The Kitchen: The Engine Room of the Family

The Kitchen: The Engine Room of the Family
Go Natural’s Ten Step Nutritional Programme
In order to help you live healthily and naturally in a modern urban environment that is jam-packed with quick-fix boxed food solutions, altered food, dirty water, and other ‘evils’; Go Natural has developed ten basic guidelines to gather, produce and freshly prepare REAL foods and pure water that will optimally nourish the body.
Ironically the farmers who produce whole food in rural areas often end up buying the convenient, adulterated, processed and boxed-food version of what they grew, back again in a different form wrapped in expensive and at times deceitful packaging. They so become exposed to the same modern un-natural food modalities and chemical evils as city dwellers are.
Healthy living requires a paradigm shift that begins in the mind. The rationale for eating REAL FOOD is well documented and explained in my book and one of the former GO NATURAL articles. All the GO NATURAL articles are available on www.gonatural.co.za. Once you understand the rationale and the four reasons for quality real foods/building blocks and the critical role they play in your body to experience daily optimum health. you will think twice in consuming junk foods in boxes, packets and fast food outlets. Foods in boxes and packets are not natural. Our Creator did not design us to eat pre-processed and adulterated quick-fix foods. I’ve not come across plants in nature that produce foods in bottles, boxes, packets and cans!
I can assure you that if you and your family embark on this journey to make and prepare your own foods the GO NATURAL way, it will be an exciting, educational, empowering and enjoyable experience for you and your family. The GO NATURAL diet and lifestyle is a life-altering and possibly a life-saving journey. Our book GO NATURAL will equip you with information, skills, wisdom and recipes to produce real handmade traditional foods! Real foods are not only far more palatable and tasty but also contain a much higher nutritional value, similar to what our ancestor once enjoyed.
 
Go Natural’s Ten Step Nutritional Plan
1.     Water
Pure water is a human being’s number one basic need.
The body is comprised of approximately 70 percent water. One of the very important functions of water is to flush out toxins from the body. But how can water clean the system if the water itself has become an actual source of toxins, polluting the body and its delicate systems? Polluted water makes the body a very expensive filter with devastating effects. Water must be pure before it enters the body.
 
Recommendation:
·         Every house should harvest rain water in big storage containers once the atmosphere and roof has been washed clean with the first rain. Borehole water is not recommended, I invite you to read my book for more advice and information.
·         Recommended purification process?
Distillation is the only consistent, infallible and effective water purification process. It transforms contaminated water into pure life-giving water. The reason I have so much confidence in the distillation process, is that it is a natural process and it is flawless every time. Distillation uses the natural hydrologic cycle of evaporation and condensation (leaving the toxins, chemicals, inorganic minerals and pollutants behind). It is the same process that has supplied rain water to our planet for thousands of years.
2.     Grain – Foods
A super and delicious staple food if it is freshly milled or rolled. Intolerances disappear, vitality is regained and excess body weight melts away. Grain can be seen as a living and sleeping infant plant with a great concentration of nutrients to survive and reproduce. Grain foods like bread, pizza, pasta, etc. should only be enjoyed if it was hand made from freshly milled, living and organic grains.
The rationale for freshly milling is that when grains are milled into flour or rolled into a flake, the grain kernel is killed thus it can and will not grow anymore. On top of this the flour is now exposed to the oxygen-containing atmosphere we live in. Anything that is killed and exposed to oxygen will oxidise and degenerate. Therefor if you buy flour you are actually buying dead, ripped apart grains that are in the process of decomposing.
The Banting advocates are unfair and ill-informed in their judgment of grain. They don’t compare apples with apples. One cannot compare white refined flour with a whole grain seed. They have rightfully exposed the evils of refined carbohydrates, but neglected to expound the virtues and even necessity of unrefined, organic, freshly milled grains. Because of this half-truth and lack of discernment many are being misled and robbed of vital, life-giving nutrients and cost effective food types. History and anthropological studies prove that our ancestors have enjoyed hand-made whole grain foods for millennia without blood sugar problems like overweight, obesity, diabetes. We have hundreds of customers that can testify for this fact.
Suggestion; preferably always stone-mill living grain fresh immediately prior to preparation of the food. This ensures that the fragile essential fatty acids and amino acids (protein) in the germ of the grain is fresh. In fact, oxidised essential fatty acids in old flour become a trans-fatty acid which is toxic and carcinogenic.

