Your Enemy has Purpose

None of these things move me (Acts 20:24).

“We read in the book of Samuel that the moment that David was crowned at Hebron, ‘All the Philistines came up to seek David.’ And the moment we get anything from the Lord worth contending for, then the devil comes to seek us.

When the enemy meets us at the threshold of any great work for God, let us accept it as "a token of salvation," and claim double blessing, victory, and power. Power is developed by resistance. The cannon carries twice as far because the exploding power has to find its way through resistance. The way electricity is produced in the powerhouse yonder is by the sharp friction of the revolving wheels. And so we shall find some day that even Satan has been one of God's agencies of blessing.”

--Days of Heaven upon Earth
“A hero is not fed on sweets,
Daily his own heart he eats;
Chambers of the great are jails,
And head winds right for royal sails.”
--Emerson

“Tribulation is the way to triumph. The valley-way opens into the highway. Tribulation's imprint is on all great things. Crowns are cast in crucibles. Chains of character that wind about the feet of God are forged in earthly flames. No man is greatest victor till he has trodden the winepress of woe. With seams of anguish deep in His brow, the "Man of Sorrows" said, "In the world ye shall have tribulation"--but after this sob comes the psalm of promise, ‘Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.’

The footprints are traceable everywhere. Blood-marks stain the steps that lead to thrones. Sears are the price of scepters. Our crowns will be wrested from the giants we conquer. Grief has always been the lot of greatness. It is an open secret.

The mark of rank in nature.
Is capacity for pain;
And the anguish of the singer
Makes the sweetest of the strain.

Tribulation has always marked the trail of the true reformer. It is the story of Paul, Luther, Savonarola, Knox, Wesley, and all the rest of the mighty army. They came through great tribulation to their place of power.

Every great book has been written with the author's blood. "These are they that have come out of great tribulation." Who was the peerless poet of the Greeks? Homer. But that illustrious singer was blind. Who wrote the fadeless dream of "Pilgrim's Progress"? A prince in royal purple upon a couch of ease? Nay! The trailing splendor of that vision gilded the dingy walls of old Bedford jail while John Bunyan, a princely prisoner, a glorious genius, made a faithful transcript of the scene.

Great is the facile conqueror;
Yet haply, he, who, wounded sore,
Breathless, all covered o'er with blood and sweat,
Sinks fainting, but fighting evermore
Is greater yet.”
--Selected

On more than one occasion, I have written about the principle of process – admonishing believers to apprehend the fact that there can be no obtainment of the promise without there first being an endurance of the process. It is tantamount that we understand that the attainment of our destiny is not achieved through mysticism and wishful thinking. It is obtained through process. This process has rare moments of quietude and comfort, but they are not our permanent position – rather being a time of recovery and reward. The vast majority of our progression is filled with friction and resistance.

When you observe any of the faith warriors of the Bible, you will find that their greatness was preceded by turbulence, acrimony, and malevolence. Their lives were continuums of resistance and perseverance. It is in the storms of turmoil and disquietude that you gain the strength to walk in your purpose. It is in the deepest tribulation that impeccable and unwavering character is developed, nurtured and fortified.

Dr. Rick Wallace

What is amazing is that God will often times use the assaults of the enemy to accomplish His developmental work in His people. It is not coincidence that as you begin to rise, the devil appears. Resistance provides the force necessary to lift you to new heights. Ascension is the result of engaging resistance instead of fleeing from it. If you want to take flight you must turn into the wind.

The enemy will come, but you must understand that His presence does not spell out your demise. It simply provides the resistance necessary for you to rise above the clouds of mediocrity to soar in the sphere of greatness. It is that simple. 

We were not designed to circumvent the vicissitudes of life, nor were we designed to wallow in the valley of despair. We were designed to engage every difficulty that we encounter with a radical faith that believes no weapon formed against us – no matter how atrocious and intimidating it may seem – will prosper. We are to hold fast our faith that we are children of God and that even the darkest moment is working for us a far more exceeding weight in glory. However, we must not take the defeatist approach that our only victory will come in eternity – we were built to win and take ground in this life.

Do not become discouraged at the arrival of the enemy, he is of great use. The machinations of the enemy will not bear fruit for evil, but will serve to lift you to greater heights. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Check out some additional resources by Dr. Rick Wallace 

1. The Invisible Father: Reversing the Curse of a Fatherless Generation - Dr. Wallace examines the destructive force of absentee fatherhood in America from a biblical Perspective

2. Renewing Your Mind: The Dynamics of Christian Transformation - Dr. Wallace discusses the power of your thought process to completely transform your life

3. Elevation through Revelation - This book was written to encourage and inspire you as you travel through life.

4. When Your House is Not a Home - Dr. Wallace engages the enigmatic issues that face marriage in America -- from a biblical perspective.

