My blog was hit by a brute force hacker who brutely forced fear straight into my heart.
They attempted to hack and whack the message of God.
To halt the images leading the way to the way, the truth and the life.
To hammer my functionality.
To halt images portraying the way, the truth and life.
I panicked. I emailed help like a mad woman. I fretted and feared.
But, nothing can stop the truth of God.
We may fall, sites may fall, finances may fall, buildings may fall, jobs may fall, kids may fall, feelings may fall, but nothing can make our all-powerful Jesus fall from the right hand of God.
Nothing can make us fall from grace. Nothing can make us fall from our eternal standing with Christ Jesus.
We are not falling victims of senseless attacks, but rising sinners headed to heaven.
God has secured our future no matter what attacks come our way.
With God, we rise above attacks.
What the enemy uses to take us down, God uses to raise us up,
to a greater enlightenment,
to a deeper truth,
to a more powerful resolve to push through obstacles.
Nothing can take Jesus down, because he has already risen up!
The devil might attempt to bring us to our knees, but God uses to reinforce our faith to a greater degree.
You intended to harm me, but God intended it all for good. He brought me to this position so I could save the lives of many people. (Gen. 50:20)
Lately, I have been getting vulnerable – real vulnerable. This attack has showed me that the more we become vulnerable, the more we lay ourselves wide open to attack.
But, God never promised we wouldn’t be persecuted, he promised us we would have eternal rewards when we are.
We are open and ready to receive from God. We raise our arms in surrender, we lift up our heads, we close our eyes, but this is also the perfect position for the enemy to come right in to shove us over. We aren’t looking at him, afterall. It’s hard to see the onslaught coming.
Can you remember a time where you were going head-on right into the heart of Jesus with complete abandon, only to feel the weight of the world come crashing down?
Can you remember feelings of doubt, discouragement and despair throwing you off track?
Vulnerability and surrendered hearts are open to a brute force attack, if we don’t add safety guards.
For my site, it is extra walls of security and additional plug-ins. We need to plug-in too. We need to plug-in to the armor of God “so that (we) can take your stand against the devil’s schemes.” Eph. 6:11
This means we add a little extra security to our holy temples.
We dress up a bit.
We wear our accessories daily.
We protect our open hearts.
We put on:
1. The “belt of truth buckled around (our) waist.” Eph. 6:14
Just as a belt is the center point of our body, so is the Word of God the center point of our lives. All truth flows and knowledge flows from God’s Word that brings life.
2. The “with the breastplate of righteousness in place” Eph. 6:15
No matter how open your heart is to God, when we act in righteous ways, we wear an armor that protects us from getting hurt. It makes all darts against us bounce off.
3. “Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace.” Eph. 6:16
If we are ready and willing, we can’t be stopped. There is resolution in the face of trials. Put on readiness so you may grow and go according to Christ’s purpose.
4. “The shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one.” Eph. 6:17
When we believe in what we cannot see, the troubles we can see don’t deter us in the moment – we walk with a higher mission.
5. “The helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.” Eph. 6:17
We can cover our head with the protective helmet of eternal salvation. Our mind can rest secure under it because we have eternal standing that can never be removed.
We wear our armor, but we live/worship/surrender as “wise as a serpent and as innocent as a dove”. Mt. 10:16
This means we worship with hands raised and one eye open.
We share discerning if we may be throwing our valuable pearls to the swine. Mt. 7:6
We pray, knowing that is not by our might, but by God’s that we are protected. Eph. 6:18
Because, otherwise, we are just as vulnerable to an attack as we are to God.
Otherwise, we walk with our heads in the clouds, ready to be hacked right back down to earth.
Let’s get up, wise up and start plugging in to God’s protective armor. We are fighting a greater battle.
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I thank you so much for sharing these words from God they truly touched my heart. I too, am dealing with Satan hacking my life to keep me from where the Holy Spirit is leading me.
I usually don’t dig too much deeper on my Twitter acct. – honestly as techie as I am – I’m a newbie to the Twitter/Instagram world. Early (way early) this morning God called me here. I fell asleep with your blog in my hand – LOL.
