Briefly with a related point. The related point is this: granted that we die — and I'm not so sure we can grant that in most cases — but granted that you have died, granted that you have finished with the old life, what then is the key, what then is the secret, if you can put it like that, of entering into the fullness of the Christian life, living victoriously? As Chris was saying, the problem with him is he couldn't find the victory. What he needs is a victory. That's what we all need — victory. What is the secret of this victory? This is what I would like to share with you in the remaining time.
Let us again be quiet before the Lord in a moment of prayer. "Father, we earnestly pray that You will grant to Your Church to be a victorious Church in these days. For what the world sees is frankly a defeated Church. A Church whose witness amounts to little or nothing. Even if the world observes that the Church does not live in victory, that its light, if there is any light, is but a dim flicker. Lord, have pity upon us. Lord, help us this day both to examine again our commitments, whether it be total, whether we have truly cut away the old life, whether we have truly died, whether we have truly been buried and entered into the new life, the resurrection life. But also to examine what it is that hinders the influx of Your power into our life that we may truly radiate for Yourself. So free us, we plead with You, from the shackles of sin, and empower us to glorify Your name. We commit this time into Your hands. In Jesus' name we ask. Amen."
Let us turn to 2 Kings, chapter 13. The Book of Kings, 2 Kings, chapter 13, verses 14 to 19. This passage fascinated me as a young Christian already, and many times my thoughts have returned to this passage. It is a passage in fact concerned with victory. Let us read 2 Kings 14 to 19. Verse 14: "Now when Elisha, that great prophet of Israel, when Elisha had fallen sick with the illness of which he was to die, Joash king of Israel went down to him and wept before him, crying, 'My father, my father, the chariots of Israel and its horsemen!' And Elisha said to the king, 'Take a bow and arrows.' So he, the king, took a bow and arrows. And Elisha said to the king of Israel, 'Draw the bow.' And he drew it. And Elisha laid his hands upon the king's hands. And he said, 'Open the window eastward.' And he opened it. And Elisha said, 'Shoot.' And he shot. And Elisha said, 'The Lord's arrow of victory. The arrow of victory over Syria. For you shall fight the Syrians in Aphek until you have made an end of them.' And Elisha said, 'Take the arrows.' And the king took them. And Elisha said to the king of Israel, 'Strike the ground with them.' And he struck three times and stopped. Then the man of God was angry with him and said, 'You should have struck five or six times. Then you would have struck down Syria until you had made an end of it. But now you will strike down Syria only three times.'"
As I said, as a young Christian, this passage fascinated me. It fascinated me because there was a very important message in this passage. And I wonder whether you perceive what that message is. There is the message concerning victory. Let me give you a little of the background of this passage.
The name Jehoash, or Joash, the name actually means "Jehovah," or "Yahweh gives" — the Lord gives, or the Lord has given, in fact. The name Jehoash was the king of Israel that reigned from about 800 BC, 800 years before Christ. And he reigned as king of Israel for 16 years, as we are told in verse 10 of this chapter. His name, as I remind you, means "the Lord has given." The Lord has indeed given. The question is whether we've got it. There is a difference between what the Lord has given and what we actually have. The Lord has given. The Lord has given us victory. The very victory that Chris finds that he so urgently needs, and indeed all of us need. The Lord has given. The question is whether you've got it.
What has happened between the giving and our having it? How come that we do not have what He gives? Where is the missing link between the giving of that victory and the actual enjoying of that victory? That is the question. Something has been missed out in between. Unless we want to say that God has not given us the victory. Unless we want to say that if we live a defeated Christian life, it's because God wanted it that way. Unless we want to say that the grace that God has provided for us is not sufficient for us. We cannot win any victories in the Christian life.
When we look at the church today, we ask, did God do it for victory or didn't He? Is this what the church was meant to be? Is this the thing of beauty that God meant the church to be? Is this the thing that radiates His light throughout the world? Is this church the church of power that God meant it to be? And to put the questions is already to answer it. The church has been for the most part of it an abysmal failure. There are exceptions. There are exceptional men of God. There are exceptional servants of God still around these days. There are still some Elishas in a wretched situation such as Israel was in. Israel was a disgrace. But thanks be to God that there was still an Elijah. There was still an Elisha. There were still a few men of God around. But that's not what the church is meant to be. The church was not meant to depend on one or two people to save what's left of its name. Israel was meant to be a light to the Gentiles. A light that would shine. God had chosen Israel to be His servant. But Israel failed. Israel failed. Is it because God meant it to fail? Is it that God cannot give us the victory? Precisely what was the problem?
