Twelve Truths for Victorious Living (Part One)
As promised, here are the first six of the Twelve Truths for Victorious Living found in Judges 4:4-16. Based on our passage, the victorious life is the set apart life in which God’s children experience His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, deliverance, provision and protection; each truth reveals an irrevocable reason we can trust God to sovereignly deliver us to certain victory through obedience.Twelve Truths for Victorious Living (Part One)
By His call and confirmation, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.
In Judges 4:6-7, God has spoken to Barak, Israel’s military leader, commanding him to deploy troops and go to battle; He has also spoken to Deborah, God’s judge and prophetess, which means she has both religious and judicial authority. In both cases, God takes the first step to choose and call, just as He does with us.
Deborah knows what the Lord has commanded Barak and summons him to confirm and confront what the Lord has already told him. In the same way, God tells us certain things He wants us to do, and His word confirms His commands, through scripture and other people to hold us accountable to what He says. This is a good thing, because His call and confirmation lead to the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
According to His battle plan and promises, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.
Also in Judges 4:6-7, we see that God has detailed His exact plan for Barak, clearly explaining exactly how the entire battle and victory will take place. He clearly describes what the enemy will do; and He says what He will do: deliver the enemy into Barak’s hand.
Isn’t this exactly what God does in our daily lives through His word? It’s a depiction of God’s word to us EVERY DAY!
He clearly lays out what He has for us to do;
He clearly describes what the enemy will do; and,
He clearly says what He will do: deliver us!
His battle plan and promises lead to the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
By His presence and the help of others, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience (Judges 4:6 and 8).
Can you imagine being a female religious and governing authority during Old Testament times? I wonder if Deborah felt alone. What other woman could relate to her – the responsibility she shoulders and the hats she juggles? But one thing we know: she has the Lord! She is His spokesperson, so she’s continually hearing from Him and speaking for Him. She is not alone, and neither are we. Ever!
Like Deborah, we are to be in constant communion with God and we can know He is always with us. Hebrews 4:16 tells us, “Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.” We can approach God directly to hear from Him and receive what we need!
And in Hebrews 13:5, we are assured that God “Himself has said, ‘I will never leave you nor forsake you.’"
The Lord God Almighty WILL NEVER LEAVE OR FORSAKE ME OR YOU!
God also gives us people to stand with us. Barak has Deborah. Even though he’s the nation’s military leader, for some reason, he is unwilling to go into battle alone. Scripture doesn’t specify, but perhaps it was rebellion. Maybe he was unwilling to obey unconditionally. Or it could have been cowardice, and he was afraid to go to battle alone. It could also have been wisdom; he knew he needed divine help.
Sometimes we’re Barak, and we just need someone to go into battle with us! We can’t see going it alone and God provides us with a Deborah to go to battle with us. Thank God!!!
Sometimes we’re Deborah, and I love this quote from Explore the Bible: “If her presence on the battlefield would encourage the Israelite commander to trust in the Lord, then she was willing to put herself in harm’s way.”
If our presence will encourage a brother or sister in Christ to trust in the Lord, are we willing to put ourselves in harm’s way? Are we willing to be inconvenienced? To sacrifice?
Barak also has the ten thousand! He’s going to battle backed by an army of ten thousand men. As the body of Christ, we are to be in this together! We are to present in each others’ lives and for battle. We are to be praying for one another, specifically as we know each other personally and then universally for every child of God. We need the ten thousands!
Because we are not alone, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
Even when our willingness is conditional, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience (Judges 4:8).
All God needs from us is willingness and obedience. Even though he has a condition, Barak is willing to obey, and Deborah is willing to go.
What about us? Are we willing to obey? In his book called Absolute Surrender, Andrew Murray shares a prayer that has transformed how I pray when facing some of my greatest internal battles:
My God, I am willing that You should make me willing.
Like Barak, sometimes I am conditionally willing, but we can be willing that God should make us unconditionally willing! Murray goes on to say:
If there is anything holding you back, or any sacrifice you are afraid of making, come to God now and prove how gracious your God is. Do not be afraid that He will command from you what He will not bestow.
God will provide what we need for what He’s commanding us to do, including help. God so graciously gives Barak what he needs, but we also have to recognize that his condition cost him honor. Deborah will go with him, but there will be no glory in the journey for Barak, because the Lord will sell the enemy into a woman’s hands.
When we put conditions on our obedience, we may lose the glory or blessing or reward that was attached to our unconditional, uncompromised obedience. But don’t miss this: THERE’S STILL VICTORY AND DELIVERANCE!
When we are willing and obedient, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
When we move when and where God says, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience (Judges 4:10 and 12)!
When God has somewhere for us to go and something for us to do, we must get up and change our location. We must move. When God calls us into battle, it’s going to require leaving our comfort zones and regular routines and doing something different or going somewhere different. We’re going to have to change some things to get to the battlefield.
But when we go where God tells us, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
Through enemy activity, God sovereignly delivers His children to certain victory through obedience (Judges 4:7, 11-13).
Look at verse 7. Who is going to deploy Sisera and Jabin’s army, chariots and multitudes?
GOD IS.
God is the one who orders circumstances for battle!
That doesn’t sound right, does it? Until we realize:
The battles we face lead to the victories we need!
Heber betrays the Israelites to Sisera, and Sisera gathers his army and all his people to go out against the Israelites. It’s hard to view betrayal or an enemy attack as a good thing, but this is God’s means to bring about their victory.
God is always working to bring about His victory in our lives, too, even when it looks like the enemy has the upper hand. Even in cases of betrayal, when someone else’s actions threaten us. Heber’s betrayal brought about the deployment of Sisera’s army and God’s perfect plan for setting the Israelites free.
God will sometimes deploy the enemy against us to set up a battle He knows HE IS certain to win in order to bring about His victory and deliverance! Are we willing to trust God even when the circumstances look entirely impossible? Even when someone betrays us and the enemy mounts up against us? Are we willing to trust that in and through these very circumstances God is bringing about our deliverance?
God may be behind enemy activity to bring about His sovereign delivery for our certain victory through obedience. But when we trust God for delivery even in the face of enemy activity, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
Victorious-Living
We’re going to hit pause and pick up tomorrow with the rest of the Twelve Truths for Victorious Living. If it would be helpful to you to receive new posts to your email inbox, just enter your email in the upper right corner where it says “Sing Up!” and you’ll receive new content as I post it.I pray these truths sink deep in your heart to become an anchor for your soul as God reveals His perfect love and care for you. As unsettling, frightening, threatening and disrupting as battles can be, God knows and controls all things. Nothing happens that doesn’t pass through His hands. Because He IS love and He IS good, everything He does and all that comes from Him is from love and for good. That may be hard to believe when things look bad, but it is truth. And truth sets us free! Truth gives us victory!For all the blogs in this series, click below: