Stir Up the Gift

 2 Timothy 1:3-7

3I thank God, whom I serve, as my forefathers did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.

Stir up the Gift

               Many of you who take the time to read these little trickles do so because there is something inside you that burns and hungers for more of God.  Many of you have heard God speak to you, or had a word spoken over you or you just have a knowing that God wants to work in your life and use you in some way.  Maybe what you have heard or felt in your heart has lain dormant for the most part and you haven’t really stepped out and stepped up to what God has for you.  Certainly, there is a timing in God when He brings you into the fullness of your calling, but there is always a preparation rather you are aware of it or not. 

               A lot of us rather timidly hold back, because we lack the confidence to think that God really could or would really use us.  Often, we tend to focus on our weaknesses and listen to the voices of doubt and condemnation that tells us God really can’t use us, because we have too many sins or failures or we have a past.  The blood of Jesus washes our past away, along with all our sins and failures.  This is the day that God is speaking to many of you to begin to really step up and step out into the calling that He has prepared for you.  That doesn’t mean you radically change your life, but this word is to stir up your gift and say to you as Paul did to Timothy, begin to exercise what God has put within you.  Begin to step out, even in small ways, to exercise the gift and the calling that is upon your life.  God will meet you there as you step out in faith.  Don’t be discouraged if initially you flounder and stumble.  Even though you were destined to walk upright on two legs it was a process of learning how.  Begin to step out and if you fall, get back up and try again and again, but keep your eyes on the Lord and keep walking toward Him and what He is calling you into.  Put away your doubts and your fears because those don’t come from the Spirit of the Lord.  He is giving you the spirit of power, of love, of soundness of mind and discipline.  As you stir up and exercise that gift you will see it grow stronger and stronger.  You will begin to experience the Lord’s anointing in it as you trust Him and exercise it in faith.  Now is the time to stir up your gift and walk in your calling.  You have had your time that you called your own, now it is time to go where He will lead you and give yourself fully to His service.  If you deny your gift, you are no different than the steward who took the talent His master gave him and hid it in the dirt or in your humanity.  Begin to invest the talent that God has given you and give the increase and the glory back to Him.  Listen to what God is speaking to your heart today.

Blessings,

#kent

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Dare We Trust Him

Dare We Trust Him

Psalms 9:10

And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, LORD, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

               Often, we talk about faith and trust as if they were just clichés of our religion rather than the substance and foundation of it.  When we are faced with circumstances beyond our reasoning and abilities, we are often forced to step out in these words that we talked a lot about, but haven’t really had to experience in practice.  Yes, we took a step of faith when we received Christ into our hearts and that may have been a big step for many of us.  There are times in our lives when we come to circumstances and crisis where we can no longer just talk the talk.  We have to walk the walk.  As we step out into those unknown and yet to be explored dimensions of faith, often fear will start to grip our hearts and our mind begins to race with all of these “what ifs”.   What we have learned is that fear is the greatest enemy of faith.  The Lord says, “Have not I commanded thee? Be strong and of a good courage; be not afraid, neither be thou dismayed: for the LORD thy God [is] with thee whithersoever thou goest (Joshua 1:9).”  It is in our hour of need that we are seeking out Jesus.  We know that He alone has the power and the abilities to do what no man can do.  He is our only hope and we are desperately trying to get His attention and have Him hurry and meet our need.  Then perhaps we get the devastating news that it is too late.  “No sense in bothering Jesus anymore, it’s beyond Him now.”  These are the words that maybe you have heard in your life and circumstances.  These are the words that were spoken to the ruler of the synagogue, Jairus, as he was desperately trying to get Jesus to come to his house and touch his daughter who was dying.  Can you imagine how his heart sank as he was brought the message that it was too late, his daughter was dead?  He may have been thinking, “if only that woman with the issue of blood hadn’t distracted him, if only He had hurried a little faster and acted a little more quickly.”  One thing most of us come to know about God is that He seldom gets in a hurry.  Our panic doesn’t usually move Him any faster.  You can almost hear the cynicism from the messenger that came with the news of his daughter’s death, “While he yet spake, there came from the ruler of the synagogue’s [house certain] which said, Thy daughter is dead: why troublest thou the Master any further? (Mark 5:35)” What was the response of Jesus to this news?  “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe (Mark 5:36).”  Let your faith take the place of your fear.  Don’t embrace the evil report; embrace your faith in your God.  The Lord seldom moves and does exactly what we think He should, in the time frame that we think He should do it.  That’s because He is God and we are not.  That doesn’t mean we don’t try to coerce, manipulate and put God in our box.  The truth is He just doesn’t fit.  Our God is as diverse in His ways as He is faithful and while we may think that He has waited too long or failed us in our crisis, it may be that we just don’t understand the timing and the ways of God.  Jesus is telling us the same thing today that He told Jairus,  “Be not afraid, only believe.”  His Word is the “light unto our feet and the lamp unto our pathway (Psalms 119:105).”  We dare to trust God because we know that His Word is true and that He cannot lie.  Hebrews 6:17-18 says, “Wherein God, willing more abundantly to shew unto the heirs of promise the immutability of his counsel, confirmed [it] by an oath: That by two immutable (unchangable) things, in which [it was] impossible for God to lie, we might have a strong consolation, who have fled for refuge to lay hold upon the hope set before us.”  Christ is that Hope that has gone on before us and entered into that which is within the veil.  Where He has gone He has called us to follow and the only way to follow is by the full assurance of faith. 

