Teachings of Discipleship from NickGyver Book Four "The Enemy is among us"
By Marvin Heikkila
When Jesus left his disciples to return to
heaven, he told them, ‘All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. Go you therefore and teach all nations,
baptizing them in the name
of the Father and the Son and of the Holy Ghost:
Teaching them to observe all things I have commanded you.’
When you teach someone to observe and follow
instructions, you are apprenticing them.
Or another term might be, discipling them. The term “Disciple” means to be a learner.
In the spiritual sense, a disciple learns how
to fight the good fight of faith, how to become a spiritual soldier. In our day and age we may also have to double
our duty of a soldier in both
the spiritual and physical realms, but for the
same cause. The thrust of Jesus’
ministry was to build an army with the power of righteousness. Our power of righteousness comes not from
our
works, but as the result of Jesus’ work on the cross when he died to redeem us
from the penalties of sin. By following
Jesus’ example, we can tap into the mighty power of righteousness.
This is something the enemy does not have
available to them and cannot obtain.
Jesus started with his twelve apostles first,
then expanded it to the seventy who were discipled by the first twelve and the
plan was to multiply disciples exponentially from that point on.
But what happened? The fly in the ointment, or the flaw in the
unction, however you wish to describe it, was that man due to his sin nature
got his own ambitions and goals involved and we
have slowed His perfect plan of
world-wide discipleship.
Misinterpretation of Jesus’ original plan produced divisions among
believers and even false teachings crept in to distort the
truth even
more. Disputes arose and soon turned
into wars as bitterness and unforgiveness abounded within the churches. Many thought that the command to go out and
teach the gospel
to the world was just for a specific few in the church….the
anointed ones, those called into mission work.
But nowhere in Jesus’ words does he say that only a few should
teach. We have
all fallen away from our
callings and become followers instead of leaders. “We like sheep have gone astray….” the Bible
states. We need to refocus on God’s plan
of salvation for the world
and not simply sit back and horde it for
ourselves.
So, what does a disciple learn?
I’m going to list thirteen things a disciple
must learn and then take each thing one at a time and explain how to accomplish
the step necessary to go onto the next.
- He learns to
discipline his life (Obedience)
- He learns how
to think (renews his mind)
- He learns how
to talk (life and death are in the power of the tongue)
- He learns how
to love (to have the compassion of Jesus)
- He learns how
to fight (the Jesus way)
- He learns how
to face trials (with courage and holy boldness)
- He learns how
to fear the Lord (This is desperately needed to fight evil)
- He learns how
to worship (in spirit and in truth)
- He learns how
to be like Jesus (in all circumstances)
- He learns how
to persevere (to be steadfast in all situations)
- He learns how
to discern the enemy
- He learns how
to pray (to take authority over the enemy and sin, to bind and to loose)
- He learns how
to endure (as testings will definitely come)
We must first learn to be obedient. As parents, many of you can relate in this
area. We desire for our children to
learn to be obedient. Why? Obviously, obedience helps protect them
from
harming themselves or others. As an
example, we teach them the dangers of poisons and other hazards around the home
and the importance of avoiding them. We love our children
and want them to
remain safe.
Obedience is contagious. Younger
siblings learn to obey from watching their older brothers and sisters obey and
hopefully will pick up their brother or sister’s hard learned lessons from
their disobedience. Often, this keeps
them from making the same mistakes their older siblings did after they observed
the pain and suffering their brothers and sisters went through because of
their
disobedience.
Obedience
maintains the family’s good name and reputation.
In Proverbs 22:1 it says, “A good name is
rather to be chosen than great riches and loving favor rather than silver or
gold.”
A good reputation is not obtained easily, but
once gotten is also easily lost. Once it is lost it is ten times harder to get
back than in the beginning.
Now that I think you follow the reasoning for
obedience in our family life, how can we carry that same thought over to our
relationship with God?
God calls us His children once we become
saved through faith in Jesus. God then
becomes our spiritual parent (our heavenly father) and has set up basic and
specific rules for our
protection, the same as we do for our own children. If we disobey God’s rules, we can harm
ourselves not only physically, but also in our spirits. The body is temporal or temporary and
will
die, will return to dust and pass away.
