DON’T LET THE DEVIL TURN YOUR PROMISE INTO A FIGHT

You’re in that cycle of fighting that makes no sense.  We’ve all been there — those times in life where no matter how hard we swing, no matter how hard we pray, no matter what we do, it seems like nothing changes.
 
Sometimes, we can fight so long and so hard that we get punch drunk — Punch Drunk is a term derived from boxing where a boxer gets hit by the opponent so many times that they become disorientated — similar to being drunk. That’s how it can feel when we’re taking too many punches for our promise.
 
Put This In Your Spirit: When we feel like we’re losing control, we’re not fighting for the promise, we’re struggling with the Holy Spirit to grow the fruit of Self-Control.  When we start to lose it, the Holy Spirit is saying, “Your victory is in the fruit, not in the fight” (Galatians 5:23).
 
Remember, the enemy is not fighting folks who are sitting on the sidelines.  You wouldn’t be Punch Drunk if you weren’t at least in the ring going toe to toe for your promise.  You came to win and the devil came to stop you.  You refuse to lose and the devil refuses to give up.  If you didn’t have a blessing waiting on the other side, if this was not a promise, the devil wouldn’t be fighting you so hard.
 
Haven’t you noticed the more we try to control the fight for a promise, the more we tend to lean to our own understanding or walk by sight instead of by faith?
 
Watch This…
 
A friend has a daughter who did not get along with her step-mother.  They could not make it through a day without a blow up.  His daughter felt like her step-mother was taking her daddy away and the step-mother felt like her step-daughter, who was fine in the beginning, started to view her like the enemy.
 
He tried everything he knew how to referee the situation but the more he tried it his way, the more out of control it became.  Sometimes we forget that in order to prosper God’s way we have to use God’s way.  So one day he decided to have another family meeting.  Only this time, he was bringing God to the table.  The conversation started off like it always did — finger pointing.  Then suddenly, he just busted out with, “God showed me that I am losing both of you because I’m fighting for you and not with you.”
 
Everybody got quiet.  He went on to say, “The enemy had me choosing sides and defending positions, which was creating division.  He then says, “God showed me that a house divided cannot stand.  I’ve been trying to balance my love 50/50 but the balance God wants is 100/100.  when I fight for one of you, I’m fighting against the other — I have to fight for wisdom to give you both the love that you need without taking away from the other.  I have to fight right in order to win right.” 
 
In other words, sometimes we’re fighting for the right thing the wrong way.  When we start to feel punch drunk, like we’re losing control in a fight for our promise, God is saying, “You will lose control when you take Me out of the fight” (John 15:5).
 
Put This In Your Spirit: When we’re fighting the right fight the wrong way, we will experience Moses Moments. Remember when Moses got punch drunk in the wilderness? He said to God, “Where can I get meat for all these people? They keep wailing to me, ‘Give us meat to eat!” I cannot carry all these people by myself; the burden is too heavy for me. If this is how you are going to treat me, please go ahead and kill me—if I have found favor in your eyes—and do not let me face my own ruin.” (Numbers 11:13-15).
 
What Moses forgot, and what we forget too when we’re overwhelmed, is that the battle is not ours, it’s the Lords (2 Chronicles 2:15). This is easy to say and harder to do but when we’re swinging for our promise we have to remember that it is a promise and not a fight.  When we turn our promise into a fight, we lose it.  Haven’t you noticed that the majority of the blows we take when we’re fighting the right fight the wrong way come from beating ourselves up over what we cannot do?
 
God is saying to us, like He said to Moses, “Get your mind right.  I don’t need what you have to win what I’ve already won.”  Moses felt that if God was going to leave him to do this on his own, it would be better that He take him home to Heaven — Take me now!  Haven’t you felt that way? Haven’t you felt like just throwing up your hands and saying forget it? That’s when we know the enemy has caused us to lose control — our fruit (Galatians 5:22-23).  The enemy knows that if he can get us to lose control, forget God, he can cause us to lose sight of the promise.
 
You know you’re fighting the right fight but now you have to know that the right fight is for what God promised.  When we start to lose it, we have to stop.  Just stop, and recognize what’s happening.  When we run out of self, it’s time to run to God for help.  Just like God did for Moses, when we tell God we need help, He will provide what we need (Numbers 11:16-17). 
 
God guaranteed our victory (1 Corinthians 15:7), favor would surround us like a shield (Psalm 5:12), and that He would provide what we need for the process (Philippians 4:19).  
 
If you’re at the end of your rope, emotionally beat down and drunk from the punches, writer Fred Fries says these 3 things will help us to sober up: Remember, Rest and Rely.  Remember that we don’t fight for promises, we fight to keep the tricks of the enemy from causing us to doubt God.  Take a spiritual timeout, sit and talk with God about His promise.  Rely on God for the wisdom, the resources and the way that you need to claim the victory. Pray, listen, walk.
 
Jesus already hung, bled and died for your victory, your fight is fixed.  Don’t let the devil turn your promise into a fight.
 
 
Share and be blessed.
 
 
 
 
Join us at the HILL every Sunday for a life changing word for powerful living!
 
 

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