5. The Power of Healing Affirmations -- This short book goes straight to the matter of how you word and thought affect healing in your life. (A must read)

Blogs

1. 100 Men of Purpose -- Encouraging and teaching men to rise up in their God ordained design

2. Master Fitness 21 -- This site focuses on believers living healthy lives spiritually and physically

3. Anointed Inspirations -- A little something to get your day going.

4. Christian Impact -- The revelations of God that reveal the call and ability of believers to impact the world around them.

Overcoming Your Circumstances Through Faith

What happens when your plans fall apart and everything that you once hoped for now seems lost? What happens when the dreams that drove you and filled your heart with passion begins to seem as if they are perpetually delayed? What happens when everything around you begins to crumble and your footing seems unstable? What will you do?

There are those times when nothing seems to be going your way. You pray, but God seems to be in the distance, totally indifferent to the agony and pain that you are experiencing. You call on friends, but they are aloof and unconcerned. You get the occasional “I will pray for you”, but no one is willing to stand and walk with you. What will you do?

There will come a point in your life when nothing makes sense. You are doing everything within your power to walk out your God ordained destiny. You are pressing on within the will of God, but it seems that the weight of the world is on your shoulders. I have learned that it is not the circumvention of life’s struggles and difficulties that insures victory in the life of the believer, but their response to those difficulties. Besides there can never be a victory without there being a battle.
When the vicissitudes of life roll into your paradise and all that seemed so certain has now become nebulous, this is when you trust God. David said that God is a refuge and strength, a very present help in the time of trouble (Ps. 46:1). This means that God is there for you as a covering, but also to provide the strength necessary to pick yourself up and press forward.

The enemy wants you to consider your circumstances, but God is calling you to consider his power and love. He wants you to see Him, even in the midst of the darkness that is encapsulating you. God wants you to understand who He is and what He is willing to do on your behalf.

Maybe you are like me and you have experienced moments in which the pain was so intense that it paralyzed you. Maybe you too have experienced the force of darkness as it attempts to drain you of every ounce of strength and hope you have left within you. Maybe you have reached a place of despair in your life where you are simply trying to survive. It’s okay, every believer has been there. If you would speak with Job he would be able to tell you about a place of darkness that he thought would destroy him. If you were to sit down with Moses, he would tell you about the many nights of doubt he struggled with before his mountain top experience. If you would speak with Peter, he would tell you about his struggles with failure and inadequacy. If you spoke to Jeremiah, he would testify about the time he almost gave up. Yes, each of these men found themselves in a place of darkness, but it was in this place of darkness that they become most acquainted with God.

Dr. Rick Wallace

In verse 10 of Psalms 46, God speaks through David with a simple but powerful command; “Be still and know that I am God. In the Greek “be still” is translated “cease striving”. Be still, stop striving, stop attempting to push through on your own, and let me move on your behalf. God is saying unequivocally, “Stop striving to no avail and simply recognize who I am in your life. I am bigger than your circumstances. I am bigger than your pain. I am bigger than your failures. I am bigger than your loneliness. I am bigger than your financial difficulties. I a bigger than those obstacles that are stifling your business. Know that I am God and rest in the assurance that I reign supreme and that I am in total control.

When it seems hopeless is the time that you allow your faith in God to be your stabilizer. You may not be able to see it now, but your struggles, your dark moments, your loneliness, and even your failures place you right in the middle of a move of God. God is working in the undercurrents of your struggles. God is about to execute the impossible in the midst of your situation. Don’t listen to the sweet nothings of negativity that the enemy is attempting to whisper into your ear. God has made a promise to never leave nor forsake you. He has made a promise to protect you. He has revealed that you are more than a conqueror through Christ.

Your circumstances are simply an opportunity to trust God, and God never fails. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Engaging the Darkness

Night of Pure Faith

"Lo, a horror of great darkness fell upon him" (Gen. 15:12).

