God Keeps His Promise of Victory

We might suffer setbacks for a season. We might see the tide keep turning in the wrong direction in our neighborhoods or schools or state legislatures. We might see an ongoing moral, spiritual, and cultural decline, right in the midst of our praying and preaching. And yet if God has given us a promise, just as He promised we are to remain undaunted. We believe God! And that spirit of faith within us will become contagious, encouraging others to stand up and make their proclamation as well. “We believe God too!”

People often ask me how I remain so confident and faith-filled with all the unrelenting bad news I write about and talk about daily. I tell them, “The same God who showed me that things would get worse also promised me that the tide would turn if we obeyed His calling!” And so the bad news, as painful as it is for the moment and as grievous as it is to watch, also brings me encouragement. The storm has been predicted, but so has the fair weather that will follow.

The resurrected Jesus said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me” (chew on those words for a moment; let their reality settle in) before He said, “Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you.” And it was that same risen Jesus who closed this great commission with these words: “And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age” (Matt. 28:18–20). Is that not more than enough for us?

It was this same spirit of faith that empowered Joshua and Caleb. They too saw the giants in the land. They too knew the obstacles were severe. But they also knew that this was promised land—God Himself had given His Word—and so despite all the challenges they declared, “We can take the land!” (See Numbers 13:30.) It was this same spirit of faith that carried many a missionary pioneer who labored in obscurity for years, seeing very little fruit. Today we look back at them as heroes, and we are stunned to see the results of their work.

That same spirit of faith empowers us to march forward, believing for a massive harvest of souls, a fresh outpouring of the Spirit, a sustained revival in the church, a sweeping cultural awakening, a growing nationwide consciousness of God, and the exaltation of Jesus’ name, knowing that as we do what is right in the sight of God and live in the light of eternity, His Word will not return void. We believe God!

As 1 John declares, “For everyone born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, even our faith. Who is it that overcomes the world? Only the one who believes that Jesus is the Son of God” (1 John 5:4–5). In Jesus we overcome—whether people revere us or revile us, celebrate us or crucify us, receive us or reject us; whatever comes our way, we overcome. That is who we are. We believe God!