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I attended a home church meeting several years ago and knew I had a “word” for the hosts but could never gain enough clarity to present the word to them. The wife’s name was Martha and, in my spirit, I clearly “heard”  “Martha, Martha”. I searched the scriptures for the Lord's encounters with Martha and I kept waiting and seeking to receive more but never did. A couple of years later Martha was :diagnosed with cancer and we began praying fervently for her healing. I made several trips to their home and, subsequently, to the hospital, and, eventually, to hospice, always expecting her healing and expecting more clarification. When I attended her funeral, on a Saturday, I managed to get alone with her corpse and sought the Lord to see if I might get an unction to command her back to life.

When I went to our church the next morning Bob was there. I told him how fervently we had prayed for her and described how certain I had been that she would receive healing and how I felt so terribly disappointed, confused, and disillusioned. I fully expected Bob to console me and tell me “you poor thing”. I was shocked when he actually sort of rebuked me.

He said, “listen, you fight every battle like you’re going to win! Then, when that battle’s over, you dust yourself off, lift up your head, and go into the next battle fully expecting to win”.

We must be careful to not adopt doctrine based on our experiences but only on the Word. We've lost some hard fought battles recently but, let's not forget that we've won some. Let's not focus on losses but let's focus on the times ahead when we will continue to pray and believe!

Recently, when I learned that the little boy we had all been praying and believing for had passed away I was tempted to be distraught and disillusioned. I forced myself to sing the song we have been singing in Sunday worship. "All my life You have been faithful! All my life You have been so, so Good! With every breath that I am able, I will sing of the Goodness of God!"

Now is not the time to stop believing! Now is the time to pick up every weapon we own and prepare for the next battle!