PODCAST TRANSCRIPT | EPISODE 130: IF GOD FIGHTS FOR US, SHOULDN’T WE FIGHT FOR OTHERS?
FROM OUR HOME TO YOURS w/ Nancy Campbell
EPISODE 130: IF GOD FIGHTS FOR US, SHOULDN’T WE FIGHT FOR OTHERS?
We have many promises that God fights for us to save us against our enemies. However, we learn two principles today.
1. If God fights for us, shouldn't we fight for those in need, for the unborn, who cannot speak for themselves, for those who suffer persecution, for those who need healing and deliverance, for the downtrodden, and for those being unjustly entreated?
2. Although God fights for us, we can't sit back and do nothing. God wants us to get in the battle and do our part to fight, too.
Announcer: Welcome to the podcast, From Our Home to Yours, with Nancy Campbell, founder and publisher of Above Rubies.
Nancy Campbell: Hello, ladies! Today we are going to finish our third podcast about God being A MAN OF WAR. It is been so amazing to see how much is written in the Scriptures about God, who fights for us, and how He wants us to fight, too.
OK. Now today, we are up to the sixth Hebrew word. Remember, I found 10 different Hebrew words, I think it was 10, that I found. Yes, let me have a look and see. No, I found 12! Goodness me! I found 12 Hebrew words about battles and fighting. Most of these words all relate to God, as well as to us.
LACHAM
So number 6 is lacham. We find this in Exodus 14:14 where it says: “The Lord shall fight for you, and you shall hold your peace.”
Deuteronomy 20:4: “For the Lord Your God is He that goeth with you, TO FIGHT AGAINST YOUR ENEMIES to fight for you against your enemies, to save you.”
Now, there are many, many other Scriptures where it talks about God fighting for us. In fact, when I do the transcripts of this podcast, I will put all those other Scriptures in for you, so you can look them up if you are interested.
The word fight is lacham, as I said. It means “to battle, to prevail, to fight, fighting, war.” It is translated “fight” or “fought” 149 times in the Bible. You notice how these words are used over and over again. God is a God of rest, but He is also a fighting God. That fighting spirit that comes over you when you want to rise up, and fight against evil, and fight against wickedness, that comes from God. Because He fights against wickedness.
Now, we talked about this in the first series, on these subjects, how that God created us, as women, to be nurturers. We have this anointing from God to nurture, and we have that beautiful anointing upon us, to be gently nourishing and caring for our children.
IF GOD FIGHTS FOR US, SHOULDN’T WE FIGHT FOR OTHERS?
But we also have a spirit of fighting to protect our children, and to push back the enemy from coming into our homes. But I was thinking about this, and thinking that if God fights for us, shouldn't we fight for others, just as Jesus intercedes at the right hand of the Father, continually? We also should intercede for others.
So I believe that we also should have that fighting spirit. We should be fighting for the unborn, because they cannot fight for themselves. I think of Proverbs 31:8, 9, where it says: “Open your mouth on behalf of those unable to speak, for the legal rights of all the dying. Open your mouth, judge in righteousness, and plead the cause of the poor and the needy.”
The unborn baby in the womb, it cannot speak for itself. It cannot rise up for itself. It cannot have justice for itself. So we need to fight for the unborn in whatever way we can.
I love to sign petitions, don't you? Any petition that is for caring and for protecting the unborn, I will sign it. Of course, the biggest thing we can do is pray, and also be a voice, always speaking up for the unborn, always speaking up for life.
When we were in Australia, we used to go and stand outside an abortion clinic every week. That was a very powerful thing to do. We're no longer doing that now, but we have one of our families on the hilltop who go every second week down into Nashville. They take lots of our young people with them.
They stand there as a voice for the unborn. They go there to pray, and to be available to speak to anyone they can. They have lots of wonderful opportunities to speak to those who have been going in, and have even been able to save some mothers from going into that wicked place.
So we fight. We have to stand up, and fight against that which is evil. I believe we have to fight the fight of faith for those who need healing and deliverance. We all know those who are going through difficult times physically. Sometimes it's life and death. We can stand in prayer for them, and with them, fighting the prayer of faith.
When someone is in very dire circumstances, you know, we can do more than just say, “OK, I'll pray for you.” Sometimes we can meet with them and pray with them regularly.
