Standing Still

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.
II Chronicles 20:12

King Jehoshaphat was a God-fearing king who had a deep love and appreciation for the things of God. One day he got a report that he was in deep trouble: three invading armies were on their way to attack Jerusalem.

Jehoshaphat was concerned about this. Realizing he was outnumbered, he knew he needed wisdom from on high. And as the pressure mounted, he cried out, What am I going to do!   

We, too, sometimes find ourselves in this same position. Circumstances overwhelm us, and we wonder what we should do. We want to look at what Jehoshaphat did, and see what we can learn from his example. 

Jehoshaphat knew the best thing for him to do was to get hold of God. He knew God had the answer. He knew God could take care of the problem. So he gathered the people together to fast and to pray - and to claim the promises of God. 

That is all they had to do: fast and pray, calling on God in faith believing. They had to believe God (or be killed by the enemy). If they were going to get out of this alive it would only be because they got out by faith.

NEEDING SOMETHING FRESH FROM GOD

They needed something for this particular trial, something more than they previously had - something different. Oh, they had the record of the law. The promises of God had been given them. But, at this time, they needed something more: 

II Chronicles 20:15

And he said, Hearken ye, all Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem, and thou king Jehoshaphat, Thus saith the Lord unto you, Be not afraid nor dismayed by reason of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.  

Don’t be dismayed!

Don’t worry about the adversary!

Don’t get your mind on the problem!

Get your mind fixed on the Lord -- for the battle is His!
It’s not yours. 

The Lord knew their faith would be hindered if they got their mind on the problem. He knew their faith would shrivel up and give way to fear if they got their mind on the size of the invading armies - and then they would be in real trouble! 

He reminded them that the battle wasn’t theirs, anyway: It belonged to Him. And because the battle was His, they could put their confidence in Him to fight it.
 

II Chronicles 20:16

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. 

Now, God is telling them what to do - if they will only grasp it and believe. He wanted them to stand in this battle and do as He had told them to do.

A LESSON FOR US TODAY

Here is a lesson for us today in the battles we face: While we are in the battle, God will fight for us. He will fight the battle right around about us. And when the enemy falls at our feet, we will be standing firm. 

We need to realize that it’s not a matter of retreat. It’s not a matter of running. No, it’s a matter of believing God - right in the midst of each battle we face.
 

II Chronicles 20:17a

Ye shall not need to fight in this battle . . . 

How on earth do you interpret that! There were these armies coming against them - all at the same time: but Israel was told they wouldn’t need to fight in this battle. They had to go to the battlefield - yes. But they weren’t going to do any fighting.  

Well, we can come up with an answer here if we put two and two together: They were told the battle wasn’t theirs but God’s. And since it was God’s battle, who would you expect to do the fighting? 

If we want to see this happen in the battles we face, then we’ll have to believe that, somehow, God is going to fight for us - that though we’ll be there, He will do the fighting. 

But just about this time, the natural mind and feelings react: I’m not going out there! Do you think I’m crazy?

II Chronicles 20:17b

Set yourselves, stand ye still,

and see the salvation of the Lord with you . . .

This is what we want: In everyday trials, everyday battles, in the great battles and in the small ones - we want to see the salvation of the Lord with us. 

Now, is God with you or not? If He’s not, then His Word isn’t true - for in Romans 8 He says, If God be for you, who can be against you?

You must be somebody special in God’s eyes. When He is for you, you’re in a position where nobody can be against you. Oh, they may come full force to try and put you down, but they can’t prevail. 

God said that you were to stand still in this battle. And that is usually the hardest thing to do when the pressures mount. It’s much easier to be doing something than just be standing still. It’s hard to just stand there and relax - unless, of course, you are believing God.

When you find it difficult to turn the fight over to Him it’s because you don’t really believe He can work it out. 

So it comes right down to this: All we are expected to do is to get out on the battlefield, stand still - and see.

