Your Battles Belong to the Lord Read online

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  Copyright © 2019 by Joyce Meyer

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  First Edition: September 2019

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  Unless otherwise noted Scripture quotations are taken from The Amplified Bible (AMP). The Amplified Bible, Old Testament, copyright © 1965, 1987 by The Zondervan Corporation. The Amplified New Testament, copyright © 1954, 1958, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

  Scriptures marked ESV are taken from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version. ESV ® Text Edition: 2016. Copyright © 2001 by Crossway Bibles, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

  Scripture quotations marked NKJV are taken from the New King James Version. Copyright © 1979, 1980, 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc., Publishers. All rights reserved.

  Scripture quotations marked AMPC are taken from The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition. Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation.

  Scripture quotations marked NASB are taken from The New American Standard Bible (NASB). Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBNs: 978-1-5460-2627-3 (hardcover), 978-1-5460-3845-0 (large type), 978-1-5460-3727-9 (international), 978-1-5460-2625-9 (ebook)

  E3-20190723-JV-NF-ORI

  CONTENTS

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Introduction

  Chapter 1. Know Your Enemy

  Chapter 2. Do All the Crisis Demands

  Chapter 3. The Battle Belongs to the Lord

  Chapter 4. Eliminate Fear

  Chapter 5. Fully Assured

  Chapter 6. Assurance Concerning Prayer

  Chapter 7. Ways the Devil Tries to Deceive People

  Chapter 8. Hold Your Peace

  Chapter 9. What Is the Real Problem?

  Chapter 10. Dressed for Battle

  Chapter 11. Strength for the Battle

  Chapter 12. The Importance of Watchfulness

  Chapter 13. “Self”

  Chapter 14. Stand Still and See the Salvation of the Lord

  Chapter 15. Spiritual Warfare God’s Way, Part 1

  Chapter 16. Spiritual Warfare God’s Way, Part 2

  Chapter 17. The Power of a Thankful Life

  Chapter 18. A Beautiful Mind

  Chapter 19. Breaking Satan’s Assignment

  Chapter 20. Internal Rest

  Chapter 21. Protecting Yourself from Satan, the Thief

  Chapter 22. God Always Gives Us the Victory

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  INTRODUCTION

  The title of this book probably provokes excitement in most people because we feel that we are fighting something most of the time. Very few people can say they have no challenges and everything in their lives is peaceful and pleasant. There are, of course, times when we can say that everything is working out perfectly, but that is never a permanent situation.

  We encounter a variety of trials, challenges, and problems, which we often call our “battles” in life. These battles may be in our relationships, our finances, or our health. They may also involve the death of a loved one or uncertainty about a decision we need to make. We live fast-paced lives and rarely have a day when everything goes as perfectly as we planned.

  Jesus never promised us a life without trouble or opposition. In fact, He promised just the opposite. He said that in the world we would have tribulation, distress, and suffering. If we were to stop there, we would have to be discouraged, but Jesus also said that in Him, we could have perfect peace, that we would be courageous, confident, undaunted, and filled with joy because He has overcome the world (see John 16:33).

  In this one Scripture, John 16:33, we discover what to expect in life. We can expect that if we truly believe that our battles belong to the Lord and we learn how to let God fight them for us, then any time we have trouble it will always end in victory for us. No matter how difficult our challenges are, if God is with us, we have all we need to win every battle. We should always remember that all things are possible with God (see Matt. 19:26). His strength shows itself best through our weaknesses (see 2 Cor. 12:9), and the more we lean on Him, the more we will succeed at whatever we do.

  One of the people I write about in this book is Gideon. He was a frightened man who had no confidence, and God called him to fight a battle that seemed impossible to win. In the end he did win, but first, God cut the size of his army significantly so they would be massively outnumbered in the battle and have no choice but to trust Him completely. We don’t win our battles because of the size of our army, because of the earthly resources at our disposal, or because of anything else that may be in our favor. We win only because our battles belong to the Lord. God gives us the victory, and to Him belong the gratitude and the praise.

  When we let God fight our battles, we always win, but if we try to fight them ourselves, we always lose. However, it is important for me to establish in the beginning of this book that just because our battles belong to the Lord, it does not mean we can become passive, inactive, and lazy. It does mean that we don’t take action until God shows us what to do and when to do it. Until then, we wait on Him expectantly. We take our position as His child; we stand in faith against the enemy; and we praise and worship God, fully expecting Him to instruct us, deliver us, and lead us to victory. As we learn to let God fight our battles, we can actually learn how to enjoy life while we are waiting for victory, and we can have peace in the depths of our being while storms rage on the surface of our lives through circumstances.

