Two things are vital to winning any type of competition.  First, you need a strategy: a game plan.  You need a good understanding of the goal, and some idea of the direction you are going, and which plays you are going to make to achieve that goal.  In team competition, it is important that all members of the team understand the goal, and their individual function that, when combined with the efforts of their teammates, will ensure victory.

Second, you need to know your opponent.  To develop a strategy against your foe, it helps to know their tactics.  What type of plays do they typically run?  What are their strengths and weaknesses?  Do they give some sort of indication of what they are planning when they execute their plans?

These two things are important whether you are discussing war, football, chess, poker, track, auto racing, or any other competitive activity.  In cards, one sometimes “tips their hand.”  This means that they hold their cards in such a way that someone else has an opportunity to view what they are holding.  The opponent now has a distinct advantage, because he knows not only his own cards, but those of his rival.  This mistake could end up costing the hand.

Since both of these elements are key, you need to do everything in your power to keep your opponent ignorant.  The less they know of your strategies, strengths and weaknesses, the more of an advantage you have.  The only time that it is irrelevant for your opponent to know your tactics is when you are so totally dominant that with or without the added information, there is no possible way that your maneuvers can be contained.

Of course, every human finds himself on the field of a great conflict.  It is not a battle of flesh, or a competition for some monetary prize, but a competition for the souls of mankind.  There are two sides: the family of God, and the family of Satan.  (The word Satan means adversary.)  Every one of us is on one of these two sides.  There are no neutral parties.  There is no de-militarized zone.

If we have repented of our sins, and confessed the Lord Jesus, believing with our hearts, we move to the Lord’s side.  We become soldiers in the army of the Lord.  Through the Word of God, He equips us with those things which we need to engage the enemy and emerge victorious.

  The two keys to victory are most certainly found in God’s Word.  God has a plan: a clear strategy.  Paul said that he was “a servant of God, and an apostle of Jesus Christ, according to the faith of God’s elect, and the acknowledging of the truth which is after godliness; In hope of eternal life, which God, that cannot lie, promised before the world began; But hath in due times manifested his word through preaching, which is committed unto me according to the commandment of God our Saviour” (Titus 1:1-3). 

The plan was made before the foundation of the world.  God has a clear purpose for the heavens and earth, and for all that is in them.  Angel, man and beast are all performing their duties and executing God’s plan as He has ordained.  There is nothing in the Word of God that shall not be accomplished.  Likewise, there is nothing done that He has not foreseen and declared aforetime.

The heavens suffered loss with the rebellion of Satan and those angels which followed him.  God worked out His plan to seek and save that which was lost, and created the worlds, setting in motion the execution of His plan.  With a clear plan, purposefully laid out in His word, and with ongoing instruction – or coaching – the Lord’s team can hit the field with confidence.

The enemy, too, has a plan.  His goal is to overthrow the Sovereign God, and usurp the throne.  His desire is to subvert God’s will, to divide God’s people, to steal, kill and destroy, all in an effort of achieving his goal.  His first coup attempt in heaven failed, and he has been plotting his return since his exile.

The battle on Earth began when Satan orchestrated man’s rebellion against God.  God tipped His hand, and made the enemy aware of His plan.  He said unto the serpent, “Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel” (Gen. 3:14-15).  God promised that one born of a woman would be the champion of mankind’s salvation.  God tipped His hand, and Satan was peeking.

Satan, thinking that he had acquired some secret information, hatched a plan to thwart God’s plan.  Satan was determined to destroy or corrupt anyone with any potential.  He attacked the patriarchs, the judges, the kings, and the prophets.  If he could not get them to fall by way of temptation, he would incite riots and have them murdered.  The problem was, however, that God had specifically told Him his plan.  It was not some slip of secret information, but rather a deliberate act: an essential part of God’s strategy.  Ultimately, Satan’s attempts to destroy the champions of God led to his greatest defeat.  Because he did not understand fully God’s redemption plan, he attempted to destroy each of God’s ser­vants.  Playing into God’s plan, Satan sent Jesus of Nazareth to the cross, spilling the blood that provided for the redemption of the very souls he had set out to destroy.  In an attempt to foil God’s plan, he had instead fallen prey to it, for he can do nothing against the truth, but for it.

