When the devil sees aggressive faith he responds by fleeing. Jesus told us about this type of faith in operation in Matthew 11:12,
“And from the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence, and the violent take it by force.”
This is a precedent! There is an aggressive attitude that is required to receive the things of God! It is this kind of attitude that fosters persistent pursuit in the Christian walk. We purpose to take ground. We go after the things of God by a persistent “take-it-by-force” attitude!
Let us say you are the coach of a basketball team with one minute left in the final quarter. You are ahead by 2 points and the opposing team just gained possession of the ball and is at their end of the court, out of bounds, with the ball ready to come into play. Win this game, and you take home the championship trophy. You have a choice. You can station your players to wait at your end of the court, near your goal, and try to defend yourselves against the other team’s attempt to score, or you can call for a full court press.
In a full court press, you have your players ready where the other team is about to put the ball into play. You are “in their face,” aggressively resisting their attempt to enter your court. This is a high risk move, if the other team can get a step ahead of you, but it is the way to make them fight and earn their way down the court. You also run a good chance of getting a turnover and scoring on them! That is what we have to do in our lives as believers. Go for the full court press on the enemy. He can’t get a step ahead of you, unless you let him. So, if we are standing on our Father’s promises we do not have to wait for the enemy to come onto our turf to defend ourselves, we press the battle against him!
Let us go back to the children of Israel. They had something to decide when they stood facing Canaan land. They must have been asking themselves, “Do we have the courage to take the land?” We, as believers, must ask ourselves the same question. Do we have what it takes to move into our destiny? Can we take possession of what God has promised us? Joshua 5:12 says,
“…and the manna ceased on the morrow…”
“But Mark, I love the old corn. I grind it up and make cornbread, and I love that manna. Oh, it is so wonderful. I do not want to give up the manna and I know if I cross the river, the manna will cease.” I have some shocking news for you. If you do not cross the river, the manna will cease! Did you ever notice this in the Word? The manna, the provision of God stopped coming to the children of Israel when they entered the Promise Land. The only way for them to get more food was to seize the land. It is obedience to God that takes you into higher levels in God. Not pressing on means that you lose by default! If you fail to press the battle, you cannot maintain your position. The stakes are winner-takes-all.
We can press the battle against the enemy in the field of prayer by adopting a strategy of advancing on the enemy and not waiting for him to strike. In natural warfare it is what is known as a, ‘preemptive strike.’ Too many times in the body of Christ we wait for the enemy to do something and then we respond to it. He hits your body with symptoms and you begin to pray for healing. He attacks your finances and you begin to confess scriptures on prosperity. I call this type of response to resistance, “reactionary prayer.” Why wait for him to act? He’s not your leader nor your Lord! Why not take the battle to him? Take a look at John 16:13,
“Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he will shew you things to come.”
The time to confess scriptures on health is when you are well. The time to tank up on prosperity scriptures is when you have enough in the bank. Do not wait, act now! Do not be a lazy Christian. Keep pressure on the devil. Every morning wake up and praise the Lord. Take your spiritual baseball bat and smack the enemy right in the head!
In the Spirit, we can move into the realm of prophetic prayers and hit the enemy before he strikes us. Look at Isaiah 45:11,
“Thus saith the LORD, the Holy One of Israel, and his Maker, Ask me of things to come concerning my sons, and concerning the work of my hands command ye me.”
The Spirit will show us things that are about to happen. He wants us to be prepared! We have our own Holy Ghost intelligence agency giving us top secret information about the enemy’s movements. We can press the battle on the enemy before he moves, but we must listen to Him! Keep your inner ear, your spiritual ear, open to listening to His voice and be ready to follow through with what He tells you to do.
