1 Tim. 6:12 Fight the good fight of faith, …
I remember as a young Christian I used to hear about
fighting the fight of faith and I thought it meant that I would have to conjure
up strength within myself to stand strong against whatever came at me as a
child of God. The more I tried to do what I thought was fighting the faith
fight, the more defeated I became. Things were not changing and so I figured I
either was not fighting enough, or I did not yet have enough faith. The truth
is fighting the fight of faith does not involve our own personal strength, but
in fact faith knows that in our human weakness, that is when we can become
quite strong.
The more I grew in my understanding of the Word, I began
to see clearly how satan has gotten so many Christians to take up a fight in
their own strength, which will never lead to a victory in Christ. As a matter
of fact it will usually just wear you out. You often hear believers say they have
to be strong, or that they are fighting against something that has come against
them. When you look to scripture you begin to see that the fight of faith has
nothing to do with us battling against what we may be facing, for scripture
reveals that Jesus has already defeated our enemy. If this is true what are we
fighting?
Col. 2:15 He stripped the rulers and authorities of their power and made a public spectacle of them as he celebrated his victory in Christ.
Through what Christ did for us God stripped the rulers of
darkness and of course satan himself of their power, and even made a public
spectacle of them through Christ’s victory. It is like going into a ring where
a champion boxer has already knocked out our opponent for us, but then we come
along and try to get them back and to fight against them ourselves. In fighting
the fight of faith we actually keep satan where he belongs, under our feet. So
let’s learn just what this fight of faith is so that we can walk in the victory Christ has already given
us.
2 Cor. 4:13 The following is written, “I believed; therefore, I spoke.” We have that same spirit of faith. We also believe; therefore, we also speak.
For us to understand the fight of faith we simply need to
define what faith actually is and how it works. This is where people make their
mistake. Even though most could tell you what I am about to share about faith
that does not mean we are walking by faith. As humans we tend to drift back
into doing things the way man does things, and not the way God does things.
Even if you know what faith is and how it works we are told in scripture to
examine ourselves to see if we are in the faith or not. Often you hear people
say they are believing God for something, but upon further examination of what
they are saying and doing it is quite clear they are not walking in Bible
faith. If we are not then we are not fighting the fight of faith.
Paul gives us several very important keys here in 2
Corinthians 4:13 about faith. First of all he tells us that we have been given
the same spirit of faith. Some actually don’t think or don’t act as if they
have the same faith as Jesus Himself had, but they do. There are not several
types of the god-kind of faith. The faith you received when you got born again
for we are all given a measure of faith is the same. It is not different from
someone else’s. The second key element Paul reveals here is that faith first
believes. This means faith is convinced of what God has said. But the word
believe here means we have believed, we are believing, and we will continue to
believe. To fight the fight of faith you must be convinced in what God has said
about a subject. This comes from hearing the Word of God. Not what we have
heard, but what we keep hearing. This is important to walking by faith.
Whenever we are faced with something that has come against
us as a child of God we need to know what God’s Word says about the matter.
This is one of the reasons why living in God’s Word is so vital for our walk of
faith. We are to look into the Word of God and as we find scriptures that give
us promise of what Christ has done we must then take those truths and meditate
on them as the Bible teaches day and night. This means we continually speak
them to ourselves and ponder them over and over. Jesus taught us this in the
gospels for He said man does not live by bread alone, but by every Word that
proceeds from the mouth of God. He is giving us a comparison revealing that the
same way in which we feed our physical man we must feed our spirit man. We do
so by chewing on the Word of God, meditating on scripture. If we don’t make the
effort to do so until the Word becomes a part of our inner consciousness we
won’t be convinced of what God has said.
Many don’t realize that what is true of the natural is a
type of what is true in the spirit realm. When you take food, chew on it, and then
swallow that food gets down on the inside of your body. The body then goes to
work drawing the nutrients out of that food to give you what is needed in the
natural. So it is with the spirit man inside, the real you. Your soul is a part
of your spirit. You are a spirit, you have a soul, and you live in a body. When
you feed on God’s Word (meditate on it) you are chewing that Word with your
soul. As you do it begins to go down on the inside of your spirit man providing
the spiritual nutrients to build faith within you. Once that faith in the
promise of God is developed you will be convinced of what God’s Word says about
you. Until then you will lack what you need to fight the fight of faith.
The third thing Paul reveals to us from 2 Corinthians is
that faith speaks. Just believing is not enough. Once faith rises within us we
must then speak what we know is true. Faith calls those things that do not
exist as though they did. Faith doesn’t say one day it will be, faith says it
is so now. As Hebrews 11:1 states, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped
for …”. Faith is now. God operates obviously in this same kind of faith, which
in Romans 4:17 we are told that He calls what does not exist as though it did.
One of the ways we can know we are fighting the good fight of faith is seen in
our confession. As I mentioned earlier we may say we are believing God for
something, but what do our words say. Are we calling things that don’t exist as
though they do, or are we speaking contrary to God’s Word?
Let me point out here that it is not our confession that
changes things, but a faith filled confession. As we are building faith we
should be speaking to ourselves what God’s Word says. We should be declaring to
ourselves what He says is already so. You see for example healing does not come
first in the natural; it comes through your spirit. Residing in every born
again believer is the same power that resides in Christ Jesus. We have the same
Holy Spirit He has. It is this power that needs to get through our souls and
into our bodies, which will bring healing. When we know we have been healed
according to what Christ has done revealed by the Word, then our confession
will agree with the Word. This is what must happen for faith to work. We are
not fighting against the sickness in our body, we are fighting against the feelings
in our flesh and our thoughts that try to convince us it is not so. When we
know healing is ours and speak in line with the Word declaring it done we are
on the way to receiving healing.
James 2:17 So also faith, if it does not have works (deeds and actions of obedience to back it up), by itself is destitute of power (inoperative, dead).
Last but not least faith does not just believe, faith does
not just speak, faith also acts in line with what it knows is true. To walk by
faith you must act as if the Word is so. Your actions are what bring forth the
power into operation to see your situation change. When you are in faith,
convinced of what God has promised, your confession will declare it already
done, and you will have corresponding action with your faith. Without the
corresponding action faith becomes destitute of power, inoperative and dead.
You can’t just believe, you can’t just speak, you must also act.
Heb. 6:12 so that you may not be sluggish, but imitators of those who through faith and perseverance inherit the promises.
When you fight the good fight of faith you do not fight
against whatever has come against you, you fight against thoughts, feelings,
and what you may hear from others that goes against what God’s Word says. You
are consistently believing, speaking, and acting in line with God’s Word. We
are told here in Hebrews to imitate those who through faith and perseverance
inherit the promises. The word perseverance here means to be consistent at it.
You are not just to be in faith for a couple of days and then go back to
speaking or acting out of line with what you have believed. We are not supposed
to visit faith every now and then; we are to live by faith.
So make sure you are fighting the true fight of faith. You
battle is not against sickness, diseases, or other storms of life because Jesus
victoriously conquered our enemies. Our battle is with what we think, what we feel,
or what we may hear, making sure we don’t lose our faith in God. We need to
make sure we do not lose our confession in His Word, calling things that be not
as though they already are, and making sure we keep acting in line with the
Word. Those who are consistent in fighting the good fight of faith win. They
partake of the promises they have inherited in Christ. That is the reason it is
a good fight, because it is a fight we win, because Jesus has already won the
battle for us!
See You Again Next Week For More
“Weekly Wisdom”
May God’s Best Be Yours!
Pastor Darryl Baker
