Welcome back! I’m so thrilled to be able to share this lesson with you today!
When Jesus died on the cross, He said, “It is finished!” He had won the battle over sin, purchasing our victory over the devil and our own flesh. And yet, we must fight for the rest of our lives, for our battle against the flesh is ongoing.
Today we want to see that our only hope for lasting victory over the flesh is to look to the Lord, receive instructions from Him, and follow them. As we look to Him for help with overcoming impurity, He works miracles to help us, and so He invites us to “Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: for I am God, and there is none else” (Isaiah 45:22 KJV).
When the Israelite King, Jehoshaphat was facing a vast and powerful army, He didn’t know what to do, so He fastened His eyes on the Lord and looked to Him for help. Here is what he said:
2 Chronicles 20:12-13 (NIV) “Our God, will you not judge them? For we have no power to face this vast army that is attacking us. We do not know what to do, but our eyes are on you.” 13 All the men of Judah, with their wives and children and little ones, stood there before the Lord.”
Question 1. When Jehoshaphat was faced with a vast army that was attacking them and realized he was powerless to face them, what did he do?
And how can we apply this to our battle against impurity? Here are two thoughts to consider:
The army of pornography and sexual immorality is “vast” and “more powerful than we are.” The devil is stronger than us and has a huge army and thousands of years of experience in fighting. We must acknowledge that no simple decision on our part, no vows to change, no promises to stop are enough to defeat this army.
We must look to the Lord, fixing our eyes on Jesus, and wait expectantly for Him to act. This doesn’t mean we sit around and do nothing; it means that we look to the Lord to make our fighting successful, and we look to Him for miraculous solutions that bring us victory!
Friend, we are in a war with enemies smarter and stronger than we are. We are fighting dark forces in high places (Ephesians 6:12), and they know how to tempt, to allure, and to devour. Pornography is everywhere in our world: on our televisions, our smartphones and all over the Internet. It is indeed a vast army! Our flesh agrees with the temptations presented to us and leads us away to be devoured by Satan (James 1:14).
So these two are very powerful forces working for our demise.
This is why we must daily look to the Lord for victory, asking Him for specific plans to defeat our foes. Are you doing this? Have you learned to look to the Lord for solutions in the war against the devil and your flesh?
The amazing thing I’ve discovered as I’ve been fighting this battle is that the Lord supernaturally fights for me when I look to Him and walk with Him. He can bring solutions to my mind to implement, and He can supernaturally change situations and events to where before I would have fallen, now I stand. He has resources at His disposal that human beings would have never known about and ways to bring us the victory that we would not have expected. Our role is to continue to look to Him expectantly, knowing that the same God that won the victory for us on the cross will win the victory for us in our lives.
In the story mentioned above, when King Jehoshaphat put His eyes on the Lord and looked to Him expectantly, the Lord sent a message to him:
2 Chronicles 20:15-17 (NIV) This is what the Lord says to you: ‘Do not be afraid or discouraged because of this vast army. For the battle is not yours, but God’s. 16 Tomorrow march down against them. They will be climbing up by the Pass of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the gorge in the Desert of Jeruel. You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm and see the deliverance the Lord will give you, Judah and Jerusalem. Do not be afraid; do not be discouraged. Go out to face them tomorrow, and the Lord will be with you.’”
Question 2. When the King looked to the Lord expectantly, what did God tell him?