Jewels From Judy

The Battle Belongs to the Lord 

By Judy A Bauman

http://​www.thefathersloveim.org
 

Trusting in the Lord
Many Christians, including myself, have had to declare with regularity, “Lord, I trust You!” We have read and heard teachings that “The Battle Belongs to the Lord!” However, we tend to do two things. One, we either fight until we are exhausted and at the end of our rope; or we sit back and do nothing and purport to be trusting God in the matter. I don’t believe either are Scriptural.

A principle wrongly attributed to Scripture is “God helps those who help themselves.” This statement is attributed to Aesop and later Benjamin Franklin. However, when we study the Scriptures, we see that there is truth to this idiom. God helps us, but there is action required on our part. Many examples come to mind, but let me just share these with you.

Send In the Praisers!
In 2 Chronicles 20, the people of Israel are backed up into a place they cannot escape the three great armies coming at them. Any one of the armies were big enough to annihilate the Israelites, but these wicked armies came together to make sure they wiped Israel off the face of the earth. (Where have we heard that before?) A prophet spoke up after they all had fasted and prayed, and said, “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s.”

Did the Israelites lay around, eat popcorn, and wait to see how God would swoop in to save them? No! However, they did gain wisdom to do something out of the norm. Instead of sending the army out in front to fight, they put the praisers in holy attire and those worshippers went IN FRONT of the arm!* You see in this passage, the enemies of Israel were prepared for the fight, and King Jehoshaphat also readied his army; however, the king sent the praisers out and they SANG and PRAISED GOD! This was NOT the order of things! In the ears of their enemies, this singing was heard as a declaration that the victory was already won. Because of that, the enemy armies suspected treason and were self-slaughtered. God used the praises of His people to set ambushes against their enemies! Had Israel done nothing, how could God have sent confusion into the camp of the enemy armies?

What Are You Giving the Lord?
Like the loaves and fishes being multiplied by Jesus to feed the people, God multiplies what we give Him. If we give Him nothing, there is nothing to multiply. A million times zero is still zero.

Building Projects Face Obstacles
In Nehemiah, we see another example of how God fights for us. The Israelites are rebuilding the broken walls and gates of Jerusalem, but come under great persecution while trying to work. In chapter 4 verse 9 it states, “But we prayed to our God and because of them we set up a guard against them day and night.” In verse 20 he says, “Our God will fight for us.”

At that point, do they lay back and see how God is going to do it? No. They carried on the work with half the men holding spears while the laborers worked with one hand and held a sword in the other! They worked from dawn until the stars came out and did not even chance changing their clothes. The work was so spread out, they had a signal worked out that if they heard the blowing of the trumpets, they were all to rally together for protection. Nehemiah said that when they rallied, “Our God will fight for us.”

Our Armor
Some would say that both of these examples are men doing something, and they did, but they did it with prayerful insight. Paul wrote in Ephesians 6:10 to “put on the full armor of God”. We are to “be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might,” but we do that by dressing for battle and learning how to use those spiritual instruments of warfare. We have to act on what God shows us. James 2:20 states that “faith without works is dead,” so clearly action is required to prove out our faith. The key is to work in the strength, timing and manner the Lord reveals.

What to Do
Though there are many more examples of God fighting for us in Scripture, in every case, there is action taken by the believer. There is a time to pray and seek God’s face, there is a time to prepare, there is a time to fight, and there is a time to rest. Wisdom dictates which process we are in at any given point. The only way we can know is to seek the Lord and then do what He reveals. May peace make the ruling in what concerns you.

In the Father’s love

Judy A Bauman

*(This by the way is why no one should be on a praise team or in a choir unless they are called to do so. Praisers who do not understand they are standing between the enemies of God and the church are in a very dangerous place. If you are called there, you know you have God’s grace.)

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