Therefore, take up the full armor of God, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, to stand firm. Ephesians 6:13.
Today your LORD (יהוה) God (אלוהים) says:
A big part of being strong and courageous, is continuing to go forward even when it looks like My promises are not happening. Do not draw back. Do not give up. Fight the good fight of faith. Just know one thing: faith works. So do not fear, only believe.
Therefore, do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what was promised. For yet in a very little while, He who is coming will come, and will not delay. “But My righteous one shall live by faith; and if he shrinks back, My soul has no pleasure in him.” But we are not of those who shrink back to destruction, but of those who have faith to the preserving of the soul. Hebrews 10:35-39.
Do not attribute the evil things that attack you as from Me and bow down to them. Do not just lay back and surrender to whatever it is that is ailing you or plaguing you, fight so as to win. Do not shadow box and NEVER quit. The cowardly do not make it to My Kingdom, only the overcomers. Revelation 21:8; Revelation 2:11.
Never let your guard down. Take up the full armor that I give you, so that you will be able to resist in the evil day, and having done everything, stand firm. When the dust settles you will still be standing. Ephesians 6:10-14.
You cannot be a quitter and have My promises in your life. You must be willing to fight the good fight of faith for them. My righteous one shall live by faith, and if he draws back, I have no pleasure in him. Why? Because I wanted to give him the promise, but he quit too soon.
Don’t quit on Me. There is too much at stake. The devil is trying to take your life, but he has no power over you if you have received Jesus as Lord, so he tries to make you surrender your authority to him, as he did with Eve and Adam, and then he can come in and wreak havoc in your body and your life. You submit to Me (to My Word about you), resist the devil (answer his attacks and words about you with My written Word that refutes it and then cast him out in Jesus’ Name) and he will flee from you. And you can only do that by the Word, My Word, the Sword of the Spirit. Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at him, for I, the LORD your God, am the one who goes with you. I will not fail you or forsake you. Deuteronomy 31:6.
Do not rejoice over me, O my enemy. Though I fall I will rise; though I dwell in darkness, the LORD is a light for me. Micah 7:8.
When you are afflicted, you must not blame Me and begin questioning why I am angry with you and punishing you. This is what the devil is pushing for. He wants to stay undercover and make you question and doubt My Word so that you permit him to stay and torment you. And what you permit, I must permit. He wants to make you doubt My love for you. Then, like the first parable Jesus told about the sower and the seed, he has stolen your solution to his attacks.
I have told you, who are in Jesus, that I will never be angry with you again. All My divine justice for sin has fallen on Him and you are free. You can take shelter in the shadow of My wings and sing for joy till harm pass by. You are one to be welcomed in the Beloved.
You are not fighting Me when affliction strikes, you are fighting the forces of evil in high places. Your battle is not in the physical world, but in the spiritual one. And that is the level you need to take it to. Don’t just surrender to the evil, get up and fight. And it is a battle of your mind, which comes out in your words. Life and death are in the power of YOUR tongue and you will eat the fruit of your lips. Don’t be feeding yourself poison and be fueling the fire of the evil one with your own tongue.
Be aware of the tactics of the evil one and answer them with My Word of truth and then cast him out as I tell you to do. I told you to cast out demons in My Name, I never told you to put up with them, or even worse, welcome them by speaking the thoughts and words the devil gives you that invite in the very thing you fear.
Now, I want to show you some examples of those who gave up and gave in and those who refused to quit and obtained the promises. For if you don’t quit, you will win. You have to. The truth will ultimately win.
