"And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season

we shall reap if we faint not."            - Galatians 6:9 

      I can't tell you how many times I have had people share with me situations in their lives when it seemed as if they were in a desperate need for a spiritual breakthrough. Maybe they were in a financial need and had asked God for a specific amount and it didn't seem as if it was coming in.  Or, they were facing symptoms in their body and had prayed the prayer of faith, but nothing had changed.  We have to realize oppressive forces are constantly at work trying to keep us in a state of flux. And it is the uncertainties of life that are pressing more and more onto people to where it almost seems as if the wheels to faith have become harnessed.  

      But that is exactly how the enemy wants us to think. Sometimes the very reason things appear to be at their worse is because Satan is applying more pressure to get us to be moved by circumstances. But we cannot let the circumstances dictate the outcome.   If we find ourselves in the middle of a battle where it seems things may be getting worse instead of better that is not the time to let up on our faith and allow it to become crippled with doubt and fear.  If we do, then everything we have stood for will mean nothing.

      It's important to know that oftentimes the darkest hour is right before the breakthrough.  If the truth was known, when the problem seems to be getting worse that is the time we need to press even harder than before because the enemy knows our faith is working.  What we have to realize is that part of his ploy is to get us distracted from the reality that we are "already" more than conquerors! And here is a key verse that proves it.  "Faith is the victory that overcometh the world" (1 John 5:4).   

      There is a very powerful truth in this verse that many of God's people still haven't quite understood. Notice what it "does not" say: "Faith is the path that will lead us into the victory." Nor does it say, "Faith is the key that will ultimately bring us into the victory."  What it "does" say is, "Faith IS the victory."  In other words, as long as we see faith and victory as two entirely different things we will continue to think it takes one in order to reach the other. And for most folks, that means they are waiting for a manifestation that probably will never come.

      Here is the truth of the matter: The moment you enter into faith you enter into victory!  It is never about getting to a place you are still seeking to reach.  It is acknowledging the fact that you have already come to a place furnished and established in Christ. As long as you maintain your faith and refuse to grow weary, your victory is actively at work turning what you cannot see into the very thing you are believing God for.  Where so many falter in their faith is they try to use it to reach out to receive something they think they have not yet attained, implying that their victory is still in the future and has not yet come. When we let this kind of thinking rule our minds, then we give Satan the advantage. 

      Listen very carefully, although Satan is a defeated foe that does not mean he is without the ability to interfere with what God wants to do in our lives.  Paul, on more than one occasion, spoke of Satan as a hinderer (1 Thess. 2:18; Rom. 15:22).  He is a master at blowing up a smoke screen to make us think we don't have what has already been bought and paid for through the blood of Christ.  And this is where we make our greatest mistake. We keep seeing victory as something down the road instead of something that has already been accredited to us in redemption! 

      Our job, as believers, is to fully recognize the strategies of the enemy and to know how to rightly oppose him.  His maneuvers are all built upon a mind game.  It is never about us defeating the devil. That has already been settled by the power of the cross.  What we need to know is how not to be ignorant of his devices.  If you study it out you will find that the root word in the Greek for "devices" has to do with your thought life.   

      The enemy is always going to try to interfere, intercept, block, hinder, and oppose your faith. But you have to realize "Greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). In other words, take your rightful place as a believer in the triumph of the cross and refuse every lie of the enemy. Declare what belongs to you, and be relentless.

      Make sure you understand that you never have to pray to receive what has already been given to you in Christ.  All you have to do is remind the enemy, "You are not seeking victory...you are declaring the victory by walking it out in your faith!"  Tell him that his devices are nothing more than lying symptoms that hold no power over you, and then stand your ground.  If you will do that, I promise you that your spiritual breakthrough will come...it has no other choice in the matter!