THE ENEMY IS AFTER OUR FAITH 2

The Enemy is After Our Faith: Part Two
by Victoria Boyson www.speakinglife.net
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If you have not read part one from last week click here
The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance
One of my favorite movies is The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance. It is an old western with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Wayne plays a tough gun fighter with a good heart. Stewart plays a lawyer who recently moved out west from the east coast. He is not yet familiar with the rough ways of the West. Wayne continually tries to help Stewart learn about the West, and he often defends him against the unscrupulous outlaw Liberty Valance.
Stewart eventually faces off with Valance in a shootout, and Valance is killed. He and everyone else believes that it is he who killed Valance. However, during the notorious shootout, Wayne hid in the shadows and secretly shot Valance to save his friend's life.
Jimmy Stewart was terribly out-gunned when he went out to fight Valance, but he was sick and tired of Valance getting away with terrorizing everyone. He knew there was a very good chance he would be killed by Valance, but he also knew he had to stand up to him. Just as Wayne was there to cover Stewart, we can trust our God to assist us as we stand up to the enemy.
Take a Stand
So often we are afraid to stand up to our enemy. The devil terrorizes us and we let him get away with it. The children of Israel were afraid of Goliath until the Lord raised up David, who simply trusted in God.
Knowing something had to be done with the arrogant Philistine, he asked, "Who is this uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26b NIV) David knew that "The Lord who delivered [him] from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear [would] deliver [him] from the hand of [the] Philistine" (1 Samuel 17:37 NIV).
He trusted that if he went up against Goliath he would beat him, not because of who he was but because God was on his side backing him up. He knew he had only to step out and fight against his enemy, and God would give him the victory.
"As the Philistine moved closer to attack him, David ran quickly toward the battle line to meet him" (v 48). He ran quickly toward the battle because his faith in God was strong. The victory had nothing to do with David, but it had everything to do with his God. David threw the stone, but God killed the giant. After Goliath was killed, the Philistines ran away - not because they feared David but because they feared David's God.
We, too, can go boldly into battle, because we have a great God who loves us and who will defend us. We can, like David, face the things we fear, and God will be standing by our side ready to defeat our enemies, if only we will step out in faith and stand up to them.
Fear No Evil
"Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me" (Psalm 23:4).
If you entered into a war in the natural realm with vastly greater weapons than your enemy, you would have no fear. If you had a missile and they had only a pistol, you would not fear your enemy. You would be assured of an overwhelming victory before you even engaged them in battle.
So it is with us as the children of God. When we stand in battle, we can be assured of victory, because we have a powerful weapon: God. When God is on our side, however great the odds against us are in the natural, we need not fear our enemy. God is our defender, and no matter how our enemy may boast, we can have peace. We will not fear, because HE is with us, and we can find comfort in His kindness and safety in His strength.
God is on our side; therefore, we have no reason to fear evil. All we need to do is stand strong in faith against our adversary and God will give us the victory. If we simply "throw the stone," God will take care of the giant! The enemy knows we have all the power we need to defeat him through the authority of Christ, and he's terrified that we will walk in it. He will do anything to try and keep us believing his lies of defeat and inability.
It is not about us, the enemy or the battle, but it is all about the God who loves us. He wants to see His children stand strong, not because they are confident in themselves, but Him.
Our Great Big God
If, in every situation we entered, we were confident God was there with us, we would not fear anything. Again, in Psalm 23:4 it says, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me." Our bravery is based on His power and strength. We are strengthened by the Creator of the universe standing by our side, and nothing shall by any means harm us.
No one is more powerful than God, and He is always with us, ready to defend. We have nothing to fear because, even in the face of death, our almighty Father will devour our enemies. There is NO power greater than our God; He is our strength and shield. Our enemies tremble in fear before us as they see the power of God radiating out from inside us.
Knowing God
When David went up against Goliath, he was offended by the insults Goliath hurled at Israel. He asked, "Who is the uncircumcised Philistine that he should taunt the armies of the living God?" (1 Samuel 17:26). He could not understand why they were fearing Goliath. It wasn't presumption that made David speak out; it was his knowledge of the power of his God. He knew God was with him and with Israel, and he was confident in that fact.
He knew if God were with him, no matter how tall Goliath stood, he stood taller. Why did he have such confidence but others did not? Because he knew God! While David was out defending his sheep, the Lord proved His power to him as he fought against lions and bears. He had developed a relationship with God in the wilderness and had experienced His faithfulness.
God brought him out into the fields where they could be alone together. During the time He spent with David, God was able to convince him he was a giant killer! He convinced David that he was special to Him and, because of their relationship, he would be blessed.
Beloved, you don't need to fear anything, with God on your side. Stand guard over your heart to keep fear from entering in and destroying your faith in Him, for fear is the enemy of faith.
