In the beginning God created man to live in an intimate harmonious relationship with him. To live in this relationship man would need to deepen his faith in God. This covenant relationship was first established with the nation of Israel. God promised that Abraham and all his descendants would be blessed, if they worshipped, obeyed and lived in fellowship with him. This same promise was extended to the Gentiles under the New Covenant fulfilled in the person of Jesus Christ. Satan will use any means to discourage the believer’s hope and faith in the promises made by God to them. Adversity is a prime weapon uses by Satan to win his battles. A discouraged Christian is more prone to faint in time of much adversity and affliction.
The process of learning how to deal with adversity starts with the mind. Thus, we need to learn that God desires to empower the believer with discernment to overcome satanic attacks in life. Without a deeper faith in the omnipotence of God, you cannot win spiritual battles over cripplers such as anger, pride, jealousy, selfishness, disappointment, immorality and others. The beginning of adversity had its root in the Garden of Eden and is a result of the sinful choice made by Eve and Adam. With the birth of sin, the world became introduced to adversity and the main culprit Satan. It is impossible to live in this world without some adversity. The choices we make determine the level of adversity we will encounter in this life. When we ignore the will and wisdom of God, we experience self inflicted adversity created by our wrong choices or sinful actions. However, an intimate fellowship with God will help to guide and lessen the impact of adversity and affliction. God’s perfect love can safeguard us from the full impact of all adversity.
Facing our adversities has much to do with how we perceive God. The notion that God’s people are free from adversity is erroneous. Every day will not be filled with victories. His scriptures never promised to keep us immune from life calamities, but rather to provide assurance that he will accompany us as we go through. “These things I have spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world” (Jn. 16:33) Adversity will come, but he is capable of empowering us to be victorious beyond them. When we expect some adversity to enter our lives we develop a healthy attitude of this life. Developing an over comer’s perspective of God opens our understanding. Jesus taught his disciples to have a great faith in God’s promises. Having this God-centered and Kingdom focused faith propels and strengthens believers to live a joyful life above adversity caused by our self imposed choices, and the trials sent by God to strengthen us.
It is imperative that we seek to deepen our faith in God. You will confuse the enemy by increasing your level of faith. We must be quick to praise God, and not doubt his omnipotence. When we reach that plateau in life where we become a true worshipper of God in spirit and truth as Abraham did on Mt. Moriah, God will call us his friends too. The decisive moment that we trust God and walk faithful as Jesus and Abraham did, we will have reached the pinnacle of Faith Mountain.
Throughout this book steps are shared to enable you to become victorious over life adversities. Self caused adversity can rob us of our purpose and victory in Christ. Unless we learn how to avoid the entrapment of Satan through manipulative adversity, we will fall prey to him and never walk in our destiny. Understanding this fact will encourage us to develop a deep abiding faith in the promises of God.
The trial of the cross was the pinnacle of faith for Jesus. He envisioned his restoration with his Father God long before actually experiencing victory. We too must envision climbing high to the top of a mountain through many obstacles and experience the beauty below in the valley. We have a promise from God that he will always be with us. Becoming victims to self inflicted adversity causes us to take our eyes off of the promise keeper, God. To overcome adversities we must see the beauty that God sees in us. A deeper faith will inherit for us the promise land experience of Jesus and Abraham. (He. 6:12)