Saturday, September 11, 2010

Till the Walls Fall Down

The song "Till the Walls Fall" by Martha Munizzi is a really powerful song that ministered to me this morning. It reminded me of a lesson that God had given me several years ago when I was teaching Jr. High age students. I went back and read through the lesson and WOW God really ministered to me through it! Today I am going to choose to "practice what I preached" several years ago!!! The battle is NOT mine it belongs to the Lord! And the great news is that it has already been won!!!

You can read in 2 Chronicles 20:1-30 about king Jehoshaphat. One day, King Jehoshaphat found himself in an impossible situation. Impossible for him but NOTHING is impossible for our God. The Moabites, Ammonites and Meunites came to start a war and to take over Judah including Jerusalem. Thankfully, Jehoshaphat did not try to join the battle and defend himself; instead the first thing Jehoshaphat did was seek God for direction.

When trouble comes our way we need to seek God for direction on how to handle the situation, FIRST, before we take matters into our own hands.

As Jehoshaphat is praying to God he says, “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon You.” 2 Chronicles 20:12b

When we find ourselves in a spiritual battle, we should not focus on the situation but we need to keep our eyes on Jesus!

In 2 Chronicles 20:15 we read God's reply to Jehoshaphat's prayer... “Listen, King Jehoshaphat and all who live in Judah and Jerusalem! This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.”

There are some powerful things in this verse:
1. Do not be afraid. We do not want to allow fear into a situation because fear will cause everything to be blown way out of proportion. (Kind of like viewing our situation through a high powered magnifying glass!)
2. Do not be discouraged.
3. The battle is not yours; the battle is God's. If we truly believe that the battle is not ours, then we should not try to get involved. We should not try to defend ourselves. We should let God fight the battle!
4. God says, "You will not have to fight this battle." So why do we tend to think that God needs our help and want to join in? If we choose to join the battle we are choosing to walk out onto the battle field and are putting ourselves out in the enemies line of fire! I think I will choose to stay 'off' the battle field and allow God to handle the situation.
5. Stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you. God instructs us numerous times in the Bible to stand firm but the one that comes to mind is in 1 Peter 5:8-10 "Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings. And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast."
6. God repeats, "Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged." Hmmm... I wonder why this is repeated? It is extremely important that we do not allow the enemy to successfully use fear and discouragement against us. We need to stand firm in faith.

2 Chronicles 20:18-21 goes on to say that Jehoshaphat, all the people of Judah and Jerusalem fell down to the ground and began to worship God. Then some stood up and praised the Lord, with a very loud voice. Early the next morning they all left for the desert where God said that these enemies would be. Jehoshaphat stood and reminded everyone to have faith in the Lord and they would be safe. Then Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and praise Him as they went out ahead of the army. Now look in verse 22 to see what happens!

2 Chronicles 20:22 “As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

It goes on to say how the men of Ammon and Moab started fighting against the men of Seir. After they destroyed all of them they starting fighting each other and destroying each other. All the enemies that were after God’s people destroyed each other and Jehoshaphat and his men were not even there yet. When the men of Judah came to a place that overlooks the desert where the enemy armies were they saw only dead bodies lying all over the ground; no one had escaped.

The battle was not theirs, it belonged to the Lord. The only weapon they used in this war was Praise & Worship. They did not use a sword, nothing else. They did not have to fight anyone.


2 Corinthians 10:3-4 tells us, “Though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds.”

In Ephesians chapter 6 it talks about putting on the whole armor of God so that we can fight the enemy. In verse 12 it says that our struggle is not against flesh and blood, (that means other people) but against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.

~ Our weapons are different than the world’s weapons.
~ It is easy to act like the world when we are being attacked but we need to step aside and allow God to fight our battles.
~ Let God fight your battles. When I let God fight my battles I know that He wins every single time! In fact, EVERY battle has been won already at the cross!!!

You may recall another time that God had His people use the weapon of praise. When Joshua and the army of God needed to defeat the city of Jericho they had a huge obstacle standing in their way to victory. A huge wall surrounded the city. This was not your ordinary wall. It was huge; it was built to protect the city. What happened to the wall? How did the army of God destroy the wall? They marched around it quietly for six days and on the 7th day they marched around it seven times and then let out a huge shout to the Lord and the wall fell down flat. Notice they shouted thanking God for their victory before the wall came down.

Now both of these battles took place prior to Jesus' finished work at the cross. The battles that we fight have ALREADY been fought and have ALREADY been won!!! We need to accept Christ and His finished work! When we join in and become involved in the situations and circumstances in our life we are choosing to hit the 'replay' button of a fight that has already been fought & won. I think I will choose to stand firm in the faith and stay off the battle field that the enemy is trying to drag me back on. I will choose to let God fight my battles. I will choose to praise God for the Victory that He has already provided!

I praise God that He loves me so much that He was willing to send His one & only Son to die for me! I praise God that NOTHING can separate me from His love! I praise God that no weapon formed against me can prosper! I praise God that He is an awesome God! I praise God that the enemy has already been defeated! I praise God for His grace! I praise God that I was saved by His grace! I praise God that the truth will always prevail! I praise God that He is my defender! I praise God that I am standing on the Rock! I praise God for the victory! I praise God that the battle has been fought and I am on the winning team!

Jesus cried out as He hung on the cross, "It is Finished!"

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful Carla! Such truth. wish I could have absorbed this about 2 weeks ago!

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