I Timothy 6:12 (New King James Version)
12Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses.

I was recently corresponding via email with a friend. My friend shared something she was going through and commented, “It wasn’t that I was expecting the worst, I just wasn’t expecting anything”. I began to think about what she said because I was also going through a similar situation. It was then that the Lord began to show me some things.  Namely, that faith is a fight.

Yes, faith is a fight. It is a fight like no other. It is a supernatural battle. In I John 5:4, we’re told it is our faith which is able to overcome the world. This tells me faith is a pretty valuable commodity!  Earlier in I John, we’re told in chapter 2 verses 15 and 16 exactly what is “the world” our faith overcomes. Verse 16 reads, “For all that is in the world: the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life is not from the Father but is from the world.” Our faith is the only thing that can overcome the world.  Satan knows this, and he is coming after your faith…and with everything he’s got.

You’ve probably heard the saying before “Give the devil his due”.  I’ll tell you one thing, he’s a hard worker – he’s absolutely relentless.  The three things that John tells us we’ll find in the world, “the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life” are the very things the devil used against Eve to tempt her in the Garden of Eden (Genesis Chapter 3). The good news is the devil doesn’t have any new tricks up his sleeve. The bad news is, after all these years, apparently he doesn’t need any- those he has are working just fine.

If we look at what happened in Genesis Chapter 3, the first thing the devil does is he tries to sow doubt. He asks Eve, “Did God REALLY say…”  What he is subtly doing is attacking the integrity of God’s Word and His character. He’s trying to destroy (in Eve’s mind) who God really is, what He really said, and whether He really meant what he said. Why does the devil do this? Because he wants to shake our very foundation.  It’s simply not enough for us to know the Word of God, we have also got to intimately know the God of the Word. We have got to be familiar with the character of the One who is the source of it all, because I can guarantee you the day is coming when everything that is going on in your life will seem absolutely contrary to what the Word of God promises. Even Jesus, the living Word of God, wasn’t exempt. We can see in Mark 15:34 He cries out “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?”  If Satan can knock our very foundation from underneath us, we’ll crumble and fall - and he knows it.

I believe a major reason Adam and Eve succumbed to temptation was because their relationship with God somehow got to the place where it wasn’t enough for them. They got to the place where God alone didn’t seem sufficient for them. Whenever we take our eyes off the fullness of the Lord and the fact that He is the fulfillment of ALL we need, we’ll begin to look “elsewhere”. That’s perfect ground for the enemy to begin to lure us and tempt us. He begins to play with our minds and tell us we “deserve better”. It’s a downhill slippery slope from there. We’ve GOT to continually remind ourselves that God is good, that He loves us, and continually has us in His sight and care as our Good Shepherd. Trouble arises when we begin to think otherwise. Realize one thing: we cannot be tempted by something we refuse to think. We have got to cast those thoughts down (of God being inadequate or uncaring) as soon as they are presented to us.

In Luke Chapter 4 when Jesus emerges from being baptized and is led by the Spirit into the wilderness, he is attacked by the devil in much the same way as the devil attacked Adam and Eve. We know Jesus had been fasting for 40 days and nights. He has to be hungry!  The devil once again focuses the eyes toward the temptation of fulfilling the flesh with “change this stone into a loaf of bread”.  He tempts Jesus with thoughts of “is God’s Word enough?” and “don’t I deserve better?” and “doesn’t God care about me?”.  The devil further attacks Jesus’ identity by asking “IF you are really the son of God…”.  The devil is sowing doubt, not only doubt of whom Jesus really is, but who His Father is as well. If the devil can destroy God’s credibility, he can destroy our foundation and we’ll fall like a house of cards. Though Jesus came through it, it was a great test of His faith.  It was a fight, it was a battle.

We must guard and protect our faith with everything we’ve got.  We must continually ask ourselves these questions: Who do we believe God to be, and what credence does His Word have in our lives? How does what His Word says and how we believe He really feels about us affect our lives right now? Are we at the place where we’re expecting His goodness, love, and mercy to overwhelm every situation and circumstance in our lives? Or, have the circumstances of life caused an indifference to operate within us, where God’s very credibility is on trial in our lives? Or, worse yet, have we come to the place where we’ve bought the lie and believed that the Lord has forsaken us, and we have become cynical and given up to the point where we’re in expectation for the worst to come?

When we allow that seed of doubt (I’m talking spiritual doubt) to take a hold of us, we end up doubting God. We can have natural doubt where we doubt ourselves, but spiritual doubt is when we doubt God. That’s dangerous ground, and that’s what the enemy is after. If he can get us disconnected from our Source, he can put us in a place of inadequacy where we will be unable to receive anything from the Lord, like we’re told in James chapter 1. When that happens, we’re not able to receive for ourselves, nor for others. The whole point of us receiving is so we can in turn give it to others and further the Kingdom. That’s our purpose, and it all starts with making sure our relationship with the Father is intact and thriving.

The reason why we get to the place that we’re “not expecting anything” is because we’re no longer seeing the Lord as He really is. We’ve completely turned our eye on our circumstances, and it is no longer on Him. In fact, the circumstances have weighed so heavily upon us that His Word no longer has any effect. That happens when we allow Satan to attack God’s character and credibility to a degree where we’re no longer seeing ourselves as we should.

In 2 of the series Walking in Faith, I will delve a little deeper into the importance of STAYING in faith. 

Blessings!

Dan Owczarzak