WHEN THE ANOINTING GROWS, THE BATTLE CHANGES

Why Greater Spiritual Weight Often Brings Greater Resistance

There is something I have observed throughout my life with God, and I have experienced it too many times to dismiss it as coincidence.

Whenever the Lord has desired to bring me higher, deepen something within me, enlarge my spiritual responsibility, or move me into another dimension of ministry, there has almost always been an accompanying increase in resistance.

I have learned to recognize the pattern.

Before certain breakthroughs, there has been pressure.

Before enlargement, there has been warfare.

Before new doors opened, something tried to convince me that everything was falling apart.

Before greater clarity came, confusion often attempted to surround me.

Before God enlarged my influence, I frequently walked through seasons where I felt misunderstood, opposed, exhausted, isolated, or stretched beyond what had previously been normal for me.

Years ago, I would sometimes look at those seasons and ask, “Lord, what am I doing wrong?”

Now I often ask a different question:

“Lord, what are You preparing me to carry?”

Because I have discovered that increased resistance does not necessarily mean that I have moved away from God.

Sometimes it means I am moving closer to the purpose of God.

And there is a tremendous difference.

We need maturity here because I do not believe every difficulty is the devil. Sometimes we are experiencing the consequences of our own decisions. Sometimes God is correcting us. Sometimes we are simply living in a fallen world. Sometimes pressure is part of the normal process of growth.

And sometimes we are not being attacked at all.

We are wrestling with God.

Jacob wrestled through the night and came out of that encounter changed forever.

So I refuse to create a theology that gives the devil credit for everything difficult in my life.

But neither will I pretend that Scripture does not reveal genuine spiritual opposition.

Paul wrote:

“For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers…”

—Ephesians 6:12

There is real warfare.

There is real opposition.

There are moments when obedience brings us into direct confrontation with things that were perfectly comfortable while we remained spiritually passive.

And I have learned something:

When the anointing grows, the battle often changes.

Not because Satan suddenly becomes sovereign.

He is not.

Not because Jesus somehow lost His victory.

He has not.

Jesus Christ has already triumphed.

The cross did not produce a partial victory.

Jesus disarmed principalities and powers and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them through the cross.

So I do not enter spiritual warfare wondering who is going to win.

I enter from the revelation that Christ has already won.

But I must still stand.

I must still obey.

I must still discern.

I must still refuse compromise.

And I must understand that when God increases what I carry, I may also experience increased resistance against carrying it faithfully.

I HAVE SEEN THE PATTERN IN SCRIPTURE

Look at David.

Samuel comes to the house of Jesse, takes the oil, and anoints David in the presence of his brothers.

First Samuel 16:13 says:

“The Spirit of the LORD came upon David from that day forward.”

What a moment.

The anointing came.

The calling was identified.

Heaven had marked him.

But notice something.

David was anointed long before David was enthroned.

Between the oil and the throne came warfare.

There was Goliath.

There was Saul.

There were spears thrown at him.

There were accusations.

There were caves.

There was betrayal.

There were years when the man who had been anointed king looked nothing like a king.

I wonder how many times David could have asked,

“Samuel, are you sure you poured that oil on the right man?”

Because sometimes the circumstances surrounding an anointed life appear to contradict the word God has spoken over it.

David had the promise but lived in a cave.

He had anointing but experienced rejection.

He had destiny but was running for his life.

And yet God was not absent from the cave.

God was creating a king in the cave.

That is important.

Because sometimes we become so focused on escaping the battle that we fail to recognize what God is developing within us through it.

David needed more than anointing to become king.

He needed character capable of carrying the anointing.

He needed restraint.

He needed patience.

He needed loyalty.

He needed the ability to refuse revenge.

He needed to learn how to worship when life did not make sense.

And I have discovered the same principle in my own life:

God is more interested in developing the man carrying the anointing than in displaying the anointing through the man.

Gift can take me somewhere that character cannot keep me.

So sometimes God allows pressure to expose what still needs to die inside me.

JESUS WAS LED FROM DECLARATION INTO CONFRONTATION

Look at Jesus.

At His baptism, heaven opens.

The Spirit descends.

The Father declares:

“This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased.”

Then what happens?

Matthew 4:1 says:

“Then was Jesus led up of the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.”

Think about that sequence.

Baptism.

Affirmation.

Anointing.

Wilderness.

Confrontation.

And what was Satan’s attack centered around?

Identity.

“If You are the Son of God…”

The Father had just declared who Jesus was, and the enemy immediately challenged what the Father had said.

