Do You Need A Battle Plan?

 Are you in a season where it feels like you need a battle plan? I know I have been and have been trying to figure out a practical way to keep it in front of me because I feel like the Lord gives me plans. I ask him for plans. He's faithful to give me that direction, and then life keeps lifeing and I forget.

So if you're like me, I hope the thoughts I share today will be helpful. If we haven't met before, I'm mko. I have a heart to see the body of Christ living in health and wholeness and maturity. And I'm sharing the things that I am learning on my journey to all of those things in hopes that they will encourage you and show you practically what it looks like to walk that out step by step.

The first step is seeking the Lord to clearly define the battle.

Second is the battle plan. God’s strategies are not formulas but require listening, carrying His presence, and trusting Him for specific direction. That could include gratitude, worship, Scripture, prayer support, and specific obedience, cutting distractions, doubt, and double-mindedness while adding discipline and discernment. 

Third, refocus through reminders, or support as often as you need it.

00:00 Need a Battle Plan
02:30 Define the Real Battle
03:11 Old Testament Strategies
06:08 Ask God for Tactics
07:15 Heart Doodling Workshop
08:17 Cut Distraction and Doubt
10:40 Discipline and Discernment
12:55 Remember and Refocus
14:24 Victory and Territory
16:03 Little by Little Growth
18:41 Get Support and Next Steps

I'd love to connect with you!

• Find community in Healing Generations
•  Learn how God communicates with you in Transformational Quiet Times

