The Spiritual Battle Is On! Will You Pray?

WED EP Reflection 080520 (Ps 119: 97-120; Judges 7, 8)

Ps 119: 105 says: Your word is a lantern to my feet and a light upon my path. This is indeed a timely word for us in these uncertain times. It surely makes me want to pray like this: “Guide us Lord, through your Holy Word. Don’t allow us to move forward if you are not with us.” There is a verse in 2 Cor that tells us that God chose foolish things of the world to confound the wise. I believe this is really true. We need faith to observe things from God’s perspective. Sometimes the wise of our world get it wrong. The world tells us that science is to be believed above all things, but with faith, there is more to science. Science isn’t all that there is. Scientists are still discovering new things as we speak, and at times realizing they were mistaken to believe what they used to believe. This is not so with God. This leads me to Gideon’s test of faith. His army of 32K was over matched by 135K of Midianites. With the wisdom of the world, they were outmatched. It’s like asking the biggest and strongest army in the world to fight with Venezuela. We think we know the outcome judging on whom we think is the strongest. God’s perspective was different: The Midianites were going to be defeated even if they were the strongest.

Now I love the OT, we get to know God’s character. God said: “Lest Israel claims glory for itself against me, saying: my own hand has saved me.” God was concerned that Israelites would take credit for victory if they win with their 32K troops while it wasn’t really their bravery that would lead them to victory. God wouldn’t like that. The odds needed NOT to be in their favor, so that they would know that if they won, it wasn’t because of their bravery or ingenuity but that it was God’s win for them. In order to understand God, we need to observe elsewhere in the Bible where God does not want to share his glory. Zech. 4: 6: “Not by might nor by power, but by my Spirit says the Lord of Hosts.” If this is so, then our smallness does not matter, then our lack of strategy or weapons of newer technology won’t matter in this fight, because God will be fighting.

This word is timely because, whatever has been going on lately seems to have the distinctives of the evil one, especially where we see confusion, lack of order, selfishness, lack of love and empathy, all of which are distinctives of the enemy. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Eph. 6: 12. The calling of Christian believers is to pray: Father let thy Kingdom Come! We need to stay faithful to our calling. These malevolent powers will be defeated because of your prayers. Don’t underestimate yourself!

Pray for the will of God to happen; pray for God to derail anything that does not glorify His name. We need to pray for genuine repentance, first amongst God’s people, because God promised to heal us and our land if people who are called by his name repented 2 Chron. 7:14. We may be few of us but don’t underestimate what God can do with a few. In Gideon’s case, God introduced a test to weed out the fearful and the faithless. Gideon’s army was already very little and was downsized already and now, they were even more downsized to 300 only. Why? Could it be that some of the men in Gideon’s troops were relying more on convenience and easy ways rather than relying on faith in God? May be. It’s likely they were not going to be helpful in this warfare anyway. What does this mean for Christian believers?

We are called to be God-centered rather than self-centered. We live in a culture that glorify self-centeredness. Self-centeredness isn’t useful in ministry. Jesus gave himself up for the church. Eph 5:25. Following Christ requires us to follow into his footsteps. Love one another. Love others as you love yourself. The question for us becomes: Would we qualify as God’s prayer warriors if put to a test? Only 300 were chosen for the task of Israel redemption. They were called to be there, while God accomplish the entire fight.

Who will God use for the spiritual warfare happening in the world around us? This fight against the Midianites is a picture of the fight of Christian believers against the spiritual forces of evil. If our goal is union with Christ, then we are ready because God will fight for us. Do Not fear, have faith, pray for God’s will to prevail. God is with you. Amen.