Mrs. PIE

Silence in the Storm: Letting God Fight Your Battles

• Shelley Jeffcoat • Season 4 • Episode 123

Share episode

We explore the spiritual discipline of choosing our battles wisely and learning when to be silent and let God fight for us. This powerful teaching examines how our comfortable default responses to challenges often prevent us from experiencing God's deliverance.

• Fear not, stand firm, and see the salvation of the Lord (Exodus 14:13-15)
• Breaking free from comfortable but ineffective response patterns
• Distinguishing between battles we should fight and those God wants to fight for us
• Understanding how what we see in the natural world reflects spiritual realities
• The power of being silent and watching God work on our behalf
• Speaking words that align with heaven's perspective about our situations
• Becoming witnesses (not just ambassadors) of God's deliverance
• Using our words to create our future instead of cursing ourselves

Call into our prayer line, whether you're in the US or UK, if you need support. Sometimes you just need to listen, and that's perfectly fine.


Support the show

Come join us at our virtual events monthly. Visit our website to learn more.

Speaker 1:

no-transcript. And there we go. So good morning. I'm Shelly. This is Come Out of the Wilderness Prayer Ministry and don't get mad at me today. Okay, we're going to talk about some things today, don't get mad at me. So I'm so grateful that we are here. We made it to another Thursday, so I'm so grateful that we are here.

Speaker 1:

We made it to another Thursday, and this month of April, our theme really were where we were leaning into how to hear from God, and for some of us it's just how to hear from him differently. And while we're in the midst of the things, right, I also had, in one of the descriptions, finding rest during this time. So it's a complicated conversation, but we're breaking it out over these weeks of April and so this week we're going to talk about choosing our battles wisely. So before we go further, lord, I just thank you for allowing us to see another day. I thank you for wisdom that you'll give us and I ask that you'll speak to the hearts and souls and minds of every person who's under the sound of my voice, that they will receive whatever confirmation, whatever encouragement, whatever inspiration you have for them, that they will come to know you, lord Jesus, not me, and that they'll seek you out, they'll find peace in your word, they'll find comfort today in whatever troubles they're in and whatever they stand in need of, they will receive it. Amen, all right, so I'm going to pull up. I'm going to go to my comments real quick. Good morning Dr Tracy, good morning Makisha.

Speaker 1:

So I have this scripture that I'm going to raise up. This is Exodus 14 verses. What is it? 13. Y'all I don't know what happened was my. It's Exodus 14, 13 through 15. What happened was because I can tell y'all, because we're a family is that I intended to tell y'all, talk to y'all or teach y'all something else, and that's not what the Lord said. So that's why it looks all crazy on my screen, because I wasn't going to do it. Okay. So, out of obedience.

Speaker 1:

So Exodus 14, and Moses said to the people fear not one, stand firm two, and see the salvation of the Lord, which he will work for you today, for the Egyptians. Maybe the troubles who you see today, you shall never see again, and I love this so much. The Lord will fight for you, not might. The Lord will fight for you. And here's the tough part. And you have only to be silent. You have only to be silent. So I'm going to pull this down. I'm going to share a few things with you, and then we're going to come back in this quick scripture and then we're going to pray and then we're going to go on to our day. So the first thing I want to share is that. Good morning, jessica.

Speaker 1:

The first thing is that when we have a storm brewing or we're in a season when we're talking about choosing our battles wisely, we become very comfortable with the way we respond to something. We become very comfortable with the way we show up. So when it talks about fear not stand firm and see, that's a positional thing. First of all, you have to in your mind, you have to have no doubt about God's going to bring you out of this storm. He's going to remove your enemies, all the things Right, but that is something that um for a lot of us. So here's an example here's and I know like I'm going to sound like I'm going all over the place, but I promise you I'm going somewhere. I promise you it's just.

Speaker 1:

This is a very tough one, because this is something that I'm battling with, right, and I know I'm not the only one. All right, so here's an example. I'm going to show you something. I'm going to show you something. I have a love of reading glasses. I've had it for a long time. I have a giant bucket of. They're all functional and they're all expensive. Okay, so I'm putting my treasure into this reading glasses thing. I've got them everywhere. I've got different styles, I've got them in my car. I'm just showing you what's in my office. I have two in my purse, I have some in my bedroom, I have some downstairs. I'm just showing you an example.

