Hundredfold Ministries, Int'l

All believers must fight sins of the flesh. And every Christian leaders, because they are believers, are no different. We all have recurring sin patterns which we seem to be able to defeat, only to have them return. How often we hear about good, practicing Christians who suddenly and without warning are caught in gross sin. Believing husbands abusing their wives and children, prominent Christians caught stealing money, church leaders caught up in sexual immorality. The stories seem endless. Why are so many believers continually falling victim to strong, powerful sin in their lives?

After all, God's Word tells us that in Christ we have the power to overcome temptation. In fact we often quote Scripture affirming the power to win over sin, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Cor 10:13 NIV) "I can do everything through him who gives me strength." (Phi 4:13 NIV) These are only two of many verses God has given us to provide assurance to the serious disciple that help is available.

So, with this assurance, let's ask the questions, "How can we, as Christian leaders, overcome these personal sins? And how can we teach our disciples to do the same?" Let's look at the battle of Joshua and the Amelikites (Exo, 17) for some answers.

The Story of Amalek

Until this battle between Joshua and the Amelikites, it is extremely important to remember that God did all of the fighting on Israel's behalf. It was God who defeated Pharaoh.

But when we get to the Exodus story when Joshua fights the Amalekites, things change. The Scripture says, "The Amalekites came and attacked the Israelites . . ." (Exo 17:8) Based on precedent Israel could reasonably expected God to come and fight the Amalekites for them. But look what happened. Moses said, "Choose some of our men and go out to fight the Amalekites." (v 9)

At this point my reaction would have been, "Hey! I thought God was going to do all our fighting! What's the deal, Moses? Why do I now have to fight?"

Applying this story to the twentieth century church, and to our own Christian experience, have you ever noticed that the old sin you thought was gone forever comes back . . . stronger than ever. And you pray, "God, come and take this out of my life!" Yet it seems to only grow worse.

I want to be very specific here about the kind of sin to which I am referring. I mean sexual lust, gluttony, seething anger, uncontrolled temper, greed, manipulation, selfishness, homosexual tendencies, and the like. Sin the magnitude of which will destroy lives, families, homes, churches, and communities if allowed to continue unchecked.

Unfortunately this type of returning sin is all too familiar to many who have made commitments to Christ. And worse, prayer for deliverance seems futile. Why? The answer is simple. Amalek is attacking. And just as with Israel, God isn't going to do the fighting, He's saying, "You must fight Amalek."

Who Is Amalek?

Why isn't God fighting this battle? Why doesn't He fight Amalek as He fought Pharaoh? The answer is found in the identity of Amalek.

Remember Jacob and Esau? Remember how Jacob came to please the Lord and ultimately God changed his name to Israel? Jacob then came to represent the spiritual or eternal. Esau, on the other hand, came to represent that which is temporal or immediate. Esau sought only to gratify his flesh. Remember how he traded his birthright for a bowl of soup? Esau then represents that which is carnal or the flesh. Well, Esau had a fine, healthy grandson. He named the little tyke "Amalek."

So Amalek in our lesson stands for flesh, our own flesh.

God fought Satan, the enemy of our soul, for our salvation. Through water baptism He forever destroys Satan's ability to drag us back into sin against our own will. And once we receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, the Holy Spirit intensifies our personal sanctification process. But our flesh (Amalek) becomes alarmed that it is suddenly targeted for subjugation and our own personal Amalek begins to fight fiercely! He raises his ugly head and begins to vehemently oppose all that is godly! I am not speaking of Satan or demons here, I am speaking of the sin that has been lodged in our own heart for years. A wise preacher once said that the ten commandments were given to humans, not to demons. God didn't say, "Thou demon of lust, thou shalt not commit adultery." He gave that command to man (and woman!).

Suddenly we find that things such as greed, anger, sexual lust, gluttony, violence, jealousy, envy, hate, rage, etc., begin to surface in our lives. Alarmed, we cry out, "God, take this from me!" All to no avail. There is no answer to our desperate cry.

When this happens we tend to take one of two actions. We begin to secretly panic inwardly, fearing certain defeat, we throw ourselves into feverish religious activity, thinking that somehow that will solve the problem. Or we simply ignore the problem hoping it will just go away. Neither of these choices will defeat Amalek. Note that had Israel elected not to deal with Amalek, their progress would have halted. Their growth would have stopped. Their inheritance would have remained elusive. They would never have entered into God's place for them.

So it is with us, Amalek must be defeated or he will ultimately defeat us. He will deprive us of our rightful inheritance in Christ. He will deprive us of the joy of our Christianity. He will rob us of our home, family, church, work and, if he possibly can, our very life.

