Defeating Your Goliath: Learning to Live in the Victory of Christ

By Lisa Strazza

Are you facing your Goliaththat Mountain of a problem that keeps you from moving forward? Are you frustrated by lifes ups and downs, feeling constantly under attack in your Christian walk? As believers we have power and authority, and the ability to fight back, and win! In Defeating Your Goliath, author Lisa Strazza takes you on a scriptural journey to show you all that you have through your amazing salvation in Jesus. As you travel through these inspirational pages, and stories, youll understand the kind of faith and revelation that has brought her success in business, health and even in the face of her step-daughters tragedy.

You can live the abundant life that God intended for you, the life that He sacrificed His Son for you to have, and walk with confidence in your everyday Christian life. With the powerful Biblical truths in this book, you can break down the bonds of fear and discouragement, and successfully overcome all of the schemes of the enemy. Youll conquer fear, sickness, poverty, addiction or any other Goliath that stands in your way and live victoriously through Jesus!

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Sep 1, 2016
• ISBN: 9781512754094

Lisa Strazza

Lisa Strazza is a Christian author, artist and small business owner. She is a mother of two and a step-mother to six. Together with her husband, Pastor John Strazza, she shares a teaching and pastoral ministry, encouraging groups, ministers, and churches. Strazza brings the uplifting message of God’s unconditional love, grace, and healing, always firmly rooted in scripture and the finished work of the cross. She writes in a friendly conversational style, centered in God’s love, rich through revelation and personal experience. Her desire is to help believers live victoriously without judgement or fear so they can excel in their Christian lives.

Book preview

Copyright © 2016 Lisa Strazza.

Cover Design: JLS Media

Senior editor: Catherine DeMercado

Editor: Joy Strazza

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

A Division of Thomas Nelson & Zondervan

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Bloomington, IN 47403

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture is taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations marked (RSV) are from the Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1946, 1952, and 1971 National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Scripture quotations taken from the New American Standard Bible® (NASB), Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation Used by permission. www.Lockman.org

Scripture quotations marked (NIV) are taken from the Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved

Scripture quotes marked (KJV) are taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5408-7 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-5127-5409-4 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2016913643

WestBow Press rev. date: 8/31/2016

Contents

DEDICATION

FORWARD

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER 1 - STARTING THE JOURNEY

What Would That Look Like For You?

Recognizing Goliath

CHAPTER 2 - THE STORY OF DAVID VS. GOLIATH

David Chooses To Fight

CHAPTER 3 - WHO ARE YOU?

Our Blessings

The Holy Spirit

Greater Works

CHAPTER 4 - GRACE UPON GRACE

How To Avoid Living From Crisis To Crisis

Do We Really Want Miracles?

CHAPTER 5 - UNDERSTANDING OUR AUTHORITY

Believe For More

CHAPTER 6 - UNDERSTANDING WHO WE ARE FIGHTING

The Consequences Of Sin

Free Will

Did God Do This?

A Kingdom Not Divided

CHAPTER 7 - FEAR

You Are So Creative!

The Power Of The Tongue

CHAPTER 8 - SIX QUESTIONS TO CONSIDER

Are You Sure This Is From The Enemy?

Are You Willing To Put Up With It?

Are You Willing To Let It Go?

Where Is It?

Has Someone You Prayed For Passed Away?

Do You Believe? I Mean Really Believe?

CHAPTER 9 - WHEN AND HOW TO FIGHT

The Decisive Moment

Where Is Your Focus?

Prepare For War (i.e. This Is Not A Drill)

Facing My Goliath

CHAPTER 10 - A FOOL IN LOVE

An Excerpt From My Journal

STRAZZA MINISTRIES

Dedication

This book is dedicated to my husband John, the love of my life, who inspires and encourages me (often working side by side) in all that I do. Also to my sons Kyle and Matthew, two good men, who bring me incredible joy in their continuing walk with the Lord.

A special thanks to my friends Jesse and Liza, who restored my faith in my brothers and sisters in Christ. And to John, Tim, Heather, Joy, James, and Marisa for your shining example of love and family.

Lisa Strazza

Forward

In Defeating Your Goliath, author Lisa Strazza takes you on a journey into the Word of God, finding truth, identifying your enemy, and dealing with that enemy in a scriptural way. If you are having constant or recurring problems in any part of your life, this book is a great foundation on which to get firmly planted on your spiritual feet!

Lisa writes from personal experience, and I know this because I was with her in almost every experience she writes about. I know her to be faithful, caring, full of revelation and very strong in her walk with Jesus. It’s not from book knowledge, or moments of light trouble from which she has drawn, but rather years of deep challenges, that shape her story.

One such situation, which she shares in this book, happened about one year before this manuscript was started. I had received a phone call that was the worst call of my life. In that short call I heard that my daughter had been in a horrific car accident, was severely injured, and suffered brain damage. I fell to the floor. Lisa ran to my aid as I was on the floor crying, and instead of falling apart, she spoke God’s word with such power that I immediately stood to my feet and was ready for war. And, within a couple of days we saw a miracle of great magnitude unfold before our very eyes.

This example is not the only one, there are many others. Lisa has been such an amazing help providing insight and revelation in challenging situations in our ministry. All this to say, Lisa has her sights set firmly on God’s Word, and this book is a way for her to share these experiences and insights to help encourage your faith.

But other [seeds] fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. (Matthew 13:8 KJV)

Let God’s word be planted in you like seeds in good ground, and give it time to grow into the fruit that only God’s word can provide.

Within the following pages are a series of fun, enlightening, and uncompromising experiences (from the everyday to the extraordinary) that ultimately will help you Defeat Your Goliath!

John Strazza

Senior Pastor, Strazza Ministries

Introduction

I grew up in a small suburb in New Jersey as the youngest of six children. I was raised in a Roman Catholic household and married by the age of nineteen. As a result of being young, naive and trusting I went through a difficult divorce in my mid-thirties. I found myself disillusioned and solely responsible for my two young children, blindsided with eight years of back taxes, and a surprising heap of defaulted debt. I was in foreclosure, loosing our home, and struggling. I was making thirteen dollars an hour while paying ten dollars an hour for after school care. Times felt pretty desperate.

It was during this struggle that I met my husband John who, as a father of six, had been through similar trying and difficult times. John and I shared interests in art, music and our love for the Lord. We connected instantly and fell in love. Our lives slowly merged into a uniquely blended and beautiful family.

Over the next twelve years or so we faced an uphill battle of hardships as we moved from one small rental to the next. I landed my dream job only to have the company go belly up three months later. My youngest stepson got terribly ill and had to go through chemotherapy. Still another child battled with a rare autoimmune disease. I started my own art gallery only to have the recession hit just months after opening. In the meantime John’s job in New York City was downsized.

John and I prayed our family through sickness, addiction, anxiety, depression and many other serious financial and personal struggles. In spite of these difficulties God kept us and He continued to fulfill our prayers and meet our immediate needs, but life was still very hard.

Did God want me to struggle? Was this my lot in life? Did the enemy have the authority to constantly make trouble for me and my family? In turn John and I decided to seek out answers. We decided to pursue God for a more stable and biblically abundant life.

As my walk with the Lord grew deeper and I remained under good Christian teaching,