Speaker 1:

My natural response, however, despite having all of these options, my natural response is to grab the same blue pair of Kitas that I've been wearing for about three years now, maybe longer, maybe four years, no matter how dusty and dirty they are. My response is to go back to what I'm comfortable with, right, so my comfort, because I don't want to step out of that comfort. I just grab what I'm used to grabbing. I do what I usually do. My response hasn't changed. Situations might've changed. So, for example, sometimes I'm reading and I need a stronger level, right, I need a 2.0, not a 1.75 for you readers, right? But I'll go right back to my comfort level and even though it will skew my perspective because the glasses strength that I need, I go back to the comfort level and that causes me some pain. What it also does is I can't see if you will spiritually salvation of the Lord working in my life in certain situations because again I've gone back, I reverted back to my response, my comfort level. Okay.

Speaker 1:

So in order for us to see the salvation, to see God working things out in our lives, we have to change some of the way that we're responding to what's happening and for many of us, the way that we respond is talk about it right. We tell everybody our friends, our family, our aunties, our uncles. You know, I find that this is something that I'm personally, again we're we're that this is something that I'm personally again we're doing life together. When I get into certain environments, I become very, very quiet because I'm sensitive to the spirit around me. I'm sensitive to the good, I'm also sensitive to the bad and I know that there are times when I'm in environments that I am shooketh, like I literally can't wait to get out of it. I get someplace and I just I can see the things happening and I just want to leave, but part of my response is to sit in that thing, let it impact me, and then I'll go talk about it to my friends, right? So now I'm not only allowing the Lord, I'm not even.

Speaker 1:

First of all, I'm not allowing the Lord to fight for me. I'm fighting for myself, because I'm talking about it with my friends. I'm literally spewing, I'm chewing, I'm taking in all the negative stuff that's happening. I'm chewing that thing like a meal, I'm sharing it with my friends and then I'm digesting it. Then I refuse to believe that God is gonna do something. I don't trust him, right? That he's going to come through for me. So I'm running all those battles in my mind about how I'm going to respond, how am I going to fix it? And Lord, where are you? And Lord, why are you fighting for me? And I can't see his salvation, I can't see him move because I have fallen into my comfortable response. I have only to be silent when God is moving in my life, and yet I choose not to.

Speaker 1:

So today, y'all, I want to encourage us that this position this year, when we're talking about being disciplined, it's not just like being robotic in how we worship. It's not about having a checklist of. I'm going to do this. I'm going to pray five times a day. I'm going to fast forever. There is something that we have to do, there's things that we have to give up, something that we have to sacrifice, and if you go in the word, we talk about dying to flesh every day. I'm going to bring that back home for you. When we talk about dying to flesh, this is what dying to flesh looks like it's being able to for us control our response to what's happening in our environments. You can't choose battles wisely if your response is the same, if you do the same response again. I'll show you the example of me. I got a whole bunch of resources and glasses. I go back and I choose the same one, whether it shifts my perspective or not.

Speaker 1:

So in order for us to see God working, we have to change the way we respond to the battles that's happening in our life. Here's another example. I lead a team on the job. I'm a corporate girly. There's something going on in my team. I'm not going to tell you all what, but one person on my team is impacted by how that person's being treated by other people outside of my team. I'm a person I'm big on judgment. I believe in we should all do the right thing, right.

Speaker 1:

And so my natural response is to fight for this person, is to tear down walls for this person, is to remove every roadblock and literally throw myself in problem for this person. And yet this time, this time, the Lord was like no, you need to be silent. The situation didn't call for me to respond or make this my battle. This situation was a test for that person, for them to respond in their battle. And so as, for example, if you're a mom or a mom, whether it's young kids or adult children, our natural response, mom, is for us to fight every battle that our kids have, because we're nurturers by nature, right, and yet spiritually spiritually, that is not what he's telling you to do. When the Lord says he will fight for you and you have to be silent, sometimes we got to be quiet and let him work these things out.

Speaker 1:

And it was such a challenge for me, but I had to pull back right, remembering that, exactly, jessica, intercessors have that problem. Naturally we want to jump in the battle. We want have that problem. Naturally we want to jump in the battle. We want to pray you out, we want to save you, right, but we have to allow God, we have to. Let some of us literally let God move in our life. It is not our battle. So how do you choose your battles wisely, all right.

