The Fight Of Faith By Dr David Oyedepo

The fight you are involved in is not physical. It is not a kind of fight that is aimed at physical foes. You do not fight this battle in the arm of the flesh. It is fought with spiritual weapons.

For though we walk in the flesh we do not war after the flesh: for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal (physical) but mighty through God to the pulling down of strongholds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
2 Corinthians 10:3-5

The enemy you are warring against is not physical, so you cannot attack him with physical weapons. He is firing arrows, his fiery darts at you. He is all out for you. So you need to understand that the only way to stand against him is to resist him in faith.

The subject of faith cannot be over emphasized. It is one of the things that are indispensable in Christianity. It is a life of faith. As a matter of fact, Christianity is called "The Faith." This is why a lot of emphasis has gone into the faith message all over the world. You cannot amount to anything in Christianity without faith, for by grace you are saved through faith.

This faith business is very important. Some people ignorantly protest that faith message is prevailing too much in the church. Faith cannot be too much. It is the basis on which man relates with God. Without it, man cannot get anything from God. So He has designed that man must live by faith to justify his divine nature. God is a faith God and for anybody to live up to His expectation, he has to live by faith too.

In this fight, your faith is in direct conflict with the devil. The enemy knows that you are what your faith is. Your quality of life depends also entirely on your faith. You will never get any victory that is bigger than your faith.

Note that God has done everything on His own side. He has completed His own part of the contract. He has exalted you legally and has completed your every moment victory in the Lord Jesus Christ. But He expects you to enter into them and cause them to be real in your everyday life, by faith.

He is expecting His enemies to be subjected to you. So the enemy is constantly warring against you to make sure that your faith is weakened. If he can cause your faith to dwindle, he has got you. Your faith is the fortress that keeps the devil off your territory. If you are in faith, the devil knows that he is in a danger zone.

Jesus told Simon Peter that the devil was planning against him but He had prayed that Peter’s faith would not fail. That is what the enemy is about. He wants your faith to fail. He wants you battered out of shape.

And the Lord said, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not.
Luke 22:31-32

Jesus did not pray that Satan would not desire Peter or that Peter would not be tempted. He knew it is normal to be tempted by the devil. That is his major occupation. If he does not tempt, who else would? So Jesus did not find any wisdom in praying against temptation but that Peter’s faith would not fail.

It shows how important your faith life is. It makes the difference between victory and defeat. It means that if Peter’s faith failed, the devil could get him but if it did not, there was no way the devil could get at him. Your faith is Satan’s target because that is what you use in resisting him.

Be sober, be vigilant, because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour. Whom resist steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.
1 Peter 5:8-9

You see now that you resist the devil by your faith. He cannot get you until he has gotten your faith. Your faith is a menace to him.

Above all, taking the shield of faith where with ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked.
Ephesians 6:16

When the devil comes with his problems, it is your duty to ward off his assaults by the shield of faith. When he comes with sickness, you use your faith to resist. Your victory can only be won by faith and sustained by it. There is no other way to it. God has designed it so.

It is also important for you to know that it is your faith that will win this battle for you. It is not your pastor’s or any of your fellowship leaders’. It is your own faith in the victory of Christ that makes the difference.

Behold, his soul which is lifted up is not upright in him: but the just shall live by his faith.
Habakkuk 2:4

Get hold of this truth. It is your faith that will put you over in all life’s difficulties. When the enemy comes, it is your faith that will see you through. This is so important that it is repeated four times in the entire Bible.

For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith as it is written, the just shall live by faith.
Romans 1:17

...For the just shall live by faith.
Galatians 3:11

Now the just shall live by faith: But if any man draw back, my soul shall have no pleasure in him.
Hebrews 10:38

There is no compromise about it. Your own faith is the key to your personal victory. Most of the fights you will ever have to fight are personal. Not many of them are collective. Even those that are collective still have personal effects. So for you to really win in any of them, your faith must be out there working very well. The people that Jesus healed in the scriptures received their healings on the basis of their faith personally. It was not the faith of Jesus that healed them but their own faith.