Now that is what this passage is concerned about. What has happened? Let us look at the situation. The mighty prophet Elisha was about to die. And how anxious was the king of Israel, who addressed him as, "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" What does it mean? It means that Elisha was more important to the king of Israel, or at least as important to the king of Israel and to the whole nation of Israel, as its entire armed forces put together — its chariots and its horsemen. Elisha was as significant for the safety, for the future, for the defense of Israel as the whole armed forces of Israel put together — its cavalry, its chariots, which is equivalent to the modern-day tanks. So vital was Elisha to the survival of Israel, for its security. And Elisha was about to die. Little wonder the king was very anxious.
It is remarkable how important a mighty man of God can be, not only to a church, but to an entire nation. It has many times occurred in history, such as the mighty man of God like Ambrose, far more capable than the emperors of Rome, to whom the emperors turned in the hour of crisis, knowing that the man of God was their only hope — not the armies of Israel, not the armies of Rome. When the Huns stood at the gates of Rome, ready to wipe Rome off the map, who did the emperor turn to but Ambrose of Milan? And somehow this mighty man of God was able to turn back the Huns from the doors, from the gates of Rome. He was able to accomplish what even the emperor knew the armies of Rome could not accomplish. The Hun armies were sweeping the whole of Europe, wiping away everything before it, and now they stood before the gates of Rome, right at the doors of Italy.
Yes, in the same way, the king of Israel depended on this mighty man of God, Elisha. Syria had been a grief to Israel, had attacked Israel again and again, put Israel under constant economic and military pressure. Even to this day — strange how history tends to repeat itself — right now we are in a strange state of affairs where Israel is facing pressure from Syria. After so many thousand years, we still have that situation. And here I wonder if history might have been quite different, whether Syria would still be a threat to Israel today as it is, if Joash the king had done what Elisha expected him to do and he failed to do.
What happened? Well, there was Elisha, lay dying of his illness, very weak by this time, giving, by God's power, giving Joash a last chance — a chance to wipe Syria out forever as a threat to the survival of Israel. But he didn't take the chance. He missed it. Why? Notice this. And here are a number of things we need to assert. Look again at the passage. How faithfully this king obeyed the man of God. Notice that from verse 14 right on to verse 17, whenever Elisha gave him an order to do something, the king did it. He said, "Take a bow and arrow." And the king took the bow and the arrow. He said, "Stretch out the bow." And he did that. He also told him to open the window, and he did that too. He told him to shoot out of the window. And every time it says, "and he did it." And he did it. He obeyed. But there was this step beyond which Elisha could not take him, where he must himself step forward in faith. And that is precisely where he failed. He failed not for want of obedience. He failed for want of faith.
Now I'd like you to understand this thing very, very clearly. Faith is something that I cannot do for you, that nobody else can do for you. Elisha could not implant his own faith into Joash. Joash, when it came to the step of faith, was on his own. And that is where he failed.
Now notice carefully here, several points that I would like to share with you. Notice that in verse 17, a prophetic promise is made: "The Lord's arrow of victory. The arrow of victory over Syria. For you shall fight the Syrians at Aphek until you have made an end of them." You will gain total victory. That's a promise made. But two verses later, the promise had to be rescinded. Why? Because of the lack of faith to draw upon the promise. God provides unconditional victory, a victory that Israel never was able to gain of its own. Israel could never in its own strength gain a victory over Syria. Syria was simply far too powerful in those days for Israel. Israel could not gain the victory. Now God promised the victory that they of themselves could not have. But two verses later, the victory had to be rescinded. The promise had to be taken back, withdrawn, because there was not the faith to avail itself of that victory.
