Before I got out of bed in the morning, I used to
pray, “Lord, with You, it’s going to be a great day.” Then I hit some hard
times, and my prayer became “Jesus, Jesus, Jesus, help me, help me, help me.”
Not that it’s necessarily a bad prayer, and of course I do need His help
always. But this new prayer was motivated more by the dread than hopeful
expectation. So when I realized what I was doing, I stopped and changed my
prayer back to the “It’s going to be a great day” prayer.
The Bible tells us we should always expect a victory of
some sort or other if we are walking in alignment with God. And if something
isn’t going to be good for us, He lets us know and shows us the way out,
around, through or over. And in the end, we still get the victory with Him.
One of the names for God in the Old Testament is
Jehovah-nissi, “the Lord our Banner.” The victory banner is what we are to hold
up BEFORE going into any battle. Moses and
Jehoshaphat show us how to do this. Exodus 17 gives us a great example of how Moses
claimed God’s triumph before and during the battle.
The Amalekites came to attack Moses, and God told
Moses to go and take the same staff with him that he used for parting the Red
sea. The staff represented the presence and victory of God. Moses had faith in
God’s presence. Whenever Moses held up this rod, he had faith that God was
there to give him victory. Holding up this rod, Moses absolutely believed he
already had the sure triumph of God, even before anything happened.
The Amalekites came to attack Moses and God’s people.
“And Moses said unto Joshua, ‘Choose us out men, and go out, fight with Amalek:
tomorrow I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand”
(Exod. 17:9). Moses had faith before the battle even started that with God on
his side, he would win.
“So Joshua did as Moses had said to him, and fought
with Amalek: and Moses, Aaron, and Hur went up to the top of the hill. And
it came to pass, when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed: and when
he let down his hand, Amalek prevailed” (vv. 10-11). Right here is an
amazing lesson for us: Keep lifting the rod of God; keep saying, “I have the
victory.” Even though we may get weary, we hold fast to the conviction that we are
going to be winners. We can’t let dread get the best of us. God says: “I will even make a way in the wilderness, and rivers in the desert” (Is. 43:19).
“But Moses’ hands were heavy; and they took a
stone, and put it under him, and he sat thereon; and Aaron and Hur
stayed up his hands, the one on the one side, and the other on the other side;
and his hands were steady until the going down of the sun” (v. 12). Another
great lesson: Lots of times we need help to keep our faith for victory its strongest.
We don’t have to always do it by ourselves.
“And Joshua discomfited [overthrew and flattened him]
Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword. And the Lord said
unto Moses, ‘Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in
the ears of Joshua: for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from
under heaven. And Moses built an altar, and called the name of it
Jehovah-nissi [the Lord our banner]” (vv.13-15).
By
faith, we go into every battle shouting the victory from the beginning, and
seeing it manifest in the end.
We
find another great example with Jehoshaphat in Second Chronicles 20. In this
record, three different armies collaborated to defeat Jehoshaphat and his
people, and take over their city and all its profits. The enemies even brought much
wealth with them in the form of jewelry and other riches, probably intending to
bargain after overthrowing Jehoshaphat. They would split up the spoil and
sweeten the pot with their own riches if they wanted something specific.
But
they weren’t going to win. Jehoshaphat got the people together, and they prayed
to God about what to do. They acted on their faith.
“Be
not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not
yours, but God’s. Tomorrow go ye down against them” (v.15-16). “And they rose
early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa” (v.20).
Then
look at this amazing act of faith. Before they even started the battle, they began
singing and praising God. They had faith that they would win, and they began to
sing about it and praise God for victory. And look what God did:
“And
when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments
against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against
Judah; and they were smitten” (v.22). This is awesome! The people didn’t SEE what
God was doing; they had faith He would do it. They praised Him for the victory BEFORE
they saw any evidence. And it was at the moment of their pre-evidential praise,
that the Lord ambushed the enemy. And look how He did it:
“For
the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir,
utterly to slay and destroy them: and
when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to
destroy another” (v.23). Wild, huh?!
And
when the people came to see what happened, “behold, dead bodies fallen to the
earth, and none escaped. And when Jehoshaphat and his people came to take
away the spoil of them, they found among them in abundance both riches with the
dead bodies, and precious jewels, which they stripped off for themselves, more
than they could carry away: and they were three days in gathering of the spoil,
it was so much” (vv.24-25).
Many
other Bible records show the blessed results of having faith for our victory
before we experience it. And like in the case with Jehoshaphat, it was AFTER they
had faith for success and praised God for it, that God set up the ambush where
the three armies killed off each other!
So
don’t be like I was. Be more like Moses and Jehoshaphat. We can’t let dread get
us down. Instead, let’s hold up that victory banner. God wants us to know He
thinks of us as His champions every day.
Love,
Carolyn
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