I have experienced this repeatedly.

One of the strongest attacks surrounding a new season of spiritual growth is often an assault against identity.

“Who do you think you are?”

“You are not qualified.”

“You missed God.”

“You cannot carry this.”

“You are too weak.”

“You have failed too many times.”

“Nothing is happening.”

“Maybe God has changed His mind about you.”

I have learned that I cannot build my identity from what I am experiencing.

My identity must come from what the Father has spoken.

Jesus did not answer Satan emotionally.

He answered:

“It is written.”

That is spiritual maturity.

The enemy wanted a reaction.

Jesus gave him revelation.

The enemy wanted insecurity.

Jesus stood on truth.

And when God increases the anointing on our lives, we must become increasingly established in who we are in Christ.

Because greater authority without settled identity becomes dangerous.

PRESSURE OFTEN PRECEDES ENLARGEMENT

Throughout Scripture, I see people walking through unusual pressure immediately before unusual enlargement.

Joseph receives dreams about destiny.

Then he gets a pit.

Then slavery.

Then false accusation.

Then prison.

If Joseph had interpreted his circumstances incorrectly, he might have concluded that the dream had died.

But the prison was connected to the palace.

Not because prison was good, but because God was sovereign enough to use what others intended for evil.

Joseph eventually said:

“Ye thought evil against me; but God meant it unto good.”

—Genesis 50:20

I love that.

Joseph never said the evil was good.

He said God overruled it.

That has become important in my theology.

I do not have to call darkness light in order to believe God is sovereign.

I do not have to call betrayal a blessing.

I do not have to pretend pain does not hurt.

I simply believe that nothing surrendered into the hands of Jesus is beyond redemption.

The enemy may have an intention.

People may have an intention.

But God has the final word.

I have had seasons where resistance increased so dramatically that my first instinct was to question what was happening.

Yet looking backward, I could see that God was increasing my capacity.

What felt like opposition was forcing me deeper.

My prayer life deepened.

My dependency deepened.

My discernment sharpened.

Things I once tolerated became unacceptable.

Motives I had not noticed became visible.

God was enlarging me internally before enlarging my assignment externally.

That is why I would say to someone experiencing unusual pressure today:

Do not automatically assume you are going backward.

Ask God what He is developing.

GROWING ANOINTING EXPOSES GROWING DEPENDENCE

One of the greatest dangers of spiritual effectiveness is beginning to believe that I am the reason for it.

God may use my voice.

God may use my hands.

God may use my preaching.

God may use my leadership.

God may use my prophetic gift.

But the power belongs to Him.

Jesus said:

“Without me ye can do nothing.”

—John 15:5

Not less.

Nothing.

And the more God entrusts to me, the more deeply I must understand that.

The anointing does not make me independent.

True anointing makes me increasingly dependent.

This is why Paul could speak of having a thorn in the flesh and hear the Lord say:

“My grace is sufficient for thee: for my strength is made perfect in weakness.”

—2 Corinthians 12:9

Paul wanted something removed.

God gave him sufficient grace.

There are moments when I want God to change my circumstances, but God is changing me inside the circumstances.

I pray,

“Lord, remove this.”

And sometimes God says,

“I am teaching you how to stand in it.”

I say,

“Lord, silence the opposition.”

And sometimes He says,

“I am teaching you not to need their approval.”

I say,

“Lord, make this easier.”

And He says,

“I am making you stronger.”

I say,

“Lord, give me more.”

And God whispers,

“Can you carry more?”

That question confronts me.

Because we love asking for increase.

“Lord, increase the anointing.”

“Lord, increase the ministry.”

“Lord, increase the influence.”

“Lord, increase the miracles.”

“Lord, increase the reach.”

But increase carries weight.

And God loves us too much to give us spiritual weight that our character cannot sustain.

SOMETIMES THE ATTACK COMES THROUGH FAMILIARITY

Another lesson I have learned is that growth sometimes changes relationships.

Jesus experienced this.

Those familiar with Him said:

“Is not this the carpenter?”

Familiarity could not reconcile the Jesus they thought they knew with the authority now manifesting through Him.

There are times when people celebrate you at one level but become uncomfortable when God begins taking you beyond the version of you they have become familiar with.

That does not automatically make them evil.

Sometimes people simply struggle to adjust.

Sometimes our growth confronts expectations.

Sometimes obedience requires us to say no where we once said yes.

Sometimes consecration creates boundaries that others misunderstand.

Sometimes God changes our direction and people who were comfortable with the previous direction feel threatened.