Now notice this painful part. Elisha said to the king, "Take the arrows in your hand and strike the ground." Strike it. And what does Jehoash do? Jehoash takes the thing and he strikes three times and he stops. Why did he stop? That is where the man of God was angry, as we said in verse 19: "Why did you stop? Why didn't you keep hitting the ground?" I wonder what you would have done if the man of God said, "Now take the arrows in your hand, strike the ground." Maybe you might have stopped at one stroke. He just struck the ground. He didn't say how many times. So bang, that's it. Finished. You got one victory. At least Jehoash did it three times. So it's too bad, but not enough. Not enough. Maybe someone else — I was thinking to myself, well, from this lesson I've learned: he says strike the ground, now I'll keep bashing the ground. And so he says, "Stop! Stop!" And I'll keep bashing over there. Then we would have the victory. But no — why did he stop?
A second point to consider here. Consider God's mercy to Jehoash. You know that Jehoash was not in himself worthy of any of this promise. He was not an outstanding spiritual man. In fact, he was spiritually nothing. Yet God, for the sake of Israel, granted him this promise. In fact, in verse 11, we are told that he was a king who did evil in the sight of God, because he followed in the sins of his father Jeroboam. He was a sinner, in other words. He deserved no grace and no mercy whatsoever. Yet God, in His kindness, gave him a promise for the sake of His people, for the sake of Israel, that He would give this sinner victory. And so it is with us. What are we? We are also sinners. Where are we better than Jehoash? When God grants us the promise that He will give us the victory, if only we have the faith to take hold of it. And Jehoash didn't have enough of it. He had some faith. He also had obedience. But not enough. Isn't that the problem of so many Christians? You've got some faith — not enough. And therefore you live in this twilight state of Christianity — defeated most of the time, one or two little victories, and then again defeated again. Up and down, up and down like this, seesaw business. What kind of a Christian life is this?
The third thing to notice here, as we have already seen, is to discern the distinction between obedience and faith. There is a close relationship between obedience and faith, but there is also a distinction that we must understand. You notice that Jehoash, even though he was king, was amazingly obedient to the prophet Elisha, indeed partly out of great respect for this man of God. But also he shows something about Jehoash himself, that he was willing to obey, which is more than could be said for lots of other people who have very high opinions of themselves. But Jehoash — and here we can think, if we are superior to Jehoash, we might not be — but in spite of his position as king, he was willing to obey and to do whatever the man of God told him to do.
But here is where obedience is not enough. There is a place where obedience and faith part company, where faith goes beyond obedience. Now that is the question we must ask: what is that beyond? What is that beyond? We can sometimes follow a man of God. A man of God says this and we do it and we succeed. And the man of God says do that and we do it and we succeed. But there is a point beyond which the man of God cannot take us anymore. You are on your own.
You see, notice that it was after Jehoash failed to strike the ground more than three times that Elisha said to him, "You should have struck the ground at least five or six times and then you would have had total victory." You were fifty percent under. That is just not enough. You went only halfway. It wasn't enough. But you see, has Elisha told him beforehand, "Now strike the ground five or six times"? Of course he would have struck the ground five or six times. But why didn't Elisha tell him to strike five or six times? He couldn't do that, because if he had done that, that would have been Elisha's faith, not the king's faith. The promise was made to the king, not to Elisha. My faith cannot substitute for you. Your faith cannot substitute for me. I have to stand or fall by my faith, not by your faith. This is the thing. And so Elisha had to let him go on his own. "Strike the ground." And there, God will observe your faith. And his faith went only halfway. Halfway. Like so many Christians. Maybe a little bit more than halfway, but more or less halfway.
So this really is a problem that we must look at. What then is the problem? Where then does faith and obedience differ? It differs at this point. And this is the fourth point I have to look at. And at this fourth point I would like to draw attention to the fact that unlike obedience, faith has a certain initiative of its own. Obedience is simply you do what the other person tells you. But faith is something where you must act on your own. You must go on on your own. You must have the initiative of faith. You have to make your own decision.
Now, in this case, notice that, for example, those being baptized today — they have taken that initiative, not from any pressure from anyone else. They have taken a step of faith. Now that is why it's faith, because it's on their own initiative. I didn't say to them, "You've got to be baptized." In fact, I constantly cross-question them whether they are really ready for baptism. They have to go on in that act of initiative. Now they are, in baptism, taking one step. But I want to tell them today, as I tell all of you, that baptism is only the first step. It's very far from being the last step. It is the first step, and you've got to keep taking more steps on with it. If you take one step, it's very good. But if you stop there, you're not going to enter into the fullness of victory. You've got to take a second step, and another step, and another step, and keep going. Only then will you enter into the fullness of victory. So many people, they take the step of baptism, and they stop. They think, "I've arrived." You haven't arrived. You're on the first step of your journey. You've got a long way to go. And so many Christians, they take the first step, and then they need to take the second one, and the third one gets even slower, and the fourth one takes even more time to come, and finally they come to a halt, standing there, finished. And what happens? What happens is that they start sliding back.
