2 Samuel 23:8-14 (NKJV) these are the names of the mighty men whom David had: Josheb-Basshebeth the Tachmonite, chief among the captains. He was called Adino the Eznite, because he had killed eight hundred men at one time. And after him was Eleazar the son of Dodo, the Ahohite, one of the three mighty men with David when they defied the philistines who were gathered there for battle, and the men of Israel had retreated. He arose and attacked the Philistines until his hand was weary, and his hand stuck to the sword. The LORD brought about a great victory that day; and the people returned after him only to plunder. And after him was Shammah the son of Agee the Hararite. The Philistines had gathered together into a troop where there was a piece of ground full of lentils. So the people fled from the Philistines. But he stationed himself in the middle of the field, defended it, and killed the Philistines. So the LORD brought about a great victory. Then three of the thirty chief men went down at harvest time and came to David at the cave of Adullam. And the troop of Philistines encamped in the Valley of Rephaim. David was then in the stronghold, and the garrison of the Philistines was then in Bethlehem.

These three men were ready to defend what they knew as right at the cost of their own lives if need be, they were always ready to give their best shot in all assignments for their king. However our current status as Christians most of time is seen to be that of a people who are full selfish interests and are mostly concerned  with self preservation. The few who are bold for the God are misinterpreted or misunderstood by both friends and foe because of the manner in which we present themselves.

Despite every situation that you pass through, remember there is victory for those who are ready to stand to defend their faith in God, for He will give them power to overcome every eventuality in this life. Yes battles will be many, fought on every front, ounce in a while you might loose on one front but you are more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus; that is how God sees you and me, as conquerors! And so should you.

The three mighty men fought without looking at who is with them or who is against them, the Bible says that all other people had fled in all incidents that these men made a stand and fought all by themselves but God ensured them victory beyond imagination. God is the same yesterday; today and forever more, He never changes, therefore in every thing we are assigned to do for the Lord we should be like these three exceptional men of valor.

Don’t look to the left right or centre just face what you are facing from the point of view that you only require God’s help because human help will disappoint at one point or another but God’s help will be surely there for you. Such men were just people like the rest of us and yet they learnt to depend on God. They fought without fear, without looking back or whether their colleagues were with them or not. It didn’t matter how many enemies they faced (one of them faced as many as eight hundred men) for they knew that there was glory ahead of them.

Today most Christians live under intimidation and oppression from the evil forces because they don’t fully acknowledge the power that God has put in them, like those three, they too should not be afraid to face any adversity. I thank God for the many intercessors and prayer warriors across the world for they hold governments and nations together through prayer, hold men of God preaching the Word in many hostile territories without fear of intimidation or repression from the regimes that rule such countries.

Some of the prayer warriors have personal issues and yet they are not held down by them; they are not diverted by such but choose to remain focused to the very end, God remembers them and gives them victory in their personal issues. Such men and women of God I salute you all wherever you might be at; God is with you to bring you victory in all you endeavor to do.

Let us learn from the early missionaries, who trekked for thousands of miles without fear for their lives and personal safety but went into undiscovered world to preach the Word in languages they did not know; to barbaric cultured people without due regard to what would happen to their persons. What happened to this generation? Are our minds too short to reflect on such actions by fellow men and women of God in the 18^th, 19^th and early 20^th centuries or has the technology corrupted and softened us? They too took their stand when nobody else was ready to be with them or to watch over their backs.

God says we are more than conquerors in Christ Jesus but we see ourselves as beaten and impotent in many ways. We keep on asking ourselves what can just one man do? I am only one person. What we don’t realize is the potential that God has put in us. If we see ourselves as defeated, so defeated we will be, if we look at ourselves as conquerors so we shall be, learn always to look at ourselves through God’s eyes, which is His word. The Word should be our mirror with which to look at our performance, for our victory is only guaranteed in Christ. My humble question that begs an answer is, are you ready for deployment for the Lord or are you there just to be seen?

Isaiah 40:30-31

Even the youths shall faint and be weary, And the young men shall utterly fall, But those who wait on the LORD Shall renew their strength; They shall mount up with wings like eagles, They shall run and not be weary, They shall walk and not faint. (NKJV)

Those who wait upon the Lord don’t set age, education, wealth, health, social, cultural, height, weight or any other form of limitation to their objectives; they are always active, actually hyperactive for God. They are sensitive to the works of God, nothing is impossible to them because God is their true source of the strength. They don’t concern themselves with what others think of them but only with what God thinks of them. They are controlled by the promises of God in their lives and they live to pursue such, anything else is a waste of time.

Even when it means to forgo every luxury, every comfort, vacating comfort zones they are forever ready to do what is expected of them and beyond. Because they have put God before everything else, therefore they focus everything on their Maker. They are subject to forms of problems and tribulations like the rest of us but they don’t face such with their own understanding but they let God sort them for them.

Whatever they undertake they do it without fear of favor, if they target giving, they do so without murmuring, if it is immersing in prayer they do so without looking back for whom else will join them. This is a very important facet of those who wait upon the Lord, the do what they do only looking upon God, their service is centered on pleasing God only, they act in a theatre of life for the audience of One only, Jesus Christ, the Author and the Finisher of their faith both individually and collectively.

Psalm 34:19-20
Many are the afflictions of the righteous, But the LORD delivers him out of them all. He guards all his bones; not one of them is broken. (NKJV)

This is an everlasting assurance that God is giving to us even when the enemy has mounted a repressive attack upon us. Whether the same is in terms of any kind of lack, shortage, animosity, sickness both ours that of the loved ones, rejection in a relationship or even discouragement from any quarter the outcome is the same; God will deliver.

