Did you ever meditate on how after the Resurrection — all that time Jesus was appearing to His disciples and others — Satan, who had been so very present in the desert, and then unto Calvary, suddenly vanished?

He no longer was anywhere to be found, in the Presence of the Risen Jesus.

Better put, he did not vanish but had been banished (by the Blood); by the ascent to Heaven.

He also vanishes in our lives — at least for a period, after trials  (life always has its trials) — when we deprive him of a key weapon: the spirit of fear.

Fear only intensifies suffering.

Preachers point out that we will always be in “warfare” while in this fallen world, but that we lessen such trials when we realize that Christ never promised us life would be easy — just good.

Believers are spiritual warriors, and as such, we too view life from Calvary; we too fight and fight and grapple and fight again — to win. Defeat is not in His design for us.

Remember:

There is no hero without a battle.

There is no conquest without a contest.

There is no victory without a fight.

There is no testimony without a test.

And there is no miracle without impossible circumstances. 

So don’t fold your tent and hide. Never fold your arms and wait. Remember that Jacob won by persisting and the nation of Israel was the result. Act likewise.

Remember also that Jacob may have walked from his great battle with a limp, but what a blessed man was he whom God renamed “Israel”!

Fear strips away anointing and brings unnecessary darkness.

You can change that, and when you do, you also change — heighten — your destiny. “Therefore you too have grief now; but I will see you again, and your heart will rejoice, and no one is going to take your joy away from you” (John 16:22).

Go to God in the watches of the night: those wee moments when the veil is thin. Go to Him at the peak of suffering. That’s when He is closest! “Fear not, for I am with you” (Isaiah).

No matter what is thrown at you, remember that God is there. Was He not even seen in the fire of the furnace (Daniel)? He is in control of everything. Evil is dismissed when we infill with His Spirit. Everything the devil steals can be recovered. Victory is assured for those who have trust despite adversity. Often we are on the verge of breakdown when the breakthrough happens.

Fight and pray for your breakthrough is in your destiny. Insist on it! Wrestle down doubts. Go to your angel, and go again. Persist and persist and persist and resist (the devil) and someway at some point — often unpredictable — you will achieve victory. You will claim what it is you are fighting for.

Yes, weapons are formed against us: against our health, finances, our marriages. But trust in victory and you will get through. God inserts Himself into our problems. We have only to see Him.

“When the three Hebrew children—Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego—were thrown into a fiery furnace because of their faithfulness to God, King Nebuchadnezzar, came to witness their execution—but he was stunned to see not three but four men in the fire…and he recognized that the fourth man in the fire was none other than the Son of God (Daniel 3.19-25),” points out a theologian. “Is there meaning in the meltdown? You bet there is! The good news is that when all that we have  accumulated, all that we have clung to, all that we have relied on burns and melts away, there in the heart of the furnace we come face to face with the Fourth Man in the fire—the One whose name is Immanuel —God with us.”

[resources: A Life of Blessings]