How many know that you're involved in struggle and conflict in life? Life isn't that easy. Everyone is fighting in the same battle. For you to get forward and to progress in your life, for you to get somewhere, you've got to learn how to stand up & fight. You've got to learn what you're fighting against and how to fight. The only fight that is any good is the one you win! So to fight a good fight.
How many know that you're involved in struggle and conflict in life? How many know their life isn't that easy? Life isn't that easy. Now get this: everyone is fighting in the same battle. There isn't any one of us exempt; and so for you to get forward, and to progress in your life, for you to get somewhere, you've got to learn how to stand up and fight.
You've got to learn how to, and what you're fighting against, and how to fight; and so in 1 Timothy, Chapter 1 verse 18, Paul is writing to a young man. He said: this charge I commit to you, according to the prophesies made concerning you, that by them you may wage a good warfare. Timothy's a young man, and Timothy faces a great responsibility. There's a great challenge that lies ahead of him, looking out for people, shepherding people; and because he's young, people despise him, and look down on him; and in the midst of it, God says: there's a battle you're facing; and He said: fight a good fight.
Now I reckon the only fight that is any good, is the one you win. Would that be right? The one you win, and so to fight a good fight. I can tell you right now, that every one of us is going to face challenges. There's no one exempt; and so He says: wage a good warfare, by the prophetic word that came over you. In other words, he's saying this; God spoke destiny over your life. God spoke, and gave direction, prophetically, to your life. You need to hold what God has said, and cling onto it, because by what God said, you can get a victory in your life.
Now some of you may not even have a word from God about your life. I don't know how you could walk through your life, trying to find your way in the darkness, when God is the only one that can help us in dealing with issues of life. We need a vital connection with Him, so I wonder what warfare you're facing right now. I wonder what challenge you're facing. Is it fear? Is it insecurity? Is it rejection? Is it a struggle with your thought life? Is it a struggle with sin of some kind? What struggle are you facing? What issue are you facing in life that is a challenge to you getting to your destiny?
There'll be some of you here tonight, and you're already defeated, you're lying down. You lie down, you can never get up. You've got to make a decision, that I'll never lie down and stay defeated. Even if I fall over and make a mistake, I'll not stay down. And I want to show you just two little scriptures, one's found in 1 Peter; and the other one's found in Isaiah 7. I want to show you just a simple thing that God says to do, and if we do what God says, we're going to have some results in our life.
So have a look at them in 1 Peter chapter 5, and it says: be sober or wide awake. Be vigilant, because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. So resist him, step up in faith, knowing that the same afflictions are experienced by others in the world; and may the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory by Christ, after you've suffered a while, perfect, establish, strengthen, settle you. So notice what He's saying. He's saying: you have an adversary. Want you to tell the person next to you: you do have an adversary. You do have an adversary. You may not think so, but you do have an adversary; and it's not something sort of vague out there. You do have an assignment from God to fulfil, and you also have an assignment against you to hinder you. Think about that.
Have you ever taken the time to work out how you could win that battle, and what actually comes against you? Have you ever stopped to think, what it is you're really struggling with, and how you could get a victory over it? If you don't stop to think and get a strategy, you will always go down the same route; and so you notice what He says here. He says: resist. To resist, means to make a stand on the inside, against someone opposed to you; against the demonic or spiritual realm opposed to you. Why would you need to make a stand? Because if you don't make a stand, you'll get pushed around.