Mt. Zion Church of the Holy Spirit - Sermons
Turning Back In the Day of Battle
Psalm 78:9 — "The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle."
In the book of Genesis we see that Ephraim was one of the sons of Joseph, and that his descendants became one of the tribes of Israel. In the Old Testament the name Ephraim is used as another name for the nation of Israel. In Psalm 78:9, whether the psalmist is referring to the tribe of Ephraim or the nation of Israel itself, we see that the truths we are going to bring out from this scripture still apply.
In the book of Exodus we see that God delivered His people, the children of Israel, out of Egyptian bondage because He loved them and had an inheritance for them, the land of Canaan. With a mighty hand and by great miracles He delivered His people from their bondage. BUT in taking the promised land, the land of Canaan, there were battles to be fought. We know from the beginning that God’s people had the victory, but there were inhabitants to be driven out of Canaan, there were battles to be fought and won by faith. Exodus 23:31b — "...for I will deliver the inhabitants of Canaan into your hand; and thou shalt drive them out before thee." The Lord promised them the victory, that they were already victorious, but they still had to stand in faith, fight and win the battles.
As Christians, although we have the promise of victory, there are battles that have to be fought because we have an enemy. Although the enemy was absolutely defeated on the cross, he still comes with opposition, oppression, discouragement, his onslaught of lies against the mind, and to attack the faithfulness of God; even though he is a defeated foe he still comes to do all these things. Why? Because the enemy knows he is already defeated from the start, but he also knows that if he can lie, and oppress and discourage the people of God enough to make them lose faith and quit, then there are battles he can win — if God’s people lose faith then there is ground that he can take.
IN PSALM 78:9 WE SEE THAT GOD ARMED EPHRAIM WITH ALL THAT THEY NEEDED TO WIN THE BATTLES.
Psalm 78:9 — "The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows…"
Again, we see that God had armed them with all that they needed to win their battles. Like the children of Israel, God has armed believers with everything we need to win the battles over opposition, oppression, lies and discouragement that come from the enemy. He has given us faith, grace, His word, His Spirit, and His promises; we have everything that we need to stand steadfast and walk in the victory.
Going back to Psalm 78:9, “The children of Ephraim, being armed, and carrying bows, turned back in the day of battle.” In other words, God armed them with everything they needed to press through and win the battles, but somewhere in the course of time their hearts turned from the battle. They just did not want the warfare anymore.
Psalm 78:8 tells us what the problem was: "...a stubborn and rebellious generation... whose spirit was not steadfast with God." It was because of the rebellion in their hearts that their hearts were not truly given to the purposes of God.
HERE IS WHAT I WANT YOU TO UNDERSTAND:
There are other causes that can turn our hearts from the battle. One of those causes is weariness. As saints of God, our hearts can turn from the battle because we have gotten weary from the battles; we have become weary-worn.
UNDERSTAND: WHEN WE ARE WEARY TO THE POINT THAT OUR HEARTS HAVE TURNED FROM THE BATTLE, THEN WE START GOING THROUGH THE MOTIONS OF OBEDIENCE, BUT OUR HEARTS ARE NO LONGER IN THE WALK AND THE WORK THAT GOD HAS SET BEFORE US.
When we get weary from the battles we can come to that point where our hearts are no longer in the work. This is one of the enemy’s prime objectives — to weary the people of God and take away their desire to do the work God has placed before them. When we come to this point, then we just go through the motions of obedience, but our hearts are not in it.
QUESTION: WHAT DOES IT MEAN FOR NEW TESTAMENT BELIEVERS WHEN WE SAY, "THE HEART HAS TURNED BACK IN THE DAY OF BATTLE"?
It means the heart is no longer in the work. For some reason our heart just is not in what God has placed before us, and one of the main reasons for this is weariness.
Many reading this message would say, "But Brother Tim, are you saying that we should always have these great 'feelings' of, 'Oh, how I just love the work of the Lord!'" No! As soldiers of the cross we do get weary because the battles in the mind get so intense, but what I am saying is that in the midst of it all there is a joy and a gratefulness that comes with being in the perfect will of God. When that joy and gratefulness have turned to dread, drudgery and contempt, we have turned from the battle because our hearts are no longer in what God has placed before us.
BEFORE WE LOOK AT THE REMEDY FOR BATTLE WEARINESS AND ALLOW GOD TO STIR OUR HEARTS TO GET BACK INTO THE BATTLE, LET US ASK A QUESTION: IF WE ALLOW OUR HEARTS TO TURN FROM THE BATTLE TOO LONG, WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES?
