In 2 Kings 5:21, the King of Aram sends his army to surround
the Israelites who were camped in the town of Dortham. Elisha the prophet was
also there with his servant who awoke to discover that they were surrounded by
a mighty army of horses and chariots intent on capturing them. “Oh my lord,
what shall we do?” he said to Elisha. “Don’t be afraid.” The prophet answered. “Those
who are with us are more than those who are with them” And Elisha prayed, “O
Lord, open his eyes so he may see.” Then the Lord opened the servant’s eyes,
and he looked and saw the hills full of horses and chariots of fire all around
Elisha. Oh, we need the vision that Elisha had!
Paul prays that the
eyes of our hearts would be open to see the things that God has for us in Christ.
In every trial, temptation, and tribulation
facing us, we can say with Elisha, “Those who are with us are more than those
who are with them.” This is true for every child of God, in all circumstances. However, we will always expect
defeat if we get bogged down in what we see in the natural where the waves threaten to drown us, and the
armies appear to outnumber us. Satan is banking on this, because it is the way he steals from us. This is when we must saturate our hearts with the seed of God's word, consuming the truth of God so that we will not succumb to what we see.
But the reality is
that the unseen is greater than what we see, and in every trail we must look to
God, consider His promises, and ask Him to open the eyes of our hearts so that
we can see our situation from heaven’s lofty, victories perspective. He will
away grant a spirit of wisdom and revelation when we ask Him because Jesus
actually purchased this for us! Apart from Christ, we could not contain this
beautiful, pure, Holy Spirit.
When we get the Spirit’s view, which transcends the human
realm, we can then pray with confidence as Elisha prayed: “Strike these people
with blindness.” So he struck them with blindness, as Elisha has asked. Imagine how our prayer life would strengthen
if we saw what Elisha saw: a mighty army of angel warriors waiting to answer
our prayers to Father God and bring us into all that Christ accomplished for us. Lord, give us this vision.
In this story, the
battle was won immediately, but in our lives most battles rage on, and we are
more like the Israelites circling the walls of Jericho around and around and around and around with no effect. The temptation is to
stop circling around the fifth or sixth time. It was the same for Israel as they circled in the
wilderness-they looked with their natural eyes and fell into doubt and unbelief
because of the wide temporal gap between Egypt and the Promised Land. God longs for us to WAIT on Him so that he can show himself
strong!
It is easy to let His promises slip through our hands in light of bleak circumstances. In Hebrews 4, we are encouraged to labor to enter the rest of God. He says that Israel failed to enter into God’s rest because of one reason: they did not mix the word and promises of God with faith. The word mix, in the Greek, refers to mixing food with saliva in order to digest it in the body suggesting that we have to digest his promises by mixing them with faith-otherwise they are useless). Our battle and struggle is to hold onto His word despite the long, hard battle, and despite what we see.
Jesus often commented on his disciples lack of faith. He ardently desired that they would believe the word
of God more than their five senses. It
is probably the reason why Jesus spent so much time with the Father, listening and
hearing from heaven. In Isaiah 11, speaking of the coming Messiah, it says that
“He will not judge by what he sees with his eyes, or decide by what he hears
with his ears…” Instead, he had the Spirit of the Lord resting on him, the
Spirit of wisdom, understanding, and counsel. In scripture, Jesus always “perceives”
and never “reasons” anything; reasoning is left to those who are unbelieving. It is easy to let His promises slip through our hands in light of bleak circumstances. In Hebrews 4, we are encouraged to labor to enter the rest of God. He says that Israel failed to enter into God’s rest because of one reason: they did not mix the word and promises of God with faith. The word mix, in the Greek, refers to mixing food with saliva in order to digest it in the body suggesting that we have to digest his promises by mixing them with faith-otherwise they are useless). Our battle and struggle is to hold onto His word despite the long, hard battle, and despite what we see.
And the same is true for us. Faith is not a mental act of the will, rather,
it is divine quickening of our spirit man in response to the living word of
God. As we seek God and wait on Him, he breathes his LIVING, quick, powerful
word into us. Until we hear him in this
way, we will simply sink down in the quicksand of circumstance, fear,
insecurity, anger, and worry.
The Lord gave me this word this morning after weeks of
sinking into a dark spirit of heaviness, anger, hurt, and despair over a particular
relationship problem that I am facing. I have not been able to get over it, so I
spent over an hour strumming my guitar and praying in the Spirit because I just
had no words-only heaviness. After a
while a powerful peace settled in my room (I think Gracie felt it too) and the
weight lifted. He then led me to this passage where my heart was encouraged.
So whatever we are facing, we can know that there are always
more angels, more might, more protection, more power, and more victory
surrounding us then the enemy that we see encamping around us! Thank you God!!!
Jude
1:20 But ye, beloved,
building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost. Keep
yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ
unto eternal life.
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