Our spirit is eternal and will never pass away, so any damage we do to
it is more serious than what we can do to our bodies. So you understand
how much more serious we
need to be about disobeying in areas that can harm our spirits for eternity? As
we disobey and lose the power of righteousness and joy of the Lord in our
lives,
we portray to others around us that the Christian life is not one to be
desired. For some observers, it may
appear that being a Christian is a worse life than they are experiencing
without Jesus at
that same moment. After
disobeying, we have spoiled God’s reputation and the reputation of other
Christians who are leading obedient lives and reaping the benefits of it.
Is there a deeper step in obedience we would
love to see our own children rise to?
Yes, of course. That is the point
in which they obey not for the law or rule’s sake, but because they
love us and
don’t want to make us unhappy or displease us.
They have learned to internalize their reason for obedience. They desire a good relationship with us
toward one of close
intimacy, association and belonging. That motivates them to obey. When they reach that point of maturity, they
have been “discipled” or taught to become mature, trustworthy, loving, caring
adults now capable to train or “disciple” their own children in the same
manner.
This is the ultimate “obedience” that God
wishes for us His children, also; To
desire to obey Him out of a longing for closeness of relationship, intimacy
with Him, wanting to please Him.
This
obedience and intimacy with Him produces the fruits of His Spirit in us of
love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, and
temperance. We take on God’s
character. Others who are not of the
family of God see God’s character in us and desire to have that same
fruit. We are then extensions of God’s
excellent reputation and are blessed indeed!
In matters of obedience many Christians are
not aware of “darkness” that dwells where they live. Are you unknowingly consorting with the
enemy, or giving ground to the enemy by allowing
blatant propaganda to beat
upon and influence your senses?
1.
Do you
have any objects related to the occult, such as Ouija boards, astrology maps or
symbol charts, cultish souvenirs or books, statues of Buddha, etc. or art work
that
represents a foreign god?
2.
Do you
own games such as Dungeons and Dragons or demonic video games?
3.
Do you
have fetishes that are linked with superstitions such as good luck charms,
etc.?
4.
Do you
have movies, magazines, pictures or other objects that do not glorify the holy
character of God?
5.
Do you
have Rock and Roll, Country Western or other music recordings? Many of these bring with them whether they
are played or not, witchcraft, sexual and suicide
spirits.
Deut. 7:26: ‘Neither shall thou bring an
abomination into your house, lest thou be a cursed thing like it: But thou
shall utterly destroy it and you shall utterly abhor it, for it is a cursed
thing.’
Eliminating things in our possession that can
give the enemy a place in our lives, entering in through our senses; our eyes,
ears, or even subconsciously, (subliminally) is a major step toward
ridding our
homes of spiritual darkness! Do you
really want to allow anything to demoralize you or cause you to become wounded
and fall in battle? Take a physical and
moral mental
inventory of your lives, homes and businesses this very day
and eliminate anything that will cause you to become an unprofitable soldier for
Christ.
As strong soldiers for Christ we must learn how
to think.
Phil. 4:8 “Think
on good things!”
Don’t fill
your mind with negative thoughts and images. If you get a negative thought or
image in your mind, rebuke it in Jesus’ name and replace it immediately with
truth from scripture or
an image of conquering the enemy rather than being
defeated.
Put on Christian melodious music that moves
you to praise God and think positively regarding His promises.
Limit your
exposure to negative news media
such as the newspaper and TV news since it is highly controlled by the CFR
(Council on Foreign Relations) and the New World Order
propaganda
viewpoints. But do watch and listen to
Christian broadcasting to follow the true state of the world.
Spend as much
time reading God’s word as you do
watching and listening to world news and you will understand that none of this
is new(s) to God.
The opposite of fear is faith…………..and “faith
comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” Romans 10:17
Focus on the
eternal…………… Luke 12:4-5
“I will not fear what flesh can do to me.”
Ps.56: 4
“For me to live is Christ and to die is
gain.” Phil.1: 2
“To be absent from the body is to be present
with the Lord.” 2 Corr. 5:8 (What’s the
worst that can happen?)
