Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (I Tim. 6:12).
“For whatsoever is born of God overcometh the world: and this is the victory that overcometh the world, even our faith” (1 Jn 5:4)
If we are admonished to fight the good fight of faith, then it goes without saying that we must have enemies against whom we are contending. And for anyone to be declared a conqueror, such a one must have fought some battles and prevailed.
Oftentimes many children of God act as if this fight is against flesh and blood, and so they confront people of the world. These well-meaning but ignorant saints would literally go up in arms against immoral or evil practices of their city, literall in their zeal to fight the good fight of faith. It is therefore necessary for us to know who or what we are fighting against in this fight of faith, for only then will we be able to prepare properly, aim accurately, and win in this fierce battle.
But before we consider this fight of faith more closely, let’s remind ourselves of what God said concerning us. We are born of God and new creatures in Christ. And the Scripture says that whosoever or whatsoever is born of God overcomes the world. This verse reassures us that we are destined to overcome because we are born of God, and that our faith is the means by which we attain the victory.
We must not be under the illusion that we’ll become conquerors and overcomers by wishing it and doing nothing. The road of overcomers is less frequently traveled and is paved with hardship and opposition. But those who overcome are tenacious and relentless. They fight, they persevere, they endure, and at the end, they receive the crown of victory.
Overcomers Are Patient
Patience, another product of the spirit, is a relative of faith and a requirement for the Christian soldier who is going to win in this fight of faith.
“That ye be not slothful, but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises” (Heb 6:12).
A lot of times, we start well in our faith walk. We receive the word of faith with joy, we believe it, and we begin confessing and acting in line with our belief. But after we wait, and wait, and wait some more, and the promise doesn’t seem to materialize, our faith seems to wear thin and we become weary. This is where patience should step in and help faith.
Patience is that spiritual force that helps us to remain constant under spiritual stress. It makes us retain our confession, giving us longevity in a drawn-out battle where we would have given up otherwise.
The Apostle James exhorts us in his Epistle on this saying:
“My brethren, count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; Knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing” (Jas 1:2-4).
“Let patience run her full course,” is the key admonition from the Apostle in the verse above. He added that if we let patience finish her work, we will be fully developed and perfectly equipped. Our Father is training us to develop this important fruit of the spirit that will help us win every battle we engage in. Faith is our victory, but we must patiently hold on to faith until the victory is complete.
Sometimes, because of lack of patience, we stop the force of faith and terminate the battle before our victory is complete; hence, we fail to reap the reward of faith. We need to develop patience, which will give us endurance to persevere until the victory is won. This will help us hold on and not cast our confidence away. “Cast not away therefore your confidence which hath great recompense of reward, for ye have need of patience, that after ye have done the will of God, you might receive the promise” (Heb 10:35,36).
“For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast unto the end” (Heb 3:14).
God, our Father, is patient. He is the wise Husbandman who plants His seed in the garden and waits patiently for the seasons to pass before looking for a harvest. The Apostle exhorts us to be like Him:
“Be patient therefore, brethren, unto the coming of the Lord. Behold, the husbandman waiteth for the precious fruit of the earth, and hath long patience for it, until he receive the early and latter rain. Be ye also patient; stablish your hearts: for the coming of the Lord draweth nigh” (Jam 5:7-8).
Like God our Father, let us sow the seed of the Word in our hearts, or speak it into our situations, and patiently watch it create and produce. The seeds of the Word we sow will produce faith in our hearts, and by faith we’ll overcome. Patience will help uphold our faith when we seem to be growing weary and our faith seems to be dwindling.
You have spoken the word of faith to your situation, you have sown good seeds, you have been tending it and watering it, and you know in your spirit that you are acting in faith and that your faith is bringing forth, but nothing seems to have changed in the physical. Nothing seems to be happening.
Dear believer, be patient; keep holding on. You may not be able to see any change as yet because your seed is undergoing transformation in the spiritual realm. Rejoice over it, however, for in due time the fruit will emerge and you’ll see the answer materialize right before your eyes. The Lord said, “Fear not, only believe,” and “If you believe, you will see the glory of God.” The waiting period may be difficult and painful, but remember what the prophet said: “He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him” (Ps 126:6).
There is a time to sow and a time to reap. Therefore, the farmer must wait for the grains to mature and the fruits to ripen before reaping them. The crops must receive the needed rain and go through the necessary heat of the sun before coming to maturity. The Lord of the Harvest knows the exact time interval between the sowing of the seed and the reaping of the mature crops, and so we must wait for harvest time. And we can be sure of this one thing: that if we sow our seed, the harvest will surely come.
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not” (Gal 6:9).
If we are going to become overcomers, we must fight the “good fight of faith.” And if we fight with the armor of God on the right and on the left and endure with patience, we are sure to win.
The enemies of faith are the forces that militate against us with the aim of preventing us from living the life of faith. These forces desire to make us doubt the promises of God or repudiate His Word. These are potent weapons in the hands of the devil, who is always seeking ways to punch holes in our faith to prevent us from inheriting the promises.