We must overcome our own flesh! God will not fight our flesh for us. We must do so ourselves. Must we do it alone? No! Indeed its pretty obvious that we cannot do it alone. We fight with the power of God's omnipotent outstretched arm of protection and power. Let's look at the Scripture again:

"So Joshua fought the Amalekites as Moses had ordered, and Moses, Aaron and Hur went to the top of the hill. As long as Moses held up his hands, the Israelites were winning . . . Aaron and Hur held up his hands one on one side, one on the other - so that his hands remained steady till sunset. So Joshua overcame the Amalekites with the sword." (Exo 17:10-13 NIV)

Notice from this passage that as long as Moses remained before the Lord in intercession Israel would win. When he ceased interceding, Amalek would win. It was futile for Israel to go out against Amalek without Moses' intercession.

We can draw a clear parallel to those of us today who are fighting Amaleks deeply rooted in our own lives. To repeat, our Amaleks are things like adultery, pornography, spousal abuse, child abuse, lust, greed, willfulness, selfishness, anger, and the like.

Obviously we cannot prevail upon Moses of the Old Testament to come and intercede for us. But who can we call on? Who will be our Moses? We can call on the mature Christians elders (both men and women) in the Body of Christ. Here I am not necessarily speaking of those who are formally recognized in our local churches as elders. Yes, of course they may stand with us in battle. But we are not limited to these alone. We can, and should also call upon any fully grown, mature believer in the Body of Christ who can and will stand with us in the stead of Moses.

So how do we execute our battle plan to defeat Amalek? First, pray and ask God to provide you a strong, mature believer who will agree to stand in intercession for you as you fight Amalek. Strong prayer and intercession is the part that your "Moses" has. Incidentally, there can be more than one Moses. Remember Moses, Aaron and Hur were all on the mountain top.

Then your part is to follow the advice the Apostle Paul gave a young minister of the gospel named Timothy who was having his own battle with Amalek.

"Flee the evil desires of youth, and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart." (2 Tim 2:22 NIV)

I see three elements of Paul's exhortation:

1. FLEE-In plain English that means "RUN! Feet, do your stuff!" It means do everything in your power to get away from the temptation. Don't do as a counselee I once knew who said he was tempted to go into dirty movie theaters because he passed by them every day on his way home from work. As the counselor began to look at a map to find an alternate route home for the young man, he discovered that the counselee was actually driving miles out of his way to go past the theater just so he would be tempted! Flee the temptation and all opportunities to allow Amalek expression.

2. PURSUE RIGHTEOUSNESS-This means that I must do what I know the Scripture teaches whether I feel like it or not! I simply do it because it is the right thing to do. That means going to church, Bible studies, and wholehearted participation in Christian fellowship.

3. Paul also said "pursue righteousness . . . ALONG WITH THOSE WHO CALL ON THE LORD out of a pure heart." This clearly means continual association with believers. It means making opportunities to meet with, associate with, and fellowship with those who love the Lord.

As I do my part by fleeing evil, pursuing righteousness and associating with true believers, and as my intercessors do their part, Amalek will be defeated. Don't expect victory overnight. But do expect victory. It is certain.

Please note, when you enter into agreement with the one (or ones) whom the Lord gives you for intercession, be totally, brutally honest about your sin. Before God and your intercessors don't call it a "problem" or a "hang-up." Jesus didn't die for "problems" or "hang-ups." He died for sin. Identify the problem as sin. Call it sin. Ask God's forgiveness for your sin.

Then, having done all the above, take your stand against the sin and fight it! If you find yourself in hand to hand combat, call your Moses and ask him to pray . . . but do your part! Run as fast and far from the temptation as possible. Run where? Towards godly people, a godly environment and the light of His Word! As we take these steps prayerfully, willfully and resolutely, we will defeat the Amaleks in our lives!

If we do not do these things, I think it only fair to point out the alternative. Amalek will eventually win. Oh, it may take him five, ten, twenty or more years . . . but win he will. We hear quite often about Amalek's victories. You know, the church treasurer is caught embezzling funds . . . a minister is caught in adultery . . . ad nauseam.

Rest assured, these ugly examples are at the end of a long process. God provides many escapes before these things happen, "No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it." (1 Cor 10:13 NIV)

But to those who do not take God's way out, it works like this: First, the Holy Spirit speaks about our Amalek's presence. Second, the Scripture seems to speak of our sin every time we open the Bible. If we won't privately repent and face the facts and deal with that sin, God sends those who love us to tell us we are in sin. All this is from His great mercy . . . it's still private. If we neglect all these opportunities to repent, God says, "OK, I guess we'll have to go public to uproot this one!" It is at this stage our stubborn believer's sin becomes public knowledge, or even a newspaper headline!

I would much rather have a discrete elder in the body of Christ prayerfully intercede for me as I fight and WIN over Amalek . . . wouldn't you?