               There is a song whose words I’ve quoted before and now share from memory so please forgive me if they are not perfect, but this is pretty close.  “God is too great to be mistaken, God is too good to be unkind, so when you don’t know His plan, when you can’t trace His hand, Trust His Heart.”  Our faith is about trusting in One who is greater and far more infinite than we are and the One who has loved us with an everlasting love.  We won’t always comprehend and understand His ways at the time, but He tells us to do one thing, “Don’t be afraid, only believe.”

Blessings,

#kent

The Peace of Christ

Colossians 3:15

Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace.

The Peace of Christ

               The peace of Christ is a gift that Jesus gave and left for His followers to have.  It is an attribute of the Spirit that we carry within us.  Remember when Jesus said in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you. I do not give to you as the world gives. Do not let your hearts be troubled and do not be afraid.”  Christ is the peace in the midst of all life’s storms.  It is found in our spirits, not our mind, will or emotion.  His peace is that secure place of His rest wherein we abide under the shadow of the Almighty and under the wing of His protection.  In that place there is no fear or anxiety because it is the attribute of His presence and the storms of this world can not enter into that place.  This place and attribute of peace is what the Lord wants us to live out of.  It is what is to rule in our hearts, our decisions and is to guide our actions.  That place of peace is His salvation actively working in our lives.  

               Ephesians 2:17 says, “He came and preached peace to you who were far away and peace to those who were near.”  That peace is His salvation that is not given just to take us to heaven when we die, but to make us realize that we are to be living out of heavenly places right now.  Colossians 3:1-4 says, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.”  If you died and your life is hid with Christ in God, then where do you live and where do you live out of?  When we know how to live in our position, then we will learn how to live in our peace, because “the kingdom of heaven is not meat or drink, but righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit (Romans 14:17).” 

               When we are living out of emotions, or our intellect or self-will, then we are living out of the realm of the soul and not the spirit.  If we have died and our life is in Christ then His Spirit and His peace must have dominion over every aspect of our soul and all aspects of our soul need to be in submission to the spirit, that is the temple and habitation of God’s Holy Spirit.  God is never moved, or upset, or worried about the conditions and circumstances of this world.  He is always at peace and that is that place He has called us to live out of and be ruled from.  It is out of the peace of God that we move in the will of God.  That is the place of His rest and we abide there by our faith and confidence in Him.      

               Don’t make major decisions out of a place of strong emotion, but subject all your soul to the peace of His Spirit and He will lead and direct you into right decisions and choices.  God is here to bring order to our lives through the sovereignty of His Being.  As we walk in the Spirit, guided by the peace of the Spirit, our hearts are ruled by that peace and in Him we live, move and have our being.

