God gives you the tactics and strategies you need in order to conquer—within His law.
Every day, you are at war. You confront tests, trials, temptations. You combat Satan, society and yourself. God’s Church wages warfare as we deliver God’s warning message to the world.
As a Christian soldier, you need to be training for war every day. That is the nature of our calling as the Bride of Christ. Christ needs a strong wife who has conquered the devil! So He allows Satan to wage war against us, and then He trains us how to fight back using God’s power and taking the victory! God absolutely blesses this kind of righteous warfare.
If the ancient Israelites had completely trusted and obeyed God from the beginning, they would have never needed to wage physical warfare. But they chose the path of war. In response, God told them exactly how He wanted them to go about it. Through His laws, God taught Israel how to wage righteous warfare. When Israel kept them, it won incredible victories. These laws apply directly to us in our spiritual warfare.
King David was a mighty spiritual warrior. Toward the end of his life, he wrote Psalm 18 to thank God for delivering him so many times from his enemies. (It is also recorded in 2 Samuel 22.) In verse 34, he said, “He trains my hands for war” (Revised Standard Version). God trained David for conquest. In Scripture, God trains our hands for spiritual war!
God Fights Your Battles
The book of Deuteronomy records Moses’s messages to the Israelites right before they entered the Promised Land. Deuteronomy is about preparing God’s people to conquer Canaan! The Israelites didn’t have to fight to possess the wilderness. But the Promised Land was full of idolaters, and the tribes of Israel had to fight for every foot of it! God allowed that for the same reason that He allows Satan to come after us today: to build character. This history also teaches us: The Promised Land is a magnificent reward, and we are going to have to fight for it.
The number one strategy for winning battles is one that armies in this world would ridicule. Read it in Deuteronomy 11:18-21. This hardly seems like a military strategy. But notice the promise in verses 22-23.
The most important principle God gave the Israelites was, Let me do the fighting! Concentrate on obeying me, keeping my commandments, loving me, walking in my ways, cleaving to me. Then I will drive your enemies out! Notice that God said the surrounding nations were greater and mightier than the Israelites. But Israel didn’t need to worry because He would conquer their enemies.
Our foremost battle tactic must be to stay close to God. Satan is stronger than us—but God is far stronger than Satan! When we truly possess His character—are born of Him—God will use us to drive out the evil in this world just as He used the Israelites to drive out the Canaanites.
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