How do you deal with spiritual intimidation?
How do you deal with that paralyzing fear? How do you stand your ground in the midst of demonic attack? If you are a follower of Jesus, you will get resistance. The Word of God calls us to submit ourselves to God and resist the devil. The Word of God calls us to resist Satan steadfast in the faith. No matter who you are, young, old, prominent, private, if you are a follower of Jesus, you are in a war, there is going to be resistance. Paul wrote to Timothy in 2 Timothy 2 and told him to endure hardship as a good soldier of Messiah Jesus. But we will come under attack. There will be times of special difficulty and challenge. If you live long enough, you will have what Scripture refers to as a day of evil.
I want to talk to you today, based on the Word, based on personal experience, walking with the Lord since 1971, and how we deal with this intimidation. I'm talking about when it feels like you've been kicked in the gut. The wind is knocked out of you. It feels like faith is knocked out of you. It feels like fear has just gripped you and you don't have any fight in you.
How do you get through that? And let me say it again, this is something that happens to all of us as we walk in the Lord. Even some of the most prominent men and women of God in Scripture, you read the Bible and realize they got hit too.
They got hit too. So, I'm going old school here instead of just having a computer in front of me, my laptop with Scripture. I got my Bible, in fact, one that I have.
It's really big print so that I can read it without reading glasses or anything. So, Ephesians 6, beginning verse 10, Paul comes to the end of this amazing letter. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power.
We're going to come back to that because that is a key. Be strong in the Lord and in His mighty power. Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood. We all have people in this world that we deal with that can give us a hard time, circumstances involving people. There may be people, political activists, cultural activists, spiritual activists have views very different than us and oppose us. But ultimately, our battle is not with people. Ultimately, our battle is not with people. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world, and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. That's ultimately where our battle is. Yes, we take responsibility for our actions. If you don't go to work for a week and get fired, don't blame that on the devil. We take responsibility for our actions.
We take responsibility for our shortcomings, our sin before God. But ultimately, there is resistance. Ultimately, if you are going to follow God, if you're going to set yourself to pray and fast and do His will, if you're going to set your heart on obedience, if you're going to try to make a difference, if you're going to go after the lost, if you're going to push back against unrighteousness, if you're going to stand for the Lord, you will be resisted and you will encounter demonic resistance.
It is a reality. Therefore, put on the full armor of God so that when the day of evil comes, we'll talk about that in a moment, you may be able to stand your ground and after you have done everything, to stand. So, in other words, as we, as a lifestyle, wear the spiritual armor which begins with the buckle of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace, the shield of faith with which we extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil, the helmet of salvation, the sword of the Spirit, the word of God, and praying in all situations and circumstances, as we put on the armor of God, as we live consistently before Him, when that day of evil comes, what does it mean? It's the day of onslaught. It's the time of severe testing.
It's the perfect storm. It's when everything seems to come against you. It may last for six months. It may last for a year.
It may last for 24 hours. When that day of evil comes, because you have been doing everything, because you have been seeking to walk in obedience to God and walk in faith and be a person of the word and prayer, living a godly life, having done all and covered with the blood of Jesus and the grace of God, when that day of evil comes, it will not take you out. You will stand.
Okay, but how? How do we work this out when the perfect storm does hit? How do we work this out when sometimes it's just one little word? You're praying. You're believing. You're contending for your child's healing. And just one word from a doctor, one negative word, it's like the air has gone out of the tire. The faith has gone out of the room. It could be one little word.
It could be one bad report. Just one little thing contrary to what you're expecting and hoping, and everything collapses. I want you to think of this for a minute. 1 Kings 18, one of the most amazing passages in the Bible where Elijah calls down fire from heaven. And then after calling down fire from heaven, prophesies the rain is coming, prays it into existence, into reality.
After three and a half years with no rain, downpour of rain, he kills hundreds of false prophets on Mount Carmel. One of the greatest spiritual triumphs anywhere in the Bible. One of the most supernatural moments anywhere in the Bible. It's one of the scenes that I would have loved to be there to witness and see God work through Elijah.
