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BEFORE YOU ENTER INTO 'BATTLE,' ASK GOD IF IT'S THE RIGHT TIME AND PLACE

Do you pray before you wage war? Do you ask the Holy Spirit before you embark on a battle? Do you listen -- hear -- before you take up shield and sword?

It's a question for all of us, and it follows this main question: do you sometimes fight fights that are not yours?

(Do you enter the wrong battlefield -- or at least, at the wrong time?)

We all know how it is! We see something that is wrong -- even morally wrong, or something that can harm to a person -- and we want to jump right in and offer our direction, sometimes with force. This occurs most frequently within families: we place ourselves in a corrective mode.

And often, we're right; something is amiss; something is wrong. But if we move into the zone without asking God first if He wants us to enter that zone, and whether it's the right time (if we do discern to enter), we often cause ourselves great agitation; we do more harm than good.

As a preacher pointed out, didn't David do this before he went to war -- listen for the Voice at the top of a tree, the Voice up there the voice that binds matters in Heaven that are then bound on the earth (and vice versa)?

When we wait on the Lord, and move in the Spirit, we move with force.

We are on the winning side.

Our words and actions count.

They take root.

A matter is resolved or improved.

An evil is dispelled.

An illness is cast out.

"When David inquired of the Lord, He said, 'You shall not go directly up; circle around behind them and come at them in front of the balsam trees. 'It shall be, when you hear the sound of marching in the tops of the balsam trees, then you shall act promptly, for then the Lord will have gone out before you to strike the army of the Philistines.' Then David did so, just as the Lord had commanded him, and struck down the Philistines from Geba as far as Gezer" (2 Samuel 5).

When we move before the motion of God -- when the motion is ours alone -- we risk hidden dangers that only the Holy Spirit can search out.

Don't be tempted to do something as a "do-gooder," something that can cause tension with others, until you pray first. Even if you've done it before, and to good effect, pray each time, because each time is different.

Fear?

In God, we know no such thing. It is not a matter of fearing the fight. It is a matter of acting with prudence, which protects us from chinks in our armor and unnecessary hurt.

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