Transcript

hen You Need A Battle Plan

SPEAKER_00 0:14

Are you in a season where it feels like you need a battle plan? I know I have been, and have been trying to figure out a practical way to keep it in front of me because I feel like the Lord gives me plans. I ask him for plans. He's faithful to give me that direction. And then life keeps lifeing and I forget. So if you're like me, I hope the thoughts I share today will be helpful. If we haven't met before, I'm McCove. I have a heart to see the body of Christ living in health and wholeness and maturity. And I'm sharing the things that I am learning on my journey to all of those things in hopes that they will encourage you and show you practically what it looks like to walk that out step by step. So over the past few years, maybe even several years, I've thought like I need a battle plan. Like it feels like the attacks keep coming, and part of me gets lost sometimes in is this just me? Is this a physical thing? Is it a diet thing? Is it old programming? Is it a spiritual attack? And unfortunately, I think the answer is yes. All of the above. And that makes it more important to have a battle plan. And I think for me, even more importantly, a plan to follow the battle plan. Because I can sit with the Lord and I can get a battle plan. Where I fall short is following through on the battle plan, remembering what he said, remembering that I'm in a battle with an actual spiritual enemy of my soul, instead of I'm just failing, I'm just having a bad day, I'm just struggling. And I don't want to over-spiritualize like everything that comes along is the devil. I don't think that's true either. I think he has his hand in as many things as he can, but he also has limited resources and can't be everywhere all the time because he's not God. The first step is always spending time with the Lord. Spending time with the Lord to define like what is the battle actually? Are there habits that I need to be implementing to take better care of my health, to manage my time better, things that I'm responsible for? And then where is the actual battle in the spiritual realm that I'm fighting? And once I have the battle defined, then I can ask for the battle plans for what weapons I'm using, for what strategies. And when I think about battle plans, I think back to the old testament where God had a different battle plan for I don't probably can't say for every battle, but because sometimes they went out and the armies just fought. And like I think it was on their own strategizing and whatever, and they went out and fought lots of battles trying to take over the promised land and take all the ground that God had given them and promised to them. Like if you look at the Battle of Jericho, God specifically said, You're gonna march around the city for six days. On the seventh day, you're gonna blow the trumpets and you're gonna shout. And while you're walking around the city, you're carrying the Ark of My Presence with you. And when you shout and blow the trumpets, the walls are gonna go fall down and you're gonna take the city. That's the only time he ever had that battle plan. The battle plan wasn't now every city you come to in the promised land, you're gonna march around for six days. Because I think when we have something like that, we get like the formula and we very easily go to trusting the formula instead of seeking him. And he's like, the whole deal is about seeking him because he wants relationship with us. He wants to be part of what we're doing. And so then, like with Gideon, he whittles the army down to 300 men up against tens of thousands. It might have even been over a hundred thousand. And the Lord says, you're gonna take torches and put them in jars, and you're gonna split your army in three, and you're gonna surround the enemy camp, and then you're gonna blow trumpets and break the jars and scream and make all this noise, and it's dark, and the enemy goes into chaos, and I think there was angels that were part of that, and the enemy just killed themselves in the confusion, and Gideon and his men didn't have to fight. And again, that strategy is only used one time. So I think there's the principles of always seeking the Lord and always listening for his voice, always taking his presence with you. But what the specific battle looks like is gonna be different, depending on so many different things. And how is God gonna get the most glory from the situation? From you doing what you've always done, or for you trusting in a new way that you've never seen before. So the first step is seeking the Lord, and in that seeking, help me clearly define the battle that I'm facing right now. And maybe there's multiple battles, but take one at a time. What's the battle that I'm facing? And then what's your battle strategy? And that could include things like gratitude, worship, getting a community to pray in faith with you, finding scriptures to stand on that promise victory in Him when you're seeking Him and submitted to Him, meditating on those scriptures. He could lead you to do something more specific. Like he might be there's an item in your house you need to get rid of. There's a relationship that you need to cut off. There's something you need to go buy, there's something you need to give someone. Like who knows what it is? Because I don't know your situation, but he does. And so he can give you those specific plans. In this month's Heart Doodling with Jesus workshop, we looked at, we did a set of three doodles. The first one was asking God for a picture of the future of the victory. Like he gave Israelites, like, here's the promised land, here's how big it is, here's all the good things in it. He gave them that vision. So asking for the picture of like, what does it look like when I win this battle? And then the second one was asking about what do we need to do to prepare for walking into that picture that you gave us. And when I do the heart doodling with Jesus, I try to allow a picture to come up of what would this situation look like or what would these emotions look like if it was a picture. And for the what I needed to do to prepare, I didn't get a picture. I just got words. And in the preparing, I got distraction, doubt, double-mindedness as things that needed to go, needed to be cut off, needed to cut off distractions, specifically my phone, social media, even the news. And not that I need to be completely ignorant, but if I find myself like taking on responsibility, that's not my responsibility, that's a distraction. I need to let it go. I need to let go of doubt and being aware of where I'm doubting, like making note of that so that I can deal with it. Because anywhere that I'm doubting that I can achieve that picture or that God is going to get me where he said, it's really that I'm not trusting him to be able to get me there. My doubt is coming from a stronger belief in my weakness and my failings and my shortcomings than in his ability to change those or overcome them. So I need to spend the time with him and with myself to see where don't I trust? Why am I not trusting? So that I can build that trust with him and practice trusting him. Be aware of it, make note of it, but deal with it. Don't continue living in the double-mindedness. Like James talked about a man who's double-minded is like a ship tossed on the waves. You know, you're unstable. It's just this back and forth and back and forth, and it's exhausting and it's discouraging. And I know it's not what God has for me. And I'm responsible to stop acting that way and stop partnering with it and not being a victim to the waves. Because, like, if you've listened to me at all, you know, he says I'm a lighthouse, and lighthouses aren't