Twelve Truths for Victorious Living (Part Two)
Let’s get right to it as we finish our Twelve Truths for Victorious Living from Judges 4:4-16!Twelve Truths for Victorious Living (Part Two)
There is a specific day God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.
In verse 14, Deborah declares: “Up! For this is the day!”
We may not know the day, but every day, we can get up knowing this is the day the Lord fights for us! What about the days before? The Israelites were still in captivity. Waiting. Crying out. And then one day was THE day and God brought victory! This is true for the daily battles we face and for the big battles that will come!
And this is true for the war Jesus won on the cross and His certain return. There is a final “This is the day” when Jesus will return and we will be caught up with Him and there will be no more battles!
Up! For this is the day!
When we face every day knowing God’s victory is coming, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
By going before us, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.
Deborah continues in verse 14: “Has not the Lord gone out before you?”
The Lord goes before us everywhere He asks us to go! Part of living a victorious life is going only where God is going before us. Our victory is where God is, not where we want or ask Him to go!
Because the Lord goes before us, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
Part of living a victorious life is going only where God is leading us!
On the battlefield, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.
Still in verse 14, Barak goes down from Mount Tabor to the battlefield. He had to go to the battlefield to see the deliverance of the Lord as THE LORD routed Sisera and his chariots and army with the sword BEFORE Barak.
We must suit up, show up and fight, but it is God who wins battles.
When we go to the battlefield in faith, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
Moving the heavens and the earth at His will, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience (Judges 5:21).
In the Song of Deborah in Judges 5:21, Deborah recounts the battle and explains what the Lord did, sayin, “The torrent of Kishon swept them away, that ancient torrent, the torrent of Kishon. O my soul, march on in strength!”
Rains fell and a flash flood swept the enemy away!
God is the God of the heavens and the earth. He can do anything! God can and will move heavens and earth – He will use whatever it takes – to bring about His victory for His people! We still have to pursue the enemy and fight, but when it’s God’s battle, He sets us up for certain victory!
When we know God will move the heavens and the earth to for His victory and delivery, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
When we go as far as God requires, God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.
In verse 16, Barak pursues Sisera “as far as” Harosheth. Sisera gets away on foot, and in the next verses we see him meet his fate. His entire army, however, falls by the edge of the sword to where there is not a man was left.
There may be an “as far as” in our lives too, and we must go that far with God! We can’t stop short and experience complete victory.
Our “as far as” may be where someone else picks up. God may have someone else finish the job and get the glory. Are we okay with that? Are we okay with going as far as God’s job is for us to go?
When we go to the limit with God, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
By His word, God sovereignly delivers His children to certain victory through obedience.
Verse 16 tells us, “All the enemy of Sisera fell by the edge of the sword; not a man was left.”
We have this same weapon available to us:
“…the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Ephesians 6:17)!
It is by this very weapon that not a soldier in our enemy’s army will be left. In every battle we face, the sword of the Spirit is our weapon for cutting down the enemy to the very last principality, power, ruler of the darkness or spiritual host of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12) – until none is left!
Hebrews 4:12 describes our sword: “For the word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart.”
When we wield the word of God as a sword against the enemy, we can live the victorious, set-apart life of experiencing His supernatural and miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection.
This Victory Pass is issued on the authority of Jesus Christ so we can go where God tells us to go!
In our lives, there are going to be battles. But God has promised certain victory!I want to leave you today with a Victory Pass and a challenge.Our Victory Pass is sort of like a hall pass. Remember those? In school, if you got caught in the halls when you weren’t supposed to be but you had a hall pass, you were excused, right? It was issued by someone with authority, and as long as you had the pass, you had authority to be out of the classroom. Our Victory Pass is given us by the authority of Jesus Christ! It gets us out of oppression and into the hall so we can get where God wants us to go!Our Victory Pass contains our Twelve Truths for Victorious Living. For the next seven days, I am challenging us to carry it with us, like we would a hall pass and to read it out loud as a declaration of God’s truth at least twice a day, maybe first thing in the morning and last thing at night. As you repeat these truths this week, talk to God about where you are in each area. Is there a truth with which you’re struggling? Do you believe God’s truth? Is there an idol in your life from which you need deliverance and certain victory?When we intentionally pursue, believe and apply the truth of God’s word, we will see His deliverance from false gods and lies that lead us away from Him and into bondage. Imagine what would happen if we as God’s children believed and lived these truths, experienced His deliverance and supernatural, miraculous faithfulness, provision and protection? What would our lives be like and how might God’s faithfulness to us change the lives of those around us?Where might this Victory Pass take us?Maybe where Barak ended up: in the Hebrews 11 Hall of Faith!!!And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets (Hebrews 11:32).Even with his imperfect, conditional faith, Barak ends up in the Hall of Faith with what we would likely call the Bibles greatest heroes!God can and will use you and me. He will lead us in victorious living so our faith will become an example and inspiration to others. This Victory Pass is for God’s name to be known and His fame to be declared! He issues it, it comes with His authority and it is ours to use to go where we need to go to do what He has for us to do.We have this pass because:The abundant, victorious life is not found in false gods or bondage;God sovereignly delivers us to certain victory through obedience.I hope something in this brief series about victorious living has encouraged you and spurred you on in your faith! We need the Lord and we need each other, like Barak needed Deborah and the ten thousand. I’m glad you took the time to learn about God’s faithfulness to us for victorious living! For the other blogs in this series, click below:
Sometimes God sovereignly sets up a battle for our victory!
Victorious-Living