Stand on the promises of God.
Hang around
with, associate with the right people.
-
Positive
people – not the doomsday dwellers
-
Humorous
people – lighten up and live!
-
People
who listen
Try to see God’s purpose for you in every
situation.
-
Difficult
times create opportunities to share Christ with other people.
Instead of asking, “Why did this have to
happen to
me?”
Ask, “God, what do you want me to learn
from this
experience, or who would you like me to
help or
bless through this?”
-
Be an
opportunist for Christ, not a victim of fear or distress.
-
Remember
that you are never done training to be a soldier and will encounter various
trials as part of your training. You are
never adequately prepared for battle until you have
experienced actual battle
conditions during training exercises.
You must periodically update your skills to match changes in the enemy’s
strategy or tactics.
Know the
truth. John 8:30-32
- “It
is appointed unto man once to die” - Hebrews 9:27
- “Men
have been helped to LIVE by remembering
that they must one day die.” - Charles Spurgeon
-
“Know the truth about the end of all things.”
Rev.21: 1-8
Spend time in
worship. Psalms 27:1-6
-
Commune
with (talk with) God
-
Wallow
in His love - I John 4:18
-
Dwell on
who He is and what He has done.
The good
soldier learns how to discern the enemy.
The battle we are involved in is not between
flesh and blood, although it may appear to be….
It is actually between Light (Jesus) and
Darkness (Satan and his demons)
Satan’s soldiers are working under the cover
of darkness as demons.
What are
demons like in character?
They are like the devil in most ways and in
some others much like people. The
following are some of their personality characteristics
- Demons possess knowledge.
Mark 1:24…The demon in the man in the
synagogue said to Jesus, “I know
who you are, the holy one of God!”
2. Demons possess a will.
Matt. 12:44…The unclean spirit who has
gone out of a man but can find no place to
rest says, “I will
return into my house from
where I came out.”
3.
Demons have strong emotions.
Acts 8:7….For unclean spirits crying out
with
a loud voice came out of many.
4. Demons
have degrees of wickedness.
Matt. 12:45…The evil spirit returns with
seven other spirits more wicked than
himself.
5. Demons
have faith.
James 2:19…The demons also believe and tremble!
6. Demons
like to influence people to lie.
Acts 5:3….Peter said to Ananias, “Why has
Satan filled your heart to lie
to the Holy Ghost?”
7. Demons
influence people to become traitors and betray others.
John 13.2….The devil entered Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus.
How do demons
fasten onto human beings?
They seek out those whose makeup and
temperaments is most compatible to themselves and then seek to fasten
themselves onto some part of the body or brain, drawn by some appetite or
deceived faculty of the mind. When they
gain access, they bury themselves into the personality of that person. The ministry of Jesus Christ if followed as
directed, will slowly but surely force the
old sin nature (appetites for
disobedience and disregard for God’s will) out.
Warfare
language against demons…..
As we look into the scriptures we see that
the entire Bible is a book of warfare.
In battling with the demon powers of Hell, God has provided us with the
ammunition to win every confrontation
by using His Word.
Jesus set the example for us when Satan
confronted him.
He answered, “It is written.”
In the Psalms and other books of the Bible
there is a warfare language that can be used with effectiveness.
Here are some
of them:
- Psalm 59:10..
God shall let me see my desire on my enemies.
- Psalm
140:10.. Let burning coals of fire fall on this demon’s head!
- Psalm 70:02
& 109:02.. Spin confusion on the demons!
- Psalm 58:07…. Cut the demon to pieces!
- Psalm 18:13.. Hail stones, coals of fire,
shoot out lightnings and discomfit them……
- Psalm 35:06..
Dark and slippery is your path.
- Psalm
109:17-20.. Return curses back to the sender!
- Psalm
144:06.. Shoot arrows at them!
- Psalm 58:06..
Break their teeth!
- Psalm 35:05..
Let the angel of the Lord chase them!
- Psalm 35:06..
Let the angel of the Lord persecute them!
- Psalms
10:15.. Break the arms of the
demons!
