See a Victory

Are you ready for battle?

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The lyrics from "See a Victory," by Elevation Worship, are powerful. When it came out a few months ago, I instantly felt moved by the Holy Spirit. To be honest, anything Elevation Worship comes out with does to me. But a few days ago, I was listening to this song and I felt a Word on top of a Word.

While singing, "I'm gonna see a victory... I'm gonna see a victory..." I realized something.

In war, both sides "see a victory." Only one side actually experiences it.

Which side of victory are you on? Are you fighting the battles that further the Gospel and the Glory of God or are you fighting for your ego and accomplishments of your own ambition?

There are points throughout this song that are like checkpoints to the soul. And, you guessed it... We're going to go through that check list now. :)

Get your Bibles ready, because you're going to want to take notes on this one.

"The weapon may be formed, but it won't prosper." This isn't just a lyric. It's derived almost directly from Isaiah 54:17. When we read chapter 54 of Isaiah ("The Fertility of Zion), we walk into a scripture where we have an individual who is shouting for joy during a barren situation. She's being told to make space out of faith. A woman who wants a child, and is crying out to the Lord in the midst of her situation. And as we ready this chapter, leading up to our verse/lyric, we see God reminding this woman of His promises. When He saved Noah from the floods and also that He would not flood the earth again. He later says, in Isaiah 54:10, "For the mountains may be removed and the hills may shake, But my lovingkindness will not be removed from you. Nor will My covenant of peace be shaken,"

Before we go into the weapons that can't prosper against us, a few verses later, God has already given us a friendly reminder. Never mind the weapons... Yeah, He's got us should they form. But if that scripture was never written, we were already covered by a promise.

Honestly, Isaiah 54:17 is almost redundant of Isaiah 54:9-11. But we often don't quote what takes faith, we quote what sounds effortless. "No weapon formed against you will prosper." That verse out of context sounds like it's all God vs. the weapon. And although we all also quote 2nd Chronicles 20:15, "For the battle is not ours. It's the Lord's." and 1st John 4:4, "Greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world." Those and many others like it are great scriptures. They are true scriptures... But are they your truth?

"Greater is HE who is in you..." but is He "in you"?

A lot of us are claiming victories and we aren't even on the team that's going to win?

Something that precedes every verse of a promise from God is the principle behind it. There's always something we are responsible for, before we can expect anything from God. Yes, His Grace (as we discuss time and time again) will save us and keep us, but we are designed to be proactive with our portion.

The same is expected of a soldier; as they, too, have many tasks before being sent to war.

Ephesians 6:13-18 tells us about the Armor of God. See below...

We're commanded to walk in truth, righteousness, be filled with the Gospel, have faith, be saved and be armed with the Spirit. To do all of this, we have to be in our Word daily.

In the Word means etched in our hearts, spoken by our mouths, and displayed in our lives...

Not reposted on our IG stories and quoted on our Facebook stats.

Don't get me wrong, displaying your faith on social media is cool. But having it on display is almost false advertisement if it isn't something you truly live. Bishop TD Jakes was being interviewed by Pastor Steve Furtick when he said, "The enemy will attack at the level you claim you are at." So if we post, "I will walk by faith and not by sight" but we fall apart when things don't "look" okay... We aren't living the life we are posting about. And let me be very clear, because this is something I struggle with as well. The devil is not afraid of you reading the Bible. He is not intimidated by your memorization skills.

He is not affected or detoured by you going to church or streaming it daily. If it isn't in your heart, and being applied to your daily life then it doesn't matter.

You are still defenseless in war. But you're claiming to have "victory" where you don't even, truly have faith.

"There's power in the mighty name of Jesus. Every war He wages He will win." The song says, "every war He wages, He will win." How many of us are putting ourselves in wars that were not waged by God? Simply put, God will not cover you where He did not place you.

Life is hard enough as it is, following where God takes you. Just ask Moses. But we tend to have a knack of adding more to our pot and stirring it without God's directions. We take a Bible verse like, "He will give us the desires of your heart" and assume whatever we want is what we can have. But the honest to God truth (literally) is Psalm 37:4 is talking about seeking God to deeply that He will place in our hearts the plans He already had for us. The plans He designed before we were known in our mother's womb. Those plans. His plans.

Not our plans.

