Isaiah later on says: trust the Lord, believe the prophetic word of God, and you will prosper. So prophetic word, is just very simply, the Holy Spirit speaking in an inspired way to us, how to handle a situation. So when you're facing difficulties and challenges, here's some things to know. Number one, still in 1 Peter: everyone in the world faces pressures. We're not exempt because we're Christians. Sometimes people think because you're Christian you're going to have some easy path. Not so. You actually have fresh problems, and different kinds of problems, but you're going to face the same pressures and stresses everyone else does. He says: because this is happening in the world as well, everyone around us. He says nevertheless this is what you need to do. You need to turn to God, and make a stand, to resist this pressure. You need to get hold of what God says, and start to believe it in your heart, and speak it over your life. I found one of the reasons that people fail, is because they fail to get a hold of God's word, what God says about you and about your life, hold it in their heart and faith, begin to speak it over their life, and just resist, until the pressure breaks.
This is what the Bible says in 1 Peter, and we'll just finish up with this right now. It says that God will give you grace, because He wants to see you grow; and He says after you've suffered a while - in other words, there is often a season where it's difficult, after you've suffered a while - so God does not answer always straight away, but He does answer. So He says: after you've suffered a while, He will do something in your life. He will establish you. He will strengthen you. He will mature you because - get this - God has something so big ahead for you, He has to take you through a growth process to get there. You're never going to - for example, if someone here had a problem, a brain aneurism, they're not going to ask anyone in here to try and fix it. They'll want someone who's done the training, someone who's done the preparation. If someone had some major sickness, they're not going to ask anyone here to operate, because there's no one here's had the training or preparation. So the things that God has planned for your destiny, which are so good, He can't bring them to you, until you yield and walk through the process of His training; and so from time to time He will let pressures come, and issues come, and struggles come.
But here's the deal - He said: they're not to hurt you. They're not to harm you, they're not to crush you. They are to grow you, so you become complete. They are to establish you, so you get firmly rooted in God. They are to strengthen you, so you become tough. I've had to fight devils in this city ever since I've been here, but it's helped me get tough in my spirit, so now I go anywhere in the world and cast out devils everywhere. I've often wondered, I wonder why it isn't easier. God says: don't worry about why it's not easier, just grow, grow, become stronger.
So there it is. Every one of us face challenge, every one of us face pressures, the devil's strategies never change. Between you, and your God given destiny, there are a series of challenges. Here's the thing: God wants to use them to grow you. What are you going through right now, that God intended to use to grow you, and the devils trying to stumble you? He's stumbling you by the same old ways he's stumbled everyone. Number one, he intimidates you, so you feel small, you feel insignificant, you feel like the problem's big and you can't get through, got no friends, they've got everything against me, there's trouble. That's why people go down to suicide. They believe - they come into agreement with a demon, and they listen to the demon's lies, that there's no hope, no way through; but there is a way through. See, they've just allowed life to intimidate them, they've allowed a spirit to intimidate them; because I've talked to one person who attempted suicide. They took the pills. The moment they took the pills their head cleared, immediately cleared once the pills were in their body; and the moment their head cleared, they realised this is not what I want to do. I believe I can come through this, but it was too late. The pills were in there so they had the presence of mind to ring the hospital, get someone to come immediately - rang 111, someone came immediately, and they were able to recover before the pills - the stomach pumped out.