8. Fight the Good Fight of Faith
We are engaged in a war of eternal significance. The faith that has been given to us is a costly and precious gift. History is marked by those who have endured great hardship, faced overwhelming persecution, resisted great temptation, and shed their own blood in order that you and I might know God. The patriarchs, the prophets, the apostles, the church fathers, and countless others throughout history kept the faith entrusted to them as their most important stewardship. In the battle against Satan, against the forces of this world, and even against their own flesh, they paid any price in order to preserve what God had placed in their hearts and in their hands. We are heirs of God in Christ Jesus because of the life that He gave, and heirs of those who have gone before us, leaving us to follow in their steps, inheriting the faith that they passed on to us at such great price.
As we have studied the Scriptures together in the previous chapters, God has given to us a vision of the heart and life He entrusts to those who desire to be His men and women. Surely this way of life is the result of a lifelong process of walking responsively with the living God. These qualities, attitudes, and lifestyle characteristics do not spring up automatically in the life of every person who is born again. That is why God calls us to pursue Him and those things that come from Him. We must follow hard after God if we want to be men and women like this. Just as those who have gone before us have paid a great price for the faith we have received, that faith will grow within us at great cost to ourselves. Now we are stewards of that faith for future generations. For centuries to come, our children, and their children, and those who know God will be affected by the way we respond to Him in these years that He privileges us to walk with Him here. With this faith, we have also inherited a battle with eternal implications.
Timothy, to whom the apostle Paul was writing in the core Scripture from which we have taken the outline for this study, was encouraged to “fight the good fight of faith”:
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, (1 Timothy 1:18-19)
This must be our encouragement as well if we are to be men and women of God.
THE BATTLE AGAINST SATAN
Satan is the enemy of our souls and the enemy of the church. He seeks our destruction in every way. He intends to triumph in the end, but we must know that he is already a defeated foe and that his intention to thwart the plan of God for the ages will come to nothing. After the apostle Peter confessed that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God, Jesus said,
And Jesus answered him, “Blessed are you, Simon Bar-Jonah! For flesh and blood has not revealed this to you, but my Father who is in heaven. And I tell you, you are Peter, and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it. (Matthew 16:17-18)
We are storming the gates of hell, and we are winning! Everywhere we look we see the Kingdom of God invading Satan’s realm. Our God will accomplish all of His will. He will build His church even in the face of Satan’s most powerful attacks. His glory is revealed in Christ’s triumph over sin, death, and hell at the cross, and in the Church, which is His body.
Paul wrote to the church at Ephesus that we are the inheritance of God in Christ Jesus. He also taught us how to live out that truth as a church. In that process, he described how we are involved in spiritual warfare against Satan:
Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of his might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the schemes of the devil. (Ephesians 6:10-11)
Paul had been teaching the church to walk in Christ. He encouraged the Christians at Ephesus to no longer participate with the world in the unfruitful deeds of darkness but to live as lights in the world. He called the believers to be filled with the Holy Spirit and to minister the Word of God effectively to one another. Paul applied these truths to the marriage relationship and reminded the Christians in Ephesus that marriage is a picture of Christ’s relationship with His Church. Here we find encouragement about living with our children as stewards of God’s grace and about how to respond to our employers or employees. It is after these words of practical application to our Christian walk that we hear this strong exhortation: Stand firm!
We are in Christ as everything God has designed us to be. God Himself is teaching us how to live. We have the infinite resources of the living God because Christ is dwelling in our hearts, and we have the church as a place of refuge, an environment for healing, affirmation, and strength. Now God tells us to be strong in the strength that He supplies and to put on the full armor that He has provided for us. In His might, and with His armor, we will be able to stand firm when Satan comes against us in the battle for our souls and our faith:
For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places. Therefore take up the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand firm. (Ephesians 6:12-13)
We must understand that the battles in which we are involved every day are not against human enemies. This war is against the spiritual authorities of the kingdom of darkness, Satan’s realm in opposition to our God. Because this battle is not against a flesh-and-blood enemy, we cannot win it with human resources. Our minds, our wills, our strength, or our discipline will be of no avail here. We will be destroyed quickly if we set off to war with only those things that come from us. For that reason God tells us to take the full armor that comes from Him, and then we will be able to stand against Satan and win. Two times Paul has said “the whole armor.” We must leave nothing behind, no part of our lives unattended and vulnerable, or Satan will find that place and weaken us there. When we have done everything God has called us to do in this battle, we will be able to stand firm even against the evil one.