3.     Animal protein
The prima building blocks: Meat, seafood, milk products and eggs are vitally important foods. Not only is it difficult to obtain adequate protein on a diet devoid of animal products, but such a diet often leads to deficiencies in many important minerals and nutrients as well. This is because a largely vegetarian diet lacks the fat-soluble catalyst needed for mineral absorption. The saying, ‘You are what you eat’, also applies to animals. It is important to know what the food chain of the animal you are going to eat consisted of. We need to apply common sense and pay a lot more attention to our food sources, types, and quality. Only buy meat and other animal protein products from a supplier that is well known for supplying organic pasture-reared meat, eggs, milk, etc., with no growth stimulants, GM containing fodder and hormones.
4.     Juicing of vegetables
When one extracts the juice from a vegetable or herb, the result is a very concentrated and powerful nutrient substance. Some people even call it medicine. You can literally ‘make your juicer your pharmacy or food supplement factory’.
 
The advantage of juicing raw vegetables lies in separating the juice from the fibre, so that you retain the bulk of the nutrients in the juice. Because the fibre has been removed, these fresh, living nutrients in the juice enter into the bloodstream at cellular level within minutes, eliminating the time-consuming and energy-depleting process of digestion.
 
Juicing vegetables provides one of the best sources of nutrients for building and regeneration of our bodies, the immune system and cells. In short, juicing is the best and safest way to counteract the imbalances of the unnatural convenience lifestyle that renders our bodies overfed and malnourished. But bear in mind, juicing is not a passport to cheat and deviate from a healthy lifestyle.
5.     Sprouting
Make your kitchen your garden.
Adding sprouts to your diet is an easy way to gain mega loads of the living building blocks needed for vitality and good health. Sprouts are easy, cost effective and practical to implement into your diet. For their size they offer a tremendous number of nutrients.
6.     Fermented foods
Fermentation as a process to naturally preserve raw foods is a vital traditional skill that has been lost and forgotten by modern society. Homemade fermented foods are filled with natural probiotics, enzymes and a plethora of healthy gut bacteria. Consuming unpasteurized homemade fermented foods is almost a sure remedy for restoring gut health that has been compromised due to modern food and unnatural medical interventions like antibiotics. Homemade traditional sauerkraut and kefir yogurt helped me to restore my gut health. Fresh fermented foods are far better than any probiotic supplement I’ve ever used in my search for gut health. By making fermented foods a priority in your diet and lifestyle you too can experience improved health and or recovery at little additional cost.
7.     Blending
The benefits and dangers of high-speed blending will be pointed out.
My suggestion is, yes, enjoy the occasional smoothie, but it should preferably always be in conjunction with whole nuts, or a whole apple or carrot that requires proper chewing. We should also limit the number of smoothies offered to our children, by providing and producing healthy whole food, chewable foods and snacks instead.
A blender is a wonderful modern kitchen aid to be utilised, but we need to use it in moderation and with wisdom. Chewing is vitally important to stimulate jaw bone development and the excretion of the correct digestive enzymes for proper digestion. More detail in my book.
8.     Dehydrating of products
Dehydrating is a natural process to preserve and to produce snacks and foods. Blowing hot dry air over certain foods will dehydrate and remove the moisture from the food product, leaving the preserved enzymes, vitamins, and minerals intact, to be used at a later date. No more exposure to harmful sulphur containing chemical preservatives in your home made dried fruits.
9.     Oils and fats
Indispensable for the absorption and utilisation of nutrients. A vital nutrient essential for a healthy central nervous system, skin, etc.
10. Super foods
Extraordinary nutrient-dense foods that boost health and vitality. Examples are; whole cacao beans, chia seeds, cayenne pepper, etc. GO NATURAL in its recipe section have a selection of recipes to make handmade chocolate, snacks, deserts from whole and fresh super food ingredients. These type of snacks is a real treat, but if the correct ingredients were used the GO NATURAL way it become a good food to be enjoyed with no regrets, since it is non-fattening and jam-packed with mega quantities of nutrients.
The above list of Nutritional suggestions is the theory of the GO NATURAL diet and lifestyle which is discussed in detail in my book. The practical aspects are explained in Part 10 under the Recipes section in my book. With this theory in mind, the recipes provide the necessary practical skills and know-how to make these foods from living ingredients. If you want to know how to incorporate these foods into your daily diet, refer to Go Natural’s suggested daily diet under the Recipes section.
I invite you to read my book and to discover how you can take control of your health, your most valuable asset.Visit my website