So the important thing then is to consider this problem that Joash had. Why did he stop after three times? Why did his initiative run out? Why did his dynamic, if you like to say that, cease after three stops? Why so soon? That is a puzzling question. Why do people stop so soon, and others even turn back? What is the root of this problem? Why does our momentum run out so readily? How is it that we do not see people going on from strength to strength, instead of slowing down, actually increasing in speed?
You see, the secret of the Master is that we need to keep pressing forward towards the mark as Paul did. That was his simple secret. He refused to stop. He refused to allow anything to sidetrack him. There will be many hindrances. As Chris said, his commitment will be tested and tested by fire. And so many people, as soon as they are tested, as soon as they encounter some hindrance, they become discouraged, demoralized, weary, exhausted — they slow down. But that is precisely the point where you must not slow down, where you must keep pressing forward. Pressing forward even when you feel you are getting tired, your steps are becoming heavy, you are weary and you are saying, "Lord, I am so tired." It is precisely at that point, when you are going to feel very tired, when Satan seems to be doing everything to hold you down and hold you back — at that point to stop is the fatal mistake. Because there is where faith is going to be put to the test.
And as you press forward just one more step, you might suddenly find that you are lifted up with eagle's wings. There is the beauty of it. I have many times gone on and on against discouragement, weary physically, weary mentally, exhausted, but like Gideon's men, "faint but still pursuing." Exhausted but still going on. And you know why? Because as you keep going on, somewhere there suddenly you will find you are lifted up, that grace has taken over, that God's power has come in and transformed what seemed to be imminent defeat into glorious victory. Glorious victory. Maybe so many Christians have failed precisely at the point when they might have had the victory and they gave up just one step too soon. One step too soon. That is the tragedy.
That God is going to let you go on — maybe, as was said there in the passage, He allows you to almost come to the point of hurt, of discouragement in this test. And at that point, there is victory. Just when you think you can't make it anymore, it's your last breath, the next step you are going to collapse. And just as you are about to collapse, you are lifted up. You say, "What's this? This is too good to be true." Grace has come into operation. It is very, very important that God uses these circumstances often to test our faith. Because it is through the testing that our faith is strengthened.
Like a wise father, He doesn't pamper us. He doesn't prevent us sometimes from tumbling over. When we are learning to walk, we trip over and bash our nose on the ground and we think, "I'm not going to take another step. This business of learning to walk is ridiculous. I got bruised — nose bruised, chin bruised, everything bruised — and I am still going to go on? I am still going to go on?" But if your father is always holding you up so you never fall, how are you going to learn to walk faithfully? Every parent hopes that. God must also let us know that. But eventually when we are finally discouraged, when we sit on the floor and cry and we think, "I'm never going to make it," His comfort comes. His strength lifts us up. He says, "You'll do it. Stand up one more time and you'll see. You will not only walk, you will run and not be weary." Oh, that's wonderful.
That's why I said this passage fascinated me. It fascinates me for another reason. And this is the first point I'd like to come to. Because it tells me something about faith. I picture faith rather like a tap. When you turn on the tap, there is a whole reservoir behind there. A whole reservoir, a whole lake behind you. That water comes into your home through that tap. You turn it on and the water comes. Now if you turn it on a little bit, some drops from that reservoir will come into your sink. If you turn it on a little bit more, you get some reasonable flow of water. But if you turn it full on, you have the showers of blessings. The thing that fascinates me about this passage is that it is we who determine to what extent God's victory will be ours, to what extent that grace will be ours. It is in your hands, not in God's hands. That tap of faith is for you to decide what you are going to do with it. And the strangest thing is, often we are so thirsty and then we just turn the tap on a little bit and we get a few drops of water and say, "Well, what's the matter? The reservoir dried out?" The reservoir hasn't dried out. You haven't opened the tap.
