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"Owe no man
anything..."
-Romans 13:8
"...the borrower becomes the lender's
slave."
-Proverbs 22:7
"...the
righteous man shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17
"...without
faith it is impossible to please Him."
-Hebrews 11:6
"No one can
serve two masters..."
-Matthew 6:24
"The Lord
will make you abound in prosperity..."
-Deuteronomy 25:11
"...God
loves a cheerful giver."
-2 Corinthians 9:7
"...the
Lord... is giving you power to make
wealth..."
-Deuteronomy 8:18
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Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus!
Thanks be to God who ALWAYS gives us the
OVERWHELMING victory!.
The Bible says that just before Jesus is to return to earth there
will be wars and rumors of wars, famines, earthquakes,
tribulations, murder, hatred, the emergence of false prophets
and lawlessness (Matthew 24:6-12). Another account says there
will be dismay among the nations, "in perplexity at the roaring
of the sea and the waves" with people "fainting from FEAR" at
the expectation of the things that are coming upon the World
(Luke 21:25-26).
Many people believe we're seeing these environmental signs
today in the form of the worldwide economic disaster,
catastrophic weather, terrorism, widespread sickness and
disease, wars, famines, major fires, global warming, etc.. The
result is the prevalence of FEAR and dread all around the
world just as the Bible prophesied. But there's good news for
Christians: we do NOT have to live in fear even during HARD
TIMES:
"For God has NOT given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and
of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy 1:7)
People who are fearful have difficulty trusting God; therefore,
fear works as the opposite of faith. Instead of fear, God has
given Believers the basic elements that we need to live by
faith: power (authority), love and a sound mind. But many
Christians are as fearful as their non-believing friends and
relatives. Why are we not RESISTING and REJECTING
something that comes to separate us from the victory that Christ
won for us at Calvary?
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| Consequences of Living in Fear |
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The Bible instructs us in a number of places not to live in fear.
For example Philippians 4:6 says, "Be anxious for nothing"
Matthew 6:31 tells us: "do not be worried about your life."
Many times in scripture angels and others said the words of
reassurance, "fear not" (e.g. Luke 1:12, 30). On several
occasions, Jesus told His Disciples their fear demonstrated lack
of faith (Matthew 14:30, Mark 4:40). In sum, God wants us to
avoid being fearful because it produces undesirable
consequences.
The Bible would not instruct us to do something we're not
capable of doing but many precious Christian Believers
routinely live their lives in fear and dread. They've forgotten to
resist it and in doing so they've made a decision by default to
live with their fear instead of DISCERNING that it's coming
from the enemy over whom they have total authority and
power. Friend, fear is a spirit tool of Satan that's causing us to
experience defeat in most areas of life:
- Fear robs us of our faith and without faith it's
impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). Fear robs us of our
peace because peace comes by faith (Romans 5:1). The World
today is longing for the peace that passes all understanding
but it's only available through Christ (Acts 10:36, Romans 5:1).
In fact, Jesus specifically told us not to be fearful so we'd be
able to receive the peace that He came to give us (John
14:27).
- Fear robs us of our joy. Fear always brings
concern and anxiety that displace and replace our joy. The
Bible says that our joy is our strength (Nehemiah 8:10). It's a
major weapon to protect us from the adversary and to bring
victory over our trials. When we lose our joy, we lose our
strength to successfully resist the enemy.
- Fear makes us self absorbed. When we stop
trusting in God, which is what happens when we surrender our
faith, we start trusting in ourselves. Fear is intensified because
we sense we'll never be capable of bringing the solutions we'd
hoped for. Also, when we trust in ourselves instead of the Lord,
we make ourselves vulnerable to the attacks of our
adversary.
- Fear makes us grouchy and subject to strife. Fear
always focuses on defeat which brings disappointment and
despondency and makes us hard to get along with. As long as
we trust in ourselves instead of the Lord, we'll fall easily into
strife because our emotions are controlling us. When we move
easily into strife, our relationships suffer; fear always strains
relationships.
- Fear causes us to make unwise and expedient
decisions and choices. When we're fearful, we move out ahead
of God and tackle things in our own strength. There's no faith;
God's not involved. An example is when we try a "get rich quick
scheme" in response to the fear that God won't provide
adequately. Where there's no faith, there's no wisdom because
God's not in it.
- Fear robs us of our God-given love. The Bible
says in 1 John 4:18 there's no fear in love. The two can't co-
exist. Therefore if fear prevails, our ability to love God and the
things of God is greatly diminished. If we're unable to love, we
can't fulfill the commandments of Christ. (Matthew 22:37-40). If
we can't fulfill the commandments of Christ, we'll be unable to
accomplish anything (John 15:1-11) and we'll live chronically
in defeat.
- Fear causes us to have to experience the very
things we're anxious about. This is a principle from scripture
that we can see clearly in the story of Job (Job 3:25-26).
