Fear not ye, neither be dismayed…..for the battle is not yours but God’s.

2 Chronicles 20:15

Fight to get the victory and you have lost the battle at the very outset. Your discomfiture as a Christian starts the moment you begin to reckon you must win. Suppose Satan sets out to assault you in your home or in your business. Difficulties mount up, misunderstandings arise, a situation you can neither deal with nor escape threatens to overwhelm you. You pray, you fast, you struggle and resist for days, but nothing happens. Why? You are trying to fight to victory, and in doing so are relinquishing the very ground that is yours. For in the person of Jesus Christ God has already conquered. Victory is ours because it is his. He has given us his victory to hold. Satan is a defeated foe. It needs but a breath from the Lord to finish him off, and here you are trying to raise a hurricane! What then is the secret? Simply look up and praise him. “Thy victory, Lord is all-inclusive. I praise thee it covers this situation too!” Then be at rest in a triumph already secured for you by God.

Watchman Nee

Repeatedly the stories of the Old Testament validate the truth that the children of God are not the ones who win their battles. It might not be so obvious to the casual reader, but the story of Adam and Eve is such a story. In their feeble attempt to resist the enticement of Satan, they lost and in their helpless state of bondage and shame, they could only hide hoping that death wouldn’t find them. Without strength and without hope they waited, trying in vain to cover their wounds with fig leaves, only to discover it wasn’t enough. Enter God seeking the fallen with compassion, calling their names. No calling in anger but in grace. That day He brought a victory for them through the sacrifice of innocent animals and proclaimed that the ultimate victory would be won one day through the sacrifice of His beloved Son. This is how I fight my battles!

The children of Israel could verify that it is God who fights and wins our battles as they stood at the Red Sea listening to the sounds of the approaching Egyptian chariots. Hopeless and helpless, they could only cry out to God. And that day God gave them a mighty victory as He opened the Red Sea for them and then closed it back drowning the Egyptian army. Again at the walls of Jericho, Israel was fully aware that they would need God to give them victory. What could a group of the children of former slaves do against such a mighty stronghold. So they marched and they shouted and God took down the walls. This is how I fight my battles.

David understood that the battle he was in with Goliath would not be won by his own prowess. He expresses it clearly in his conversation with the giant he was facing:

“Then David said to the Philistine, “You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the armies of Israel, whom you have taunted. This day the Lord will hand you over to me, and I will strike you down and cut off your head. And I will give the corpses of the army of the Philistines this day to the birds of the sky and the wild beasts of the earth, so that all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, and that this entire assembly may know that the Lord does not save with the sword or with the spear; for the battle is the Lord’s and He will hand you over to us.”

1 Samuel 17: 45-47

This is how I fight my battles.

Years later, long after David was king and had died, another king faced insurmountable odds as three nations formed an alliance against Israel. The alliance was powerful and Israel was weak and all seemed hopeless until the king made a most important decision. He would lay the matter before the Lord and trust in Him. Listen to his words as he does so:

“Then Jehoshaphat was afraid and set himself [determinedly, as his vital need] to seek the Lord; and he proclaimed a fast throughout all Judah. So [the people of] Judah gathered together to seek help from the Lord; indeed they came from all the cities of Judah to seek the Lord [longing for Him with all their heart]. Then Jehoshaphat stood in the assembly of Judah and Jerusalem, in the house of the Lord in front of the new courtyard, and said, “O Lord, God of our fathers, are You not God in heaven? And do You not rule over all the kingdoms of the nations? Power and might are in Your hand, there is no one able to take a stand against You. O our God, did You not drive out the inhabitants of this land before Your people Israel and give it forever to the descendants of Your friend Abraham? They have lived in it, and have built You a sanctuary in it for Your Name, saying, ‘If evil comes on us, or the sword of judgment, or plague, or famine, we will stand before this house and before You (for Your Name and Your Presence is in this house) and we will cry out to You in our distress, and You will hear and save us.’ Now behold, the sons of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir, whom You would not allow Israel to invade when they came from the land of Egypt (for they turned away from them and did not destroy them), here they are, rewarding us by coming to drive us out of Your possession which You have given us as an inheritance. O our God, will You not judge them? For we are powerless against this great multitude which is coming against us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on You.”

2 Chronicles 20: 3-12

This is how I fight my battles.

The Apostle Paul writing to the Corinthians provides this truth:

“The weapons of our warfare are not physical [weapons of flesh and blood]. Our weapons are divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. We are destroying sophisticated arguments and every exalted and proud thing that sets itself up against the [true] knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought and purpose captive to the obedience of Christ, being ready to punish every act of disobedience, when your own obedience [as a church] is complete.”

2 Corinthians 10: 4-6

In his letter to the Ephesians, Paul further describes how our battles cannot be won with human means:

“In conclusion, be strong in the Lord [draw your strength from Him and be empowered through your union with Him] and in the power of His [boundless] might. Put on the full armor of God [for His precepts are like the splendid armor of a heavily-armed soldier], so that you may be able to [successfully] stand up against all the schemes and the strategies and the deceits of the devil. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places. Therefore, put on the complete armor of God, so that you will be able to [successfully] resist and stand your ground in the evil day [of danger], and having done everything [that the crisis demands], to stand firm [in your place, fully prepared, immovable, victorious].”

Ephesians 6: 10-13

The Bible closes with the book of Revelation which reveals the truth of the ages. We win our battles not by our effort or through our capabilities by we rest in the knowledge that God fights our battles for us.

“Then I heard a loud voice in heaven, saying,“Now the salvation, and the power, and the kingdom (dominion, reign) of our God, and the authority of His Christ have come; for the accuser of our [believing] brothers and sisters has been thrown down [at last], he who accuses them and keeps bringing charges [of sinful behavior] against them before our God day and night. And they overcame and conquered him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, for they did not love their life and renounce their faith even when faced with death.”

Revelation 12: 10-11

This is how I fight my battles.

Dr. John Thompson