No matter how happy and blessed you are today, tomorrow you can become very discouraged. It is easy to go from one extreme to another, until we learn how to abide in the Lord, and tune into the divine nature of the Lord continually. It is called joining your spirit to the Lord, not joined, which is bad translation.
In Matthew 14 Jesus told his disciples to feed the 5,000, the loaves and fish multiplied as they fed the multitude, it was a mountaintop experience.
And immediately He made the disciples get into the boat, and go ahead of Him to the other side, while He sent the multitudes away. And after He had sent the multitudes away, He went up to the mountain by Himself to pray; and when it was evening, He was there alone. But the boat was already many stadia away from the land, battered by the waves; for the WIND WAS CONTRARY. Matthew 14:22–24.
This occurred right after a big blessing. Have you found that the day after some of your greatest blessings, the winds are contrary and they blow you in the direction you do not want to go? Have you been in a wind so stiff and strong that it seemed to blow you in spite of yourself?
Whenever God does something great for you, something contrary may happen soon after. After the blessing, the contrary winds come.
And in the fourth watch of the night, He came to them, walking upon the sea. And when the disciples saw Him walking on the sea, they were frightened, saying, “It is a ghost!” And they cried out for fear. Matthew 14:25–26.
The disciples, like most people, were conditioned to respond with fear instead of faith. In the great storm, with the winds so contrary, instead of being thankful for the one Person who could control it, they failed to believe it was him. Their fears put in their minds another image of what was taking place: this was a ghost! They were afraid and did not recognize the Lord in the situation.
When people are harassed and troubled by contrary winds, they do not remember that only yesterday they were eating bread and fish provided by the miracle power of the Lord.
One would think that such a victory would last longer than a few hours. Yet this was only the fourth watch in the night (between three and six o’clock in the morning) after Jesus fed the five thousand. The disciples were down in the boat which was being tossed by a contrary wind.
Can you imagine their thoughts? “Look at those waves! The winds are so contrary that the boat might even capsize. Not only are we not getting to our destination, but we seem to be getting farther and farther away from shore all the time. The harder we row, the farther away it is.”
When Jesus appeared, ready to solve everything, they cried, “It’s a ghost!” They cried out against the very one who was bringing deliverance. That is the way people are when they focus on their circumstances and problems.
Regardless of what you see coming on the horizon, determine that because the promises of God have assured you of what He is going to do, you are going to rest in the Lord.
Regardless of how many contrary winds and forces are working against you to keep you from arriving at the destination God has for you, believe that Jesus will make the move to come to you in that situation. And do not be afraid of Him when He does come; do not misinterpret His actions.
Jesus calmed the disciples’ fear and said, “Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid.” Matthew 14:27. Then what happened? Peter became bold and said, “Lord, if it is You, command me to come to You on the water” (Matthew 14:28). Peter was overcompensating.
You cannot be in the boat one minute, screaming for fear that a ghost is coming to you on the water, and then be filled with faith the next. You cannot change that fast.
When people try to do that, they are only fooling themselves. This is what the children of Israel did after the spies returned. They refused to go into the land of Canaan because of their fear; in fact, they were ready to stone Joshua and Caleb. The next day God told them, “Now you can spend forty years in the wilderness” (Numbers 14).
Then the Israelites changed their minds and said, “Oh, we should have obeyed; we should have believed. We will go up into the land.” But it was too late; they were a day too late. One day cost them forty years in the wilderness. This was the tenth time they willfully disobeyed the Lord. God’s grace gives us a period of time, and then we reap the consequences of our sin. He turns you over to the devil for the destruction of the flesh, so that your spirit might be saved.
And multitudes of Christinas think their spirit is already perfect, which is a lie of the devil. Only Christ in your spirit is perfect.
I know what I am talking about, YHWA will turn you over to the devil for the destruction of your flesh, that your spirit might be perfected, which makes it impossible to continue in the lusts of the flesh, it is the first level of submission, absolute defeat (every knee shall bow).
I have found six levels of submission in the Bible, until you come into a perfect submission, but I think there is a seventh I have not found yet. But our submission and dedication to the Lord will keep increasing until every area of our life is totally submissive to the Lord.
Someone asked Andrew Murray what is the most important thing a Christian should do? He said, “Absolute surrender.”
If God says, “Jump,” you must be up in the air and say, “How high, Lord?” Obey Him so fast that you immediately move in a response of faith—an instant response of faith. The disciples did not have that kind of response; they reacted in fear.
Walking with God is like being on a roller coaster. It seems as if you might fly off into space; you feel as though nothing is supporting you. Soon those ups and downs will level out, and you will come back again to the spot that you first saw when you bought your ticket. God is leading you. He has already shown you how it will come out, but some of the things that you did not see were those ups and downs. Do not be afraid; it will come out all right. Hold steady.
You do not know what will befall you tomorrow, but you do know that your hand is in the hand of the Lord. Nothing is changed by your circumstances or events or appearances. The reality is in the relationship that you have with the Lord.
