Breaking the Devil's Press 🏀
Spiritual Warfare | Kingdom Living | Faith Development | Victory | Maturity
Power Thought: The devil's trap defense only works on spiritually underdeveloped players - but mature believers break through every time.
The Gimmick Defense 💯 Collectively, those of us that have played, coached and/or trained at a high level have a long list of distaste for a lot that goes on in competitive youth hoops. Tops on that list, are unsound, overly aggressive, full court trapping defenses.
The reason we hate such defenses, is they are gimmicks and youth coaches who win by playing these overly aggressive defenses prey on unequipped, underdeveloped young players who have yet to develop the knowledge, skills and tools to break the trapping defenses.
The Maturity Solution 🏆 When these innocent, unprepared and yet to be developed hoopers get older, stronger, more knowledgeable, more experienced and play for a coach that has a trap-breaking offense, these gimmick trap defenses will quickly get exploited as the older version of these players will shred right through the defense and easily score
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The Kingdom Parallel 👑 Similar to experienced hoopers that have been at a high level, those that surrender to living life at the high-level God called them to recognize the devil - a thief that is out to steal, kill and destroy - is no different than the youth coaches that prey on under-prepared, immature Christians that lack knowledge. (Matt 22:29 - your problem is you do not know Scripture, or the power of God.)
Much like the youth coaches, the devil, as stated in Proverbs 29:25, sets a trap of fear and intimidation to hold us back from all that God has for us.
The Trap-Breaking Game Plan ⚡ While that is the devil's plan, when we:
Relationally walk through life with God as the main voice in our life, committed to following His path
Humbly allow Him to transform our hearts, mind and spirit from sinful to fruitful
Know His word and allow our heart to overflow with knowledge of scripture
Then we will transform just as a young, underdeveloped player matures into a player equipped with the skills, tools and mentality, along with the Master Coach's game plan to break the gimmick trap defense and score - live in the complete fullness of all God wants to do for us and more importantly through us
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The Word For Today 📖 Proverbs 29:25 TPT - "Fear and intimidation is a trap that holds you back. But when you place your confidence in the Lord, you will be seated in the high place."
Matthew 22:29 NASB - "But Jesus answered and said to them, 'You are mistaken, not understanding the Scriptures nor the power of God.'"
Psalms 37:16-17 MSG - "Less is more and more is less. One righteous will outclass fifty wicked, For the wicked are moral weaklings but the righteous are GOD-strong."
Nehemiah 8:10 NIV - "Nehemiah said, 'Go and enjoy choice food and sweet drinks, and send some to those who have nothing prepared. This day is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, for the joy of the LORD is your strength.'"
Philippians 2:1 TPT - "Look at how much encouragement you've found in your relationship with the Anointed One! You are filled to overflowing with his comforting love. You have experienced a deepening friendship with the Holy Spirit and have felt his tender affection and mercy."
John 10:10 TPT - "A thief has only one thing in mind—he wants to steal, slaughter, and destroy. But I have come to give you everything in abundance, more than you expect—life in its fullness until you overflow!"
Romans 12:2 NLT - "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God's will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect."
Real Talk Reflection 💭
Where is the devil running a "trap defense" against you right now?
Are you spiritually developed enough to break through his gimmicks?
What areas of biblical knowledge do you need to strengthen?
How can you move from being "prey" to being prepared?
What would it look like to live at the "high level" God called you to?
Power Move Prayer 🙏🏾 Lord, develop us spiritually so the devil's traps become easy to break. Give us the knowledge, skills, and relationship with You needed to shred through every scheme he throws at us. Transform us from underdeveloped targets into mature believers who live in Your fullness.
Sounds For Your Spirit 🎧 "Victory" - Yolanda Adams "Break Every Chain" - Tasha Cobbs Leonard "No Weapon" - Fred Hammond "Yes You Can" - Marvin Sapp
[Remember: The devil's press only works on spiritually undeveloped players. Level up your game.]