How can you be an overcomer and win the victory over the flesh? You cannot win by your own efforts. Do not let yourself be distracted by the problems within. Focus your faith upon the Lord to bring the cleansing and the change. Do not look inward and struggle, but trust the Lord and relax in Him.
An illustration of this principle is the fact that you cannot float if you become tense and try too hard. The only way that you can float is to relax, lie down in the water, and trust the water to buoy you up. If you try to be an overcomer through the efforts and discipline of the flesh, it will not work. Instead, ask the Lord to help you. Picture yourself lying down in His arms. His grace will support you. Underneath are the everlasting arms (Deuteronomy 33:27). As you believe that, your whole life will begin to change.
II Chronicles 20 is filled with principles of faith and victory. At the time that Jehoshaphat was king of Israel, he was told that they were being invaded; a great multitude was coming against Israel (verse 2). Notice the reaction of the king: And Jehoshaphat was afraid and turned his attention to seek the Lord. Verse 3a. He did more than turn his attention to seek the Lord. The margin gives the literal meaning: “He set his face to seek the Lord.”
Bad news brings a variety of responses. Suppose someone told you that you had an incurable disease. What would your response be? You might collapse; or perhaps you would hurry to a well-known clinic or hospital. Whenever a man receives bad news, you can always tell where his heart is really focused by his response. Jehoshaphat feared. Fear is a healthy reaction. It will cause one either to fight or to flee. There was fear in the heart of Jehoshaphat, but what he did reveals the faith of his spirit, and the incident which followed has become a classic of deliverance. Notice that he set his face to seek the Lord. That is the way you should respond to any situation that is coming against you. Set your face to seek the Lord.
Jehoshaphat’s prayer, verse 12, was focused upon God’s ability and His greatness. “O our God, wilt Thou not judge them? For we are powerless before this great multitude who are coming against us; nor do we know what to do, but our eyes are on Thee.” He was reminding God that their eyes were upon Him.
Even though you are not looking at your problem, it has a way of creeping up on you. You almost feel as if a giant is stepping on your heels. A certain problem may have defeated you time and time again. You can refuse to look at it, and yet your eyes are on it; you seem to be looking at it out of the back of your head, wondering when it will catch up with you and defeat you again. What is the answer? Jehoshaphat had a simple solution. He prayed to the Lord, “Our eyes are on Thee.”
You cannot always get problems out of your mind. You may be looking to God, yet wondering in the back of your mind how close the enemy is coming and how soon disaster will overtake you. Have you ever looked at God and at the same time tried to catch a glimpse of the devil out of the corner of your eye to see if he is getting closer? You can liken it to the experience of running on a track team. You are running as fast as you can. You want so badly to look back, but the coach has told you never to look back, for then you will break your stride and you might lose the race.
If you focus on the enemy, you may be defeated and lose the battle. How can you keep your eyes upon the Lord and keep from focusing on the enemy at the same time? Lay aside every weight and sin and keep looking only unto Jesus (Hebrews 12:1–2). That is the only way you can run a race. You dare not look back. You dare not let the thought of the problem come up in your heart. Suppress that thought. Refuse to think about the problem. Determine to think only of the Lord. Wholeheartedly set your heart and your affections on the Lord. It will work.
When you are told not to focus on the problem, this does not mean that you will not have to face your problems. As you keep your focus on the Lord, you walk through the battle in order to win the victory. It is necessary for you to understand this. How can you keep your eyes on the Lord as you walk through difficult days? When you start to walk on water and you see the waves, how can you avoid sinking? There is a way that you can keep your focus and still walk through the battle.
How did Jehoshaphat do it? He and the people decided to do what the prophet had told them (verse 20). And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who sang to the Lord and those who praised Him in holy attire, as they went out before the army and said, “Give thanks to the Lord, for His lovingkindness is everlasting.” And when they began singing and praising, the Lord set ambushes against the sons of Ammon, Moab, and Mount Seir, who had come against Judah; so they were routed (struck down). They killed one another. Verses 21–22. Why did the singers go forth singing and praising the Lord? That helped the people keep their focus on the Lord.