The Lord will start visiting you. He will come walking through that storm that has you panicked, and if you are not careful, you will not recognize Him. The Lord sometimes lowers the walls so that the enemy can rush in, as He did when the children of Israel walked through the Red Sea. Pharaoh and his army were pursuing them. The Lord kept lifting the cloud enough so that the rear guard of the Israelites were frightened and did not remain strong in the Lord long enough when they saw those Egyptians coming (Exodus 14). They did not want to feel the whips on their backs again.
You see when you are a baby Christian the Lord will put a hedge of protect around you, like Job, but then he lowers the hedge, then you must learn how to put on the armor of God, and you end up with a double portion of the Spirit upon you.
The Lord has put a person in my life now that is living with me, he has a spirit for the Lord, but devils controlling his mind. Now my life has become a living hell. Anxiety has increased 100%, I must appropriate more of the Lord, and I will come through this with a double portion of the Spirit, and a greater anointing.
Those who have a comfortable life, do not yet have a walk with God, because YHWH is focused on divine character development, that is why we rejoice in the many diverse trials we go through, because the divine nature is worked in us. Until we develop a divine immunity so that nothing the enemy brings can touch us, just like Jesus who said.
John 14:30 for the ruler of this world is coming, and he has nothing in Me.
It is easy to cry out in fear, “Oh Lord, what is going to happen to me? It looks terrible.” But don’t you know He is visiting you in it? Many of us have stopped our blessing before it reached us because we wavered in unbelief. Peter did that after he said, “Lord, let me walk on the water.” When Jesus told him to come, he started to walk; and then he sank because he was not conditioned to really trust the Lord. He lost his focus.
Trust Him. Let your faith be strong. Do not allow circumstances to defeat you. You must believe that your days are in His hands. Negative feelings can rise up with such great force that they leave you trembling. He is here to direct your steps, and you cannot afford to be paralyzed by terror, apprehension, or misunderstanding. Be ready to move the moment He directs. David had that quality. On one occasion, he said, “Lord, shall we go up against the Philistines?” The Lord said, “Go up, but first go down in this ravine and wait by the mulberry trees. When you “hear the sound of marching in the tops of those trees”, do not be frightened; that means I am moving with you.” If David had heard that sound of marching in the mulberry trees without being prepared, it might have frightened him; but he was conditioned to faith. They waited until he could feel and hear the moving of the Spirit; then they went in and struck the Philistines (1 Chronicles 14:14–16. )
What does God have for you? What signal of the Spirit, what anointing will come? How will He come? Will He frighten you, coming like a ghost walking through the dark of the storm? Will He come as a marching sound in the tops of the mulberry trees? Will He make Himself known in some strange way?
You may be going through circumstances so severe that with the least turn of events you could be really frightened and not even believe that the Lord is with you. Just when you are wondering whether you are making any progress spiritually, something else may happen, adding insult to injury. Perhaps you lose your job or are suddenly humiliated. You become discouraged and want to give up; but you do not. You know you will not give up, so why go through the same familiar route, torturing yourself by letting yourself hit bottom before you bounce back? Why not stay up? Why accept defeats? A faith that is down today and back up tomorrow is not enough. Why not have steadfast, persevering faith?
Consciously or unconsciously, you submit in your spirit and in your mind to every defeat that you have ever had. Circumstances cannot defeat you. Defeat does not begin in circumstances; defeat begins in your spirit. Circumstances can be an illusion. There are men and women who have walked victoriously all their lives through circumstances which would have been interpreted by everyone else as being discouraging. From the time that the Apostle Paul became a Christian until he became a martyr, there was no time in his life when the circumstances were not so adverse and discouraging that many present-day believers would have lost heart and thought it not worthwhile. But he never lost heart; he was raised up by God to go through it. No matter how the circumstances looked, he had victory in his spirit. Paul wrote to the Corinthians, but thanks be to God, who always leads us in His triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place. 2 Corinthians 2:14.
Victory is not necessarily in the circumstance; it is in your spirit. It is not what happens that counts, but what that experience does to your spirit. You either have that victory in your spirit, or you do not. When something adverse happens to you, what is in your spirit will come out. You will either be full of self-pity or be filled with faith and trust in God.
In the army, when preparations are made to take an objective, a briefing is given concerning the obstacles that can be expected.
In a walk with God, it is also necessary to know where the enemy is lurking. Paul said, “We are not ignorant of his schemes” (2 Corinthians 2:11). Do not let one deep fear in your heart be so great that you can be defeated.
Sometimes when God starts to work something out, it may not look as if it is working out the way you want it to; but do not be discouraged!
The troubles and harassments may be part of God’s plan. You may wish He would deal with a situation, not realizing that He may have stirred it up. God often seems to move against a situation as He did with Pharaoh. People who do not understand this may argue that it was vicious of God to keep hardening Pharaoh’s heart. But that is exactly what the Bible says He did (Exodus 7:3).
