Day Two: War With It

Watch First

Watch first. Then go get it back.

The Teaching

Yesterday you received the word. Today you fight with it. Because a word you only believe is a word you will lose — the enemy is not intimidated by a promise sitting quiet in your journal. In First Timothy 1:18, Paul told Timothy to take the prophecies spoken over him and by them "war a good warfare." By them. The word was the ammunition. That means what God spoke over your marriage was never meant to be a comfort blanket you hold when you are scared. It was issued to you as a weapon, and today you are going to pick it up and use it.

Understand what you are actually fighting. Jesus said in John 10:10 that the thief comes to steal, to kill, and to destroy — and every one of those words describes something that has happened in your home. Something was stolen from you. Your peace. Your marriage. Your husband's mind. Years you cannot get back. But there is a difference between something being stolen and something being gone, and today we are going to look at a man who found out the difference. You are not begging God to give you what He already said. You are enforcing it. Today you stop praying your circumstances and you start praying the promise.

The Bible Study

David at Ziklag — 1 Samuel 30

David and his men came home to Ziklag and found the city burned to the ground and every wife, every son, every daughter taken captive. The Bible says they lifted up their voices and wept until they had no more power to weep. Sit with that picture for a minute, because some of you have lived it. Everything gone. The house you built, empty. And then it got worse — verse six says the people spoke of stoning David. He lost his family and his support in the same afternoon. But look at what that verse says next: "but David encouraged himself in the Lord his God." Nobody encouraged him. There was no worship team, no prayer partner, no friend on the phone. He had to go get in the presence of God by himself and remind himself who God was. And that is where the recovery started — not with a strategy, but with a woman or a man who refuses to sit in the ashes and quit.

Then David did something most of us skip. He called for the ephod and he inquired of the Lord: "Shall I pursue after this troop? shall I overtake them?" He did not run out swinging on emotion. He asked God first. And God answered him plainly: "Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all." That is a word. That is the same thing you did yesterday — you went and got confirmation before you went to war. And notice God did not just say go. God told him the outcome before he took one step. Pursue, overtake, recover all. David went into that fight already knowing how it ended, and that is exactly the posture you are taking today.

Now here is the part I need you to catch. Even with a word like that, the fight was still real. Two hundred of David's six hundred men were too exhausted to cross the brook and had to stay behind — so he went with less than he started with. They fought from twilight until the evening of the next day. It was long. And when it was over, verse nineteen says, "there was nothing lacking to them, neither small nor great, neither sons nor daughters, neither spoil, nor any thing that they had taken to them: David recovered all." Nothing lacking. Not most of it. Not a settled version of it. All of it. Hear me — a word from God does not exempt you from the fight. It guarantees the outcome of it. So when today gets long, and it might, you are not fighting for a maybe. You are fighting for something God already told you He was giving back.

Your Action Steps

Five things today. Do them like you mean it.

"The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life."
John 10:10
"If a man be found breaking up, and be smitten that he die, there shall no blood be shed for him. He should make full restitution."
Exodus 22:2-3
"I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten."
Joel 2:25
"Pursue: for thou shalt surely overtake them, and without fail recover all."
1 Samuel 30:8

If today is heavier than yesterday, that is not a sign you are losing. Ziklag came before the recovery. David wept until he had no strength left and still went and got everything back. The fight being long does not mean the word was false — it means you are in the middle of it. Keep going.

Your Prayer Rhythm

Pray every three hours — or three times minimum. Set your alarms. Every time it goes off, you come back.

6:00 AMLord, I am not begging. I am standing on what You already said.

9:00 AMEvery thing the enemy stole, I am asking You to make him restore it.

12:00 PMBreak the hold on my husband's mind and turn his heart back home.

3:00 PMGuard my eyes and my ears. Do not let anything talk me out of Your word.

6:00 PMI will pursue, I will overtake, and I will recover all.

If you work, pray on your break. Pray on your lunch. Pray in the car before you walk in that building.

End of Day Reflection

How did today go with the Lord?

Before you close out Day Two, write it down. What did He show you? What did you fight through? What are you believing Him to restore? Do not edit it. Just tell the truth.