The Battle Belongs to the LORD!?

Just returned from prayer meet at the church....

A sister testified about some results after doing prayer-walk the past months in the neighborhood... how things began to change, how atmosphere has changed etc....

I thought of this, that 'the battle belongs to the LORD.' And a very personal encounter with God with regards to this truth... it was some 13-15 years ago, when i was just a couple years old Christian......

As the only Christian at home, I always wanted to get rid of the idols my parents put up but had no idea how to do it... outnumbered at home, fears, ignorant etc.

One day, I read in OT Samuel about the power of God when the Philistines took the Ark of Covenant as a plunder of war back into their temple, and how God dealt with those false gods in their own turf.... Aha! I began to pray that God's presence fill my home by simply the virtue I being the only believer of God here! Months passed without any result.

One fine afternoon, I was upstairs in the room doing don't know what I can't remember but I heard hacking sound just beside the staircase below..... it was my father dismantling the altar! I ran back to my room, giving thanks to Him who worked mysteriously. I didn't know why would my dad want to get rid of his gods obviously. I could only ask Him who moved in my dad's heart, and He answered me a few days later.

"One day out of nowhere came a stranger, right outside the gate of the house, stood there for a while and told me that the spirit which resided in the idol was no god but devil (ghost as he called it)," my dad told me without me asking... So upset was my dad that he immediately chased him off! "Of course I don't believe what he said!"

Days passed.

"The more I recalled that incident, the more uncomfortable I became... and if such is the case, there's no peace in my heart I might as well throw them all away... so I dismantled the built-in altar and removed them!" Praise our Almighty God!

How did that happen? The battle belongs to the LORD, my friend.

God's presence is manifest when we honor Him in our lives, inwardly and outwardly. If God could defeat the enemy even when the Israelites disobeyed Him and lost the war eventually, how much more when we honor Him and exalt Him with our acts of everyday life.

The battle truly belongs to the LORD; we are just called to obey Him.