tossed on the waves. They know where they stand. So I need to spend that intentional time with him so that I'm clear that this is where I stand. I'm not being tossed around. Then he also gave me a couple of things like to add in or be doing in preparation, which, you know, is just the other side of the things to cut off of discipline, which is a fruit of the spirit. It's something God gives with his spirit. His spirit is perfectly self-disciplined. I have access to that. I need to remember I have access to that. I need to choose to practice that I have access to that and make choices that are disciplined. And he also has really been highlighting to me discernment. And that discernment comes in so many different areas, like discerning, is this me or is this the enemy? Or is it God? If it's just a decision you're trying to make, you don't know which way to go. Like which of those is it? And even things within myself, discerning between soul and spirit, because my soul gets very discouraged and confused, and has been under attack of a kind of a spirit of what's the point. When I sit with the Lord and connect with my spirit, things are very different. And in some seasons, I do well at living from my spirit. This last season, I would say I've been living more from my soul. And so having that discernment of these are the thoughts and the things going on, but are they in my soul or my spirit? And if I'm spirit-led, then I'm using that self-discipline of the spirit to make choices that align with the spirit instead of with my soul. And so discerning like where is warfare and where is it just a consequence of poor choices? Where is it God leading me versus my own ideas that could be influenced by past pain and I'm trying to keep myself safe. And that brings me back to the idea of having a battle plan. Like the Lord has told me these things, I have them written down in my sketchbook. But if I close my sketchbook and put it away, it doesn't do me much good. And if I leave my sketchbook lay open on the table, it's just gonna become part of the scenery. I'm not gonna see it anymore. So I think what I'm thinking of in having a battle plan and being able to follow through in a battle plan is what do I put in place so that I remember. I think I've done a podcast recently on like refocusing, because I was asking the Lord, how do I stay focused? And he's like, You don't. You just refocus. So putting in those reminders, building in time with him to refocus and be like, right, this is this is the battle plan. Where have I been doubting? Where have I been double-minded? And you know, finding those scriptures to stand on and memorizing those, find worship songs that are saying what those scriptures are saying so they can just be on repeat and being, you know, those reminders to refocus on the victory is one, no matter what the battle is. Jesus already won the victory, it's already won. And I have to take the steps to take my territory. And sometimes we want to make that big and confusing and hard. And in some ways it is, but also look at it as he promised the Israelite, this is the land I am giving you. It's yours from here to here to here. It's all laid out, it's all for you. So it was theirs right then because God said it was. And then they had to go in and conquer city by city by city. And God laid out the plan of like, you're all gonna go and you're gonna conquer this first. And then once you've conquered that, the tribes that are gonna live in that land need to go and help these other tribes conquer their land, and you're gonna keep doing this until all of the evil is driven out of this land that I've given you. And God said, I'm not just gonna wipe them out and let you take over this whole area that I'm giving you because that would kill you. Like it seems like it would be a blessing to just, well, you just like wipe all the people out, and wouldn't that be so much easier? We just walk in and take over. But there wasn't enough of them to walk in and take over. So what seems like it would have been a blessing would have been a burden because it would have been too much for them all at once. He said, You're gonna take it little by little by little. And that's what he does for us too. Like, we want that instant, let's just fix this. Like, can't you just make it all go away? Can't you just fix me? All my past things and were I think wrong and all of that. And he's like, No, that would kill you. It would be too much too fast, be extremely traumatic. So we're gonna do it little by little, as he understands that we can handle it. He understands how long it takes us to change. Like scientifically, they're showing how long it takes for your brain to dismantle one way of thinking and build a new way of thinking. And it's like 21 days to completely dismantle, it might even be longer than that, to completely dismantle a thought, but to get it to the point where it's like really weak and can come apart is like 21 days of consistent intentionally thinking a new way. And in 21 days, you can build a new thought, but then you need two more cycles of 21 days to get that thought to be like the regular path that your brain is gonna go on instead of the old path that it's been going on for years. So God designed our brain, He understands that. And we're not gonna think all the new thoughts perfectly. So it's probably gonna take longer than that. And we're not just working on one thought. Like I said, you might have multiple battles going on. He understands all of that, he's good with all of that. And that's part of trusting him, is that we can relax and be good with all of that, too. Of like, okay, I'm doing my best. I'm gonna continue to try doing better. And that's enough. Instead of, I didn't get it perfect, I didn't do it right, so I'm failing and I'm defeated again. That's not how we win battles. That's, you know, it's like I said in the workshop, why went with the picture first of God. What are you saying victory looks like? Just like you laid out this is what it looks like for Israel in their promised land, so that I can hold on to that picture when the waves hit, when the battles come, when it feels like I'm failing. So if you are in a season where you're like, yes, I absolutely could use a battle plan, the Buzz Sprout Podcast, I can now reply directly to your messages. So that's exciting. So you can leave me a message there. You can email me. My email is in the description. Email me if you're interested. I think I'm gonna put together a workshop for creating a battle plan and laying out like defining your battle, defining your battle strategy, putting in place like how you're gonna actually walk that out. So if you're interested in a workshop, let me know that. If you're like, yeah, that'd be good, but I think I need like that one-on-one sit with me, make sure the plan is solid, make sure I'm not off track. I can do that one-on-one also. And then I'm also thinking and be offering kind of a battle buddy type support that once you've got your plan, you can share that with me and I can just do check-ins. I can be part of that reminder when you're feeling you're pay facing a battle or you're in that place again of like, oh, I need a battle plan. You can reach out and I can say, Oh, it's right here. Where are you at on this? Are you remembering this? Did you do this? This is your next step support because I know that's something that's valuable to me in trying to follow my battle plans, is having somebody that knows and understands my battle plan and the ways that the enemy attacks me and can say, Hey, you're not that far off. Just come back, just eyes back on Jesus. Remember the plan. So I'd love to hear from all of you, and I will see you in the next episode.