Fearlessly Courageous
Desk of Dennis Piller
7 21 2025
Warfare, Identity, and the Pallet of the Past
Lord, take me to the place I’ve never been. Help me release the man I’ve never truly become—the false version I clung to for too long—so I can fully receive the new man you have birthed in me.
Let me embrace your Spirit within, for I am no longer the man I used to be.
I need your strength to walk forward in this new identity,
not by sight or old feelings,
but by faith in who you’ve called me to be.
“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has passed away, and behold, the new has come.” — 2 Corinthians 5:17
I will not continue to live for the approval or perceptions of others. Their opinions will no longer weigh more than your calling. That veteran’s quote hit deep: “The hardest pill I swallowed was realizing I meant nothing to people who meant a lot to me.” But even more profound is your truth, Lord: I mean everything to You. I’m choosing today to stop building my identity on rejection, failure, or past mistakes.
“Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.” — Proverbs 29:25
So hear me, God—I refuse to keep listening to the excuses of defeatism and the lies of “I’m not good enough.” I speak life into my soul today: the new man is alive. I call my flesh into submission to the Spirit, and I will learn obedience through grace. No more spiritual amnesia. No more sitting back down on the bed of dysfunction, you’ve already pulled me up from.
“Put off your old self… and put on the new self, created to be like God in true righteousness and holiness.” Ephesians 4:22–24
You’ve taught me, Lord. My mom reminded me: when you’re low, go give yourself away—serve someone in need. That always lifted me. It lifted them. And Jesus, you said:
“It is more blessed to give than to receive.” — Acts 20:35
But lately, I confess—my prayers have become weak. Not because You are, but because I’ve gotten lazy in my posture of war. I’ve been praying soft, sentimental prayers when I should be interceding like a soldier in battle every morning and every night. You taught me through Daniel that the moment I pray, the answer is released, but sometimes the battle in the heavenlies delays the delivery.
“Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.” — Daniel 10:12
So help me recognize when I must not retreat. “When you have done everything, stand firm.”
— Ephesians 6:13
Jesus said in John 5:8,
“Get up! Pick up your mat and walk!”
And later, He tells the same healed man:
“See, you are well again. Stop sinning or something worse may happen to you.” — John 5:14
Who keeps reading beyond the healing? That pallet… that bed… that symbol of paralysis? It became a testimony. Jesus didn’t just heal the man to walk again—He commanded him to carry the very thing that once defined his brokenness. It was never to be used again as a crutch, but to be kept as a witness to the power of God in his life. To him and to everyone who meet him.
And we forget so quickly. We stop journaling about the victories and placing them in the front of our Bible so we can remember the dark days. We stop praising. We stop standing. We lay back down in that same old place—marriage problems, broken family ties, discouragement at work—and wonder why nothing changes.
But how many times has the Holy Spirit whispered:
“Get up.”
“You have not because you ask not.”
“Stop going back to your vomit.” — See Proverbs 26:11
We pick up our pallet for a moment… then sit right back down and crawl back in.
Lord, help us to walk! Not crawl. Not retreat. Not collapse. Not judge. Not compare. Just walk.
He dares us to dream… but it’s not always about the dreams we long for—
He wants to be the dream Himself. And He said:
“Time is a precious gift… handle with care.”
Don’t sit back down on the mat.
The city on the hill we envisioned—the dreams we built in our own strength—they don’t deliver on their promises. But You, Lord… You always do.
“For all the promises of God in Him are Yes, and in Him Amen, to the glory of God through us.”
2 Corinthians 1:20
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