- Small disobediences: Psalm 78:10 — "They kept not the covenant of God, and refused to walk in His law." Why did I say small disobediences come in? Because now I am talking about saints who truly love God and want to serve the Lord but the heart just is not any longer in the battle, in the work. When our hearts are no longer in what God puts before us, we can begin to get slack and allow small things to slip by.
- We forget about the testimony God has established in our hearts and we lose our praise: Psalm 78:11 — "And forgot His works, and His wonders which He had showed them."
- We gradually start giving the flesh more ground in our lives: Psalm 78:18 — "And they tempted God in their heart by asking meat for their lust."
- We begin to question the faithfulness of God: Psalm 78:19, 20 — "Yea, they spoke against God; they said, Can God furnish a table in the wilderness? Behold, He smote the rock, that the waters gushed out, and the streams overflowed; can He give bread also? Can He provide flesh for His people?"
LET US ASK A VERY IMPORTANT QUESTION: OFTEN WHAT IS THE SOURCE OF THIS GREAT WEARINESS? LET US LOOK IN THE SCRIPTURES AT A BATTLE-WEARY SOLDIER WHOSE HEART, FOR A TIME, TURNED BACK FROM THE BATTLE. LET US LOOK AT THE SOURCE OF THIS WEARINESS.
In 1 Kings 18 we see that the Lord just used a prophet by the name of Elijah to bring a great revival to the nation of Israel. The nation of Israel had turned to Baal worship under the leadership of a wicked queen by the name of Jezebel. In obedience to the Lord, Elijah confronted her wicked prophets on the mountain of Carmel. There he repaired the altar of the Lord, called down fire, and the people of Israel fell on their faces declaring, "The Lord, He is God." The prophets of Baal were slain and the nation turned back to God. Then, we see Elijah pray seven times that God would send rain on the barren land of Israel, which reveals to us the secret of Elijah’s great victory — travailing prayer.
There is something very important we need to recognize in this story: 1 Kings 18:45-46 — "And it came to pass in the meanwhile, that the heaven was black with clouds and wind, and there was a great rain. And Ahab rode (in his chariot), and went to Jezreel. And the hand of the Lord was on Elijah; and he girded up his loins and ran before Ahab to the entrance of Jezreel."
Here we see that the Spirit of God comes upon Elijah and he outruns Ahab’s chariot. Why is this so significant? You have to understand that the nation was in revival and Elijah’s work was just beginning. The backslidden nation of Israel needed to be taught and instructed once again in the things of the Lord. When Elijah outran Ahab’s chariot, the Lord was speaking something. What? In the Old Testament we see that horses and chariots represent the strength of the flesh: "Some men trust in horses, some in chariots; but we will remember the Name of our God" (Psalm 20:7). When God anointed Elijah to outrun Ahab’s chariot and horses, God was saying, "I am going to put such a grace and strength on your life that it will surpass the strength of the flesh. The strength of the flesh is not sufficient to complete the work I have for you to do, so I am going to give you My strength." This scene of Elijah outrunning Ahab’s chariot is a great promise to God’s people of being filled with the strength of the Lord to complete the work He has given us to do.
BUT SOMETHING HAPPENED:
1 Kings 19:1-4 — "And Ahab told Jezebel all that Elijah had done, and withal how he had slain all the prophets with the sword. Then Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them by tomorrow about this time. And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life, and came to Beersheba, which belongeth to Judah, and left his servant there. But he himself went a day's journey into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree; and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O Lord, take away my life; for I am not better than my fathers."
Jezebel sent a messenger to bring fear and discouragement to this prophet. What we need to see is, ultimately she robbed Elijah of that supernatural strength God had placed upon his life. This is what we need to understand: it is an unclean spirit operating behind this woman named Jezebel, and it is a spirit that is still operating today. It is a spirit that comes vehemently against the people of God to bring fear, discouragement, hopelessness, and the sense of failure. Ultimately what this spirit is trying to do is to rob God’s people of their strength — to sap the life out of God’s people and take out of their hearts the desire to serve the Lord.
How does this unclean spirit come to do this? 1 Kings 19:13b, 14 — "…And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah? And he said, I have been very jealous for the Lord God of hosts: because the children of Israel have forsaken thy covenant, thrown down thine altars, and slain thy prophets with the sword; and I, even I only, am left; and they seek my life, to take it away."
Is this true? Is he the only one left? No! Elijah just left a great revival. The nation of Israel turned from their idols, slew their false prophets, and declared the Lord to be God. This Jezebel spirit so discouraged his heart that he was blinded to the great things God was doing. This is what this spirit does — it comes to undermine the work of the Lord, and blind us to the great work that God has done and is doing in and through our lives.
