This morning, September 28, 2023, a little after 4am, I found myself talking to FATHER about how the adversary is always twisting things around trying to make it difficult for us.

I mentioned how he knows we are blind and that we rely on our hearing and so he turns up the sound of distractions to keep us from being able to hear.

Even with me, today, it is an hour later and I am finally writing this. I have two writing assignments that I know I have to do this morning. I have to share this amazing conversation that I had with DAD, as well as write to encourage one’s faith in the midst of a negative health report.

But what happens – DISTRACTIONS

1. I had to take out the garbage at 4 in the morning so that we would not miss the garbage pick up since the garbage was not taken out when I first asked last night at 10pm.
2. I went to the kitchen simply to get some juice so that I could take my vitamins only to end up cleaning up, starting the dishwasher, feeding the dog. (I had to tell myself go to my office and get started.)
3. I go to my office and next thing I know I’m closing out a finished client’s video and doing other non-writing related work of organizing on my computer.
4. I had a conversation that made no sense except to leave me feeling that it was yet another distraction to un-focus me and that the war is on and I need to get my grounding quick

So here I am, an hour later, and the first thing I am reminded of is what Jesus said at Matthew chapter 13 regarding the sower and the seed.

I feel the unction to look at that now.

Matthew 13

This snatching away is done by distractions. Many things will come up that will take the place of the thought upon (meditation on) the seed that was sown. That is what I feel the enemy tried to do with me with the fight that I had to get here now where I am seated in the presence of the Lord, meditating upon the Word of God.

I thank God that though this weapon formed, it did not prosper (Isaiah 54:17) because here I am looking at this word now in preparation for all of the rest that I have to share.

The birds couldn’t snatch the amazing word I heard this morning as I sat in the presence of the Lord from me though they tried with many distractions, so now that the distractions have gone and I have begun to write to share, what I am now undergoing is a fight with a mild and yet nagging headache. I now have the fight to focus.

I turned on some music to help me even as I write. The music helps me to resist this attack of the adversary to try to move me out of position by allowing me to open my mouth in praise as I apply the battle strategy found at James 4:7

James 4:7 English Standard Version

⁷ Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

If I have to stop writing in order to open my mouth and praise God then that is what I will do, but “darn it” I am not moving. I recognize the attack. I took a Tylenol and I am keeping it moving because the seed-word that I was given to share will be shared.

I use a lot of pictures to help tell the story of what I am sharing. I chose this one because the red reminds me of blood.

Here in I am reminded of the woman with the issue of blood and how she got low and pressed in to touch the hem (hymn) of King Jesus’s garment. You see, I find myself pressing in right now and tears fall even as I write. This is where the enemy intensifies his attack.

You see, I didn’t get up though my head started hurting, and my eyes started burning. Instead, I opened my mouth and began to praise God declaring that I know that I am safe in God’s arms.

So now here comes the thorns. The thorns look different for each person. For some the thorns could be their concern about paying a bill or getting what is needed for the home. For others the thorn can be concern for family members. The adversary aims to draw us out by our hearts desires. For me, my concern is for my family especially when I know that some are going through.

But I won’t let that move me out of position either. Instead, I will lift them up to the Lord because that is where they are safe too. I know that the most powerful thing that I can do is to labor in prayer for those I love. I don’t have to work it out. I have to simply trust that God will and give them into the hands of the LORD.

… and this is where I begin to realize my breakthroughs. I resisted each of the attacks that were levied at me. I was able to overcome so that now…

True to the word of God, in my resisting and continuing to press my way, I am begin fruitful in that the burden I felt has lifted. With that I am now able to share about this Unfair fight.

Now that the press has passed, I can share that this morning as I was talking to DAD about how unfair the fight was the Holy Spirit was answering me in the most amazing way…

Me: Its such an unfair fight. The devil knows we are blind so he throws distractions at us from every direction

Tutor: We walk by faith not by sight

Me: Since we can’t see, we rely heavily upon our hearing and yet this world is so full of noise. Every where we turn something is in our ears.