Speaker 1:

So here's the here's the tough thing. The first thing is now, when I'm looking at yesterday, so for me, um, I physically go into an office space and I told you I get, I get, uh, I feel it now more than ever I become very overwhelmed. I usually isolate myself for the most part, because I'm I'm one of those people. I kind of work, I work better when I'm alone. I need to think okay, so I do tend to isolate myself. But the moment I'm in and the environment changes and it's the wrong spirits you know what I'm saying the moment the chatter, the noise comes in, I have a really hard time Mentally. I have a really hard time Mentally. I want to shut down. Emotionally, I get very quiet. Spiritually I'm on a thousand because I'm discerning everything all around me, all at the same time.

Speaker 1:

But then what happens is you tend to start it starts messing with your thoughts. You start going into literally spiritual attacks and you start running thoughts through your head and the enemy starts showing you. This person is coming for you, that person is lying on you Like all of these things start coming and you've got to choose the battle that you're going to fight. So what do you do? So I pull myself from that situation and I'll go find a little corner and me and the Holy Spirit have a whole conversation in prayer. Sometimes, if I can't move quick enough in my heart I'm praying Lord, deliver me, lord, protect me. I start to remind myself that, oh yeah, the word says all things are working out for my good. So, father, show me, give me wisdom, let me see what you want me to see. And he's not telling me go run my mouth. He's not. He's saying be silent and let me work. And then what happens is he starts to show me some of the things that he's been moving right, despite what you see right now.

Speaker 1:

What you see right now in the natural feels like y'all a lot of times for those who see in the spirit that you understand that what you see in the natural, it's a reflection of what's happening in the spirit, so things that are happening, but it's not like a true copy. It's like a fake copy, some of the things that are happening in the natural where it looks like some people are winning and they are winning despite their bad intentions. If you know what I'm saying, that that's not actually what's happening in the spirit. They are wrestling other things that you can't see. That's why the Holy Spirit has to fight on your behalf. That's why we can't. That's why it says you got to choose your battles wisely.

Speaker 1:

There are battles that are happening in the spiritual world that you're seeing. You're seeing a reflection in the natural world's. An example there's this person I work with and every time she smiles, she's trying so hard to be nice, she's putting on the face, but spiritually she's literally being consumed by her own desires. So I see spiritually that she's fighting this battle that she wants. She's being consumed by her own desires, but in the natural she's smiling, she smells good, she looks good and everybody likes her okay. So if you're not careful, you'll end up fighting battles that you're not equipped to fight. That's why we have to engage the Holy Spirit in everything that we do. The battle is not ours.

Speaker 1:

I'm going to bring this scripture back up. So I'm going to bring this scripture back up and then I'm going to close this out. All right, I told y'all I was going to be, you know, I hope y'all still like me, but we got to get this right, me included, all right Again. Moses said to the people here's the first thing fear not. We don't travel in fear. We're not afraid of what any man, woman, boy or girl can do or say about us. We don't walk in fear. Ok, we walk in victory.

Speaker 1:

Number two we stand firm on what God says about you. Stand firm on what, literally. If I fully believe all things are working out for my good, because that's what the word of God says, I believe it. I believe victory is mine. I believe I have his grace and favor. I absolutely believe that there is victory at the end of everything that I touch. I believe I'm a Proverbs 31. Like, listen, I stand firm on what the word says, but I still have to. I have to consume that, eat it, drink it, you know, read it whatever. I've got to stand firm on his word. And then C, meaning I have to have his perspective. I need to see the salvation of the Lord, it says, which he'll work out for me today. It's not saying next week, next year, next month. Lord, I want to see your salvation today, on my job. See your salvation in my finances. See your salvation in my health. I want to see you work things out Like I'm calling on that. Okay, that's what I'm calling on, all right.

Speaker 1:

And then for the Egyptians whom you see today so the problems that you see today, I'm not going to see them again. It's not going to be a replay, it's not coming back. When, god, when you deliver me from this thing, I will never see this again. When you deliver me from this person right, I talk about person, places and things when you deliver me from this person, this place or this thing, I will never see it again. Lord, remove it. I don't even want to see it again, right? What does that do? It helps you to train your mind. You're not expecting, you're not choosing, you're not doubting that God's not going to do something. I'm never going to see this problem again, lord, because when you remove it, it is gone, because victory is mine and Lord, the Lord will fight for you. You have only to be silent. So, lord, one of the times that you want me to be silent and just watch you work Again, remember y'all when we speak, we speak, we create, but we speak, we also curse.

