A couple of weeks ago I started sensing that something was off in my house.
I could not fully explain it. There was no big argument. No major falling out. Just tension. And it did not feel like us. My children were getting on each other’s nerves more than usual. The atmosphere felt heavy. And I just kept thinking — this does not make sense. This is not our normal.
I noticed it. I kept watching. And I started praying about it quietly.
Then Monday came.
Monday was our Pray and Prophesy Altars and Strongholds prayer. It was a heavy and powerful day. God moved in a major way. There were so many testimonies. People were getting set free. It was one of those days where you could just feel the hand of God all over everything.
We completed the assignment.
And then I stepped out of my office.
I did not walk into an argument. Nobody was fighting. Nothing dramatic had happened.
But I could sense it.
The atmosphere was still a little off. There was a residue in the house that should not have been there. And I knew immediately what it was.
The enemy could not get to me while I was in that prayer session. We completed the assignment. People got free. Chains broke. And when that happens the enemy does not just accept the loss. He retaliates.
And when he cannot come for you directly he will go for the people closest to you. The ones you love. The ones whose atmosphere you share. Because if he can disturb your home after the assignment he can still steal some of what was accomplished. He can drain you through the back door when the front door was shut in his face.
That is what was happening in my house.
And I was not going to let him have it.
Here is something I need every believer to understand.
The enemy does not always attack before an assignment. Sometimes he attacks after one. Especially when the assignment was successful. Especially when chains broke and people got free
He will try to come for your home. Your peace. Your family. The people closest to you. Because he knows that if he can get to them he can get to you.
And he does not always come through obvious warfare. Sometimes he comes through residue. A lingering heaviness. A low level tension between people who love each other. A feeling that something is slightly off but nothing you can point to directly.
That is still him. And it still needs to be addressed.
So I decided to confuse him.
I called my children together and I told them we were going to play a game.
We played Draw Your Swords. If you have not heard of it the concept is simple. Someone calls out a scripture and you race to find it first. The fastest one to open to the right passage wins.
And looking back I really do not think that was a coincidence.
While the enemy was trying to plant residue in my home we were literally picking up the Word of God and drawing our swords together. We were laughing. We were competing. We were engaged with each other and with Scripture at the same time.
That is warfare. It just did not look like what people expect warfare to look like.
Because here is what I know. An altar of division cannot survive in a house full of genuine laughter and unity. Every time my children laughed together they were contradicting what the enemy had been whispering. Every moment of connection between them was pushing back against the discord he had been trying to plant.
I was not ignoring the warfare. I was just fighting it differently.
But even as we played I could still sense something was not fully settled.
So I stopped the game and I sat my children down.
I asked them if they really understood what it meant for a stronghold or an altar to be present in a home.
They had heard the terms. But they did not fully understand what they meant in a practical sense.
So I broke it down for them.
I told them that an altar does not always look dramatic or obvious. Sometimes an altar looks like ongoing arguments between people who actually love each other. It looks like confusion that keeps coming back. Anger that does not match the situation. Frustration that lingers longer than it should. Anything that keeps creating a space for conflict to live in your home
And I told them what I had been noticing over the past few weeks. The patterns that were not like us. The repeated friction. The tension that had no clear source.
I told them the truth. The enemy had been trying to plant something in our home.
And then I told them what we were going to do about it.
We were not going to turn on each other. We were going to turn on him.
We were going to laugh. We were going to play. We were going to stand together and show him that he could not have our peace our joy or our unity.
So we kept playing.
And something began to shift.
My children started to get it. The laughter got freer. The connection got deeper. The heaviness that had been sitting over our home started to lift. Not because we had prayed it away yet. But because we chose joy as a weapon before we even got to prayer.
When we were done playing we moved into praise. And after praise we prayed.
We played. We praised. We prayed.
And by the time we were done my house felt like my house again.
I want every believer to hear this.
The enemy moves before breakthrough. And he moves after it too.
If you complete a powerful assignment and come home to a strange atmosphere do not be surprised. Do not be confused. And do not turn on the people around you.
Recognize what is happening. The enemy is retaliating. And he is using the people you love as the entry point because he could not use you.
If you have been noticing unusual tension in your home. Repeated conflict between people who genuinely love each other. A heaviness you cannot put your finger on. Do not brush it off. Ask God what the enemy is trying to plant. And then refuse to give him the ground.
Pay attention to patterns. One argument is just an argument. But the same friction happening over and over with no real cause is a strategy. One heavy day is just a hard day. But weeks of low level discord that does not match who you are as a family is an assignment from the enemy.
He is intentional. You need to be more intentional.
And teach your children.
One of the most powerful things that happened that night was watching my children go from being caught up in the atmosphere to understanding that the enemy had been trying to use them against each other. The moment they understood that they stopped cooperating with it.
Your home is territory. And territory has to be guarded. Not just by you. By everyone living in it.
Teach your children to discern. Teach them that laughter is a weapon. Teach them that the Word of God is a sword they can pick up every single day. Teach them that choosing to love each other well in hard moments is one of the most powerful things a family can do.
Because the enemy cannot build an altar in a home that refuses to give him the materials.
We played. We praised. We prayed.
And we won.
Not because we were the loudest. But because we were paying attention. We were united. And we refused to give him the ground he was looking for.
Stay discerning. Stay attentive. And the next time you sense the enemy moving in your home, confuse him.
Choose joy. Choose unity. Choose each other.
He cannot stay where he is not welcome.
Have you ever noticed the enemy moving in your home right after a major assignment or breakthrough? How did you handle it?
Mercy Fakoya (PM)
Prophetic Teacher. Marketplace Strategist. The Praying Prophet.