BE STILL
Being still during battles requires faith in our Saviour.
7/9/20263 min read
BE STILL
There is a freedom we encompass when we yield to truth. Not my truth, your truth, their truth: but God’s truth. Recognizing God’s sovereignty and yielding to His truth puts us in a place of safety and security that we will not find anywhere else. Accepting His plan of salvation ushers in confidence, peace, and praise.
God spoke at times to His children to stand still and see His salvation Exodus 14:13; 2nd Chronicles 20:17. He told them this at a time of warfare. He is still sovereign. We have battles on our hands, but we must recognize that our battles are fought in the spiritual realm. We have salvation and victory in God alone: He is in control. Nothing happens without being part of His purpose, plan, or permission. He has already conquered our enemy. Our part in winning the battles is to release what we think we control, stop trying to use natural weapons that are utterly useless in spiritual warfare, put on the whole armor of God according to Ephesians 6:10-18, and stand against the forces of the devil in the strength of the Lord. When He is fighting, we can be comfortable being still. We will only be comfortable if we know His power, dominion, wisdom, and sovereignty. We can know His power from what His Word teaches us as well as our own experiences.
We can even be still when we go to God and stand in the gap interceding for others. In Joshua 3:8-5:18, the Lord told Joshua to tell the priests to stand still in Jordan as the people crossed the riverbed to the other side of the Jordan River. When the priests stepped into the edge of the water, the Jordan River dried up. The Children of Israel were able to cross safely.
God told Joshua that as soon as the soles of the feet of the priests (who carried the ark of the covenant) rested in Jordan, the waters of Jordan would be separated from the waters that flow from above and stand in a heap. The water did not return until the priest came out of the river and their feet were dry.
You see, the priests were standing still, but they were holding on to the ark of the covenant of the Lord. We are under a new and everlasting covenant, one that we do not physically possess in our hands: we are under the covenant which is sealed by the blood of Christ (Hebrews 8:6-13, 13:20). So when we are standing still, we are to stand in agreement with the new and everlasting covenant. This covenant tells us that we have a new life in Christ because of the remission of sins. As Christians, we can experience a relationship with God that allows us to stand in the gap for others.
When we engage in intercessory prayer, we should know that the Lord notices where we have planted our feet spiritually, who needs to be brought over, and the best way to get them across. God hears and honors the prayers of the righteous, and the effective and persistent prayers of the righteous are very helpful, according to James 5:16.
If God has moved you to intercede for someone in particular, you should stand in that spiritual riverbed of deliverance until they have passed over to the other side of the danger they face.
Not only did the riverbed dry up as the water became walls, but the waters beyond the immediate crossing area where they were crossing the Jordan River failed and were cut off. When God moves, He handles more than what we see with our eyes. He handles what is too far for us to see or witness in the natural, all while we stand still in our belief and let Him work. He handles things in the spiritual realm that are manifesting in the natural as well as those things that have not yet manifested to us.
God is better equipped to fight our battles than we are. Our natural wisdom, strength, fortitude, and reach are very limited. But our God is omnipotent, omnipresent, and omniscient; His dominion is not limited, and He is and always will be sovereign. Standing still is not surrender to the enemy, but a strategy to defeat the enemy.
May we surrender to our sovereign God and stand still in the knowledge of the liberty and victory that Christ has made every arrangement for on our behalf. No extensions, changes, amendments, or corrections will be made for the covenant that was sealed by Christ’s blood on Calvary; all that is needed is our acceptance, and “Thank you, God” is appropriate; we owe that to Him! Amen!