Key points
- 1
1The battle begins in the mind — the Israelites were already psyched out before anything happened, sending scouts when God had already spoken.
“You don't need information to be less afraid. You need more trust of God to be less afraid”
- 2
2Whining flows from worry, which flows from fear, which flows from not trusting God, which flows from not truly knowing God.
- 3
3How we conceive of God in our hearts is the most important thing about us — we tend to move toward our mental image of God.
“What comes in our minds when we think about God is the most important thing about us”
“when you worry about who god is, you war against where god leads”
Illustration
A. W. Tozer's thesis from 'The Knowledge of the Holy' — what we think about God is the most important thing about us
- 4
4To win the battle of the mind, we must speak truth to the lie — take every thought captive by replacing false narratives with what God has actually said.
Illustration
Captain America quote about planting yourself like a tree beside the river of truth and refusing to move
- 5
5The Israelites' second failure was trying to fight in their own strength — both when they refused to go in and when they charged in without the Lord.
“Don't confuse God's grace with God's will, people. You're sitting in His grace but you might not be trusting His will”
A story from life
Pastor Bill's father, a combat veteran in Korea, describes finding a young operative in camp with explosives and later seeing him killed by U.S. personnel — a story about not becoming what you are fighting
- 6
6Caleb wholly followed the Lord for 45 years and at age 85 claimed the scariest land — the very territory that had terrified the whole nation — because he believed the battle belongs to the Lord.
- 7
7Worship is our battle cry — declaring the truth of who God is drives out fear and reminds us that the battle belongs to Him.
“when all I see is the battle, he sees the victory. When all I see is the mountain, he sees the mountain moved”
Application
Pastor Bill's challenge is personal and direct: stop whining in your tent and start winning by doing two things. First, win the battle of the mind — identify the lie you are believing that is keeping you from trusting God, then speak the truth of who He is against it. Get into the Word not as a rule book but as a biography, so that your mental image of God is accurate enough to follow Him without flinching. Second, stop trying to fight in your own strength — whether you are avoiding what God asked or grinding through it grudgingly, self-reliance in both directions is the same problem. Like Caleb, plant your feet in the truth, move forward into whatever God has called you to, and trust that the battle belongs to Him. The victory He has prepared is on the other side of the very thing that scares you most.