- Psalm 11:06.. Rain snares, fire and
brimstone on the demons.
- II Kings
9:36.. Loose the hounds of heaven
on Jezebel.
- Isaiah 4:04..
Loose the spirit of burning and judgment on demons.
- Ezekiel
38:04.. Put hooks in their jaws….
- Jer. 51:53..
Ask the Lord to send spoilers.
- Psalm
18:14.. Stick arrows in them!
- Psalms
35:08.. Loose destruction on them!
- Hebrews
23:28.. Ask the Father to send the hornets with their flaming swords.
- Hebrews
4:13.. Neither is there any creature that is not clearly seen in his
sight: but all things are naked and open unto the eyes of him with whom we
have to do.
- Hebrews
1:07,14.. Ask the Father to send angels to assist
- Genesis
3:24..Ask the Father to send angels with their flaming swords
- Isaiah
62:07.. Give them no rest
- Daniel
3:29..Cut them up in pieces!
- Phil.
2:09-11.. Remind demons that at the name of Jesus every knee shall bow and
every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord.
- Eph.
2:6….Remind demons that we are approaching them from our position in the
heavens with Christ Jesus… (the 3rd heaven)
The key to a successful Christian life is
first to find out that serving the Lord is two-way deal. We can’t make a relationship grow by being
only a taker! We’ve also got be a giver!
God didn’t make robots, but a people who
would will to choose to love Him on their own.
The fruits of a relationship with God are Joy, Peace and
Contentment. They will come, but we
must
do our part to seek His face.
“James
4:8 says, “Draw nigh to God and He will draw nigh unto you.”
In Psalms 14:2-3, David admits, “The Lord
looked down from heaven upon the children of men to see if there were any that
did understand and seek God. They are
all gone aside, they are
all together become filthy: there is none that doeth
good, no not one.”
Our past generations didn’t choose to seek
God.
Let’s become different generations than we
have been in the past and truly seek God every day. Seek His face, desire to understand Him and
His plan for our lives.
Psalm 34:10 tells us that “…..they that seek
the Lord will not want for any good thing.”
Proverbs 8:17 says, “Those that seek me
early shall find me, saith God.”
God is able to be found!
Psalm 119:10 tells us how we are to seek
God…”With my whole heart have I sought thee.”
Here are some other verses about seeking God
and the benefits of seeking Him:
Luke 11:9, “Ask and it shall be given you, seek
and you shall find.”
Matt. 6:30-33, “Take no thought saying, ’what
shall we eat? Or what shall we drink? Or, what shall we be clothed with?’ For your Heavenly Father knoweth that you
have need of all these
things. But seek ye first the kingdom of God
and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.
Lamentations 3:25, “The Lord is good unto
them that wait for Him, to the soul that seeks Him.”
Jeremiah 29:12-13, “You shall seek me and
find me when you seek me with all of your heart.”
Spending a quality amount of time every day,
especially in the morning, reading and meditating on God’s word will help us to
seek His face.
Jesus is the
Word….John 1:14,”The Word became
flesh and dwelt among us.”
The Word is
beneficial for life, healing and health…..Proverbs. 4:20-22, “Attend unto my words, for they are life to those
who find them and health to their flesh.”
For protection
from sin….Psalm 119:11, “Thy Word
have I hid in my heart, that I might not sin against you.”
The Word
helps get requests answered- John
15:7, “If you abide in me and my words abide in you, you shall ask what you
will and it shall be done unto you.”
The Word is a
weapon against the enemy….When
Jesus was confronted by Satan in the wilderness he answered, “It is written.”
The Word is
the pathway to Holiness…I Peter
1:15-16, But as he who is called you is holy, so be ye holy in all manner of
conversation; Because it is written, Be ye holy as I am Holy”.
The Word is
the doorway to discipleship.
John 8:31, Jesus said, “If you continue in my
word, then you are my disciples indeed!”
Psalm 91 is a beautiful example of the benefits of seeking God’s face.
Verse 1 says that “We shall abide under the
protection of God.”
Verse 2 says, “God shall be my refuge and fortress.”
