Internal Battleground
I declare peace and courage over you as you boldly take authority over your week. If God is for you, who can be against you? Rise up in faith and own your liberty!
We will be having another “secret” gathering on April 10TH, following the morning service, for those folks who are looking for the truth behind the media narratives. I will be pressing folks to embrace their God-ordained place of leadership as we navigate into a deeper position and revelation of this New Era that will be highlighted by THE Great Awakening.
Something of immense value that the Lord has been directly speaking and leading me into is the battle for the inside territory. Let me give a bit more explanation…
Our heart is a battleground. I know that statement does not draw a, “rainbows, butterflies, and pixie dust,” vision about the context of life, but it is true nevertheless. The place of attack from the world, it’s lies and the enemy’s demonic activities, is our mind. Our mind is a major part of our heart and has the ability to turn our moments into experiences of life or death.
Romans 8:5-7 (ESV)
For those who live according to the flesh set their minds on the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit set their minds on the things of the Spirit. For to set the mind on the flesh is death, but to set the mind on the Spirit is life and peace. For the mind that is set on the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to God’s law; indeed, it cannot.
The battles for experiencing life and/or death are fought in our thinking, our mental focus, and our meditation. I know many folks believe there is nothing that they can do to change or define their experiences in life, but I adamantly disagree. I believe that the quality and quantity of life I experience is COMPLETELY a derivative of my thought life and belief systems. Jesus wants me, and paid 2,000 years ago for me, to have, “abundant,” and, “everlasting,” (infinitely self-perpetuating) life. The enemy wants to steal, murder, and destroy that life. The determining factor is me… my thoughts, my beliefs, my actions. No one or nothing else has the right, ability, power, or authority to effect that… unless I submit.
So, the battle that rages throughout all of life is for the battleground of the heart. This is the inside battle that I referenced. I want to make a profound statement, and I pray that it impacts you with the same fury that it has collided with my heart.
We will NEVER win any battles around us (outside) until we obtain victory over the battle inside of us.
When we have command (like a military leader) over our thought life, our emotions, our feelings, the fleshly temptations, and the way we intreated the information that is coming into our heart… then we are ruling and reigning the way Jesus bled to purchase.
Look at this example from the Israelite children who DID NOT inherit the promised quality and quantity of life that the Father ordained for them to posses.
Numbers 14:40-45 (BSB)
Early the next morning they got up and went up toward the ridge of the hill country. “We have indeed sinned,” they said, “but we will go to the place the LORD has promised.”
But Moses said, “Why are you transgressing the commandment of the LORD? This will not succeed! Do not go up, lest you be struck down by your enemies, because the LORD is not among you. For there the Amalekites and Canaanites will face you, and you will fall by the sword. Because you have turned away from the LORD, He will not be with you.”
But they dared to go up to the ridge of the hill country, though neither Moses nor the ark of the covenant of the LORD moved from the camp. Then the Amalekites and Canaanites who lived in that part of the hill country came down, attacked them, and routed them all the way to Hormah.
They tried to win the outside battle without authentic repentance, the presence of God, submission to their Godly ordained leader, and humility. They lost… miserably. This is the FIRST EVER battle that they waged after the deliverance from slavery in Egypt… and they were smacked down hard. So much to say about these deep truths.
You cannot win the battle for the promised land that the Lord has given you until you win the battle of your heart.
Go look at Numbers 13 to see their emotional, whiney, sissified response to the report from the spies who were sent out to report on the beauty and abundance of the promised land. Their terrible, feeling-laden complaints are literally famous in scripture and are referenced over and over by the different authors as one of the most prominent failures in all of human history. Yet, it simply boils down to the reality that they could choose to believe the “bad news” of the ten spies who operated in the natural without the courage of faith… OR… to agree with the heroes (Joshua and Caleb) who brought a report of, “we are WELL able to take this land!”
Millions of people died, lived forty years in abysmal drudgery, lost the Divine promise, and stand as a shameful example of a, “stiff-necked and rebellious,” people simply because they could not win the battle on the inside when faced with the universal and generic pressures of life. I for one will not go down in history as a person who could not obtain the internal victory necessary to transform into the hero I have been DESTINED to become… How about you?
The status of victory on the inside determines the battle outcome on the outside.
God knows this, which is why His great love and empowering grace flow towards our heart endlessly like the sunlight from the force that warms the whole earth.
Daniel 11:32 (NKJV)
Those who do wickedly against the covenant he shall corrupt with flattery; but the people who know their God shall be strong, and carry out great exploits. (Septuagint says, “do valiantly”)
We have only begun in our great exploits during this Great Awakening, as we are Greatly Loved!
In excited expectations of a shepherd’s heart,
Steve
