Stand To

One of the things that I learned in my time in the military was that there is a time each night, right before dawn, that is darker and colder than the rest of the night.  This time is also the most likely time of the night that your enemy will try to attack you.  To counter this the military has what they call Stand-To.  During Stand-To everyone is up, has all of their combat gear and are in their foxholes waiting for the attack.  Stand-to continues until dawn, when the chance of attack lessens and you revert back to whatever the normal security protocol is.  Today in our spiritual battle our enemy acts in a similar fashion.  Anytime that God has an increase planned for us, there is always a period right before the blessing where then enemy tries to block it by bringing us into this place where it is darkest before the dawn to try to get us to waiver or even break in our faith that God is bringing the blessing.  Today, I am, like many of you, in my foxhole and it is darker and colder then the rest of the night and the enemy has brought his lies and his minions to attack me once again.  But I know that the dawn is coming that the light of almighty God will come and chase Deceiver and his forces away if I can just hold my position if I will just stand in faith, I know deliverance is at hand.  I remind myself what Elisha told his servant when they were surrounded in 2 Kings 6: 16: "So he answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us are more than those who are with them."  This is always the case God will show up in a supernatural way if we are willing to stand in faith, remember all of the times that God has pulled us out of darkness, all the time he has come to our rescue.  I know it's not easy, I am struggling with this in my life right now, but I know that if God were to open my eyes like he opened the eyes of Elisha's servant, I too would see that the hillside around me is filled with horses and chariots of fire, that those who are for me are greater than those who are against me.  I haven't had that happen yet, so I am going to stand in faith that God is bringing me the victory and when the Deceiver shows up I will rebuke him with all the times that God has done the impossible in my life in spite of the lies of Satan.  This is where the rubber meets the road as they say, it is so easy to say you are standing in faith when things are going your way, when then enemy comes to challenge your faith you can run or you can hold the line knowing that God is with us, that God is for us and not against us remembering what Paul says in Romans 8:31 "What shall we say in response to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us?  I say to you, that I know God is for us and because of that Satan can only win if we give up.