A phenomenon, which needs to be explained, takes place during the last weeks of the Israel Challenge. You are in the faith, with all your strength and conviction, building your sacrifice, with a goal in mind. The day for us to go to the Altar is approaching and strange things begin to happen. It seems like problems increase, situations to distract your attention surge out of the blue, everything starts to go wrong and even what you wanted to resolve with the Israel Challenge gets worse.
There is a war inside of you. A feeling that nothing is going to work out and that you should just give up is constantly growing. Fears, doubts, questions, uncertainties… you look around and all you see are difficulties. All of a sudden, what seemed to be so clear starts to look like a mess. All of hell gathers to bombard you with negative thoughts and create weird situations around you, because the only way for you to fail is if he convinces you to quit. He will even try to convince you that you don’t have as much faith as you thought.
A sacrifice is so strong that the devil gathers all his forces to convince you to sabotage yourself, because when you decide to sacrifice, hell cannot do anything. We are the only ones who can prevent our sacrifice. Knowing this, you resist. You know the feeling that everything is going wrong, that your efforts are useless and that if you give up, everything will fix itself, is just an illusion. The only way to feel better and overcome this war is by facing the monster, with the strength of your decision.
You decide to go all the way, without believing the enemy’s affronts, trusting in the God that answered Elijah on Mount Carmel. You could care less if things seem more difficult or seem to be getting worse. What matters is the result – and the war is not over. If you do not feel like you have the same strength you had before, just go with the strength you have now. With all your strength. In the end, you will realize that it was greater than you thought. You were just being misled by your emotions.
I see this phase as if we were entering a cave that separates our world from what we want to achieve. This cave is dark, gloomy, filled with voices and scary noises. There’s nothing there, just an illusion created by a terrorist group, whose intentions are to make us turn around and be devoured by the monster standing at the entrance. The truth is that the danger lies in turning back. But if we ignore the terrorists and move forward, we will obtain an answer.
The battle between faith and emotion gets stronger and more intense as the date of the Challenge approaches. It must not have been easy for Elijah, since he was alone against four hundred and fifty prophets of Baal, four hundred prophets of Asherah, the king, the queen and undefined people, who would not defend him. However, what kept him firm was the conviction that he had the true God on his side. He knew it was better to lose everything than to live in fear and uncertainty, like those people. He went for the all or nothing.
Time requires more from faith. It requires that we keep our word to God and trust in His Word. During this course, we surrender all of the emotions, doubts, fears and threats that suffocate us on the Altar. Let the Altar decide what will happen to the words deposited on it. Time requires more from faith. It requires us to eliminate all of our emotions and remain firm with the decision we made. “I made a vow with God, I have a goal, I am passing through this haunted cave, but there is no way that I am turning back. It is a matter of honor that I go to the end. If the devil can, let him kill me. But if my God is alive, I will remain standing to honor Him.” This is a challenge that anyone can do, no matter the situation you are in.
We come before the Altar with this pure faith. This is the faith that will lead you to see your God answer with fire. Don’t be frightened by the whirlwind of emotions that attack during the last days before the Israel Challenge. Stay on the path that God has given you form the beginning. The winner is the one who perseveres in battle to the end.
– See more at: http://www.bispomacedo.com.br/en/2014/12/11/the-battle-before-the-altar/#more-10399