Blessings,

#kent

From Fear to Faith

From Fear to Faith

2 Timothy 1:7

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

            After being away a good part of the day, that night we brought a couple of our grandkids home with us to spend the night.  Before I had finished getting everything out of the car, the wife was telling me the back door was unlocked and open.  She said she was sure that she had locked it.  On the way into the house I grabbed a trusty little aluminum bat and went into to secure the perimeter.  As the grandkids followed we walked all through the house and did a search to make sure no one was there.  Everything was in tact and nothing was disturbed so it appeared to be just an oversight on our part that the door was open.  As the grandkids followed me talking. I could hear the apprehension and a degree of fearfulness in their voices as they wanted us to set the alarm.  Now these grandkids are about six and nine years old.  As we got them ready to put to bed I began to talk with them about fear and the author of fear.  I explained about the One who is our life and security, the One who has His hand upon our lives and all that touches us can only be by His permission.  We talked about “Greater is He that is in me than he that is in the world”; how we are “more than conquerors through Christ that loved us” and how God has “not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  As I began to speak these things to them, faith began to rise in their hearts as they began to remember and realize that even though they were just children, Someone, much greater, resided in them and watched over them.  I began to recount Bible stories of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, of Hezekiah when great armies came up against Jerusalem and the Lord told Him to send the praise team and worshippers out first.  I asked them how they would like to go out in the frontlines of battle with just a tambourine or a horn or just their voice.  We talked about how that praise and worship of faith and obedience released God to discomfit and utterly destroy those great armies so that by the time they reached them all there was to do was gather the spoil they left behind.  We talked about the story of Paul and Silas, beaten for their faith and thrown into dark dirty jail, their hands in chains as they began to sing hymns and songs unto the Lord.  Through that praise and worship, in the midst of such discouraging circumstances, God sent an earthquake that opened the cells and freed everybody, but nobody escaped.  As the distraught jailer thought everyone had fled he drew his sword to kill himself, Paul stopped him and assured him all of them were there.  We saw how what had seemed to be a day of utter defeat and failure had been turned by God to result in the salvation of this jailer and his household. 

            The kids wanted to hear more and more stories, but finally I said it is time for us to go to bed.  Now there was no more fear or apprehension as we turned in.  It was as the scripture says in Romans 10:17, “So then faith [cometh] by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.”  Are you fearful today about some circumstance in your life?  Don’t look at how great the problem or the circumstances are, rather look to the Word of God and see how great your God is.  Look at all the times He delivered His people, because they put their faith and trust in Him.  Don’t look to how great the name is of the disease or burden that you bear, look to the Name above every name that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow and every tongue will confess that He is Lord to the glory of God ( Philippians 2:9-11).  Our God can take us from fear to faith as we read and meditate upon His Word; remembering how great and mighty our God is, how He loved us and gave himself for us and how if we fear anything let us fear the Lord and trust Him.

The Psalmist David says it so well in Psalms 56:11, “In God have I put my trust: I will not be afraid what man can do unto me.”

Blessings,

#kent

A Principle of Life about Fear

2 Timothy 1:7

For God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

A Principle of Life about Fear

If given the choice, most of us would be quite content to live a nice, safe, secure, healthy and relatively uneventful life.  In many ways, a lot of us have.  We need to ask ourselves is that really living or is that comfortably dying a slow death?  

One thing fear does, is it gets us out of our comfort zone.  It often gets our heart racing and our adrenaline pumping.  Our senses come alive in the face of danger and uncertainty.  If we could see our lives in the light of the spiritual couch potatoes we would become if we never faced any trials, testing or adversity, then we can better appreciate why God allows them to come into our lives.  

In order for our faith to grow it must be challenged so that our faith can come up to the level of our challenge.  Since fear doesn’t come to us from God then we must realize that faith is the antidote to fear.  Faith sets our eyes and attention back where they belong.  Looking to the Father.  When we realize that fear comes from our inadequacy, weakness and inability to control a situation, we either have to face it in the frailty of human ability or have a revelation of what God has given us to counter it with.  God hasn’t given us the spirit of fear, but what He has given us is the Spirit of power, love and a sound mind.  We have a mighty arsenal to combat fear and to overcome it.  Fear only works as long as you are afraid.  When you are no longer afraid, fear has lost its power.  What the Word of God is telling us is that you don’t have to be afraid.  You don’t have to fret, worry or be anxious.  What you need to do, is lay hold with faith and confidence upon God’s Word, His promises and assurance.  The more you fill your self with the Word of God and spend time in His presence; the more bold, confident and faith-filled you become.  For the enemy and the spirit of fear, you then, become a force to be reckoned with.  The person who really has a revelation of their identity in Christ, who knows their position in heavenly places in Christ Jesus and operates in their God given and appointed purpose is a dangerous person to the enemy of fear and darkness.  The gates of hell can not prevail against that person.  