By Johan Jacobs


Overcoming High Blood Pressure

God said “Do not fear”  365 times in the Bible – that’s a “do not fear” for every day of the year. If He said it that many times, He was obviously trying to bring across a very important message!
From a medical perspective, fear is a lethal poison: in fact fear, anxiety and stress is the foundation of over 100 major incurable illnesses, including many cardiovascular diseases such as high blood pressure. We were warned about this in Luke 21:26 which says, “In the last days men’s hearts will fail them because of fear.” Medical research confirms this is true – many diseases of the heart are listed as stress related conditions which according to the WHO is the number one cause of deaths world-wide today.
James 1:22 says that we must be doers of the Word and not just listeners only. High blood pressure can develop as a complication of other diseases, for example kidney problems. However the primary disease called Hypertension specifically follows a profile of people who fail to be a doer of the Word in the following Scripture where Jesus said “Do not worry or be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will have worries and anxieties of its own” Matt 6:24. Often the fear of the future that causes high blood pressure is related to finances.

Disease begins in the spiritual realm
Where did those toxic disease-making thoughts of fear come from? Who taught you to be anxious and to worry about what could go wrong tomorrow? These thoughts were not originally your own, they came from the spiritual realm described in Ephesians 6:12: “For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood but against principalities, powers of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness in the Heavenly (supernatural) sphere.”
In this Scripture, Paul described an invisible kingdom that answers to satan known as principalities, powers of darkness and spiritual forces of wickedness…or we could say ‘evil spirits’, one of which is mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:7: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind.” What the Word of God is showing us here, is that fear is not primarily a thought or an emotion, it is a spirit. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 also explains that as humans we consist of three parts: spirit, soul and body.
That spirit of fear wants to put disease on you because the devil’s nature is to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10). However Proverbs 26:2 says that the curse without a cause cannot come. The devil knows that he is not able to put a disease on you, unless he can persuade you to disobey God’s Word. So all he needs to do is to train you in another way of thinking which is opposite to the Word of God, so that you follow a different Gospel which is what Paul called the law of sin in Romans 7.

