“And having shod your feet in preparation [to face the enemy with the firm-footed stability, the promptness, and the readiness produced by the good news] of the Gospel of peace.” God’s peace is a peace that the world simply cannot understand. It is a peace that passes all understanding. God’s peace gives us hope in hopeless situations. Then, He does something amazing, unexpected, miraculous even.
By Christina Li
To View the Entire Article, Click Here
To Download the Entire Article Directly to Your Computer, Click Here
To View the Outline, Click Here
To View the PowerPoint, Click Here
II Timothy 1:7: “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind,” (KJV). The Amplified Version puts it this way: “For God did not give us a spirit of timidity (of cowardice, of craven and cringing and fawning fear), but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of a calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control.” What the verse means is that our God is not about ‘cringing and fawning’ fear. He’s not about terror. He is about trust. He doesn’t give us fear. Any time you feel this kind of fear, it is not from God.
What God has done for us is give us weapons to fight this kind of fear. They include ‘power’, ‘love’, and a ‘well disciplined mind’. Just as the soldiers of yesterday and today, we have a choice as to what weapons we will use and, even, whether or not we will fight at all. Life will throw things at us. Like it or not, we are in a war zone, even if it is not physical. Satan and fear and all of those horrible spirits want to take us down. Make no mistake, they hate us. However, we can fight back. God has given us all the tools, all the advanced weaponry we need to take them down. We need to take back what was stolen from us. We need to go on the offensive, right up to the gates of hell, because they will not prevail against God’s own.
Ephesians 6:10-18 (Amplified) says, “in conclusion, be strong in the Lord [be empowered through your union with Him]; draw your strength from Him [that strength which His boundless might provides].” We need to realize that we simply can’t do it all by ourselves. We need help and God is more than willing to provide that help. We can be empowered through Him if we let ourselves be. We can draw our strength from Him, if we are willing to 1st: admit we need help and 2nd: surrender control. Remember, God won’t do our work for us, but we are also not to try to do everything ourselves either. This is important: We need to be strong IN the Lord. We are meant to work in concert with Him. He did not create us to be mindless, but mindful, mindful of Him. If we keep our focus on Him, He will empower us to do amazing things. In fact, He will empower us to not only defeat fear, but to occupy that territory that fear had previously controlled. It isn’t enough to defeat fear just one time; we must occupy that territory so that fear can never come back.
Here’s where the weapons come in: “Put on God’s whole armor [the armor of a heavily-armed soldier which God supplies], that you may be able successfully to stand up against [all] the strategies and the deceits of the devil.” It doesn’t matter what the devil throws at us, with God’s whole armor on, we can successfully stand up against ALL the junk the devil tries to throw at us!
We need to understand just what we are fighting: “For we are not wrestling with flesh and blood [contending only with physical opponents], but against the despotisms, against the powers, against [the master spirits who are] the world rulers of this present darkness, against the spirit forces of wickedness in the heavenly (supernatural) sphere.” Truly, your boss or coworker isn’t your true enemy. The devil is and God has given us the power to actually win that boss or co-worker. God offers us hope in a hopeless world and the devil hates it.
We need God’s armor or we won’t make it! “Therefore put on God’s complete armor, that you may be able to resist and stand your ground on the evil day [of danger], and, having done all [the crisis demands], to stand [firmly in your place].” Without God’s armor on, it’s like going into a war zone without a bullet-proof vest.
To View the Entire Article, Click Here
To Download the Entire Article Directly to Your Computer, Click Here
To View the Outline, Click Here
To View the PowerPoint, Click Here
