Who is fighting your battles?

Monday Motivation

Topic: Who is fighting your battles?

Joshua 11, Psa 9

When we are going through the process of receiving what Jesus has for us, we will often face a battle, and have to fight. The enemy knows we will be blessed so we may face roadblocks. His assignment it to prevent us from our blessing. He is the original hater. Misery loves company and since he has forfeited his blessings his goal is to pursuade us to forfeit ours. 

When the children of Israel were given the Promised Land they had to fight for what God had given them. Their fight was a fight of courage and obedience. God will always do the fighting if he sends us into battle; but we need to be obedient and follow the direction of the Lord. Israel needed to show up and have courage. In Josh 11:1-4 there were several kings that joined forces to fight against Israel. The bible says as many as the sand that was on the shore.

We often complain when we have one or two enemies. They had enemies everywhere. According to commentary that battle amounted to approximately 300,000 men in infantry, 10,000 men in cavalry, and 20,000 war chariots, seeking to battle Israel. The infantry unit were the foot soldiers. The cavalry unit were trained soldiers that fought on horseback. The war chariots were battle taxi’s, that provided rapid motive power. War chariots allowed the archery unit to strike with their bow quickly from a distance.

 

Our battles are spiritual. We have to fight the same battles only we have to fight them with a different sword. Some of us are experiencing the infantry moving in on our jobs. Some of us are experiencing the cavalry in our homes. Some of us are going up against war chariots every day. War chariots attack us with their bow and arrow before we even see them coming. When we see them we should get excited. That is a sign a blessing is headed our way. That is a sign the enemy is trying to pursuade us into doubting God. That's when we should fight harder to stay connected to our Father. 

When we are in battle, and we are always in battle (even if we do not see or hear our assailant). We need to obey the voice of the Lord. In Josh 11:6 God says "Be not afraid of them". If we believe that Jesus is the King of kings, we should never be afraid of anyone but God. We need to have faith that the Lord will fight our battles. 

We know we do not wrestle against flesh and blood (people), but against rulers of the darkness of this world (Eph6:12). This means we are not fighting our brother, sister, spouse, child, or employer when they attack us, because they are flesh and blood. We are fighting the rulers over darkness.  We cannot fight the enemy's spirit with our flesh, we will always lose. We have to fight his spirit with the Holy Spirit in us. When we the fight enemy's spirit with our flesh, that spirit moves to someone else and then to someone else, and we drain ourselves arguing and getting upset with everyone he posses to attack us. We find ourselves upset with the cashier, the teacher, our pastor, our friend. Once he uses a couple of people he doesn't need them anymore because he has overtaken us and we are responding to him like he is our master and we are his puppet. We are running around angry with everyone and they haven't done anything to us. Meanwhile the enemy is laughing at us because he is now controlling us and we are unsettled and angry. 

We have to arm ourselves because we never know who the ruler of darkness is going to use to overtake us. We have to show up to battle, everyday, with the whole armor of God so we can withstand the enemy.

When we wake up we should give God praise. Thank you Jesus! You are great Lord! Thank you Daddy. After we wash and clothe ourselves we should add our belt of truth and our breastplate of righteousness to our attire. Belts in battle are used to protect our strong organs. When we protect ourselves with God's truth, we know who we are, and we know who God is in our lives. When someone says something contrary to God's truth we should dismiss it immediately. Do not allow it to take root in our mind or heart. 

We must put our good shoes on to protect our feet, so we don’t step on any daggers or nails to cripple us in our walk. We must put on our designer steel toe shoes on called Gospel of Peace. When the archery team speeds in on their chariots, throwing arrows of gossip, hate, jealousy, and anger, etc, we should be armed with our shield of faith; blocking and dodging those fiery darts. 

Far too often we are not armed with our shield, and we allow those darts to make contact with us, and we allow them to penetrate our spirit. Our shield of faith can extinguish even the fiery and inflamed darts from the enemy, but we have to use it. Our shield protects us against those darts that make us feel defeated, ashamed, suicidal, insecure, or angry. 

Some of us are getting our feelings hurt because someone threw a dart at us. The only way we could have felt those darts if we were unarmed. The enemy can use anyone to attack us, even those in our family. We must always walk with the full armor of God on even in our homes.

We must also protect our mind with the helmet of salvation, which keeps us from thinking and doing things outside the will of God. Without our helmets on we could become harmed when we collide with lust, vengeance or any other action that may begin in our thoughts. Some battles are internal and we have to protect ourselves from ourselves. We must carry and use our sword which is the word of God and the Spirit of God that lives in us. When we know the word it doesn't matter how we feel. It doesn't matter what it looks like. We will stand on his word (Eph 6:10-18). Proverbs 16:7 When a man's ways please the Lord, he makes even his enemies to be at peace with him.

During Israel’s battle the bible says no one made peace with them (Josh11:19). Everyone talked about them. Everyone hated them. Everyone wanted to kill them. There will be times when we feel like the world is against us. If our actions line up with the will of God we have to stand and our enemies will be at peace with us. We have to stand wearing the whole armor of God. We have to stand even though it’s lonely. We have to stand even though there isn’t anyone there but us. When we stand we must continually pray. We cannot stand complaining, we cannot stand gossiping, we cannot stand murmuring. We have to stand believing and praying, carrying the joy of The Lord. 

We can't  be caught off guard by war chariots. We can't be overtaken by the foot soldiers or the soldiers on horseback.  We can't  be afraid, we have to give it to the Lord and he will direct our paths. Remember Psa 9:3 “When my enemies turn back, they stumble and perish before your presence.” Know that our enemies will stumble and perish before the presence of the Lord.   

God Bless you and your family. May the Lord be with you in battle.

Pray

Most Holy and wise God. You are the King of all kings. You give life and you take life. You are our only father. You are a wonderful provider and keeper. We thank you for giving us life and allowing us another opportunity to praise you and glorify your name. We repent for going into battle without you. Please forgive us for fighting our own battles and forgetting to seek you first. Forgive us for operating in flesh and not in your Spirit. Help us to stay sensitive to your Holy Spirit. We want you to guide our footsteps. Give us the courage to show up for battle and show up with your armor on. Help us not to consider ourselves but consider you and your abilities. Thank you Lord for all you have done for us. Thank you for protecting us in our ignorance. In Jesus Name we pray Amen.

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