Thoughts come in the first person
How the devil tempts us to sin is by lying to us and deceiving our thoughts. The enemy always speaks to you in the first person so as to deceive you into thinking that it was your thought, and you don’t even realise that it is the invisible kingdom speaking lies to you.
For example a spirit of fear is not going to put thoughts in your mind which say: “Hello, this is the spirit of fear speaking to you. I come from the devil and he told me to tell you to worry about whether or not you are going to make it financially this month.” If it was that blatant, you would never listen to his lies. Therefore he wants to deceive you: to tempt you to worry and get you to speculate about what could go wrong in the future, he gives you those thoughts in the first person, for example, “I am so stressed because I don’t think that I am going to have enough money at the end of the month! I’m so worried because I don’t know how I am going to pay the rent etc.”
Because those thoughts came in the first person, you think that they are your thoughts and feelings. And so you follow that way of thinking as if it were you and you become fearful, anxious, worried and stressed. All along, the enemy is training your thought life to be afraid and to worry, all just to violate that one Scripture in Matthew 6:34 where Jesus said to give no thought for tomorrow.
Fear is a sin
When the Bible says not to worry or have anxiety about tomorrow, was that a suggestion or a commandment? We think that sin is only the big, obvious issues such as murder or adultery, but what about the more subtle, socially acceptable sins in our heart and thought life – like worrying? Sin is disobedience to the Word of God.
When tourists come to Africa they are warned about the ‘big five’. But there are far more people dying of malaria than attacks by elephants, lions etc. In the same way,  ‘mosquito sins’ like fear are taking us out! Most of us don’t really take the Bible that seriously when it says not to worry and to be anxious for nothing (Phil 4:6) and so you fall under the power of satan’s lies.

Do you have toxic mind-set of fear?
As you continue to listen to those fear-filled thoughts and to meditate on them, you begin to develop a toxic mindset of fear. Notice we have moved from the level of the spirit to the level of the soul (which consists of your mind, will and emotions).
As you spend time worrying, you are building a long term memory of fear in your brain. So that fear is now a part of you physically, and you have become one with the spirit of fear in spirit, soul and body, which by its fallen nature wants you to think that God can’t take care of you and therefore you need to worry about tomorrow.

You develop a disease as fear becomes a part of you physically
That long term memory of fear stimulates a stress reaction in your body, during which there is an imbalance between two nervous systems called the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system. The sympathetic nervous system becomes overactive and it over stimulates the blood vessels causing them to constrict and become too narrow. So now you have the same volume of blood that has to flow through a narrower space and that increases your blood pressure so that it becomes too high.

Defeat high blood pressure!
This knowledge is not just for those with high blood pressure, but for the rest of us because the same principles you have to apply to bring healing, are the same principles that if you learn them now and apply them to your life now, will prevent disease.
You can defeat high blood pressure and even better you can prevent it, if you understand how satan’s kingdom and the spirit of fear speaks to you…and if you can understand the pathway of disease and how it develops through the spirit-soul-body connection. I will continue on this topic in the next issue.  
 
By: Michelle Strydom
Dr. Michelle Strydom founded Eagles’ Wings Ministries. Enquiries for her materials (Books and DVDs), or to book her for a conference, please contact Charmaine: 082 920 7826 / cj.eagleswings@gmail.com. See www.eagleswings.co.zw for free resources and articles.
REFERENCES:
 

Cardiovascular Psychiatry and Neurology; Department of Psychology, University of California, San Diego. Cardiovascular Disease and Psychiatric Comorbidity: The Potential Role of Perseverative Cognition. Britta A. Larsen and Nicholas J. S. Christenfeld. Volume 2009 (2009), Article ID 791017, 8 pages. http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2009/791017
Psychotherapy in Australia; Mind, Body and Heart: Psychotherapy and the Relationship Between Mental and Physical Health; Matthew Bambling; Volume 12, No 2, February 2006; http://www.psychotherapy.com.au/fileadmin/site_files/pdfs/ebambling.pdf
Cardiac Diseases and Anxiety Disorders; Cicek Hocaoglu, Cagdas H.Yeloglu and Selim Polat Rize; University Turkey; http://cdn.intechopen.com/pdfs-wm/18338.pdf
Source: Stress | University of Maryland Medical Center. http://umm.edu/health/medical/reports/articles/stress#ixzz3hD0GTeA3. Last Reviewed on 01/30/2013. Reviewed by: Harvey Simon, MD, Editor-in-Chief, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School; Physician, Massachusetts General Hospital. Also reviewed by David Zieve, MD, MHA, Medical Director, A.D.A.M., Inc. (This site references a further 19 medical journals showing the relationship between stress and heart disease)
American Heart Association: ”Stress and Heart Health.” Office of Women’s Health: “Other Possible Heart Disease Risk Factors.” Reviewed by James Beckerman, MD, FACC; October 08, 2014 WebMD, LLC. http://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/anxiety_and_physical_illness; July 1 2008


