Contending
by Pastor Graham Cathers 

Jude 1:3 Beloved, while I was very diligent to write to you concerning our common salvation, I found it necessary to write to you exhorting you to contend earnestly for the faith which was once for all delivered to the saints. (NKJV)

The Holy Spirit found it necessary to write to the church and encourage us to earnestly contend for the faith. This word carries the idea of fighting hard with intense force. It means to compete for something, especially a prize or trophy. To fight or struggle against in the face of difficulties or opposition.

There's a TV program called The Ultimate Fighter. It's a show with up and coming fighters who are looking for an opportunity to take their career to the next level or former contenders who are trying to make a comeback. They compete against one another with the hope of being called the Champ. But the only way to the top is through the opposition.

Jesus has called us overcomers; He says we are more than conquerors but to be an overcomer we must overcome and conquer everything that would try to hinder us from running our race with our eyes fixed on Jesus the author and finisher of our faith.

God created you with a divine purpose. Your job is to discover what that purpose is and then spend the rest of your life fulfilling it. Today I want to encourage you to fight and contend for those things that God has called you to do.

What should you contend for?

So the woman bore a son and called his name Samson; and the child grew, and the Lord blessed him. And the Spirit of the Lord began to move upon him at Mahaneh Dan between Zorah and Eshtaol. (Judges 13:24-25 NKJV)

Israel had been ruled by the Philistines for 40 years because they failed to keep God's covenant. Now Manoahs wife was barren and the angel of the Lord appeared to her and told her she would have a child and then gave her specific instructions on how to raise him as a Nazirite.

Samson was from the tribe of Dan and grew up in the town of Zorah which is in the territory that was given to the tribe of Dan by the Lord. It was occupied and ruled by the Philistines. Apparently whenever he would the go near the camp of Dan close to where he grew up it says the Spirit of the Lord began to move him. To stir him up, to trouble him.

The Hebrew word for move can be translated impel. It means to move something or someone in a particular direction. This is what God was doing with Samson? Very often we feel stirred up about certain things that are happening in our life and like Samson we are unaware that God is leading us to contend for His will to be done.

Samson went down to the city of Timnah. There he saw a young Philistine woman. When he returned home, he said to his father and mother, "I saw a Philistine woman in Timnah. I want you to get her for me. I want to marry her." His father and mother answered, "Surely there is a woman from Israel you can marry. Do you have to marry a woman from the Philistines? The Philistines are not even circumcised." But Samson said, "Get that woman for me! She is the one I want! (Judges 14:1-5 )

(Samson's parents did not know that the Lord wanted this to happen. He was looking for a way to start a fight with the Philistines. They were ruling over Israel at this time.)

God was picking a fight with the Philistines and he used Samson to do it.

This verse should not be taken to mean that the Lord caused or even favored Samson's marriage to a pagan, but that He would use Samson's actions to accomplish His goals. If Samson's level of spirituality had been higher, perhaps the Lord would have been more direct in His use of him. Instead, the Lord used his pagan marriage to "plant" Samson among the Philistines and so to begin the deliverance. The Lord's plans superseded Samson's.

Samson was being moved, stirred up and compelled by God to go to war with these people. God was ready to deliver Israel once again so He raised up a deliverer. Have you ever noticed whenever God wants to do something He always raises up a man or woman to do it? He could do it himself but He has chosen to work with us as co-laborers. I believe one of the ways we can understand what things we personally are to contend for is by checking our heart. What are you being stirred up about, what's troubling you, what issue moves you? Pay attention to your tears and what moves you with compassion.

Don't be passive.

Some people take a stance that is passive where they just sit back and say well if God wants it to happen then it will happen if not then I wasn't meant to have it. Being passive isn't a good thing in the kingdom you've got to get out of that neutral mindset.

"What you need in life will be brought to you. But most of what you want you'll have to go get". There is something about desperation that pushes [us] into a realm of the kingdom that is inaccessible without desperation" -Bill Johnson.

Jacob thought Esau was coming to kill him and his desperation pushed him back to a place called Peniel where he wrestled with an angel and wouldn't let go until he blessed him. He could have never become Israel without contending for his destiny.

The bible says God closed the womb of Hannah. So was it God's will for her to be barren? No He wanted her to have children and she ultimately became the mother of six children in total. But it was her desperation that pushed her to seek the Lord and contend for a child.

From the time of John the Baptizer until now, the kingdom of heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful people have been seizing it. (Matt 11:12 GWT)

God's kingdom has always advanced forcefully. It's very clear that without force His kingdom doesn't advance. The kingdom has never advanced through passivity. Forceful men lay hold of it; they posses the kingdom of heaven here on earth. So we could say without forcefulness you won't lay hold of the kingdom that belongs to you even though it's the Fathers good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

The only way you can posses His rule over your life spiritually, emotionally, mentally, financially, relationally, and in your family is by force.

Forcefulness is an attitude of fixed determination that presses ahead regardless of every type of difficulty or opposition.

The Greatest Contender of all time is Jesus Christ. How did He contend for the salvation of the world? Through the cross. The cross was the place of destiny for Him, the purpose for which He came. It was the place where He contended for my salvation and yours. Let me encourage you today to pick up your armor once again and begin contending for God's will to be done here on earth as it is in heaven.