Right now, we have a precious couple in our hilltop families who are in great need of prayer. So we meet nightly to pray over them, because there's something about that consistent prayer. Remember that word: “Because of his importunity, he got what he wanted.” That means he did not give up. He kept coming and coming, and not giving up in prayer. God wants us to have that tenacity in prayer, that fight of faith in prayer. (Read Luke 11:8 and Luke 18:1-8).
We fight in prayer for our precious saints who are suffering persecution. Oh my, there are so many in the world today who are suffering persecution. We often forget about them, don't we? Because here, we who live in America, everything is wonderful . . . although it's not becoming quite so wonderful at the moment as we face all this dominion over our lives with masks and lockdowns. Many leftist states are facing tyranny, even over this Thanksgiving period. Some states have said they can't even have anyone else in their homes to share Thanksgiving. Now that is absolute tyranny! That is unbelievable in our free country of America!
And yet, we're still not suffering the persecution that many of our fellow believers are, who have been thrown into prison, who are suffering torment in their bodies . . . the things they have done to their bodies! I'm always challenged by Hebrews 13:3. In the New Living Translation it says: “Remember those in prison, as if you were there yourselves. Remember also those mistreated, as if you felt their pain in your own bodies.”
Often, it's hard to feel that, because maybe we're not feeling pain. We can't even. . . we wonder, how can we really feel what they are going through? But God wants us to do that, as much as possible.
I remember last year, I think it was last year. Serene, my daughter, she was up on their second story of their home, which is still being built. It's pretty high. There was a ladder going up. She was coming down the ladder with a long skirt on. It got caught. She and the ladder went flying down, and she landed hard on her back. She was immediately in, oh, most terrible pain!
She said to me, “Oh Mum,” she said, “I was in such pain. I remembered immediately the persecuted church, how we are to feel their pain in our bodies. For the first time, I could really cry out to God for them! And I was crying out, and praying for them, because I was feeling pain in my own body.”
I thought, “My, I was quite challenged by her doing that.” And anyway, she was fine in the end.
But we have to fight for these different areas. We need to fight for the downtrodden, and those who are unjustly treated. We should always be fighting on the side of justice. We should be fighting against the horrific sex trafficking that is even going on in our nation.
We should be constantly standing up against these evils and praying through for them. Because I believe, although we do everything we can, we speak out, we stand up, we do what we can, but always our greatest fight is in prayer, isn't it?
I believe we should be fighting, at this time, for our President. I mean, we are, at the moment, facing a fraudulent election. I guess all of you are aware of so many different things that have come to light, showing the fraud of this last election.
We've also heard lately of course, about the Dominion voting system, which has interference from overseas, and foreign and international interference that is tied to Venezuela, and Cuba, and China. Even as Sidney Powell, who is one of the lawyers who is working on these things, she said that these Dominion voting systems that were used in so many states across this nation have always been used across the world to defy the will of the people, and those who want freedom.
Of course, the left deny all this. If you were to go to the internet, and look this up, you will find that it says, “fact checking,” to say that this is false. Have you noticed that fact checking has become quite ridiculous? Any article that is speaking truth, it's just, immediately, there's a fact check. “This is false!”
I remember posting, or trying to post one day, an article that I found about a guy who had been working in the election. He showed, before our very eyes, someone who had voted, and it showed his vote. Then it showed that he actually died in 1984! And there it was, in front of your eyes. He showed it clearly.
But then, up came the fact checker! Immediately! “This is false!” They are bringing out this over every little bit of truth that people are seeking to get out. Someone was saying the other day that they posted a picture of the American flag. Immediately, up came fact checking! “This is false!” So, it's getting a little bit ludicrous. We can't really trust the fact checkers at all these days. It's all simply crazy.
But I do believe that we should be praying for our President, praying for a honest election, and that this will not be decided until it is proven to be honest. Whatever happens, after an honest election, we must accept with all our hearts. But it must be honest! It has to be true!
What does the Bible say about these things? Proverbs 11:1: “A false balance is an abomination to the Lord, but a just weight is His delight.” Now, that's really just the same spirit of fraudulent elections, when they're seeking to cheat with votes.
Proverbs 19:36 in the New Living Translation, it says: “Your scales and weights must be accurate.” Voting systems, voting machines, voting papers, whatever they're using, must be accurate!
Micah 6:11 says, “Shall I count them pure with wicked balances, and with a bag of deceitful weights?” God hates any deceit, cheating, anything that is unjust.
