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On Whose Arm Do You Lean?By
Wayne Dailey, | |
Woe to them that go down to Egypt for help; Now the Egyptians are men, and not God; |
| Going to Zechariah 4:6b Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit,
saith the Lord of hosts. We need to learn along life’s journey that it is by God’s Spirit
that things happen, by His Spirit that problems are solved, by His Spirit that
needs are met. It is really a shame to trust in something, only to find out later
that we were deceived, that the very thing we had trusted in failed us. How many times do you look to man instead of
to the Lord? How many times do you place
your hope in some man, thinking you’ll find help from him, only to find that your
hope has been in vain? How many times have you leaned heavily on the
arm of flesh, only to find it crumbling and falling right before your eyes, leaving
you disappointed and still in need of help? Wanting to spare us much disappointment and sorrow, God warns about
leaning on the arm of flesh, running to the world to find our answers. Through the many mistakes we make in this life, we learn that God
is our source of help. He is the only one
who will never fail us. But we don’t have
to make mistakes in order to learn this lesson. All we need do is take God’s Word to heart and
look to Him for our help – right from the start. GOD WANTS TO HELP US God wants to help us. He doesn’t
want us to turn to the beggarly elements of this world to try and find our help. Yes,
God wants to stretch forth His arm to meet our every need – if we but look to
Him. Now, the horse is a strong beast, able to pull heavy loads. But God says the horse is merely flesh, limited
in strength; it can do just so much. Whereas there is no limit as to what God can
do. We find, through prayer and supplication, that there is no problem
too hard for God to solve. He wants to stretch
forth His hand to help His people. He earnestly wants us to put our trust in Him
at all times, for He has the answer to every problem. Philippians 4:19 But my God shall supply all your need according
to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus. All our needs are already met. They are already taken care of in this promise. All
we have to do is to stand and believe that God will do as He said He would do
– simply because He cannot lie. Numbers 23:19 God is not a man, that He should lie; neither
the son of man, that He should repent: hath He said, and shall He not do it? or
hath He spoken, and shall He not make it good? If we trust in the horsemen, in the men of Isaiah 31:4b Like as the lion and the young lion roaring
on his prey, when a multitude of shepherds is called forth against him, he will
not be afraid of their voice, nor abase himself for the noise of them: so shall
the Lord of hosts come down to fight for mount Zion, and for the hill thereof. When the shepherds were out in the fields with their flocks they
sometimes found themselves in the place where a lion wanted to devour one of the
lambs. There was only one way for them to
get rid of that lion. They would gather
together and go after it with their spears – closing in for the kill. But the lion wouldn’t run away just because of
their shouts and their noise. There’s one thing about lions: they are determined to get the prey
they set their eyes on. They have no intentions
of backing down. They feel they are king
– and therefore don’t have to back down for anyone. In this Scripture God speaks of being like that lion. How much more has He made us a promise that He
would stand and fight for us, that He would stand against our adversaries. When the adversary tries to scare Him with a
lot of noise, He won’t listen. After all,
He is King. He doesn’t have to back down for anyone. Matthew 16:18b . . . upon this rock I will build My church; and the
gates of hell shall not prevail against it. Satan has tried for centuries to do away with the Church of Jesus
Christ – yet it is still around; the true saints of God are still proving that
God hears and answers prayer, that He still fights their battles for them. We don’t have to go down to Realize that Satan is one of God’s many creatures, as are his host
of demons. And what power do these mere
creatures have over the Creator of all things? Now, where are we going to put our faith and our trust? Where are we going to go when we’re in trouble? God is saying, Woe if you go down to I’m glad I have God in my corner in this fight. I’m glad I’ve got Him on my side, that I have
somewhere to turn that won’t fail. When
I lean on Him, casting my care on Him, I know He won’t crumble or fall under the
weight. He won’t come to me and tell me
that He’s frightened, tell me that He won’t be able to help me any longer. Do you really think God is going to be afraid? Do you think He’ll be afraid that He might lose
the battle in your life? Afraid that the
devil might get the upper hand? We need to open our eyes to see how big God really is. And open our mouths to declare what His Word
says is ours to claim. Yes, we need to put
that adversary down, knowing he doesn’t belong on our back. He may try to climb up there to put us down,
but he won’t stay long if we’ll exercise our faith in the Word of God. WHO ARE WE GOING TO TRUST? Who are we going to trust? Are we going to trust in some shepherd, trusting
in the arm of flesh, to corner the enemy? Or are we going to trust in the King of kings? In our daily lives, we shouldn’t be out searching for an answer,
floundering around, wondering what to do. We should know what to do. And it’s about time we not only know what to
do, but that we do it! When trouble knocks at our door, we know it. When things are going wrong and nothing seems
to be going right, we know it. Well, we
should also know that at such times we need to fix our eyes on Jesus. We should look such situations right in the face,
and refuse to go to King Jehoshaphat knew this. He cried out for the inhabitants of the land
to pray. He told the elders to come gather
together in front of the house of the Lord. II Chronicles 20:12 O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? for we have no might against this great company
that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon Thee. The children of Now, God anointed one of His young prophets with a spirit of boldness
to speak His Word. And He told them He was
ready to move in their behalf. II Chronicles 20:15 And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye
inhabitants of Isn’t this what we need when we’re in trouble? We need someone who will encourage us to stand
– and not back down. We need to hear what
the Word of God has to say about the matter and thus gain assurance that our victory
is on the way. Now, some may say, Thus saith the Lord, when they’re really
just tickling people’s ears. That won’t
help a bit in getting the victory. All they’re
interested in is building themselves up in the eyes of others. These false prophets prophesy great things. They prophesy that if you give a large offering
