Do you ever feel like the warfare and pressure is so intense in some seasons and times and you aren’t sure why? Ever feel like there are weeks that you feel surrounded by obstacles and annoying irritations you can’t seem to shake? What we don’t realize about this warfare is that it’s ALWAYS the enemies counter-play to something God is doing. Remember he doesn’t know what God is doing in your life. Just reads the signs of incoming breakthrough, favor, and open doors and throws his arsenal at you to sideswipe you in those moments. Let’s quickly sum up what I’m talking about and let us know if any of these have been what you have been dealing with;
Any of these sound familiar? I felt like August was going to be a pinnacle month like things were brought to head and also the beginning of the crossing over into something new at Rosh Hashanah in September but with that comes warfare because the enemy doesn’t want you to break through. He wants you staying still, in the rut, and not advancing. Gods design is always for us to experience the blessing and breakthrough after seasons of so much intense battle and fight.
YOU HAVE SOMETHING PRECIOUS IN YOUR POSSESSION
If you have been through any of the list above then know that you are on the enemies hit-list for a reason. The question is, “What are you carrying?” The enemy doesn’t go after those who aren’t pressing forward and those who are empty handed. It doesn’t interest him to fight those who are barren only those who have something he is worried about being revealed. And this is revealing season. It’s the time where everything that has been hiding in secret washing war against you, and every hidden assassin pit against you is exposed, and more importantly it’s the season that everything God has been doing in you even in the hard seasons of grief and opposition is revealed.
Like Jesus in his greatest moment of crushing before the cross, many of you have been in the garden of Gethsemene(means crushing and pressing) and it’s been a long long night and you have only seen the pain and the tears, but you haven’t yet seen what it has produced but you are soon going to.
WHEN ALL LOOKS LOST - THE BREAKING & THE BREAK-IN BEFORE THE BREAKTHROUGH
At the beginning of August when we felt things heat up we knew August onwards was going to usher in powerful answers and breakthroughs that have been DELAYED for a very long time but also that the fight was going to intensify.
Suddenly it felt like the walls of opposition closing in like the trash compactor scene from Star Wars. This is where people say “It’s going to get worse before it gets better” when in reality it’s just the enemy throwing his entire arsenal towards your breakthrough threshold that is already wearing thin. It’s the place where failure looks certain and if you haven’t already you are deeply questioning your journey of faith, wondering if you heard right and feeling the dark cloud of disappointment trying to descend and the utter loss smother you. It’s the place of crushing where it feels like death to your dream, destiny, and your heart feels lost. This is the place of breaking before the breakthrough and we have all been there.
We have definitely felt many of these in our crazy and risky journey of faith but I have to share something that happened to us recently that was quite prophetic and also revealed the enemies hand. We were unexpectedly robbed one night which so happened to be the day we were expecting a specific breakthrough. A breakthrough we had been contending with for many years. Interestingly, out of everything the thief stole only our ministry tech items, and as I was telling Christy what was stolen she says “This reveals what the enemy is afraid of us having breakthrough in and moving into!” and she was right. As we thought about each item we saw what they each prophetically represented. Here are some of the prophetic significances of those items;
WHAT WAS STOLEN IN THIS SEASON WILL BE YOUR WEAPONS IN THE NEXT SEASON
So let me ask you, what has been stolen from you in this season and what does it speak of what the enemy is afraid of you wielding?
I believe that everything the enemy went after in this past season wasn’t by accident or random but strategic to disarm you and leave you without the tools you need for the next season. But…. he got it wrong. He overplayed his hand because Gods restoration and recompense guarantees that everything that was stolen in one season ends up becoming the WEAPONS you use in the next season!
“Every boot of marching troops and every uniform caked with blood will be burned as fuel for the fire” Isaiah 9:5
NOW GET READY TO SEE SOME DIAMONDS!
I heard a strange phrase a few days ago while I was worshipping. “The warfare is about to reveal diamonds!” and ironically it was on 8:18 I heard this.
“ I am convinced that any suffering we endure is less than nothing compared to the magnitude of glory that is about to be unveiled within us” Romans 8:18
As you probably know, diamonds are formed differently to other gems and precious stones. Firstly diamonds are made of carbon which lets face it is a very basic material and not something you would put a price tag on. But as the carbon comes under intense heat and severe pressure the diamond begins to form. The other interesting thing to note is that diamonds form within the mantle layer of the earth which speaks to me of time and waiting, something dead and buried, as well as the word mantle which means concealed, and the spiritual version of mantle which is covering and authority/glory.
So get ready to see diamonds.
WHATS COMING WILL ECLIPSE THE PAIN
It’s been a very long pressing, crushing, furnace purifying, healing, delivering, waiting, isolating, purging, recalibrating, contending, processing, changing and adjusting, painful, traumatizing, season of trials for many but what is coming is going to supersede that. Right now all that is in your sights is surviving what you have just faced but soon you are going to experience the GLORY that always comes as a result of staying your course even when things look pear-shaped and hopeless.
So really, this past month while it’s been one of opposition in many ways for many people has actually been the building and advancing of heaven over you because in September to November especially there is going to be significant breakthroughs to the areas you have been contending for.
God will use the fuel of the pain and the trials to rewrite areas of your past with the glorious future He has been designing for you. I know this: the rest of the story hasn't been written yet.. the glory is coming. The diamonds are coming!