Going Up to the High Places

By Pastor Jeff,

Ephesians 6:10-12, ” Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places”

In 1Samuel 14 we have the story of Jonathan and his armour-bearer, in this story we have found that the Philistines have sent a great army as result of a battle earlier in which a garrison was defeated by the Israelites. The Philistines had confiscated most of the weapons and we find that King Saul and about 600 of his men had been hiding in caves. One day Jonathan decided that he had enough and with his armour-bearer left to fight against these Philistines. They came to a valley in which was very difficult to cross, Jonathan told his young armour-bearer that if when they let the Philistines know that they were there that if they called to them to come up that was a sign from God that the victory was theirs. So as they came to the other side they declared themselves to those Philistines and of course they shouted for Jonathan and his armour bearer to come up probably for a whooping. But Jonathan knew with God that it doesn’t take a large army to defeat the enemy, for and armour-bearer had put thier trust in God not in their own abilities. The church needs to realize that as well, we see what is going on in the world, our nation, our cities, and we stay at the bottom of the mountain when all we need to do is climb up it to get our victory!

When Jonathan and his armour-bearer reached the top the bible tells us that they slew 20 men in a small area, the enemy became so shaken by this that they started to run over each other as they tried to flee even to the point of fighting one another. Just two people with faith defeated an entire garrison of war trained Philistines, can you imagine if the entire army of Saul had that faith, can you imagine if the church could generate that much faith. It was Elisha that once declared during a time when the Syrians had come around Israel that those that are for us are more than those for them! Church let’s put on our spiritual glasses and see that though it seems we are outnumbered that indeed we have far more that are for us, Let’s get up that mountain and tear down and take back what the enemy has stolen from us!

I want to give a warning also, for when King Saul heard the sounds of the battle he foolishly told his army to swear not to eat that day. If the people could have gathered energy from the honey they soon found the victory would of been far greater. When God moves sometimes out of our desire to see God move greater we or others that attach themselves to the movement try to take control from God. They come up with programs or determine what should or shouldn’t be done, when sometimes the best thing we can do is get out-of-the-way!

Remember we are nothing by ourselves but with God all things are possible!

picture care of : pinterest.com