you’ll be blessed with much. They prophesy right into your checkbook. And a lot of God’s people fall for this type of prophecy. They run down to the altar with their money,
emptying their wallets – just because someone said, Thus saith the Lord. A true prophet of God lives a holy life. They have your good interest at heart. They’re not out to get all they can get from
you. Neither are they out to have you lift
them up. They’re out to deliver their soul,
to tell you what the Lord has given them to say. I don’t care what’s troubling you; it’s not your battle. The sooner you stop running around claiming your
problems, your sicknesses, your troubles, the sooner you’ll come out on top. After
all, they’re not your problems. They’re
the Lord’s problems. And, if it’s God’s battle, stand back and let
Him fight it. It’s really none of your business:
it’s His affair! All you’re expected to
do is to stand back and watch Him move in your behalf. Sometimes we stagger around, crying out, Lord, I don’t know what
I’m going to do! I can’t take any more! And God replies, I know what you’re going to do – you’re going
to get ulcers! You’re going to wear yourself
out, stewing and fretting! You’re going
to get sick from complaining and telling Me you can’t see any way through your
problems. Do you have battles? No, you
don’t! Don’t claim those battles as yours. Don’t
go about testifying about ‘my’ battle and ‘my’ problems and ‘my’ sickness. Why do you claim those things as belonging to
you? Instead of claiming a problem, claim
a promise! If you claim a problem, it will
only get worse; but if you claim a promise, you’ll see it come to pass right before
your eyes. IS THERE ANYTHING
TOO HARD FOR
GOD? Ephesians 3:20 Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding
abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh
in us. Is the power of God at work in your life today? Stop claiming misery and suffering as your lot,
and begin to claim the promises of God. People are so prone to glorify II Chronicles 20:16,17 To morrow go ye down against them: behold,
they come up by the cliff of Ziz; and ye shall find them at the end of the brook,
before the wilderness of Jeruel. Ye shall not need to fight in this battle:
set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you, O
Judah and Jerusalem: fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them:
for the Lord will be with you. We don’t have to have anything in this battle – other than faith
in God’s Word. With this, we are told to
set ourselves and stand still to see the salvation of the Lord with us. How does one set themselves? By turning their face towards heaven and putting
a smile on their face; by looking up to say, God, I hear You. I know where my help comes from. I won’t even get a scratch in this battle because
You’re fighting it for me. We need to take courage because God told us not to fear nor be dismayed. He
knew there’d be a big army arrayed against us. He
also knew He could fight them – without our help. Sure, God said that. But you
don’t really believe He meant it, do you? We can’t expect God to answer every one of our
prayers! Some of those problems are too
small for Him to bother with. The next time you say something like that, find the verse and chapter
in the Bible where God is limited. I don’t find any. I don’t find anything that tells us to cast just
our big problems and our big cares on Him. But I do find promises where we can cast all
our cares and all our problems on the Lord. Yes, He wants to take care of all our problems
and all our difficulties – both big and small. BE NOT DISMAYED Often, we look at the situation we’re facing and allow ourselves
to get depressed by the circumstances. We
look at it like it’s an immovable mountain, like it’s the worst thing we have
ever faced. But God tells us ahead of time
what we should do, before such big problems and battles come our way. He tells us to leave them up to Him to fight,
not allowing ourselves to be fearful nor dismayed by the way things look. In light of this, it seems contradictory here in II Chronicles for God to tell them to go
out against the enemy – when He had just told them they wouldn’t have to fight! Well, what He was saying was this: You’re men of faith. You might be outnumbered, but you’re not ordinary
men. You have no real odds against you when
you stand with Me. When you stand in My
name, you have the whole army of heaven on your side to back you up. You’ll
never be outnumbered when you place your trust in Me. II Chronicles 20:18 And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face
to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of BELIEVING GOD IS THE KEY The whole issue lay in believing that what God said was true. Can you accept, by faith, that the victory is yours? Do you dare to rise up to go out against the
enemy? Do you dare to act upon what God
has promised in His Word? II Chronicles 20:19 And the Levites . . . stood
up to praise the Lord God of One of the best things to do when you know God will give you the
victory is to start shouting it. Don’t wait
until you see it to shout. Shout when faith
comes. Let everyone in heaven know you stand
to believe the Word of God, that the Word is burning down in your heart, that
it’s doing a work in you. You haven’t seen the victory yet, but you do believe it’s there –
and that is enough grounds to dare to open up your mouth and praise the Lord for
it. II Chronicles 20:21 And when he had consulted with the people,
he appointed singers unto the Lord, and that should praise the beauty of holiness,
as they went out before the army, and to say, Praise the Lord; for His mercy endureth
for ever. Just think of it: this was a holy army that was going out to battle. Have you ever heard of such a thing? A holy army? They were going to go to battle – and they were
going to win the war – without ever raising a weapon. Obadiah 17 But upon mount God wants His people to arise, putting on their beautiful garments
of holiness. He wants them to stand apart,
letting His beauty be seen in them. Do you want to be holy? If
you want God to fight your battles, you have to be holy. There’s no better way to get God to move for
you than to stop and search your heart, cleaning out what is contrary to true
holiness. Psalm 93:5b . . . holiness becometh Thine house, O Lord, for ever. Some exclaim, But God knows
I’m just human. They believe they can
walk after the flesh day by day – and then call on the Lord when they need Him. They
know Who to turn to when they’re in trouble – but when things are going smoothly,
they go their own way. No wonder some seem to always have the victory, while others are
still struggling along in their own strength. They have no heart for holiness, no desire to
worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. The only time you find them praising God is when
they have to. But true praise comes forth automatically when one’s heart is stirred
by the holiness and goodness of God, stirred by His Almighty presence in their
lives. Psalm 29:2 Give unto the Lord the glory due unto His
name; worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness. |