Contend for God’s Promises

Editor’s Note: The following message is the most recent posted on Barbara Yoder’s new blog, which you can find at barbarayoderblog.com. The original title of the word is “We Are Contending.”

We are in a season of contending. We must contend past the deception that has tried to mislead us. Deception blinds us from seeing what the real issue is, and hope deferred feeds deception. It feeds the faithless, half-empty-glass syndrome. I believe we are coming out of a season in which hope deferred seemed to abound.

Deception is part of the resistance that we have to overcome. It causes us to think, There are all kinds of reasons I can’t break through this: “God doesn’t care.” “It’s too hard.” “I can’t do it.” “What did I do wrong?”

Deception tells us, “God hasn’t come through before, so why would He now? And if He cares so much, why have things been so difficult during this season—and why has it hung around for two years? Why did God let this or that happen? He must not care.” On and on the voice speaks.

But it is not the voice.

There is perhaps more resistance to break through in this season than we’ve experienced in our lifetimes. We are facing new powers, new principalities. We are facing at a beginning level demonic structures similar to those that resist believers in Africa and India daily.

God is building our faith. He has allowed this level of opposition to break us into a new level of faith. What is it that has overcome the world? Even our faith (see 1 John 5:4). So our faith is being developed to an all-new level in this hour. It is becoming a faith that will stand and break through because it believes God’s promises (see v. 5).

The Israelites overcame through faith and patience. Patience isn’t lying back on the couch and taking it easy. The word “patience” in the Greek is hupomone. Patience allows us to see something through to the end, to hang on to what God has promised and see it through to fulfillment. It is a stance such as a bulldog would take—one that causes us to sink our teeth into the promise and hold on until it is ours (see Heb 6:9-12).

Press past the resistance. Resistance is the sense that you are not getting anywhere in your praying. It tells you it is too hard to break through. Resistance feels as if you are going up against a thick, solid granite wall that won’t give.

But God!

Keep praying until you get through that resistance. Then pray to receive the fullness of what God is saying and what He longs to do.

Pressing into revelation is essential in this hour if we are to break into all the things God has been promising—the miraculous, wealth transfer, the harvest, a new level of the deliverance mantle and so on. There is an awakening waiting on the other side of breakthrough.

It is a time to pray in tongues as never before, “building yourselves up on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Spirit” (Jude 20, NKJV). Praying in tongues not only opens a window of revelation; it also builds bold faith. Let God lead you in your praying in tongues. Pray radically; pray through. The other side of the resistance is amazing, powerful, glorious! It is the breaking out of heaven all around us!

Come on, you can do it! Pray all the way through. And if you can’t get there by yourself, grab one of your friends who knows how to pray and together take courage, be bold and go for it. The resistance can be so daunting we can’t get through it by ourselves. Go today, grab someone and pray, pray, pray—get to the other side.

We are in a war for the new to break out, and a war is comprised of many battles. You will have to pray not just once or twice but many times until the war is won. Each prayer time represents a battle. We will battle until we win the war.

“And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith” (1 John 5:4).

About the author: Barbara J. Yoder is the founder and senior pastor of Shekinah Christian Church (shekinahchurch.org) in Ann Arbor, Michigan, and is known for her cutting-edge apostolic and prophetic breakthrough ministry. She travels nationally and internationally ministering in churches, conferences and seminars. Yoder is the author of several books, including Taking on Goliath (Charisma House). To order a copy of the book, click here.