Christian Spiritual Warfare

Posts Tagged ‘victory under attack’

My daily reading recently included the story of Elisha and his servant. The king of Aram was at war with Israel, but whenever he plotted an attack, God revealed the plans to the prophet Elisha, who in turn told the king of Israel. Understandably, this made the king of Aram quite upset. Eventually he decided that he should deal with Elisha once and for all, so he gathered an army and sent them down to attack Elisha.

When Elisha and his servant woke up, they looked out to see a great army, complete with horses and chariots, encamped around them. And they were just two men!

It reminds me of an old war movie I saw once. The heroes had made a successful attack against an enemy fort, and were trying to make their getaway across the harbour in a tiny boat. Guns were firing at them from the shore, planes were flying overhead trying to bomb them, and somewhere offshore a ship launched a torpedo. All this against a tiny boat with a handful of men!

Life seems like that sometimes, doesn’t it? As we seek to go about our business of serving the Lord, we feel that we are surrounded by a massive force of enemies, and that we are being fired on from every side. We feel so small and helpless in the midst of it.

However, the massive army surrounding Elisha and his servant was less than half the story. Elisha’s servant was overcome with fear, and cried out in distress to his master. Elisha, however, saw beyond the natural. He prayed for God to open the servant’s spiritual eyes also, and when He did the servant saw the mighty army of God encamped around the army of Aram. It was not Elisha’s army, for Elisha to command, but God’s army of which Elisha was himself a part. And because he was part of that army, it would defend him.

Are you part of God’s army? Are you under His command, carrying out His orders and submitted to His will? Then you need never fear, no matter how great a force the enemy brings against you, or how strong the attack may be. Because you are part of God’s army, that army will always be there to defend you.

God’s army will always be greater than anything the enemy can muster, for four reasons:

1. God’s army goes forth in God’s power and authority. The best the devil can manage is bluff and illusion.

    

2. God’s army outnumbers the devil’s army two to one. Scripture tells us that when the devil rebelled one third of the angels rebelled with him. That means two-thirds remained faithful to God.

    

3. God’s army is not fighting to achieve victory. Victory has already been won by the Lord Jesus Christ on the Cross. His army fights only to enforce the victory which has already been won.

    

4. The General of the army, the Holy Spirit, lives within each of the human members of the army.

   We are not in command, but the one who is in command lives in us! No wonder the Bible tells us that “greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.”

Got an army camped against you? Fear not, God’s army defending you is bigger. Being attacked from every side? Fear not, the battle has already been won, and you are on the winning side.