Another truth we need to recognize is this: this spirit came after a great victory for Elijah. If we can look back before we fell into this spiritual slump, we will probably see a great breakthrough that God achieved in our hearts, or see the time God used our lives powerfully for His kingdom. Then, this spirit came, bombarding the mind with lies and fears and discouragement, undermining the great work of God, and ultimately robbing us of our strength.
Let us go back to the beginning of 1 Kings 19 and see the goodness and compassion of God toward Elijah: 1 Kings 19:5-6 — “And as he lay and slept under a juniper tree, behold, then an angel touched him, and said unto him, Arise and eat. And he looked, and, behold, there was a cake baked on the coals, and a cruse of water at his head. And he did eat and drink, and laid him down again.” God knew Elijah was overwhelmed and needed a rest. There is no reproof spoken here to Elijah. God knows when we need to rest and He knows how to give us that rest. We also have to know that God gives us rest from the battles when we need it. It is His desire to revive and refresh us and then put us right back into the battle and the work, because there are victories for us to win for the Kingdom of God through faith and the anointing of the Holy Spirit.
LET US END WITH THIS QUESTION: HOW DO WE OVERCOME THIS SPIRIT OF JEZEBEL THAT HAS COME AND DISCOURAGED OUR HEARTS, SAPPING OUT THE STRENGTH OF GOD FROM OUR BEING?
There are many saints right now who are in this same horrible pit that Elijah found himself in — discouraged, fearful, feeling hopeless, and without strength. How do we overcome this spirit? How do we find our strength again in God? How do we get our fire back to serve the Lord in the place where He has planted us?
When the prophet Elijah fled from Jezebel, he went to a place called Beersheba. Beersheba in the Hebrew means, "the well of oath". This is where deliverance begins — running back to the covenant promises of God. It begins with stirring up our remembrance of God’s mighty covenant promises and then declaring God to be faithful to His covenant promises.
There are so many wonderful covenant promises we could talk about, but remember Elijah’s problem was that the unclean Jezebel spirit had undermined the work of the Lord in Elijah’s life, blinding him to wonderful work God was doing in and through his life. When this same spirit comes to discourage and bring fear to our hearts, we have to lay hold of the covenant promise that if we are walking in obedience to the Lord, God is being glorified in and through our lives.
Isaiah 49:3 — "...Thou art My servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified."
John 17:10 — "And all Mine are Thine, and Thine are Mine; and I am glorified in them."
These are only two of the wonderful promises found in God’s word where He declares He will be glorified in and through His people. Beloved, deliverance from this horrible oppression from the enemy begins with coming back into faith in God and declaring Him to be faithful to His Word.
The Lord then sent Elijah on a journey to a cave in the mountain of Horeb. In this cave, the Lord’s instruction to Elijah was to anoint a man named Jehu who would destroy the evil house of Ahab and Jezebel his wife. Jehu’s name in the Hebrew language means, "The Lord, He is God." Where did we hear these words before? 1 Kings 18:39 — "And when all the people saw the fire fall, they fell on their faces: and they said, The Lord, He is God." The Lord desires to destroy this oppressing spirit over our lives, to refill us with His Spirit and put the fire back in our hearts, and it begins by coming back into faith and declaring God to be faithful to His covenant promises. When we do this, God anoints our eyes to see again the awesome victories He has wrought in and through our lives. It is when we again declare Him to be faithful to His covenant promises that He removes the scales from our hearts that this Jezebel spirit has cast over our spiritual eyes. Then, we see God is truly winning battles and being glorified through our lives.
With this renewed revelation of God’s faithfulness, we need to take our discouragement to the Lord. The word of God says that Elijah anointed Jehu to be King over Israel, and Jehu rose up and went to Ahab’s palace and slew wicked Jezebel. When we allow God to open the eyes of our heart to see His faithfulness, and we take our discouragement to Him in prayer, there is a mighty King that has been anointed by God to destroy the spiritual enemies of God’s people. That King is Jesus Himself. When we declare the Lord to be faithful, and bring our discouragement to the Lord, Jesus Himself will rise up and take up our cause and smite this unclean spirit, filling our hearts with songs of deliverance, and praise to our God.
Beloved, I encourage you today, that if you are in a horrible pit of discouragement, you are fearful and feeling like a failure in God’s kingdom and work, run back to the covenant promises of God and declare Him to be faithful. He declares in His word that if we are walking in loving obedience to Him, He is being glorified in and through our lives. Then, as God begins to open your eyes to His faithfulness in your life, give your discouragement to Him and you will find that there is a King ready to take up your cause. Christ, Himself, will come as a Man of War and smite this unclean spirit and rekindle your fire to continue in the battles so that the Spirit of God can continue to win victories through your life for the kingdom and for the glory of God. Amen!