We must remember, too, that the apostle Paul is telling a church to put on the armor of God. In our individualistic, independent world where we fight our life battles all alone, it is difficult to grasp what God is teaching us here. The Christian life is a “one another” experience, a life together; we are a body of believers. None of us has the strength or the wisdom to fight spiritual battles alone. Only in the context of the church can we live out the life of power and protection that God has given to us.
Stand therefore, having fastened on the belt of truth. (Ephesians 6:14)
Some older translations of the Bible read “Gird your loins with truth.” God begins with our loins because in a battle, our loins are often our most vulnerable parts. Protect them with truth, we are told. The truths that God speaks must be our first line of protection in any battle. God is speaking of readiness. In preparation for warfare, the first thing any soldier did was “gird up his loins” so that his feet were free to move. The apostle Peter, as he encourages his readers in their walk, tells them to “gird up the loins of your mind” (1 Peter 1:13). Readiness for warfare, with our most vulnerable parts protected by the truth that comes from God, is our first step in standing firm. The truths of who God is and who we are in Christ protect us in our most vulnerable places.
And having put on the breastplate of righteousness. (Ephesians 6:14)
The breastplate covers our most vital organ, our hearts. God has applied the righteousness of His Son to our hearts and sees us as perfect in His eyes. We must learn to see ourselves as righteous also. Our hearts must be confident in order to wage war. We cannot be effective if we are shrinking back, wondering whether or not we are right with God. When His righteousness covers our hearts, we can walk out in confidence to meet the enemy of our souls and the enemy of the church. Only when we see ourselves as God sees us are we free to do battle against the forces of wickedness in the heavenly places.
And, as shoes for your feet, having put on the readiness given by the gospel of peace. (Ephesians 6:15)
God has given us new shoes, fit for the ministry of His life in this world. In the heat of the battle, our feet are firm and stable. What moves and motivates us is the commission to take the good news of God’s peace to those who are lost. While Satan is waging war, we are waging peace, bringing the message of reconciliation! Wherever God leads us, wherever we walk with Him, He creates peace in the hearts of men.
In all circumstances take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming darts of the evil one. (Ephesians 6:16)
The shield of faith is the protection for our lives in this battle. What a picture God gives us here! Satan is aiming missiles at us, trying to shoot us down before we can win the battle. These missiles may come in the form of health or financial problems, difficulties in our marriages or families, discouragement or depression, or painful relationships. One after another these missiles come. Perhaps as we face a powerful temptation, Satan will introduce the fear that God has left us. Satan will use anything. But the faith that God has given to us in His Son—that He is always with us and will be the protection for our lives—stops these “flaming darts” before they can destroy us.
Take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God. (Ephesians 6:17)
Paul gave us some further insight into the purpose of a “helmet of salvation” when He wrote to the Christians at Thessalonica:
But since we belong to the day, let us be sober, having put on the breastplate of faith and love, and for a helmet the hope of salvation. For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. (1 Thessalonians 5:8-9)
Paul refers here to the hope of salvation. When the battle is raging and the darkness is closing in around us, we need hope above all. Here our head is protected. Satan tells us that we will never be any different, that God will never use us as we had hoped He would, and that we will never become the people He wants us to be. Satan will seek to rob us of our hope because a person without hope is as good as dead. When our mind is “stayed on Christ,” He will keep us in perfect peace. We have the assurance that God will bring to completion all the things that concern us.
The “sword of the Spirit” is our only offensive weapon. When Satan tempted Eve in the Garden, He attacked the truth of the Word of God. “What has God said?” he asked her again and again. When Satan tempted Christ in the wilderness, the battle was against the Word of God. Every time Satan confronted Jesus, Jesus responded with the Word of God. The battle in the Garden of Eden was fought and lost on the basis of the Word of God. The battle in the wilderness was fought and won with the Word of God. All of the battles in our lives will be won with the sword of the Spirit. Our thoughts and ideas might make a real difference in this world, but they have little effect on the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places. The Word of God in our hearts, filling our minds, lived out in obedience, will defeat Satan. But the armor is not yet complete. Paul continues:
praying at all times in the Spirit, with all prayer and supplication. To that end keep alert with all perseverance, making supplication for all the saints. (Ephesians 6:18)
Prayer is one of the most significant aspects of the armor of God. “Pray at all times,” Paul exhorts us. Pray in the power of the Holy Spirit. Strive before the Lord with perseverance and petitions for all. Be on the alert. We are to guard the lives of one another before the throne of grace.