Before Jesus came, another exemplary man – considered by Satan to potentially be the prophesied Savior which was for to come – was Job.  God chided Satan with regard to this righteous man.  He said, “Hast thou considered my servant Job, that there is none like him in the earth, a perfect and an upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil?”  You can almost hear him suggest, “Is this the one I said would bruise your head?”

Apparently, Satan had had his eye on Job for quite a while, and had considered Job as a potential champion.  He responded to God, saying, “Doth Job fear God for nought?  Hast not thou made an hedge about him, and about his house, and about all that he hath on every side?  Thou hast blessed the work of his hands, and his substance is increased in the land.  But put forth thine hand now, and touch all that he hath, and he will curse thee to thy face” (Job 1:9-11).

God allowed Satan an opportunity to attack all that pertained to Job, but not Job’s body or life.  Job lost his child­ren, and all of his possessions, but maintained his integrity and faith in the Lord.

Satan returned to the Lord, and the Lord was quick to point out the victory which Job had gotten over the enemy’s initial attack.  It was at this point that Satan tipped his hand, and revealed what he feels is his ultimate weapon: his weapon of mass destruction.  He said, “Skin for skin, yea, all that a man hath will he give for his life.  But put forth thine hand now, and touch his bone and his flesh, and he will curse thee to thy face” (Job 2:4-5).

You see, Satan knows humans.  He knows what makes us tick, and what buttons to push.  This is vital information which he uses to his own advantage in this war for souls.  In his encounter with God, the devil revealed his tactics, tipping his hand to us.  He showed us that when all else fails, he will call upon his ultimate weapon: control of people’s health.

He knows that people will do any­­thing they can to avoid bodily injury or death, and that if he can ob­tain the authority over people’s well-being, if he can have authority over their health, the people will surrender to his wishes entirely.

Today, there are forces trying des­per­ately to secure the control of the system of health care.  First, they attempt to convince everyone that they cannot live without the services of the medical professionals, then they exercise control over the access to them.  This diabolical plan is the method being used to achieve the goal of total hu­man subjugation, knowing that they will do anything to survive.

However, the grace of God allows us to stand as Job, and retain our integ­rity in spite of the threat of harm – or worse.

Mandatory government health care is not a modern invention.  In the book of Daniel, we read about the 3-year preparation for the wise men that would stand before the king.  For those years, they would get their daily portion of the king’s meat and wine.  It was required that they consumed their portion, but Daniel and his companions refused to be defiled.  The prince of the eunuchs feared for his life, because if these men did not eat, and became unhealthy as a result, his own life would be in jeopardy.  They must eat.  So Daniel asked for the prince of the eunuchs to indulge him, and give them vegetables to eat and water to drink for ten days, after which, he could decide what they should do.

After ten days, Daniel and his companions appeared healthier on the diet of vegetables and water than did the others who ate the provisions from the kings table.

Are we going to compromise our principles, and yield our bodies to the control of the state, or are we going to rely on the Lord?  Solomon said, “Be not wise in thine own eyes: fear the Lord, and depart from evil.  It shall be health to thy navel, and marrow to thy bones” (Prov.  3:7-8).

But, behold!  The days of Jeremiah’s prophecy are upon us.  “Why do we sit still? assemble yourselves, and let us enter into the defenced cities, and let us be silent there: for the Lord our God hath put us to silence, and given us water of gall to drink, because we have sinned against the Lord.  We looked for peace, but no good came; and for a time of health, and behold trouble!” (Jer. 8:14-15).

As the webs of our adversary are woven around us, let us seek to put the hope of our health in the name of the Lord.  May we ever remember the example of Daniel, and of the founding fathers of the United States, who, with “a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence,” stood for righteous principles against seemingly insurmountable odds, and, finding grace in God’s eyes, were delivered by His mighty hand and stretched-out arm.  Oh, that we might be partakers of that same grace, and love the Lord with all our heart, and with all our soul, and with all our mind, and with all our strength, that we might live.

Let us declare with David, “Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust;”  “In thee, O LORD, do I put my trust; let me never be ash­amed: deliver me in thy righteousness” (Psa. 16:1; Psa. 31:1).  Amen.