Here are some enemies of our faith:
Lack of Knowledge and Understanding: The first of these is a lack of understanding of our redemption. Faith comes by hearing. If we are ignorant of our redemptive rights in Christ and our position in Him, we cannot exercise faith in those rights. If all we know is that we have been saved from sin, and we do not know that we have the very Life of God in us, we will not be able to live a victorious Christian life. To become overcomers, we must know that the Almighty God dwells in us. Apostle John writes, “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world” (1Jn 4:4).
God has completely delivered us from the dominion of darkness and translated us into His own kingdom. It is a complete deliverance.
Lack of understanding of their position in Christ and lack of understanding of their righteousness, what it is and what it gives, holds more people in bondage than anything else. We have not just been forgiven, but Christ Himself is our right-standing before God. We can approach His throne of grace and commune with Him as if we have never sinned.
“For he hath made him to be sin for us, who knew no sin; that we might be made the righteousness of God in him” (2Co 5:21). “Therefore as by the offence of one judgment came upon all men to condemnation; even so by the righteousness of one the free gift came upon all men unto justification of life” (Rom 5:18).
Condemnation: This enemy is similar to the one mentioned above, and it’s another enemy that holds many a believer in bondage. It is also related to a lack of revelation knowledge of our right-standing before God. Not being fully educated in the spirit of the Scriptures, believers resort to the letter and thus get into condemnation, instead of walking in liberty because Christ has set them free. The Scripture says, “There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh, but after the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death” (Rom 8:1-2).
We fight this enemy by seeking to know God and the revelation knowledge of who we are in Christ Jesus.
Fear: This is an archenemy of faith. Man was not made with fear in the day that God his Father made him. It was sin that brought fear. Adam walked in perfect fellowship with God in the garden until the day he sinned. It was after he sinned that he hid himself when he heard the voice of God.
“And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?
And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself” (Gen 3:9,10). This was the first time man experienced fear.
While faith grows when we hear the Word of God, fear grows when we listen to the voice of the enemy. Fear grows when a believer listens to the voice of the flesh instead of meditating on the Word of God.
Fear is a spiritual force, just like faith, but from the negative side. It arises from the spirit and grips the brain and body. Fear can have such a powerful hold on the individual that it becomes a torment, and only the power of God’s Love can cast it out.
“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love” (I Jn 4:18).
“For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind” (II Tim 1:7).
We cannot have both fear and faith. When faith walks in the front door, fear exits through the back door, and both emanate from the spirit. Faith is of God and comes from hearing the Word of God. Fear is of the devil and comes from listening to the lies of the evil one. Fear is one of his most potent weapons. Therefore, we must cast it out by word and by the revelation of the power of God’s Love.
If we entertain fear, we will not have faith. Fear will cripple the believer and prevent him or her from inheriting the promises. It prevented the majority of those who came out of Egypt from entering into the land of Canaan.
Worry: Worry is another enemy of faith. It is caused when we refuse to cast our cares upon God and willfully bear them ourselves. It is also a sign of unbelief and a potent force against faith. The Lord Jesus, warning us against this, said: “Look at the birds which fly in the air: they do not sow or reap or store up in barns, but your Heavenly Father feeds them: are not you of much greater value than they? Which of you by being over-anxious can add a single foot to his height?” (Mat 6:26-27).
And the Apostle admonishes us to “Be careful for nothing; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God.And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus” (Phi 4:6-7).
Worry is a thief that steals believers’ peace and joy and renders them totally impotent. It can completely demoralize you; preoccupied with cares and concerns both real and unreal, you become a nervous wreck. Worry is a result of disobedience and refusal to cast our cares upon Him.
If we obey the word of admonition from the Lord, we’ll abide in peace and quietness. If our hearts are fixed on Him, we’ll live in perfect peace and be free from all worry, for the prophet declared, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee” (Isa 26:3). The peace of God which passes all understanding will flood our souls.
Sense-knowledge reasoning can also cause the believer to incessantly live in worry. Dwelling on knowledge of the cause, diagnosis, and prognosis of a disease attacking the body of a believer can take the individual away from faith to worry and eventually to fear. This first corrodes the believer’s trust in the Word of God, and he or she will begin to figure things out by human understanding. “Trust in the Lord,” the Scripture says, “with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths” (Prov 3:5,6).
The “Future Faith”: Faith is now. It’s always present tense. Hope looks into the future and is always future tense. Hope says, “It will be mine someday.” Hope has its place, especially when we consider the second coming of the Lord. But when we confuse hope with faith, it becomes a hindrance. Faith says, “I receive it right now.” Someone, after praying, said, “I believe I will receive my healing—someday.” That’s not faith, that’s hope, because it is looking to some indefinite future time. Hope has no present substance. It is faith that gives substance to the things hoped for. Faith says, “By His stripes I am healed; I receive my healing now.” It is faith that gets the job done, and when hope is put in the place of faith, it will become a hindrance to faith.