Tutor: (reminds me of what King Jesus said at John chapter 10) My sheep know my voice.

Before I could again say that the fight is unfair, I was shown something that was so amazing that I knew immediately that I would be sharing it today about the fairness of the fight.

We are going to read this one because the story is absolutely amazing:

1 Kings 18:17-40 English Standard Version

¹⁷ When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, “Is it you, you troubler of Israel?” ¹⁸ And he answered, “I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father’s house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the Lord and followed the Baals. ¹⁹ Now therefore send and gather all Israel to me at Mount Carmel, and the 450 prophets of Baal and the 400 prophets of Asherah, who eat at Jezebel’s table.”

Remember how I said that it was an unfair fight. Look at what verse 19 said: 450 prophets of Baal plus 400 prophets of Asherah against Elijah. In the natural, it looks like an unfair fight, but for real for real they did not stand a chance against Elijah. It was a fixed fight from the very beginning. How could they have thought that they would stand a chance??? Lets see what happened

The Prophets of Baal Defeated

²⁰ So Ahab sent to all the people of Israel and gathered the prophets together at Mount Carmel. ²¹ And Elijah came near to all the people and said, “How long will you go limping between two different opinions? If the Lord is God, follow him; but if Baal, then follow him.”

And the people did not answer him a word. ²² Then Elijah said to the people, “I, even I only, am left a prophet of the Lord, but Baal’s prophets are 450 men. ²³ Let two bulls be given to us, and let them choose one bull for themselves and cut it in pieces and lay it on the wood, but put no fire to it. And I will prepare the other bull and lay it on the wood and put no fire to it. ²⁴ And you call upon the name of your god, and I will call upon the name of the Lord, and the God who answers by fire, he is God.” And all the people answered, “It is well spoken.” 

They did not stand a chance. They thought they had in it in the bag but it was an unfair fight from the beginning. Looking at it from natural fleshly eyes the prophets of Baal outnumbers the prophet of the true and living God, Elijah. But Elijah represented the true and living God so it didnt matter how many prophets stood for the false gods, they were still going to lose. Did they really not understand this?

The commentary on these verses says the following: “From the course of events, we can see that some of the worshippers of Baal really believed in the power of their deity and that many who should have followed the Lord did not have much faith. Therefore, for many of the observers, this was a genuine open-ended power encournter to discover which deity was stronger. Elijah proposed the terms to the test: whichever god miraculously ignited and burned his sacrifice would prove to be the true deity who was worthy of the people’s allegiance. Since Baal was the storm god, his followers believed he could answer by fire (lightning). But this encounter would show which deity really controlled the weather and provided what the people needed. At the same time, it would show who was a destroyer of Israel, rebellious Ahab or the Lord’s prophet Elijah.”

They were going to lose. Let’s see how badly they lost…

 ²⁵ Then Elijah said to the prophets of Baal, “Choose for yourselves one bull and prepare it first, for you are many, and call upon the name of your god, but put no fire to it.” ²⁶ And they took the bull that was given them, and they prepared it and called upon the name of Baal from morning until noon, saying, “O Baal, answer us!” But there was no voice, and no one answered. And they limped around the altar that they had made. ²⁷ And at noon Elijah mocked them, saying, “Cry aloud, for he is a god. Either he is musing, or he is relieving himself, or he is on a journey, or perhaps he is asleep and must be awakened.” ²⁸ And they cried aloud and cut themselves after their custom with swords and lances, until the blood gushed out upon them. ²⁹ And as midday passed, they raved on until the time of the offering of the oblation, but there was no voice. No one answered; no one paid attention.