TWO TYPES OF VISION

We each have been given two types of vision: natural and spiritual. 

God wants you to come to the place where you not only open your natural eyes to look around and see the circumstances you face - but you also open your spiritual eyes and see where God is at work. 

And when you stand still and open your spiritual eyes, you will see the salvation of the Lord with you. If God is really for you, you’ll be able to see the evidence of it: but you must stand still long enough to do so. 

Do you have any evidence to prove to me that God is in your life? Can you show me, through circumstances in the past, that God is for you? Did He save your soul? Did He bring you up from the miry clay? 

Anybody who would do that certainly is for you and not against you: and, therefore, you have no need to fear.  

God is not only for you - He is also in you.

It is much easier for you to stand still with Him in you. If someone picks on you and tries to put you down, know that they’re also picking on God and trying to put Him down. 

God is not a god who is far off, way off in some distant place. If you have received His Son as your personal Lord and Saviour He’s right there on the throne of your heart. He is closer to you than your hands, closer than your next breath. Yes, He dwells within your vessel. So why worry and fret? 

Yet, even though we know this truth, we still find times when we tend to get anxious.

II Chronicles 20:17c

. . . fear not, nor be dismayed; to morrow go out against them: for the Lord will be with you.
 

That message was spoken from the Lord. He gave them a mighty revelation - right in the midst of one of the worst trials they had ever faced. He told them this that they might grasp hold of it and put their faith in Him and in what He had said.

II Chronicles 20:18

And Jehoshaphat bowed his head with his face to the ground: and all Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem fell before the Lord, worshipping the Lord.
 

They were acting like they believed God! They believed it would happen just as it was said - for they recognized that it was God speaking to them.

AN IMPORTANT LESSON

There’s a great spiritual lesson here: when God is speaking, we ought to listen. We ought to believe His Word is speaking directly to us, believing Him when He reveals Himself to us. 

In the battles that come our way, if we do what God directs us to do, we will always come out on top. And in the midst of the battle, we’ll know how we are to react. We’ll know how to stand and have a spiritual backbone. We’ll be able to face the opposition without shaking and worrying, without dread or fear. 

Yes, we’ll be able to stand firmly - instead of sitting down and having a trial over it.

II Chronicles 20:20

And they rose early in the morning, and went forth into the wilderness of Tekoa: and as they went forth, Jehoshaphat stood and said, Hear me, O Judah, and ye inhabitants of Jerusalem; Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established; believe His prophets, so shall ye prosper. 

There comes the time in God’s plan when we’ve got to stop and shut our mouth long enough to listen. The reason we should listen is that we might be encouraged to do what God is telling us to do. 

Sometimes I have people coming to me for counsel who are so busy trying to tell me their story that I can’t give them any help! They talk a mile a minute. I try to give them some advice, but they’re so busy thinking of the next thing they want to tell me that they’re not listening to a word I’m saying!  

I have to wait until they run out of words before I can try to help them out.

Now, how can God talk to you while you're busy talking? You're in a battle, and all you do is tell God over and over how bad things are. You envision the worst kind of things in your mind. Your little world is turned right upside down and that's all you can talk about. But all that imagination doesn't help one bit.

You’ve got to learn to get your mind off the race track and shut your mouth - and let God say something. As long as you talk away, magnifying the circumstances, you will get nowhere fast - nowhere, that is, except into a bigger trial! 

BELIEVING

Now, Israel was all ready to go out and face the enemy, but the king had something further to say: Believe in the Lord your God, so shall ye be established.  

Do you believe in the Lord your God? Do you believe His Word? Do you believe in His Son as your personal Saviour? 

Your belief in the Lord gets you established in Him. It brings you into the place in Jesus Christ where you can truly say that you are a child of God. It brings you to the place of being established in the faith. When you’re established in the Lord you come to the place where you can stand.