Gap Year Section

For the best year of your life – join one of the amazing Christian programmes that you can read about in our 18-page GAP feature of JOY!
Some of the exciting things you can sign up for include:
ministry internships, theology studies, leadership courses, arts and drama studies, business skills development, adventure challenges, communitiy outreaches, multi-media training, surfing ministry & practical discipleship.
For more info see our articles about:

3D Outreach   
Beyond Adventure
Creare Training Centre
Hatfield YOYL        
Media Village       
New Life Church
Operation Mobilisation
Shofar Institute
Treverton Post-Matric
Victory Gap Year


Frans Ludeke – God Is Faithful

Earlier this year Frans Ludeke stepped down as head coach of the Bulls and is on his way to the 2015 Rugby World Cup as part of the Fiji coaching team. We popped in at the Ludeke family before Frans rejoins the Fiji team for their final preparation.

God’s provision
When Frans talks about the new phase in his life, he is suddenly moved because the faithfulness and provision of God overwhelms him. “On the day that I walked out of my last team meeting with the Bulls players, Jake White, a good friend of mine, gave me a call to find out about my availability since John Mackee, the coach of Fiji was looking for a forwards coach for the World Cup. That call, out of the blue, was an answer to prayer! The Lord opened the Fiji door. Ever since I started walking with the Lord, my life has been full of testimonies like this. This is how the Lord provides; He always knows what is best.

A new beginning
It is exciting to get to know another culture in a new country and Frans views this as a phase where he can focus on a new vision for the road ahead. “I had an amazing time at the Bulls and the Lions, and now I am stepping into the international arena. I am learning to trust God in a whole new way. I am in a country where I did not know anyone and I am totally reliant on the Lord to grant me favour. I would like to offer more than just rugby, but the Lord is the One that grants you access to the heart of another and gives you the opportunity to speak into their life. I enjoy it there, not only because I mean something to them, but also for what they mean to me.”

Where did it all start?
Frans grew up as he puts it, “under the sound Word of God” with the Gospel ringing in his ears at school and at church. Yet, his relationship with the Lord only became a reality to him the day the Holy Spirit opened his eyes and he received the Lord as his Saviour and Shepherd of his life.
“At school my talent for sport was my identity, but when disappointments and setbacks brought me to the end of myself, I sought answers from the Lord that I got to know at school and in the church. In that search I found the Shepherd of my life, in His presence I realised that my lifestyle, attitude and language did not glorify Him. The Holy Spirit convicted me of my stubborn and sinful lifestyle and all this despite the fact that I had already been confirmed in the church.
I realised that I did not value the sacrifice of grace that Jesus paid for my sins on the Cross. It brought me to deep repentance. I confessed my sinful lifestyle and asked the Lord to forgive me and to make everything new so that my life would testify that He is my Shepherd and that I am serious about my relationship with Him.

Whoever finds a wife…
Frans and Anélia met after he returned from England where he was a teacher and played rugby for a year. He says he will never forget the day that he met Anélia for the first time, “I was immediately drawn to her vivacious and warm personality. She gives her all to me and our children, no matter what time of day it is. When I arrive at home she is ready to make me as comfortable as possible. This has always made me feel so welcome. I know that she really loves me.”

