Enduring in the face of overwhelming odds is only possible because the strength of God’s grip on us. This is the source of our confidence – we know he will never let us go, no matter what. The will of God is to be for us.
1st John 5; 14 -This is the confidence we have in him, that if we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us, what we ask, we know that we have the petition that we have asked of him.
With this in mind, we can set our hearts to joyfully endure. The Lord spends a lot of time and effort preparing our hearts to listen to his will. Through this process, we improve our ability to discover his voice, understand his heart, and detect his will. The tipping point in this journey comes when we learn to listen more than speak. When we are in the presence of God, we need to choose our words carefully. To not be rash with your mouth, let not your heart under anything hastily before God. For God is in heaven, you are on earth; therefore let your words be few – Ecclesiastes 5:2
To step back into his kindness has been my salvation in countless circumstances. That’s why God gave me a revelation of his kindness! It is my access point, my doorway into the secret place of his presence. I can escape into his nature for me and live in a higher place than my circumstances. In this way, I get to go through my situations at rest, faith, and favor. They become opportunities to overcome something and to declare the nature of God to me personally.
We fight from victory, not towards it. Therefore, we are never staring defeat in the face; the enemy is, when he looks at us. Some obstacles take longer to overcome; in those cases were learning about patience and persistence. The point is this – victory, whether initially or eventually, is never in doubt in our hearts and minds. We focus on God, not the event – the rest is just thinking
Spiritual warriors joyfully and humbly trust God to come through, no matter what situation they find themselves in. For that to happen, our confidence must first be God’s nature; not just in his power. What is God really, really like? Who is he for you? How do you see his nature, character, and personality?
Every circumstance reveals to you, who God is and what he wants to be for you. This is the first thing that we focus on. In fact, we do not focus on the situation at all, initially; we do that eventually. It’s the difference between what is urgent and what is important. Every circumstance has a sound. Difficult situations have a way of clamoring for attention; they have an urgency. However, there is always another sound at work. It’s the sound of God speaking in our spirit – the still small voice, the whisper of peace: I am with you; I will never leave you nor forsake you; come to me, I will give you rest.
Why does God whisper in moments like this? It’s because he is teaching us to come aside and listen. God is always speaking; warriors are always listening. Never allow the noise of your circumstances to drown out the sound of the spirit.
Situations are urgent; communion with God is more important. The best way to commune is to step out of your circumstances altogether. Step away from them and come to a place of worship, rejoicing, and Thanksgiving. If we try to worship in the situation we may not get to a place of breakthrough before God, and the urgency of the event will bring us to prayer too soon. There is a reason why prayer is part of the celebration sandwich.
Rejoice always; pray without ceasing; in everything give thanks for this is the will God for you in Christ Jesus – 1st Thessalonians 5:16 – 18.
Real prayer is preceded and followed by a celebration of who God is for us. Majesty is vital when we are in extreme circumstances. We were created to magnify. God put this stamp on all creation: seas Roar, trees Clapp, even the rocks can cry out in exultation of God. We will magnify; it’s in our DNA – even if we magnify the wrong thing.
To magnify means to see something bigger than it actually is in reality. The enemy, through intimidation, always tries to make himself as big as God, to us. He tries to magnify a molehill into a mountain, regarding our circumstances. He wants to prompt to become greater than our faith – the pressure, bigger than our peace, the issue to become larger than God’s presence.
To magnify also means to see someone as big as he really is. To become overwhelmed by God’s sovereignty – not in relation to your problem, but in proportion to who he is in himself.
The easiest way to separate the problem from the provider is by putting them in separate places in your heart. I Often do this physically, too. I have a room for worship in devotional intimacy and a room for prayer… In my heart, and in my apartment. When faced with a problem clamoring for attention – I go into my prayer room – or walk in closet – I bring the problem before God. Then I step out of that closet, and close the door firmly, and go to another room to rejoice in worship.
The act of shutting out a problem in this way enables me to focus my attention fully on the nature of God, and who he is in himself – for me. The most important part of every situation is the presence of God over you and the revelation of God for you in that situation. Whatever you see and hear of God in worship is who he becomes for you in the situation you find yourself in at that time.
Situations are not just there to resolve. They are allowed, to bring us into a revelation of God in an experience of him in that situation! Our goal is always to become a partaker of Christ.
We have become partakers of Christ, if we hold fast the beginning of our assurance firm to the end. – Hebrews 3:14.
