by Joyce Meyer
Their battlefield literally became their place of blessing. Many of us can make the same statement regarding battles we have fought. We have been through things that ended up making us stronger in faith or more spiritually mature than we were prior to them. I can ask any crowd I speak to: “How many of you would say you were made better by the battles you have fought?” And without a doubt, almost all hands go up.
Are you ready for your battleground to become a valley of blessing for you? As you learn to live in the reality that your battles belong to the Lord, it will begin to happen.
Whatever else God may instruct us to do in battle, we can always be consistent in worship and praise, and we can always be thankful. Our problems never indicate that God is not good. He is good all the time and that will never change. A simple truth to remember is this: God is good, and the devil is bad!
Worship Wins Battles
Worship goes beyond petition. It does not ask God for anything; it is not occupied with the worshipper’s need or problem, but it is focused on God alone. Worship is an act of paying reverence and honor to God. It is the bowing of our innermost spirit before Him in deepest humility. At the moment of worship we are fully aware that God is everything, that we are nothing, and that we can do nothing without Him. Worship leads us into a deeper level of intimacy with God.
The word worship means “to prostrate oneself or to bow down.” I believe this can and should be done in the heart as well as with the physical body. We can worship in our hearts even if we are in a place where prostrating ourselves or bowing down would not be appropriate.
Worship can even be wordless, as Psalm 62:5 indicates: “For God alone my soul waits in silence and quietly submits to Him, for my hope is from Him.” Worship can consist of one word, such as Father. Jesus. Master.
We have seen that worship was the deciding factor in Jehoshaphat’s battle. It was also the game changer in a battle we read about in Exodus, when Israel faced Amalek and his people at Rephidim. In that story, Moses instructed Joshua to choose men to go out and fight against them and said he would stand on the top of the hill with the staff of God in his hand. As long as Moses held up his hand (indicating worship), Israel prevailed. When he lowered his hand due to fatigue, Amalek prevailed. When Moses grew tired, his men sat him on a stone and held his hands up for him.
But Moses’ hands were heavy and he grew tired. So they took a stone and put it under him, and he sat on it. Then Aaron and Hur held up his hands, one on one side and one on the other side; so it was that his hands were steady until the sun set. So Joshua overwhelmed and defeated Amalek and his people with the edge of the sword.
Exodus 17:12–13
Let us remember what we have learned from the story of Jehoshaphat and the people of Judah, and the story of Moses and the Israelites fighting against Amalek, next time we are facing an enemy and need help from God:
• Seek God before anything or anyone else.
• Worship and praise Him.
• Remember other victories God has given you.
• Admit your total dependence on God.
• Stay strong in faith, keeping your eyes on God for the answer you need.
• Wait on God to speak or give you direction.
• And whatever God says to you, do it!
If God gives you something to do, do it. If He leads you to worship, be obedient to do that. The key to winning our battles, or letting God fight our battles, is not doing nothing; it’s in not taking action of our own volition without consulting and getting direction from Him.
CHAPTER 4
Eliminate Fear
If you want to conquer fear, don’t sit home and think about it. Go out and get busy.
Dale Carnegie
The fact that many of the great men and women we read about in the Bible struggled with fear did not keep God from giving them something to do. And we don’t get to sit and watch the world go by just because we feel afraid. God has given us faith, and that is what we use to overcome fear. We can feel afraid and still step out and do great things by faith.
Never Take Counsel of Your Fears
During World War II, a military governor met with General George Patton in Sicily. When he praised Patton highly for his courage and bravery, the general replied, “Sir, I am not a brave man… The truth is, I am an utter, craven coward. I have never been within the sound of gunshot or in sight of battle in my whole life that I wasn’t so scared that I had sweat in the palms of my hands.”
Years later, when Patton’s autobiography was published, it contained this significant statement by the general: “I learned very early in my life never to take counsel of my fears.”
Source unknown
Fear will never stop trying to talk to us, but we don’t have to take the counsel (advice) of our fears. Recognize fear for what it is—the devil trying to stop you from doing what you believe you should be doing.
Esther
Esther is a young woman we read about in the Bible who was asked to do something outside of her comfort zone, something she certainly wasn’t expecting. When Esther received her instructions from God through her uncle, Mordecai, she was afraid she would be put to death if she took the action she was being asked to take. Her uncle did not take pity on her and release her from her duty, but he did tell her that she had a chance to help her people and that if she didn’t do it, God would find someone else. Thankfully, she pressed through her fears and did as she was asked to do, and she ended up saving her nation. (Read the Book of Esther for the full story.)
How many opportunities do we miss to do great things because we listen to our fears instead of listening to God?
Moses
Another example is found in Numbers 13, when Moses sent twelve spies into the land of Canaan to see how difficult the battle would be to take the land for the Israelites. He wanted these men to assess “whether the people who live there are strong or weak, few or many, and whether the land in which they live is good or bad, and whether the cities in which they live are [open] camps or fortifications” (Num. 13:18–19). Moses also told the spies to get some of its fruit.