A long wait for their children
In 2013 the couple went through a difficult time when their triplets arrived prematurely at 27 weeks. Before the arrival of the triplets they trusted the Lord for seven years for their firstborn, Izebella. Frans explains: “It took a long time for Anèlia to fall pregnant, but from the beginning we walked this road with the Lord.” After Izebella’s birth, Anèlia had two miscarriages and every time it was a huge disappointment. The Lord, however, gave her Isaiah 49:16-17 as a promise that she would have more children. “See, I have engraved you on the palms of My hands; your walls are ever before Me. Your sons hasten back…”  It was a long road, a process during which both of us grew in our faith. And then, five years after Izebella’s birth, God blessed us with triplets!”
Ecclesiastes says everything has its appointed time and this Scripture is what flashed through Frans’ mind when he received the message that the triplets were prematurely being born. “I drove to the hospital with absolute peace in my heart knowing that this is the right time for them to be born,” he says. Júan, Mícaela and Dánièle turned two this year and keep Mom and Dad young and on their toes.

The gift of parenthood
It is very important for Frans that his children also receive the gift of faith in God, “Anèlia and I want to create an atmosphere where our children can mature, not only physically and intellectually, but also spiritually. I want to teach them good habits such as to eat healthy and to exercise, but also that it is not about what happens to you, but how you react to it.”
Frans regularly prays with his children, “I believe it is my privilege as the spiritual head and though Anèlia also prays with them, I do it gladly. When I am not home, I pray with Izebella over the telephone. It is part of our lives; she knows that the first and last part of her day goes to the Lord.”

Be involved at church
The family attends Ligpunt Kerk in Pretoria and is part of a small group. Frans believes in being involved at church, “You must meet with God, but you must also serve others and be part of the Body of Christ. You have a role to play in their lives and they in yours, that is how we shape each other.”
Spiritual fathers and mentors
Frans sees mentors in your life as a necessity. “The ability to gain wisdom through listening to and observing others’ lifestyles is a shortcut to good decisions,” he says. “Despite the fact that both my parents died when I was young, the Lord blessed me with wonderful role models, family, friends, teachers and pastors in my life that spoke into my life and cared for me. There were Godly men who showed me the way and helped me to make wise decisions.

Advice for sportsmen
It is normal to go through challenging seasons, but if you keep the Lord as your first priority, it is easy. In the beginning of your career you need the Lord, because you have nothing, but as you become more successful, there is a danger that you think you need Him less. Let Him always be your identity and keep Him as your first love. Keep to the principles that helped you reach your goals. If you become successful and you do not keep to good principles, the focus can shift to money and possessions and then the ‘main thing’ is not the ‘main thing’ anymore. This is the beginning of the end! If you do not keep God as number one, you will look, talk and do as the world does; you will love the world.”
 
The Lord is my Shepherd
Frans’ favourite Scripture is Psalm 23:1: “The Lord is my Shepherd.” He says, “He guides me, He feeds me, He protects me. I have peace because He is for me.” It is clear that Frans indeed follows his Shepherd in the paths of righteousness. 

—interview by Donna Kennedy-Meyer


Let Go, Let God

When we talk about being crucified with Christ and dying to self, what do we mean? It means we die to our desires, our ego, and our will. Sometimes this even means dying to our own vision. But you may say, “I’m sure my vision is God-given. It is His will.” Yet there is an inherent danger. It is possible for the calling, promises, and vision God has given us to become our main ambition, making them opponents of the Lord, for He is not willing to share our hearts with anything – not even with good things.
Remove idols from your life
Isaac was the fulfilment of the promise God gave Abraham. Yet the Lord was not willing to share Abraham’s heart, not even with Isaac. So the Lord asked Abraham to lay Isaac on the altar and offer him as a sacrifice, knowing this would be the ultimate test of Abraham’s love. Author A. W. Tozer expounds on this brilliantly in his classic book The Pursuit of God.
“God let the suffering old man go through with it up to the point where He knew there would be no retreat, and then forbade him to lay a hand upon the boy. To the wondering patriarch He now says in effect, “It’s all right, Abraham. I never intended that you should actually slay the lad. I only wanted to remove him from the temple of your heart that I might reign unchallenged there. I wanted to correct the perversion that existed in your love. Now you may have the boy, sound and well. Take him and go back to your tent. Now I know that thou fearest God, seeing that thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son, from Me.”
What does it mean to surrender our will to God?
The word surrender is a radical word! Many of us are willing to surrender until it begins to hurt, but ‘true surrender’ is painful. Some people are willing to surrender as long as it is logical, but ‘true surrender’ is not subject to our rationale. Others can surrender what is bad and harmful, but God is not satisfied.
To God, surrender is not complete until it is all encompassing, exhaustive, total. It is not simply saying, “Your will be done,” but it includes, “Not my will.” This death to self is not some form of divine sadism. God always has life in mind.

