When we are losing, it feels right to be bothered! We say, "I have GOT to see change TODAY! We have GOT to win NOW! WHEN am I gonna see the BREAKTHROUGH!"
That breaking point is where your adversary hopes you will give in.
But you can 'give up' working without giving up God's Word.
Many times, people find victory when the problem no longer distracts them from my joy over the ultimate outcome (whether immediate or not). Not by shouting and pretending to have joy over the victory....for the fire presses way into our emotions and gives us REAL reasons to be upset. But Victory comes when our settled trust in the Word (not the actual specifics of the outcome, but our trust in the finality of the Word's unconquerable authority) overcomes our annoyance with the hassles of the test. In other words, when our heart comes to rest on the fact that I will have what God's Word says I will have eventually because nothing can change God's Word.
The only way these distractions and annoyances are "overcome" is that they are literally EXPERIENCED.
Rather than "doing WHATEVER we have to DO" to GET OUT OF THE SITUATION, we can CALMLY bear it saying, "I don't care, because I know what God's Word has told me. I will see God's Word come to pass in this situation. It doesn't matter if it's today or tomorrow. I am no longer worried or concerned."
If God's Word says,"He will make my righteousness shine like the dawn," well, then, that is what is going to happen, even if I don't see it for sixteen more years! When I reach the place where I am trusting in the Word by faith over the circumstances around me (sight), Satan loses his power over me. His tactics (to surround me with circumstances that make God's Word appear ineffective) are no longer "working," because I believe God's Word anyway.
This is James 1:2 in action. "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything."
Even better! If the waiting is making me more mature, then BRING IT ON!
When it no longer has power to make you quit or overwhelm you to the quitting point, you have overcome it... and the test will leave. You have passed.
When you are no longer crying about it, and you can move to being okay with it.... NOT because you have landed at your final destination and must resign yourself to it, but because you know you are PASSING THROUGH this toward "an expected end" (Jeremiah 29:11).
Here's what this has looked like for some people a in a couple of examples:
After having gained victory over asthma more than once, it came back with a vengeance. Every night around bedtime, our son would begin coughing and wheezing. Each night, we would do everything we knew... and each night it would come and stay longer and longer. We'd speak to it, bless him, curse the asthma, demand it leave, etc.... etc. Around day 7 or 8, we were a little worn down, with our flesh screaming, "It isn't WORKING!" We just kept doing the same thing each night. Around day 9 or 10, we almost felt too embarrassed to pray out loud anymore, and both my husband and I felt a strange silence as our son began coughing and wheezing while we were all eating ice cream by the t.v. I couldn't bring myself to say anything. I didn't want to let myself say, "It isn't working, honey." But I couldn't bring myself to say, "Asthma, be gone." I considered my options for a second and thought to myself, All I know is that asthma cannot stay and it has to go, and God's Word is true no matter what I see/hear.
So I just disregarded it entirely and said, "Hey, let's get more ice cream." I got up from the living room, went to the kitchen, and luckily, my husband was on my wavelength, and jumped right along. We IGNORED IT for the FIRST TIME.
The next night, we ignored it.
And then it never came back.
After 12 nights of a raging battle, the wheezing and coughing left when we stopped considering it (the outer circumstances: what we could HEAR) as part of the equation. The equation is Jesus' stripes = asthma healed. The symptoms have nothing to do with it. They are just a lying scare tactic that brings fear.
Another example was in a situation like this where no matter what I did, I couldn't make this attack go away. My husband and I were at the climax of a particular battle of faith, and my son was waking up in the middle of the night sick every few hours for the 3 nights leading up to this major day for us. We knew it was just an attack. We had seen such victory over sickness with our children, that if our children woke up crying, we could pray for them from our room and see peace return. We'd seen this over and over and over. So it was pretty unnerving for me to have to "fight" this thing for 3 nights in a row in the stupor of the dead of night.
The last night was my breaking point. I grabbed my son and body slammed him onto the bed saying, "Stop crying and just go to sleep." It was HORRIBLE! At that, when I was starting to lose control, I realized, This is (among other things) what the enemy wants--for me to rage against my son and hurt him, for our relationship to be damaged through this trial. So I gathered my thoughts and worked it through. I grabbed onto my son and began to love on him. As I did this, I began searching my mind for the truth. How was I supposed to respond to the fact that I was seeing NO victory and just LOSING IT MYSELF! The truth came into view. "Everything is going to be alright," I told him. And suddenly I understood. "If we have to do this five more nights in a row, we will be okay. Even though my flesh doesn't think I can take one more sleepless night, it can. If I have to do this twelve more times, OH WELL! God's Word is not changed; we will endure, and God's Word will give us the promised victory."
At that I began to speak peace into his body and pray for him and bless him. IMMEDIATELY after I started praying peace over him, a big double commotion occured. There was a loud bang on the wall and then my 12 mo. old daughter in the next room let out a loud angry grunt from her dead asleep posture. And then it was silent. That pesky little demonic harrasser was literally making a scene on his way out! Victory was mine.
It was when I realized: I can endure this. I will be fine. God's Word is true even if I can't see the results yet. That was when victory came!
