In life there will be opposition and resistance.  It is inevitable and there is no way around it, but we do not have to allow opposition and resistance to cause us to retreat, but we can rise above it!  I think many times in life we set ourselves up to fail because we don’t prepare for the opposition, we don’t prepare for the resistance and we don’t prepare to fail.  I know, no one ever sets out and starts something with the intention of failing, but when you step out into unchartered territories and do things you have never done before you may be met with some failures along the way.  Failure to me is just a sign that I am doing something.  You can’t fail if you aren’t doing anything.  So if you are doing anything, you will fail sometimes and it’s ok, it’s what you do with those failures.  Failure is not final and just because you fail at something you are not a failure!  Too many people have allowed the fear of failing to stop them from even trying.  If we settle with the fact that yes there will some failures in our life,  yes there will be some opposition and yes there will be some resistance we will be better equipped to handle it and deal with it when it comes. Often times people allow failure, opposition and resistance to shut them down.  Don’t allow it to shut you down, but to set you up!  I know you heard it before and you think it’s cliché, but your greatest failures and setbacks can be the launching pad for your greatest comeback, but it’s how you handle them that determines it.

God is interested in our response.  How do you respond to failures, opposition and resistance?  Last week we hosted our R.O.A.R. (Rising Over and Above Resistance) Empowerment Breakfast and I wanted to share some of my notes with you and I pray that it encourages you. Resistance is defined as the attempt to prevent something by action or argument.  We know the enemy wants to stop us, his plan is to prevent us from receiving all that God has for us.  He comes to steal, kill and destroy, but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  Don’t allow resistance to keep you from living the abundant life!  Rise above it and live the elevated life!

Living an elevated life begins in the mind.  Joyce Meyers wrote a book “The Battlefield of the Mind”.  When we can get the victory in our mind and shift our thinking our life will shift. Our life heads in the direction of our thoughts. If we don’t like the direction our life is heading in we must change the direction of our thoughts.  The bible says to think on those things which are good, lovely and pure; think on those things which are of good report.  Cast down every negative thought that is contrary to the word of God concerning you.  Evict the negative committee that meets in your mind that is constantly telling you that you are not enough, you don’t qualify or you can’t do it.  I read in my bible that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me!

Often times the greatest resistance is internal, not external.  I heard someone say my inner me is my enemy, but it doesn’t have to be.  There is deliverance for our mind today!  We must elevate our thinking and how we see ourselves.  Many of us battle with the grasshopper syndrome.   In Numbers 13:33 when the spies came back from spying out the Promised Land  they said that there were giants in the land and they were like grasshoppers in their own sight and in the sight of the giants.  Often times we see ourselves as grasshoppers and we think everyone else does too.   When we don’t see ourselves the way God sees us our internal narrative is off.  Your internal narrative is what you tell yourself about yourself; it is your inner voice.  What are you speaking over your life?  The bible says that life and death resides in the power of the tongue.  We create our world with our words.  My question to you is what type of world are you creating?   Get before God and let Him change your view and your internal narrative and stop seeing yourself as a grasshopper when God sees you as a giant slayer.

I am reminded of the story of David and Goliath.  Some of us are facing some Goliaths in our life, in our health, in our finances, in our marriages, in our families, on our jobs… I heard someone say that sometimes God will put a Goliath in your life for you to find the David within you.  Tap into the David within you and slay those giants.  Remember the God in you is bigger than the giant in front of you!

Pastor Mel

MK Ministries