Battlefields

We will never win the war of life unless the right battlefield is chosen and the enemy is engaged when we have the help we need. The reason Christians are so often defeated is that they let our attacker (the Devil) sidetrack us into a losing valley. Let’s call it the valley of good works and good intentions. Our own religious habits have placed us in the bottom of this valley and the enemy keeps us in this place of defeat. He is on all the high ground around us and we can never fight our way out. We may win a few small fights but we are always losing the war. Our failures are stressful and our life contains sadness and despair. There is a solution to this hard life of losing. We must leave the valley of failure and find a different battlefield. We need to find a level battlefield with one tall mountain right in the middle of it. Our strong camp will be located on the very top and the enemy will be spread out on the plane far below us. The results of the war will be reversed as the enemy may win some fights but we will win overall. No other camp in the world will be as safe if we are in the Spirit's camp high on the hill.

How do we find this spiritual high ground? It is more difficult than the decision we made to believe in Jesus as our Savior. Each of us MUST STOP making our own assessments and choices in order to allow the Lord to make our decisions. Whenever we resolve to handle things ourselves the Spirit of God has no input into our direction. Believers who control their own lives will always be fighting in the valley of failure for their spiritual life. But if we listen every day to the gentle voice of the Spirit, He will move us into to a camp of victory on the top of the mountain. People like to say that we cannot stay on top of Victory Mountain. But if we desire to live on top of that mountain the Lord will help us to stay increasingly in His victory. The Bible says; Every child of God defeats this evil world, and we achieve this victory through our faith… And the Spirit, who is truth, confirms it with his testimony. 1 John 5:4,6 (NLT) This verse among others shows us that victorious Christians are the ones God welcomes into Heaven.  We like to argue about what happens to believers that are not victorious but shouldn’t we rather talk about finding the right battlefield and becoming victorious ourselves?

Victory is the result of overcoming and this is what the Christian life is all about. Jesus overcame everything in this world and the next and God proclaimed victory in Jesus Christ by three witnesses. We have these three witnesses — the Spirit, the water, and the blood—and all three agree. 1 John 5:7-8 (NLT) The water represents the life of Jesus and especially His water baptism and testimony of faith in God. The blood symbolizes what he did to redeem humans from their sin. Of course, the Spirit actively testified about Jesus with His many miracles. This is the pattern of testimony that we must follow if we wish to live our life on Victory Mountain. The blood of Jesus must cover our sin (our victory) and then we must be baptized and testify of our faith in Jesus (our victory). Then as we listen to the Spirit and follow His directions we become a testimony of His many victories (in our life). Each of these three testimonies requires a stand of faith on our part. These three battles we fight by faith and then the battlefield belongs to God.