1 SAMUEL 17:47b – For the battle is the LORD’s . . .
THEME OF THE DAY. THE WAYS WE FIGHT THE LORD’S BATTLE. Christians are a warring people. Not in a literal sense of “going to battle against people” with hatred, malicious attacks of the tongue, or any other combative attitudes or speech. We are a warring people against unseen, but real and felt foes. The Apostle Paul vividly and specifically tells us there is a hierarchy of evil spiritual forces constantly at war against God’s people – 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 (Ephesians 6:12). This battle is intense, moment-by-moment, and if left to ourselves, our foes will defeat, devour, and destroy us at first fight. And praise the Captain of our salvation, the Lord Jesus, He has not left us to fight this battle alone. In fact, looking at today’s scripture, one of the first and foremost things to do in this cosmic spiritual battle is to realize it is not ours. The battle is the Lord’s. However, don’t buy into the error of thinking submission to the Lord means, “Let go and let God” when it comes to fighting spiritual warfare. Yes, it ultimately is His battle, but that doesn’t mean we don’t fight it with Him. He has actually called us to battle. It is what defines the Christian life. In His wisdom, the Lord Jesus has ordained all of life this side of heaven to be a toil, a fight, a battle, a war, a struggle, a race, and those struggles never cease until we get to heaven. So, how do we fight His battle, His ways? Two things necessary if we are going to win.
First, we fight spiritual warfare from our position in Christ or our identity in Christ. Today’s scripture is taken from the dialogue between David and Goliath. All through their short conversation, David is telling the Philistine giant that he is offending and attacking the God of Israel. He repeatedly told his foe this was about who he was really attacking; God and His people. And this applies in our spiritual warfare too. What is one of the chief names given to the devil? It is found in the last book of the Bible, the Revelation – the accuser. John writes of him, “And I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying, “Now the salvation and the power and the kingdom of our God and the authority of his Christ have come, for the accuser of our brothers has been thrown down, who accuses them day and night before our God” (Revelation 12:10). What are areas of accusations the devil will hurl at us? Our identity. He will whisper things like, “You, a Christian? After that conversation?”; “You, a child of God? Hardly. You keep committing the same sin over and over.” And there will be other blasphemous and evil things said of him. In some ways, the devil is like a “spiritual Goliath” saying untruths about God and His people. Here is where many Christians are lying on the spiritual battlefields in life, defeated and casualties. They listen to the lies from the devil of their identity and not God’s truth of our identity. Defeat this evil foe by reminding ourselves constantly what God says of us . . . His sheep, His delight, His children, His bride, His beloved . . . and there are many more. As we do this, also remember these identities of ours in Christ are given, not earned; freely given by sovereign grace. We will win many spiritual battles by fighting from our position in Christ.
The other way we fight spiritual warfare is the use of the Sword of the Spirit – “take up the Sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Ephesians 6:17). Friends, if we are not daily in the Word, and striving to hide God’s Word in our hearts, we have no weaponry to fight against the devil, world and flesh. We only have one offensive weapon. The Word. Fail to be in the Bible to know Christ and get equipped for battle, and defeat is certain – every time and all day long.
We are engaged in a war of all wars, and thank God the battle is truly His. However, we are called to fight it with Him, in His strength and equipment. May we learn to do so daily as we fight our way all the way to heaven.
PRAYER: “Lord, help me to fight the good fight of faith, not in my strength, but in Yours.”
QUOTE: “We must fight all our spiritual battles according to God’s battle plan, not ours.”