Jesus obviously wants you "up." He wants you set free. He wants you delivered. Tell the devil you're not a pushover. Tell him you're not going to take this lying down.
In Matthew 11:28-30, Jesus said, "Come unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me." That's what you're doing right now! You're learning of Him. For I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. The Amplified Bible says, "You will find rest (relief and ease and refreshment and recreation and blessed quiet) for your souls."
He'll even give you recreation. You're going to have some fun. You are going to learn you can have joy in adversity. That's got to be a slap in the devil's face when he's set you up for the kill and you come out rejoicing. You may say, "Well, that's easy for you to say, you're not going through what I'm going through."
Just because I'm not crying, bawling, and begging, that doesn't mean everything's is okay. Everything is not okay all the time in the natural, but thank God, I know One who is greater, and I don't have to dwell on the problem. Just because we don't beg for money doesn't mean we don't need it. Jesus told me when I first went into the ministry, "When your body feels the worst, preach healing the strongest. How you feel does not alter the Word of God." He said, "When you don't have a dime in the bank, preach prosperity the strongest because your lack does not alter the Word of God." He said, "When you're going through misery, preach that I am the Deliverer, and I will give you rest."
When I'm down, I don't hang around folks who are down. I get around somebody who's up because that's what I need - to be up. I don't need to be pulled down any further. Jesus is saying, "Come unto me and learn of me and I'll give you rest, I'll give you refreshment." Don't stay down. Don't allow yourself to be defeated. Just tell the devil, "I'll be back!"
The Valley Of Baca
Psalm 84:5-6 (AMP) says, "Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) is the man whose strength is in You, in whose heart are the highways to Zion. Passing through the valley of Baca." Baca? What is Baca?
The Hebrew meaning of Baca is something we can all identify with - weeping or tears or misery. In other words, passing through the valley of misery, passing through the valley of tears. Notice that it didn't say you're supposed to live there. I don't build my residence there, I pass through it, and come out on the other side.
Every one of us has been there; however, some people can't take the pressure of passing through the Valley of Baca, and they just build their residence there. But my Bible didn't say you have to stay there, it said you just pass through it. I don't know what you're going through today, I don't know what kind of hard place you may be experiencing. If you're alive and you're breathing, you've probably been through Baca at some time.
Every time I pass through the Valley of Baca, I've learned to tell the devil, "Hey devil, I may be in Baca, but I'm the redeemed and I shall return. I'm only passing through, and I've got news for you - when I get on the other side, I'm going to increase in victorious power. You're just adding to my testimony, glory to God. Satan, I'm coming out of this, and when I do, I'm gonna tell it everywhere I go."
The Attitude Problem
We all know what Baca is. It's a place of tears, a place of misery. Don't just give up, lie down and die because you're in Baca. If you'll develop in your attitude that this is not where I'm to live, this is not God's best for me - I'm just passing through, then you'll pass through a lot quicker.
If you have a proper attitude when you go through the Valley of Baca, the other side of Baca can be a place of increased strength. Some people say, "Yes, God created this Baca for me." No, He didn't. It's the devil who brings misery. Satan comes to kill, steal and destroy. God gives life and that more abundantly. But we shouldn't be so naive as to think now that we're Christians, now that we love God, we'll never have any more problems.
Having faith in God creates problems because, for the first time in your life, you've become dangerous to the devil. You became a tremendous threat to him when you made the decision to put God's Word first place in your life. The devil did not roll over and play dead. He's going to attack. He hates what you stand for, and he knows that if you keep filling your heart with the Word of God, it's going to be very, very dangerous to him and to his operations.
The more of God's Word you get in your spirit, the stronger you become, and no matter how severe the attack may get, you've got sufficient faith to overcome. The Valley of Baca only proves where you stand. It's kind of a testing ground. When you go through the Valley of Baca, Satan is testing you. He doesn't know that much about you except what you reveal to him through your words and through your actions. God knows the thought and the intent of your heart. He doesn't have to test you. He knows everything about you.
He's numbered every hair on your head. He knows every thought in your heart. He knows what you're going to do under pressure. He knows everything about you. It's the devil who doesn't know you that well, so he'll create a Valley of Baca (put you through a time of misery, weeping and tears) to find out what you're made of.
If he wants to see what you're made of, tell him, "If it's a fight you want, a fight you're gonna get, but when the dust settles, God and I will still be standing." If you have a proper attitude, if you take the Word of God and stand while you're passing through, you could come out on the other side stronger.
Now for folks who don't have the right attitude in Baca, it almost destroys them, and some never recover. They never get on top again. There are a lot of Christians who have been in Baca for the last 40 years, and they never "pass through." Like the children of Israel who were supposed to pass through the wilderness, they wound up spending 40 years in a place they could have passed through in forty days.
You may be experiencing a valley of weeping, a valley of tears, hurts and wounds, but you've got to realize this thing is not forever. You cannot lie down and quit because of it. Everyone has experienced times of weeping, tears, and disappointments when things didn't work out. We've all tasted that in some way or another. It's the attitude that you have while you're in it that will determine whether or not you come out of it.
You have a right to pass through. You don't have to stay in the valley. One of the thrilling things about the Bible is how it reveals what people did when they experienced misery, hard times, tears, weeping or disappointment. Even those who are in the "hall of fame of faith" passed through Baca. They came out victorious.
From the writings of the Psalmist David, we see his weaknesses, his different moods, his emotions, his inabilities and his failures, but we also see his victories. In Psalm 3, David speaks of these times of Baca (tears and misery). He's a man who was often betrayed by people he thought loved him. Every aspect of misery that you and I go through, this man experienced in some way or another.
There are people who would try to convince you that there is no help. They'll try to convince you, "All that faith stuff won't help." That's just what you don't need to hear when you're in Baca.
Excerpt permission granted by Jerry Savelle Publications
Dr. Jerry Savelle was an average, blue-collar man who was struggling and needed God's help. While he considered himself a "nobody," when he became a believer God told him not to worry about it because He was a master at making champions out of nobodies. God has since taken Dr. Savelle from being a constant quitter to a man who knows how to stand on the Word of God until victory is experienced. Because of the life-changing combination of God's faithfulness and Dr. Savelle's "no quit" attitude, his life is totally different than it was thirty-eight years ago.
