“As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the Lord has helped us.” So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines.” (1 Samuel 7:10-14 ESV)
You don't have to be alive on this planet for very long before you realize that this planet is plagued with wars. It has been said that in the history of mankind, through all recorded history, only 268 years had no war. Think about that. Over 6000 years and only 248 of them had no war at all. But did you know that, strangely enough, some of these wars have had direct links to the Church? Did you know that after every major war across this globe that there has always been a major move of God right after it? It's true. When God showed this to me, I could hardly grasp what I was seeing and hearing from the Lord, but there was no denying it.
Allow me to show you what I'm talking about. Let's just go back as far as the Civil War. Just a few years after the Civil War ended, Pentecost hit this planet again in the late 1800s for the first time in almost 1700 years, in the hills of North Carolina and Tennessee. Skip over now to World War 2 which lasted into 1946. What happened right after that war? In 1948, the Great Healing Revival came, with dynamic healing evangelists such as Oral Roberts, T.L. Osborne, Jack Coe, and on and on the list goes. Next, the Korean War came. What happened after that war finished? The Jesus movement came. And while it didn't get the approval of many in the organized, structured church world, many were saved and delivered by the mighty hand of God. Next came the Vietnam War. It lasted up to the final pull out in 1975. Well, what happened? Right after that war had finished, the Charismatic movement started moving across this globe, introducing praise and worship and what the structured church world called new. The next major war to come was the Gulf War. It came along, and right afterward, a mighty move of God started hitting the church with power and revival like the world had not seen in years.
Is all of this just coincidence? I don't think so. Look at what the Lord revealed to me in prayer. While the devil is not all knowing and does not know each step of God's plan for the future, he can see what is going on in the spirit world. He can discern when something is getting ready to happen. He may not know what it is, but he knows when God starts stirring and shaking the supernatural realm. And when he senses this, his primary goal is to try and stop it at any cost. Thus, if he senses that a major move of God is coming, he tries to create a major incident in the world to divert its purpose. But through the examples that I have just shared with you, you can plainly see that after the war is over, God's move still goes on. The victory comes after the war.
Now, take all of that that I just showed to you about how victory comes after natural wars, and let’s apply it now to the spiritual side of wars in comparison to the believers' life. Let me ask you something. Which believers get attacked by satan the most? The ones who are trying to draw themselves closer to God. That's who! You show me a Christian who prays all the time, and I'll show you a target of the enemy. You show me a Christian warrior that is starting to get serious with God, and I'll show you how the enemy will start to attack them. He knows when you're becoming a threat to his evil Kingdom, and when he senses this, he will start attacking you and fighting you more than ever.
Don't let any of that get you down or bother you in the least. After your war with the enemy is over, after the battle is over, guess what? You will walk away victorious by the hand of the Most High God. You will get closer to God than ever before. You will receive more power than you've ever seen before. You will go higher than you've ever been before. That's what! You may be going through a battle right now, but God wants me to tell you that victory is going to be yours. The battle is going to be won. The war is over. Come gather the victory spoils.