I have learned not to turn every relational difficulty into warfare.

People are people.

But I have also learned that I cannot sacrifice obedience to preserve familiarity.

There are seasons when God changes who can walk closely with us.

Abraham heard:

“Get thee out of thy country, and from thy kindred…”

Jesus sometimes withdrew from crowds.

Paul sometimes departed from people who rejected the message.

Growth creates distinction.

Consecration creates distinction.

Calling creates distinction.

And there are moments when loneliness becomes part of preparation.

The danger is becoming bitter.

I must never allow rejection to become my identity.

I must never make an enemy out of everyone who does not understand me.

Jesus loved people who misunderstood Him.

So must I.

But I also cannot allow people’s inability to recognize what God is doing to cause me to abandon what God is doing.

THE REAL TARGET IS OFTEN ENDURANCE

I increasingly believe one of the enemy’s greatest strategies is not necessarily dramatic destruction.

It is exhaustion.

If he cannot make me deny Jesus, he would love to make me too tired to obey Him.

If he cannot destroy my calling, he would love to distract me from it.

If he cannot make me renounce my faith, he would be satisfied if he could slowly reduce my prayer life, dull my sensitivity, fill my schedule, consume my mind with conflict, and cause me to live spiritually depleted.

That is why Scripture repeatedly calls us to endurance.

“Having done all, to stand.”

—Ephesians 6:13

Sometimes the greatest spiritual victory of the day is:

I am still standing.

I am still praying.

I am still loving.

I am still obeying.

I have not become bitter.

I have not surrendered my integrity.

I have not allowed disappointment to redefine God.

I have not given the enemy territory inside my mind.

I am still here.

That is warfare.

The book of James says:

“The trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work…”

James is saying: let endurance finish what it has started.

There are things God produces through endurance that He cannot produce through instant deliverance.

We live in a generation that wants instantaneous breakthrough.

I believe in breakthrough.

I believe in miracles.

I believe God can change something in one second.

But I also believe in becoming.

I believe in process.

I believe in wilderness.

I believe in waiting.

I believe in learning obedience under pressure.

And some of the deepest anointing I have encountered in men and women of God did not come because they knew how to shout.

It came because they knew how to suffer without losing tenderness.

They knew how to be betrayed without becoming bitter.

They knew how to be attacked without becoming obsessed with the attacker.

They knew how to walk through the fire and still smell like Jesus.

That is anointing.

I REFUSE TO MAGNIFY THE DEVIL

And this is where I want to be extremely clear.

When I say that growing anointing can bring growing resistance, I am not preaching a bigger devil.

I am preaching a bigger Christ.

I refuse to create Christianity in which Satan occupies more of my thinking than Jesus.

I refuse to wake up every morning wondering what the devil is doing.

I want to know what the Father is doing.

Jesus said:

“My Father worketh hitherto, and I work.”

I want my eyes on Him.

Yes, Scripture says:

“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about…”

But the same passage says:

“Whom resist stedfast in the faith.”

Not panic.

Resist.

Not obsess.

Resist.

Not run.

Stand.

The devil is not my Lord.

Jesus is.

The devil does not determine my future.

Jesus does.

The devil does not hold the keys of death and hell.

Jesus does.

The devil is not seated at the right hand of the Father.

Jesus is.

The devil is not coming again as King of kings and Lord of lords.

Jesus is.

So when the resistance grows, I do not bow to fear.

I raise my eyes.

PERHAPS YOU ARE NOT LOSING GROUND

I want to speak now to the person who feels like the battle has suddenly become heavier.

You have prayed more, not less.

You have surrendered more, not less.

You are trying to obey God.

You have closed doors that needed closing.

You have repented.

You have separated yourself from things that once compromised you.

And yet somehow everything feels more intense.

Hear me.

Do not immediately interpret increased pressure as evidence of God’s displeasure.

Ask for discernment.

Perhaps God is exposing something.

Perhaps He is correcting something.

Perhaps He is refining something.

Perhaps there are consequences that need to be faced.

But perhaps, just perhaps, you are experiencing resistance because your life is beginning to matter in places it did not matter before.

You are praying differently.

You are seeing differently.

You are walking differently.

You are no longer agreeing with things you once tolerated.

You are reclaiming surrendered territory.

And when surrendered territory is reclaimed, resistance should not surprise us.

Israel crossed the Jordan and immediately discovered fortified cities.

Promise did not mean absence of opposition.

It meant God would be with them in taking the territory.

Sometimes we think an open door means an easy road.