Verse 3 says that “I will be delivered from the
snare of the fowler (meaning Satan and his demons) and be delivered from
noisesome (unbearable) pestilence.”
Verse 4 says, “I will be covered with God’s
protection (as the feathers of a hen cover her chicks) and He will be our
shield and buckler to protect us from the darts of the enemy.”
Verse 5 says, “He will keep me from fear of the
night or the arrow that flies by day.”
Verse 6 says, “He will keep us from fear of
pestilence that walks in darkness or the destruction that comes at noon.”
Verse 7 says, “We will see a thousand fall dead by
our side and ten thousand by our right hand, but we will be protected from
harm.”
Verse 8 says, “With our eyes we will see the reward
of the wicked.”
Verse 10 says, “No evil shall befall us neither any
plague come near our house.”
Verse 11 says, “For He shall give His angels charge
over us to keep us in all our ways.”
(Angels are sent especially for each one of us!)
Verse 13 says, “We shall trample the enemy under our
feet.”
Verse 14 says, “Because we love Him, he will deliver
us and lift us up.”
Verse 15 says, “If we call upon Him, He will answer
us, be with us in trouble, deliver us and honor us.”
Verse 16 says, “He will give us long life and show us
His salvation.”
Satan’s
arrows and darts, what are they?
The battlefield in spiritual warfare is the
mind, the thought life. When a negative
thought comes into your mind, you must cast it down, rebuke it and not accept
it. The following people, our
fellow
soldiers of the past, had to contend with Satan’s lies (arrows) that tried to
cause them to be brought down to fail.
- Joshua….Joshua 6:2-3 The walls of Jericho
Satan: “Surely you’re not going to march
around the city day after day…you’ll make a fool out of yourself!”
- Sarah…...Genesis 22:2
To give birth to a Baby
Satan: “Sarah, you are too old to have a
baby!”
- Gideon …Judges 7:10 - Going out to battle.
Satan: “You’re not going to believe you can
win with these few men, are you?”
- Moses……Exodus 4:10- God’s call to lead Israel out of Egypt.
Satan: “Surely you’re not going to do
that…you can’t even talk right!”
- Abraham…..Genesis 2:2 - God’s call of faith. Satan: “Surely you’re not
going to believe God would want you to sacrifice your only son, do you?”
- Eve…Genesis 3:1-4 – Questioning God’s motives and their obedience to
God.
Satan: “It’s Ok. Go ahead and eat the fruit from the
tree. You won’t die….you’ll become just
like God, knowing good from evil!”
- Jesus….Luke 4:3 - Tempted in the
wilderness.
Satan: “Go ahead. You’re hungry! Turn this stone into bread!”
- Jesus…Matthew 26:39 in Gethsemane
Satan: “Jesus, you don’t need to go through
with this suffering! Save yourself!”
- You….Satan: “Surely you don’t want to take a stand in the nation as a
Christian and suffer for nothing!
You’ll be embarrassed and maybe even have to end up dying for a
worthless
Satan tries to cause us to
fear. God says in His word 366 times
“Fear Not!”
Fear can keep a believer from
maturity!
It is a big tool of the enemy,
often even attacking spiritual giants, those we might consider as immoveable in
their faith!
Is there some significance in the
number of times that God commands us not to fear which is 366? Possibly………
Six is the number of man in
general. 66 may refer to man and woman and 3 may refer to the Trinity: the
Father, Son and Holy Spirit. So if we
have the Trinity BEHIND or before us, we
should never fear, since “When God is
for us, who can be against us?”
Fear can keep a believer from maturity.
What are some common areas of fear?
- Fear of oneself…..fear that you cannot do the job you get called to do and you
become paralyzed with fear.
- Fear of others………..this comes from the seed we inherited from Adam. Because of sin, Adam became afraid of
God, which now also causes us to have fear of man.
Proverbs 29:25 says…..Fear of man brings a
snare.
- Fear of decision….one of the greatest problems in America is men of indecision who
can’t take authority in the home as fathers and husbands. This lack of authority also exten
into
the work place and into government.
Fear produces what has the appearance of
laziness!
