Every time we become wise in our own eyes and lean to our own understanding we destroy faith, we crush our belief in God.
Just like Israel’s sources for input had a negative effect, the source of our input matters as it pertains to our faith for obedience.
When we allow belief to be crushed by wrong input and bad sources we become unable to move forward.
Just as rebellion is the fruit of unbelief. Honorable and good accomplishments are the fruit of believing the right things. Victory is the fruit of believing God.
2Chronicles 20:20 So they rose early in the morning and went out into the Wilderness of Tekoa; and as they went out, Jehoshaphat stood and said, "Hear me, O Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem: Believe in the LORD your God, and you shall be established; believe His prophets, and you shall prosper."
Jehoshaphat is a leader with a really strange battle plan. He is promising the people they will not have to fight. He wants to go out and face an enemy that greatly outnumbers him and he wants to send out standard bearers and singers as his front lines.
Now either Jehoshaphat hates musicians and banner carriers or he believes something. God’s people in Jerusalem had to believe and their belief was based on their input.
We need to recognize two significant promises uttered here.
1) Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established! This is personal stuff here. This is not believe in the Lord my God. Jehoshaphat makes sure they understand they belong to the Lord. Being established is a personal relationship matter with God. We need to be able to trust Him on the basis of being His.
2) Believe in His prophets and you shall prosper. The word prosper could easily be interpreted as succeed. Prophets spoke the word of the Lord. They were the mouth piece of the Lord as it were. A more accurate modern understanding and application would be to place emphasis on believing the Word of God. We still have prophets today as well but even more than that we have the tested, proven, and inspired Word of God.
The battle for Israel was not Ammon and Moab on that day. It was what they would believe.
By arresting any thoughts that opposed what Jehoshaphat said, they were able to move forward in an obedience born of faith, and thus witnessed a great grace and victory from the Lord.
Is your faith moving you forward or are you standing still in your obedience towards the truth today?
About The Author
- Tim Atchley
- Knoxville, Tennessee, United States
- I currently serve as Senior Pastor of Harvest Church in Knoxville, Tn. I was sent out from Trinity Chapel of Knoxville in 1993 accompanied by my wife Sheila our four children Sarah, Hannah, Josiah & Isaac and a handful of bold, brave and committed believers determined to plant our first church. Pioneering is hard work but well worth the journey. That is why we desire to make disciples of Christ who will, like us, also embrace the call to plant churches.