The difference between a believer and a non believer is that the believer knows where his/her strength lies; where to take their problems and troubles but the unbelievers will crumble under the weight of their problems. That is why we are seeing ugly trend of people killing their spouses and children across the world and turning the same instruments of destruction upon themselves, people are unable to cope because they have denied themselves the opportunity to know the true rest from problems of this world.

Many people are losing their jobs by hundreds of thousands, their only source of income is cut off due to economic uncertainties across the entire world; they feel that the whole world has conspired against them and their only solution is taking their own lives plus those of their dependants. This is a show of the kind of desperation that is sweeping the peoples of the world who don’t know God. This scenario places the responsibility for such people on the Christians across the world; preach hope of God to such people, let them know the love of Jesus Christ, give material assistance where and when called upon.

Why are Christians of today so reluctant to act and yet they have this wonderful assurance from God’s own mouth, why do they hesitate? What holds them back from doing the work of God? I wonder! I think selfishness has everything to with it. Some think that by giving themselves fully to God’s work they will be manipulated in one way or another, they inject a third party in the service instead of focusing on God only.

Others don’t like the inconvenience God’s work brings in their busy schedules in a world filled with competition, about being the best in everything; they have no second best position in their vocabularies. Some are afraid of commitment; they feel that they need achieve something in their lives.

To such people I say this; God can not play the second fiddle in your lives, individually or collectively. If God is not the centre and focus of your life then do not even bother. Many men and women struggle to make ends meet, some genuinely to sustain their families, others do so out pride and need to show off their acumen; credentials among other career achievements. I am not implying that improving careers is wrong but making it the entire focus of one’s being forgoing working for the Kingdom is what is wrong.

Romans 8:35-39 Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: “For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. (NKJV)

Apostle Paul wrote this knowing very well that all is not smooth sailing for the believers, in fact on the contrary because this was from knowledge that tribulations will come to those of faith more than those who aren’t.  Again he knew the source of his and their strength is sure and guaranteed, not something to fumble about.

He further injects another aspect of this battle by introducing the element of principalities; these are the demons and satanic agents operating in our midst. He knew that the war is not only in the physical but also in the spiritual realm. Actually it is the principalities that influence and transmutes the battle from the spiritual realm into the physical.

Our war therefore is taken into another level; what we need to be careful about at this stage is not to divert our attention to individuals perceived to be enemies in any way but address the matter from a spiritual point of view. Many people are misled at this stage to start viewing other people as their enemies which is not the case; I am not saying that there are no physical enemies, no! But the most formidable enemy for every Christian is not physically visible but spiritually discerned.

What I am saying is that we should be more concerned by what drives people to do despicable things as they do, that way we address the root cause of the problem instead of wasting valuable time with symptoms. When someone has a cough we are tempted to give cough relief remedies with out remembering that such cough has be triggered by a viral or bacterial infection. Such a time a person needs to consult a doctor who will diagnonize the cause of the cough and then not only prescribe a relief for the cough symptoms but also treat the underlying cause.

In the same way we should approach and understand that spiritual warfare as in physical has to be carefully planned, thoroughly thought out and executed with same precision. These battles, whether collective or individual should be faced and fought soberly for our real enemy is satan and his demons that are traumatizing the whole world today, such a war can only be fought by people who are willing to be completely selfless; By people who understand that there is something more important than the selfish self.

People who are ready to give their all for God’s cause, both spiritually and physically without reserve or consideration for what or who is going to benefit from their sacrifice; for Jesus said that praying for our enemies places hot coals upon their heads.  The glory is for those who do outstanding feats for the sake of their salvation and that of others, as I asked before are there courageous men left to stand to be counted for their King? The answer to this question lies with individual first before groups.

Wherever you are I would like to invite you to take another step of faith in your church, go and register to give your very best to God in whatever ministry you might be assigned, do your assignments without looking around for who is with you. Always remember those three brave men who stood their ground and defended it from the philistines when everyone else had fled in fear.

Whether you are placed to serve in the intercession, welfare, generosity, ushering, choir, Sunday school, youth, whatever ministry it is that you given, please give it your very best shot and God will be with you to give you success. Sometimes I meditate on this word and I look at Sharmah’s performance in a field full of lentils. Naturally lentils are creepers and they entwine themselves forming rope like cords; this means that his feet were caught in the creeper with every movement he made. He had to disentangle himself first and then fight whoever was advancing towards him.

This vivid explanation of the battleground so full of encumbrances is not included as a by the way occurrence, it is purposefully included to show us that even if there are entrapments in our operating fields we can also overcome.

Even when there are many distractions victory is possible, victory in the spiritual realm is not easily gotten; as it is in the physical realm so it is in the spiritual realm also. Again it shows that one can remain a faithful Christian in an environment full of ensnaring obstacles. This leaves out of excuses for failure no matter how legitimate they might seem to us.

Brothers and sisters in Christ allow me to persuade you to think again and fully join this battle for Christ without looking at your situation or circumstances because it only through Christ that you can truly win many battles in your life, both personally and as groups. God is looking for just one man to whom He will bestow His everlasting promise as He did with Abraham, Isaac, David and many more. God bless you as you prepare to take the final stand for Jesus in your life.

This devotional was written by Bishop Joseph Koburu Mukiira of Maximum Victory and Joy Worship Centre Nairobi, Kenya and brought to you courtesy of Journey 2 Joy International Ministries Inc. USA