An example of such a person was seen in David.  He was called, appointed, anointed and knew who he was in God when he confronted Goliath.  He didn’t fall into that trap of fear like the rest of the camp of Israel.  He came from a place of faith and authority, not his, but the Spirit of God in him.  Later, we see Saul, with all the resources and armies of Israel at his command pursuing David’s life, but unable to capture and take it.  He was that spirit of fear that pursued David, but was unable to prevail, because David put his trust and confidence in the Lord.  

Was that an easy place for David? No, it was a very difficult place, but at that time David lived and walked with God closer than at any other time in his life.  Adversities are often allowed in our lives to stir us into faith.  They cause our spiritual senses to come alive and get our focus off of the world onto the Lord.  Fear isn’t always a bad thing, not because we want to succumb to it, but because we want the faith to arise in our hearts, along with the resident power, love and the mind of Christ to overcome all fear and the adversary that stands before us.  The force of opposition only serves to make us stronger.

We are sons and daughters of the Most High God.  Our Captain, King and Savior has conquered death and the grave.  He has set down at the right Hand of the Father until His enemies be made His footstool.  We are the body and feet of our Captain and King, Jesus.  He is putting the enemy beneath our feet, because we are His.  

Someone once said, “You need to either get busy living or get busy dying.”  Our time for being complacent, lethargic and comfortable is soon coming to an end.  We need to make the choice to live or to die, life or death.  If we are going to live then we need to live out of the place where we pursue fear and it doesn’t pursue us.  We have to come into that place of having assurance of who we are and what God put us on this earth for.  We were not put here to be subject to this kingdom that lives under the rule and power of sin and death.  We live under the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus.  We were put here to invade this earthly kingdom with the kingdom Heaven, Life and God.  “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done, in earth as it is in heaven.”  We are God’s portals, conduits and well springs through which He invades the kingdom of this earth.  That is not going to happen through spiritual couch potatoes that are content with the leeks and onions of Egypt.  It is going to happen through an army of believers that are hearing the trumpet of war sounding in God’s camp and are responding to it.  If we don’t respond to God’s calling and come into that place of abiding in the Almighty and under the shadow of His wing, then soon the spirit of fear will arise and cover the earth and those who have not found their place in Him will be overtaken by it.  Father has not given us that spirit of fear,  He has given us the Spirit of Sonship, whereby we cry, “Abba, Father”.  We are His kids and we were born for this, so don’t allow fear to rule your hearts, but come up into the faith and confidence of who you are in Christ and trample fear beneath your feet!

Blessings,
#kent

Face Your Fears

Face Your Fears

Romans 8:15

For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. [ Or adoption] And by him we cry, “Abba, [ Aramaic for Father] Father.” 

You know there are basically two kinds of fears talked about in the Word of God.  One is the fear of God and the other is our natural fear.  We have dealt with the fear of the Lord before.  What is ironic is that the fear of the one moves us away from the fear of the other.  There are many verses throughout the Word of God that exhort us to fear God, but none that tells us to fear man, only to respect, honor and obey those in the place of authority.  There are none that tell us to fear the devil, only beware of who and what he is.   The fear of the Lord brings us into an awesome respect for who we are in light of the Almighty.  Our scripture says that we have received the Spirit of sonship or adoption.  That makes the Almighty our personal Father.  We stand in the place of His sons and daughters.  Everyone that has had a good father knows that dad’s can be the greatest; they love you, they bless you, they’re your security and provision, but they can also correct you.  A father’s heart is always to embrace and bless his children, but his love also compels him to act always in their best interest, raising them in the character and nature of what he desires them to be.  If the children forget the other side of the relationship with their father then they begin to show disrespect, dishonor and then disobedience.  “He is a loving father, therefore we can do what ever we want and he’ll still love us and forgive us,” so goes their thinking.  At that point the child has lost the fear of the father, they treat him as common and fail in the area of respect and obedience to honor their father.  This is where the correction of the father comes in.  Hebrews 12:4-11 tells us, “4In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood. 5And you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses you as sons: “My son, do not make light of the Lord’s discipline, 

and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, 6because the Lord disciplines those he loves, 

and he punishes everyone he accepts as a son.”^[a] 

