The Battle Belongs to the Lord

Did you know that the Bible clearly states that God actually casts our countenance down when we do evil and raises our countenance up when we do what God defines as good? See Genesis 4:3-8. There are exceptions to this up and down cast countenance like the book of Job, voluntary periods of solemn fasting, and our own ignorance as to what God defines as good. For example, even when our countenance is cast down because of the death of a loved one, we are still able to rejoice in the Lord always. That rejoicing praise is inhabited by Jesus, Psalms 22:3, who then eventually lifts us up out of a sorrowful since of loss, 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18. King David also walked this out as a example for us to follow in Psalms 42:5-7.

 

This means that for the most part, when our countenance is down-cast, we know there is something we have done to cause it. Likewise, when we are in the joy of the Lord, we are experiencing God's approval just like Able did for his sacrifice in Genesis 4. Now even though this battle belongs to the Lord, it is still our responsibility as rulers of this fallen world to master evil. In the New Testament, this mastery is commanded "overcome evil by doing good," Romans 12:21 the very thing Cain did not do in GE 4.

 

So, why is it so hard? The answer is simple in concept. But that does not make it any easier to be sure. We have an enemy who seeks to destroy us at every turn. Hence, we are commanded to resist the enemy so that he flees from us. BUT HOW! RIGHT? Well, let's start with what we know. 

 

Most born-again Christians know that we've been made new. With that newness comes the ability to stand upon what God says about us. But sadly, most do not understand the link this newness has to our thoughts. Even though we've been made new, we are told to put away all childish thoughts, 1 Corinthians 13:9-12, as well as to take every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 2 Corinthians 10:5. That includes our self-talk. Our negative self-talk must be taken captive to the obedience of Christ EVEN WHEN that same self-talk is not coming from demons but from our own minds. Now, we all wallow in our misery. But, it is our choice to wallow. It is also our choice to stop wallowing.

 

Satan and his demons are capable of whispering accusations, deceptions, and temptations into our ears. They use the first person singular grammatical form. That means their whispers sound just like our own thoughts. That is why we must learn to recognize the difference between Satan's whispers and our own thoughts. Satan's whispers are NOT coming from us. That is why the battle for our minds is so stinking hard. Those whispers are coming from demons who are seeking to destroy us, 1 Peter 5:8, and they will not hesitate to pull out all stops just to say anything that will side-track us from what is true and keep us wallowing in our misery.

 

Consider:

• Flesh and blood are not our enemies, Ephesians 6:12.

• Words are spirit, John 6:63, and demons are fallen spirits, Matthew 8:16, Luke 4:36.

• Humans are fallen beings since conception in our mothers' wombs, Psalms 51:5.

• The original sin, when we were all in Adam and Eve's loins, was caused by Eve's self-talk side-tracked her mind away from what God actually said. But, the START of all side-tracked minds began with WORDS! Hence, the stage was set to derail the rest of mankind in the same way.
  

The good news is that the battle belongs to the Lord, not to us. This is because the only weapon demons have against us is rooted in our past. Demons can only use our fallen past against us. They cannot use our present reality against us because that has been fixed solid by Jesus' blood shed on the cross. Think about it, even as believers in Christ Jesus our Lord, our failures, mistakes, and sins are always in the past i.e. AFTER we've become guilty of them. Once, our confession, repentance, and restoration back to God have taken place, the enemy is stripped of THAT PAST and cannot use it against us. That is why our battle to master evil looks like this:

1. When our actions don't meet with God's approval like in Genesis 4, our emotions are down-cast by God and the battle to master evil begins.

• At this point in time, we have a choice to either:

• Wallow in our down-cast emotions blaming everyone including ourselves the way Cain did in Genesis 4, or
  

• Praise God for His faithfulness to forgive us when we confess and repent of our sins, 1 John 1:9.

• If we choose to wallow for even a split second beyond the start of our down-cast countenance, we face evil at our door. That evil can look like any combination of these four things:
  

• Accusations are spoken to us by demons in the first person singular grammatical form so that they sound exactly like our own thoughts. Remember, whatever failure we think we've done was not a failure in God's eyes any more than a child's failed attempts to walk are failures in its parent's eyes. God rejoices in our willing attempts to try. God also now knows our fallen state as He lived it in Jesus while on earth...just without sin.
  

• Deception/confusion is whispered to us the same way the serpent deceived Eve in Ge 3. Here the problem we have is simply just not knowing what God has actually said. Therefore we humans tend to make judgments based upon our faulty knowledge of God. Remember, if we abide in God's words, THEN we will know the truth and be set free by it. When we assume we know the truth and don't attempt to be Bereans with the Holy Bible in the same way the Bereans were with Paul, Acts 17, we fall victim to demonic deceptions and our resulting actions cause us more grief in the process. 
  

• Temptations are presented to us by way of revisiting the feel-good nature of our past sins as a means of lifting up our countenance all by our own efforts i.e. not trusting God's process.

• Strongholds begin when negative speech has been spoken over us by HUMANS including ourselves. Demons use our God given human authority against us. This is because two or three witnesses establish a matter. So, if two or three gossips/slanderers agree, they establish strongholds over the person they've spoken negatively about.
  

