“Comfort, yes, comfort My people!” Says your God. Speak comfort to Jerusalem, and cry out to her that her warfare is ended, That her iniquity is pardoned; For she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. (Isaiah 40:1-2)

God Himself spoke this good news. The warfare for the Lord’s people is ended. The wonderful truth, bringing freedom to believers in the Lord Yahshua (Jesus), is that for them personally the spiritual war is over. That is the truth. The war is over! Satan is a defeated foe. He was completely defeated 2000 years ago when Yahshua died and shed His precious blood, and took from him the keys of hell and death. (Rev.1:18) That which was the cause of the warfare in which mankind is involved, their iniquity, (sinful nature) has been done away with – pardoned by God Himself.

Peace (the end of war) is our inheritance in Christ. But we have to enter into this rest by faith. That is why we are called believers. We are to believe and appropriate by faith that which Yahshua victoriously obtained for us. He did not fight and overcome Satan for Himself, but for us. So let us thankfully receive what He has given us and not refuse His victory on our behalf, as so many of His people do.

Hebrews 3:7-19 is a perfect example of how God’s people refused His peace. They were in the bondage of slavery – literally prisoners of war, and even after He had brought them out of this bondage and completely destroyed the enemy, their unbelief caused them to miss out on His rest. So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief. (Heb.3:19) They could not enter into His rest, due to a lack of faith in what He had accomplished on their behalf. It is important to understand that these were not unbelievers. These were God’s people. They believed in God. He had saved them from Egypt, yet they did not inherit the blessings of their salvation because of unbelief.

Even today, through ignorance and wrong teaching, resulting in unbelief, many Christians are not entering into the blessings Yahshua won for them. They find themselves in the middle of tremendous spiritual battles. Invariably they lose ground because they are continually struggling against a defeated enemy in their own strength instead of resting in the accomplished victory, which was given to them. Often they justify their unbelief in these blessings being for the present time by arguing that we will only get to enjoy them in Heaven one day. Well, that’s their choice, I choose to honor Him by enjoying, both now and in eternity, the abundant life, which Yahshua gave His life to get for us.

The Devil’s tactics thrive whenever believers are ignorant of the truth of his absolute defeat. His only power lies in his ability to deceive believers that he is still a foe to be reckoned with. Christians who believe his lies, can obviously not at the same time believe the truth of God that they have been delivered from the power of darkness and have been translated into the Kingdom of His Son. (Col.1:13) They are then living in unbelief and will suffer defeat again and again by simply accepting his packages of sickness, ill health, poverty and any other curses that he hands to them.

What about persecution? For all who will live godly in the anointed Yahshua, will suffer persecution. (2 Tim.3:12) In this context persecution means to be hounded, harassed, oppressed and pestered by devil inspired people for righteousness sake, because of your stand for Yahshua. In my opinion, which I base on my experience in taking God’s Word to heart and then acting on it, Christians do not have to accept the curses Satan tries to place on them. He is in any case acting illegally because we are not his citizens anymore. We have been delivered by Yahshua and brought into His Kingdom. But the enemy will through deceit do all he can to convince believers to just accept whatever he places on them, as God’s will for their lives. Suffering persecution is something altogether different, which we are to endure with joyfulness. (Mat.5:10-12, 1 Pet.2:21-25, 3:14-17, 4:12-16)

But resting in Yahshua’s victory does not mean that believers do not have a fight on their hands. They most certainly do, but it is a fight of faith. Paul exhorts us to fight the good fight of faith. (1 Tim.6:12) It is a good fight because we are not fighting to gain victory, we are fighting from a position of victory that has already been gained by Yahshua. That is why the Bible says; But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Yahshua the Anointed. (1 Cor.15:57) Victory has been given to us, we already possess it, but every believer must personally appropriate or receive his own victory by faith.

What exactly is this fight of faith? How is it fought? Simply put it is this; Are we going to believe what God says concerning our situation, or are we going to just accept (and thus believe) the circumstance which contradicts the Word? Are we going to believe God or Satan? The choice is ours, not God’s. He has already made known in His Word what He wants us to choose, but we have to choose. For example, are we going to believe the symptoms of sickness, or the Word, which says; By His wounds we have been healed? Don’t get me wrong, I am not denying the existence of sickness, but I am denying its right to establish itself in my body, which Yahshua has redeemed from the power of darkness.

It is very easy to just say, Make a choice. But how? How does a believer choose to walk in the constant victory (freedom) which is his inheritance? Well, because it is a fight of faith, we will not be able to fight this battle if we do not understand what faith is. Amongst the many definitions of Bible faith, one which I heard many years ago, when I was a young Christian, has had a marked impact on my personal faith walk through the years, it simply states;

Faith is just believing what God said He has done.

What has God done? To name just a few things;
 He has saved us. (2 Tim.1:9)
 He has delivered us. (Col.1:13)
 He has healed us. (1 Pet.2:24)
 He has supplied all our needs in Christ. (Phil.4:19 & 2 Pet.1:3, Ps.23:1)
 He has redeemed us from the curse, which came as a result of the broken law. (Gal.3:13)
 He has provided complete protection in this life. (Ps.91)

Do we really believe God? Then we have to act on what we believe, because faith without works is dead. (Jas.2:20) The Truth is the Word of God – what He has said. (John 17:17) Now if something in the natural realm in which we are presently living contradicts His Word, then which is the truth? The contradicting circumstance, or what God said? The believer has a choice, he can believe either the Word or the circumstance. Whichever he chooses to believe will become “true” in his life. Yahshua said; According to your faith be it unto you.