The Scriptures give us a picture of the power of prayer in spiritual warfare in the account of a battle between the Israelites and the Amalekites. Joshua was leading the men in battle while Moses prayed:
Whenever Moses held up his hand, Israel prevailed, and whenever he lowered his hand, Amalek prevailed. But Moses’ hands grew weary, so they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it, while Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side, and the other on the other side. So his hands were steady until the going down of the sun. And Joshua overwhelmed Amalek and his people with the sword. (Exodus 17:11-13)
This battle was fought physically on the field before Moses, but it is clear here that another war was raging as well. That battle was fought and won in another realm, a spiritual kingdom, as Moses prayed.
The real battles of our lives and of those we love are fought and won in the realm of prayer. We need to pray for one another continually, to strive before God for one another’s faith. The real victories will be won on the battlefield of prayer.
We need to be aware of our battle with Satan, but we must also be aware of the fact that he is a defeated enemy. As God promised in Genesis chapter 3, the “seed of the woman,” God’s own Son, crushed the head of Satan at the cross. As Paul shares with the Christians at Rome, we see that this victory is worked out in our lives as well:
The God of peace will soon crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. (Romans 16:20)
THE DESTRUCTION OF FORTRESSES
The apostle Paul taught us how to wage war in his second Corinthian letter. The resources that are ours and the weapons we use are not of this world. We put no confidence in our intellect, our persuasiveness, our eloquence, or our strength. We trust in the weapons that are divinely powerful: the knowledge of God, the Spirit of God, and the Word of God. His resources “demolish strongholds”:
For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:3-4)
Satan has established strongholds within this world in the minds and hearts of men, and from these strongholds, he wages war. I saw some of these strongholds, fortresses for his kingdom, when I ministered in India. Through centuries of false worship and the exaltation of a great variety of deities, Satan has established a strong foothold in that country. Demonic powers have used poverty, disease, fear, and prejudice to enslave people in their hopelessness.
As I served on a team of teachers and medical personnel, we saw numerous confrontations with the enemy. We were amazed at the authority with which our Indian brothers rebuked the demons and at how the demons obeyed! Confronted with scriptural rebukes and songs of worship, the demons fled. I was reminded of Jesus’ statement to His disciples as they reported great victories over Satan and his hosts:
The seventy-two returned with joy, saying, “Lord, even the demons are subject to us in your name!” And he said to them, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven. (Luke 10:17-18)
The strongholds that Satan has established in India through false religions and the worship of many gods are no more powerful than the fortresses he has built in the Western world through materialism and the pursuit of pleasure. It is by these very means that he controls the lives of millions and through which he enslaves cultures.
Another powerful stronghold of our enemy is the growing independence and individualism in many parts of the world, especially North America. We as individuals become the final measure of what is right, and we pursue what affirms us, pleases us, and builds us up. Abortion, pornography, and consumerism are all expressions of Satan’s hold on our hearts. Even in our churches there is little freedom to “submit to one another out of reverence for Christ” (Ephesians 5:21). Within the body of Christ, we have come to mirror our culture in our pursuit of individualism.
One of Satan’s most powerful fortresses from which he is waging a war of destruction is the fruit of this same spirit of independence. Our enemy has quite effectively kept churches small through the amplification of our pride, our pursuit of comfort, and our almost complete inability to handle hurts. This is especially true in North America, where we tend to quickly leave churches if we are “not comfortable” or if a hurt or a discouragement has developed with a brother or sister.
Realistically, for a church to have a viable ministry beyond itself in the community or around the world, it must grow beyond 150 or 200 members. Up to that point, all of the church’s resources are needed to maintain its own staff and facilities. A church can surely be small and be quite healthy and effective in its ministry. I have been in many excellent small churches in small towns. However, one of Satan’s most effective strategies is to keep churches splitting as a result of pride, fleshly disappointments, and hurts that are not healed. Consequently, we have literally thousands of churches whose resources are consumed on their own maintenance, with little or no ability to aggressively move in ministry either in their own communities or in world missions.
