“But now, this is what the Lord says–He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk though the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

Isaiah 43:1-2

The reality of the presence of adversity inside the cage of life is a given. Some Christian teachings mistakenly forget that it is called the “good fight” for a reason.  They claim that this fight of faith comes without any hard knocks and those who find themselves on their back being pounded in the spiritual face by adversity, don’t have strong enough faith. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Consider Isaiah’s words: When you pass through the waters . . . when you pass through the rivers . . . when you walk through the fire. In addition, remember what is written in Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. None of that sounds like every punch of adversity has been avoided. However, in each of these places we are promised by the Lord, I will be with you.

The question one must ask is: Which is a greater reality, the intensity of the fight or the presence of the Lord with us during the fight? This question sometimes cannot be answered until we have stood in the center of the cage and exchanged blows with adversity. It is then that the knowing moves from head to heart and the impact of the adversity taps out in God’s presence.

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory, not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”

John 16:33

The intensity of the fight inside the cage of life can really challenge our peace at times. Going toe to toe with an enemy that is throwing haymakers from every angle trying to knock us out can really discourage us if we don’t keep our eyes on Christ.  It is during these difficult rounds that the words of our heavenly trainer seem a bit confusing.  I mean, how can we have peace during the fight when we are being hit from all sides by adversity?

It is important to understand between rounds that Christ’s peace is not the same as the world’s (John 14:27). The average fighter thinks peace will come only if they are able to win every fight. However, we are not promised peace through our personal victories but through our relationship with the Father.  This bond will insure peace even during the most heated battles.

We can never fix the fight so that we feel safe and secure every round. The way to tap out anxiety isn’t by fighting weaker opponents. Instead, victory comes from being hidden in Christ and fighting through the difficult rounds with quiet confidence in God’s fight plan.

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason.  However, we fight from victory, not for victory. Keep Fighting!

“Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus: Who, being in very natureGod, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very natureof a servant, being made in human likeness. And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself and became obedient to death– even death on a cross!”

Philippians 2:5-8

When Jesus stepped inside the cage of life to take on the cross, it was not human legs that kicked him.  It was not human hands that clenched his arm during the arm bar of adversity.  It was not a human fist that knocked him to the mat for our sins.  It was not a human that kept him inside the triangle choke of suffering.  It was not the fighter’s sent by Satan to tap him out that beat him.

God gave him strength while on his back being pounded in the face by the elbows of sin. Those same hands that formed the universe. Those same hands that held you and me before the foundation of the world.

Take a jog out to the mountain of the skull. Out to the cross where, with holy blood, the hand that placed you on the planet wrote the promise, “God would give up his only Son before he’d Tap Out on you.  Truly, Jesus Didn’t Tap! – Are you tapping out on him?

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

Psalm 142: 1

Your heavenly trainer listens.  Your voice matters in his gym.  The comments you make in the corner between rounds, He takes seriously.  When you can barely speak because the world has broken your ribs, he moves in close to here your whispers. You will not be sent back into the fight without instructions. He hears your fears without you saying a word. Even if you stammer or stumble getting back to your corner, he is there to catch you when you fall. He listens to the painful plea to stop the fight.  He listens to the broken confession of fighters who cannot remain standing. When the crowd jeers, he gently wipes away the tears.  Your heavenly trainer listens. Intently Carefully.

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“But now, this is what the Lord says–He who created you, O Jacob, He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have summoned you by name; you are Mine. When you pass through the waters, I will be with you; and when you pass through the rivers, they will not sweep over you. When you walk though the fire, you will not be burned; the flames will not set you ablaze.”

Isaiah 43:1-2

The reality of the presence of adversity inside the cage of life is a given. Some Christian teachings mistakenly forget that it is called the “good fight” for a reason.  They claim that this fight of faith comes without any hard knocks and those who find themselves on their back being pounded in the spiritual face by adversity, don’t have strong enough faith. Nothing could be further from the truth!

Consider Isaiah’s words: When you pass through the waters . . . when you pass through the rivers . . . when you walk through the fire. In addition, remember what is written in Psalm 23: Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death. None of that sounds like every punch of adversity has been avoided. However, in each of these places we are promised by the Lord, I will be with you.

The question one must ask is: Which is a greater reality, the intensity of the fight or the presence of the Lord with us during the fight? This question sometimes cannot be answered until we have stood in the center of the cage and exchanged blows with adversity. It is then that the knowing moves from head to heart and the impact of the adversity taps out in God’s presence.

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory, not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“I tell you the truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains only a single seed. But if it dies, it produces many seeds. The man who loves his life will lose it, while the man who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me; and where I am, my servant also will be. My Father will honor the one who serves me.”

John 12:24-26

Until you tap out to your own fighting style, you will never experience the true championship in Christ.  You may say, “That does not sound right.” You’re correct, it does not sound right.  However, God tells us in his word “… my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,” declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts” (Isaiah 55:8-9).

Many fighters around the world are defeated inside the cage of life because they refuse to die to self and live in Christ.  They are trying to win the good fight on their own, using their own talents.  This will never happen.  Only through Christ can we have victory over the forces of darkness in this world.  The weakest demon is much more powerful than the strongest human without Christ.