The NKJV Bible commentary says the following: “The priests of Baal entered into the contest with great zeal. Perhaps they danced in a hobbling manner as a result of their self-inflicted injuries. The fanatical zeal of the priests of Baal led them to cut themselves. Some suggest that this self-inflicted pain may have been aimed at gaining the pity of the other gods so they would release Baal from his mythological death and thus bring rain.

We all know that the truth of the matter is that those false gods were not answering because they were not real. How long were they going to go through the motions of this practice of worship that was empty. Elijah begins to mock them saying to them to cry louder because their god might be using the bathroom.

Verse 26 tells us that these prophets called upon their false god from morning until noon. During those days, prayers and sacrifices were offered twice a day = the morning and the evening sacrifices. The morning sacrifice would be held at the 3rd hour of the day which is 9am. The evening sacrifice would be held at the 9th hour of the day which would be at 3pm. So these false prophets cried out to Baal from 9am to 12 noon according to verse 26, and from midday (12 noon) to the time of the offering of the oblation (the evening sacrifice – 3pm) for a total of 6 hours.

Imagine being there and watching all of this unfold. Some cannot stand to be in a church service for much longer than an hour and a half to two hours, and here they spent 6 hours trying to summon their god Baal with no success.

³⁰ Then Elijah said to all the people, “Come near to me.” And all the people came near to him. And he repaired the altar of the Lord that had been thrown down. ³¹ Elijah took twelve stones, according to the number of the tribes of the sons of Jacob, to whom the word of the Lord came, saying, “Israel shall be your name,” ³² and with the stones he built an altar in the name of the Lord. And he made a trench about the altar, as great as would contain two seahs of seed. ³³ And he put the wood in order and cut the bull in pieces and laid it on the wood. And he said, “Fill four jars with water and pour it on the burnt offering and on the wood.” ³⁴ And he said, “Do it a second time.” And they did it a second time. And he said, “Do it a third time.” And they did it a third time. ³⁵ And the water ran around the altar and filled the trench also with water.

(A seah is equal to 7 quarts. Two seahs would be 14 quarts.) So Elijah has his offering prepared but before he gets started he has it drenched with water not once, not twice, but three times. This is to make it even harder for his offering to catch fire – again an unfair fight, right. So its his turn now to call of the God he serves – the only true God. Let’s see how things turn out for him.

³⁶ And at the time of the offering of the oblation, Elijah the prophet came near and said, “O Lord, God of Abraham, Isaac, and Israel, let it be known this day that you are God in Israel, and that I am your servant, and that I have done all these things at your word. ³⁷ Answer me, O Lord, answer me, that this people may know that you, O Lord, are God, and that you have turned their hearts back.” ³⁸ Then the fire of the Lord fell and consumed the burnt offering and the wood and the stones and the dust, and licked up the water that was in the trench. ³⁹ And when all the people saw it, they fell on their faces and said, “The Lord, he is God; the Lord, he is God.” ⁴⁰ And Elijah said to them, “Seize the prophets of Baal; let not one of them escape.” And they seized them. And Elijah brought them down to the brook Kishon and slaughtered them there.

It is now 3pm, time for the evening offering of the oblation, and Elijah prays and God answers and consumes everything including the water that was in the trench proving that He is the only true and living God.

This should tell us something:

• Nothing is impossible for God. Even when it seems like the cards are stacked against us, when we are serving the only true God then we have nothing to worry about. Yes it is an unfair fight but its unfair because anyone who thinks that they can stand in opposition to God Almighty will lose.

• There is no god like Jehovah.

We who serve the only true and living God have nothing to worry about. Regardless of what this world presents to us in the natural, no matter how unfair things look, no matter how bad things might look, we have nothing to worry about ever.

Yes is it an unfair fight. It is unfair because anyone who comes against us will lose when we have Almighty God on our side. God fights our battles for us. All we have to do is stand still and not fight because the battle belongs to the Lord.

So this was my morning and I love how it turned out. I also hope this blessed you for whatever situation that you face. Remember God got it and God got you.