Shouts of Victory

When you meet a real soldier next time, ask him whether he likes war time or peace time.

My experience is that, he will answer that he likes war time.

War is a time of action and peace is a time of idleness.

No soldier wish to get wounded or killed in war, but he dislikes peace time.

Soldiers may not wish for war, but real soldiers like war, because it is a time of action.

Real believers like war. We have fight, a war to win. We are in a war.

But our war is different from the wars between nations on this earth.

Our weapons in the war and our intention of the war are also different.

In truth, the war of a born again Christian believer is already fought and won; the victory is declared.

We are now only effecting or implementing the victory.  

This is the core thought of this message.

Every born again believer has to fight a spiritual war.

When we are born again, the change happened is a shift from one army to another.

Once we were in the army of the kingdom of darkness and satan, fighting to protect his kingdom.

Now we are chosen by God to become a royal priesthood, we are called out of darkness to the kingdom of marvelous light that is of Jesus Christ. (1 Peter 2:9)

Thus we have joined a new army leaving the old one forever.

But we are not saved from war, we continue in the war; we have only shifted the Kingdoms.

Even if we do not agree and do not fight, we are in a war because the enemy is fighting against our Kingdom.

Once we fought for the kingdom of darkness, now we fight for the kingdom of light.

We did never felt that we were in a war fighting against another kingdom, when we were in the army of the kingdom of darkness.

But once we are born again, we feel that we are in a war and someone is always fighting against us.

It is simply because, God chose us in Him before the foundation of the world (Ephesians 1:4).

And God is a loving God who have no pleasure in the death of the wicked; God prefers a wicked turn from his way and live. (Ezekiel 33:11)

No we are fighting to restore and enlarge the influence of the Kingdom of God.

And our war is not against humans like us with flesh and blood; the war is against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age, spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places. (Ephesians 6:12)

With these thoughts let us read a scripture verse from Psalms.

Shout of victory

Psalms 118:15 The voice of rejoicing and salvation Is in the tents of the righteous; The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.  (NKJV)

It is “Hark, glad songs of victory in the tents of the righteous” in RSV

It is “Shouts of joy and victory resound in the tents of the righteous” in NIV

The Hebrew word used for “salvation” is <y@shuw`ah> (yesh-oo-aw) which means deliverance, victory, prosperity etc.

The second part of the verse says: “The right hand of the LORD does valiantly.”

‘Valiantly’ is a term connected with war. In NIV it is “The Lord’s right hand has done mighty things!”

That means the shouts of joy is a shout of victory in war.

There is always voices, songs and shots of deliverance and victory in the houses of the righteous.

The shouts of deliverance and victory is connected to wars.

Shout of victory is a spontaneous act from those who have won a battle.

Those who have won a race or a game also shout because they are victorious in it.

It tells us that one party is victorious and another party is defeated.

So in each and every shout of victory there is a battle, race or game and a victory.

No victory without a battle; no shout of joy and victory without a successful fight in a battle.

According to our key text, righteous people have won the battle defeating their enemy and hence they shout the victory to the world.

Triumphal festival

By accepting Jesus as our Savior and Lord, we have joined His army.

We are fighting against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

But we are not the first to join this war.

This is not the first lap of the war. This is the last lap of the war.

The first lap of the war is over and we are called for the last lap of the war.

The uniqueness of the army of the Kingdom of God is that they are fighting with a victorious army.

2 Corinthians 2:14 Now thanks be to God who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and through us diffuses the fragrance of His knowledge in every place. (NKJV)

How the readers of the first century understood this verse is very important.

There was a real triumphant festival in the Roman Empire.

That was an honour given to a triumphant military general who has defeated and conquered the enemy and has enlarged the wealth and geographical area of the Roman kingdom.

Here were are not going into the details of this triumphant festival because that is not our topic.

The fragrance mentioned in the above verse is the fragrance of flowers thrown over the military general as he goes through the Roman streets in triumphant procession.

So Paul had in mind a triumphant procession, spreading sweet fragrance that celebrated the victory in the war.

Keeping this analogy in mind, Paul is telling us that God always lead us in triumph in Christ.

That means, The war is won by the military general, Jesus Christ on Calvary by His sacrifice on the Cross.

Colossians 2:15 Having disarmed principalities and powers, He made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them in it.  (NKJV)

This is what happened in the spiritual realm.

What we see on this earth is a parallel reality of the truth that happens in the Spiritual realm.

