I have had a few major challenges in my life, one of which took place while I was a Junior at Morris Brown College. This crisis was major. One that I will never forget, because it taught me so much; it awarded me three valuable lessons about God, me and people. Yes, Beloved, every crisis that arises in your life should teach you three lessons: 1. God, 2. Yourself and 3. People. It seemed as if someone pulled the ground I was walking on right from under my feet. What made this crisis deadly was the fact that though it manifested externally, it was killing me internally. I was dying from the inside out. I felt alone, I felt abandoned, I felt like giving up, I felt like not living. Those who I thought were my “do or die” friends acted as if they did not even know me anymore. I was in the fight of my life and at that time, I was losing.

I remember one night while in the midst a heavy depression. I could hear my grandmother, who was over 8 hours away at the time; say in my ear, “Son have you prayed?” So at that very moment, in my dorm room, I fell not on my knees, but on my stomach, I laid myself prostrate before God. And I just began to cry uncontrollably. I was crying so hard, that I could not even speak, I was trying to catch my breath, but to no avail. I felt that I needed to say something. Because I remembered what the Bible said, “You have not because you ask not.” So I just figured, I needed to ask, to “make my petition known unto the Lord.” There were still no words, just wailing, and crying, and more crying. Then, I felt a hand on my shoulder, and I heard a voice say, “You don’t know how to fight.”

Beloved, that is it. We, who are a part of the Body of Christ, must learn how to fight, and after you have learned how to fight, you must FIGHT. This war is more serious than any other war that has taken place. This war affects your peace of mind, your joy, your attitude. It is an internal battle. The enemy is not fighting you externally, but the enemy is trying to kill you from the inside out. Look at what Paul said;

The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! The world doesn’t fight fair. But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ. Our tools are ready at hand for clearing the ground of every obstruction and building lives of obedience into maturity (2nd Corinthians 10:3-6, The Message).

This war, we are in, is not a war of flesh and blood. It is a spiritual war. That is what so many of us miss, is that before things happen in the natural, it first takes place in the spiritual. You find yourself, like I was at one point in my life, waddling in defeat when you try to fight a spiritual battle with natural weapons. You will lose every time when you use your own knowledge, your own logic, and your own strategy when fighting with principalities and powers in high places. I hope I am not the first to tell you, but the Devil is stronger than you, BUT he is not stronger than the one that is within you, nor is he stronger than the weapons that you have to fight with. God did not intend for his children to get beat up constantly, continually, day after day. God has equipped us with the tools and resources to fight back. The problem is we do not use them. When we are in the midst of our struggle, and/or conflict, all we think, focus and talk about is the pain and not the praise. You are not fighting to obtain the victory; you are fighting to hold on to your victory, because the fight for victory has already been won by Jesus. Don’t you ever let go of your hope, your victory, your love, your joy, your salvation, your praise; because when you let go of all those things, you put Jesus right back on the cross again.

So, you may ask “what weapons do I have to fight with?” Good question. I want to conclude this blog by answering that question.

Then war broke out in heaven; Michael and his angels went forth to battle with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought. But they were defeated, and there was no room found for them in heaven any longer. And the huge dragon was cast down and out—that age-old serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, he who is the seducer (deceiver) of all humanity the world over; he was forced out and down to the earth, and his angels were flung out along with him. Then I heard a strong (loud) voice in heaven, saying, Now it has come—the salvation and the power and the kingdom (the dominion, the reign) of our God, and the power (the sovereignty, the authority) of His Christ (the Messiah); for the accuser of our brethren, he who keeps bringing before our God charges against them day and night, has been cast out! And they have overcome (conquered) him by means of the blood of the Lamb and by the utterance of their testimony… (Revelation 12:7-11)

Here is a proven strategy on how to overcome the enemy. Two weapons were used. First, THE BLOOD, and Secondly, TESTIMONY. There is power in the Blood of Jesus. USE IT! Here are a few scriptures you can read that deals with the power that is in the blood of Jesus:
The Blood will PROTECT YOU: Exodus 12:13
The Blood will HEAL YOU: Isaiah 53:5
The Blood will DELIVER YOU: Hebrews 2:14

The last and final weapon that John shared with us from Revelation is our TESTIMONY. When we think about testimony we think about our lives; the way we lead our lives and how God has helped us live successful Christian lives. But as I was meditating a little more about it, the Lord led me to Isaiah 64:6: “all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.” That means we will never be able to live totally holy for Christ without God’s mercy. All of what we do, or try to do is filthy rags, good for nothing. Therefore the testimony to fight the devil is not our lives. But what Jesus has done for our lives.

Exodus 31:18: “When the LORD finished speaking to Moses on Mount Sinai, he gave him the two tablets of the Testimony, the tablets of stone inscribed by the finger of God.”
In other words the stones in which the 10 commandments were written by the hand of God; in God’s own hand writing. God is the Author of your life, he has already inscribed with his own hands, your life of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control and victory. Don’t allow the enemy to take your weapons from you. This is the fight of your life. We sometimes determine victory but what’s going on around us or not going on around us, but God determines victory by what’s going on inside of us. Victory is an attitude; you must believe in yourself. The Children of Israel did not obtain the promise of God because they saw themselves as grasshoppers. The enemy did not say a negative word to them; it was in their own minds where they felt they were already defeated. You are NOT defeated; the enemy is a defeated foe. Use your weapons of the BLOOD (your salvation), and the TESTIMONY (what Christ has said and done for you) of Jesus Christ, apply it to the schemes of the devil and stand still and watch your deliverance, healing and breakthrough come. FIGHT!

bINpowered,
D.K.Kearney
©2013