There is another very effective stronghold that I believe Satan is controlling today, and that is discouragement among pastors and church leaders. Many pastors are exhausted and experiencing great pressure in the ministry as they seek to meet the expectations of their people. In their hearts they know that the ministry belongs to God’s people, not only to the “professionals” (Ephesians 4:11-12). However, so many of their people become consumed with the pursuit of this system. Added to this is the mind-set in many of our churches that the pastors have been hired to do the work anyway! Many pastors are battling with discouragement over this so that when they face criticism and the board meetings of the church are filled with disagreements and division, our best men and women often lose heart.
We tend to put missionaries, media preachers, and popular authors on pedestals. The real heroes of the Kingdom, however, are the pastors of local churches. They are on the front lines of battle and of ministry. I encourage you to pray continually for your pastor and your church leaders, that God would keep their hearts in the face of these battles. Ask God to sustain them from day to day and protect them from the enemy. Take every opportunity to encourage them and even to come alongside them in the work. You will be a beautiful gift of life from the hand of God to the hearts of your leaders!
The warfare in which we are involved is aimed at Satan’s strongholds, those fortresses of his power that he has established in places of this world and in places in our hearts.
For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. (2 Corinthians 10:4)
Paul gives us a powerful strategy for waging war against these strongholds of the enemy:
We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ, being ready to punish every disobedience, when your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10:5-6)
God has called us to demolish strongholds, to destroy the demonic fortresses that Satan has established in the minds, hearts, and cultures of this world. We wage war with the truth of God and pursue the knowledge of Him in every mind, every heart, every place. We speak with authority against the arguments and the fleshly pretensions that control the lives of men and women, and we take every thought captive to obedience.
Beginning with our hearts and lives, we permit only one response to the Lord. When He speaks to us about our sexual responses, our finances, our time priorities, our commitments to our families, our attitudes, our relationships, and our ways of thinking, we permit only one response. Never do we allow our hearts to respond, “Yes, but Lord,….” or “Yes, if you enable me to do this or that,” or “Yes, when I reach this place of maturity.” We take every thought captive to obedience and say, “Yes, Lord.”
Before the people of this world, we proclaim the message of the risen Christ and call them to obey the gospel and be reconciled to God. Within the church of the Lord Jesus we call our brothers and sisters to come before God with wholehearted obedience. Continually we speak forth the truth about God, which demolishes the strongholds of the enemy and advances the Kingdom of our Lord. Obedience to God’s truth is a weapon that has the power to destroy demonic fortresses.
THE BATTLE AGAINST THE WORLD
Satan is not our only enemy. We are living in a system set in opposition to God and His Kingdom. When Adam sinned, he left God’s realm of light and was plunged into the realm of darkness. When we come to know Christ, God brings us back into His eternal Kingdom of light:
He has delivered us from the domain of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1:13-14)
While our life is in God’s Kingdom, we are still physically present in this world. Jesus talked to His disciples about how the world would hate them because it hated Him:
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you. If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you. (John 15:18-19)
Jesus is describing here a system of darkness that reacts against the light of His life. It is not necessarily true that everyone in the world who is not a Christian will hate us. Christ is describing a system of thought, a realm that engages in the worship of man and what he is able to accomplish. This is the kingdom of the mind, heart, and soul of man that is set against God and what He is doing.
There is a philosophy of life that confronts us on a daily basis. It is a mind-set about what is true, what we should pursue with our hearts, what gives us security, what brings fulfillment, whom we should seek to please, and on and on. We read it in advertising; we hear it on the radio; we see it on the television; it is lived out before our eyes in lifestyle choices. We are surrounded by its examples, and we are enticed to follow.
Do not love the world or the things in the world. If anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride in possessions—is not from the Father but is from the world. And the world is passing away along with its desires, but whoever does the will of God abides forever. (1 John 2:15-17)
John, the great apostle of love, writing now as an old man, gives us sound advice and strong encouragement. The world, the things in the world, and the lusts that it stimulates are all passing away. “Do not love the world.” These are God’s words to us who pursue Him. When our lives embrace things less than God, our hearts are given away to the things of the world. God has called us to give our hearts to Him alone. We cannot love the world and love God at the same time. Our hearts can be owned and controlled only by one love.
A few years ago God confronted me in a vivid way about my love for the world. I did not think that I loved the world, but my Father taught me a hard lesson, and I saw my heart in a new way.
Although I travel a good bit and find myself in a variety of situations, I am a person with a rather set routine in which I find enjoyment and security. When I am home, my family, my church, my coworkers, and my friends are central to my lifestyle. I also enjoy following my favorite sports teams, reading the daily newspaper, keeping up with world events through television news, and having some time to myself to relax with a good book.
