DO NOT SURRENDER!

Now is not the time to surrender, nor will there ever be.

Recently I asked the Lord to give me a dream that I could relate to, one that has a personal meaning for me. After all, part of Joel 2:28 states that in the last days that “your old men shall dream dreams...” So, since I am an old man, I thought that I would be qualified for a dream. And Jesus did say that if we would ask we would receive (Matthew 7:7&8).

So I did as Johnny Enlow, founder of “Restore7” ministries, suggested in one of his teachings on the 7 mountain mandate. I told the left side of my brain to disengage and not give any input into my mind. Then I told the right side of my brain to fully engage, so that I could more easily be connected to the spiritual realm, which evidently the right side allows us to do.

I went to sleep that night, expecting to get my dream. And sure enough, the Lord gave me a dream. From what I can recall, I was in a vehicle with some friends, and we were travelling down some dirt paths. There was a paved road to my right that we needed to get on and we were all looking for an access road to get us there.

All of a sudden we came to a deep ravine. There was no bridge over it, and it looked like that just on the other side of that ravine was a road that would allow access to the paved road we needed to get on.

We just sat there for a moment, dumbfounded and defeated. We could see the access road but there was no way to get to it. We were in great despair, ready to give up and turn around. “So near yet so far away” came to mind.

Then I remembered that I was driving a four wheel drive vehicle. Remembering using the four wheel drive in times past, all I had to do was engage the four wheel drive and, even though the ravine looked impassable, we had a good chance of crossing over to the other side with the four wheel drive engaged.

So I engaged the four wheel drive, and what seemed like with the greatest of ease we crossed over that deep ravine to the other side and rode the access road to the paved highway. I couldn’t believe that once I put the vehicle in four wheel drive and started driving how easy it was for the vehicle to cross over that formidable looking ravine. I was really expecting a struggle.

This dream reminds me of three things that I to needed do when I face obstacles which I think are insurmountable or that will keep God’s Word from being fulfilled in my life:

Remember Who I am in Christ

Being born again, I have new DNA. The Heavenly family I now belong to has never been defeated. Defeat is not in my Father’s character. God created me in His image. He did not create me do be defeated. The book He has written about me does not include any defeat, only prosperity. As Kevin Zadi says, “God has it rigged in our favor.” (Jeremiah 29:11)

God has never lost a battle, so when He fights for me, victory is assured. Jesus rose from the dead and told His disciples (Matthew 28:18), “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on the earth.” Death, the greatest threat from the devil, could not defeat Him, and nothing else ever will.

When the apostle Paul was describing the armor of God, Ephesian 6:11-17, there was no description for armor for the back. No need to have any. God’s people are victors over the devil because of what Jesus has done for us, so there is no need to turn our back and run from the devil.

Nor is there a surrender flag as part of this armor. God does not surrender to anything He has created, especially those who have become His enemies! Surrender is not part of God’s DNA, nor should it be for those who are His.(Isaiah 54:17).

Remember What God has done for me in the past

I remembered the four wheel drive and how that it had gotten me out of tough situations in the past. No need to worry now, just put the four wheel drive in gear.

David did the same thing. In I Samuel 17, when he faced Goliath, he recounted to King Saul the times that God had delivered a lion and a bear into his hands. Later on he would do the same concerning Ziklag, found in I Samuel 30. When even his own men sought to stone him because of what the enemy had done to their families, verse 6 states, “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God.”

In both cases, there was no way David was about to surrender to the enemy, for he knew that his God would be with him.

Trust in Him, believe His word

I engaged the four wheel drive and drove forward, into my obstacle.

Proverbs 3:5&6 states, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.”

Numbers 23:19 states, “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?”

You have to take God at His word, whether it is scriptures that declare the blessings that are ours because of our relationship with Christ, or a personal word that you have been given concerning your future.

I John 4:4, “You are of God, little children, and have overcome them (adverse circumstances), because He who is in you is greater than he who in the world.”

I John 5:4, “For whoever is born of God over comes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world – our faith.”

Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.”

In the face of any adverse circumstance, from financial despair to sickness and death, do not give in. Do not surrender to the devil. You are to stand (Ephesians 6:13). You are to declare God’s word and then stand on your faith in God and His Word. There is no circumstance that can overcome you when you put your faith in God.

In II Chronicles 20:20, after King Jehoshaphat and all of Judah had heard from the Lord about how He would take care of the great army that come against Jerusalem, the next day King Jehoshaphat encouraged the people with these words, “Hear me, O Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the Lord your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper.”

So what can we glean from this dream?

What was the lesson God was trying to tell me personally? Although my situation may seem like there is no way for my journey to be completed as spoken over me, there was no reason at all for me to surrender to the circumstances I face. After all, God (my four wheel drive) is with me and there was no obstacle the devil puts before me that can hinder my divine destiny when I put my trust in Him. Romans 8:31b, “If God is with us, who can be against us?”

When you face those circumstances that you see no way out, that defeat is certain, or you don’t see any way that what the Lord has spoken over you can come to pass, do not surrender to them. All you need to do is call on the Lord. When you recall the Word of the Lord, and then declare it over your circumstances, you allow the Holy Spirit to get involved and bring to pass what God has spoken. (Isaiah 55:10&11).

Even in these dark and trying days when what God has spoken over you, and especially the future of our nation, seems to be a distant dream, even an impossibility, stand firm in your faith in God fulfilling His Word. Do not surrender!

Jesus said, Mark 10:27, “With men it is impossible, but not with God; for with God all things are possible.” God works His greatest miracles, and we have our greatest testimonies, when God deals with what looks like impossible situations.

Dealing with impossible situations is our Heavenly Father’s specialty.