7Endure hardship as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father? 8If you are not disciplined (and everyone undergoes discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true sons. 9Moreover, we have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected them for it. How much more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! 10Our fathers disciplined us for a little while as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good, that we may share in his holiness. 11No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it.”  So the fear of the Lord is understanding and operating in the proper relationship with our heavenly Father.  Psalms 25:14 says, “The LORD confides in those who fearhim; he makes his covenant known to them” Psalms 34:4-10 says, “4 I sought the LORD, and he answered me; he delivered me from all my fears. 5 Those who look to him are radiant; their faces are never covered with shame. 6 This poor man called, and the LORD heard him; he saved him out of all his troubles. 7 The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. 8 Taste and see that the LORD is good; blessed is the man who takes refuge in him. 9 Fear the LORD, you his saints, for those who fear him lack nothing. 10 The lions may grow weak and hungry, but those who seek the LORD lack no good thing.”  In the light of this scripture we begin to see the irony of how the fear of the Lord delivers us from the fear of man.  When we fear the Lord our trust is in Him.  It is not in ourselves, it is not in others and it is not living in the fear of what others may do to us.  It puts our eyes on Father God as our whole source, supply and protection.  This is the place we want to be.  In the fear of the Lord is the deliverance from the fear of this world.  In this place we learn that we live out of the Father.  He orders our steps and our lives.  In the eyes of the world we may look weak, of no reputation and of no confidence, but when the life of the Father and the Son lives through us, there are no limitations on what He can do through those that love and fear Him.  

When we think about all of our little phobias, which are fears, that cause us anxiety and unrest, we must face our fears.  Is our God the Lord?  Are His authority and His name above every other?  2 Timothy 1:7 tells us, “ For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”  We have to overcome our timidity and cowardice, because that insecurity is based on our lack, not His supply.  We must learn to live out of His Supply and not our lack.  We can only do that as we fear and trust the Lord.  

1 Peter 3:14 tells us, “ But even if you should suffer for what is right, you are blessed. “Do not fear what they fear [ Or not fear their threats]; do not be frightened.” [ Isaiah 8:12]” Today is a day to face our fears. “Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world. (1John 4:4)” 

Blessings,

#kent

The Everlasting Arms of the Father

The Everlasting Arms of the Father

Deuteronomy 33:27

The eternal God [is thy] refuge, and underneath [are] the everlasting arms: and he shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy [them]. 

Perhaps you have memories like I do of times when you were little, at nighttime, when you had been put to bed.  Your imagination would start to work and you would imagine shadows as being monsters or think there was something under your bed that would get you if you got up.  As your imagination worked you would become more and more fearful until you might jump up in a panic and go running into your momma and daddy’s room crying and afraid.  Maybe they would put you in bed between them and all of the fear would dissipate in the safety of their embrace and presence.  You felt confident that no monsters were going to get you while mom and dad were holding you and your peace would return.  

Ironically life often isn’t so much different as we become adults.  Obviously it is not practical to go running to mommy and daddy anymore.  The truth is that sometimes our monsters still seem very real and they still perpetuate fear in us.  We can be very anxious about areas in our lives, things we must face and even spiritual attacks that can come upon us.  There are some that are reading this today that are facing such fears.

Some years ago, after we had our middle child, through some rather traumatic events my wife began to experience demonic types of attacks.  There was a dark presence that would come to her and assault her in different ways.  Naturally she was petrified with fear.  These would take place fairly frequently over the course of about a year and usually happened when you she was in a state of semi –sleep.   These events were very terrifying to her and as she sought the Lord about it and she felt the Lord asking her, “Does this presence ever really harm or physically hurt you?” 

 She said, “no Lord.”

“Then why are you afraid.” 

What the Lord began to teach her was that when these attacks would come she would enter into Christ, she would just crawl up on the lap of the Father and this presence would have no power over her and it would have to leave.  Finally the time came when during one of these attacks she became angry and bold.  She reached out as it were in the spirit and laid hold of this spirit and she said she literally broke its arm until she heard it snap as it was screaming to get away.  Strangely enough a man prophesied that evening in a meeting that we had in our home that ‘the arm of the enemy had been broken this day’.  He knew nothing of what had just taken place.  

