Friday, September 16, 2016

The Root of Victory


UV 2071/10000 The Root of Victory
The LORD hear thee in the day of trouble; the name of the God of Jacob defend thee;

Psalm 20 v 1

The Lord is near us all the time but He is nearest in our most troubled moments. The names of the God of Jacob are many and they signify power, grace, mercy, healing, deliverance, might, strength, victory- names such as Jehovah El Shaddai, Nissi, Rapha, Jireh, Shalom, Shamah, Ebenezer, Immanuel and so on. It implies that the Lord identified Himself as “ I am Almighty, I am Victory, I am the Healer, I am the Provider, I am Peace, I am the Helper, I am the One with you.” He identifies with each of us in our troubles and manifests that aspect of His grace that we are most in need of. The result is that not only are we truly in awe of Him but we are in love with Him as He stretches out His right arm to help us, to extricate us from dangerous or delicate or difficult situations. We need to step out to face our difficulties and challenges in the name of the Lord. Each of us can now affirm to ourselves, “ I have the help and support of the Almighty, the Victorious One, the all sufficient provider, the Peace –giver, the Deliverer.” As David invoked the name of Jehovah El Shaddai as he went out to face the biggest challenge of his life when he was yet a callow youth and at his most vulnerable, the power of God gave him courage, wisdom to reject the king’s weapons and to use his shepherd’s sling from a safe distance before Goliath could reach him and crush him. The Lord gave him the skill to shoot the stone from his sling so accurately and hard as to hit Goliath on his large forehead and penetrate it.


The name of the Lord is a strong tower of defence. We find our shelter of safety in it. He encourages us with a timely and apt word. He supports us from His sanctuary. He protects us from the wrath of our enemies and their weapons. He strengthens us. He delivers us. He vindicates us and honours us. David rejected the help that Saul, the king proffered. He discarded the heavy armour and sword that would have further handicapped him. The help of man likewise is vain in these situations and we need to lean only on the Lord’s help.

Our weapons of warfare are not of the flesh or mind but of the spirit- prayer, the Word, praise and worship. These are powerful enough to pull down spiritual strongholds of the invisible enemy of our souls. Anything that exalts itself against truth, justice, mercy, faith, purity is brought down by these spiritual resources and weapons. Everything that happens in the physical world has a spiritual root. The root can be evil or good. Jesus is the “good root” and as long as we are attached and grafted onto the good root we have victory, deliverance, comfort, support, strength and salvation.

Prateep V Philip

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