Fearing the Wind
More than any other enemy the Lord fought, He fought fear in the hearts and minds of those He chose to raise up. The same is true for us. Fear is the enemy of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God (see Hebrews 11:6). He said repeatedly to His disciples, "You of little faith, why did you doubt?" (Matthew 14:31). The enemy tries to sow fear in our hearts because he knows without faith we are powerless. Fear is our enemy, not our friend, we must fight against it with all our might!
It pleases God when we trust in Him and it hurts Him when we don't! In Matthew 14, Jesus' disciples were out late at night in a boat when Jesus appeared to them, walking on water. His disciples assumed He was a ghost and were terrified. "But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, 'Take courage, it is I; do not be afraid' " (v 27).
Peter was so amazed at the sight of his friend Jesus doing the impossible that he decided he wanted to join Him. Jesus beckoned him to come: "And Peter got out of the boat, and walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But seeing the wind, he became frightened, and beginning to sink, he cried out 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus stretched out His hand and took hold of him and said to him, 'You of little faith, why did you doubt?' " (Matthew 14:29-31).
Peter was actually walking on the water! He was doing the impossible! I feel certain he would have made it all the way to Jesus, had fear not entered his heart. Seeing the wind made his faith give way to fear, and fear robbed him of his ability to do the impossible. He was doing what was impossible in the natural, but when the waves rose up against him and he took his eyes off Jesus, he began to fear. The wind was sent to cause him to fear, and the minute he let fear into his heart, he sank. The fear he felt killed his faith, for it was his faith in Jesus that kept him on the water.
The minute they stepped back into the boat, the wind died down, much like the lies of the enemy fade when they lose their effectiveness. As we endeavor to do the impossible, our faith will be tested by the winds and storms of life - we can surely count on it.
Yet, when we walk in faith, even for a short while as Peter did, we learn more about the enemies of our faith. And we learn more about faith and trusting in God. Every time we step out of the boat and walk even just a few steps, our faith increases.
Every test of faith will increase the resolve in our hearts to fear nothing but God. We learn that in every set of circumstances we face . . . God is bigger! We learn again and again not to fear our enemy and say, "Greater is He who is in [me] than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
Committed to Victory
Once we see God as our Father who loves us and is able and willing to do anything to deliver us, there will be no end to our faith in Him. No storm in this life will be able to detour us from following Christ in faith. Fear will have no effect on us.
Likewise, when we trust God with our own physical well-being, we will not even fear death. For when we remove the fear of death, we become fearless. Like the Word says in Psalm 23:4, "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear NO evil, [Why?] for You are with me" (question and emphasis mine).
We are fearless because our great big enormous Daddy God is standing right next to us and saying to the enemy, "You just go ahead and try to touch my kid and I'll stomp you like a bug!" We should not fear the enemy. But, believe me, the enemy should and does fear us - because God is making us His unstoppable FEARLESS warriors.
If a soldier enters a battle afraid to die, then he will be ineffective on the battlefield. He will continually be focused on saving his own life and not on winning the battle. He will not be fighting with his whole heart. He must love the cause he is fighting for more than his own life. "They did not love their life even when faced with death" (Revelation 12:11).
When a soldier goes to battle, he expects to find fearful events happening, but he learns to charge toward the fighting because he knows that is where the victory lies. He becomes an unstoppable force, a fearless warrior. He becomes victorious before he even fights a battle, because he has committed himself to victory.
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it" (Luke 9:23-24). We must throw our whole self into the battle, being ready to die if need be. We must not fear death, or we will lose our lives and be consumed by death even while we live. A FEARLESS warrior is unstoppable! The areas in our hearts where we harbor fear of any kind will continue to keep us vulnerable to the enemy.
Fear God, Not Satan
"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" (Matthew 10:28).
It is more important that we obey God than fear the enemy. What will we gain by fearing our enemy? God is the One in control, and He gives us His authority through prayer. So if God asks us to take a stand against the realms of darkness, then we can know we have nothing to fear. We should not become presumptuous or arrogant, but we should never fear the enemy, only believe in God.
If we see fear as our enemy, we will fight against it by trusting in God. Our faith in God, even in its smallest measure, will move mountains! And whether we like it or not, we are a target of the enemy; our only hope is to operate in the authority God has given us through Jesus. We have authority over the powers of darkness - the devil already knows it and it is time we believed it!
The Lord cares for you and even "the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So do not fear" (Matthew 10:30-31).
Your Heavenly Father will stop at nothing to save you and help you. You have only to trust Him! Do not lose faith in Him . . . He will save you.

Pray this with me:
Dear Father,
Though I walk through the very shadow of death, I will NOT fear, because You, oh Lord, are with me. With Your help, I will be Your fearless warrior! I will not fear anything but You. I pray that You would manifest Your power through me so that others might trust in You!
In Jesus' name, amen.