Can you imagine a place of peace with no more war or threat of war between those who want it all and take it and those who are easy prey?  Heaven is that place.  All battles will cease when Jesus comes to end the war with our real enemy and claims His own for an eternity of peace.  No more suffering and pain, no more crying, no more tears, no more death.  We are promised this “no more” by Jesus who revealed it to John, His beloved, in a revelation.  John writes:

“Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the old heaven and the old earth had disappeared. And the sea was also gone. And I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down from God out of heaven like a bride beautifully dressed for her husband.

I heard a loud shout from the throne, saying, “Look, God’s home is now among his people! He will live with them, and they will be his people. God himself will be with them.He will wipe every tear from their eyes, and there will be no more death or sorrow or crying or pain. All these things are gone forever.”  Revelation 21:1-4, NLT

God is in control of the war between good and evil.  God wins every time.

Nahum 2, The Message

Israel’s Been to Hell and Back

The juggernaut’s coming!
    Post guards, lay in supplies.
Get yourselves together,
    get ready for the big battle.

* * *

² God has restored the Pride of Jacob,
    the Pride of Israel.
Israel’s lived through hard times.
    He’s been to hell and back.

^3-12 Weapons flash in the sun,
    the soldiers splendid in battle dress,
Chariots burnished and glistening,
    ready to charge,
A spiked forest of brandished spears,
    lethal on the horizon.
The chariots pour into the streets.
    They fill the public squares,
Flaming like torches in the sun,
    like lightning darting and flashing.

The Assyrian king rallies his men,
    but they stagger and stumble.
They run to the ramparts
    to stem the tide, but it’s too late.
Soldiers pour through the gates.
    The palace is demolished.
Soon it’s all over:
    Nineveh stripped, Nineveh doomed,
Maids and slaves moaning like doves,
    beating their breasts.
Nineveh is a tub
    from which they’ve pulled the plug.
Cries go up, “Do something! Do something!”
    but it’s too late. Nineveh’s soon empty—nothing.
Other cries come: “Plunder the silver!
    Plunder the gold!
A bonanza of plunder!
    Take everything you want!”

Doom! Damnation! Desolation!
    Hearts sink,
    knees fold,
    stomachs retch,
    faces blanch.
So, what happened to the famous
    and fierce Assyrian lion
And all those cute Assyrian cubs?
    To the lion and lioness
Cozy with their cubs,
    fierce and fearless?
To the lion who always returned from the hunt
    with fresh kills for lioness and cubs,
The lion lair heaped with bloody meat,
    blood and bones for the royal lion feast?

* * *

¹³ “Assyria, I’m your enemy,”
    says God-of-the-Angel-Armies.
“I’ll torch your chariots. They’ll go up in smoke.
    ‘Lion Country’ will be strewn with carcasses.
The war business is over—you’re out of work:
    You’ll have no more wars to report,
No more victories to announce.
    You’re out of war work forever.”

WHAT DO WE LEARN—HOW DO WE RESPOND?

God wins because His Son won. Victory is ours for believing.  God’s way of saving us brought us victory of sin and death!  Believe and be saved forever!

Jesus defeated the enemy as he fulfilled his mission to pay for the sins of the world on the cross, died, and rose again to give us hope of resurrection with Him who believe and follow Him.  Jesus is coming back for us.  We have already won.  Isn’t it great to know the victory is ours who believe that Jesus went to hell and back for each one of us? 

Yes, the war has been won, the undisputed Victor is ours who believe.  But, until Jesus comes, we fight daily skirmishes and battles with the enemy who still wants to distract us from God and claim us as his own while leading us to certain death.  Be prepared.  Know God, Know the enemy.  Know yourself and what you believe so you are not surprised by the enemy’s attacks.

Find freedom and overwhelming help when you let Jesus lead the battle for your heart! Scripture makes it clear that Satan will do anything to tempt you into poor decisions and self-defeating mindsets—including anxiety, rage, lust, and despair. The enemy is driven by the same!  The Prince of Darkness is also driven by envy, anger, jealousy and pride against God!  So, Satan wants us to fail, fall, and run from God.  But if we stay firm in our faith, nothing, absolutely nothing can separate us from the love God has for us.

The apostle Paul clarifies for us:

“What shall we say about such wonderful things as these? If God is for us, who can ever be against us? Since he did not spare even his own Son but gave him up for us all, won’t he also give us everything else? Who dares accuse us whom God has chosen for his own? No one—for God himself has given us right standing with himself. Who then will condemn us? No one—for Christ Jesus died for us and was raised to life for us, and he is sitting in the place of honor at God’s right hand, pleading for us.

Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us.

And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”         Romans 8:31-38 NLT

But we need help. Help from the inside out. We need the kind of help Jesus promised. “I will ask the Father, and he will give you another advocate to help you and be with you forever—the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept him, because it neither sees him nor knows him. But you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you” (John 14:16–17).  God’s Holy Spirit resides in all who believe.  His work is to guide us through all the daily battles of this life on earth.  He comforts, challenges, encourages, warns us and guides us. The Holy Spirit is God in us.  God is not just near us, above us or around us. God is IN us. He dwells in the part of us we don’t even know, in the heart that no one else has seen. In the hidden recesses of our being, God dwells, not an angel, not a philosophy, not a genie, but God.

Imagine that. 

Pause to thank God.  Meditate on this thought all day long.  This is true communion with God!

Lord,

Thank you for winning the war forever. Thank you for helping me fight daily battles with the real enemy who thinks he still has a chance to win my soul.  Thank you for encouraging me when I am beginning to fall.  Thank you for saving my soul and making me whole all because of your relentless, unchanging, unconditional love for me.  Help me to tell others always of your saving grace and the beauty of you in us.  Thank you for peace.

In Jesus Name, For Your Glory, Amen