Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’ “ Early in the morning they left for the Desert of Tekoa. As they set out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, “Listen to me, Judah and people of Jerusalem! Have faith in the Lord your God and you will be upheld; have faith in his prophets and you will be successful. ”After consulting the people, Jehoshaphat appointed men to sing to the Lord and to praise him for the splendor of his holiness as they went out at the head of the army, saying: “Give thanks to the Lord, for his love endures forever.” As they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the men of Ammon and Moab and Mount Seir who were invading Judah, and they were defeated.”

During the reign of Jehoshaphat, a vast army came up from Edom against Israel. They were clearly greater in numbers and power than the forces of Israel, so Jehoshaphat cried out to God, saying, “For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are upon you” (2 Chr. 20:12).

There are times in our lives that we simply don’t know how to respond to the event or the dilemma before us. There are truly things against which we have no power and no answers. Jehoshaphat recognized his dilemma when three kings combined their armies against Israel. He showed wisdom in two things: (1) He acknowledged his own limitations, and (2) he acknowledged that God has no limitations. He then simply declared, “Our eyes are upon you.” There are times we must choose to trust God and see what God will do on our behalf. Our faith falls on the nature of God and who he is for us – his chosen people. Every crisis, every dilemma offers the opportunity to discover more of who the Father is for us. We look to see what will he do out of his nature and his love for us.

Sometimes, we are taken by surprise. Jehoshaphat was stunned that God had even allowed these armies to form and conspire against Israel, but they were, in fact, marching briskly toward Jerusalem. The text says that all the men of Judah, with their wives and children, stood before the Lord and waited for a response. In that moment, the Spirit of the Lord came upon Jahaziel, the priest, who declared to the king and the assembly, “This is what the Lord says to you, “Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours but God’s…take up your positions, stand firm, and see the deliverance the Lord will give you” (2 Chr.20:15-17).

We need to understand that Old Testament battles are our blueprints for spiritual warfare. In the face of overwhelming news, the Lord reminded his people that they did not fight out of their own strength but out of his. They were to take up their positions, but primarily to witness what God would do for them. Their part was to show up for the battle but then to begin to praise and worship the Lord. As they began to turn their hearts toward Jehovah and lift up praise, he began to set ambushes. The three armies that had combined their forces against Israel were suddenly afraid, confused, and turning on one another. They slaughtered one another without Israel wielding one weapon in the natural realm. All that was left was to pick up the plunder left behind by these defeated armies.

Satan loves to intimidate and send forth a spirit of fear when he moves against God’s people. Sometimes we can overcome the enemy with the divine weapons and strategies God has already given us. At other times, what he has shown us in the past seems inadequate for the present. In those moments he is preparing to show us something new. Our part is to trust him to be who he is for us. God is unchanging. Every example of battle in the Old Testament records victory for God’s people when their hearts were turned toward him. God, by his very nature, is victorious. He cannot be anything else and he always wants to be that for his people.

Secondly, we must take up our positions and stand as children of the King, soldiers of Christ, and the faithful who have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind – a mind in harmony with the mind of Christ. We are to take up our positions with our eyes on God, waiting to see the victory and the good that God will bring out of inexplicable tragedies. It is the nature of God to create good – to create victory out of the very things Satan means for harm.

When there seems to be no adequate response to the enemy then, the most powerful weapon we can roll out is the weapon of praise and worship with our eyes fixed on the Father, the Son and the Spirit. When we worship we defy the enemy who has tried to intimidate us and take away our hearts. When we worship we remind ourselves of who God is and who he is for us. When we worship, we increase the presence of God against whom the enemy cannot stand. When we worship in the face of overwhelming odds or tragedy we can be sure that God is setting ambushes in the spiritual realm, confusing the enemy, and turning demons against one another. We then will claim the victory that Satan had once claimed. A cross and three spikes is the ultimate example of God drawing incredible good out of what seemed to be inexplicable tragedy and loss.

When we feel overwhelmed and are left with no discernable response to something that has happened, then we are to set our eyes on the Father, take up our positions in anticipation of seeing who the Father will be for us, and then worship. God will take care of the rest.

There is nothing like a championship game, won in the final seconds when your team was down and victory seemed impossible. Suddenly, the opposing team, who seemed to dominate the entire game, begins to falter. Your team begins to surge and in the last moment the unbelievable pass to the end zone or the three point shot from the edge steals the victory when all seemed lost. God specializes in those wins. It seems to take the heart out of the enemy even more than if we always dominated. It also allows us to cheer louder for our Great King who always comes through because that is who he is. Wait, praise, and see what God does. You will be amazed.

I have heard it said that “Jesus is imprisoned within many believers and desperately wants out. “ It’s not that he wants to separate himself from any of us.  It’s just that Jesus decided to take up residence within us by his Spirit so that he could continue to have a physical presence on the earth through us.

Paul put it this way, “ I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live but Christ lives in me” (Gal.2:20).  The implication of that statement is that Paul lived constantly by the leading of the Spirit so that in any given moment he would do what Jesus would have done and say what Jesus would have said.  In that way,  Christ was incarnated once again in Paul.

We all remember the WWJD bracelets that were popular a few years ago.  The idea seemed to be that when confronted with an issue, a challenge, or a dilemma, we should ask, “What would Jesus do if he were in my shoes?”  It’s a great question, but I think most of us want to consult with Jesus or meditate on his life when we get to a fork in the road and we are uncertain of our path, when crisis rolls in and we are uncertain how to pray, or when temptation is pulling at us and we are thinking about giving in.