STANDING IN TRIALS

Have you ever known any really strong Christians? They stand firm in the fiercest of trials and battles. And they come through each one still praising God. When hardships and pressures come against them, they merely fall on their knees and call upon the Lord. You don’t find them shaking and trembling. You don’t find them fretting and worrying. 

Well, you can be that kind of a believer, too. That’s just the place God wants you to arrive at. He is working to establish you and bring you into just such a place. The Word of God tells you that you can become rooted and grounded. Yes, you can become settled and firmly fixed.  

But you’ve got to get to the place where your Christian experience isn’t a series of ups and downs. You have go to become consistent in your walk with the Lord. 

As soon as pressures and troubles come,
many decide to give up.  

Give up what? If they’re shaky, they haven’t got anything to give up! for they had nothing to begin with. 

When you get rooted and grounded and founded you will stand up and say, I’m not ever going to give up. This walk is too precious for me to give it up. 

But you can’t stand in the trials and testings if you’re always feeling like you want to throw the towel in. You can’t be crying out, What’s the use? If you’re going to be established in the Lord, you’ve got to get some backbone about you. 

You may claim you are going all the way with the Lord: But, when you have a hard trial, are you still going all the way? Surely those trials aren’t meant to stop you from walking with the Lord. They are meant to make you strong, enabling you to go on. 

Without trials, you’d be like a jelly fish. You wouldn’t have the slightest backbone. Jelly fish can’t rise up - because they have nothing to stand up with! 

God said your trials are more precious than gold tried by fire. Just think of what one trial is to mean to you. It is precious.  

Each trial gives you a bit more hardness, a little more backbone. It puts that firmness in your spirit where things won’t shake you. 

People get so shaky when the pressures are on. But God wants to take that shaky, wobbly frame and give it a backbone, enabling you to stand firm in the midst of the battle. And He accomplishes this through many trials.

Hebrews 12:12,13

Wherefore lift up the hands which hang down, and the feeble knees; and make straight paths for your feet, lest that which is lame be turned out of the way; but let it rather be healed.  

In other words, be careful how you walk. Make straight paths for your feet. Walk on the straight and narrow way with the Lord. Let that which is lame be healed, or you’ll stagger and head into a pitfall. 

You have got to stop in your experience and take stock of things.  

God wants you to be strong. He said that the weak are to say they are strong, for it is when you are weak that you find the Lord’s strength as you turn to Him for help. When you feel strong and self-confident, then you are not very strong. When you boast, I can take it! watch out - your confidence is in the flesh rather than in the Lord.

FAITH'S RESPONSE

Believe His prophets, and so shall ye prosper.  

The prophet of God said they wouldn’t need to fight in this battle. It was the Holy Ghost speaking through that prophet. 

Now, it was easy for the prophet to say - but what would the people do about it? God had given them a revelation so they could put their trust in Him and gain the victory. 

But this was a conditional promise. The only way they would find out if He meant what He said was for them to do their part. All would be lost if they staggered at the promise through unbelief. 

God’s hands would have been tied if they had stayed in Jerusalem and wept and cried because of the impossibility of the situation. Do you know what would have happened if they had retreated, crying out, We can’t do it! It is too much to expect of us! The enemy would have killed them if they had reacted like that! 

But God gave them a promise through His prophet, and something happened: They realized down in their hearts that God had, of a truth, spoken to them. And in faith, they reached out to embrace His promise, knowing everything would come out all right. 

Yes, they dared to believe God.

Do you dare to believe God? Really?
 

Faith has got to have something to hold on to that is sure. Faith doesn’t work in the realm of uncertainty. No, faith gets hold on a promise from God’s Word - and won’t let go. 

How often we stagger about in unbelief. We wonder if God will really answer. Oh, we may pray for an answer, but our faith isn’t hooked on to anything. We are just hoping that, by chance, it might work out for us. 

God told them to go out in the morning, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord with them. His will was revealed to them - that they should have complete victory without fighting. 