Moses could have become discouraged; he was not overly enthusiastic about the whole situation anyway. He had not wanted to be in that position of leadership in the first place (Exodus 4:10, 13).
Nevertheless, one thing after another worked in his favor. The plagues were bringing chaos to the land of Egypt, and Moses seemed headed for success; yet God appeared to be working against him. That could become tiresome, but Moses had to believe; he had to trust and continue on.
You probably would be surprised to know how many times you have been close to victory only to have God’s hand trip you up. Why?
God has something else in mind just as He did when He hardened Pharaoh’s heart. One plague might have been enough for him; perhaps then he was ready to let the Israelites go.
But that was not enough for God; He had a few more tricks to play on Pharaoh. As a result, after the ten plagues, Egypt was a broken power and never rose again (Exodus 7–12). But that whole process was hard on Moses.
The wear and tear on God’s remnant of believers is rough, as one time after another He puts them through difficult situations; but what God is doing is for a purpose. He seems to be positioning things for the judgments that will soon start in the earth through his remnant of believers in the body of Christ. God’s remnant of people are being drawn into unbelievable circumstances.
Often, they find themselves in financial jeopardy and they do not know which way to go. Often you may feel that you are on the verge of exhaustion, and if you were not so busy working with the Lord, you would take time to collapse.
What is the Lord doing? He is bringing you to the place where He will work quickly. You are going to be a believer when you face the circumstances that are ahead of you. Most probably you will not even waver as you watch His plans unfold.
Do not judge a brother or a sister. Do not be an occasion for Satan to create an illusion or present a lie to them. Do not accept any illusion or lie of the enemy, for we know that the oneness of the Body is found in its unity and the love we have for one another.
When Satan creates difficult circumstances, do not accept them as tokens of defeat in any way. If God lures the Egyptians to pursue you, it is only because He intends to drown them. It is not meant for your hurt, but for their just recompense.
Illusions come to try to break the unity, to make you waver and think that no one cares. They really do care, but God will not allow you to receive sympathy on a human level. That would be disastrous for you.
You must have compassion and receive compassion from others on a divine level. You are loved, and you ought to make every effort to show your brothers and sisters that they are loved too.
In the middle of the day, when you are in difficulty, you may wish that you were somewhere else where things were better. At that moment, things look as if the world were coming to an end; but that is an illusion.
When the Lord comes to you, be sure that you recognize Him. Do not say, “It is a ghost,” and misinterpret the circumstance.
If the Lord loves you and wants to make you a hero like in Hebrews 11, what will He do first for you? You cannot be a hero unless you bleed a little.
A soldier does not receive a medal of honor for playing tiddlywinks in the barracks. You will never become a hero unless you are in the midst of the battle where the enemy is.
When the Lord comes and says, “Oh, my beautiful servant, I love you; you will serve Me and be victorious,” watch those words and listen carefully.
Read the fine print when God gives you a prophecy. If God promises to make you more than a conqueror, then you know that an opposing force will soon come against you.
If you are going to be a conqueror, there will be much to conquer (Romans 8:37). The greater the prophecies that come to you, the more wonderful will be the exploits that you do. After you spend a night in the lions’ den, or go through a fiery furnace, or fight a Goliath, then you will receive heaven’s medal of honor: Well, done, good and faithful servant. Matthew 25:23.
The Lord said to Elijah, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” (1 Kings 19:13.) Elijah did not really know.
He had just been through the whirlwind, the earthquake, and the fire, and had then listened to the still small voice. Then the Lord had something to tell him about the biggest job that was ahead of him (1 Kings 19:11–18).
Remember the words of Nehemiah, “I am doing a great work and I cannot come down” (Nehemiah 6:3). That was his answer to the request of Tobiah and Sanballat that he come down for a conference. They were trying to cause trouble and mischief designed to stop the work on the wall.
Where is the right place for you to be? Your steps are ordered of the Lord, and He will help you.
Suddenly you will realize that you, too, are doing a great work for God, a work so important that you will not let anything distract you. When Satan brings distractions, do not be so foolish as to give him any of your time.
Set your course. Do not allow yourself to be discouraged over nonessentials. Forget them! Do not feel sorry for yourself. Read the Word. Continue to be diligent in prayer and the things you want to do for the Lord. No matter what you see, what you hear, or what you feel, live in expectancy from one moment to the next, believing for what God will do.
Accept this Word as a briefing designed for the army of the Lord that will enable you to rise up to the challenge of the battle and the greatness of the victory. Do not set your sights on the rabbit when you can have the lion. Determine not to be distracted. Determine to wait and walk in that which God has spoken. Claim nothing short of all the promises of God. In Christ, all the promises of God have their yes and amen (2 Corinthians 1:20). Claim them all. Claim all the good things He has spoken. Expect to see them all come to pass. As a member of this army, determine to be carried into the fullness of everything God has said concerning you.