Some of the most important skills people need to develop is how to deal with conflict in the workplace, in the family, even in the church. These conflicts result many times from fiery darts, which are usually manifested as harmful words ~ or at least your initial perception is that they are.
This is why love is your most secret, but cleverly useful asset. And it must always be used immediately: “Agree with thine adversary quickly, whiles thou art in the way with him.” Agreeing is pouring love on the conflict, and this is where the nine fruits of the Spirit come into serious play in your daily life.
A few years ago the Lord spoke to me to hire a very influential law firm in San Francisco to go through our church’s corporate papers to make sure everything was in line. To my surprise when I received the final bill, it was $64,000! It literally took my breath away. The conflict and stress that could’ve occurred at that moment was a potential time bomb. But I agreed with the law firm’s bill, and to my surprise the Lord gave us the cash to pay the bill!
Years later the Lord gave many wealthy people the desire to donate money to our church. To my amazement I later found out that many of them hired firms to check us out and they found all of our papers were in proper order. Now I understood what God had done. What I thought was a conflict was actually a promotion.
If you do not learn how to handle conflict as a potential blessing, you’ll be stuck forever in the arena of poverty. This is why the apostle Paul said, “Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.” Your love can wrap the person’s conflicting attack in faith that God is going to give you the answer to satisfy their pain.
The word “quench” means “to satisfy a desire or meet someone’s desperate need.” The most amazing aspect of the Holy Spirit is it’s ability to “search out all things, yea even the deep things of God.” This means the Holy Spirit knows the future and can literally show you what the conflicting person is planning to do and how to resolve their conflicts.
Now I’m sure any of you reasonably intelligent people can see immediately how powerful this gift of the Holy Spirit is. This is why I daily practice praying in other tongues under my breath ~ tuning all of the spiritual sensitivities in my spirit to hear the voiceprint of Jesus.
Conflict usually comes at a time of great promotion. The attacks are designed to cause confusion. This is why your most valuable asset is your ability to do nothing, say nothing ~ to literally not move in the dark. Jesus explained it this way, “Are there not twelve hours in the day? If any man walk in the day, he stumbleth not, because he seeth the light of this world. But if a man walk in the night, he stumbleth, because there is no light in him.”
Christ is literally saying, “Do not move in the dark.” When you are attacked, when you are presented with an impossible situation ~ do absolutely nothing! Cast every care upon Jesus for He cares for you. This is not hiding from the responsibility, but rather it is giving the responsibility to God. All you have to do is wait upon the Lord, entertaining His presence daily. Then, out of apparently nowhere, God’s answer will come!
To show you how true this word from Jesus is, I will share with you a time when I faced the most troubling conflict that a person ever can. And that was my own personal health. Years ago my weight had climbed to the point of 310 pounds. I could not sleep laying down in my own bed, but I had to sit up and try to sleep every night. My health had become so bad that 17 sores appeared on my swollen legs. If I stood in one place too long in my house, a puddle of oozing pus would form underneath my feet.
The conflict that I was feeling was overwhelming ~ like fiery darts or arrows sticking into my legs. For two nights I was not able to sleep so I walked around my own house trying to ease the pain. At that point the prophet Timothy Snodgrass was preaching for me at the church. After the service he visited me at my home and saw my condition. He then gave me a simple prophetic word that would take my conflict and turn it into a promotion.
“Brother Richard,” Timothy smiled warmly, “The Lord says to go to the free clinic at Haight and Ashberry. You will go in as a pauper but you will be moved to the room of a king.” The next day Sandy took me to the free clinic. I walked up the stairs and immediately they transferred me to a hospital.
Then someone discovered that I had Kaiser insurance and by the next night I was placed in a private room in Kaiser Hospital. Kaiser means “King”. The next 14 days in that beautiful hospital room God literally changed my life. Yes, I lost weight, changed my lifestyle and many things. But most of all, I became closer to my family and extremely closer to my Jesus. So my message to you is simply: If you are in conflict, embrace God’s promotion.
A Place To Meet Jesus 