God taught me this hard lesson as I was away for about a month in a series of conferences in the developing world. While I was gone, I realized I was becoming depressed. At first I figured that I was depressed because I was away from my wife, or because I was tired from all the travel and teaching, or because I was struggling with the heat. When I began to sense some resentment in my heart, the Spirit of God revealed to me the reality of my situation. I was separated from the things I enjoyed, from the things that made me comfortable and secure, and I was angry about it. I loved the world!
I had been given the great privilege of traveling around the world teaching the Scriptures that exalt the Lord and encourage His Church, and I was resentful! I confessed my selfish attitudes to the Lord and repented of my sin, promising the Lord that if He ever gave me another opportunity to serve Him in that way, I would guard my heart and go with joy and freedom to serve. God has graciously allowed me to do that, and He has kept my heart in the process. Our enemy comes to us in subtle ways, seeking to develop within us a love for this world. While we are guarding our hearts against major entanglements, he captivates us just as effectively with other loves that would consume us.
Later in John’s first letter, he talked to us about overcoming the world:
For everyone who has been born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world except the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God? (1 John 5:4-5)
We look around us and see men and women everywhere who have been overcome by the world. Even in our churches we see those who have been overwhelmed by the system that surrounds us, who have yielded up their lives for what this world has to offer. They have sacrificed their hearts on the altar of this system’s glories.
Being “born of God” enables us to overcome the world. The creation of a new life that invades us, even while we are still physically present here, becomes the power to overcome the world. The victory is won through our faith in the One who has called us. Those who are men and women of God are seen as overcomers in a world that is being consumed by its own desires.
THE BATTLE AGAINST THE FLESH
The battle that God has called us to fight and win would not be nearly so difficult if the enemy were only “out there.” If we were waging war “only” against Satan and the world, it would at least be easier to identify our enemy. But the battle is within us as well. Our entire being has been so tainted with sin that we are continually prone to do those things that please us rather than the Lord.
Paul wrote in his letter to the Philippians about “putting no confidence in the flesh.” The flesh is what we are apart from God; it is those things that come from us. When we came to know Christ, our old selves were put to death, and God created us as completely new people (Romans 6:6; 2 Corinthians 5:17). The flesh results from the desires of an unregenerate physical body as well as from the tendency to trust in our own resources. In the flesh, we are motivated to please only ourselves; in Christ, the Holy Spirit moves us to please God alone.
The apostle Paul told us of His own battle with his flesh and his physical body as he wrote to the church at Corinth. He talked about the runner who competes in the games and how he disciplines himself in order to win the crown:
Do you not know that in a race all the runners compete, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable. (1 Corinthians 9:24-25)
Paul then applied this truth to his own life experience and shared how he battled against his own physical desires:
So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27)
We live in a world in which we continually respond to the whims and desires of our physical bodies. When our bodies want food, we give them all the food they desire. The same is true with pleasures, clothes, and physical things that produce security. This is a bodily oriented system. Paul decided that he would not live as the slave of his body but rather that his body would become his slave, and God’s vessel, for the fulfillment of his ministry. He disciplined his body and its desires in order to pursue God and the prize of His glory and pleasure.
WALK BY THE SPIRIT
The way God teaches us to deal with the flesh is to walk by the Spirit:
But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the desires of the flesh are against the Spirit, and the desires of the Spirit are against the flesh, for these are opposed to each other, to keep you from doing the things you want to do. (Galatians 5:16-17)
The flesh and the Spirit are set in opposition to one another. If we trust in our own resources, we will carry out the desires of the flesh and will not be able to please the Lord according to the desire of our hearts. After Paul tells us that we are no longer under the law when the Spirit of God leads us, he describes the works of the flesh:
Now the works of the flesh are evident: sexual immorality, impurity, sensuality, idolatry, sorcery, enmity, strife, jealousy, fits of anger, rivalries, dissensions, divisions, envy, drunkenness, orgies, and things like these. I warn you, as I warned you before, that those who do such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (Galatians 5:19-21)
This is the fruit that pours out of our lives apart from God. Even with our highest achievements, our strictest discipline, and our most effective education, the works of the flesh continue to abound in this world. Now Paul pictures for us the fruit of the Spirit:
But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control; against such things there is no law. (Galatians 5:22-23)
When we are the source for our own lives, all of the death that fills us is expressed in our attitudes, thoughts, and actions. When God’s life fills us by His Holy Spirit, the characteristics of His life are produced in us in abundance. We know we are walking by the Spirit when we see His fruit expressed in our lives:
And those who belong to Christ Jesus have crucified the flesh with its passions and desires. If we live by the Spirit, let us also walk by the Spirit. (Galatians 5:24-25)
God calls us to live by the Spirit and to walk by the Spirit; this is the way the flesh is put to death. To “keep in step with the Spirit” is to trust in His power, to follow His direction, to respond to His leading, and to depend on His resources. This is the means by which the battle against the flesh is won.
