THE SECRET to victorious living is not to assume that God is on your side, but to make sure that you are on His side.
This message was conveyed recently to the congregation at Calvary Temple, The Crane, St Philip by Pastor Coleen Phillips.
Those who filled the sanctuary were challenged not only to have a head or book knowledge of God, but to know Him intimately, to lean on Him and to stay on His side.
Phillips’ main text was taken from 2 Chronicles 15:1-2, where it is recorded that “the Spirit of God came upon a man named Azariah” and God sent him to King Asa with this message: “The Lord is with you when you are with Him. If you seek Him, He will be found by you, but if you forsake Him, He will forsake you.”
Phillips said God had just helped King Asa and his armies with a great victory against their enemies, the Cushites.
According to her, it was no surprise that they won, as Asa had prayed a powerful prayer previous to the battle.
She said: “Asa said to the Lord his God, ‘Lord, there is no one like you to help the powerless against the mighty. Help us, O Lord our God, for we rely on you, and in your name we have come against this vast army. O Lord, you are our God; do not let men prevail against you’.”
She said God heard Asa’s prayer and crushed his enemies before him.
“On the heels of this great victory, God inspires a man to go to the king he loved and say, ‘The secret to victory is not to assume God is on your side, but to make sure you’re on His’.”
Phillips said there was a big difference between calling on the name of Jesus and truly having His power working in our lives.
She recalled the story in Acts about the seven sons of Sceva who tried to cast demons out of a man by using a religious formula and without knowing Jesus Christ personally.
“They confronted this demon-possessed guy and said, ‘In the name of Jesus, whom Paul preaches, I command you to come out’. The evil spirit answered them: ‘Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are you?’ The demon-possessed man jumped them and gave them such a beating that they ran out of the house naked and bleeding.”
The minister told her listeners that the demons recognised Jesus and Paul because they instantly knew whose side they were on in the spiritual realm. She explained that the other men were imposters who were “spouting religious formulas” but were not with God, so He was not with them.
Delivering a message titled Which Side Are You Leaning On?, Phillips said believers must learn
to lean on the Lord’s provision, His power and His preservation.
“There is a common element that unites all peoples of the world. There is one thing that every person in this room has in common: we all have needs. There will be times in every one of our lives when we will experience a need of some type.
“When our needs arise, so do our doubts. The devil and the flesh whisper to our hearts, ‘Can God really meet my needs?’ If we have submitted our lives to the Lord and are faithfully engaged in carrying out His will, we are on His payroll.
“Too often we forget to whom we belong. When you have God’s Word on an issue, that issue is settled forever. We need to learn to lean on the Lord. It doesn’t mean just to believe in him; it means to depend totally, completely and exclusively on Him.”
She said that leaning was not shifting one’s weight to one foot.
“It’s talking about the kind of leaning in which you place all your weight on something or someone so that they are holding you up, supporting you.”
She concluded her lengthy message by stating: “We can lean on His provision in times of need. We can lean on His power to deliver us from the hands of evil people and we can lean on Him to preserve us.”
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