The sun at last went down, and the swift, eastern night cast its heavy veil over the scene. Worn out with the mental conflict, the watchings, and the exertions of the day, Abraham fell into a deep sleep, and in that sleep is soul was oppressed with a dense and dreadful darkness, such as almost stifled him, and lay like a nightmare upon his heart. Do you understand something of the horror of that darkness? When some terrible sorrow which seems so hard to reconcile with perfect love, crushes down upon the soul, wringing from it all its peaceful rest in the pitifulness of God, and launching it on a sea unlit by a ray of hope; when unkindness, and cruelty maltreat the trusting heart, till it begins to doubt whether there be a God overhead who can see and still permit--these know something of the "horror of great darkness." It is thus that human life is made up; rightness and gloom; shadow and sun; long tracks of cloud, succeeded by brilliant glints of light, and amid all Divine justice is working out its own schemes, affecting others equally with the individual soul which seems the subject of special discipline. O ye who are filled with the horror of great darkness because of God's dealings with mankind, learn to trust that infallible wisdom, which is co-assessor with immutable justice; and know that He who passed through the horror of the darkness of Calvary, with the cry of forsakenness, is ready to bear you company through the valley of the shadow of death till you see the sun shining upon its further side. Let us, by our Forerunner, send forward our anchor, Hope, within the veil that parts us from the unseen; where it will grapple in ground and will not yield, but hold until the day dawns, and we follow it into the haven guaranteed to us by God's immutable counsel. --F. B. Meyer

The disciples thought that that angry sea separated them from Jesus. Nay, some of them thought worse than that; they thought that the trouble that had come upon them was a sign that Jesus had forgotten all about them, and did not care for them. Oh, dear friend, that is when troubles have a sting, when the devil whispers, "God has forgotten you; God has forsaken you"; when your unbelieving heart cries as Gideon cried, "If the Lord be with us, why then is all this befallen us?" The evil has come upon you to bring the Lord nearer to you. The evil has not come upon you to separate you from Jesus, but to make you cling to Him more faithfully, more tenaciously, more simply.  --F. S. Webster, M.A.

Never should we so abandon ourselves to God as when He seems to have abandoned us. Let us enjoy light and consolation when it is His pleasure to give it to us, but let us not attach ourselves to His gifts, but to Himself; and when He plunges us into the night of pure faith, let us still press on through the agonizing darkness. Oh, for faith that brings the triumph When defeat seems strangely near! Oh, for faith that brings the triumph Into victory's ringing cheer-- Faith triumphant; knowing not defeat or fear. --Herbert Booth

How often are we compelled to circumvent the darkness? How frequently do we look for  the path by which the brightness of the sun illuminates every step. Far too often, the Christian believer assumes that there is no profitability in the darkness. There is an assumption made that the darkness has come to rob us of what is precious with the Lord. As with all that God allows into our lives, the darkness has great purpose in the development of faith and trust in the Lord. You see, the darkness requires faith, its demands it. The darkness empties self, and demands that we believe if we are to overcome. The darkness shakes us free of independence and sets ablaze a hope that can only be satisfied by a supernaturally radical God. This darkness sets ablaze the hearts yearning to be in the midst of a special movement by God.

The Bible assures us that God dwells in the Darkness. When the darkness settles over your life and it seems that you are facing it alone, remember that God is there and is waiting on you to call out to Him in the midst of the storm as Peter did. He is compassionately stretching out His hand to pull you through. The darkness in not an indicator that God has forgotten, it is often God’s way of drawing us near. There is nothing like the darkness to incline us to prayer and supplication. There is no greater force than the darkness to intensify our yearnings to experience God’s presence and power. The darkness has of way focusing our vision and recentering our hope.

Oh, when the darkness settles overhead and the ability to see what lies before us is withdrawn, how passionate is our cry to the father to sense His protection. When “the valley of the shadow of death” is our residence, how inexorable are our cries to God to move on our behalf. When the vicissitudes of life roll in and life makes no sense, how implacable are our strivings to have God make sense of our mess. No, the darkness does not mean separation, but represents the opportunity for intimate fellowship with our creator.

The enemy has promulgated a lie that says darkness equals God’s absence; however, the infallible Word of God assures me that my God dwells in the darkness. He is still powerful in the darkness, He still hears in the darkness. He still answers prayer in the darkness. He still works miracles in the darkness. He still executes the impossible in the darkness, and at the right moment He will transform your dark moment into a phosphorescent light that shines bright for all to see. You will get the victory and He will get the glory.

I encourage you to engage the darkness that befalls you with a confidence that believes God is standing with you. He has promised to go with you, to fight for you, to protect you, to elevate you, to heal you, to restore you. Spend your time in darkness seeking the only one that is capable of of bringing light and while the darkness still lingers, know that something special is being wrought out in the darkness. God is moving in the darkness setting the stage for your coronation. Breakthroughs are built in the empty corners of darkness. ~ Dr. Rick Wallace

Trouble Don't Last Always