God will organize people and design events just to give us the opportunity to grow in the fruit of the spirit and in his grace. When we are in alignment with him, we see these opportunities for growth clearly. If we are out of sync, we usually respond too harshly.
1 Corinthians 2; 9 makes us an important promise; eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him. God reveals things to us by his Spirit. Our own spirit can sense these deep things and learn what God has prepared for us. We should all stay in alignment with God so we can be conscious of our opportunities in crisis.
Difficult situations and people exist to develop us in the things of God. For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them – Ephesians 2: 10. He has prepared a life curriculum to teach us how to walk more deeply with him. But when we are out of alignment, we can only see the hassle of the circumstances – not the benefit.
Maintaining our alignment enables God to work in us. It keeps us fruitful in him. Spiritual life is very simple; God decides what we are going to do, and we decide if we will obey him. The creator decides; the created discovers. God knows what he intends for us; we decide if we will cooperate.
If we are to develop as warriors, we must know the difference between our training ground and our proving ground. We are given personal training for reigning in our private lives and circumstances. We get to make choices that reflect who God is for us and what he is developing in us. Private victories precede public triumph.
The public area of life and ministry is our proving ground where we get to establish our private overcoming. The Lord Jesus had plenty of opposition, both human and otherwise, who attempted to trick him into responses and actions that did not reflect the heart of the father.
It was just another day in the life of David when his father asked him to take some provisions to his brothers who were with the army of Israel. To be sure, there would have been some excitement of going to a battlefront camp. It beats watching sheep!
David had no clue that he was about to be thrust into circumstances that would catapult him into fame. Everyone around him thought he was untried and untested. Goliath laughed aloud when David presented himself for the fight. He disdained David who in his eyes was just a kid with pretty boy looks – first Samuel 17; 42.
David had gone through a similar process in his own camp when he had offered to fight the Philistine; you can’t fight him, you’re just a youth. Goliath has been fighting for years, since he was your age. David’s reply demonstrated his alignment with God.
1 Samuel 17; 34 – 37. And David said to Saul, your servant kept his father’s sheep, and when there came a lion, and again a bear, and took a lamb out of the flock, I went out after him, and smote him and delivered it out of his mouth; and when he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and smote them, and killed him. Your servant killed both the lion and the bear; and this uncircumcised philistine shall be as one of them, for he has defiled the armies of the living God! David said, the Lord, who delivered me out of the jaw of the lion and out of the jaw of the bear, he will deliver me out of the hand of his Philistine. And Saul said to David, go and the Lord be with you!
His private victories over the lion and the bear had put him into a place of practiced dependence on the Lord. God had scheduled his conflicts in order to prepare him for the future that he had in mind.
God allows in his wisdom what he could easily prevent by his power. When we are in a place of alignment we are touched by Majesty. There is a confidence that runs alongside our dependence. We magnify him. We are conscious of all that he is for us.
Warriors do not look for rescue; they want to complete their assignment. The outcome of our assignment is never determined by the assignment itself. We go into every assignment as victors already. The victory is ours; the battle is the Lord’s. Victory is predetermined by our private responses. When Jesus is Lord in the ordinary, everyday situations of life, then his overcoming nature rises up in times of extraordinary conflict.
We are victorious because of our learned dependency. We have a posture of strength which comes to us by intimate connection. This is why worship, rejoicing, and thanksgiving are so essential. It is the language of intimacy that becomes the spoken word of victory.
Intimacy fuels Majesty. David, a man after God’s own heart, saw a God that was greater than Goliath. We never allow our circumstances to be greater than our awareness of God. He is all in all. Conflict is about practicing our revelation of Majesty and proving that it is real and powerful.
Conflict with the enemy is essential in the development of the Christ life. What is born of God must overcome the world – 1 John 5; 4 – 5. Jesus was manifested to destroy the work of the devil – 1 John 3; 8. The world is literally the present condition of human affairs and systems that do not represent God, and indeed may exist in opposition to his nature.
This would involve both secular and sacred institutions. Jesus confronted the religious system as much as he opposed the system of government that ruled the nation. The devil works in both the sacred and the secular to ruin people’s lives, remove their freedoms, and oppress them through the rule of man.
We are all part of the conflict of the clash between the darkness and the light. It is important that we do not live in the shadows. We are part of the kingdom that is not of this world. We are ruled from a place outside of space and time. The rule of God is greater than the laws of man. The people of God have always been mishandled by the rule of man and nowhere is that more evident than in the church itself. Jesus stood against the religious system that disenfranchised people from personal freedom and intimate connection with the father.
Conflict is a vital part of our spirituality and cannot be escaped if we are to grow up in all things in Christ – Ephesians 4; 15. We do not go looking for trouble; there is no need. It will find us when God is ready.
We have more important things to do then go looking for the enemy. As we live godly and effective lives in Christ Jesus, the enemy will come looking for us.
The father trains our hands for war and our fingers for battle – Psalm 144: 1. He schedules are conflicts. He provides for them. He sets promises in place next to them. He teaches us the way of the warrior. He trains us in the art of overcoming.
Conflict is not just concerned with people. It is in how we overcome barriers, problems, and life situations. We are being prepared to know the goodness of God in the land of the living, so that we never know despair – Psalm 27; 13.
We have conflict so that we may learn the way of peace. When all is going well, peace is never an issue. Indeed, we do not think of it. When conflict arises, peace is God’s truest provision. Peace empowers us to overcome. He gives us peace so that we may find courage to stand in the day of trouble.
John 16; 33 – these things I’ve spoken to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I’ve overcome the devil.
Assignment – what is your present conflict about? What is the father developing in you? What is your current training ground? In your situation, what is the measure of rule that the father is giving you over your old self? What is the place of dependency that you must experience? What is your private victory?
Commission – thank God for the conflict. Rejoice in who he is for you. Write down the blessings, favor, promises, and provision that are present in this current conflict. How will we stand before God and practice the art of overcoming? What is your current proving ground where the father is establishing you as an overcomer?