At the beginning of the month of September, as I would respond to people’s request for personal prophecies, I began to notice that several of the prophetic words I was sending dealt with the theme of pressure. In many of these messages the Holy Spirit was admonishing people to not allow the enemy to put pressure on them to make decisions that they would later regret. Initially, I was concerned when I began to receive these words. I thought, “Maybe I’m in a rut? Is this the reason why I’m getting all of these words that are similar?” But after some consultation with the Lord – He clarified to me that the issue of pressure was in fact a tactic the enemy was using during this season to get God’s people out of alignment.

How this connects with the word God gave me in November 2014

Towards the end of 2014, the Lord gave me a word to share. He said that 2015 would be “the year of the harvest” and that the majority of the Body of Christ would begin to experience the fullness of this harvest between September and October of 2015. The Lord has later said to me that this blessing will continue through March of 2016. Yet, because our advisory cannot stop God’s blessing for us, He will try to pressure us into making decisions that will delay God’s best for us.

He will speak against the Most High and oppress his holy people and try to change the set times and the laws. The holy people will be delivered into his hands for a time, times and half a time (Daniel 7:25, emphasis mine).

The enemy wants to put so much pressure on you that you make a bad decision that causes a setback. In scripture we see an example of how Satan pressured God’s people in the life of King David. David felt so much pressure from Satan that it caused him to conduct a census of Israel.

     Again the anger of the Lord was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against
     them to say, “Go, number Israel and Judah. So the king said to Joab the commander
     of the army who was with him, “Now go throughout all the tribes of Israel, from
     Dan to Beersheba, and count the people, that I may know the number of the people”
(I Samuel 24:1-2).

Why would God get angry because David conducted a census?

It’s very important to understand why God was angry with David and Israel. Throughout history, God always demonstrated His grace towards Israel by showing up big when they went to battle. In fact, in the story of Gideon, Gideon started out with an
army of 32,000 and God told him to reduce the army to 300! Just think about that!!!!! Gideon’s army went from 32,000 to 300!!!! (Ref. Judges 7:1-7). This is an extremely important concept that you must understand: GOD + YOU = THE MAJORITY. God often thrives in situations that we consider to be pressure filled. The reason why is that, in these pressure filled situations, we are forced to put total trust in God.

So now you see why God considered it to be “evil” that David numbered his army. In essence, by numbering his army, David was saying that he trusted in his men more than he did in the power of God. The parallel passage in I Chronicle 20 says
this:

     “Then Satan stood up against Israel and moved
     David to number Israel. So David said to Joab and to
     the princes of the people, ‘Go, number Israel from
     Beersheba even to Dan, and bring me word that I may
     know their number'”.

Satan pressured David to count his army by getting him in fear. Fear is probably the number one tactic of the enemy to pressure us into making bad decisions. We feel the pressure of a bill so we go to a cash advance place that charges us 330% interest (or more!). Or a young lady sleeps with a guy because he pressures her – saying she should do it if she really loves him. Or because the enemy pressures us with lack, we begin to question whether God really promised us He was going to fix it.

Beloved, we cannot allow the devil to pressure us. If God said it, we have to stand on His word, and watch His salvation. If God has spoken to you through His prophetic word, or through a scripture that He has made rhema to you, you cannot back down off of it just because you see situations that are opposite to what He has promised. Stand on God’s Word. GOD + YOU = THE MAJORITY

Recently, I was serving on a prophetic team and our leader had been directed by God to host a conference in another part of the country from where we lived. As we got closer to the date, the devil threw all types of obstacles at us to try and get us to question whether we made the right decision in having the conference at this location. Registrations were moving slow and the booking manager for our team was having conflicts with the host hotel. Finally, one day I asked, “God did tell us to have the conference here, correct?” Everyone on the team agreed by saying “yes”. I then asked, “So why are we concerned about whether the conference is going to be successful or not? If God promised told us this is where we are supposed to have the conference, why are we stressing?” Consequently, we moved forward and the conference was very successful both financially and spiritually.

See, we have to go on with God despite the pressure we feel. It is a common misconception that if God gives us a word, everything is going to be hunky-dory and we will experience nothing but sunshine, rainbows, candy and kool-aide. Forget it! God’s word will always be contested by the enemy. But the God news is that with God all things are possible. GOD +YOU = THE MAJORITY. Don’t stop believing the word of The Lord. Stand on His prophetic word with faith and know that you know- if He spoke it,
IT WILL COME TO PASS.