Victory Through Drawing Nigh to God
Judges 4:6-7
…Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor…And I will draw unto thee… the captain of Jabin’s army…and I will deliver him into thine hand.
If you will do your drawing, God will do His! Our obedience to His specific instructions on where to draw toward will guarantee a victory; otherwise, we can expect only defeat. In fact, this is not the only place in scripture where we are taught how to win our battles on the draw. It is found in James 4:7-8, which says, “… Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. … purify your hearts, ye double minded.” So, again, we learn that if we do our drawing, God will do His! And now for the word of caution; Before God told us to draw nigh unto Him, He first told us to resist the devil. This means there are two forces at work competing for our allegiance, and although the devil is no real competition to God, we are given the choice who we will resist, and who we will draw nigh unto. What will your choice be? Before you answer quickly, let me also throw out another caution; James closed verse 8 out by saying, “…purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Could it be possible for some to either be drawing nigh unto both God and the devil at the same time, or resisting God and the devil at the same time? Let me put it to you this way; wouldn’t it be fair to say that the way we resist the devil is through speaking the word of God, as Jesus did to satan? And, wouldn’t it also be fair to say that since we resist the devil with speaking the word, that we also draw nigh to God by believing the word, since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God? Now, I want to make my point. IF we CLAIM we are drawing nigh to God while resisting the devil, BUT we are DOUBTING God’s word, then aren’t we really resisting God and being drawn to the devil by our own doubt? And, if that’s the case, it would seem that we ARE double-minded after all! That said, know this; to doubt God is to resist God. We may not even be intentionally or consciously doing so, but that is what is happening when we let doubt creep into our hearts. If we’re not careful, we’ll let the devil sow seeds of doubt into our hearts and minds, causing us to doubt God’s ability, and therefore causing us to spend endless hours trying to convince God to do something for us, as if He doesn’t want to, when the truth is, He would be delighted, if it wasn’t for our doubting Him. So, let us truly resist the devil, by truly speaking AND trusting God’s word!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill
…Hath not the LORD God of Israel commanded, saying, Go and draw toward mount Tabor…And I will draw unto thee… the captain of Jabin’s army…and I will deliver him into thine hand.
If you will do your drawing, God will do His! Our obedience to His specific instructions on where to draw toward will guarantee a victory; otherwise, we can expect only defeat. In fact, this is not the only place in scripture where we are taught how to win our battles on the draw. It is found in James 4:7-8, which says, “… Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. … purify your hearts, ye double minded.” So, again, we learn that if we do our drawing, God will do His! And now for the word of caution; Before God told us to draw nigh unto Him, He first told us to resist the devil. This means there are two forces at work competing for our allegiance, and although the devil is no real competition to God, we are given the choice who we will resist, and who we will draw nigh unto. What will your choice be? Before you answer quickly, let me also throw out another caution; James closed verse 8 out by saying, “…purify your hearts, ye double minded.” Could it be possible for some to either be drawing nigh unto both God and the devil at the same time, or resisting God and the devil at the same time? Let me put it to you this way; wouldn’t it be fair to say that the way we resist the devil is through speaking the word of God, as Jesus did to satan? And, wouldn’t it also be fair to say that since we resist the devil with speaking the word, that we also draw nigh to God by believing the word, since faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God? Now, I want to make my point. IF we CLAIM we are drawing nigh to God while resisting the devil, BUT we are DOUBTING God’s word, then aren’t we really resisting God and being drawn to the devil by our own doubt? And, if that’s the case, it would seem that we ARE double-minded after all! That said, know this; to doubt God is to resist God. We may not even be intentionally or consciously doing so, but that is what is happening when we let doubt creep into our hearts. If we’re not careful, we’ll let the devil sow seeds of doubt into our hearts and minds, causing us to doubt God’s ability, and therefore causing us to spend endless hours trying to convince God to do something for us, as if He doesn’t want to, when the truth is, He would be delighted, if it wasn’t for our doubting Him. So, let us truly resist the devil, by truly speaking AND trusting God’s word!
~ Pastor Gary Caudill