On earth we see Jesus, betrayed, arrested, tortured and crucified.

The anointed apostle Paul saw beyond the earthly reality, the truth that happened in the spiritual realm.

And he is revealing the truth of the whole incident that Jesus on the Cross defeated and disarmed satanic principalities and powers, made them a public show for all humans to see the defeat and Jesus triumphed over all satanic army.

Thus the triumphal festival started there, is continuing today, and will continue in the eternity.

We are chosen and called out to join this victory festival.

Thus we are not exactly fighting against satanic army but effecting the victory over them.

We are not fighting for victory, but we have joined the victorious army and is moving forward from victory to victory.

So there is always shouts of joy and victory in the tents of the righteous.

Gideon

As I told you before Kingdom of God has a different way of fighting wars.

Kingdom of God does not need the might and power of humans, God wins wars by His Spirit. (Zechariah 4:6)

God’s weapons are different from that of man; none other than God can use it effectively.

They are unusual and sure to win.

One of His mighty weapon is Shouts of Victory.

The account of Gideon’s life is recorded in Judges 6: 11 - 8: 32.

The name Gideon means “cutter” or “cutter of tree”.

Later people called him Jerubbaal (Jerub-Baal), meaning “Let Baal contend with him” or that “let Baal fight with him”. (6:32).

Fighting with Baal was fighting with Midianites, and fighting with Midianites is fighting with Baal, because Baal was their god.

And Gideon fought with Baal and Midianites and won a decisive victory.

The final lap of the war

I would like to draw your attention to the final lap of the war against Midianites.

Gideon went against the enemy with only 300 chosen men.

The Midianites were described as “thick as locusts” with “camels as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore” (7:12).

But God wants to win the war in His own way, using His own weapons.

So God chose 300 men out of 32000 gathered by Gideon. God reduced them to 1% of it.

God did not like Israel claiming glory for itself against Him, saying, 'My own hand has saved me.'

So God reduced the army in number. (7: 2)

The time came for the final war.

In the night of the day of war, God said to him to go down to the camp, assuring Gideon that God has delivered them into his hand. (7:9)

Since Gideon was afraid, God let him take along with him a servant called Purah.

And God asked him to hear what the enemy says about the assurance that God has given that He has delivered the Midianites into his hand.

Gideon and his servant crept down the hill in the stillness of the night, when the camp was in slumber.

As they move along they come near to a couple of men who are talking together, and they listen to their conversation.

One of them told his fellow that he had dreamed a dream, and the other ventured an interpretation.

Gideon heard his own name mentioned, and his own success foretold.

Judges 7: 13,14

13   And when Gideon had come, there was a man telling a dream to his companion. He said, "I have had a dream: To my surprise, a loaf of barley bread tumbled into the camp of Midian; it came to a tent and struck it so that it fell and overturned, and the tent collapsed."

 14 Then his companion answered and said, "This is nothing else but the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel! Into his hand God has delivered Midian and the whole camp."

Gideon is assured of the victory. The interpreter of the dream said, “God has delivered Midian and the whole camp” into Gideon’s hand.

He also interpreted the barley bread as “the sword of Gideon”.

It is not God will deliver Midian into Gideon’s hand, it is God has done it.

Means, the war is over; Israelites have won the war.

Gideon and his servant went back to the hill where the little band of three hundred lay in hiding.

And Gideon said: "Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand." (7:15)

Just note what Gideon said to his fellowmen. He was repeating the interpretation of the dream.

The Lord has delivered the camp of Midian into our hands.

The war is over, we have won the war.

And Gideon knew, if the war is over and the victory is achieved, they do not need swords and spears for the war.

This is time for the shout of victory. So he asked them to carry trumpets, pitchers and torches.

Obedient to their leader they descend with their trumpets, and with torches covered over with pitchers.

At a signal from Gideon they break the pitchers, display the lights, sound the trumpets, and shout: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”

The words “the sword of Gideon” is borrowed from the interpreter of the dream.

The real war was fought by their God and shared the victory with Gideon and his army.

So they shouted in faithfulness and gratitude: “The sword of the Lord and of Gideon.”

When Midianites heard the trumpet and the shout of the Israelites, God set every man's sword against his companion throughout the whole Midianites camp and the whole army ran and cried out and fled.

What the Midianites thought when they heard the war cry is not our concern here.

We are concerned about what Gideon and his army said and how God gave them victory.

Or what is the war tactics that God used to defeat and scatter the enemy.