PRAISE AND WORSHIP IN SPIRITUAL WARFARE
The children of Israel were in a battle with their enemies. God’s deliverance of His people teaches us powerful truths about “fighting the good fight of faith”:
After this the Moabites and Ammonites, and with them some of the Meunites, came against Jehoshaphat for battle. Some men came and told Jehoshaphat, “A great multitude is coming against you from Edom, from beyond the sea; and, behold, they are in Hazazon-tamar” (that is, Engedi). (2 Chronicles 20:1-2)
Jehoshaphat’s first response to this alarming news was to seek the Lord and to call all of God’s people to seek Him. That must always be our first response as we are preparing for warfare:
Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set his face to seek the LORD, and proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. And Judah assembled to seek help from the LORD; from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the LORD. (2 Chronicles 20:3-4)
When the people of God were gathered in Jerusalem, King Jehoshaphat led the people in a prayer of worship:
[He] said, “O LORD, God of our fathers, are you not God in heaven? You rule over all the kingdoms of the nations. In your hand are power and might, so that none is able to withstand you. Did you not, our God, drive out the inhabitants of this land before your people Israel, and give it forever to the descendants of Abraham your friend? And they have lived in it and have built for you in it a sanctuary for your name, saying, ‘If disaster comes upon us, the sword, judgment, or pestilence, or famine, we will stand before this house and before you—for your name is in this house—and cry out to you in our affliction, and you will hear and save.’ And now behold, the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom you would not let Israel invade when they came from the land of Egypt, and whom they avoided and did not destroy—behold, they reward us by coming to drive us out of your possession, which you have given us to inherit. O our God, will you not execute judgment on them? For we are powerless against this great horde that is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” (2 Chronicles 20:6-12)
King Jehoshaphat declared their dependence upon God and their confidence in Him as their deliverer. All of their hope as a people was in God’s power to protect them and to deliver them. They had no resources of their own with which to fight the battle.
So it is in our churches and as individuals. It is humbling to admit that we have no power with which to face our enemies. Our pride is broken as we confess that we have no idea what to do in these situations. We are revealing our helplessness and our inadequacy, and our flesh is ashamed at being exposed in such a way. At these times, Satan will seek to convince us that we surely ought to be able to handle each situation. We are Christians, perhaps even leaders, and we ought to have the wisdom and the ability to work this out. However, the truth is that we are helplessly dependent upon God. As Jesus told His disciples, “Apart from me you can do nothing” (John 15:5). We can say only, with King Jehoshaphat, “We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you.”
While all of Judah stood before the Lord, the Spirit of God came upon Jahaziel, and he began to prophesy:
“Listen, all Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem and King Jehoshaphat: Thus says the LORD to you, ‘Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed at this great horde, for the battle is not yours but God’s. Tomorrow go down against them. Behold, they will come up by the ascent of Ziz. You will find them at the end of the valley, east of the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Stand firm, hold your position, and see the salvation of the LORD on your behalf, O Judah and Jerusalem.’ Do not be afraid and do not be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, and the LORD will be with you.” (2 Chronicles 20:15-17)
Can you imagine more encouraging words than these from Jahaziel? “You will not have to fight this battle”! When we hear from a doctor that we have a terrible illness, or when we face great problems in our marriages or families, or when we are struck with devastating financial losses or overwhelming pain in our churches, these words from the Lord bring life to us. To be reminded that we will not have to fight this battle is the greatest news we could hear! Just as when David ran to meet Goliath and said, “The battle is the Lord’s!” (1 Samuel 17:47), so we must walk in the Lord’s strength and His victories. Our position in the battle is to stand firm in who God is and who we are in Him!