While preparing for this Word, I came across Luke 10:19. "I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you." Which sounds exactly like "No weapon formed against you shall prosper." But this scripture can be dangerously taken out of context.

Yes. We have the authority to "trample on snakes.... and to overcome."

No. We do not have the spiritual okay to start stuff with people "in the name of Jesus."

The "snakes" the Bible speaks of are not your "haters" or people you disagree with. This verses is talking about overcoming the devil. Overcoming temptation. Not succumbing to lowering ourselves to the desires of our flesh. The authority we have is not to act like we are "better" than anybody else just because we have a relationship with God. Remember, His desire is to have this relationship with everyone. Our command is to help others be freed from their strongholds in Christ. To "go out into the world" and preach/proclaim the Gospel. Not to use it like a guilt trip or means of manipulation over others.

Regardless of their personal decisions, everyone around us is a child of God. The battles we have with our brothers and sisters are spiritual.

Not professional.

Not physical.

Not emotional.

The dominion we have in Luke 10 is supplemented with the directions we were given in the Old Testament - 2nd Corinthians 10:4, "For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds."

They. Are. Not. Carnal... Meaning it is not meant to pleasure our flesh or our egos.

Think about this the next time you feel inclined to pop off at/about somebody you don't like, or speaks ignorantly, and/or disrepects you. Even if they are acting from their own carnal means, your response is a reflection of your spirit.

Your mouth has the power to start wars that God did not send you into.

"Out of the mouth flows the abundance of your heart." - Luke 6:45.

"I'm not backing down from any giant. 'Cause I know how this story ends." Cool.. So you followed God and you find yourself in war. You aren't the first to be privileged with such inconvenience. Trust me. But what you can also trust is this... You lose all the battles you don't fight.

Once again, we rest on the promise of God without exercise the part we are to accomplish leading to it being fulfilled. "I'm gonna see a victory.. I'm gonna see a victory!!!" Okay, are you willing to be part of the fight? Or do you just expect God to show up while you chill on the couch? We have to be willing to get sweaty, get our hands dirty, sweat our hair out (hello - to all my 4b/c queens out there!!!). But we have to be willing to get into the fight. Or we will simply "see" a victory, and not have one.

You know who else saw a victory? The Confederacy after they seceded in the Civil War.

I'm not going to go into politics on this one. Promise. But I will say - you can't drive on a single highway in the South without seeing at least 5 Confederate flag plates on your twenty-minutes commute to anywhere. You see the flag... Everywhere. But they didn't win.

How many of us are walking around like we won a battle that we actually seceded?

Wearing your "God is Dope" shirt, but you don't actually trust Him when you're in need. Rocking your "Crazy Faith" hoodie, and your mustard seed is blown away in the wind somewhere. Smiling and saying "God bless you" to everyone around you but you are too depressed to ask a friend to join you in prayer because you aren't sure if prayer even works any more. (That one was for me at a season in my own life). You can't "win" if you walk away.

If David would have gone home when his brothers told him to, he wouldn't have slayed Goliath.

But catch this.... That is not to say, "Goliath wouldn't have been slayed."

He just wouldn't have been slayed by David.

I urge every person reading this post to check out Philippians 1:6. Where the Bible tells us, "He who started a good work in you will finish it." I'm going to damage a lot of spiritual egos with this one, but ummm...

Just because it began "in you" does not mean it will finish "with you." The Bible says God will finish "it." There is no specification of whom will be used. So be mindful of this, if you are brought to a battle that you refuse to fight.. You will "see a victory" that was designed for you carried out by someone else.

When we look back at David... What was started in him was life a shepherd. Then he was presented the opportunity to battle Goliath. After becoming king, not only was he dubbed "a man after God's on heart." He became part of the blood lineage that lead to the birth of Christ.

If you refuse your battle, what are you giving up for the generations after you?

Victories are messy. In war, even the victor has casualties. The same occurs in spiritual battle. There are things we are going to have to let die in order to move forward in what we were/are called to do. Sometimes those on the winning side lose more men. When the Civil War was over the Confederacy lost about 260,000 men. The North lost almost 100,00 more.

Which leaves me to say this.... We may have more to lose.... But we have to show up.

What we "lose" has nothing compared to the part we play in what is to be gained.