Picture it in this way. Or you can picture faith like light. Outside there shines the sun brightly and inside you sit in darkness. Is it because the sun doesn't shine? No, it's because you've got your blinds down. Now if you lift up the blinds a little bit, you've got some light there. But if you want to have the full blaze of light, get the thing out of the way. And the remarkable thing also is that not only does our faith affect us, it affects other people too. Because remember this: when your faith is small, your blessing is small. And when your blessing is small, you haven't got much to share with anyone else. But worse than this, if you close the door of faith, you may become a hindrance to others.
And this is exactly what we read in Matthew chapter 23, when we read in that passage — and we have recently been expounding Matthew 23 — but it says of the Pharisees: "You neither enter in yourself, nor permit others to enter in. You have shut the door of the Kingdom upon others." I want to say this thing: that it is not just you that is affected by a lack of faith. You may be blocking the way for others to enter the Kingdom of God. Therefore, whether I gain the victory or not, it's not just a matter of my salvation. It may be that you and I will be responsible for the blood of many others whom we prevented from entering into the Kingdom, because they looked at the likes of us and said, "Who wants to be a Christian? Look at him. If that's a Christian, forget it. I don't want to be a Christian." I remember that that was the very thing that prevented me from becoming a Christian. I looked at the Christians and said, "I don't want to be that. I don't want to be a Christian."
What do your friends see when they look at you? When they look at you today and say, "Wow! It's good to be a Christian. That is what I call life. Victorious living. That is what I call victory in day-to-day affairs." But we can't have any of this if we just do not open our doors wide, the doors of our hearts, to let His grace flood into our souls. We cannot live this Christian life in our own strength.
But let me close on one point. By now, of course, you have seen that I have dealt with this very basic principle in Scripture. And the strangest thing is that we have still not learned the ABC of the Christian life. We haven't learned the ABC. The very basic principle in Scripture is again and again, as we see in the Gospel, "Be it unto you according to your faith." It's according to your faith. It's always like this — according to your faith. We read that in Matthew 9 verse 29, for example. Matthew 9 verse 29: "According to your faith." There come two blind men to the Lord Jesus. And they ask the Lord Jesus — they come to Him to help them, to heal them. And the Lord says to these two blind men, "Do you think I can do this? Do you really believe I can do this?" They say, "Yes, Lord." "According to your faith, be it to you." They had their sight restored. According to your faith. There were lots of other blind men that couldn't see. These two blind men saw because of their faith. They had the faith: "Yes, Lord, You can do it." You did it. How much we miss, I wonder.
In that same chapter in verses 2, verses 22, in chapter 15 verse 28, and we go on and on through the Gospel — it is always "according to your faith." You have it or you don't have it. God has given. The very name Joash: God has given. But have you got it? He gave the victory. Do you have it?
And so in closing, I'd like to put this challenge before you, as I put it before myself. How exciting the Christian life could be! How exciting the Christian life, if only we would learn this very thing, that the Lord Jesus says in Mark chapter 9 verse 23. He wanted His disciples to catch the infinite possibilities of the Christian life. And He said, "All things are possible to those who believe." That is a statement to reckon with. That is a statement to think about. All things are possible to those who believe. Indeed, more specifically, "To him who believes" — singular — to any particular person. You could be an Elisha. Why are we content to be a Joash if we can be an Elisha?
Elisha was a good student. You know, he became exactly as his own master was. His own teacher was Elijah. And I often think of the words of the Lord Jesus: "It is sufficient for a disciple to be as his master." Indeed, that is exactly what Elisha was. He was as his master. You know, the words that the king addressed to Elisha: "My father, my father! The chariots of Israel and his horsemen!"
# Victorious Faith - Part 2
...the essence of faith. "All things are possible to them that believe." That puts before you the possibilities of the Christian life. I find that challenging. I aim by the grace of God to rise to those possibilities. And you know what I do? I dream. Because if you have such possibilities, you start dreaming. No possibilities, nothing to dream about.
I dream of what God will do in this generation, even to somebody as weak and as unworthy as I am. I am nothing. But what God can do through a nothing like me is what excites me. And so I dream. What do I dream? I dream of what the church will be. But of course I had to start with myself. I dream of what God could make of me — this worthless lump of clay. What God can make of me.