Failure to Act Upon the Word: When we fail to act upon the Word of God, we’re undermining the progress of our faith. And if, God forbid, we cultivate a habit of not acting upon God’s Word, we get to a point where we’re no longer sensitive to the walk of faith. Simply put, if we habitually refuse to act upon God’s Word, being disobedient, our faith becomes weak and we cannot please God. Unbelief is disobedience and does not please God. “But be ye doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving your own selves” (Jam 1:22).
We must give the Word of God first place in our lives. We must not joke with the Word as some do, making a comedy out of the divine Word of God and thus making it of no effect in their mouths when they speak it. Hold the Word with reverence and gravity.
Fight the Good Fight of Faith
Let’s return to the main text of this section and carefully examine the other verses of Scripture forming the context of the passage in the letter written by the Apostle to his son Timothy. Let’s begin reading from the sixth verse:
“But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, whereunto thou art also called, and hast professed a good profession before many witnesses” (I Tim 6:6-12).
The Apostle began by admonishing his son and us to seek after godliness and contentment. He warned, in the earlier verses not quoted above, that seeking after the things of this world will lead us into a snare and cause us to fall into temptation. He noted that believers who in times past had coveted and lusted after money had gone astray from the faith and been pierced with countless sorrows.
Here we can see another enemy of faith—one that can cause you or me to stray away from the path of faith. In the sixth verse of this chapter, the Apostle says the “love of money” is the root of all evil. One version of the New Testament renders this as saying, “For from love of money all sorts of evil arise; and some have so hankered after money as to be led astray from the faith and pierced through with countless sorrows” (ITim 6:10 Weymouth). To fight this enemy, and the other pernicious lusts associated with it, the Apostle tells us that we must flee. “But you, O man of God, must flee from these things; and strive for uprightness, godliness, good faith, love, fortitude, and a forgiving temper” (I Tim 6:11, Weymouth).
The fight of faith is not an external battle with a human opponent. It is a spiritual battle, and it starts within each of us. The Apostle tells us that we need to flee, and not only that, he tells us what to pursue. We are to flee the lust for money and pursue uprightness, godliness, faith, love, patience, and meekness.
Then, in the next breath, he says, “Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life.” In this sentence, he seems to be saying that these enemies’ goal is preventing us from laying hold on eternal life, and he strongly admonishes us to put up an overcoming fight and lay hold on this goal.
In the sixth chapter of his letter to the Ephesians, he wrote:
“Wherefore take unto you the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace;
Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:13-17).
In this warfare, we must not forget to always be in an attitude of praise and thanksgiving to God: “Giving thanks always unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Eph 5:20). Praise is an effective weapon in this fight of faith. In fact, praise is faith at work! We confidently praise Him in the face of contrary evidence because we believe Him and refuse to believe what we see. And as we continue to praise Him, we’ll eventually see the walls of Jericho fall right before our eyes. The walls may not fall on the first day we sing His praise and walk around the city. They may not fall on the second day, and they may not fall on the third day. But we’ll continue singing His praise, because when we praise Him in this situation, we’re acting out our faith.
“What should we do,” someone asks, “if we continue to praise Him and the situation doesn’t seem to get better, but seems to be getting worse?” Keep praising Him. Give Him thanks. Like Jonah in the belly of the whale, “sacrifice to Him with the voice of thanksgiving” (Jonah 2:9). Remember the declaration of Habakkuk the prophet:
“Although the fig tree may not blossom, nor fruit be on the vine, the produce of the olive fail, and the field yield no food; the flock be cut off from the fold, and there be no herd in the stall:
Yet I will rejoice in the Lord, I will joy in the God of my salvation” (Hab 2:17,18, Ber, KJV).
In the midst of the battle and the difficulties of life, let us, as the Scripture admonishes, fix our eyes on JESUS, “who is the Author and Perfecter of our faith.”
“And what shall I more say? for the time would fail me to tell of Gedeon, and of Barak, and of Samson, and of Jephthae; of David also, and Samuel, and of the prophets: Who through faith subdued kingdoms, wrought righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, Quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, waxed valiant in fight, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. Women received their dead raised to life again: and others were tortured, not accepting deliverance; that they might obtain a better resurrection: And others had trial of cruel mockings and scourgings, yea, moreover of bonds and imprisonment:
They were stoned, they were sawn asunder, were tempted, were slain with the sword: they wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins; being destitute, afflicted, tormented; (Of whom the world was not worthy:) they wandered in deserts, and in mountains, and in dens and caves of the earth.
And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect” (Heb 11:32-40)
(Additional Scriptures to meditate on: I Tim 6:12; Rom 10:10; I John 4:4; Jude 1:20; Jam 2:14-22; Mat 7:24-27; Mk 5:25-34; Ps 119:89)