Whenever we can latch on to God’s will and firmly hold on to it, our faith will produce results. God will always move when we launch out in faith. 

But, Brother Dailey, this battle has been going on for a long time. Things seem to be getting worse instead of better!  

Well, maybe the reason the battle has been going on for a long time is because you have been wavering for a long time. 

God’s promises don’t have any dates on them. They have no time given that pinpoints exactly when we can see them fulfilled.  

What determines the timing is our faith. When we launch out to believe God, right there is where we set the time. 

As soon as we believe - the thing is already done. We haven’t seen it yet - but it is done. We won’t worry one more moment, because we no longer have the slightest doubt. 

How many times God tells us something and we don’t take the time to believe it. The revelation is there to cause us to believe and have God move on our behalf - But we need to latch our faith on to what He has said. 

When you have a hassle with doubt and unbelief, press in some more. Get a little more concerned about it. Then your faith will finally grasp on to the promise of God.

VICTORY

Now, look back at what King Jehoshaphat did with what the prophet of God had told him. He was going out to the battlefield on the revelation of that prophet. He was sticking his neck out there merely on that prophet’s revelation - but note: he was doing it by faith, not by feelings. 

He encouraged everybody that this thing was from God, and if they would do as they were told they would go out there and prosper. Then he thought, If I really believe this thing, then I had better start to act on it. This is where we come into it. If we believe something is of God, we should also act like we believe 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.
 

The craziest kind of battle was fought that day. There was no front line fighting: Instead, there was a hallelujah crowd out in the front. Those soldiers weren’t afraid to sing praises and shout hallelujah once in a while. They appreciated the beauty of holiness - for they knew the Lord was with them.

God heard them that day. He heard their praises. He heard them talking about the beauty of holiness. Yes, He heard them, and was moved into action.

II Chronicles 20:22-24

And when they began to sing and to praise, the Lord set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.

And when Judah came toward the watch tower in the wilderness, they looked unto the multitude, and, behold, they were dead bodies fallen to the earth, and none escaped.

God had told the children of Israel that they wouldn’t have to fight in this battle. They believed what He said, and they stood to see the salvation of the Lord.

FAITH, PATIENCE & OBEDIENCE

Now, did God keep His Word? 

Nothing is too hard for Him - and He wants us to believe that fact. Having faith is what moves His hand for us. Sometimes He gives a promise without telling us exactly when or how He is going to fulfill it.  

It may be in His plan to fulfill it immediately. We find such promises coming to pass as quickly as we latch hold of them. But then there are those promises where we find a battle raging and coming against us. 

We launch out to believe God, and a battle rises against it. That battle may rage for quite some time before the promise comes to pass. It is at such times that we must hold tightly on to the promise of God. 

Did you ever have God tell you that He was going to do something - and then time went by with nothing appearing on the horizon? Where is it? Lord, You said it would happen - but I’ve been waiting for years! 

Do you remember Abraham?

Romans 4:20,21

He staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief; but was strong in faith, giving glory to God; and being fully persuaded that, what He had promised, He was able also to perform.
 

God promised Abraham a son, but he had to wait a long time - in fact, years. While he waited, he had his faith attached to the promise of God, believing he would get his promised son - and he did.

I Samuel 3:19

And Samuel grew, and the Lord was with him, and did let none of his words fall to the ground.  

When Samuel said something, you could count on it that what he said would come to pass. 

And God would want you and me to believe when He speaks to us; to latch on to a revelation when He gives it - to know when something is of God.
 

I John 5:14,15

And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us: and if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.  

If God said it, then it is obviously His will. And if we ask according to His will, then we will get the answer.  

Why did Jehoshaphat have such a great victory? The only way he could have missed was to fail to heed God’s Word. 

Surely, when God speaks we have to obey, putting our faith in it - for it is more than mere obedience:  

It is faith and obedience that brings the answer!