This may seem a little extreme and bazaar to some of you.  It is certainly not something we like to share often, but rather we would like to share it or not, there may be some of you wrestling with your own demons.  The truth that we discovered is that there is safety and refuge in the arms of the Father.  You can still run and jump in Daddy’s lap, bury your face in His chest and allow Him to wrap His loving arms of love and safety around you.  He is your refuge and your hiding place.  Remember that you are seated at the right hand of the Father in Christ Jesus.  Nothing can touch you except it goes through Him first.  You are not alone.  The way the enemy perpetuates fear and defeat in you is by separating you from the faith of who you are in Christ.  This why it is so important feed upon the Word because it ministers into you life, faith, and reinforced confidence of who you are in Christ.  My wife often goes to sleep now by putting on CD’s of the Word and just listening to it as she goes to sleep.  

Just remember you have the strongest and toughest Daddy that has ever been or will be.  You are His kid and if you run into His arms you are safe no matter what might be going on around you. Lose your fear and find your peace in the everlasting arms of the Father.

Blessings,

#kent

Intimidation of Fear

Intimidation of Fear

Proverbs 28:1

1THE WICKED flee when no man pursues them, but the [uncompromisingly] righteous are bold as a lion.

There was once an old dog that ruled his master with fear and intimidation.  If the master didn’t do what the dog wanted he would growl fiercely and raise the hair on the back of his neck until the man did what he wanted.  Out of fear and the intimidation the dog communicated and the master would do whatever the dog wanted.  So it was the dog that ruled the man, rather than the man that ruled the dog.  The truth was that the dog was old and was missing most of his teeth, but through fear and intimidation the dog had mastered his master.  

There is an old dog in this world, called satan, who is much the same.  With the power and authority that he has, he seeks to continue to hold mankind captive.  He is seen in the spirit of this world and how many of us have not spoken out and been what we needed to be for Christ because we were afraid of what others would think or how they would view us.  There are many areas that fear and intimidation have ruled over us and we have bowed to it.  We have sought our acceptance and favor from one that is defeated, is perishing and whose days are numbered.  

On the other hand, if we truly fear God out of love and serve Him, He can give back to us the authority that He created us with as it states in Genesis 1:26.  “And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.”  We should know that the serpent is a creeping thing and whatever dominion he gained through the fall of Adam and Eve, was restored back to us at Calvary.  Jesus took back the keys and he led captivity captive and He gave gifts unto men.  Gifts that are for helping the Church come into the unity and fullness of Christ.  

The serpent feeds on dust.  He can only feed upon our flesh, but the man of the Spirit doesn’t walk and live by the flesh.  He lives after the Spirit.  Why was it that satan had nothing in Jesus?  He walked after the Spirit and not after the flesh.  There was nothing for satan to feed on.  Have you ever noticed that whenever we give place to temptation and sin that the more we feed and give life to it the stronger it grows until it rules us?

Have there ever been times in your life when you were coming to God in a special way, receiving a special revelation or truth or finding God in a new and greater dimension?  What happened?  Quite likely you were assaulted with fear, doubt, condemnation and intimidation.  Satan bore what few teeth he has left and really growled at you so that you would fear and not believe, so that you would be intimidated and not receive.  He is come to steal, kill and destroy.  But when the fear in us of this creeping thing is broken and we are cognizant of the fact that we are created in the image of God and that God Himself has declared that we should have dominion, then the power of fear and intimidation is broken.  Only by permission of God can satan touch our lives and outer man.  

“Will why doesn’t God protect us and not let satan hurt us any more?”  If He did that we would never lay hold of the victory and the authority that Christ obtained for us at Calvary.  We would never come to lay hold of the overcomer that Christ wants to be through us.  As Paul once said, “the outward man is perishing, but the inward man is renewed day by day.”  The enemy will do all it can to instill fear and intimidation.  Look what he did to the early church.  Yet, in the midst of great persecution the early Church grew like wild fire.  Why?  People found something more real, more powerful and more liberating than even physical life itself.  

It is time we quit cowering before this old dog.  When we put on Christ, when we become identified with His name, then we know that our authority in Him is greater than any in earth or in heaven.  Jesus said, ‘I do not my will, but the will of the Father.’  You see the Father was then releasing His power and authority through the Son.  When we come not to do our will, but the will of the Father then the Christ will be manifested through us.  There is no authority that can stand against the authority that is in Christ.  He is the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords.  We are His ambassadors sent with the signet ring of the King and the seal of the Holy Spirit.  That is why the uncompromisingly righteous are as bold as lions.  