Judas Iscariot. He betrayed My Son and turned him over to those who would put Him to death. But even though he had seen the lovingkindness and tender mercies of My Son, and how willing He was to give no condemnation to sinners, he did not fight the remorse, shame and guilt he experienced upon betraying My Son. Pride got in the way. He gave up, condemned himself, and took his own life. He did not fight the self-condemnation the devil, who had induced him to do the sin in the first place, then laid on Judas as a result of his giving in to the devil. But Judas could have resisted that and relied on the forgiveness of My Son, which he had seen and knew. And even under the Old Covenant, I had promised to forgive sins—Psalm 103 assured him that I pardon all your iniquities and put your sins as far away from you as the east is from the west. Psalm 103:3,12. And through My prophet Isaiah, I had told My people that I would wash their sins away so though their sins were crimson they would become whiter than snow. Isaiah 1:18. “Turn to Me and be saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is no other.” Isaiah 45:22.
But he gave up and did not encourage himself in My Word to repent and return to Me. He refused to fight and surrendered.
Peter was different. He denied My Son three times and went into bitter self-condemnation, shame, and remorse, but he refused to quit, and he stood up and fought the good fight of faith. He took hold of My mercy and forgiveness in My Son. He repented and retuned and he found grace, great grace, and all My promises came true for him. He went on to become more than a conqueror. And so are you in the One who loved you and gave His life for you. And He is My Word.
Do not give up, stand up. Take your position on the Rock.
“Simon, Simon, behold, Satan has demanded permission to sift you like wheat; but I have prayed for you, that your faith may not fail; and you, when once you have turned again, strengthen your brothers.” Luke 22:31-32.
And consider Hezekiah. The enemy taunted him at the gate and sent him nasty letters, telling him he could not rely on Me, that I was angry, and that he would lose unless he surrendered to the army of the Assyrians. But, though fear was there, Hezekiah refused to surrender.
He appointed military officers over the people and gathered them to him in the square at the city gate, and spoke encouragingly to them, saying, “Be strong and courageous, be not afraid nor dismayed for the king of Assyria, nor for all the multitude that is with him: for there be more with us than with him: With him is an arm of flesh; but with us is the LORD our God to help us, and to fight our battles.” And the people rested themselves upon the words of Hezekiah king of Judah. 2 Chronicles 32:7-98.
And Hezekiah came before Me in prayer and laid out those threatening letters before Me in the temple and cast the care on Me for the defense of him and his people and I took care of it as he authorized Me to do. He trusted Me and was not disappointed. I sent one angel that destroyed 185,000 soldiers in the enemy army and the whole troop packed up and went home without shooting even one arrow at Jerusalem. 2 Kings 19:9-36. What if he had given up and surrendered? The whole nation would have gone down with him.
Now consider the Israelites I redeemed with My strong arm and brought out of Egypt to the Promised Land. But when they got there and I told them to go in and experience the victory, they feared the enemies dwelling there and refused to go in to conquer. I reassured them of My promises to go before them and behind them and with them and drive out their enemies, but they would not go forward. They gave up and went back out to wander and complain for forty long years in the desert. And they would have said none of My promises were true. At least not for them. They never lived out the plans I had written for their lives when I formed them in their mothers’ wombs. Sad. I had such amazing plans for their lives but they cut them short when they refused to go forward but kept looking back. When you put your hand to the plow and keep looking back you are not fit to reign with Me in life through Christ Jesus.
But Joshua and Caleb refused to give up and quit. They fought the good fight of faith and refused to accept less than what I promised no matter what it looked like around them. And they did go in and they did conquer. And at the close of his time on earth, Joshua declared to the children of those who had quit, who under his leadership had the faith to enter and conquer the land, “You know in all your hearts and in all your souls that not one word of all the good words which the LORD your God spoke concerning you has failed; all have been fulfilled for you, not one of them has failed.” Joshua 23:14.
Would your story sound like the quitters or the overcomers? My promises were there for both, but only the ones who refused to give up lived the great adventures and blessings I had for them. It is My desire that each one of you show the same diligence so as to realize the full assurance of hope until the end, so that you will not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and patience inherit the promises. Hebrews 6:11-12.
