Whether
you recognize it or not, you're at war with yourself. There's anxiety. Selfishness, Self-sabotaging
tendencies. Narcissism, The black dog of depression. The inability to do the
great things you long to do because you spend so many hours mindlessly drifting
through the internet.
Something that is making you feel terrified, trapped, or lonely. You feel as if you are a victim of your circumstances... and you don’t know where to turn for help.
One way or the other, you are facing a situation right now for which you don’t have the answers.
It is war, but all is not lost. You can win—if you choose
to engage.
Perhaps it’s a cycle of retaliation with your spouse that is leading to a vicious silence that no one is willing to break. You know that if something doesn’t change, your marriage isn’t going to last. Or maybe you’re ready to quit your job because it seems your coworkers are all against you.
You just lost your job due to accusation of which you know nothing about. Or it could be a struggle with your temper. You haven’t crossed the line yet, but you’ve come close. Or the problem might be a crippling anxiety that you just can’t seem to shake. You feel as if your life is spinning out of control.
The worst thing
about feeling victimized in
this way is that it’s impossible to be a victim and a victor at the same time.
It’s time for something better in your life. In fact, as we will discuss
throughout this article, God wants something much better for you.
He wants to
lead you and guide you through the problems you are facing. But the first step
in this journey requires a conscious action on your part. You have to admit the conflict is real.
As any soldier
will tell you, you can’t win a war if you are unwilling to admit a conflict
exists in the first place. This is why making your declaration is so
important. I declare
war... against the cycle of retaliation... against my bad behaviors... against
anxiety and depression... against the darkness and my self-sabotaging
tendencies.
When you declare war in this way, you are refusing to go
gently into the night or to be taken without a fight. You are waging war on the
version of yourself that you don’t want to be. And, as you will find, there is
freedom and power in making such a declaration.
-- All of us have a war we are fighting, and it’s a war we’re facing within. We are in a battle involving the thoughts we think, the words we speak, and the actions we take.
-- The Bible makes it clear that both God and the enemy
have an agenda for our lives. Jesus wants us to experience life to the full,
but the devil seeks only to steal, kill, and destroy.
-- Every choice we make is a door we’re deciding to walk
through. And we have to choose carefully, because some doors lead to life and
others lead to death.
-- We have to discover how to stop creating problems for
ourselves — to get out of our own way. It starts with us making this statement:
“I declare war on my tendency to sabotage myself.”
-- In the words of President Teddy Roosevelt (USA), when we
choose to fight the battle rather than simply talk or think about it, a “wolf
rises up in our heart.” Once we commit ourselves to the conflict, a new courage
and resolve surfaces within us.
-- The first three “cards” in our declaration of war
involve our words, our thoughts, and our actions. The fourth represents the
all-important power of the Holy Spirit.
-- The fourth card is
critical, because we cannot win this war in our own strength. We need God to
give us power, tell us who we are, and supercharge all our efforts.
There is
power in every word that proceeded out of your mouth, whatever you sow with
your mouth is what you will reap, therefore be positive in your word.
2. THOUGHTS: according
to dictionary, thoughts is an idea or opinion produced by thinking, or occurring
suddenly in the mind. someone once said that your thoughts
directly influences how you feel and how you behave.
Think about it.
Harvard research has shown that you
can increase your strength just by thinking about it, what other areas of your
life can you change for the better simply by thinking about what you want? Use
positive visualizations when goal setting because this has really strong
results both from a motivational perspective and also from a Law of Attraction
perspective.
But if we want something to happen,
the first thing we need to do is think about it happening. Willie Nelson once
said, “Once you replace negative thoughts with
positive ones, you’ll start having positive results.”
3. ACTIONS: means
something done or performed, an act, deed. The popular saying, that, Twenty
years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn't do
than by the ones you did do. Your action about everything matter a lot.
You may be equipped with tonnes of theory. You may have the best
of skills, the most positive of attitudes and the strongest of beliefs. But if
you just sits on your butt with all these attributes, nothing is going to come
out of it.
Action is
the basis of all success. Every action may not give success but at the same
time no success is possible without action, Mahatma Gandhi said,
''It's
the action, not the fruit of the action, that's important. You have to do the
right thing. It may not be in your power, may not be in your time, that there
will be any fruit. But that doesn't mean you stop doing the right thing. You
may never know what results come from your action. But if you do nothing, there
will be no result.''
4. POWER OF THE HOLY SPIRIT: Jesus Christ said in
Acts 1:8 “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit comes on
you; and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria,
and to the ends of the earth.” The Anchor Bible
Dictionary, in its article on the Holy Spirit, describes it as "The
manifestation of divine presence and power perceptible especially in prophetic
inspiration" (Vol. 3, Doubleday, New York, 1992, p. 260).
Peter
relates how "God anointed Jesus of
Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, [and Jesus] went about doing good
and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him" (Acts
10:38).
The Holy
Spirit is here associated with the power by which God was with Him— the power
through which Jesus Christ performed mighty miracles during His earthly,
physical ministry. The Holy Spirit is the very presence of God's power actively
working in His servants.
You need to abound in
hope by the power of the Holy Spirit," in the same way that Jesus Christ
had worked "in mighty signs and wonders , by the power of the Spirit of
God. The Bible also shows that God inspires and guides His prophets and
servants through the power of the Holy Spirit.
Peter noted that "prophecy
never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke as they were moved by
the Holy Spirit" (2 Peter 1:21).
Paul
stated that God's plan had been "revealed by the Spirit to His holy
apostles and prophets" (Ephesians:3:5), and that his own teachings were
inspired by the spirit (1 Corinthians 2:13).
Paul, in 1 Corinthians 2:9-10, explains that God through His Spirit has revealed to us the things which He has prepared for those who love Him.
God the Father is the Revealer, working through His Spirit in those who serve Him.
God’s
Word will help you learn to retaliate against your anxiety by filling your
heart with truth and making it inhospitable to terror overcome
self-imposed isolation by learning to think right so you can live right, spare
your family unnecessary heartache by confronting your dysfunction so they don’t
have to ruin you.
It’s time
to stop being your own worst enemy. Declare war and become the person, the
spouse, the parent, and the leader God intended you to be. We are all
created in the image of God. We don’t have to be chained by our feelings.
We don’t
have to do the things we don’t want to do. We don’t have to be defined by our
failures, mistakes, or sin. This is powerful!
Yet how
often do we not live based on this truth? One of the reasons I admire and
respect Levi is his transparency and search for truth. He doesn’t shy away from
the hard or ugly stuff. Through his own story, he strives to help others get
out of their own way and into the truth of who they are in God.
The
principles in this article will help you do just that stop being
victimized by your bad behaviors and become the victor you were born to
be.
“Sometimes
the mountain that needs moving is inside of you."
Get the
book "I Declare War: Four Keys to Winning the Battle with Yourself"
by Levi Lusko here.
By Levi
Lusko, edited by E.A Olatoye
I Declare War: Four Keys to Winning the Battle with Yourself
Reviewed by E.A Olatoye
on
November 03, 2018
Rating:
Reviewed by E.A Olatoye
on
November 03, 2018
Rating:
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