Let God do a good work in you
Just as a gardener prunes off the old branches so new ones can grow, God desires to remove that which hinders life and growth. This place of death is also the place of birth, and it is how God’s purposes are born in the earth!
Who reigns in your life?
What if God asked you to give up the thing you enjoy the most? What if He asked you to lay down your gift or talent, the thing that defines you – the thing in which you find self-worth? Could you lay your promise on the altar as Abraham did Isaac? Have you checked to see who is sitting on the throne of your heart? Is it you? Is it your vision? Is it your dream? Or is it the Lord Jesus?
Dead to self, but alive in Christ
My friend, God has a wonderful plan for your life, and He wants to use you in extraordinary ways for His glory. But resurrection only follows death – death to self, death to your will, death to your desires, and death to your dreams.
It is in these painful moments of surrender that God’s Kingdom is established in us, when we pray with Jesus, “Not my will, but Yours be done.” This beautiful brokenness allows us to become an extension of God’s dominion, and our lives become ‘cracks in the wall’ through which His Kingdom can come and His will can be done in earth and on earth! 
 
Daniel Kolenda is the president of Christ for All Nations Ministries international. For more info: 0861 232 672  or www.sa.cfan.org.za


How Can I Overcome My Problems?

The well-known story of Jehoshaphat describes one of the greatest epic battles in the history of Israel. Jehoshaphat, the king of Israel, received word from a friend that the combined armies of three enemy nations were on their way to fight and conquer him. The chronicler tells us that these three nations were the Moabites, the Ammonites, and the Meunites (2 Chron 20:1) and all were nearby – just beyond the Jordan River of the Dead Sea. The odds were definitely not in Jehoshaphat’s favour.
This story is relevant to each of us because we face battles each day: financial, spiritual, marital, vocational and relational. God put the story of Jehoshaphat in the Bible in order to illustrate certain vital spiritual principles in winning the battles of life.

Identify the enemy
This seems rather an obvious principle, but actually it is not. Many people simply do not know who their enemy is. We often think the enemy is a person who is trying to take something from us – our job, our spouse, our money – but very often the enemy is our own attitude.
It is not so much the situation that gets us down but our response to the situation. Before we can start winning our personal battles, we have to accurately and honestly identify the enemy. When Jehoshaphat heard that three nations were coming against him, he was alarmed (2 Chron 20:3). This is a natural reaction to problems and fear is not bad unless we deal with it in the wrong way. We can use fear to motivate ourselves to conquer the problem. But if we become discouraged and give up, or get angry with God and ask “Why me?” then fear defeats us.
Admit your inadequecy
There is only one kind of person that God doesn’t help: someone who doesn’t think he needs help. When you admit your inadequacy and ask for help, God can work on it. After Jehoshaphat admitted that he and his counsellors didn’t know what to do, he prayed, “But our eyes are upon you”
2 Chron 20:12.
We need to get our eyes focused on the Lord. Too often we have our eyes on everything except the One who can solve our problems. If we keep our eyes on the Lord, we will overcome our circumstances.
Take it to the Lord
So in the midst of this crisis, what did Jehoshaphat do? He proclaimed a fast and had all people come together to seek the Lord: “So Judah gathered together to ask help from the Lord; and from all the cities of Judah they came to seek the Lord” 2 Chron 20:4.
Taking your problems to the Lord means praying. Unfortunately prayer is often the last thing we try, because we want to be able to work things out on our own. Prayer ought to be the first weapon we use – not the last. It is important to note that Jesus fought the biggest battles in life, He also prayed the most.

