Chapter 41 The Battle is Won

A saint went to pray thinking he was defeated, then discovered that he had won the war. He said, “I have fallen in sin, what shall I do? Shall I stay down and leave the walk He has ordained me to walk? Shall I rise back up on my feet knowing Jesus has forgiven me? His blood has cleansed me and made me whiter than snow, and His Spirit will lift me from the dirt to the third heaven. To God, I will confess and tell Him what I have done. I will pray harder and read the word more. I will be careful of where I step on the path. Shall I think of what shall happen if I fall again? He has told me not to worry about tomorrow. Shall it be on my mind?”
Then, another saint of God fell on his face before the Lord, weeping and mourning like a defeated man. And he said, “Lord, I don’t wish to leave you, but I’m scared I might.”
At that same moment, he heard a voice telling him, “Believe that you already won the battle.” He replied, “But I have not won. I still feel tempted; I still have a nature that goes against everything I believe. I fall many times. I’m always crying for deliverance and asking your blood to cleanse me and forgive me.”
The voice said, “You won the battle.”
He replied, “But how did I win?”
“Are you not part of His body, the church?”
“Yes, I am.”
“Jesus won the battle two thousand years ago. How can He win and not the body He carries, which is His church?”
The saint replied, “All of this is true, but why must I still carry my cross and fight this temptation if I already won?”
“Know that the devil and sin are defeated, and hell’s gate is under attack. Do you expect hell’s gate not to defend itself when it is attacked? You are thinking that you are defending when you are really attacking. Do you see?”
The saint thought for a while but still couldn’t understand.

The voice continued, “The fight is not yours. When you fast, pray, read the word, witness to others, fellowship and fight and resist temptation, is it not I, the Holy Spirit, who is doing it through your body? Did I not start working within you? Will I not finish it? Would Jesus start something he had no intention of finishing? If you won the battle, why would you think you lost?
If you are attacking, how come you think you are defending? I am with you and in you. You are my temple and my workshop. I am building and only destroying those things that shall perish in this world. Don’t fear; you have been in my book of life before the foundation of the world. You will finish this course and not leave my path. I have ordained that it is so.”
The dear saint stood up. From that moment, he never again worried about winning a battle that had been already won. He went on to serve the Lord into old age when, at age eighty-two, he opened his arms and said, “Lord, receive what is yours, for you have said this battle is won and you surely have won it.”
With that, he closed his eyes, breathed his last, and left for his home.