Whatever he feared he was forced to experience in life and the
same consequence happens to Christians who allow fear to
persist in their lives instead of recognizing it for the work of
Satan that it is and RESISTING it as scripture has
instructed.
Friend, can you see now why so many Christians aren't living in
victory during these HARD TIMES? And tragically most
Christians don't realize that we've been equipped to resist and
defeat fear by trusting in God and by using His Word instead of
depending on our own strength and devises. Therefore, it's
absolutely essential that every Christians take authority over
ALL fear, kick it out of their lives and resist its re-emergence
with the greatest of determination.
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| Taking Authority Over ALL Fear |
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The authority of the Christian over every work of the enemy is
clearly established for us in scripture (Luke 10:19). So let's be
perfectly clear: BELIEVERS HAVE TOTAL POWER AND
AUTHORITY OVER FEAR. Therefore, to live in victory during
HARD TIMES we have to know that the Word of God says this
and then start using the weapons and principles of life that
God has given us for overcoming our fears. Following is how
you might go about it:
- You must first make the decision to come into agreement
with the Word which calls for you to RESIST fear. You must
decide to exercise the authority Christ has won for you over
your enemy instead of being passive.
- Second, you must re-energize your faith and trust. Faith
comes by hearing the Word (Romans 10:17); so fear comes by
NOT hearing the Word enough. Therefore, you need to get
into the Word of God and start studying it to cause fear to flee.
- Third, you must come to know who you are in Christ and
start exercising your authority over the enemy the devil. TELL
him out loud to get out of your life and take his fear with him. If
you resist him, he must flee (James 4:7). SPEAK in agreement
with the Word and produce life (see Part Three of this series) to
replace the fear.
- Fourth, you must focus on loving God and others by
faith. "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear"
(1 John 4:18). Strengthen your faith by speaking out loud
about your love for God.
- Fifth, the Bible says you can overcome anxiety by prayer
and supplication with thanksgiving. Spend time with God in
prayer thanking Him for what He's done in your life and His
peace will return (Philippians 4:6-7).
- Six, there are many scriptures that connect JOY to the act
of PRAISING the Lord. Indeed, God inhabits the praises of His
people (Psalm 22:3); so by praising Him the sense of His
presence is released and in His presence is the FULLNESS of
joy (Psalm 16:11). The truth is if you're a born again Believer,
JOY already resides within you (Galatians 5:22) and is just
waiting for you to release it as a mighty weapon against
fear.
- Seventh, another weapon against fear is speaking in
tongues. By speaking in tongues you speak directly to the Lord
(1 Corinthians 14:2), you edify yourself (14:4), you pray out of
your spirit instead of the Flesh (14:14), you build your faith
(Jude 1:20) and all of these work to destroy fear.
- Finally, the Word tells us that we should seek first the
Kingdom of God instead of worrying (Matthew 6:31-33).
Therefore, fear will depart when our priorities come into closer
agreement with His Word.
Friend, you may have difficult issues in your life but you DON'T
have to be in fear about them. You can release your faith that
God will come to the rescue and then you hope and wait for
the best. If you give in to fear, then you stop trusting that the
Lord will show up to deliver you from your trial. Focus on today
and stop worrying about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34) because
contemplating the future leads to fear.
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| Some Final Thoughts |
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The Bible says the thief (Satan) comes to steal and kill and
destroy (John10:10). He doesn't have the authority or the power
to accomplish those things because Jesus already defeated
him. But most Christians routinely allow Satan to steal their
faith by not resisting the FEAR he sends to do the work. Friend,
what stops you from having victory during HARD TIMES? The
truth is it's very likely your own passiveness about the Word and
the things of God He wants you to have. You're already the
owner of the VICTORY but you have to possess it and the
ONLY way you can do that is to get the devil and his FEAR out
of your life. Speak to the FEAR and tell it to depart from you
and you'll immediately begin to move toward your victory. And
every single time FEAR tries to come sneaking back into your
life, cast it out and you'll ALWAYS walk in victory.
Thanks for reading PLN today and we'll be looking for you
again in three weeks on May 15. In the meantime, may God
overwhelm you with the fullness of His love and spiritual
blessing!
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| Sinners' Prayer |
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If you've never invited Jesus to be the Lord of your life,
you can
do so today by saying the following simple prayer:
Jesus I believe in you and I believe that God
raised you
from the dead. I receive forgiveness for my sins and I
ask you to
come into my life today. I receive you as my Lord and
Savior.
If you were sincere as you prayed this prayer, God has
already come into
your life and you are a new creation, a totally new
species
recreated in His image. Now ask the Lord to lead you
to a good
faith-based, bible-teaching church where you can be
equipped
to fulfill your potential in the Kingdom of God.
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© Make A Way Ministries, Inc.
10621 North Kendall Drive - Suite 120
Miami, Florida 33176
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