Scripture frequently demonstrates the opposite.

Paul wrote:

“For a great door and effectual is opened unto me, and there are many adversaries.”

—1 Corinthians 16:9

A great door.

Many adversaries.

In the same verse.

I love that.

Paul did not say, “There are adversaries, therefore I must have missed God.”

He recognized both simultaneously.

Opportunity and opposition.

Door and resistance.

Calling and conflict.

THE ANOINTING MUST GROW DEEPER BEFORE IT GROWS WIDER

I have become less impressed with visible anointing as I have grown older.

I want depth.

I want the kind of anointing that survives obscurity.

The kind that survives misunderstanding.

The kind that survives disappointment.

The kind that survives success.

Sometimes success is a greater test than warfare.

Can God bless me without losing me?

Can God increase me without pride entering?

Can He give me influence without influence becoming my identity?

Can He trust me with power while I remain a servant?

Can I carry authority without needing control?

Can I be used publicly while still cultivating Him privately?

Because anointing is not primarily about what happens through me.

It is about what God has established within me.

I want oil that has been tested.

I want revelation that has survived the wilderness.

I want authority that does not need to announce itself.

I want the kind of spiritual weight where demons recognize Christ in me, but people encounter His love through me.

SO IF THE BATTLE HAS BECOME STRONGER…

I want to say this prophetically:

Do not retreat simply because resistance has increased.

Do not automatically interpret warfare as failure.

Do not throw away what God spoke because the road became difficult.

Go back to the word.

Go back to the presence.

Go back to obedience.

Go back to the cross.

Examine your heart.

Repent wherever repentance is needed.

Close every door that compromise has opened.

Forgive everyone you need to forgive.

Release offense.

Reject bitterness.

Guard your mind.

And then stand.

The same God who anointed David was with him in the cave.

The same Father who spoke over Jesus at the Jordan was with Him in the wilderness.

The same God who gave Joseph the dream was with Joseph in the prison.

The same Jesus who called Peter allowed Peter to be sifted, but told him:

“I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not.”

—Luke 22:32

I love those words.

Jesus did not tell Peter there would be no sifting.

He told Peter his faith would survive it.

And perhaps that is the word someone needs today.

You are going to survive this.

Not merely survive physically.

Your faith is going to survive.

Your worship is going to survive.

Your calling is going to survive.

Your tenderness is going to survive.

Your obedience is going to survive.

And when you emerge, you will carry something you did not carry when you entered.

Throughout my life I have seen this pattern.

When God has desired to take me higher, resistance has often become stronger.

But looking back, I can also see something else.

God was stronger than every resistance.

Every time.

The battle changed me.

The pressure deepened me.

The opposition taught me dependence.

The misunderstandings taught me to seek God’s approval.

The wilderness taught me His voice.

The attacks taught me to stand.

And the seasons when I thought I was being pushed backward were often the very seasons in which God was driving my roots deeper.

So today I am no longer intimidated simply because the battle changes.

I ask:

“Father, what are You doing?”

“What are You developing?”

“What must I surrender?”

“What must I learn?”

“What territory are You calling me to occupy?”

“What can I carry after this that I could not carry before?”

Because I know this:

Greater anointing requires greater surrender.

Greater authority requires greater humility.

Greater influence requires greater character.

Greater revelation requires greater responsibility.

And sometimes greater purpose brings greater resistance.

But greater resistance does not mean a greater enemy.

It means I need a greater revelation of the Christ who already defeated him.

So I will not retreat.

I will not become consumed with warfare.

I will not surrender my peace.

I will not allow pressure to make me question what God has clearly spoken.

I will draw closer.

I will listen more carefully.

I will obey more completely.

I will love more deeply.

I will stand more firmly.

And I will keep my eyes on Jesus.

Because when the anointing grows, the battle may change.

But Jesus does not.

And the One who called me is still faithful.

The One who anointed me is still present.

The One who began the work is still completing it.

And if He is bringing me higher, then no pressure, no resistance, no wilderness, no misunderstanding, no attack, and no power of darkness has the authority to cancel what Almighty God has determined to accomplish through a surrendered life.

So let the anointing grow.

Let my dependence grow with it.

Let my character grow with it.

Let my discernment grow with it.

Let my humility grow with it.

Let my love grow with it.

And if the battle becomes stronger, let my revelation of Jesus become stronger still.

Because the objective is not merely to survive the battle.

It is to come through it carrying more of Christ than I carried when I entered.

And that is a battle worth fighting.

Peter Nash