Speaker 1:

We can either speak a blessing or we can curse ourselves and the more that we get into the habit of responding, our comfortable respond, which is again, when we start talking about it, how we've been wrong. And again I'm telling you that I am going through this, I'm sharing it with you because I'm living it. I'm not ever, ever going to teach you about anything related to our Lord and Savior Jesus. I'm never going to tell you anything about the Holy Spirit or God if I haven't experienced it. And it's why this walk is so complicated. If you're ever truly called to do this line of work and I didn't want it, okay is because we teach from experience. So I'm not telling you anything that I'm not experiencing or have already been delivered from, because then I can't. I'm a witness of it.

Speaker 1:

Right, folks say I'm an ambassador of Christ. Okay, but are you a witness? You can be an ambassador of a place you've never been right. If you've never been delivered, you can't. You can be an ambassador and say you know, delivery is your, victory is yours. You can quote all the scriptures, but you're a witness. A witness actually has. You've experienced it.

Speaker 1:

I want y'all to witness winning battles. I want y'all to witness delivery. I want y'all to witness winning battles. I want y'all to witness delivery. I want y'all to witness victory. I want you to be witnesses when the word says all things are working out together for your good. I want you to be witnesses meaning you've experienced that level of breakthrough and blessings and victory and deliverance. That's why we have to choose our battles wisely. You've got to go through the fire, right. You've got to be actually delivered so that you're not just an ambassador, someone who dresses. You know, like I said, put on the front, sound good, smell, good, smile.

Speaker 1:

But you have really complicated. You've selected the desires of your heart over other people, right, those battles, we've got to be silent. So, lord, I thank you for all of us who are coming before you. First of all, we confess anything that we've said or done, in any thought, any words that we've uttered that's created any kind of curse, any incantation, anything we've said about others who have hurt us, or anything in our minds, any thoughts, anything, lord God, that you'll strike it down and you'll remove it now, that we're going to stand in agreement, that you will fight for us and in this moment, that we need to be silent and just let you work. Lord, we are relying on you, we trust you and we know that you are working all things together for our good, that you will give us wisdom to know which battles we need to fight, when to get involved and who to speak to.

Speaker 1:

I thought, lord, I thank you for every person who's listening and anyone connected to them, any battles they're going through in their mind, that you'll give them peace today and that you will go ahead of us and fight every battle. You'll close every portal, every door. If there's any words that we have said that was a sin against you, we ask that you will forgive us and we thank you for victory, because it is ours, and give us joy and encouragement and hope that you're fighting for us and that anything that you deliver us from we will never go back. We will never see that again. There won't be a replay. Every person, every place and everything that you've delivered us from we will never go back to that. That you have removed it and that there is a fresh path, and that you'll give them fresh rain today, lord God, that you'll bless all of us. All of these things we ask.

Speaker 1:

We know that you're opening doors for those who are standing in need of jobs and opportunity and help in any way. But, lord, none of that will. None of that, none of that matters right now. What we want more than anything, lord Jesus, is you. We want more of you, and today we want to see your salvation in every area of our lives Amen. So isn't that awesome? All right, y'all. I hope that blessed you. I hope that helped you. I know it helped me for real. Thank you so much for everybody who's come on this morning. Take care of yourself today. Be kind to yourself.

Speaker 1:

When we pray and ask God to forgive us, we leave it there, right? You don't carry it around like a badge. You know we leave it at his feet. He's already responded. He's already blessed you.

Speaker 1:

I had to forgive myself this morning because I was just, you know, pounding, like I'm the worst with, with, like not taking care of myself, and I had. I had to forgive myself for falling into that pit of not being silent. Okay, so when people ask you how things are going, you gotta, you gotta get into a situation where you start, you know, speaking the things that you, I start declaring things like you know, how am I doing? I'm great, I'm wonderful, things are great, things are working together. All of it is working together. For my good. Be prepared to be sick of me saying that how are you feeling? I'm restored, and it's not. Don't be fooled. It's not that some people used to call me Pollyanna. It's not being a Pollyanna, it's just.

Speaker 1:

I know that my words are literally crafting my future. I know that what I speak, I know that when I speak, I'm giving instructions to the ones that the Lord has sent to minister onto me, and I'm not going to give any instructions. That's going to be a counter to what God says to me. He says I'm blessed, so anything that I say is in support of what heaven says about me. So, pollyanna, if you will, but that's what I'm going to do, okay, all right. So I love you. Jesus loves you more. I hope you have an amazing Thursday. Don't forget you can call into our phone line, whether you're in the US or the UK. I know we have people call and just they're quiet on the line and that's okay. Sometimes you need to just come in and listen. So I hope that you guys will call in later today and God bless you. I will be back next week, take care.