When Joshua was by Jericho, he lifted up his eyes and looked, and behold, a man was standing before him with his drawn sword in his hand. And Joshua went to him and said to him, “Are you for us, or for our adversaries?” Joshua 5:13 ESV

We all want God on our side. In fact, we often claim He is without ever bothering to ask Him. We assume we have the power of His name behind us, fighting for what we believe.

And Christians fight against Christians, fully believing that God stands with them. Only God never battles against Himself.

“Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one.” Deuteronomy 6:4

God never gives mixed messages. He never disagrees with Himself. We fight one another from our flesh.

What causes quarrels and what causes fights among you? Is it not this, that your passions are at war within you? James 4:1

It makes us feel better—especially with our passions roused in an election year— to say that our convictions come from God. Unfortunately, they often don’t. And sometimes we stand opposed to God without even realizing it

Even the Apostle Paul opposed God’s work because he made assumptions about what God would want and how He’d move. He wrote of his mistake in Galatians 1:13.

For you have heard of my former life in Judaism, how I persecuted the church of God violently and tried to destroy it.

Paul didn’t just raise his voice against God’s church. He raised weapons. His “zeal for God” imprisoned, wounded and killed those who loved Jesus, God’s beloved Son. He’d convinced himself he fought to uphold God’s desires when really, he fought to uphold his own.

The real question, beloved, isn’t whether God stands on our side. It’s whether we truly stand on His.

I’ll say this as delicately as I can. What you want to see out of this election really doesn’t matter. Your opinion on economic policy doesn’t make any difference. And your perception of each candidate holds no weight in God’s economy.

What matters is whose policies align most closely with God’s Word.

We stand at a tipping point, beloved. This nation must decide if we remain true to the One whose blessing and favor exalted it to the power it became. God’s hand inexplicably prospered a group of farming colonies into a national superpower because they chose to unite and establish themselves as One Nation Under God.

Yet we have systematically written into law statutes that deny the very God responsible for our great victories. And we stand amazed as our prosperity declines amid increasing instability.

It doesn’t matter if the lost among our nation refuse to recognize God, dear one. What matters to God is when His own do.

As this presidential election hastens toward us, I understand the frustration over the candidates. I’ll be honest with you. I don’t particularly like either personality. Both fall far short of the high moral ethics I’d like to see in a candidate.

But God doesn’t ask us to vote for a candidate, beloved. Party affiliation means nothing. As Christians we must vote for policy that most closely agrees with God’s Word and honors His position.

A great debate rages among the people of this land over the rights of an unborn child. I would like to ask you for a moment to shift your gaze from personal feelings and public opinion and look upon the question from heaven’s view.

“Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, and before you were born I consecrated you.” Jeremiah 1:5

For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. Psalm 139:13-14a

The question, beloved, is this. Do you believe God’s Word is true?

If not, it really doesn’t matter how you vote. But if you do, a new question surfaces.

If every life is, in fact, created by God and ordained for purpose, do we have a right to override what God has decreed? Does man—created by God from the dust of the earth—have the right to tell God He was wrong this time? Can we really believe that we are entitled to tell God we know better?

Such thinking displays arrogance that sets itself up in God’s place. When we exalt ourselves where God deserves to be, we position ourselves on very dangerous ground.

If you’re a believer, I don’t need to tell you whose nature that resembles.

I understand that my words might upset some people. In fact, scripture promises they will. For we find ourselves in the days described by Isaiah 59:12-15.

For our transgressions are multiplied before you, and our sins testify against us; for our transgressions are with us, and we know our iniquities: transgressing, and denying the Lord, and turning back from following our God, speaking oppression and revolt, conceiving and uttering from the heart lying words.

 Justice is turned back, and righteousness stands far away; for truth has stumbled in the public squares, and uprightness cannot enter. Truth is lacking, and he who departs from evil makes himself a prey. The Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no justice.

We can’t allow the public square to define our truth, beloved. Public opinion no longer recognizes truth. The deceiver has lifted his voice, establishing false wisdom that denies our Lord. And we have believed him.

Forgive us, Father.

Wisdom cries aloud in every street (Proverbs 1:20) begging our return to the Lord our God. He alone holds the right to create life and deny it. He alone established the covenant of marriage and maintains the right to define it.

Everything else hinges on whether we believe that’s true.

You see, economic prosperity, victory in battle, and the safety of our borders all fall under God’s blessing when we stand in agreement with His Word. And He repeatedly promises that when we stand for Him, He stands for us and will make Himself known on our behalf.

Your vote this election will announce your answer to this question, dear one.

Do you believe Him?