Five Steps to move from being in a Battle to living in victory

People of God, are you preparing for a battle or victory?  Have you asked yourself that?  When you read the Bible, do you see a way to cope with the world’s situation, or do you see victory in Jesus?

I am asking you to take these questions seriously.  Where do you live? Are you in a place of constant war? Or are you living in peace as Psalm 23 describes? A battle is that place where you are constantly trying to prevent the enemy from taking ground. Victory is the place where you know your enemy is defeated and you live on the land God promised.

Goodness and grace will pursue me
every day of my life;
and I will live in the house of Adonai
for years and years to come.

Psalm 23:6

I played High School football for a man named Guy Newcom; we all call him Coach. He helped mold who I am today and taught me how to win.  He taught me to be a winner even when things look tough and stay humble when defeating an enemy. Coach prepared us for victory and expected us to win every game we ever played. So, he trained us to prepare for whatever the enemy might throw at us and expect to win. As a result, the coach managed to help us win 9 of 10 games each year I played.  We were a single “A” school but managed to beat “AA,” “AAA,” and even “AAAAA” schools by incredible margins.

In high school, I was 5’8″ tall and weighed 195lbs, and Wayne Stock (the line coach) once commented he needed a calendar to time my sprinting speed. We were required to do weight training in Winter, but I never benched more than 210 lbs. I was slow, weak, fat, and was never the star of the team. I did, however, learn the key to being an essential part of the team’s victory and think of myself as a winner. The key was so simple – carry out your assignment.

I was an offensive tackle, and no matter what the play call, I had an assignment. If Coach called 36X, I knew I would cross block with the guard next to me to create a hole in the defensive line for a ball carrier. I knew something was going to go on after the snap in the backfield.  I knew things could go wrong back there, and the wrong guy might show up in the hole the guard and I had created. I knew 11 defensive players wanted to spoil the play.  None of that mattered to me.  I had my assignment, and if my teammates and I each did our assignment, we would move the ball.  So, I concentrated on my job.

We had a pretty good playbook with a lot of plays in it. Each one was designed to overcome the defense and had a specific assignment for the left tackle; that’s me. I needed to know that assignment and be ready to execute that assignment when Coach called for that play.

I did not know it at the time, but we also had a game plan for each game we played. The game plan would vary given field conditions, our opponents’ strengths, whether we were home or away, or even the length of the bus ride to the game.  My role on the team was to memorize the playbook, know my assignment, and trust the coach with the game plan.  Whether it was raining or sunshine, we were home or away; if we were on the one-yard line or the 50, my assignment was clear.  Go to the huddle, listen silently to the quarterback call the play, go to the line, carry out my assignment for the play. If all eleven of us did that, we won.

Coach Newcom taught me to prepare to be victorious in football. But what he was doing was teaching a wonderful life lesson. A lesson that worked on the field and continues to work in every aspect of my life. I learned that if I did my part (carry out my assignment), he would put together a game plan that would light up the scoreboard in our favor. He would not listen if I complained about the referee’s unfairness; that was just part of the game, not an excuse from my assignment. When I would make mistakes, he would first make sure I understood what I was supposed to be doing (sometimes in an intense way), then encourage me with “That’s OK, Hoss, get ’em next time.”

Are you in a battle, or are you standing in victory?  Let me recommend a way out of the battle and into a place of victory.

Five Steps to move from Battle to Victory

Step 1 – Know the playbook – That is, know your Bible.  Get a Bible that you can read and read it. Many translations of the Bible (e.g., King James, NIV, the ESV, The Message) matter little. The vital matter is that you have a Bible and that you READ it.

Step 2 – Believe the playbook (The Bible) is true cover to cover and that it is for your instruction and direction.  If you were to see a play from a football playbook, you would see a simple representation of what each player should be doing when the play is running.  The page does not tell you how far away the goal line is or when the victory will come, or even by how much. The pages of the playbook tell you, “Do this, and you win.” Likewise, the Bible does not predict when all of the troubles of this world will end, only that they will. The Bible is personal and for your good. But you will not execute your assignment if you do not trust the words on the pages.  For example:

• Romans 8:28 says that all things will work together for my good.  There are many troubles in this world, and it is beyond my imagination how they will work for my good.  But I trust what the Bible says, and I believe what it says
• Malachi 3 tells us that if we dedicate 10% of our income to God, he will pour out blessing on us. It calls me a thief if I do not. So I am a tither or a thief – not a grey area in that. But I have found that 90% of my income spends like 200%. I cannot explain the math, so blessings are pouring out of heaven.
• Matthew 17 tells us that if we speak to a mountain, it will move – If we trust.

Step 3 – Execute your assignment. Do you? Read your Bible? Attend your church? Tithe? Pray with and for your family? Listen to God’s direction? Accept his correction?  You do not need to be fighting the enemy; you need to be standing dressed in the whole armor of God with all your confidence placed on the One who has won the victory. 

I thank God gave me the easy assignment when he told me to “wear on your[my] feet the readiness that comes from the Gospel of Peace” (Eph 6:15).

Step 4 – Listen to the Coach when you make mistakes.  Jesus wants you to win.  He has laid out a plan for the victory and calls each of us to it. He does not want to punish us but instead wants to coach us and teach us. Take the correction of the master and “go and sin no more.”

Step 5 – Walk in your victory. Are you living victoriously? Don’t plan to start living in the promise after you die. Go ahead and celebrate now. When someone asks, “how are you?” Don’t answer “Oh, I’m alright” or go off into some long explanation of the trouble of the world. Instead, tell them you God has defeated all your enemies and that you are walking in blessing.  Tell them they can have the same victory in their lives and teach them to read and believe the Bible.  Teach them to pray to Jesus and accept his correction and direction.

As you walk in victory, we would enjoy hearing about how God is blessing you.  Take a moment right now and brag to someone about how God has blessed you. Then take a moment to email us and let us hear your witness.  God promises that we will overcome by the Blood of the Lamb AND the word of our Testimony. (Revelation 12:11)