The enemy could not survive; nor can your enemy survive without your focus and your fears. The devil cannot win over you when you accept him as a defeated foe. He can only win when you are fearful. He can only bring an assault against you successfully when you are afraid. This works in the physical, the mental, and the spiritual realms.
Do you find it difficult to keep your focus upon the Lord? The tendency to panic and to be distracted is great. Determine to walk through your problems. Determine to be an overcomer. Determine that at no time are you going to let your focus slip from praise to God and faith in God. You are going to trust the Lord to bring you through. How will you avoid being distracted from pure faith and from the right focus? You will be a worshiper. Time and time again, when you are in a service, the prophecies and the worship help you to set your heart afresh upon the Lord and upon what He has said.
Do not look for someone to sympathize with you and listen to your troubles with understanding just so that you can dump your troubles on him and feel better. You do not need sympathy, nor do you need anyone to understand you. (You do not even understand yourself. There is only one who really understands you, and that is God.) Instead, find someone who praises God, someone who has a positive outlook and will encourage you, “Come on; we’ll worship the Lord together; we’ll sing a song together.” You can meet anything the devil throws at you if you have the kind of focus that is continually singing and worshiping the Lord. Worship and praise have a way of fixing your focus on the Lord.
What is the key of victory? How can you be a winner? Set your affections on the Lord. Seek those things which are above. Keep your focus where Christ is, at the right hand of God (Colossians 3:1–2). Do not let it come down.
Some people are always looking for someone with whom they can discuss their problems. This can serve to satisfy the ego of a counselor who thinks he has great wisdom and uses good judgment. However, counselors of a different nature are needed. A counselor should say, “Brother, I perceive that your prayer life and your praise life are somewhat deficient. Suppose we sing some psalms and praise the Lord together. Let’s not talk about troubles; instead, let’s talk about the Lord and about all the victories He has planned for you.” A counselor should be less concerned about solving problems by working things out and manipulating and maneuvering circumstances, and more concerned about getting the person’s focus set upon the Lord. Instead of trying to solve his problems, get him to relate to God and get his heart open to the Lord. Otherwise you have not solved his problems anyway. When you get him to focus on the Lord with faith and come to the house of the Lord and serve God the way he should, then it will not be long before he is walking in victory and stomping on the enemy. Faith always emerges out of the swamp of despair.
Make a valiant effort to keep your focus on the Lord, to sing and worship, instead of taking the complaining, selfpity route. Do not look for someone to sympathize with you in your woes; rather, cast your cares upon the Lord. You have no other recourse. Focus on the Lord and refuse to look behind you to see how many dragons are stomping at your heels. Have you had your fears analyzed lately by the Lord? The Word says, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee… Isaiah 26:3.
What is the best thing to do when you are working for God and a damnable viper reaches out and bites you? Should you grab a bottle of whiskey to pour on the bite? Should you get out a first-aid kit, or yell for emergency help? The best thing to do is to shake the viper off—flip, flip, flip. Drop those fears. Then you can look at your hand and shout, “Look, no vipers!”
Vipers are not always fears. They also appear in the form of complaining, discouragement, criticism, rebellion, withdrawal, personal problems, defeats, lusts of the flesh, and many other things. Throw them in the fire. Get rid of them. Give them names that befit them. Never refer to a viper as “the great one” or “the magnificent deceiver.” Instead, call it a sissy. Never give the devil an even break. Do not call him “the mighty prince Lucifer.” Call him “the defeated one,” “the descending one.” When you talk about him, say that “what’s-his-name” has had it.
David said, O magnify the Lord with me… Psalm 34:3. When you look through your spiritual telescope correctly, you magnify the Lord. You cannot make Him too big. He is great, the One to be exalted and magnified. But when you look at the devil, turn your telescope around and look at him through the wrong end. Then he will become so small that he can hardly be seen. Do you have troubles that seem very large? Turn your telescope around and look at them. Then they will become small.