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Gen. 30:8 Naphtali, “With great wrestling I have wrestled.”

There comes a season of prayer and survival where God will call us to fight with everything we have available.  Though we have surrendered and submitted as our first response, once we have submitted to God, the Bible tells us clearly, we are to “resist the devil.” (James 4:7)

This resisting Ephesians 6 describes as a wrestling match with principalities and powers.  Spiritual warfare is a lost art is so many church circles because we have resigned ourselves to passively accept our circumstances as God’s will when He is calling us to rise up against our oppressors.

Ephesians 6:10-20, “Be strong in the Lord…Put on the whole armor…Stand against the wiles of the devil…wrestle…gird your waste…put on the breastplate…shod your feet…take the shield of faith…praying always.”  These are fightin’ words.  God does not desire us to passively allow the devil to have his way on the earth our in our individual lives, but instead to actively combat and wrestle him down.

People unfamiliar with the warlike nature of God suffer constant abuse at the hands of the enemy because of their lack of knowledge.  Instead of being ignorant and unaware, the Bible tells us to undo the schemes of the enemy through our prayers and obedience.

Words of doom spoken over us, curses from past generations, demonic attacks on our family and finances, hellish powers coming against our ministries are all forces of the evil one God died to defeat.  Enforcing that victory is the privilege of the saints. “To execute on them the written judgement—this honor have all the saints.” (Psalm 149:9) “Behold, I have given you authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means shall hurt you.” (Luke 10:19) Realizing this truth and praying it into existence is the type of wrestling prayer that sets a believer free from demonic influences.

At some point in your walk with God, you must develop the tenacious, determined, violent faith that refuses to let the enemy have any ground in our life.  I am so distraught when ministries and families do not fight back against divorce, demonic books, material, and websites in the house, financial attacks and sickness.  Our God is a “Man of War,” (Ex.15:3) and He desires to train all His sons and daughters in the art of battle. (Psalm 18)

Prayerful wrestling consists of receiving God’s authority and enforcing His truth against our mutual enemies.  If you have never wrestled, you will. Study deeply these battle passages to prepare for the fight.

Gen. 30:6 Dan, “God has vindicated me.”

Envious of her sister’s children, Rachel enters the contest by giving her maid Bilhah to Jacob to conceive a seed.  God answers her prayers, and as a sign of her vindication, she names the son, Dan, meaning judge.

At some point in your ministry, you will come under the scrutiny and be judged based on the standards of others.  The difficulty of this position comes because we are very aware of the mixed motives of our own hearts.  We vacillate between believing everything we do is out of pure and undefiled hearts to condemning ourselves for our failure and misgivings.  The tendency of the world to look for some clear standard of measure by which to judge the effectiveness of our work runs against God’s ways of judging our hearts.

In 1 Samuel 16, the prophet is sent to the house of David to pick the next leader.  God bypasses all the sons of Jesse who are tall and handsome in appearance and chooses David, saying, “For the Lord does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.” (1 Samuel 16:7) God chooses David, a ruddy, sensuous, worshiper of God who also has he own faults and then pronounces two New Testament epilogues about him: “a man after my own heart,” (Acts 13:22) who “served His own generation.” (Acts 13:36)

How can we reconcile the good that David and other leaders of the church have done with their human failures?  Fortunately, the job of judging ministries is not ours, but rather God’s.  When we are caught in a difficult situation whereby all our actions are brought into question, our only hope is to fall on the Lord’s mercy rather than vindicate ourselves.  God is the Just Judge of the universe who judge rightly.

I have seen in many instances fallen human take up this mantle of judgment against a man, women, or ministry.  Their initial motives always appear pure when they say they want to be good stewards of the ministry and help insure we are serving God as effectively as possible.  The challenge, however, is that their opinions and judgement are always limited by their biased perspectives.  No one person can see the 360-degree view that God has of an individual or a ministry.  No person can judge the heart of a man or woman as God can.

When you are faced with a challenge of justifying your ministry by providing measures, rubrics, strategic plans and targeted performance goals; it may help to realize that these human indicators cannot alter your position and the opinion God has of you in heaven.  Man looks at the outside; the Lord looks at the heart.  Let Him be your vindication.

Gen. 30:18 Issachar, “God has given me my reward.”

The rewards stage of any product is something we all look forward to achieving.  If we make enough purchases, deposits, investments, or acts of loyalty; we expect to have a reward.

Jesus was not afraid of promising people rewards.  He often emphasized that those who followed His Father’s teachings would be generously rewarded both here and now on earth and certainly in heaven.  “Verily, verily, I say unto you. There is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for My sake and the gospel’s who shall not receive a hundredfold now in this time…and in the age to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:29-30) This promise from Jesus highlights His desire to reward His children for a life well-lived.

Studies confirm it.  Living healthy, practicing religion, seeking to give rather than take all contribute to a happier and longer life. I have a bumper sticker that refutes the idea that the one who accumulates the most wins.  Instead, the truth says, “He who gives the most, wins.”

Our giving is the front loading of the windows of heaven to be poured out over our lives later.  Malachi promises this formula and dares the people, Put me to the test. “’Try Me now in this,’ says the Lord of Hosts, ‘If I will not open for you the windows of heaven and pour out for you such blessing that there will not be room enough to receive it.’” (Mal. 3:10)

We must believe, according to the Scriptures, that God is a Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.  This reward consists of both material blessings on earth and spiritual blessings in heaven.  He is the Reward, but on the quest towards Him strings a path of goodness, mercy, and favor that make the journey towards home sweeter and sweeter.

For every young ministry and minister in the throes of a struggle, sweeter days are coming.  For every believer actively giving and laying down our lives in accordance with the Gospel, we can be assured these sacrifices are calculated and rewarded by heaven itself.  Towards the end of your journey meditate and set your sights on the rewards accumulating to your account and use these rewards to spur you to faithful living.

Says Jesus to everyone who ministers to the least of these on earth, “Your reward shall be great in heaven.” God is willing to be put to the test and proven in His faithfulness to reward His people.  The Gospel is not an assignment of suffering our entire life, but rather an eternal rewards program purchased by Jesus and lavishly credited to His children as they faithfully follow Him.