When the spies returned after forty days, they reported to Moses that the land did indeed flow with milk and honey and the fruit was abundant. They also said, “But the people who live in the land are strong, and the cities are fortified (walled) and very large; moreover, we saw there the descendants of Anak [people of great stature and courage]” (Num. 13:28). Caleb told the men displaying fear to be quiet and suggested they go up at once and take possession of the land because he was sure they could conquer it. All the men, with the exception of Joshua, immediately said, “We are not able to go up against the people [of Canaan], for they are too strong for us” (Num. 13:31).
If we want to use this account to form an opinion about the percentage of people who are afraid compared to those who are not, we can easily see that the fearful far outnumber the fearless. We cannot wait to act until we don’t feel any fear, or we are likely not to do anything at all. Courageous people feel the fear and move forward anyway. The question we ask should never be “Am I afraid?” but “What is God telling me to do?”
It never matters what we don’t have in our favor or even how outnumbered we are. The victory depends on God, not our circumstances! Sometimes God will even put us in a position where we can’t possibly win without Him—just to make sure we don’t take credit for the victory. An excellent example of this is found in the story of Gideon.
Gideon
In Judges 6 we read, “The Israelites did evil in the sight of the LORD; and the LORD gave them into the hand of Midian for seven years” (v. 1). They lived in caves and mountain strongholds, and when they grew crops, the Midianites destroyed them. They took the Israelites’ sheep, oxen, and donkeys, and defeated them no matter what they tried to do. Finally, because they were so impoverished and desperate, Israel cried out to the Lord.
So God sent a prophet to the Israelites to let them know that He would hel
p them. Isn’t it amazing that no matter how often Israel rebelled against God, He always came to their rescue when they cried out to Him and were ready to repent? He will do the same for us.
About the same time God sent the prophet, He also sent an angel to visit Gideon. The angel said to him, “The LORD is with you, O brave man” (Judg. 6:12). God saw Gideon as a mighty and brave man, but Gideon saw himself as weak and inadequate (see Judg. 6:11–18). It is important to note that no matter how many great things God has planned for us, unless we learn to walk by faith instead of fear, we won’t do any of them.
Despite his angelic visitation, Gideon was not convinced and he said, “Please my lord, if the LORD is with us, then why has all this happened to us? And where are all His wondrous works which our fathers told us about when they said, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the Lord has abandoned us and put us into the hand of Midian” (Judg. 6:13). Once again the Lord told Gideon to go in the strength he had and save Israel from the hand of Midian. God said, “Have I not sent you?” (Judg. 6:14).
Gideon’s answers clearly show that he was blaming the Israelites’ problems on God, and he was fearful rather than brave. God saw what he was capable of, but Gideon had lived in fear so long that he was totally unaware of his abilities and the fact that God was with him. He proceeded to list the reasons he was not qualified: “My family is the least [significant] in Manasseh, and I am the youngest (smallest) in my father’s house” (Judg. 6:15).
The Lord answered him, “I will certainly be with you, and you will strike down the Midianites as [if they were only] one man” (Judg. 6:16). Gideon went further and asked for a sign to prove that God intended to deliver Israel through him.
“Behold, I will put a fleece of [freshly sheared] wool on the threshing floor. If there is dew only on the fleece, and it is dry on all the ground [around it], then I will know that You will rescue Israel through me, as You have said.” And it was so. When he got up early the next morning and squeezed the dew out of the fleece, he wrung from it a bowl full of water. Then Gideon said to God, “Do not let your anger burn against me, so that I may speak once more. Please let me make a test once more with the fleece; now let only the fleece be dry, and let there be dew on all the ground.” God did so that night; for it was dry only on the fleece, and there was dew on all the ground [around it].”
Judges 6:37–40
After these things Gideon was ready to obey God, but God told him there were too many people with him for Him to give them victory, because Israel would boast about themselves, saying, “My own power has rescued me” (see Judg. 7:2). God told Gideon to tell everyone who was afraid to go back home. Twenty-two thousand men left and ten thousand remained.
After the army decreased to ten thousand, God told Gideon there were still too many men fighting with him and prepared another test for the ten thousand who were left. Nine thousand seven hundred of the men failed that test, and that left Gideon with an army of only three hundred men. But God told Gideon that He would rescue him and turn the Midianites over to him. God did not need a huge army in order to save the Israelites from the Midianites. It doesn’t matter to God if He saves by many or by few, because it is not our strength that saves us; it is our faith in Him.
Eventually the three hundred men were divided into three companies. Each had a trumpet in one hand and a pitcher with a torch inside of it in the other hand. This left them no hands with which to draw their weapons. Through a dream God gave to a man in the Midianites’ camp, Gideon received instructions about how he was to defeat this army, and he relayed it to the three hundred men. They were to smash the pitchers and hold the torches in one hand and to blow their trumpets with the other hand. At the same time, they were to shout “A sword for the Lord and for Gideon!”
