'When the Pursuer awakens the Possessor rises and Recovery is born
| I Samuel 30:8 'Pursue, for you shall surely overtake your enemies and without fail, you shall recover all' In the ashes of your meltdown God has appointed your turnaround. I Samuel 30 gives the account of David and his men returning from a business trip to find that their city had been sacked and burned to the ground. Their families and their possessions had been taken captive and were missing. In that moment David was literally standing in the ashes of what used to be. Can you relate to 'standing in the ashes of what used to be'? When David and his men arrived at Ziklag to discover it burned with fire and their families taken captive they wept until quote 'they had no more power to weep'. Translation: they had exceeded their breaking point and were paralyzed in the chaos of exhaustion. Out of the ashes of great despair a chaos ensued that caused a break down of confidence in David's leadership. The men that knew David best, who understood his battlefield prowess and who had staked their lives on the prophetic promise that he would become king now spoke openly of killing him. This level of accusation and attack took David to a place of soul suffering that intensified the pain he was already experiencing. In that moment he was 'excessively squeezed'. Not only had he lost his family but now he had lost his support system. Chaos reigned in the ashes of an unexpected meltdown. Can I be real for a minute? The truth is, we're all like David. No matter our destiny, gifting, prophetic promises or our resume' of success, each of us has a breaking point. All it takes is the right enemy hitting us in the right place at the right time and it shatters us. Newsflash: You're susceptible to being breakable! One of the first casualties of transition is Confidence in your Sense of Being. Isn't it interesting that when David and his men were processing the chaos of their meltdown that they lost their sense of identity? In essence, the 'ashes of what used to be' obscured their identity. These men were hardened warriors, battlefield geniuses. They were entrepreneurs who had built a successful business providing personal security for wealthy men in the badlands of southern Judah. They were possessors by nature and they had the resumes to prove it. Most importantly, they were survivors. They had successfully survived the relentless attempts of King Saul to find and kill David. Your enemy wants to create a disconnect between your prophetic identity and your present reality. Your enemy wants to so overwhelm you with negative emotions that you forget who God built you to be. He wants to shatter your confidence. He seeks to break your focus and to paralyze you with grief over all that's gone wrong so that you don't have the capacity to move forward. Make no mistake, you're enemy knows you've got what it takes to emerge from your meltdown in a posture of victory and success. That's why he hits you so mercilessly, so relentlessly, so overwhelmingly. In spite of your meltdown, you were built to bounce back. The good news is that God will not leave you broken. While ashes surrounded David's life and his soul was excessively squeezed by the chaos that sought to consume him, God had recovery on His mind. I Samuel 30:8 was God's assurance to David that the Amelekite victory over Ziklag would be reversed and that David would prevail if he pursued his enemy. In the middle of his meltdown this prophetic promise gave David confidence that God would give him a turnaround. I've got good news: you're coming out of the chaos that has sought to consume you! In recovery you discover a renewed sense of Courage, Confidence and Conviction. In the midst of the emotional desolation David was experiencing, God awakened the anointing of recovery deep within David's spirit and he began to bounce back. God supernaturally broke David's soul paralysis and romanced the pursuer in David with the promise of recovery. Suddenly, David began to act like the 'king' (his prophetic identity, not his present reality) he was, not the beaten man he had become. This is a critical point. In seasons of great warfare the temptation is to become so spiritual that we miss the simplicity of faith. What God wants and needs from us is to believe Him in spite of the meltdown, then to base our behavior on that belief. He will not place more on you than you can bear. He's not after great sacrifice, He's after great faith. The result for David was that he experienced a supernatural recovery of his courage, confidence and conviction, all of which had become casualties of his meltdown. Within a few moments, David recovered his capacity to pursue like the possessor he was and he shifted the atmosphere in the ashes completely in his favor. He rallied his men, broke them out of their soul paralysis and forecasted a vision of recovery that completely empowered his men to come back also. David recovered his sense of credibility (prophetically, relationally and politically) as God built him back and focused him on pursuing recovery. In a Kingdom sense, 'recovery' is a 'restoration that leaves nothing broken'. I'm writing today to provoke the pursuer in you! I firmly believe this is the direction that the Holy Spirit wants us centered and focused on. God has recovery on his mind and He's provoking His kings to rise up and pursue the impossible dreams, desires and drives that He's placed in us. As I wrap up this word I want to leave you with several action steps that you need to take to realize the recovery that awaits you. Remember, God's got your recovery on His mind. He wants to partner with you to create miraculous outcomes in the scenarios you're facing.
Lastly, I want to remind you that the DNA of a possessor is resident within you. You come from a long line of prolific pursuers. You possess the DNA of an overcomer. Embrace the fact that you were built to bounce back and to break through. No matter where your enemy's hiding, he cannot keep what belongs to you. Relentlessly pursue the things God has placed in your spirit, moving forward in courage, confidence and conviction. You are not alone. The God of Heaven has decreed victory over your life. The only way you lose is if you refuse to pursue |
Every assignment has an enemy. Every anointing has an adversary. Every dream attracts detractors who seek to devour it.
Your destroyer will not prevail against you. The unholy alliances that have aligned against your destiny will not stand. The arm of the Lord is warring against your adversary and victory is in the NOW.
Your destroyer will not prevail against you. The unholy alliances that have aligned against your destiny will not stand. The arm of the Lord is warring against your adversary and victory is in the NOW.
Your partner on the journey,
Bishop Howard L. Bass
