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Fight or flight. This is an instinct we have on the inside of us. When we are confronted by a danger or difficulty, we either choose to fight back and stand up to the danger in order to overcome it, or our brain tells us to take flight.
For instance, have you ever gone into your house when it was dark and thought you saw the figure of someone there? Right away your brain kicked into the mode of fight or flight.
A good example of how you can see this happen is in the animal kingdom. Consider a zebra. It’s grazing and taking its time, everything is fine. But then a lion is spotted in the distance. It’s coming toward it. That zebra knows it is now in danger of being killed. The brain is activated to either fight or take flight. Stand up to it or go. In those conditions, the adrenal system of the zebra will kick into overdrive. That enables it to have the strength so it can fight and kick or take flight.
We have a lion also. First Peter chapter 5 tells us our enemy goes about as a lion who roars and tries to make us think he can devour us. He’ll scare us enough that we will take flight instead of standing up to the difficulty and fight. But verse nine of that same chapter says, Stand firm when he attacks. (Ref. I Peter 5:9 TLB.)
When the devil is coming along with the problems or bad news, stand up to it. When your brain says fight or flight, you know to fight. That’s because you can win. The lion cannot devour you. So you fight in faith.
That scripture says to be firm in faith against his onset. You’re so strong in faith that the onset of what you see coming at you cannot cause you to run and give up. As that zebra had the surge of adrenal start to pump, you get a spiritual adrenal surge in your faith. You’re not going to run. You’re going to stand up to it because you know victory can be yours. It isn’t in your own power; you’re standing in the power of God in you. THAT is what the enemy cannot conquer. The power and Spirit of God in you. He has never been able to conquer Him and never will.
As I’m sure you have had, there have been many times in my life when I could fight or take flight. One of those times happened when I received a phone call from a doctor’s office concerning the results of an ultrasound I had on my liver because there was a tiny cyst on it. I felt everything would be fine but what I was hearing on the phone were different words.
The nurse was telling me that the size of the cyst had grown tremendously in just a few months and so I needed to get to a liver specialist. You talk about adrenal rush. I was getting it. My brain was trying to compute that news and what I could do. After the phone call, I experienced all kinds of emotions. I felt like a zebra, and a lion was coming.
So I knew I must stand up against the fear that was trying to overtake my faith. But I have to tell you, that night after I received the call, it was difficult. My thoughts went in this cycle of rehashing the words I’d heard and what it meant. But I was set on being steadfast in faith in fighting this.
So I fed myself the Word of God and went into His presence. I wanted to hear His Spirit. That’s when I felt an urge inside me that I must get a copy of that report from which they were giving me the information.
So the next day, John went to our doctor’s office and requested a copy of it, then brought it home. We began to pour over that liver report. That’s when the Holy Spirit revealed to us what had happened. The assistant who had read the report while the doctor was out of the office read the wrong numbers. When they were comparing the size of the cyst they were reading the size of my liver in its entirety. So of course it appeared as if it had grown huge. It was the size of my entire liver.
When I dug down into the numbers I saw the cyst had actually reduced to almost nothing. It wasn’t bigger; it was smaller and was benign.
So when we called the office right away and confirmed it, the assistant said everything was fine now. I could have been in so much fear and taken flight that I would have been under that stress for weeks until I could get in to see a specialist. But because I stood up to it, the Spirit was able to direct me to get a copy of that report and set it straight.
But even if the report had been bad, because I was ready to fight and stand up to it, I could have received health again if I needed it. To fight will require faith. Faith is what will enable us to fight until we can receive victory. Whatever you’re facing now, stand up to it in your faith. Don’t take flight.
Spiritual Powerline to say out loud:
“I’M STANDING UP TO IT AND I’LL WIN!”
Here is a powerful prayer to say out loud:
Father, I am strong in Your power, the Lord my God. I stand before the enemy in faith, so he must flee. I will see a turnaround in these conditions. A wonderful victory is mine. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
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