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“A smear campaign, also referred to as a smear tactic or simply a smear, is an effort to damage or call into question someone's reputation by propounding negative propaganda”
Firstly, smear campaigns are different to your normal run of the mill chatter. It’s when the enemy stirs up multiple people to curse you and from many different angles all at once.
When these come, you can bank on it that something powerful is around the corner and this campaign is sent to TAKE YOU OUT..
It’s actually a military tactic of the enemy that tells you that you are no longer dealing with a few demons but a legion of demons and principalities that see you as a threat.
FYI: This should be a sign to you that you have crossed a threshold in your authority for the enemy to have to send an army against you.
These campaigns come in the form of CHAOS or multiple tornados that attack you all at once until you hit a point of being unable to mentally, emotionally, and even spiritually handle the heat.
These sudden K.O repetitions leave you feeling oppressed and tormented until you literally think “I don’t want to live. This is beyond what I can handle”
Is this too real? Remember Elijah said the same thing right after Jezebel threatened his life. This is what a smear campaign does. It doesn’t play.. it’s after your life.
“while he himself went a day’s journey into the wilderness. He came to a broom bush, sat down under it and prayed that he might die. “I have had enough, LORD,” he said. “Take my life; I am no better than my ancestors.” 1 Kings 19:4
Since last week we have sensed multiple smear campaigns swirling in the spirit.
They start off tame and almost unrecognizable, trying to blend in or look like natural circumstances, but then they begin to increase in intensity.
Then chaos ensues from every angle, attacking your family, time, your mind, relationships, finances, health, and every other angle you can think of.
It’s the multiple tongues of the wicked trying to destroy you with torrential slander and decimate your walls.
It’s like a battering ram trying to rattle you and break down your most rigorous defenses.
So with that said, let me share a few nuggets of truth I have learned from these over the years;
THINGS TO KNOW
The snake always reveals itself:
Just wait and watch because the spiritual assignment always reveals its head and intentions quickly. It can’t hide. Expect to see emails, messages, or other means but the snakes will appear. Pray for exposure - Mark 4:22. There is nothing hidden that cannot be revealed.
The enemy always barks before he is evicted:
These smear campaigns tend to be less about you and more about territory the enemy is about to lose. Like the demoniac Jesus encountered who was yelling and making a fuss, the enemy always makes a big drama show before he is cast out into the pigs. When the enemy is exposed or about to be exposed he will bark loudly.
The enemy intends to slime you but it only ends up bringing purification:
Smear campaigns have a way of naturally cleaning up house. They cause you to see cracks in the pavement and things you weren’t seeing clearly beforehand. God will use the sliming to help you refine and define your circle and remove your hand from places that were shortchanging you.
God brings order out of disorder.
Further to the last one, God uses these moments to reveal the fly in the ointment and remove the impurities clogging up your flow. Warfare of this level always overplays its hand and where disorder comes momentarily, God uses it to bring order and bring to head that which has been concealed.
You are a general not a victim:
This is often a hard one to remember and take on board during these smear campaigns but you are not a victim even if you feel like you are. You are a general and you need to act like it and get back the upper hand. Be the head and not the tail, above only not beneath.
God will deal with them, but make sure you deal with you:
Even if God does give you discernment of where the chatter came from, remember that you don’t wrestle against flesh and blood. This is a spiritual attack not a natural one. Fight to keep your heart right. Forgive them so you can become entangled from their words and effects.
You have victory over the works over the enemy:
Don’t ever leave a battle without swinging your sword. Let the warfare at your door draw out the warrior in you that you didn’t know you were. God wants to show you how to stand in victory despite how you are feeling or seeing. He will often use these campaigns to school you in your authority and help you rise above it so you see it differently next time.
Smear campaigns can’t shut doors for you - they only help you enter them:
I’ve seen this time and time again where the enemy will send a campaign against me to shut doors and it strangely only fast tracks me into them. So if you are thinking about your reputation and about the potentially lost opportunities, let it go. No one can shut the doors God has ordained for your life.
So this is how you effectively deal with a smear campaign;
Ask for discernment/exposure.
Keep your heart right/forgive
Rebuke the assignment.
Refuse to believe the lies of the enemy at your mind.
Worship your way out of the chaos
Refuse to defend yourself or your reputation.
Bless those who curse you.
And get ready for the breakthrough cos you must have leveled up!
Nate Johnston
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