Deuteronomy 25, I'll just give you one more Scripture about that, although there are many. Deuteronomy 25:15, 16, “But thou shalt have a perfect and just weight, a perfect and just measure shalt thou have: that thy days may be lengthened in the land which the Lord thy God giveth thee.”
Isn't that amazing? We have the promise that God will lengthen our days if we are children who obey their parents. Children who obey their parents have that beautiful promise, that they will live a long life.
Now here comes this similar promise: “Your days will be lengthened if you have a perfect and just measure.” When you do things accurately, you do not cheat. It goes on say: “For all that do such things, and all that do unrighteously, are an abomination unto the Lord thy God.”
This election, in the sight of God, is an abomination, because there has been so much fraud. Dear precious ladies, let's keep praying for God to come through, for everything to be exposed.
We are fighting a huge, huge machine. It is very powerful. It is a Goliath. Every little bit of truth that comes forth, they stamp on it immediately. It's denied, it's called false, the fact checkers come out and they just stamp “FALSE” all over it. It is just so difficult to even get the truth out. I believe it can only happen as we pray. So let's keep praying and fighting the battle! Amen? Fighting the battle against wickedness, against evil.
In 1 Samuel 25: 28, it tells us that David fights the battles of the Lord. What battles was David fighting? Were they his own battles? When he went out to fight the enemy, were they his battles? No, the Bible calls them the Lord's battles. God ordained the battles. God is in the battle.
In 1 John 3:8 it says that Jesus came to destroy the works of the devil. Now Jesus dwells in our hearts, and He still want to destroy the works of the devil. So we keep on doing that. We have to keep on fighting. We'll always be fighting while there is evil around. Amen?
GOD FIGHTS AND WE FIGHT
Yes. I've written here, God fights for us. But He wants us to fight too. There is an amazing principle in the Word of God. I want to show it to you now. I want you to get hold of this principle. It's the principle that although God comes and fights for us, He doesn't do it all. He wants us to be part of the fighting. It's us working together. God works, and we work. God fights, and we fight.
OK. Let me take you to these Scriptures. We'll have a look at a few examples.
Deuteronomy 7:2, 16, “When the Lord thy God shall deliver them before you,” (that's God fighting. OK, God is delivering them. He's delivering the enemy)“Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them; thou shalt consume all the people which the Lord thy God shall deliver you.” (you fighting). And so we see here, God delivers the enemy into our hands, and then we have to destroy the enemy. You're both working together.
Deuteronomy 7:24: “He shall deliver their kings into thine hand.” That's God fighting. “And thou shalt destroy their name from under heaven.” That's you fighting!
Deuteronomy 9:3: “The Lord thy God, which goeth over before thee; as a consuming fire, He shall destroy them” (talking about the enemy) “and He shall bring them down before thy face.” This is God fighting for us. Then it goes on to say: “So shalt thou drive them out and destroy them, as the Lord thy God hath said to thee.” That's you fighting! Are you getting the picture?
God does His part, and then He wants us to do our part. We can't just stand there and say “OK, God, fight my battles for me!” Yes, God does come, and He fights for us. But He wants us to also take up that mantle of coming against the enemy and destroying the enemy.
1 Chronicles 14:15, 16. This was a strategy that God gave in one of the battles for Israel: “When thou shalt hear a sound of going in the tops of the mulberry trees, that then thou shalt go out to battle.” That's you fighting. “For God is gone forth before thee, to smite the host of the Philistines.” That's God fighting. “David therefore did as God commanded him: and they smote the host of the Philistines from Gibeon, even to Gazer.”
So right there, we see God was fighting. He smote the Philistines, but that wasn't the end. They had to also go out and smite the Philistines.
OK, I'll give you one more. Jeremiah 51:20, 4. This is God prophetically speaking through Jeremiah to Israel. “Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee,” that's you fighting, “will I break in pieces the nations.” That's God fighting. “And with thee,” you fighting, “will I destroy kingdoms,” God fighting. “And with thee,” you fighting, “I will break in pieces the horse and his rider.” God is fighting. “And with thee,” you fighting, “will I break in pieces the chariots and his rider.” That's God fighting!.
So do you get that picture, ladies? That's a wonderful principle to remember as you face battles. God is fighting for you, but you've got to do your part. You also have to fight and smite the enemy.