  In this book you will learn to know your enemy. You will learn to know his nature and tactics and how to recognize and defeat him. D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote in his book The Christian Warfare, “What a wise teacher does is to expound the Epistles, and especially this teaching concerning the wiles of the devil. All our problems arise ultimately from that source” (Carlisle, PA: Banner of Truth Trust, 1976, p. 99). I want you to know your enemy and to realize that you need not fear him. I also want you to be educated and equipped with all the information you need about his tactics, deceits, and schemes, and to learn how to recognize and defeat him.

  It is obvious that two forces are at work in the world—good and evil. God is good, and the devil is evil. Since the devil cannot get to God to hurt Him, he fights against His children—those who have belie
ved in Jesus as Savior and Lord and have been born again into His Kingdom. He hopes to hurt God through hurting us, but God has made His plan clear and it is simply this: “The Son of God appeared for this purpose, to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8).

  In Romans 12:21, the apostle Paul writes that we overcome evil with good. Our natural inclination would be to return evil for evil, but that is not how we win spiritual battles against the devil and his demon hosts. He hopes to anger us and provoke us to act on that anger, but Jesus teaches us to love one another. Love is the most powerful force in the world; Satan has no way to win against true love. Luke writes in Acts 10:38 that Jesus went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil because God was with Him. He overcame evil with good, and we can, too.

  I believe you will learn in this book that God not only wants to fight our battles, He wants to teach us how to fight in a way that assures victory. Some of this may be surprising and seem that it simply cannot work, but God’s ways always work if we remain steadfast, and follow Him into battle and all the way through to victory!

  Get ready to have your mind renewed and your thinking changed as you learn the truth of God’s Word concerning the battles in your life. Your fight is not against people or even with circumstances, but against the devil. Paul writes:

  For our struggle is not against flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the rulers, against the powers, against the world forces of this [present] darkness, against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) places.

  Ephesians 6:12

  Your battles belong to the Lord, and the victory belongs to you! Learn to trust God to fight with you and for you, and in the midst of all your earthly struggles, you will be more than a conqueror through Jesus Christ who loves you (see Rom. 8:37).

  CHAPTER 1

  Know Your Enemy

  Be sober [well balanced and self-disciplined], be alert and cautious at all times. That enemy of yours, the devil, prowls around like a roaring lion [fiercely hungry], seeking someone to devour.

  1 Peter 5:8

  Satan prowls around looking for someone to devour, but that person doesn’t have to be you! If you get to know him and his tactics, and if you remain watchful and alert, you can avoid being deceived and trapped by him.

  This humorous story is one way to look at how powerful the devil truly is:

  Carl Armerding recounted his experience of watching a wildcat in a zoo.

  “As I stood there,” he said, “an attendant entered the cage through a door on the opposite side. He had nothing in his hands but a broom. Carefully closing the door, he proceeded to sweep the floor of the cage.” He observed that the worker had no weapon to ward off an attack by the beast. In fact, when he got to the corner of the cage where the wildcat was lying, he poked the animal with the broom. The wildcat hissed at him and then lay down in another corner of the enclosure. Armerding remarked to the attendant, “You certainly are a brave man.”

  “No, I ain’t brave,” he replied as he continued to sweep.

  “Well, then, that cat must be tame.”

  “No,” came the reply, “he ain’t tame.”

  “If you aren’t brave and the wildcat isn’t tame, then I can’t understand why he doesn’t attack you.”

  Armerding said the man chuckled, then replied with an air of confidence, “Mister, he’s old—and he ain’t got no teeth.”

  Moody Monthly, as quoted in sermonillustrations.com

  I am not implying that Satan doesn’t have power. He does, and we should take that fact seriously. But let’s remember that he is not actually a roaring lion, he comes like a roaring lion! Jesus is the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, and Satan can only portray an imitation of what is real and true. The devil is a liar, and he can only harm people who believe him and are deceived by him.

  Before we even begin to think about spiritual warfare and how to defeat the enemy, we should realize that we do not have to try to defeat the devil, because he is already a defeated foe. Jesus defeated him on the cross, and we merely apply by faith the victory that is already ours through our faith in Christ.

  When He had disarmed the rulers and authorities [those supernatural forces of evil operating against us], He made a public example of them [exhibiting them as captives in His triumphal procession], having triumphed over them through the cross.

