(Be blessed by this DWOD for Nov. 24, 2013 by guest contributor Lance Wallnau)

Sometimes, before you can deal with a spiritual enemy, you need to remove the legal groundwork beneath his feet. This is where repentance comes in. An act that involves accurately judging yourself and owning where you are wrong.

Here’s a trap: ”all or nothing” thinking. Suppose you are mostly right and the other person is mostly wrong? What if you are 25% at fault but they are 75% at fault? Can you do a 25% repentance and reconciliation? No.

But you can take 100% responsibility for your 25%….and this often releases the GRACE on the other person to own their 75%.

There will be other times when you need to ignore the enemy. This isn’t easy. Ever get into a fight where you want to keep at it? The hardest thing to do is to stop and disengage! If you are accustomed to verbally persuading and influencing others, something inside you wants to talk, text or type your way into triumph! But it never works. You can’t ever kill off a spirit by conversation.

And if the spirit has an offended person attached, you are in for a season of never ending verbal volleyball.

That’s where you need to ignore the situation. Bide your time. David ignored the deeds of those who conspired against him…..but told his son Solomon that he needed to deal with those specific troublemakers if his administration was going to succeed.

Think of yourself as a combined David/Solomon. David is the guy that screwed up and gave the enemy an opportunity to injure the dynasty. Solomon is the “wisdom” that came out of that mistake (talking about Bathsheba.) Once you get wisdom (often from the consequences of your bad decisions), God gives you a season to deal with your enemies and uproot them.

Revenge is not an option.  “…Avenge not yourselves but give place to wrath: for it is written, ‘Vengeance is mine; I will repay, saith the Lord.’ ” (Romans 12:19) If we do our best to overcome evil with good and it does not work, there is always the prospect that God will take matters into His own hands and overcome evil by visiting it with an ax. Isn’t that the point Jesus made about the unfruitful tree?

Jesus taught that an unfruitful tree may have a delayed execution, but, if it persists in its unfruitful state, it will be uprooted. What if God does that with areas of our life? He “dungs around the tree” so to speak, but after a while, if things don’t yield to the master, He uproots it.

This cycle is manifest in David’s unfinished business being taken care of by Solomon.

Be wise. Remove the legal groundwork. Repent of 100% of your 25%, if need be.

Bless… do good…ignore judging–till the time comes, if necessary, to judge…when that time comes.

(Dr. Lance Wallnau is a world-class trainer and consultant whose students span the globe. From bestselling authors, pastors, and billion dollar CEO’s, he has helped to transform the lives of thousands. Please check out his resources at www.lancelearning.com)