Spiritual warriors do not get distracted; they are focused on waiting on God. Their eyes are searching for him in every situation. Where is God? What does he want to do? They allow themselves to be drawn by the Spirit. Because these warriors know how to find God in even the most difficult situations, they can breakthrough for themselves – and for other people.
Our ability to line up with God’s will is what causes us to breakthrough. There are no easy wins in life. If a Christian has a lazy, flabby will that needs building up, they will have to exercise it through some hard times. The more we exercise our will, the stronger our focus on God becomes.
Faith and focus depend on will and spirit combining. The enemy will always attack our mind and emotions in order to subvert the will. He knows that if he loses his grip on a human’s will, he will be in trouble. But to outright attack someone’s will is difficult; manipulating it through emotions and mindset is much easier.
Spiritual warriors, when under extreme pressure, rely on God’s will to work on their own. They know that victory only comes from a will that submits to the Spirit of God. No one can manifest anything in their spirit if their own will is working against them.
David’s Psalms are an example of a man talking to himself, convincing himself of God’s greatness. They show us how to reach out in strength, even when we ourselves are mired in weakness. When a Christian is feeling out of sorts, we ought to be radical enough to find someone with a similar problem and pray for them. When we declare God’s truth to someone else, that truth will rebound back to us. I never understood why Christians stay home from meetings when they are sick. Why not go and pray for someone who is even more ill than you? You have a better chance of being healed if you yourself are praying for someone else to be healed.
The act of reaching out in praise or ministry makes us susceptible to the Holy Spirit. Now of us can whine and win; we have to make a choice. Too many Christians allow what they cannot do to get in the way of what they can do.
Great warriors, on the other hand, focus on the process, not the end result. They know that life in the spirit is all about taking the next step, however small it may seem at the time. God does not stipulate what size the step is going to be, he just encourages us to keep on walking towards him. While most believers just want the process of life to be over so they can reap the reward, spiritual warriors enjoy the journey every bit as much as the victory.
God is not interested in simply helping people to a destination. He is acutely concerned with how we get there and wants to be with us on the journey. Luke 24, Jesus wasn’t walking with his disciples in order to get to Eummas; he was walking with them because he enjoyed their company and wanted to share the good news of his resurrection. When we ask God to do something quick, he usually says no. Most of us want our problems resolved overnight so that life can go back to normal. God simply does not work that way. He wants to walk the trail with us, giving us wisdom, Revelation, and his presence.
We are not designed to have merely functional relationships in the kingdom. God is highly relational, so intimacy must be the highest priority of life in the spirit. We have two relationships with God. One is vertical, one-on-one with God himself. The other is horizontal, through loving and interacting with others. If we say we love God, we ought also to love one another – 1 John 4:11. When we love one another we are proving our love for God.
To live with God is to share his reality. We must seek the Lord for his perception of what we are going through. We live by words. They can be negative and defeating.
Numbers 13:31 – but the man who had gone up with him said, we are not able to go up against the people, for they are too strong for us. So they gave out to the sons of Israel a bad report of the land which they had spied out, saying, the land through which were gone, and spying out, is a landed devours its inhabitants; and all the people whom we saw in inner man of great size. There also was on an F11 – the sons of a knack are part of the Massillon; we became like grasshoppers in our own sight, and so we were in their site.
When we lose our perspective we do more than lose a battle. We lose our identity and our inheritance. We become weak and powerless, willing to make ourselves vulnerable to a tyrant, rather than face up to what is preventing us from receiving abundance. Better to return to Egypt is the cry of a person who has lost perspective.
We live by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God – Matthew 4:4. Jesus only spoke what the father said. It is the power of agreement. Words can be uplifting and fill us with courage. Warriors who see how God sees, that is who perceive in the spirit, are able to release others to say the same thing and be changed by it.
2 Kings 6:15 – 17 is a story of two men in a very dangerous situation. One is able to perceive in the spirit a reality that God is enjoying, the other man is without perception.
Now when the attendant of the man of God had risen early in gone out, behold, an army with horses and chariots were circling the city. And a servant said to him, alas, my master! What shall we do? So he answered, do not fear, for those who are with us or more than those who are with them. Then Elijah prayed and said, oh Lord, I pray, open his eyes that he may see. In the Lord opened the servant’s eyes and he saw; and behold, the amount was full horses and chariots of fire all around Elisha.
Assignment – read the above passage and think deeply on it. What do you think happened within the servant when he could perceive properly? How do you think it would change him? If you were that servant what difference would it make to your life to have a warrior’s perspective?
Commission – what is your level of perception about your own situation at this time? What more do you need to see about God and yourself? How is the father using these circumstances to upgrade your identity? What part of your inheritance is currently at stake, awaiting fresh perspective? Journal your way into an upgraded identity.