24/09/2015 - WHEN THE BATTLE FINISHES

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And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, and drove them back as far as below Beth Car.  1 Samuel 7.11

You must fight your battles against sin or diseases until there are no more signs of the evil one in your life. If you are victorious in 99% of the battle, but ignore 1%, Satan will certainly regroup, remaking his strength and strategy. Then, in a careless moment, he will come back with more willingness to defeat you. The enemy’s greatest desire is to make you submit to his destructive will.

We must pursue our enemies without rest until they are annihilated, so that they might not have any conditions any longer to attack us. The devil only rises against us with the purpose to kill, rob, and destroy (Jo 10.10a). Therefore, it is not good to consider him harmless or too weak to make us stumble. Behind every evil spirit there is the power from hell!

The right thing is to resist to the evil that attacked you until you see it fall under your feet. This was the attitude that David had with his enemies. In the book of Psalms, he says that he persecuted them in order to reach them, defeat them, and consume them completely (Ps 18.37,38). The king only considered that the battle was won when he surpassed his adversaries. In the same way, we must fight until the last strike.

“Driving them back” is symbolic; it means to destroy your enemy. This will happen when you are filled with God’s presence. Then, in your heart, you will feel that evil has lost and left entirely. While the joy of holiness, of health, and of all blessings is not present in your life, there will still be much struggle. We live by faith and not by sight (2 Co 5.7), and this joy comes exactly by faith, as a sign that Jesus visited us.

The Philistines went to war, but the Most High defended the Israelites due to the trust that they had in Him. When it seemed that the people of God would be destroyed, the Lord sent a strong storm, and therefore, the enemies all fled terrified. The varied ways in which the Omnipotent can help us surprise the evil one, who in no hypothesis can face the response from High. In the case of the philistines, His action was even soft.

It is good and very productive to trust in the heavenly Father, for He will do whatever is necessary to give us victory. Certainly, our God will know how to produce “storms” such as these or even worse. We still do not know what happens in the spiritual world when the Most High stands to bless us, but it is something enormous. We must fulfill His orientations, in order for our request to be attended, and for us to have success!

The struggle ended with Samuel placing a stone (v. 12) that said that until that moment, the Lord had helped them. After the battle, we must celebrate our victory by worshipping the Most High. This act marks that our territory is free from enemies. If we remain in the faith, we will make it impossible for the devil to attack us again.

In Christ, with love,

R. R. Soares