There is a lot more to this story, which you can read for yourself, but the bottom line is that Gideon and the Israelites enjoyed complete victory when they did what God told them to do. They put aside their own plans and let God fight their battles by simply doing as He had commanded. Even though what God told them to do perhaps made no sense to their natural minds, it worked! God’s plans always work.
Anytime God seems to have put you in a position where there is no way you can win your battles, remember Gideon and go forward even if you feel afraid, knowing that the real battle belongs to the Lord.
David said to the Lord, “When I am afraid, I will put my trust and faith in You” (Ps. 56:3). I love that Scripture because David doesn’t bother to try and hide his fear. He admits it and obviously believes that his fear makes no difference as long as he keeps his trust in God.
Remember that Jehoshaphat felt afraid when he learned about his enemies, but he immediately set himself to seek God. When fear knocks on your door, send faith to answer. Fear is a feeling that has only the power we give it. You can feel fear and still do anything you know you need to do, even if you “do it afraid.”
Give God What You Don’t Have
You may be scratching your head in confusion as you read the title of this section, thinking, How can I give God what I don’t have? We should, of course, by faith give God what we do have. Our talents, abilities, finances, or strengths should be offered to God in faith for His use. But these are not the things that stop us from letting God use us. What stops us are the things we think we don’t have and can’t do. It is our deficits that render us fearful and inactive. These are the things we need to give to God, realizing that when we surrender our weaknesses to Him, His strength can flow through them.
When Paul was dealing with his own weaknesses, he learned this lesson, and we need to learn it also.
But He has said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you [My lovingkindness and My mercy are more than enough—always available—regardless of the situation]; for [My] power is being perfected [and is completed and shows itself most effectively] in [your] weakness.”
2 Corinthians 12:9
For when I am weak [in human strength], then I am strong [truly able, truly powerful, truly drawing from God’s strength].
2 Corinthians 12:10
When God called me to teach His Word, my first arguments were, “I don’t know how to do that,” and “I am a woman, and women don’t do that.” The year was 1976, and in the denomination of the church we attended at that time, women were only allowed to teach God’s Word to children.
“I don’t have anyone to help me” was another excuse I gave. I also said, “I don’t have the proper education, and I haven’t been to seminary.
“I don’t have any money,” I continued. I actually had quite a long list of things I thought disqualified me, but God kept assuring me in my heart that He was able to do anything I could not do, and that all I needed to do was start taking one step at a time toward what He was asking me to do. I was definitely afraid! I’m talking about the kind of fear that makes you shake and tremble. But somehow I found the courage to take one step and invite a few people to a Bible study I planned to teach. To my great surprise, they all agreed to come.
I must admit that in the natural realm, I didn’t know what I was doing, but I started in the first chapter of the Gospel of John. Although I don’t remember one word I said, it must have been anointed by God because people came back the following week and every week for five years after that.
Even if we don’t have much in the natural, with God on our side all we need is His presence and a little bit of courage. I urge you not to let fear steal your destiny. You will never know what you can do unless you step out and find out. You will fight many battles because your enemy, the devil, will not go down quietly and easily. He will fight you every step of the way, but the Greater One (God) lives in you and He is greater than the one who comes against you (see 1 John 4:4).
This story is an example of what I am talking about.
One day, on the plains of Africa, a young buffalo named Walter approached his dad and asked him if there was anything that he should be afraid of.
“
Only lions my son,” his dad responded.
“Oh yes, I’ve heard about lions. If I ever see one, I’ll turn and run as fast as I can,” said Walter.
“No, that’s the worst thing you can do,” said the large male.
“Why? They are scary and will try to kill me.”
The dad smiled and explained, “Walter, if you run away, the lions will chase you and catch you. And when they do, they will jump on your unprotected back and bring you down.”
“So what should I do?” asked Walter.
“If you ever see a lion, stand your ground to show him that you’re not afraid. If he doesn’t move away, show him your sharp horns and stomp the ground with your hooves. If that doesn’t work, move slowly towards him. If that doesn’t work, charge him and hit him with everything you’ve got!”
“That’s crazy, I’ll be too scared to do that. What if he attacks me back?” said the startled young buffalo.
“Look around, Walter. What do you see?”
Walter looked around at the rest of his herd. There were about 200 massive beasts all armed with sharp horns and huge shoulders.
“If ever you’re afraid, know that we are here. If you panic and run from your fears, we can’t save you, but if you charge towards them, we’ll be right behind you.”
The young buffalo breathed deeply and nodded.
“Thanks dad, I think I understand.”
We all have lions in our worlds.
There are aspects of life that scare us and make us want to run, but if we do, they will chase us down and take over our lives. Our thoughts will become dominated by the things that we are afraid of and our actions will become timid and cautious, not allowing us to reach our full potential.
James 4:7 says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.”
So face your fears.
Show them that you’re not afraid.