So, instead of moving on when I awoke, I continued to read & posted your blog post and words of mine to share on my Google+ page. I haven’t done this before as I continue getting hacked to be silent.
Silent – no more. I’m hearing The Holy Spirit loud and clear through your beautiful words He shared with me this morning.
I have had a BAD week after being hacked last weekend & many times before to shut my confidence down, to stop me from continuing to write my story – His story in me. My whirlwinds. My Whirlwinds of Grace.
This last Hack, hurt me deeper, so deep I’ve been Unglued with my kids, and physically attacked. Not to mention my “God Time” suffered the deep closeness I’m used to, yet I always know His grace surrounds me.
Thank you, Kelly Balarie for following me on Twitter and Thank you Lord – my provider & protector for sending Kelly’s blog to me this morning!
In His Love,
A.S.H. }i{
I thank you so much for sharing these words from God they truly touched my heart. I too, am dealing with Satan hacking my life to keep me from where the Holy Spirit is leading me.
I usually don’t dig too much deeper on my Twitter acct. – honestly as techie as I am – I’m a newbie to the Twitter/Instagram world. Early (way early) Sunday morning God called me here. I fell asleep with your blog in my hand – LOL.
So, instead of moving on when I awoke, I continued to read & posted your blog post and words of mine to share on my Google+ page. I haven’t done this before as I continue getting hacked to be silent.
Silent – no more. I’m hearing The Holy Spirit loud and clear through your beautiful words He shared with me this morning.
I have had a BAD week after being hacked 2 weekends ago & many times before to shut my confidence down, to stop me from continuing to write my story – His story in me. My whirlwinds. My Whirlwinds of Grace.
This last Hack, hurt me deeper, so deep I’ve been Unglued with my kids, and physically attacked. Not to mention my “God Time” suffered the deep closeness I’m used to, yet I always know His grace surrounds me.
Thank you, Kelly Balarie for following me on Twitter and Thank you Lord – my provider & protector for sending Kelly’s blog to me Sunday morning!
In His Love,
A.S.H. }i{
I love your words to me. I love how God used this to speak into just the right place of your heart. He doesn’t relent. He doesn’t back down. He doesn’t give up on those he loves and boy, does he love you! You know, I lost most of my comments on this post (due to a hacker), but yours remained. This is a powerful comment. Thank you so much for letting me know!
“the more we become vulnerable, the more we lay ourselves wide open to attack.”
OH AMEN!!!! i LOVE this!! i love this so incredibly much.
Thank you Stephanie for joining me today! I am so glad it spoke to you! Visit again soon!
When I imagine you, or anyone for that matter, raising your arms and lifting your heads with closed eyes, vulnerable to anyone who may want to hurt you, I feel proud. I’m proud to be near others that will take a position of good, and understand and accept there will be hurt for that position. This gives me hope that I too can turn the other cheek. Whatcha going to do… Haters gonna hate.
But, i do hope there was no serious damage as a result of the vandalism. It sounds like you have our under control now. Sending love.
Thanks for sharing with us!
Yes, you are right Theresa, it is much better to go in vulnerable, even if you do get hurt. Much love to you sis!
Hi Kelly, I stumbled onto your blog when I went to Rick Renner, Sparkling Gems. I have a book that I started years ago. To get me motivated I had decided to do a blog. Yesterday I researched How To Blog, but was somewhat intimidated about being hacked and attacked. I woke up this morning determined to go forward (with the nudging of the Holy Spirit). Thank you for popping up in my life with your encouragement. I shall move on with one eye open.
Yes, Margaret. Move ahead. Perfect love casts out all fear. Fear not sister. God has you protected. Proud of you. Come and linkup with us on Tuesdays when you get it up and running!
I’m glad I was able to add a bit of support in helping to clean up what the hacker left behind. That was no fun. All better now.
Thanks Jim. You were a GIGANTIC help. I am so appreciative for all you did.