QRAB (kerab)
All right. Number seven: qerab. We find this in Zechariah 14:3: “Then shall the Lord go forth and fight against those nations, as when He fought in the day of battle.” This word means “hostile encounter, battles, war,” and it's used nine times in the Bible. But here we see it's used of God, God going forth to fight.
Then we read in Psalm 144:1, David said: “Blessed be the Lord my Strength, which teacheth my hands to war,” (that's qerab) “and my fingers to fight.” God is the One Who teaches us to fight.
NASHAQ
Number eight: that is nashaq, and it means, “armed men.” Yes, 1 Chronicles 12:2. OK, here it talks about the helpers of the war who came to help David. “They were armed,” (that's the word there, nashaq) “with bows, and could use both the right hand and the left in hurling stones and shooting arrows out of a bow.”
CHALATS
All right, the next one, number nine, is chalats or qalats. If you get the transcript for this podcast, which we do transcripts, they usually come a couple of weeks or so afterwards, you'll get the correct spelling of the Hebrew words, and so on.
OK, we find this one in Numbers 31:3, 4: “And Moses spake to all the people, armed,” (that's the word chalats) “armed men from among you for the war, to attack the Midianites, and execute the Lord's vengeance on Midian. You must send to the battle a thousand men from every tribe, from all the tribes of Israel.”
MA-ARAKAH
All right, number ten: I wonder how I meant to say this: maharawkaw. And that's a Hebrew word that means “military array, army, fight, set in order for the war, rank.” When David was preparing to fight Goliath, he mockingly asked the giant, “Who is this uncircumcised Philistine, that he should defy the armies, (ma-arakah) the armies of the Lord God?” (1 Samuel 17:26).
And then, when he faced Goliath, he confessed, with boldness, his trust in the Lord: “Thou comest to me with a sword, and a shield: but I come to thee in the Name of the Lord of Hosts” (1 Samuel 17:45) Remember, ladies, that's another Name of God, another war-Name of God. “The Lord of Hosts” is the Hebrew word tsaba, and it means the “God of the armies of heaven, the God of the armies of Israel, the God, our Warrior, Who fights for us.” And David came to Goliath “in the Name of the Lord of Hosts, the God of the armies, (ma-harakah) of Israel, whom thou hast defied.”
“And it came to pass, when the Philistine arose. and came and drew nigh to meet David, that David hasted, and ran toward the army (ma-arakah) to meet the Philistine.” (1 Samuel 17:47) So that is that word.
S’OWN
Number 11, s’own. This is a word meaning “military boot,” or “battle.”
SA’AN
And number 12, sa’an. It means “a soldier shod with a shoe, a warrior.” Also found in Isaiah 9:5.
So that completes the 12 different Hebrew words I found for battle and fighting and war. They are used over and over again in the Word of God.
Here's a couple of interesting Scriptures. Here's a Scripture that describes David when he was a young man, even before he was king. In this Scripture, there are three different Hebrew words for battle and war.
In 1 Samuel 16:18, it says: “Behold I have seen a son of Jesse, the Bethlehemite, that is cunning in playing (We all know he was the beautiful, sweet psalmist of Israel) and a mighty” (that's the word gibbor, that’s the first word we talked about) valiant man (chayil, so he was a mighty, valiant man, it’s two Hebrew words there, gibbor and chayil). And a man of war (milchamah) and prudent in matters, and a comely person.” That word actually means “beautiful.” David was obviously beautiful. There's another passage that talks about his eyes, and that he had very amazing and beautiful eyes.
Yes, the Bible talks about this. Isn't it amazing how the Bible talks about little things that we wouldn't even think about? I have read other things about David, and where it talks about his eyes. Some writer believed that he had green eyes. I don't know where he got that, but the Bible does say that he had very beautiful eyes.
Then it finishes, “and the Lord is with him.” Of all the beautiful descriptions of David in that one Scripture, there were three words relating to war.
Now here's another Scripture, 1 Chronicles 7:11. In this Scripture, there are four, just a little Scripture, and yet, four different Hebrew words relating to war:
“All these, the sons of Jediael, by the heads of their fathers, mighty (gibbor) men of valor (chayil), were seventeen thousand and two hundred soldiers fit to go out for war (tsaba) and battle (milchamah).” Four strong, powerful Hebrew words about battles.
We can't get away from it, lovely ladies. We are in a battle because we belong to the Kingdom of God. It is antipathy to the kingdom of darkness. We are at war with the kingdom of darkness. We have it all around us. We have evil. In this hour, the darkness is, I believe, getting darker.
