Carlisle Jodi - Your battles belong to the Lord: know your enemy and be more than a conqueror

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.

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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

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 dont 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 dont 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 worldgood and evil. God is good, and the devil is evil. Since the devil cannot get to God to hurt Him, he fights against His childrenthose who have believed 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.