Trumpets were used in battle to sound the charge or retreat.

In relation to wars and rulers, the trumpet symbolizes power and authority.

And power and authority is attained by a ruler by victory over the enemies.

The sound of the trumpet has always denoted military strength, it is a signaling instrument.

The sound of trumpet evokes an aura of heroism, power, strength, domination and triumph.

So by blowing the trumpets, they were exercising the victory over the Midianites.

We have already seen that Gideon and his men did not fight in the war.

They did not even carry swords and spears to the war field.

The war was fought and won by God.

The remaining role of Gideon is to celebrate the victory.

Gideon and his men blew the trumpet, lighted the torches and shouted victory over the enemy.

When God gave the last direction to Gideon, He said: “Arise, go down against the camp, for I have delivered it into your hand.” (7:9)

That simply means, the fight is over, now go and conquer.

The real fight is fought between Yahweh and the gods of Midianites

What we see on this earth is only a parallel events of the truth in the spiritual realm.

God fought the battle, He won the battle and then He asked Gideon to implement the victory.

God asked him to go down to the camp of the enemy and listen to two men there.

God has revealed to them what has already happened in the spiritual realm.

Gideon heard the battle story and the victory of the battle that happened in the spiritual realm.

And then he declared: "Arise, for the LORD has delivered the camp of Midian into your hand." (7:15)

To implement the victory, we need not swords and spears, but shouts of victory.

Now understand the truth, the war between humans and satan, the war between God and satan is already fought and won and the triumphal festival started on the Cross of Jesus Christ.

We are called to effect or exercise the victory by joining the triumphal celebration.

Jesus has fought the war, defeated the enemy, disarmed him and the triumphal ceremony has started.

We are joining the triumphal festival and thus inheriting the victory as our own.

So we do not need swords and spears, we need trumpets of power and authority and shouts of victory to implement the victory.

For the New Testament believer, there is not at all an earthly enemy in flesh and blood.

We wrestle not against flesh and blood.

We fight against principalities, powers, the rulers of the darkness of this age and spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.

Out fight is totally spiritual.

The Kingdom of God is a spiritual Kingdom now and the real war is in the spiritual realm.

And this war is already fought and won by Jesus, once and for all.

Now He leads us in triumph and we spread the fragrance of the victory and shout the joy of the victory.

Why we should implement the victory?

If the war is over and the victory is certain, why should we go on implementing the victory?

God has fought the war with the gods of the Midianites and won the war.

But the army that has camped against God’s people is a reality; they are still challenging the Israelites.

The fight is not settled on earth with the fight won by God in the spiritual realm.

So Gideon and his army must conquer the enemy and chase them away.

In a sense the war continues even after the victory in the spiritual realm.

The enemy is not annihilated; the time for his annihilation has not come.

So the presence of the enemy is felt in our life; the enemy is still active.

So Peter gives us the warning to “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.” (1 Peter 5:8 - NKJV)

Peter is not telling us to fight against the enemy as to defeat him in a war fought between nations of the earth.

Peter is asking us to use a different weapon to implement the victory.

The enemy in the verse cannot enter the sheepfold because the shepherd is the door to it.

The sheep fold has a wall build by wooden pillars or stones placed side by side or one on the other.

It has only one door and the shepherd sleeps laying across the door.

From the verse, we are sure what the animal is; it can be a wolf, any other wild animal or a lion itself.

The enemy is standing out of the sheepfold, and he roars to frighten the sheep inside the fold.

All those sheep who are trusting the protection of the shepherd and knows that no enemy, even a lion cannot come inside and attack them, will sleep peacefully.

But most of them do not behave in that way always. They are easily scared and the enemy knows it.

They are frightened, they run here and there in the sheepfold.

Still the enemy cannot do anything against them.

But some frightened sheep will run above the sheepfold with the good intention of running away from the enemy.

Those who trust in the protection given by the shepherd who sleeps peacefully at the door and as the door, will not be frightened

They sleep peacefully trusting the shepherd.

That is what we read in Psalms 4:8 “I will both lie down in peace, and sleep; For You alone, O LORD, make me dwell in safety.”  (NKJV)

But the cowards, those who do not trust the shepherd will try to find a way of escape by themselves.

And all those who jump out of the sheepfold become a prey to the enemy.

The enemy devoured the sheep not because the shepherd did not provide safety.

It is not because the shepherd did not fight and win the war for them.