  Colossians 2:15

  We know that Jesus has rescued us from darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of light, which is God’s Kingdom (see Col. 1:13).

  Scripture helps us realize that we are fighting from a vantage point of already having victory, rather than trying to win a victory. As Paul writes to the Romans, “Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors and gain an overwhelming victory through Him who loved us [so much that He died for us]” (Rom. 8:37).

  The way we see ourselves is very important. We should see ourselves as people with authority, as conquerors and victorious believers. If we allow the devil to convince us that we are weak, incapable, unable, and losers, then we will believe and demonstrate those characteristics. We should agree with God and believe what He says about us.

  One of Satan’s main objectives is to prevent us from knowing who we are in Christ and knowing what our privileges are as children of God. He works tirelessly to try to make us feel bad about ourselves and believe we are not acceptable to God or anyone else. As I stated above, what we believe about ourselves is very important. It is more important than what anyone else thinks.

  Believing what God says about us in His Word and seeing ourselves as He sees us is one way we let Him fight our battles for us. We know before the battles even begin that we have the victory. We may have to walk through some difficulties and stand strong in faith, but we know how the story ends. Satan is a defeated foe and he knows that. But if we don’t know it, he will take advantage of that lack of knowledge and bluff his way into intimidating us.

  The Devil Is a Liar

  The first time Satan appears in the Bible is in Genesis 3, and the first thing he does is attempt to make Eve suspicious of God’s word. The devil is a liar, but God is truth and therefore He cannot lie. When Eve listened to the devil, she began to question God’s goodness, and she took Satan’s bait and disobeyed God’s instructions to her and Adam. God said they could eat of every tree in the garden except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. He told them not to eat of that one or they would die (see Gen. 2:17). God’s instructions were for Adam and Eve’s good, but the devil made them sound as though God was depriving them of something they should have and enjoy.

  Like the worker in the zoo who knew the wildcat had no teeth and was too old to harm him, we can know that Satan has no real power except the power we give him through believing his lies. To believe a lie is to be deceived, but when people are deceived, they are not aware that they are deceived. They believe that what they think is true and they act accordingly. One of the most difficult tasks I have encountered in ministry is to try to convince someone who is deeply deceived that they are wrong about what they believe.

  Not only is the devil a liar, he is the father of lies. Jesus said to a group of people listening to Him teach, “You are of your father the devil, and it is your will to practice the desires [which are characteristic] of your father. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks what is natural to him, for he is a liar and the father of lies and half-truths” (John 8:44).

  Let’s think for a moment about how the fact that the devil is a liar affects our lives. If we are unaware of Satan as a real threat and if we do not know his character, he can easily deceive us and we can end up believing many things that are not true. These beliefs will keep us from enjoying the life that Jesus died for us to have.

  What if you lived all your life in poverty, barely getting by, and when you were ready to die someone told you that your grandparents had left you
an inheritance and you had been a millionaire for the past forty years? You could have enjoyed a totally different life than you had, but you didn’t know anything about the inheritance, so you missed out on it even though it was yours all along. This is what our lives are like when we believe Satan’s lies and do not know the truth of God’s Word. The spiritual and material riches of Christ’s inheritance are amazing, but we miss out on them because we lack knowledge of them. The truth is God wants to bless us with good things, and the devil wants to steal them from us.

  Stop and ask yourself what lies you might be believing right now that are preventing you from entering into the fullness of the life Jesus wants you to have.

  I can share my own experience as an example, and I am confident that many people have had similar experiences. I was a born-again Christian and attended church regularly. I even became involved in activities and various ministry outreaches at the church. I attended two different churches within a particular denomination over a period of nine years, and although I did hear the devil mentioned, I had no real concept of him as my personal enemy. I had no idea he was actively working against God, His work on the earth, and His children.

  My life was like the lives of most of the Christians I knew. Although I attended church and believed in Jesus, I had no true victory. I was easily angered, negative, resentful, unforgiving, jealous, and critical. I had many other ungodly traits that were being instigated by the devil, but I did not know he was behind them or recognize him as a real enemy. Rather than seeing him as the source of my problems, I usually blamed other people and thought that if they would change, I could be happy and easier to get along with.

  Blaming others for our problems is another of Satan’s deceptions, and it also started in the Garden of Eden. When Adam and Eve were caught in their sin, Eve blamed the devil and Adam blamed Eve, but God assigned responsibility and punishment to all of them. Satan was guilty of lying to Adam and Eve, but they were guilty of listening and believing what he said instead of what God had said (see Gen. 3:1–19).