Spiritual battles are won by faith, but there’s a key of truth to find that unlocks faith in every challenge. The truth changes our understanding of God and so faith accesses God’s power to transform the world around us from a transformed heart within us.
Romans 8:32 He who did not spare his own Son, but gave him up for us all–how will he not also, along with him, graciously give us all things?
Earlier this year I was going through an intense spiritual battle linked to a business deal. It seemed like an outward thing, but of course as ever the real battle was in my heart: this was designed by the Lord to bring greater levels of breakthrough and freedom in my heart, in the “secret place” of my inner faith. Battles exist because the Lord accomplishes internal transformation by teaching us truth under pressure. He reveals powerful keys of His Kingdom and these bring victory as they open the door to new realms of His power. In the process we are changed, and our faith grows.
During my battles I read about Moses’ fight against two kings – Sihon and Og- and realized these were a picture of two enemies over whom I was poised to gain a decisive victory. We’ll talk about Og some other time – today I want to tell you about his partner in crime. Sihon means “ruin” and I realized that I’d often faced situations of loss and ruin in business, and so had my parents. Deeper than that, I had an internal fear of loss. When things went wrong my heart got dark and I quickly felt that the Lord was not with me, that He wasn’t close at hand to help me succeed. Of couse, this is a lie – its not at all what God is like. My internal belief was weak. As soon as there was a “crack” in my outside world, my faith would be challenged and usually fail. But the faith God develops in our hearts is a powerful force that rises up when outside circumstances don’t align with Kingdom potential. The Lord mines and refines this “faith gold” inside of us to re-shape the world around us. Sometimes He does it through fiery battles.
I won my battle earlier this year by deeply grasping a powerful key of truth: the Father is generous. He gave me Jesus – and is now willing to open a storehouse of love, care, grace, favor, victory, success and power for me.
“All things” – our minds can’t comprehend how wide and deep this is. His intention is to give us everything we need and desire, everything for an exhilarating life of adventure and impactful destiny. He plans to blow away our wildest dreams with far greater opportunities than we can imagine. We were hostage to Sihon – set up for ruin and failure no matter how hard we pushed and strived. But as we came to Christ, He blasted Sihon into the stratosphere and positioned us to have “all things” the Father wants to give us. There’s gold in your heart if you can believe this. When your outside circumstances are threatening “ruin and loss”, hold on to the unshakeable truth: “He gave me Jesus and, along with him, my Father will graciously give me all things.” As this truth is embraced by more of God’s children, Sihon is banished to an ever smaller corner of the planet!
The bigger point of my story is this: spiritual battles are won by faith, and in each challenge God is teaching us a key lesson of truth that unlocks faith and shifts our hearts to know Him better. Faith accesses God’s power to transform the world around us from a transformed heart within us. “This is the victory that overcomes the world, even our faith.” 1 John 5:4
Rob Gerhard 
Thanks Rob. So profound and so true. Adding to your insights re our purpose to have our hearts transformed, I’ve been meditating on 2 Corinthians 3:18 lately. I love where it says, “…who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.”
As we contemplate Him we become like Him resulting in being transformed.
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Rob,
First I am copying Pippa because I wanted to share the last issue of the Life Action “revive” magazine whose title was “Love One More”: https://issuu.com/revivemagazine/docs/revive_loveonemore_web_singlepage-1
I was talking to Salah earlier yesterday about a topic similar to your blog post. I shared with Salah that Church Project pastor Jason Shepperd said that we should be asking the question “What does God wants us to learn from this situation”, especially when we face trials. Your post is a corollary: all of our lives are designed to either increase our faith or to cause us to drift/push away from God, depending on our choices.
I went to read Isaiah 64 this morning and found it already bookmarked from my study last week. But my focus was on the latter verses relating to our righteousness. Verse 3 is a reminder of our God who does awesome things. I want to frame that aspect of God in the context of the entire chapter which points me back to Proverbs where I am told that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom(9:10 ), understanding (1:7) and is a fountain of life (14:27). I don’t assume that all cultures are alike. In America, I sense that the fear of our Lord is a foreign concept. That is evident in our parenting skills, or lack thereof. I knew that my father loved me, never doubted it, but there was an element of fear in my relationship with him when I came close to overstepping the boundaries that he created. Yes, fear implies a respect and awe for who God is. But it also includes an element of fear. The one thing that I feared most with my Dad is disappointing him because it caused a loss of intimacy with him. Allowing sin to remain in my life will also create a distance between God and I.
I enjoyed our time together last night! Hope to do more than chats in the street.
Your brother in Christ,
Jim
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WOW!! That was excellent. Thanks Rob.
Vic and Bernie
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