- Fear of failure…..fear paralyzes many so badly that they will not attempt anything.
5. Fear
of death……..Satan binds us by this.
How to
cope with fear:
1.
We need to recognize that our battleground
against fear is in our mind.
What controls our thoughts
controls us!
That’s why Paul states in
Colossians 3:1-2:
“Seek those things which are
above….set your affections on things above.”
Isaiah 26:3 promises, “He will
give you perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee.”
Fear is often an outward manifestation of inner guilt.
I John 3:21…”Beloved if our hearts condemn us
not,
then we have confidence toward God.”
2. Stay
Busy…Inactivity often leads to an
unhealthy introspection (thinking excessively about ourselves, giving
opportunity for “the accuser” to dredge up past forgiven sins, etc.), which
brings
on low self-esteem, then guilt, then fear. Activities involving helping others and
doing things that involves physical exercise can help keep us from unhealthy
introspection.
3. It
could be caused by an evil spirit.
If it is caused by the struggle
against the flesh rather than a demon it will improve with prayer.
I John 4:18…”Perfect love casts
out fear.”
This tells us the importance of
having a love affair with the Lord.
Scripture is replete with (full of) examples
of God’s protection. One of my favorites
is in 2 Kings 6:15-17….
”And when the servant of the man of God
(Elisha) was risen early, and gone forth, behold a host compassed the city both
with horses and chariots. And his
servant said unto him (Elisha), ‘Alas,
my master! How shall we do?’ And he (Elisha) answered, ‘Fear not: for they
that be with us are more than they that be with them. And Elisha prayed and said, ‘Lord, I pray
thee, open his eyes
that he may see.’
And the Lord opened the eyes of the young man; and he saw: and, behold,
the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire around about Elisha.”
Just like Elisha, we are not alone in the
battle against Satan and the powers of Darkness. Jesus is our Commander in Chief of the army against
the enemy.
The next thing I want to cover is probably in
my estimation one of the most common things to be used by Satan to bind
Christians from achieving the vision God has for their lives.
REJECTION – even Jesus felt rejected when he cried out
while on the cross, “My God, My God, why hast thou forsaken me?!”
Reasons
for rejection:
- Unwanted conception - An unclean spirit finds grounds to enter a child when the parents
reject the child’s conception.
- Conceived in lust – an unwanted pregnancy results.
A baby in the womb is capable of sensing both
positive and negative spiritual influences: John the
Baptist was filled with the Holy Spirit while in the
womb.
- Conceived
too soon after marriage -- The
newlyweds planned on waiting before they started their family. The
unborn child can sense rejection from the very start of his conception.
- Conceived too close to the birth of the previous
child – The parents didn’t
want another child so soon.
- Financial stresses or fears of pain at birth-
A financial strain on the family is created
by the
birth of the child. The baby can sense it and
blames himself for it.
The mother-to-be fears pain at
childbirth and the
unborn child senses her fear and feels
rejected.
- Conflict between parents – Maybe the marriage was on the brink
of divorce- the child is affected by the negative emotions of the
conflict.
- The child ends up being the wrong sex preference.
They wanted a boy and got a girl or
vice-versa.
This is sometimes the cause for a spirit
of
homosexuality to take up residence in
the child.
- Physical problems of the child.
The baby is born disfigured or with other
health
problems and senses rejection due to
that.
- Divorce-
Children often blame themselves for the breakup of their family and
rejection is the result.
- Verbal abuse by the parents or other siblings –
Statements such as, “I wish you were never
born!
You are so stupid!
You’ll never amount to anything in this world!
Why can’t you be like so and so (another child or
person)?”
Newborns faced with these kind of
statements heard in their womb are often stillborn or lack the will to live
after being born. Children exposed to
such negative talk are often suicide victims in later
life, accident-prone or
careless with their lives in order to try to fulfill their parent’s predictions.
- Physical
abuse - reinforces
unworthiness to be part of the family or members of the human race - it
destroys self-worth.
- Sexual
abuse - Any improper physical
contact or emotional bondage reduces a person to an “object” or
“possession”.