Do you see? I want you to have My promises but if you draw back, what can I do? What you permit, I must permit in your life. When you speak stout against Me, I cannot give you the promise I so long to give you. I was so excited about giving them the land that I first promised it to Abraham, then Isaac, then Jacob, and then I told Moses it was time to go take possession of their possessions. But they would not. They missed the time of their visitation, just as their descendants did when I sent the Messiah to dwell among them and bring them the Kingdom.
Think of Noah, Abraham, Joseph, Moses, Joshua, Caleb, Deborah, Ruth, Hannah, Samuel, David, Daniel, Mary, Joseph, Peter, John, Paul and so many others who refused to quit and came out with the victory. Therefore, since you have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding you, lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles you, and run with endurance the race that is set before you, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of My throne. For consider Him who has endured such hostility by sinners against Himself, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart. Hebrews 12:1-4.
But you may be thinking you have surrendered and taken a detour, but you would like to get back on track and fight. Well, consider Samson. He surrendered to his flesh and the enticements of sin and lost his path and his strength, but he never gave up and gave in. Even with his strength gone and his eyes gouged out due to his foolish giving of his heart and his anointing to a Philistine harlot, he did not give up. When brought by the lords of the Philistines to their great hall as they ridiculed him, he turned back to Me and asked to fulfill his destiny, for I had planned for him to set Israel free from the rule and terror of the Philistines, but instead he had gone over to them seeking immoral affairs with their women. But at that moment he prayed to die fulfilling his calling and I answered. I gave him the strength of his anointing again and he defeated the Philistines without even a battle, he knocked out the pillars of the great hall and brought down the roof on all the rulers of the Philistines in one fell swoop. And the victory was won for Israel. They were freed. And what does My Holy Spirit testify of Samson? “And what more shall I say? For time will fail me if I tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets, who by faith conquered kingdoms, performed acts of righteousness, obtained promises, shut the mouths of lions, quenched the power of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, from weakness were made strong, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight.” Hebrews 11:32-34. Your sins and offenses I remember no more. The Holy Spirit, when you fight the good fight of faith, even late, can rewrite your life.
Let Me do that for you.
Stand up and stop blaming Me, stop accusing Me, stop begging Me, stop questioning Me, and take hold of the Sword of the Spirit, put on the full armor I give you, and stand. The devil will back off, in fact, he will flee.
Do not think I am angry with you, Isaiah 54:9, I am not. I am on your side. “Be strong and courageous, do not be afraid or tremble at them, for the LORD your God is the one who goes with you. He will not fail you or forsake you.” Deuteronomy 31:6. I am the same yesterday, today and forever. You can count on Me. Don’t fight Me, let Me fight your battles for you, but you must stand up, refuse to surrender, and speak the truth of My Word, or better still, sing it, like Jehoshaphat and the army of Judah. 2 Chronicles 20:15-26.
Get back in the flow of worship and you can win. Wonderful things happen when you sing My Word in the face of attack. Paul and Silas fought that way. Acts 16:22-26. I surround you with songs of deliverance. Join in.
Don’t ever just give up. Fight. Fight the good fight of faith. You can have all My good and magnificent promises. You just have to fight the good fight of faith. Do you have the fight or the flight syndrome? I had just worked a great miracle of revival at the hands of Elijah and he could have gathered Israel back to Me, even in the face of Jezebel and Ahab, but he got the flight syndrome when Jezebel threatened him. It could have changed the destiny of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, but instead he gave up and ran and prayed to die. Never quit, never give in, and never lay down and beg to die. A nation may be depending on you to save them. And what did I ask Elijah when he ran from Jezebel? “What are you doing here, Elijah?” 1 Kings 19:9-13. It may be the same question I am asking you now, what are you doing where you are and why are you there? Maybe you need to pick up where you left off.
I love you. Never give up, never back down, never draw back, and never blame Me. Instead look to Me for the victory strategy and fight the good fight of faith until you are standing in victory. You are more than a conqueror in Him who loves you, Romans 8:37, for I have given you the victory already in Christ Jesus your LORD. 1 Corinthians 15:57. Stay in the flow of Heaven and sing your victory. Jubilee.