- The spirit of man is where God lives in you and this is where He speaks to you.
- The spirit of man is the place from which answers from the Lord come. It is the place where He reveals His solutions to us.
- Worry and anxiety is the direct result of a fruitless search for life’s answers out of your human mind.
- If there is an answer that you need, and your mind has never known the answer, then you will never be able to recall or get that answer from your mind.
- If you face a new problem, then the answer is going to have to come from the Lord.
- When you are searching for the answer in your mind by going over and over the problem to look for the solution, you only cause yourself more anxiety and frustration.
- Worry is a direct result of believing the wrong thing.
- When you forget the Word that you have heard and don’t do it, you fall into a misbelief and believe the wrong things.
- As a result of believing the wrong thing, you will be filled with worry and anxiety.
- The disciples were fooled by their own physical senses which told them something different than what Jesus had said.
- Before you ever receive a manifestation from God, you must first receive and believe His Word.
Jesus convinced them with the Word, not the manifestation.
- Worry is a direct result of wrong belief.
- We believe the wrong things because of wrong thinking.
- We have wrong thinking because we have been receiving the wrong information.
- We have to incorporate God’s information into our thinking to change our believing and eliminate worry.
James 1:21 KJV (21) Wherefore lay apart all filthiness and superfluity of naughtiness, and receive with meekness the engrafted word, which is able to save your souls.
James is telling us that we do not need new roots. We got new roots when we accepted Christ. Our branches are part of the tree and are a picture of your mind. It is up to us to take off the bad branches one by one and begin to replace them with God’s branches so that we can begin to produce the right believing. God’s branches are not native to us but can be grafted into us.
We learn to take God’s Word and replace our old way of thinking and believing into God’s way of thinking.
We start out like a green apple tree but over time we are changed and now we are a green apple tree that is producing red apples on all the branches. Now our roots have not only been changed but all of the branches have been changed too.
If we are worried and anxious it is because we are believing the wrong thing. What we have to do is go to the Word of God and begin to change our thinking and engraft His promises into our thinking and thus change our believing and wipe out worry for good.
When you have a leak in a tire that is a slow leak because of a nail or something, the pressure does not cause the leak or hole in the tire; it is only revealed when the pressure is applied.
In the same way, we often think that pressure is what makes us do the things that we do when we are under intense pressure. This is like thinking that the pressure is what causes the leak or the hole.
When people are under pressure and make bad decisions and do things that they should not do, it is only because there is a flaw or weakness that was there all along.
Anxiety creates tremendous pressure and in this many people end up making bad decisions during these times of intense pressure. The pressure only reveals the weakness.
1 Samuel 13:1-2 NKJV (1) Saul reigned one year; and when he had reigned two years over Israel, (2) Saul chose for himself three thousand men of Israel. Two thousand were with Saul in Michmash and in the mountains of Bethel, and a thousand were with Jonathan in Gibeah of Benjamin. The rest of the people he sent away, every man to his tent.
In Saul’s reign as king, we see the first thing that comes is honor and privilege.
1 Samuel 13:5-6 NKJV (5) Then the Philistines gathered together to fight with Israel, thirty thousand chariots and six thousand horsemen, and people as the sand which is on the seashore in multitude. And they came up and encamped in Michmash, to the east of Beth Aven. (6) When the men of Israel saw that they were in danger (for the people were distressed), then the people hid in caves, in thickets, in rocks, in holes, and in pits.
With all privilege there will come some pressure. This is true of marriage, a promotion, etc.
What you do during a time of pressure is really determined before you get to that time of pressure.
A huge key in life is to not wait until pressure comes to get ready for the pressure. You must get ready ahead of time.
You must make a plan on how you will respond to life’s challenges with your faith.
Faith is not pretending the battle will not take place.
If you wait until you are in the battle, it is too late.
1 Samuel 13:7-9 NKJV (7) And some of the Hebrews crossed over the Jordan to the land of Gad and Gilead. As for Saul, he was still in Gilgal, and all the people followed him trembling. (8) Then he waited seven days, according to the time set by Samuel. But Samuel did not come to Gilgal; and the people were scattered from him. (9) So Saul said, “Bring a burnt offering and peace offerings here to me.” And he offered the burnt offering.
When pressure comes against you, the mission and purpose of that pressure is to push you into crossing a boundary or a line and make a bad decision.
Saul was already in trouble because there was a hole in the fabric of his character that gets revealed by the pressure.
On the surface it looks like Saul did a good thing but he did not. He crossed a major border set for him by God.