• If, on the other hand, we choose to ****IMMEDIATELY**** pray/praise the way King David did in Psalms 51 and Daniel did in Daniel 9:3-19, then God is faithful and just to forgive us for our faults, mistakes, and sins. Here our relationship with God is restored but we have not yet mastered evil. Rather, our slate has been washed clean so that we can try again. Because of our God-given human authority, all our actions have earthly consequences. Those consequences affect both ourselves and other people. The other people who've been grieved by our sins need restoration back toward us just as much as we need restoration back toward God. This is part of God's definition of unity.
  

• Restoration with other humans AND WITH OURSELVES begins when we begin to obey Numbers 6:22-27. We literally invoke God's name upon other people by blessing them instead of cursing them, Numbers 6:27. This is done so that our own words can no longer be used by demons to hold other people captive to their own sins. Remember, as rulers of the world, our words are laws that have the power of life and death, Proverbs 18:21. Our prayers as Kingdom Priests invoke God's name or authority as a second testimony along with ours. This breaks off OUR PORTION of their strongholds whether they know that we have been praying for them or not. 

Strongholds continue to fall off when our prayers of blessing are combined with our own penitent actions for the purpose of undoing the damage we've caused. I'm NOT talking about the legalism of the Mosaic sacrifices of bulls and goats etc. I'm talking about being a joyful giver with a contrite heart that voluntarily engages in penitent acts. I've done this with the gift of flowers to the person that violated me and all my anger broke off toward that person. I've done it with confessions to a person of how I've sinned against them. The result was all temptation to continue in that sin broke off of me. 

 

Evil was mastered in those circumstances because our penitent actions become a second witness in flesh along side our first witness of words or spirit. That second witness ESTABLISHES our first witness or prayer as FIRM or LAW thus disarming demons of our authority has given to demons.

Don't be confused here. When we are praying God's words, we are partnering with God's Holy Spirit. Our second witness of faith in God's words demonstrated by our penitent actions becomes a stance of PROVEN unity with God's words hence Hebrews 11:1–2. Think of it as the opposite of a child digging their heels in, stiffening their body, and forming fists with their hands then, screaming "NO!" to its parents. The scream and the posture both testify to the same thing and establish the rebellion as a firm stronghold. This is why James wrote that faith without works is dead, James 2:20. Those physical actions of faith literally prove that God, the not seen, is really real.

1 Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen. 2 For by it the men of old gained approval.

Beloved, if someone does not believe you when you apologize, then do something unconditionally, voluntarily, and wholeheartedly on their behalf that actually costs you something and esteems them as greater than yourself. Otherwise, don't expect them to believe or accept your apology because they are not legally or spiritually bound to do so. 

 

Penitent actions are not about you manipulating them or puffing yourself up. It is about taking back your delegated authority away from the enemy and thereby mastering evil. So, the people do not actually have to accept your second testimony for you to be free of the stronghold. However, if they do not accept your second testimony, they won't be freed from their bitterness because we are commanded to forgive as Christ forgave us. Their blood is then on their own hands.

After we confess and cease to continue to sin, our sins are FORGIVEN by the blood of the Lamb PERIOD! END OF STORY! Thus, we are reconciled to God through faith in Christ. There is nothing I know of in the entire Bible that REQUIRES penitent acts in order to obtain forgiveness FROM GOD! However, the entire book of James deals with the issue of POWERFUL repentance and the works of faith. Here is just an excerpt.

14 Is anyone among you sick? Then he must call for the elders of the church and they are to pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord;

15 and the prayer offered in faith will restore the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up, and if he has committed sins, they will be forgiven him.

New American Standard Bible. Electronic edition., The Lockman Foundation, 1986, p. Jas 5:14–16.

Did you notice that the bold underlined text in James 5:14 is an outline or summary of Numbers 6:22-27? If we control our tongues, then we control our entire bodies. But, if we take back the delegated authority our sins have empowered demons to wield, then we TEAR DOWN strongholds. That is how we behave as Kingdom Priests. As kingdom priests, it is our responsibility to pray Aaron's blessing over those who persecute us, Luke 6:28. While at the same time being wise as serpents, gentle as doves, and NOT throwing our pearls to swine. It isn't emotionally easy. But it is soooooooooo worth it.

 

Beloved, please pray Numbers 6:22-27 over those who mistreat you...including yourself. It doesn't have to be perfect. It can be like my prayer below for all my readers regardless of any potential contempt towards me or not.

May our beloved Lord and Savior bless you and keep you encompassed ​by His strength, guarded and surrounded by His angels who gather around those who fear Him. ​​May the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ make His face to shine upon you and be so gracious to you so that you would also shine like the stars in this dark fallen world, walking as lights of the world. ​May Jesus lift up His countenance of Joy upon you and give you His peace​ so that every curse ever spoken by or over you is broken by the truth of God's heart towards you.

Beloved, God most definitely does not want you to be happy or feel good in your sins as this will lead you to choose to dwell in hell for all eternity. He wants you to be lifted up into HIS countenance so that you will spend eternity with Him in paradise. That is why the battle has already been won by Jesus, our Lord! But, none of us will gain that victory in Christ if we don't overcome evil by doing good and thus prove to be disciples of Christ with such fruit i.e. the works that prove our faith to the rest of the world, John 15:8 and 8:31. God already knows our hearts and is in no need of our works. He's got more power to destroy strongholds than we do but He is still in heaven waiting for us to make our enemies into footstools.

 

Copyright (c) 2022 by Diane Pebley All rights reserved, no use granted without the express written permission of the author, Diane Pebley