Breaking the Cycle of Victory and Defeat

Do you ever experience temporary victory and then find yourself in a place of defeat again?  It can get tiring, discouraging and ultimately leads to despair and a desire to give up and never try again.  Well, today I want to look at how we can break that.

Most of you, I’m sure, are familiar with the story of David and Goliath; a story that has such a wealth and depth of revelation that can help us in our walk into compete freedom and victory.

David turns up and sees Goliath challenging the Israelite army to find a man who will come out and fight him.  For 40 days the Israelites have looked at Goliath and their courage was non-existent, they could not see a way that their biggest problem could ever be defeated.  The more they looked at him, the bigger he became in their eyes.  Does that ring true for you?  The more you look at a problem the bigger and more insurmountable it becomes?

David hasn’t been looking at the problem; He has been spending time with the sheep and with God.  When he turns up he is completely confident of God’s strength and power.  Not long before this day he had been anointed King, and so he knew that God would fulfill His purpose for David’s life and so was confident that victory was his, that he couldn’t be defeated.

So, David takes the sling and 5 stones.  He knocks Goliath out with the first one.  Victory?! Well…not yet!  Then he takes Goliath’s sword and kills him….then just to make sure he cuts off his head – there is no way that Goliath is coming back now!  Job done?  Not yet! 

Now, the Israelite army has their courage back and they realize that as the Philistine army run off, if they don’t deal with the entire army then they will just raise up another Goliath to come back and challenge them.  So, they chase after the Philistine army and destroy every single one of them.  THEN, they bring back the plunder from the enemy and celebrate the abundant blessing that God has poured out on them.  All because one man decided not to look at the problem, but to look at His God and bring victory.

There are a number of lessons we can glean from this that will help us to get out of the cycle of victory…defeat…victory…defeat.  If you will take this on board and act on it, you will not keep facing the same issues over and over again.

1. Stop looking at the problem and how tough it is.  Start looking at Jesus and how awesome and amazing He is.

2. Recognize that God has called you for a purpose and believe that if He has a purpose for you then He is not going to allow you to be defeated when you start fighting.  He is just waiting for you to believe that there is victory for you.

3. Remember that the battle is the Lord’s.  He needs and wants your co-operation, but obey Him and let God do the rest for you.  Stop trying to find your own ways out of the mess….find God’s way out.

4. The initial victory that you get may only have stunned the problem.  If you don’t continue the process, it will get right back up again and while you are celebrating, whack you on the head!  Once it is down, it needs to be killed and its head chopped off!  You do this through determination to declare the truth of God’s word over the situation, submitting continually to God, resisting every lie that the enemy whispers to you and rejoicing in and declaring victory over the situation.

5. Don’t let it finish there either.  Allow God to reveal every area where you may be vulnerable and chase those things away in prayer, in declaring the word of God and by allowing other people to know about those things and pray with you and support you.

6. When you get a victory in a certain area, God releases His grace to you for that thing – you suddenly have faith for that particular thing to be dealt with….so find other people who need that victory and pray for them.  I’m not suggesting you find people with the same problems and get into counseling or anything deep (that may not be good for you) but pray for them, pray for a release of that same victory for them.

7. Come back with the plunder!!  With other people’s lives transformed, with increased blessings in your own life, with confidence, with a deeper relationship with God and so on.

Let’s break the cycle of defeat and temporary victory and walk in victory every day.  If you stumble, God is faithful to lift you up, set you on your feet and keep walking with you.  Never give up when you fall down.  Who would learn to walk if they did that?! 

Don’t leave the job half done!