And so as a young Christian I started to dream. I looked at the Bible, the word of life. It could transform my life and transform the life of others. And I knelt down before the Lord and I said, "Lord, I beg of You. I am so spiritually dull. I so lack spiritual insight and understanding. When I read Your word I can't understand it. I can't understand it. I beg of You, teach me of Your word. Teach me by Your Holy Spirit, that greatest teacher of all. Illuminate my mind. Bring life into this dull understanding. Open this word to me, that I may serve You. That I may serve You. That I may bring this word of life to others." That's what I dreamed of.
And in those days I could not imagine the day would come when I could understand some of the deep things of the word of God. You know, as time went on, He did it. I began to find that passage after passage that I could not understand before, He opened to my understanding. How many times I was filled with joy and excitement, like a new discovery. The word of God opened up to me. And even some of the secrets concerning the future, things concerning the past, things concerning the present. I began to find that what I desired — to be able to use the sword of the Spirit in a spiritual battle — the sword of the Spirit was becoming a weapon that by His grace I was learning to wield with some degree of skill. Oh yes, we have more to learn. There is yet more light for us to enter into. But I saw that He was beginning to fulfill that which I asked of Him to do.
I continued to dream. I looked at the church. There is always a place to say, "Lord, raise up for Yourself mighty men of God in this generation. Raise them up, I beg of You." And then one year and I didn't see anything. Two years I saw nothing. And I kept saying, "Lord, where are the men? Raise up Your faithful servants in this generation." And then I began to see them. Men of God were rising. He was raising them up. And He is raising them up. Of course, the part that I didn't bargain on, that I didn't expect, was that He said to me, "Now here are some of them. You take and train them." The part of training that didn't cross my mind at the time. All I had prayed for was raise them up. He said, "Alright, I raise them up. You train them." So that was more than I bargained for. That part I had not been asking about. But so it is that the Lord commits some part of this work to our hands.
And so I continue to dream, to see the reviving of the church in this generation. When the church will begin again to conform to the scriptural pattern of the New Testament church. When groups of disciples begin to multiply in a new community which increases in love and concern for one another, deepening the spiritual life. Little groups of disciples committed to the Lord and to one another, caring for one another and building more disciples until the body of Christ grows in this generation.
Now I have discovered one thing. That I can keep on dreaming of the day when the church will begin to reach out with power into China and throughout the world. And those things are coming. But I discovered one thing: it's that no matter how hard I dreamed, I could not dream anything mightier than what the power of God could do. This is something remarkable.
Let me read to you Ephesians chapter 3 and verse 20. Ephesians chapter 3 verse 20. And then you begin to understand what the Lord Jesus meant: "All things are possible to him that believes." What does Ephesians 3 verse 20 say? "Now to Him who by the power at work within you is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever."
What does this mean? Look carefully. You will only see what it means: "To Him who by the power at work within you is able to do far more abundantly than even you could think." You just try thinking. And you will find that your greatest thought will be less, far less than what the power of God has accomplished. Well, that's something to rise to — a challenge. You try thinking. I have tried thinking and trying to think bigger thoughts, bigger thoughts. And I can't think of anything big enough that is beyond the power of God. He is able to do far beyond what you could think of. So try thinking hard sometimes. I am determined to think very hard. And then when you think, then you can ask. If you don't think of anything, what is there to ask? Ask for His truth. Ask for His glory. And I tell you, your mind would be amazed to discover that God is greater than our thoughts, greater than anything we could ask.
I would like you to capture the vision of this possibility, so that we will be motivated as Joash was not motivated. We have no dynamic of faith. After three strokes he stops. What is this? Your God will give you only three victories against Syria? Take hold of that arrow and bash there on the ground until your arm is tired — keep bashing. Until His grace comes along to give you that total victory. Total victory. Don't let that tap be turned on so small. Launch out into the deep.
And I want to say to those of you who are being baptized today, through this launching forth, if you keep on in this direction, walking on even when you are weary, until God lifts you up with eagle's wings, so that you will run and not be weary — the day will come when you will discover that others will say concerning you, as they said of Elisha, "The chariots of Israel and its horsemen!" The power of God through faith will be so manifested in your life that others will say you are more important to the church of God, to the people of God, to Israel, than all its armed forces put together. God's power is manifested in your life. You will have the victory.
And I do pray earnestly that this victory experience will be ours, each one of us. Let us be quiet before God in prayer.