But Paul’s statement seems to encompass every moment of every day rather than moments of crisis or indecision.  Have you ever wondered…

• What would Jesus do if he were just wandering around Wal-Mart?
• What would he do in the midst of screaming parents at a little league game?
• What would he do when no one was looking?
• What would he do in the face of tragedy as he sat with a family who just got a diagnosis of stage-four cancer in the mother of two small children?
• What would he do with the homeless man on the corner hustling money?
• What would he do with a thirteen year old girl who just came home and announced she was pregnant or gay?
• What would Jesus do at the scene of an accident where a six year old boy who was hit by a car just died on the side of the road?
• What would he do as he sat at board meeting for a Fortune 500 business?
• What would he do while he was on the job checking people out at an all night convenience store?

My point is that Jesus wants to live through us in every circumstance of life – not just when we are stuck or in a moral dilemma.  To let Jesus out, we need to sense through his Spirit what he would do or say in any of those settings. What would he talk about with the people paying for gas at midnight?  Would he immediately pray for supernatural healing for the cancer victim or pray for life to reenter the six year old body of an accident victim? Would he take the homeless man for a meal and talk about his life?   If he would, then we should.

If we are to let Jesus out of his prison, we must do whatever he would do. Sometimes I believe he would just tell someone that God loves them.  Sometimes he would just carry a heavy grocery bag for an arthritic grandmother. Sometimes he would get the in the face of a religious tyrant and at other times he would heal the sick, cast out demons, raise the dead, and talk to someone about the kingdom of God – even at Starbucks.   He might even mow his neighbor’s yard just for fun.

So…just for fun, let’s all be Jesus today in every setting in which we find ourselves.  Let’s ask the Spirit to prompt us to absolutely be Jesus not only in the extraordinary moments of our day but also in the most ordinary moments of our day as well. For today, let’s let Jesus out and then do it again tomorrow.

Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil (1Jn. 3:8). Whatever Jesus healed, cast out, or overcame were works that the enemy had constructed on the earth.  In the opening salvo of Christ’s war on the devil, he announced that he had come to preach good news to the poor, to heal the brokenhearted, and to set captives free (Luke 4).  He then proceeded to preach the gospel of the kingdom of God, heal every kind of sickness and physical condition, cast our demons, raise the dead and break the power of sin over countless lives.

However, sometime in the last 2000 years, a few prominent theologians decided that the very things Jesus opposed on the earth did not come from Satan but from God himself.   Somewhere along the line, theologians decided that since God is sovereign, everything that happens on this planet is his will and has been ordained by heaven.  That kind of theology makes God the author of rape, abortion, famine, war, cancer, birth defects, and crib death. That kind of theology makes God a heartless manipulator of people and circumstances.  However, John definitively says that God is love.

The truth is that there are countless things that happen on this planet that do not reflect the heart or the will of God for his people.  For instance, in his first letter to Timothy, Paul says, “This is right and is acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires everyone to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth (1 Tim.2: 4) Paul clearly states that God’s desire is for every soul to be saved.  Scripture also clearly says that not all will be saved. In the matter of the world’s salvation, God’s desire will not be completely fulfilled.

Even, when the persistent acts and sins of men demand God’s righteous judgment, that is not what God rejoices to do.  In the book of Ezekiel, God says, “Do I take any pleasure in the death of the wicked?” declares the sovereign Lord.  “Rather, am I not pleased when they turn from their ways and live” (Ezek. 18:23)?  He also says, “I looked for a man among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found none.” (Ezek.22: 30). Sometimes, disaster comes because man leaves God no choice.  Like parents exercising tough love toward a rebellious child, God sometimes brings discipline or judgment.  But it is not his pleasure to do so.

The world is clearly full of tragedy.  In his sovereignty, God gave man free will and in doing so set limitations on himself in terms of how he would intercede in the affairs of men.  When mankind chooses violence over peace, adultery over faithfulness, abortion over parenthood, bitterness over forgiveness, deception over truth and rebellion over obedience, bad things happen and people are wounded in ways that were never in the heart of God for his people. When men act in such ways they open themselves and their families up to the work of Satan who comes to kill, steal, and destroy.

However we understand God and his heart for us, the clearest demonstration of his heart is found in Jesus. Jesus declared in John 14 that whoever has seen him (Jesus) has seen the Father.  Whatever Jesus did on the earth is an accurate reflection of the heart of God.  The heart of God, like the heart of God’s Son, is to heal, bless, set free, and eventually abolish death altogether.

When we blame God for the tragedies, the pain, the sorrows of life we misjudge his character and his heart for us.  That misconception is a great tool of the enemy to alienate people from a God who loves them and to limit our faith when we pray.  If we ever believe that God’s heart for his children is that they be raped, abused, murdered, ravaged by cancer, and stuck in crippling poverty, or die tragically then how will we pray against those things?  How will be believe that God is sitting on the edge of his throne waiting to arise and set his children free from the hate-filled works of the devil?  And yet, that is where he is.

The good news is that disease, disabilities, shattered emotions, broken families and all the rest of Satan’s work is not the heart of God for his people.  Jesus came to begin dismantling those works in individual lives and then in society as a whole.  The church has been commissioned to do what Jesus did and to continue to destroy those works with the love of God and the power of heaven.  God longs for us to call on him in faith to push back the borders of darkness through us.  He longs to display his power to heal, mend, and set free through us, just as he did through Jesus. Whenever we have it in our hearts to do the works that Jesus did then we can rest assured that heaven is ready to join us in the battle.  Be bold today.  Know that God is on your side when you push back in faith against the kingdom of darkness.