1 Samuel 10:8 NKJV (8) You shall go down before me to Gilgal; and surely I will come down to you to offer burnt offerings and make sacrifices of peace offerings. Seven days you shall wait, till I come to you and show you what you should do.”
Saul was a king called to lead the people and rule over them in government but one of things he was not called to do was be a priest for the people before God and should not have offered sacrifices. That was Samuel’s job. By doing this, he creates huge problems for himself and the nation.
1 Samuel 13:10-12 NKJV (10) Now it happened, as soon as he had finished presenting the burnt offering, that Samuel came; and Saul went out to meet him, that he might greet him. (11) And Samuel said, “What have you done?” Saul said, “When I saw that the people were scattered from me, and that you did not come within the days appointed, and that the Philistines gathered together at Michmash, (12) then I said, ‘The Philistines will now come down on me at Gilgal, and I have not made supplication to the LORD.’ Therefore I felt compelled, and offered a burnt offering.”
When we cross boundaries, we create a world of problems for ourselves.
For example, if you have a neighbor child that does not behave, you cannot take it upon yourself and spank that child unless you want to go to jail. When your neighbor is not loving his wife properly, that does not mean that you can cross that border and go over there and take care of it instead her husband.
God gives us borders and boundaries to operate in life to give us order, protection, and blessing.
If we really think about the restrictions that God gives us, they pale in comparison to the other things that we get to enjoy. God’s restrictions are relatively small by comparison to what we can do and the restrictions are designed to keep you from getting hurt.
When people cave into pressure and cross boundaries, it could be largely because they did not prepare ahead of time for what they are currently facing.
Saul did not have a plan and when the pressure comes, he decides to cross a boundary that he should not have crossed.
We do the same thing. When pressure comes, because we have not prepared, we cross boundaries.
Let’s contrast this story by looking at a time that someone faced pressure the right way.
How do I deal with pressure and keep from crossing borders and making a mess of things?
1 Samuel 17:40 NKJV (40) Then he took his staff in his hand; and he chose for himself five smooth stones from the brook, and put them in a shepherd’s bag, in a pouch which he had, and his sling was in his hand. And he drew near to the Philistine.
David is under a tremendous amount of pressure and all eyes are on him at this moment. We see in this one verse what to do when the pressure is on.
David does what he has been doing all along.
- You always fall back on the right things you have been doing all along; especially what you have been doing in the little things.
- Prepare for the trial in advance.
When you are under pressure, you never rise to the occasion; you fall back to the level of your preparation.
A Navy Seal once said, “Under pressure, you don’t rise to the occasion. You sink to the level of your training.” One of the marks of high intensity training that the SEALS use, is constant repetition. Doing the same thing over and over until it does not require conscious mental activity to accomplish it. (Brushing your teeth, etc.)
1 Timothy 4:8 AMP For physical training is of some value (useful for a little), but godliness (spiritual training) is useful and of value in everything and in every way, for it holds promise for the present life and also for the life which is to come.
When the heat comes, you will do what you have prepared to do.
It is what we do in the low stress period that gets us ready for the high stress time.
1 Samuel 17:38-39 NKJV (38) So Saul clothed David with his armor, and he put a bronze helmet on his head; he also clothed him with a coat of mail. (39) David fastened his sword to his armor and tried to walk, for he had not tested them. And David said to Saul, “I cannot walk with these, for I have not tested them.” So David took them off.
The boundary crosser said, “Try something new or do something that you have never done before…”
David was ready to fight against Goliath because he had been fighting anything that came against his father’s sheep. He had been practicing what he needed to do.
When David gets under pressure, he just simply reverts to what already knows to do.
That is why we should trust God in everything in life, both big and small.
We get under pressure and we look for something exotic and something we have never done before.
God is going to lead you back to something that you are familiar with.
God led Moses and children of Israel right back to Moses’ back yard where he had lived for forty years.
1 Samuel 17:43 NKJV (43) So the Philistine said to David, “Am I a dog, that you come to me with sticks?” And the Philistine cursed David by his gods.
After David hits the giant with the stone and knocks him out. In other words, the stone took David as far as it could be then he had to draw on something on new to cut the giant’s head off. From that moment forward, he never went back to using a sling and a stone. He always fought with a sword.
- You keep doing what you have always known to do and it will put you in a place where if you need something new, it will be made available to you.
When that happens, you can use it and not have to go back to the old thing.
God leads us one step and a stage at time. You get there by following what is familiar.
Finding an answer in a time of anxiety and pressure is not hard.
You just do what brought you the victory last time. Keep doing the Word and standing in faith. Don’t cross a boundary because of pressure and keep doing what you have been doing.