This series began with the inspiration and purpose for the 90-Day journey of prayer and communion that we recently experienced. In part two, I shared that I had insight from each month of this journey that I feel relates to the seasons we experience in our Christian walk.

In the last post, I discussed the first-month season of relationship building and intimacy with God. This is so critical. It is the foundation that will ground you through every other season you will face. David was the example that we considered and we will continue to see how examples from his life will relate to the next season we will study.

We began to feel a shift in the atmosphere during the second month of the 90-Day journey of prayer and communion. I feel this directly related to the fact that our enemy, Satan, was not happy with this commitment to pray and he certainly did not like our newfound understanding of the power of the cross.

Warfare became very intense for many. Have you heard the saying, “New level, new devil?” I don’t know about you, but when there is an intensity in warfare that hits my life, I view it as a positive. That means I am really close to something precious that the enemy does not want me to have.

I recently saw this post on Facebook.

Times of intense warfare is when many miss their blessing – miss their destiny – miss their breakthrough…..when the warfare gets intense they listen to that lie of the devil that says, “If you will just stop praying, stop worshipping, stop giving, the battle will stop!”

NO! The greatest battle will often come before your greatest victory!

David was not afraid of the giant Goliath, although other trained soldiers with greater stature than he cowered in fear. I like the way David responded to Saul when he argued that he was not equipped to fight Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:34-37 NASU

“But David said to Saul, “Your servant was tending his father’s sheep. When a lion or a bear came and took a lamb from the flock, I went out after him and attacked him, and rescued it from his mouth; and when he rose up against me, I seized him by his beard and struck him and killed him. Your servant has killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised Philistine will be like one of them, since he has taunted the armies of the living God.”

The intensity of this battle or the size of the enemy did not intimidated David. This is what he said to Goliath.

1 Samuel 17:45-46 NASU

“You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will deliver you up into my hands, and I will strike you down and remove your head from you.”

Where did David’s confidence come from? He gained his assurance during his season of intimacy! His strong relationship with God developed his faith that He would provide, empower, and intervene. His confidence grew through each private victory in battle, first with the lion, then with the bear. God was faithful.

If David had this kind of confidence, we should have more! We live on this side of the cross….where all power and authority is available to us to defeat every power and every principality through the blood and the name of Jesus.

During the 90-Day journey, we kept music playing at the church during those designated prayer times each day. One song that often played was an encouragement to not be moved by the winds or the waves during a storm. We should keep our eyes on Him, for He is all we need. This is what we must do during times of intense warfare, keep our eyes on Him, and stay in close proximity to the power available through the cross.

During seasons of warfare, you should also remember that the enemy has many different strategies, and one key tactic is to wear out the saints. There is a big difference in stepping into the ring to fight a world championship and stepping into the ring of an underground cage fight.

There are times that the enemy will taunt us to jump in that cage fight ring…..in this place his plan is just to wear us out and beat us up so we are not in our position for the real territory taking battle we are called to!

Sometimes you have to strap on your armor, get your shield of faith and your sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and just STAND until the commander gives you the order to engage! (Ephesians 6:10-17)

When the enemy tries to get you distracted this way, just declare, “I’m not stepping in that ring!” Warfare seasons are a reality for a child of God. When those times come remember what the Bible tells us:

“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ.”  2 Corinthians 10:3-6 NKJV