When Anointed Fighters tap out to self and fight through Christ, they begin to experience the power that raised Jesus from the dead.  One by one, the issues of life will begin to tap out.  Make no mistake about it; if we fight without Christ, we are fighting in vain.

The psalmist describes what it means to fight in our own strength:

“Unless the LORD builds the house, its builders labor in vain. Unless the LORD watches over the city, the watchmen stand guard in vain. In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat—for he grants sleep to those he loves” (Psalm 127:1-2).

How does one die to self and live in Christ? It usually takes being knocked down by the over-hand right of adversity before most fighters crawl back to the corner and relinquish control of the fight to Christ. Have you come to this place with God in your life? Are you crawling back to your corner?

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“…everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God.”

1 John 5:4-5

See the worldly fighters, how they run around the cage waiting for the round to be over. Covering up in their misery, hoping their opponent won’t knock them out, fearing every punch and kick. Pity those who refuse Christ and to fight by faith, for their souls will be knocked out by Satan.

Not so the Anointed Fighter. The very same fighters that pound upon the poor earthbound fighters, produces the violent winds that lifts the Anointed champion effortlessly above the storm clouds into the championship rounds of the good fight… Revelation 12:12 speaks of both classes when it says: “Therefore rejoice, you heavens and you who dwell in them! But woe to the earth and the sea, because the devil has gone down to you! He is filled with fury, because he knows that his time is short.”  Yes, the good fight is entering into the championship rounds and its full fury will fall upon those who have not known the way of Christ.

God is carrying many fighters into the championship rounds, lifting them off the mat by the Holy Ghost. Their once strong opponents grow strangely weak in the presents of His glory and grace. They do not fear the battle. The same persecution and tribulation that shall cause those not fighting by faith to tap out shall cause Anointed Fighters to soar to champion heights never before attained by man since Jesus Christ set the example.

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons,neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord”.

Romans 8:38-39

We want to know the nature of God’s love… He love us when we are down on the mat struggling to get back on our feet, not just when we are on top of the world pounding away. He loves us the same when we loose seven fights in a row as he does when we win seven fights in a row.  His love is the same for us before during and after the fight.  His love never changes.

Can anything choke out the love Christ has for us?

God answered our question before we asked it.  He stepped out of heaven and into the cage of life to take it on the chin for us.  Through Christ, we are more than conquers.  We are Anointed Fighters loved by God.   He raised your hand in the air and said, “You’re the champion.”  Have you told him thank you today?

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason.  However, we fight from victory, not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“Yet they rebelled and grieved his Holy Spirit. So he turned and became their enemy and he himself fought against them.”

Isaiah 63:10

Sometimes a fighter is put into the cage of life and refuses to fight according to faith. He will not throw grace punches or mercy kicks. He just covers up each round with structured religion and works until the bell rings and his trainer picks him off the mat. Time and again, the process is repeated until the heavenly trainer has been rejected so much that the rebel fighters’ harden heart no longer hears the saving voice from his corner.

If he were a fighter of the world, the evil one would watch over him, feed his ego and protect his pride. Not so the Anointed Fighter. Either he learns to die to self and live in Christ, or his soul is knocked out cold in the center of the cage by the world.

Knowing this, the Heavenly trainer keeps fighting to soften his heart. Then out of love and with a wild screech of pain and disappointment, like an eagle flying out from under her young, because “they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done.” (Romans 1:28). He dives out from under him and flies away, leaving him to tap out to death inside the cage of life. Are you fighting by faith?

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason. However, we fight from victory not for victory.  Keep Fighting!

“Be self–controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.”

1 Peter 5:8-9

Main Entry: Resist

Pronunciation: \ri-ˈzist\

Function: verb

Etymology: Middle English, from Anglo-French or Latin; Anglo-French resister, from Latin resistere, from re- + sistere to take a stand; akin to Latin stare to stand — more at stand

Date: 14th century

Intransitive verb: to exert force in opposition transitive verb1: to exert oneself so as to counteract or defeat <he resisted temptation>
2: to withstand the force or effect of <material that resists heat>

When you’re in the heat of battle, it is critical that you don’t allow your opponent to push you around the cage of life.  If you do not resist him, he will eventually over power you and knock you out.  The same principal applies in the spiritual realm.  You must resist Satan’s efforts to choke you out with discouragement. Remember the Bible’s promise that if you resist Satan during the good fight, he will run around the cage from you.

Every round, pray for the spiritual strength you need to fight the evil attacks that you’ll encounter inside the cage of life.  When Satan tempts you to doubt God, counter-punch with trust. When Satan tries to tap you out with deception, pray to discern the truth. When Satan attempts to break up your training camp, make every effort to keep the unity of the Holy Spirit through the bond of peace.  Keep in mind that God’s power working in you is greater than any of Satan’s punches and, in Christ, you have the spiritual authority to knock out Satan’s work and emerge victorious.

Remember, it is called a fight for a reason.  However, we fight from victory, not for victory.  Keep Fighting!