It is because they did not trust in the victory of Jesus and so they tried to find their own way to fight the war.

Our flesh and blood cannot defeat satan, only Jesus can defeat him.

Satan is a defeated enemy now, but still he is roaming around us roaring like a lion.

The key to success is to “Be sober, be vigilant”

And James 4:7 advices us: “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (NKJV)

Trusting in the triumph of Jesus and resisting the devil is the New Testament weapon to implement the victory on satan achieved by Jesus on the Cross.

The failed war

To reinforce the idea that we have been discussing, let me cite two more incidents from the Old Testament.

One incident is negative where Israelites failed and the other is positive where they won the war.

In Joshua 7, we read about the war the Israelites fought against the Canaanite city Ai.

After Jericho, Joshua prepared to conquer the city Ai.

He sent his men to spy out the city. The report was very encouraging.

The spies reported that there are only few people in Ai and only two or three thousand warriors would be enough to conquer it.

So three thousand men went up to Ai, but Israelites were defeated and 36 men killed.

Then Joshua fell before God and a cry of defeat was made.

And God spoke to Joshua that the Israel has sinned, they have taken some accursed things from the city of Jericho, against the severe warning from God.

The details of the sin committed by some of the Israel is not our discussion here.

We are thinking why Israel army could not defeat the enemy.

This happened after the spectacular victory of Israel against Jericho.

There they did not fight with their swords and spears to defeat the city of Jericho.

In Joshua 6:2 “the LORD said to Joshua: "See! I have given Jericho into your hand, its king, and the mighty men of valor.”

The war is already fought and won by God in the spiritual realm.

As they were instructed by God, they walked around the city for seven days and on the seventh day they sounded the trumpet and shouted the victory when Joshua said: "Shout, for the LORD has given you the city!” (6:16 & 20)

And the city fell into their hands; they just executed or implemented the victory by killing and burning the city and its inhabitants.

The war was fought by God and Israelites implemented the victory by shouting the joy of it.

But here at Ai, Israelites failed because God did not fight the war. They have committed sin.

God is not a warrior of sinners, “The LORD is a man of war” for the righteous people. (Exodus 15:3)

If God do not fight the war, we will never win.

So fight the war of God; inherit the victory of God; implement the victory over the enemy in the physical realm.

Shout of victory is not just a huge noise that we make; it is not an emotional expression of joy.

It is a weapon in the spiritual warfare.

We are declaring the victory of God that has already happened in the spiritual realm.

That is why as soon as the Israelites landed in the desert by crossing the Red Sea, Moses and the whole Israel shouted: God has triumphed gloriously! The horse and its rider He has thrown into the sea! (Exodus 15:1), "Your right hand, O LORD, has become glorious in power; Your right hand, O LORD, has dashed the enemy in pieces. (Exodus 15:6)

Conclusion

The voice of rejoicing and salvation is in the tents of the righteous. (Psalms 118:15)

The voice of salvation is the shout of victory in the war.

It is a weapon in the warfare to exercise or implement the victory won by God in the spiritual realm over satan.

In 2 Chronicles 20, we read the story of Jehoshaphat leading his army against an alliance of nations that included Moab, Ammon and Ammonites.

Through a prophet named Jahaziel, God told Jehoshaphat that He will deliver Judah without a fight.

God told him: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's.” (20: 15)

God continued to tell that they need not fight in this battle. (20: 17)

So God fought the battle and Jehoshaphat and Judah implemented the success by a shout of victory.

Jehoshaphat appointed people singing to the LORD, in front of the army as they marched towards the enemy camp.

And they shouted: "Praise the LORD, For His mercy endures forever."

Suddenly the alliance of nations turn against each other and begin to kill each other (20: 22–23).

The men of Judah spend three days collecting the spoils of war that were abandoned by their enemies (20: 25).

Jesus has defeated the enemy, satan, disarmed him and has made a public show of him.

We have no fight to fight, because the fight is over.

The victory belongs to Jesus and it is given to the church today.

Still satan is roaming on this earth intending to devour the weak sheep.

So we have to exercise the victory of Jesus by joining the triumphal festival, being sober and vigilant and resisting the defeated enemy.

Let me cut short.

May God bless you with a victorious Christian life. Amen!

Official website: naphtalitribe.com

Watch the video of this message in English and Malayalam @ naphtalitribetv.com

Listen to the audio messages in English and Malayalam @ naphtalitriberadio.com

Read study notes in Malayalam @ vathil.in