Obedience that comes from faith

For the longest time, I have heard some words that didn't mean much to me. One of these words is "victory." Just about every church I've gone to sings a song about victory during praise and worship. At least once a sermon, the preacher will talk about victory. I've sung those songs and amen'd the sermons right along with everyone else but I must confess, I didn't really have any idea what I was talking about. What is this "victory" we hear so much about? Just recently, I have been taught what this word means and how important it is.

Let me start by stating what victory is NOT. Victory is NOT living to tell about it. That's called survival. Victory is not dealing with the pain. Victory is NOT achieving zen-like detachment from the tragedy while we adjust to life after a loss. That is NOT victory. Well, not for the believer anyway. This is a victory for our enemy. Victory for the believer involves us laying hold of the blessings of Abraham. Victory must include US winning AND the enemy losing.

My most recent victory came just the other day. I was allowing myself another day of self-pity and depression because I was upset with my lack of progress in the area of finances (what else?.) I was allowing my flesh to pout and mope about while doing nothing to improve my attitude. Every minister I can think of has told me what to do about my attitude when it decays like that. I have been told (and so have all of you) to count my blessings, take my thoughts captive, cast down everything that doesn't build my faith and start thanking God for all the abundance in my life. My brain knows what to do. But our brains are part of our flesh. Therefore, my brain couldn't get my flesh to change it's behavior. My faith was not in control. I had allowed my flesh to take control. Then came the miracle. Then something happened that will cause some of you to shout and others to yawn. I got a vision. I got a glimpse of my enemy laughing at me for acting like such a child.

That image of my enemy gloating and laughing over me fired me up. More than all the sermons; that flash of a vision of my enemy laughing at my failure changed me forever. That put the quarter in my slot. That has changed everything since then. That vision did what no sermon has been able to do. That fueled my faith with enough self-respect to grab my flesh by the ear and take control of my life. My flesh has made its last decision. From now on, my flesh will be taking it orders from my faith.

What is most humbling about this is the fact that I've been taught this lesson before. If you'll read some of my previous posts, you'll see that the Lord has been gracious enough to me to teach me this before. Apparently, this is one of those things I need to constantly stay aware of. Nevertheless, after seeing my enemy laughing at me, I once again made a commitment to defeating him and put my flesh under.

This is monumental! This makes living a life of faith possible. I am no longer just mentally agreeing to and seeing the intellectual benefit to living a life of faith. I am brimming with excitement to actually live by faith. It is impossible to live a life a faith if your flesh is still in control. And as long as our flesh is making decisions of any size, it is still in control. So the only acceptable way of life is to deny the flesh any say in any matter.

Incidentally, you'd think we'd have an easy time making this change given our flesh's track record. When we consider all the damage done and the complete lack of real progress towards our goals, you'd think we'd be ready for new management. Why then do we hesitate and chafe at this decision? It can only be because of one reason; our enemy knows how to influence our flesh better than we know how to master it.

Our enemy can influence the flesh. And he does. Our enemy knows what buttons to push. He knows how to lead us into making bad decisions that have terrible consequences. These consequences make living by faith even more challenging. And before you know it, many of us have lost decades of our lives to dealing with the consequences of bad decisions our enemy has conned us into making. We've have allowed the enemy too many easy victories. When I saw him laughing at me, I saw him enjoying his victory.

Now it's my turn. Now that I've had a taste of victory, I want some mo, I want some mo, I want some mooooooo. And I see this victory comes not by making just a mental change, it comes by making a commitment to obeying the Lord through faith. Paul talks about obedience that comes through faith in Romans. Obedience that comes from faith is constant and effortless. It is the difference between being drawn and driven. Obedience that comes from faith is drawn towards victory. Obedience that is driven by something isn't sufficient. Driven obedience won't provide enough motivation to persist against the enemy's attacks. Obedience that comes from faith is perpetually refueled with fresh vision of victory. Obedience that comes from anything else is in constant need of replenishing.

If we are to exercise the obedience that comes from faith, then we will need a good enough reason to resist the devil's attacks. The only thing that will fuel that kind of obedience against the constant onslaught of the enemy is knowing how good the victory is. The only thing that makes the struggle worthwhile is knowing how sweet victory tastes. What better way to learn how sweet the victory is than actually enjoying it on a regular basis? Nothing tastes or feels as good as winning. So a steady diet of victories is just what our spirit needs to keep exercising this obedience that comes from faith. That's why James tells us to count it all joy whenever we face trials. With these trials come great big helpings of the sweetest thing we can enjoy in this life. Each trial gives us another opportunity to taste victory.

This is victory. Feeling a rush of self-respect when we control our temper and don't throw a hissy-fit at the hostess for not seating us fast enough. When get off the webpage with the racy pictures without spiraling into hours of surfing porn sites. When we bite our lip and just do what our snot-nosed bosses tell us without griping about it all afternoon to our co-workers. This is victory. These are the kinds of behaviors that delight our Lord. Giving into them destroys our witness and ruins our chances of being used for the kingdom. God can not build a kingdom of Love with people who fail to demonstrate obedience that comes from faith. When we stop acting according to our flesh, we give God another viable weapon in the war for souls. That is victory. That is taking a weapon out of the enemies hands, and putting it in the Lord's hands.

We must have faith if we are to see this victory. Without the promise of victory, we will continue to let the enemy beguile us into caving into our lusts, throwing our temper tantrums, quitting our jobs, gambling our wages away or snorting them up our noses. We must have a taste of this victory. Once we get a vision of our enemy lying defeated at our feet, no longer laughing but fearfully contemplating his destruction, we'll want some more.

When we have allowed the enemy to have the victory; when we do what he wants us to do we become his perfect weapon. We not only encourage others to sin, we also give the Church a shameful reputation. When we win the victory of the battle over our behavior, we become his worst nightmare. We show everyone watching how rewarding it is to live by faith. We give God the opportunity to shower His approval upon us so they will want it also. Satan loses his grip on their life and the Kingdom wins another soul. This is victory. Something is lost. And something is won.