My idea of a workout is sitting on the beach. I would rather perspire lounging by a beautiful body of water than sweating during aerobics or weight training. I want to be healthy without any effort on my part. Yet, we all know that this is not how it works (sadly).
The same is true in our spiritual lives. It is the difficulties, sovereignly orchestrated by God for our benefit, that foster spiritual growth. The nation of Israel experienced this truth in the wilderness on their journey toward the Promised Land. They were on their way to the fulfillment of their hopes and dreams. However, a hostile king blocked them:
But Sihon king of Heshbon refused to let us pass through. For the LORD your God had made his spirit stubborn and his heart obstinate in order to give him into your hands, as he has now done. The LORD said to me, “See, I have begun to deliver Sihon and his country over to you. Now begin to conquer and possess his land.” (Deuteronomy 2:30-31)
A closed “road” may signal a spiritual fight to gain new territory. We want the Lord to make the path easy but He allows the fight. In fact, God divinely orchestrated the fight to benefit the Israelites. They wanted to pass “safely through” but God wanted them to take the enemy’s ground by His power.
The word Sihon in Hebrew means “warrior”. The word “Heshbon” in Hebrew means “stronghold”. The enemy we fight is a warrior who resides in a stronghold. This is not an easy fight! We must pull down the strongholds that the enemy has set up. We are called to fight instead of allowing the enemy to settle in our territory.
The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete. (2 Corinthians 10: 4-6)
We must not back down. A stronghold is any lie that is against the truth of God. Unless we dislodge the enemy with truth, he will stay settled in our lives. We must go into combat against the lies to dislodge the enemy. This is war!
The enemy told Israel “you can’t pass through.” But God told the Israelites “this is your land, go get it.” The enemy was telling a lie as if he was already victorious and the land was his. God was showing Israel that He alone is in charge.
Often our difficult circumstances will manifest the lies we believe about ourselves, others, our situations, and even God. These lies come up and are set up to block our victory. The Lord sovereignly allows this so we can experience even greater victory and freedom in our lives.