It is time for us to no longer succumb to fear and intimidation from the old, “has been” dog.  It is time that we stepped into our role as master over all that God has commanded to be under our feet.  In Christ you have authority and dominion over much more than you know, but your power is in living through Christ and His living through you.  It is IN Christ that we can do all things, forsaking those things that hinder us and that are food for satan to feed upon.  Come into your identity of Christ in you, your hope of glory.

Blessings,

#kent

The Enemy’s Fear

2 Corinthian 10:3-6

For though we live in the world, we do not wage war as the world does. 4The weapons we fight with are not the weapons of the world. On the contrary, they have divine power to demolish strongholds. 5We demolish arguments and every pretension that sets itself up against the knowledge of God, and we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ. 6And we will be ready to punish every act of disobedience, once your obedience is complete.

 

The Enemy’s Fear

 

               You are the enemy’s greatest threat.  The most dangerous thing for him is when you come into the knowledge, the confidence, faith and boldness of who you are in Christ.  He fears nothing in this world, because he can’t be fought with conventional weaponry.  Religious wars of the past have only further perpetrated and fueled the mayhem he delights to create.  You are the one who possesses the weapons that he fears the most.  That is because our weapons are not of this world, but they are mighty through Holy Spirit power and kingdom authority to rip his strongholds apart.  We are the terrorist in the camp of the enemy, because with prayer and divinely directed council we have authority and power to blow apart his bastions of evil.  Is there a battle, of course there is?  Will he assault you?  You can pretty much count on it, but it is because he fears you and the threat you pose to disrupt his purpose and plan.  Because we are a spiritual people we are some of the few that really have the insight to discern the spiritual realms and be aware of how they operate. 

               We come up against these spiritual oppositions daily in the mindsets and the spirits that move people.  We see the lies of the enemy playing out in our politics, our society, our religions and what are becoming the standards of morality in our society.  We see the pillars of truth being toppled over as men erect the lies of diversity and acceptance of all immoral behaviors.  Political correctness says, if we speak out against them then we must be intolerant and haters, because we stand in opposition of such lies.  Soon we find the very laws that once protected the righteous from the unrighteous will be turned to prosecute the righteous who stand on godly principles and dare to speak out against the imaginations and lies that have come to fill men’s hearts. 

               Where this battle begins with us is in our own thoughts, thinking and values.  The Word of God must be our standard of truth upon which we judge and discern all things.  That starts with our own thinking and reasoning lest we be deceived to think like the world and receive the lie.  Just as the kingdom of God starts within you, it must first fill your personal earth before it can spill over into the earth you walk in.  God wants us to be grounded in His truth so that we will not operate out of religious bigotry, but out of the love and wisdom of God’s truth; speaking that truth in love.  Sometimes we get all wound up about tearing down someone else’s theology and philosophy.  The greatest dispeller of any darkness is just speaking the truth of God’s word.  That truth in combination with lives that are walking in that truth and faith that lives out of that truth are tremendous testimonies and persuasion to those that God has given ears to hear.  If Jesus came to His own and they couldn’t even hear Him or receive Him, think it not strange when the majority mock you and persecute you for your stand in the truth.  There are vessels created unto wrath that cannot and will not accept truth, but then there are those that will and for their sake we must be the advocates for God’s truth. 

               It is important that you come to truly know your authority as a believer.  The enemy often uses his condemnation to disarm you with a sense of unworthiness and lack of confidence.  It is important that we walk in obedience and righteousness, but we know that our righteousness is not in ourselves, it is in Christ.  We operate in power because of who Christ is in us, not in who we are in ourselves.  Jesus was able to do all things as He operated to carry out the Father’s will and to speak His words.  This is where our relationship with Him is vital to our calling and the execution of our purpose.  Our success is in Christ and operating in concert with His will and purpose for us.  If you don’t know who you are in Christ, you will be easily turned away and defeated, because then your weapons are only in yourself and what you think.  When we operate out of the Spirit of Christ we have all of heaven backing us up.  What stronghold can stand before our God?  What power can oppose Him?  When we are operating in Him and out of His spiritual resources then all things are possible. 

               You are a warrior being prepared for battle.  Allow God to have His full way in you that you may be fully equipped and useful for every good work.  A man or woman who knows who they are in Christ strikes fear into the heart of their enemy.  Before them they cannot stand.