King Jehoshaphat was the first to bow his face to the ground, humbling himself before God and before his people. The people also fell down in worship, and they began to praise the Lord:
Then Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground, and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell down before the LORD, worshiping the LORD. And the Levites, of the Kohathites and the Korahites, stood up to praise the LORD, the God of Israel, with a very loud voice. (2 Chronicles 20:18-19)
When the people and the armies of God left for battle the next morning, King Jehoshaphat gave them these final instructions:
And they rose early in the morning and went out into the wilderness of Tekoa. And when they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Hear me, Judah and inhabitants of Jerusalem! Believe in the LORD your God, and you will be established; believe his prophets, and you will succeed.” And when he had taken counsel with the people, he appointed those who were to sing to the LORD and praise him in holy attire, as they went before the army, and say, “Give thanks to the LORD, for his steadfast love endures forever.” (2 Chronicles 20:20-21)
As the people of God were worshiping Him, singing praises to His name, and proclaiming His holiness and His glory, God caused confusion among their enemies, the battle was won, and the enemies were destroyed:
And when they began to sing and praise, the LORD set an ambush against the men of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah, so that they were routed. For the men of Ammon and Moab rose against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, devoting them to destruction, and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they all helped to destroy one another. (2 Chronicles 20:22-23)
Satan cannot stand where God is being praised. Worship defeats the enemy of God’s church! As we face the battles that our enemies bring, whether they come in the form of temptations, failures, divisions, or hurts in relationships, Satan is defeated when we worship. What a strategy for warfare! Exalting God’s glory, proclaiming His holiness, praising His name, and magnifying His works bring confusion to our enemies and unity to God’s people. It is no wonder that Satan loves superficial and shallow forms in our religious activities and that he causes the people of God to become very uncomfortable about growing in worship. He has much to fear in the praises and worship of God’s Church!
And the fear of God came on all the kingdoms of the countries when they heard that the LORD had fought against the enemies of Israel. So the realm of Jehoshaphat was quiet, for his God gave him rest all around. (2 Chronicles 20:29-30)
When we place our confidence in God rather than in our own wisdom or abilities, He fights against our enemies and wins the battles by His great power. His glory is revealed, and He is worshiped. He gives us peace and rest in all of our realms.
God has entrusted to us the battle for the faith, and He is the One who enables us to win the battle. We must never forget that we are daily in hand-to-hand combat with Satan, the forces of this world, and even our own flesh. Because this war has eternal implications, the way we fight, the resources we use, and how we walk all matter significantly. The greatest sense of fulfillment for any man or woman of God would be to be able to say with the apostle Paul these words:
I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that Day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:7-8)
GROUP STUDY GUIDE AND PERSONAL APPLICATION
1. Do you feel that you have lived with the awareness that you are in the midst of a war? How do you respond to the “war” illustrations in the Scriptures? Are you comfortable seeing yourself and your church in that way?
2. When you read the phrase “fighting the good fight of the faith,” what comes to your mind about your own experiences?
3. In your own life, where have you seen the attacks of Satan? In what areas are you most vulnerable?
4. As you look at the pieces of the “armor of God,” which of these do you most need in your daily life? Why?
5. Have you seen prayer as one of the pieces of the armor? Is that a strong area of your life? If not, what needs to change for it to become an area of strength?
6. Are you aware of strongholds that Satan has built up in your heart and life? How would you apply the exhortation to “take every thought captive to obedience” in these areas?
7. Do you see in your own heart a love for this world? How does that love affect your involvement in spiritual warfare and ministry?
8. When you read of Paul’s instructions to deal with our fleshly nature and desires, what are the first things that come to your mind about the applications of these truths in your own life?
9. List the keys to victory that we saw in King Jehoshaphat’s battle. How can you apply these to your own life in order to walk in these victories?
REFLECTIONS, COMMITMENTS, AND PRAYER
We most often live as if we are not in a war. We get lured into the comfortable lifestyle of this world and sometimes allow the loves of our hearts to settle in there. Confess to the Lord where you have allowed that to happen in your own life. In the places where you are vulnerable to the enemy, ask God to show you how to put on His armor. Seek the Lord for a heart of obedience toward Him so that the enemy’s strongholds in your life might be torn down. Ask God to give you a heart of humility and worship such as we saw in King Jehoshaphat, and pray that the power that flows from exalting Him might be your experience from day to day.
I write to you, fathers, because you know him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you are strong, and the word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the evil one.
1 John 2:14