One morning, I was on a corporate prayer line when the person praying said something about us (everyone on the prayer line, including herself) needing to fight the good fight of faith. As soon as she spoke those words, the Holy Spirit began to speak to me right in the middle of the prayer!
He explained what fighting the good fight of faith meant, although I didn’t ask Him to. He said it meant fighting and winning battles in the Spirit. Fighting and winning the battle in the realm of the Spirit is, He went on to explain, fighting and winning battles in the mind! The mind being the battlefield. It is where the attacks of the enemy take place. It is where we fight.
So, He said fighting is when we choose to believe that what the Bible says is true. Particularly when we are not experiencing, in a situation, what God said we should be experiencing. Fighting is being persuaded of God’s love for us, even when we don’t feel His love. Fighting is allowing the Holy Spirit to persuade us:
- of who we are in Christ,
- that ALL of His promises are yes in Christ and
- that the promises of God belong to us
God, because of His great love for us, not only sent His Son to die in our place in order to make salvation available to everyone but also takes it upon Himself to persuade us of this Truth. Well, I had never heard of that before. I had never heard that God’s Spirit would persuade me of ANYTHING!
After leaving the prayer line, I decided to read 1 Timothy 6:12. The entire verse reads like this:
“Fight the good fight of faith, lay hold on eternal life, to which you were also called and have confessed the good confession in the presence of many witnesses.”
My focus, however, was on the first part of the verse. I wanted a better understanding of this phrase or command, ‘fight the good fight of faith,’ so I looked the words up in the Biblical Lexicon, a reference or study tool that explains, in detail, the origin, meaning, and usage of a word.
I started with the word fight. It is from the Greek word agonizomai, which means to contend for a prize, to struggle. It’s where we get the word agonize. Properly, it is to struggle, like being engaged in an intense athletic contest or warfare. Right there, I understood there will be a struggle, a battle if you will, for something. But, a battle for what? And with whom? And where is this battle taking place?
Well, next, I looked up the word faith. In that definition, I found confirmation of what the Spirit had spoken to me. And guess what? I wasn’t even looking for confirmation, just a better understanding of “fight the good fight of faith.” Interestingly, the Greek word for faith is pistis, which means faith or faithfulness. Its usage is for faith, belief, trust, confidence, and fidelity.
But next is where my confirmation begins. The Lexicon reads: pistis (from 3982/peitho, “persuade, be persuaded” ) Faith (4102/pistis) is always a gift from God, and never something that can be produced by people. In short, 4102/pistis (“faith”) for the believer is “God’s divine persuasion” – and therefore distinct from human belief (confidence), yet involving it. I’ll say it again, “God’s divine persuasion!” Wow!
So when we allow God’s Spirit to speak to us through His Word, He persuades us of the validity and truthfulness of the Word of God. He assures us we can believe His Word because He can not lie. We then ‘come to trust’ or are ‘persuaded,’ or we can say we now have ‘faith’ in the Word of God! All the while, Satan is trying to distract us. He’s trying to persuade us that God’s Word is not true. The battle is for our trust!
Okay, now I’m getting a better understanding. The enemy, through his tricks (circumstances, symptoms, arguments, and other things), tries to get our focus off the Word and off of all things GOD and onto his devices. He is trying to persuade us, through experiences, past and present, ours and the experiences of others, that the Word of God simply cannot be trusted.
So, our battle is with Satan! It’s with his imaginations and high things that exalt themselves against the knowledge of God. The battle is against principalities and against powers, etc. In the words of Dr. Fred Price, the battle is against Satan’s thoughts, ideas, and suggestions. And, as I mentioned previously, the battlefield is the mind.
When we are persuaded that God is for us, that His Word is true, and that His promises belong to us, we can successfully fight the good fight of faith. The battle is won by believing, and speaking out of our mouths that which the Holy Spirit has persuaded us regarding the Word of God.
“It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak.” (2 Corinthians 4:13 NIV)
“A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” (Luke 6:45 NKJV)
The two verses above, and many others, compel us to speak out our mouths what we believe. We can put on the whole armor of God and take our stand. We fight against the enemy’s tricks in the realm of the Spirit, in the battlefield of the mind, and we WIN! After all, that’s what makes it a good fight…we WIN!
Remember, God has already won the battle – in our health, in our finances, our family, our relationships, our emotions, and EVERYTHING that concerns us! We just have to believe. We must do as we have been commanded: Fight the good fight of faith!
Anita Rials