Blessings,

#kent

The Fear of Death

 

The Fear of Death

Psalms 23:4

Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou [art] with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.

The fear of death or bodily harm can be the most compelling fear of all.  The one reality we are sure of is the one we are living in; everything else is by faith.  If this life and body are the only hope and reality we know then death can be particularly disturbing and fearful.  Life, as we know it will cease to exist; then what darkness, nothing, back to dust?    

Some who read this could be walking through the valley of the shadow of death today.  It is built into us to protect and preserve our lives.  That fear will motivate us to do everything within our power to avoid death.  When we are really brought face to face with our mortality it is a sobering thing.  It makes us look deep within ourselves to think about the meaning of life and what the loss of it holds for us.  We examine our values and what we truly believe.

David was certainly faced with the awesome possibility of death as King Saul hunted him to take his life.  He was often faced with enemies that desired his death.  I believe David had learned a principle as a shepherd.  He knew that his sheep were totally dependent upon him, as their shepherd, for protection.  They had no real ability to protect themselves.  They knew that if they staid close to the shepherd, his rod and staff, his authority and power, would protect them.  Their greatest peace and our greatest peace are in knowing that we are walking with the Shepherd and that our life is not in our hands, it is in His.  We are at peace and we have comfort even in the midst of the certain threat of death because He is there and our life is hid with Christ in God.  The faith we have in our Shepherd is able to dispel the grip of fear that is seeking desperately to lay hold of our hearts.  Faith will dispel fear, but the lack of it will give place to it.  If we walk in the light, then we will not fear the darkness, for even if darkness surrounds us, it can not extinguish the light and the hope we have within us through Christ Jesus.  Often it can become a battleground between faith and fear as the fear of death seeks to lay hold of us.  

One scripture that brings us much encouragement in this fear of death is found in Hebrews 2:14-15.  It says, speaking of Jesus, “Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might destroy him who holds the power of death—that is, the devil— 15and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death.”  We have peace and assurance through the blood of Jesus and the confidence that through our trust in Him, He has paid for our sin, and robbed the devil of the fear eternal punishment and condemnation he once could put upon us.  Now we have the peace and confidence that when death comes we step out of the limitations of our mortal body into glory and into His wonderful presence.  We can almost view death as no longer as a curse, but as a promotion.  No wonder so many Christians through the ages have been able to hold fast their testimony and give up their possessions, their livelihood and their very lives.  They had their eyes fixed on One far more glorious that quenched the fear of death and loss.  It was the One who walked with them through the valley of the shadow of death.  

One of the greatest fears and terrors is that of the unknown, but the knowledge we have in Christ and the faith that we have placed in that knowledge of Him has robbed satan of his power of fear and intimidation.  

When Israel had come out of Egypt and was going up to battle against their enemies, this is the word that was spoken to them and what I believe the Lord wants us to hold fast in our hearts as we enter our battles.  It was spoken in Deuteronomy 20:1-4, “When you go to war against your enemies and see horses and chariots and an army greater than yours, do not be afraid of them, because the LORD your God, who brought you up out of Egypt, will be with you. 2 When you are about to go into battle, the priest shall come forward and address the army. 3 He shall say: “Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies. Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them. 4 For the LORD your God is the one who goes with you to fight for you against your enemies to give you victory.””  If we know that we are already victorious in Christ what have we to fear?  The worst that could happen is that we would wake up in His arms.   In Psalms 27:1 David says, “The LORD [is] my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD [is] the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?” It is like when you were a small child and something frightened you.  You could run and jump up on daddy’s lap, bury your face in his chest and he would put his powerful arms around you.  You knew then that you were safe; that anything that touched you now had to come through your daddy first.  That is exactly how it is for us in the Lord.  Colossians 3:1-4 tells us, “Since, then, you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is seated at the right hand of God. 2Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things. 3For you died, and your life is now hidden with Christ in God. 4When Christ, who is your life, appears, then you also will appear with him in glory.” If we are truly dead to the things and the affections of this world then what power of fear does the devil have over us seeing that we have died and our life is now hidden with Christ in God?  If the devil touches us, he has to come through God to do it.  If I know that God has control over all that touches my life then I have no room for fear, only for trust.  He is my good Shepherd that will lead me and keep me wherever I must go and through whatever valley of the shadow of death I must pass, I will fear no evil.

Blessings,

#kent