create one single thought, I mustered up everything inside me and could think one thought only; “God Help Me!”

That is all I could think of at that moment when nothing else could be thought of. Then what happened next was bigger and more powerful than what was happening to me in those moments. Instantly, not minutes or seconds later. Immediately after, I thought, “God Help Me!” I felt perfect warmth. The chill in the room disappeared, and the temperature was perfect. My thoughts flooded back to me quickly, effortlessly, and frantically at that point. My body was moveable again. However, I didn’t make any sudden movements because I was petrified. I moved slowly and felt some pressure between my arms and the air. It felt like my body was in some transparent bubble.

I lay still for hours, praying for God to keep the warm bubble around me. I don’t know when I finally fell asleep that night, but I did. I finally fell asleep at peace in God’s warm bubble. When I woke, I jumped out of bed to the sun shining in the room and wanted to ensure my entire body was fully functional after the previous traumatic event. It was, but what to do with my experience was the big question on my mind. What happened? What was in the room causing the cold? What was in me causing me to be unable to think and move? There were so many questions I carried all day and each day after that. The questions I never had after that were if God was real and if He loved me. I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that He was real and loved me.

Many years later and having a deeper knowledge of spiritual warfare, my questions are a little different.  Was this what the beginning of complete demonic “possession” feels like for people?  Is this what happens to people who have periods of time they don’t remember when they black out?  I don’t know, but I do know, by the grace of God, He prevented whatever was in the process of happening.  What if I had not been able to have that one last thought “God Help Me”? All questions I have no answer for, but are irrelevant in the grand scheme of what matters regarding the hidden battles.

Despite my rebellion against God for so many years, He heard the cry for help, the only thought that I could muster up, the one last thought when all my mind and heart were being consumed by darkness, “God Help Me”.  He delivered me from the consumption of darkness.  This was my first demonic attack as there was much more to come. But God rescued me and drew me to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and I would soon understand Who He was transferring me to (Jesus) just like Colossians 1:13 teaches.  “For He rescued us and has drawn us to Himself from the dominion of darkness, and has transferred us to the kingdom of His beloved Son (Jesus).  LITERALLY!

Psalm 50:15 in the NKJV says this “Call upon Me in the day of trouble; I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me.”

Friends – I was about as stubborn, rebellious, and hard headed as you can get. God is SO good.  He slowly unfolded the truth to this stubborn, hard headed, rebellious girl, knowing that just like Psalm 50:15 says “I will deliver you, and you shall glorify Me” … Yes, indeed, I will glorify Him.  I will boldly and unapologetically declare what God has done for my soul.

Now for some reflections.

Psalm 18:6 in the AMP says this “In my distress [when I seemed surrounded] I called upon the Lord and cried to my God for help; He heard my voice from His temple, and my cry for help came before Him, into His very ears.”

Psalm 138:7 in the AMP says this “Though I walk in the midst of trouble, You will revive me;
You will stretch out Your hand against the wrath of my enemies, and Your right hand will save me.”

Romans 10:13 in the NKJV says this “For “whoever calls on the name of the Lord shall be saved.”

I ask you this question.  What does your hidden battles look like?  Are you crying out to the Lord or are you partnering with the demons?

1 Corinthians 10:21 in the AMP says this “You cannot drink [both] the Lord’s cup and the cup of demons. You cannot share in both the Lord’s table and the table of demons [thereby becoming partners with them].

You will have to choose, either your Heavenly Father and Jesus or the father of this world (Satan).  It’s not that complicated.  He’ll meet you right where you are like He did me.  The hidden battles are real, and most of us don’t even realize we’re partnering with demons, because it’s been “normalized” by the world.

If you’re ready to call out to our Lord, pray with me this prayer of Salvation.

Heavenly Father, I come to you as a sinner in need of Your grace.  I repent of my sins and confess openly with my lips that Jesus is my Lord and Savior.  I believe in my heart that He died and rose from the grave for my sins.  Lord Jesus, I invite you into my life and ask for the Holy Spirit to dwell in my heart; to be my teacher, counselor, comforter, and helper in all areas of my life.  May Your will be done in my life.  In Jesus’ name, I pray.  Amen.

Hey, friends, that wraps up today’s Hidden Battles Podcast. A transcript along with additional devotionals for this week’s podcast, as well as my memoir, are available for free download on my website at goddesign.org, or check out some of my other books that you may find helpful. If you liked this episode, please share with others.

Hidden Battles, revealing what the enemy does not want you to know. Never stop praying, never give up, and I’ll see you next week.