Even those who
may not have the setback of feeling rejected may still feel inadequate. But frankly, if we don’t have a slight bit of
a feeling of inadequacy, we are in for trouble because then we
are being
prideful and think we can do everything on our own strength. That is not where God wants us to be!
It is very comforting
to know that as we look through the Scriptures we find many of the “spiritual
giants”, as we might refer to them: Moses, Paul, Joshua, Gideon, Jeremiah,
David, Abraham,
and King Saul, also had the same kind of pressures that we do
in our modern day. It seems they had the
same feeling of inadequacy that many of us do when called upon to speak, to
fill an
important position or whatever.
In almost every case it was when the person agreed to the task that the
anointing and ability to perform the duty came upon them.
For instance,
when Moses was asked by God to lead the Israelites out of Egypt, his reply was,
“I can’t talk!”
God replied,
“I’ll get your brother Aaron to talk for you!”
But when Moses
agreed to the task, the anointing came upon him and Aaron never did speak for
him.
When fear grips
a child of God in any situation, the best thing to do is to address it, speak
to it:
“I come against
you fear and bind you in Jesus’ name! I take authority over you! Heavenly
Father, I ask for courage and holy boldness that I may accomplish this endeavor
you have called me to.
Amen.”
One area we do
need to have a fear in is the fear of
the Lord. The fear here I am
talking about is not the fear of punishment or retribution, as long as we have
applied the blood of Jesus to our
sins and have repented of them.
The fear here I
am talking about is an awe of God for his character: His justness, His power and might, His
majesty and glory, His creativeness, His provision, His riches, His wisdom, His
secrets for those who love him, and so on.
All the things
a person would hope to find in the proverbial pot of gold come with the fear of
the Lord. They come however, with a
spiritual dimension which goes beyond the limitations of worldly
riches, health
and honor.
The amazing
rewards of learning the fear of the Lord are emphasized throughout
Scripture. The following list covers the
references to the fear of the Lord in Psalms and Proverbs.
Check off the
benefits you want to experience in your own life:
1.
To overcome sinful habits
“By
mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of the Lord men depart from
evil.”
Proverbs 16:6
2.
To begin learning knowledge
“The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of
knowledge.”
Proverbs 1:7
3.
To start being wise
“The
fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is
understanding.” Proverbs
9:10
4.
To have a longer life
“The fear of the Lord prolongeth days:
but the years
of the wicked shall be shortened.” Proverbs 10:27
5.
To discover the fountain of life
“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of
life, to depart
from the snares of death. “Proverbs 14:27
6.
To learn contentment
“Better is little with the fear of the
Lord than great
treasure and trouble therewith.”Proverbs 15:16
7.
To grow in wisdom
“The fear of the Lord is the
instruction of wisdom:
and before honor is humility.” Proverbs 15:33
8. To get riches, honor and life
“By humility and the fear of the Lord are
riches,
honor and life.” Proverbs 22:4
9.
To experience True worship
“But as for me, I will come into
thy house in the
multitude of thy mercy: and in
thy fear will I worship
toward thy holy temple.”
Psalms 5:7
10. To have no wants
“O fear the Lord, ye his saints: for
there is no want to
them that fear him.” Psalms
34:9
11. To experience God’s
salvation
“Surely his salvation is nigh them
that fear him; that
glory may dwell in our land.” Psalms 85:9
12. To receive daily provision
“He hath given meat unto them
that fear him: he will
ever be mindful of his covenant.” Psalm 111:5
13.
To experience strong confidence
“In the fear of the Lord is strong
confidence: and his
children
shall have a place of refuge.”
Proverbs 14:26
14.
To have a satisfying life
“The fear of the Lord tendeth to life:
and he that hath
it shall abide satisfied; he shall not be
visited with
evil.” Proverbs 19:23
15.
To share the secrets of the world
“The secret of the Lord is with
them that fear him; and
he will show them his
covenant.” Psalms 25:14
Once we taste
of God’s faithfulness and love for us, we develop an awe for Him. We cannot help but worship and love Him. Now we are willing to obey out of love for
Him, rather just out of duty.