Relax in faith
Notice how God responded to Jehoshaphat’s prayers: “Do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God’s” 2 Chron 20:15. To overcome battles you need to relax in faith. Many Christians today are totally worn out because they are trying to fight the Lord’s battles in their own strength. If we try to fight God’s battles in our own power, we are sure to be defeated.
When we first become Christians, we may not really understand what we have gotten ourselves into. In our enthusiasm we may think we are ready to go out and bring in God’s Kingdom single-handedly. We are eager to win the world for Him. Then we work really hard and reality sets in and eventually we come crawling back on our hands and knees, feeling remorseful and disappointed that we have let God down.
But God replies, “No, you didn’t let Me down, because you weren’t holding Me up.” We don’t hold God up, He holds us up. We don’t have God in our hands, He has us in His hands. The Lord is trying to tell us, “Relax in faith and let Me work through you.”
Christ is your strength
There was a time in my life when I had been working diligently for the Lord, but doing everything under my own power. Finally I couldn’t take it anymore. I said, “Lord, this stinks! I don’t like it. I’m tired.” Then I said, “God, I give up.” At that moment I heard His voice saying, “Great! Now I can start working, because as long as you’re out there trying to make your own plans and do it on your own, you’re just going to mess things up. Let Me work through you.”
The apostle Paul said, “As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in Him” Col 2:6. In other words, as you look at the way you became a believer, be sure to live the same way. It’s a choice. The Bible says that salvation is “not by works, so that no one can boast” Eph 2:9. You didn’t become a Christian by working really hard at being good. You did it by
simply saying to God, “Lord, I relax; I let You live in my life.” We should continue in the same way and let God manage things.
Victory in life is a gift from God: “But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ” 1 Cor 15:57.
Twice in 2 Chron 20:15-17, God instructed Jehoshaphat not to be afraid. The king thought he had every reason to be fearful – after all, it was three-to-one odds against him. But God said, “Do not be afraid.” Why not? Because the Lord promised to fight the battle for us and with us. Notice what else God said to Jehoshaphat: “You will not have to fight this battle. Take up your positions; stand firm”2 Chron 20:17. What does it mean to stand firm when you have a problem, when you are facing a battle? It is a mental attitude of quiet confidence that says, “I’m going to trust God.”
Run only to God
It is never God’s will for me to run from a difficult situation. If I do run, the situation will only follow and catch up with me a little further down the line. Why? Because God wants to teach me that He is sufficient for any problems. We can save ourselves problems by standing firm and waiting on God in quiet confidence. So what can we stand firm on? First, we need to stand firm on the character of God. The Lord is faithful, and we can
depend on Him; He will never let us down.
Second, we need to stand firm on the writings that God has given us through His prophets – in other words, the truth of the Bible. The Bible is God’s Word and we need to rely in quiet confidence on His written promises.
Thank God in advance
The seventh principle in conquering life’s battle is to thank God in advance for giving you the victory. The story of Jehoshaphat is fascinating, because after he consulted the people, he appointed men to sing to the Lord, to praise God for His splendour and holiness as they went out at the head of the army (2 Chron 20:21). Now get the picture: Imagine you’re standing on a mountaintop and looking across a valley toward a mountain on the other side. On one mountain there are three enemy nations, waiting to devastate the Israelites. The Israelites are on your mountain, and their leader tells them, “Here’s God’s battle pan. All of those who sing in the choir, I want you out front.” So the army goes marching to battle with the choir out in front,
singing praises to God. Did God’s plan work? Yes. The three enemy armies got confused and ended up killing each other! Why did God do it this way? As a visual object lesson to teach us to praise Him in faith even before the victory takes place. The lesson is that there is power in thankfulness. Each one of us can say, “Lord, I know I have problems, but I thank You in advance because there is no situation that You can’t take care of.” That’s true faith.  

 
By Rick Warren