Why Am I Still Fighting Battles After I’ve Prayed and Fasted?(This Word Brought Me Out of My Egypt)
Have the book of this Law always on your lips; meditate on it day and night, so that you may carefully keep everything that is written in it. Then your undertakings will prosper, then you will have success.” –Joshua 1:8
This verse is the key that unlocks your whole prayer life, because prayer without the Word is like a body without a soul. It’s like curly hair with no conditioner lol, brittle, easily broken.
You’re still technically alive, but nothing is flowing. Nothing is holding. You might feel emotional, you might cry hard, you might say all the right things, you might fall out on your face in full surrender, but if the Word isn’t in your mouth after the prayer ends, if you’re not in Him when you stand up, the enemy knows he can still shake you. Oh, and he will absolutely try.
Joshua wasn’t just told to believe. He was told to speak. To keep the Word on his lips day and night, not just on Holy Days or fasting days, but always, always, always. In everything. If you feel like you’re still in the middle of a bitter struggle with no end in sight, let’s try something new. Between Joshua and John (ask, seek, knock… knock and the door will open), your breakthrough will breakthrough right now.
Here’s what’s really happening and what every believer faces right before the visible breakthrough.
1. Fasting didn’t fail. It revealed what’s next.
You don’t fast to escape the fight; you fast to sharpen your sight, to tune your ear, to empty yourself of noise so you could finally hear what was already whispering beneath the noise. Now that you can see, don’t panic at what’s showing up. The exposure is evidence of movement. It’s like turning on the light in a dirty house. It can be FRIGHTENING. Don’t turn the light back off and get in bed. Turn on some worship music and grab a broom (I immediately saw that scene from 5 Heartbeats haha).
2. You didn’t fail. You’ve been marked.
This level of resistance is not random, it’s recognition. It’s evidence that Heaven marked you, and hell has noticed, and you are learning what it feels like to carry the anointing that breaks yokes. You’re not cursed. You’re chosen. And with constant communion, your prayers are dangerous. You provoke change with your presence because you have become all Him. All Flame.
3. The Word is your sword, not your backup plan.
Joshua 1:8 is your manual for warfare. If you fast but forget to speak the Word, to chew on the Word, to meditate on It, to share It, to breathe It… you empty your body but never fill your spirit. Keep it in your mouth. Out loud. When you wake, when you drive, when you worry, when you weep. Speak it until it speaks back. This is how you unlock the power you already have.
CN Says: Looking back, I escaped my Egypt, by keeping the scripture, 2 Corinthians 3:17, ever on my lips. I wasn’t using it like a mantra, but whenever I’d get scared, I’d say, “wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty…” and I’d relax into that Spirit… into His Presence. I’d hear inside, ‘what are we gonna do… how are we going to shift this? Get out of this?’ and I’d answer with, ‘wherever the spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty…the answer already is… I’m already out. I’m already free. Thank you Lord.’ And I’d sit back again! 5 months of this and I had crossed my Red Sea and my Jordan!
4. This is not delay. This is the pressure of becoming.
The waiting isn’t wasted. It’s the forming of your authority. You are being stretched into someone who can hold what you’ve been praying for. Breakthrough feels like breaking first. You are okay. I promise. He promised.
5. Spiritual resistance means you’re close.
If hell is loud, Heaven is near. The enemy doesn’t waste attacks on people going nowhere. The closer you are to promised land territory, the louder the walls creak. Keep circling like Joshua did. Keep worshiping until they fall. We are on our 7th time around! Let’s go!!!!!
6. You’re learning to walk in power instead of panic.
God is teaching you to speak with calm authority. To stop begging (you are no beggar, and you are not last, YOU ARE FIRST!) and start declaring. To realize that peace is your weapon and stillness is strategy. You don’t have to force what’s already finished. IT IS DONE, in Jesus’ Name!
7. The battle is proof that the blessing has already been released.
What you’re fighting isn’t proof that God is absent; it’s proof that your next level has already been dispatched. Opposition shows up where destiny lives. You’re not losing… it’s time.
More on Joshua 1:8 and Old versus New Testament
Keep the Book in your mouth. Keep your eyes on the invisible. Keep your heart steady in the waiting. You’re not even waiting… you’re praying. Praising. Loving. Serving. You’re living from Victory now so there is no need for patience. Joshua 1:8 isn’t an instruction. It’s what you must do. And if you get worried like me, that it sounds like a very if/then proposition, and like you’re not living up to the ‘if’ part of the equation, remember this was old covenant language. Conditional covenant. God was saying: “Obey fully, and I’ll bless fully.“
But the moment you say “I don’t think I’ve been fulfilling the if” –
You stepped into a deeper truth, one that Joshua himself didn’t yet know:
Jesus fulfilled the “if”. He is the only One who ever truly:
- Kept the Book of the Law always on His lips
- Meditated on it day and night
- Obeyed every word perfectly
- Never swerved to the right or to the left
He did the “if.” So you could live in the “then.”
“Christ is the end of the law for righteousness to everyone who believes.” – Romans 10:4
“If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation.” – 2 Corinthians 5:17
“All of God’s promises are yes and amen in Him.” -2 Corinthians 1:20
This means:
- You are no longer under an if/then contract.
- You are under a because/therefore covenant. Because He fulfilled the law, therefore you are righteous, you are covered in life, you are free to walk with Him.
And the only reason you may feel like you’re not living up to the ‘if’, is because the closer we get to Him, the more we desire Him, the more like sinners we feel. The more Holy we want to be. Your spirit longs to honor Him in all you do. But you don’t have to earn His Love. This is alignment. This is posture. This is new… and it’ll feel like you have nothing to hold on to for a while. And that’s okay. Just… BURN. Brightly. For Him. Brighter and Brighter everyday. SHINE. And know that’s enough. He’ll take you deeper.
I love you,
nik
SIT WITH US DAILY ON SILENT RETREAT!