It's like it says in Isaiah chapter 60:2: “And gross darkness is covering the earth.” There seems to be more and more evil and deception. But in the midst of this darkness, what does God tell us to do? To just sink into our homes and into our despair, and say, “Poor me!”
NO! It says to arise! And shine! This is what we have to do in this hour. We have to take up our armor as it talks about in Ephesians chapter 6. And we've got to put it on. We've got to fight. We have to fight the battles we face daily, fight the evil that is around us, and shine with the love of Christ. And shine with His truth. And shine brightly as the Scripture says.
Now one little thing more I want to say to you about being in the battle. That is, it is so hard to be in the battle on your own. But do you know, lovely ladies, God doesn't want you to be in the battle on your own. He wants others to come along and be with you. And He wants you to get alongside other, and be with them.
Because, although we are soldiers, because that's what we are called, the Word of God says that we are to endure hardness as a good soldier of Jesus Christ (2 Timothy 2;3, 4). But a soldier is not really a soldier on his own. Yes, he can be a soldier, but he's not in the battle until he gets together with all the other soldiers.
When there's a battle, they're all called. They have to get together. They've all been trained, and they know what to do. Now they come together to go and fight the enemy. We do have to come together to fight the enemy.
I was reading a while back and noticed this principle in the Word. I'm going to give you just two or three Scriptures. It's over and over again that we see it.
Judges 7:23: “And all the men of Israel gathered themselves together and pursued after the Midianites.” They just didn't go out, one person trying to fight the Midianites. They couldn't do it without an army. They had to come together as an army.
We see over in Judges 20:11: “So all the men of Israel were gathered against the city, knit together as one man.”
2 Samuel 12:29: “And David gathered all the people together, and went to Rabbah, and fought against it.” Do you get the picture? We can really only destroy the enemy when we gather together. There is power in corporate prayer. God wants us to be a people who unite together to pray, because then it is more powerful.
Yes, you can pray on your own. It is important to pray on our own. But, of course, we can pray as families. That's gathering together. That is powerful. The more you have in your family, the greater gathering that you have.
We love to do that in our home. Every morning, every evening, we gather, whoever is in our home and pray together. But then we can go even beyond that, and pray with others, even outside the home. Even in this hour in which we are facing this election, which has not yet fully been decided, we need to be praying. It's something that can only really be handled in real intercession and fighting in prayer.
So why don't you ask another family over to your home to pray with you? Or some other families? We gather families every night here and pray together over this election.
Let me just close with one Scripture, Leviticus 26. And this here, it's talking about war and chasing your enemies. In verses 7 and 8, it says: “And ye shall chase your enemies, and they shall fall before you by the sword. And five of you shall chase an hundred.”
You know, even five, mom and dad and three children, that's five, you can chase 100 enemies in prayer! Because that's the greatest weapon in war. But then it goes on to say: “And an hundred of you shall put ten thousand to flight: and your enemies shall fall before you by the sword.”
The more you gather together to pray, to fight in prayer, the more enemies you will destroy. So be encouraged. Pray, but gather your family to pray. Then gather others to pray too. Amen?
Dear Father, we thank You that, Lord, You don't leave us in the dark. You show us that we're in a battle, Lord God. And we thank You that, as we have been going through Your Word, we see, Father, that You also are the God of battle.
Lord, You fight battles. You fight battles with us, Lord, and You want us to come alongside You and fight Your battles against all evil and wickedness and that which is an abomination to you, Lord God.
Oh, Father, help us to be faithful. Help us to be strong in the fight, Lord God. Help us, Lord, to not give up, as we continue, because You have said, Lord, that as we fight, we will destroy the enemy.
I pray, Father, that You will encourage each one listening today, encourage them in their faith, Lord God. Those who are feeling, Lord, down, and just helpless, I pray that You will lift them up, and You will strengthen them to fight the fight of faith, Lord.
We think of Paul, who at the end of his life, he was able to say, “I have fought a good fight.” Help us, Lord, to be continually fighting the good fight. In the Name of Jesus, Amen.
Blessings from Nancy Campbell
Transcribed by Darlene Norris
GOD FIGHTS FOR YOU SCRIPTURES TO LOOK UP:
Deuteronomy 1:30; Joshua 10:14, 42; 23:3, 10; Nehemiah 4:20; 2 Chronicles 20:17; and Zechariah 14:3.