To be a partaker means we must become engaged and involved in an aspect of the divine nature. We do not live in our circumstances; we live in Christ. We give Jesus the total preeminence of your focus and attention. By shutting the problem in the closet, I am free to appropriate who Jesus wants to become for me in the problem.
Never focus on the situation. Focus on Jesus. The circumstances are a means to an end. God knows the end that he wants us to receive.
There are two things the Father wants us to do: firstly, for you to grow up into Jesus, using this particular event – for us to become Christlike.
And secondly, we get to partner with the Holy Spirit in the provision of God.
We live in two realms; therefore, every situation has two solutions. We live in heavenly places in Christ; therefore, we must receive revelation in this dimension. Also, we inhabit the earth; so, we must bring from heaven to earth the provision that God has set aside for us. It’s called inheritance. On earth, as it is in heaven.
Spiritual warriors are absolutely convinced that the Lord wants to reveal himself to them, as well as help them in their circumstances. As I go to the living room in my heart, I’m free to concentrate fully on who God is in himself. As I rejoice in worship, faith and conviction begin to rise up within me.
The Holy Spirit, by his initiative, begins to declare to me the Lord’s favor and provision. I can write that down into a prayer or a declaration. Then, when he is ready, I can enter the space where my problem is and begin to declare all that the father has revealed to me.
Spiritual warriors are totally convinced that the father is utterly incapable of letting them down. Therefore, in times of warfare and adversity, they draw anointing and power from their own personal experience and use it to stand with boldness in corporate situations. This enables them to hold their ground and be fearless in the face of enemy attack. They are partakers of Christ.
What the father reveals to us in the beginning, will not be the solution to the problem. Firstly, he will show us what we can become in Jesus because we have this situation to empower us – Romans 8:28. When we see that we have received it, then we get to stand in that as our place before God. We get to put on Christ and hold fast to that revelatory experience all the way through the issue – Hebrews 3:14.
At some point we experience the majesty of Jesus because of his irrepressible and irresistible nature. This then becomes our contribution to corporate problems and attacks… Warrior’s supply confidence. We inspire it. We give people a radiant idea of God. Warriors live with a growing conviction that the Lord is delighted to pour out, with extravagant abundance, the certainty of his affection for them. God is disposed to love and care for us.
The Scriptures refer to that certainty with a series of extravagant provisions which Lord is pleased to fulfill. These are written to give us a foundation for our pathway of approach to Lord. This is how God makes straight paths for the – to inspire and empower me to come to him with the right attitude and outlook. It is his words to us that position us before God with supreme confidence that we will be received by him.
2 Peter 1: 2 – grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord; seeing that his divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of him who called us by his own glory and excellence. For by these he has granted to us his precious and magnificent promises, so that by them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world by lust.
Grace and peace are multiplied to us as we live and move and have our being in Christ. Everything we need to become powerful in God has been supplied in Christ – Philippians 4:19. We are called to inherit Jesus, just as he has inherited us from the father – Ephesians 1:18. It is his own glory and excellence that is willingly bestowed upon us.
Promises of God are given so that we can fully participate in the nature of Jesus. We share in all that he is making us in being partakers of the divine nature. The evidence of partaking of the divine nature is fullness –is to be fully like Jesus. We are called to an abundant life, and the promises are designed to convey the wonder of it all.
That we would become as confident in life as the father is in Jesus! What would it take for us to live a life of supreme confidence in God – were in his great love for us, the enemy has no power to deceive us because we have left immaturity far behind? We are not children tossed to and fro by every wind of doctrine, every lie of the enemy. We are steadfast, immovable in our trust and assurance of his nature to us. Grace surrounds us and is multiplied to us. We are multiplied in the favor and grace of God.
For the Lord shall be your confidence and shall keep your foot from being taken – Proverbs 3:26.
God is very confident in himself and He seeks to build that same confidence into His people through the impartation of his grace. We can stand before the Lord with the assurance of a much loved child in the presence of a loving father.
Assignment – examine your current circumstances and describe them. How difficult are they? How do they affect you? What is the provision of God for you in your relationship and experience of him? What is your upgrade in the spirit? What favor is God pouring out upon us at this time? What will your prayer and declaration look like as you proclaim it to the problem?
Commission – work through the above exercise then deliberately enter into the problem of a friend and teach them what you have discovered.