There's a moment in Scripture that changed how I understand spiritual warfare and the power of persistence. It's found in 2 Kings 13, where the prophet Elisha tells King Joash to strike the ground with arrows. The king strikes three times and stops. Elisha's response? Anger. "You should have struck it five or six times," he said. "Then you would have defeated Syria completely. But now you will defeat them only three times."

This story reveals something critical about the kingdom of God: partial persistence produces partial victory.

If you're watching right now, this isn't an accident. God has divinely placed this message in front of you because there's something you've stopped too soon. There's a prayer you quit praying. There's a dream you abandoned. There's a spiritual battle you walked away from right before breakthrough.

It's time to strike the ground again.

America's Prophetic Ephesus Moment

We find ourselves in what I call a prophetic Ephesus season. In Acts 19, Paul encounters believers in Ephesus who had received John's baptism of repentance but hadn't yet received the fullness of the Holy Spirit. They had gone halfway but hadn't gone all the way. They had a measure of God but not all He promised.

Paul didn't diminish their experience. He simply said, "There's more."

When Paul laid hands on them, the Holy Spirit came upon them. They began speaking in tongues and prophesying. Twelve men who thought they had the complete picture suddenly discovered dimensions of God's power they never knew existed.

The worst condition you can be in isn't being a sinner who doesn't know Christ. It's being a mediocre Christian who has tasted enough of God to know He's real but not enough to be transformed. The Bible says be hot or cold, anything but lukewarm, because God will spew the lukewarm out of His mouth.

I respect an honest sinner more than a lying Christian.

The Sacred Way: One Act of Obedience at a Time

In 2 Kings 13, we see a beautiful dynamic between the dying prophet Elisha and King Joash. The prophet gives specific commands: take a bow and arrows, draw the bow, open the window eastward, shoot. Each command is followed by immediate obedience.

Then comes the final instruction: "Strike the ground."

Notice what Elisha didn't say. He didn't specify how many times. The command was simple and open-ended: strike the ground. Keep striking. Don't stop until I tell you to stop.

But the king struck three times and stopped.

God is a God of specifics. He cares about the details. When He told me to launch an evening service in Manhattan, the very first door that opened was in the financial district, the exact location a mentor had pointed to in a prophetic dream. When He called me to fill a stadium, every door was locked until I obeyed His specific instruction about Chicago.

The sacred way of God is one act of obedience at a time. There's no cheat code. No shortcut. No way around radical obedience, step by step. If you want to unlock the invisible staircase to your next level, you take it one stair at a time.

Fighting the Right Battle: We Wrestle Not Against Flesh and Blood

Later in Ephesians 6, Paul has to remind the same church: "We wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities and powers and rulers in high places."

Something had shifted. The Ephesian believers had drifted. They were now fighting each other instead of fighting the enemy. Sound familiar?

BLM versus conservatives. Pro-Palestinian versus pro-Israel. Comment section warriors condemning people Jesus wouldn't condemn from the cross. While America may be entering revival, the devil has a counterfeit revival where he resurrects old offenses and turns believers against each other.

Jesus prayed that we would be united. Not everybody bearing the label bears the mark. There's a demonic army rising of those who claim Christ but don't forgive like Him, don't love like Him, don't prophesy like Him.

We are one body. The hand cannot say to the foot, "I have no need of you." We might be different, but we are not disconnected.

Covenant Versus Commitment: The Difference Between a Bath and a Baptism

Here's what most people miss about spiritual persistence: it's not based on feelings. It's based on covenant.

Commitment is connected to feelings. Covenant is a decision that eventually produces feelings, but it should never be feelings that produce the decision.

There are days I don't feel like being a father. There are days I don't feel like giving my money. There are days I don't feel like praying. But I made a covenant, not a commitment. If commitment was connected to feelings, the covenant of marriage would never exist.

We all want to be saved, but very few of us want to surrender.

Romans 10:9 talks about believing in your heart and receiving Him as Lord and Savior. Ask anybody on their deathbed if they want to be saved, and they'll say yes. But ask anybody fully alive if they want to surrender, and you'll get a question mark.

That's the difference between a bath and a baptism. One is about feeling clean. The other is about covenant.

The Power of Holy Persistence

Why did you stop praying for your father? Strike the ground. Your dad can still be saved.

Why did you stop believing for supernatural healing? Strike the ground. He is still a healer.

Why did you stop interceding for your city? Strike the ground. Revival is still possible.

Jesus taught about the power of a persistent woman who went before a judge and wouldn't be quiet. The judge finally said, "I will honor your plea, not because I agree with you, but because I'm tired of you."

The kingdom of heaven suffers violence, and the violent take it by force.

There's a form of warfare that only comes through resistance. James 4:7 says, "Submit yourself therefore to God, resist the devil, and he will flee from you." You can't cast every principality out. Some of them you have to resist.

Everybody's trying to cast out something God called them to resist.

There are longstanding principalities in cities and regions that won't go easily. God is looking for people who will dig their heels in and say, "Devil, there's only one of us moving out of this place, and it's not going to be me. I'm going to keep striking the ground."

When Escape Artists Become Graduates

Some of you come from generations of vagabonds. Escape artists who find themselves out of every covenant and every commitment. It's in your blood to run. But when the blood of Jesus starts running through your veins, He changes your nature.

Jesus didn't stop at overwhelming. He stopped at overcoming.

When He said, "It is finished," it was because it was actually finished. He didn't escape to heaven. He graduated to heaven.

Some of us are going to stop escaping and start graduating.

Plant your feet. Dig your heels in. Say with Joshua, "As for me and my house, we will serve the Lord."

I am not done. There's more. I'm not going to fight the wrong battles, but I'm going to fight the heavenly battles, the spiritual battles. I will keep striking the ground. I am not giving up at overwhelming. I will not say it's finished until overcoming.

The Call to Specificity and Obedience

Stop expecting God to give you the whole plan. If He gave you the whole plan, you wouldn't need Him. You'd be walking out a plan without a person. The just shall live by faith, and faith is the evidence of things hoped for, the substance of things not seen.

He gives it to you one act of obedience at a time.

Stop settling for relationships that don't meet God's specificity for your life. Some of you order a bagel with more detail than you choose a spouse. God is specific. Date to the level of your destiny, not your self-esteem.

The Lord will never give you the complete download because that would remove the need for relationship. He wants you walking with Him, not just walking out a blueprint.

Strike the Ground Today

Elisha was angry with King Joash because partial persistence produces partial victory. The king should have kept striking. He should have struck five times, six times, more times. Then he would have struck down Syria until he made an end of it. But because he stopped at three, his victory was limited to three.

Don't let your breakthrough be limited by premature surrender.

God is putting a holy persistence in His people. A holy resistance. A breakthrough anointing. There's something rising inside you that says, "I won't give up."

Submit yourself to God. Resist the devil. Strike the ground.

Your father can be saved. Your healing can manifest. Your city can experience revival. Your marriage can be restored. Your children can come back to faith.

But you have to keep striking.

Ready to go deeper? If this message stirred something in your spirit, consider supporting this ministry as we continue bringing the fire of revival to cities across America.

Don't stop now. The breakthrough is closer than you think.

Strike the ground.

Strike the Ground: The Biblical Secret to Breakthrough Through Spiritual Persistence