How to be battle-ready & victorious

When Moses called on Joshua to lead the army, Joshua did not need weeks and weeks to get into a frame of mind to fight for the Lord. He was always battle ready and so he was ready for this particular crisis – the sudden attack of Amalek against Israel. 

We do not know what the Lord will have in store for our lives, what roles he may want us to fulfil, nor do we know what the next spiritual attack from the world or Satan will come. This requires that we be always ready to step up when needed. Our state of readiness, however,  depends on our fellowship with the God who gives the victory.  

As Joshua went out to fight Amalek he was not crippled by fear. He knew that it was God, not Israel, who had the power to win the battle. 

Remember, when Moses appointed Joshua, he said, “I will stand on the top of the hill with the rod of God in mine hand.” This is how the Israelites would win. Victory was only possible through the power of God. 

In this very first instance of Joshua leading, he was only doing so in total reliance on God. When Moses stopped praying to the Lord, the Israelites would start to lose, it was only “when Moses held up his hand, that Israel prevailed.”

Joshua was obviously a young man with fighting ability and appeared to show some natural ability as a leader, yet that was not what would grant him success. He knew he had no true power in himself, success only came through reliance on the Lord. Joshua’s first success set the pattern for the rest of his life as a leader.

As an old man, looking back over all the battles and victories that he had led, he did not take credit. He knew all the credit went to the Lord. 

‘I am old and stricken in age: and ye have seen that the Lord your God hath done unto all these nations because of you; for the Lord your God is He that hath fought for you.’ (Joshua 23:3)

And in his final words to all the tribes of Israel, Joshua reminded them that it was the Lord God of Israel who had destroyed their enemies (Joshua 24:8).

This is a very necessary, albeit difficult lesson to learn. Before His crucifixion, in the upper room the Lord Jesus  told his disciples, “Without me, ye can do nothing.” On our own we can do nothing. This is a truth that puts the degree of our weakness in perspective and hurts our pride. Yet it is the only way we can ever be ready for the battle. It is the only path to victory. 

When we try to fight sin, serve God or lead in our own power, we will crash, burn, and fail. We will shame ourselves, defame the Church and grossly misrepresent Christ. In short, it’s a mess. However in Christ, we have one who would tell us “In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world.” 

We need not fear when we are truly living in the good of the power available to us. While life for Christ in the world is difficult, if we set aside our own strivings and rest in Christ, we will be battle-ready … and we will experience victory like Joshua. As Paul concludes in Romans 8, “we are more than conquerors through him that loved us.”