The woman with the issue of blood got her victory by her own faith. She had determined to be healed. I believe that woman had fought one of the toughest battles anybody can fight on earth. She had an issue of blood consistently for 12 years, She had spent everything she had but no improvement was visible. Jesus did not even notice her in the crowd but she forced her way through the great press to touch His garment. She did not want to know how much of the garment she could touch. Even the hem alone was enough to secure her healing and she got it.

But Jesus turned him about, and when he saw her, he said, daughter be of good comfort; thy faith hath made thee whole and the woman was made whole in that hour.
Matthew 9:22

When Jesus healed two blind men in this same chapter of Matthew, He mentioned that it is the believer’s personal faith that gets the victory.

And when he was come into the house, the blind men came to him and Jesus saith unto them, Believe ye that I am able to do this? They said unto him yea, Lord, then touched he their eyes, saying according to your faith, be it unto you.
Matthew 9:28-29

That has always been the precedent. No man receives anything from God without faith. He must see faith before He moves on your behalf. Faith is essential for personal victory. Paul was preaching in Lystra with an impotent man in the audience. He was impotent in his feet from his mother’s womb. He could not walk because he was a cripple.

The same heard Paul speak; who steadfastly beholding him and perceiving that he had faith to be healed, said with a loud voice, Stand upright on thy feet. And he leaped and walked.
Acts 14:9- 10

It is easy to say that Paul healed him! He healed the man who had been crippled from his mother’s womb. But the Bible says, he had faith to be healed. If he did not have faith for healing, his victory would not have come at that time. Notice also that the man leaped and walked by himself.

You need faith for your victory. The point is that your victory has been made certain. It has been completed. It is a foregone conclusion but you need personal appropriating faith to get into it. That is the faith it takes.

The problem with most people is that, instead of walking by faith, they choose to walk by sight. The Bible says the just shall live by his faith not by sight. It is amazing to see people set all their attention on their problems. They so focus on it until it is magnified above their imagination.

They are like the young man who happened to see a cat. He got so engulfed in thinking about the cat that he eventually got himself into believing the cat to be a lion and exclaims, "Behold a lion!" Yet the supposed lion was just a cat. He magnified it.

People have magnified their problems above what they are. They depend solely on their five senses. They only believe those things they can see around them. They depend on their senses of sight, smell, taste, touch and hearing. Outside these, they cannot operate. But God intends you to walk by faith and not by sight.

For we walk by faith and not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7

A new creation man that you are, is not designed to walk by his five senses. You are not ordinary. You are special. There is a world of difference between you and the natural man you can see around you. Your own content and quality of life is different. You are a new specie. A kind of you has never existed.

You have been brought into oneness with God. So you have to walk like him. God is a faith God. He is your Father. He is a faith Father so you are supposed to be a faith son. If you walk by sight, you will operate outside your natural style of life. God demonstrated His faith life style in His creation programme. God created the earth by faith.

Through faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which do appear.
Hebrews 11:3

God was basically on a faith project here. He framed the worlds from things that are not visible to sight. He was not walking by sight. He walked by faith. He used His eyes of faith and it worked. He has designed the same system for you to operate. If you follow God in the life of faith you will get God’s success results. It cannot fail.

It is by walking by faith that you will overcome all difficulties and win your battles always. Your victory is always guaranteed. But note that you cannot enter into it except you walk by faith.

Whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world; and this is the victory that overcometh the world even our faith.
1 John 5:4

There is no victory outside faith. It is not a physical battle which you can easily win if you are hefty and muscular. It is not by power or might but by the Spirit of the Lord. That is why the Bible says it is by faith you stand. Faith is essential. It is as vital as breathing. Without faith you cannot please God. It will take faith for you to be on your feet.

Not that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy: For by faith ye stand.
2 Corinthians 1:24

If you are on your feet, then you are in victory so it is by faith that you can stay an overcomer. Walk by faith!