Starting when I was nineteen years old, I struggled with panic attacks every single night for 2 1/2 years. Ask anyone who knew me, I slept very little and dreaded going to sleep. I would go to sleep, but would wake up as if someone had scared me out of sleep, my body would shake uncontrollably, and my heart would race. Sometimes, it would take hours to get back to sleep. I was so shaken up that it was even hard for me to call on the name of Jesus at times. Although I don't believe that the enemy caused these attacks, I do believe that he tried to use these attacks to make me feel timid and lose my confidence in God. I was tired (as you could imagine) of experiencing these attacks and in my prayer time, asked God to help me. The help did not come right away. I believe that God was trying to force me to be bold and commanding against the enemy, which I was not. The enemy had me right where he wanted me, scared and intimidated. I didn't have the strength to command the fear to leave me. One night I went to a church service at a United Pentecostal church in our area and the preacher brought forth a word on fear. He invited anyone up who was experiencing fear to come up and be delivered. I knew that word was for me. The moment this man of God laid his hands on my head and prayed for me, I believed in faith that God had healed me. I went home, and for the first time in years, I slept like a baby, God's peace saturating my mind. Then God started working on me. I began to hear his voice speaking to my spirit telling me that He was not done with me yet. He may have relieved the anxiety for the moment, but I still had not learned the lesson He wanted for me. He wanted me to learn that I had power over the enemy and his tactics of fear and I had the right, as a daughter of the most high, to cast out that fear and command peace into my life. In my prayer time, I began to ask God for boldness in the spirit and I believe God began to answer me. A short time later, the panic attacks came back, but this time, I was ready. I spoke to the fear that tried to overcome me and commanded it to leave in the name of Jesus. Guess what?....The fear LEFT. From that point on, I went to sleep every night knowing that God had my back and that I had the power to overcome.
Panic attacks are usually a result of our poor habits like not getting enough sleep, allowing stress to come into our lives, and sometimes, not giving problems we are facing to God like we should. When I first began to experience panic attacks, I was in college, and therefore, was very stressed, did not have a consistent sleeping schedule, and was pulling all-nighters writing papers etc. I know that my own bad habits caused the panic attacks. However, the enemy will take what he can to paralyze us and that is exactly what he did. He used these attacks to put fear in me and he does the same in others.
We must find the courage to use the spiritual authority that God has given us to bind that fear and cast it out. It has no place in our lives. It's been years since I've had those attacks, but just a couple of weeks ago, they tried to sneak back into my life. In one night, I had two attacks. Just when I was about to get discouraged, I remembered what I learned. I told God, this is not your will and I speak peace into my life right now. I laid down and closed my eyes. I don't know exactly when it was, but I remember dozing off, still feeling tense, when all of a sudden, I felt something so peaceful enter my room and saturate itself in my spirit. I literally felt like a spiritual tranquilizer hit my body. I knew God was right there with me and I knew that everything was ok. I learned the lesson and I'm glad that God didn't just take away the problem, but allowed me to learn how to deal with it. I pray that this will encourage someone to take up the authority God has given you and live in the peace that God has for you.
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