Man of God. Yeah, just like us, James, Jacob, the fifth chapter says he was just like us, a person just like us, but he prayed and he knew God and he heard from God and his life was very supernatural. 1 Kings 19, now Ahab had told Jezebel everything Elijah had done and how he killed all the prophets with the sword. So Jezebel, his wife, Venetian wife, daughter of the king and likely the high priest as well, an ardent worshiper of Baal, as evil as Ahab was, she drove him to do even more evil to the point she becomes stereotypical. Revelation 2 speaks of this so-called prophetess named Jezebel. So the name comes to epitomize these demonic forces of evil, this emasculating power, this intimidating power, this empowering of the false prophets against the true prophets, this seductive spirit.
This is all what Jezebel is about, even I believe you can argue for child killing spirit as well, because of the connection with Baal worship and idolatry and the ancient world. In any case, Ahab may be telling Jezebel, whoa, what happened was amazing. He might even be in awe of Elijah at this moment, but not Jezebel. So Jezebel sent a messenger to Elijah, may the gods deal with me, be it ever so severely, if by this time tomorrow I do not make your life like that of one of them.
Boom! Now, you say Elijah just said, who are you Jezebel? I know God, I know Yahweh, I know the creator. And in obedience to him I just called out on fire from heaven, in obedience to him I just killed 450 false prophets. In obedience to him I prayed in the rain, lady, who are you to threaten me? But that's not what happened.
That is not what happened. Elijah was afraid and ran for his life. He runs.
One word from one woman, and he runs. It was demonic power. And often, friends, and those of you that are preaching, ministering, or seeing God usually in different ways, beware. Often it's right after a major spiritual breakthrough, after a major spiritual high, after a major prophetic victory. Bear in mind, bear in mind that often, in that context, it's when an attack will come. Sometimes when we're down the attack comes, but sometimes when we're up the attack comes.
So we stay vigilant, we stay alert. So he's in a deep depression, he flees, he comes to a broom bush, sits down under it, and prays that he might die. I've had enough, Lord, take my life.
I'm no better than my ancestors. And he falls asleep. You ever had that happen? You're blessed, things are going well, life is good. And then one bad report, one threat, one unexpected event, one word, and you're fearful, and you want to die, and all you can do is sleep? You're not the first that happened to me, my friend.
You're not the first. And as much as I'm an upbeat person, full of faith, and today is good, tomorrow is going to be better, it's just the way I've lived for decades, it's the way my mentality's been. I've been hit like this too. I remember after meeting a couple in Atlanta in 1987, and finding out that at the same age as Nancy and me, they had two girls the same age as our daughters, and found out that he had an inoperable brain tumor, and was supposed to die, and was I think around 34 years old at that time, and I thought, no, it can't be, and I prayed for him, and it seemed the power of God touched him, and he felt different, and next thing, everything's different, he's dropped his medication, I didn't tell him to do that, but it was anti-seizure medication, he's dropped it, his wife hasn't seen him like this, doctors don't know what happened, and we were thrilled, praise God, it looks like there's a breakthrough. Looks like there's a breakthrough. And then I remember we were moving from where we lived into Maryland, and we were from Long Island to Maryland, it was late at night, the move was longer than expected, we had to put stuff in storage, and I remember getting a call from California, so they were three hours behind us, her husband was feeling so good, he just went out, this was the couple, the wife was calling, and he just felt so good, he was out riding his bike, and he had a seizure, and I remember at that moment, just getting hit, not just with the fear that he's going to die, but with the thought that, it never occurs to me, there is no God, none of it's real.
Boom! Have you ever had it where it's just, like I said, it's like the wind has knocked you out of here, you're preaching faith, and full of faith, and believing, and strong, and then next thing, you just want to cower in the corner, or just get in the fetal position, or just get in bed and go to sleep, or we'll still just die, the day of evil, that planned attack, that perfect storm, at the perfectly wrong moment, boom, it hits. How do we fight? How do we resist? How do we stand? So let me first go back to Ephesians 6, having done all, stand. You don't get ready for an emergency. You can't get ready when an emergency comes, you have to live ready. So let's not fool ourselves. We must have a lifestyle that incorporates the word and prayer on a daily basis, on a quality basis. Otherwise, when that day of evil hits, it may throw us for a loop. It may have a worse effect than we could imagine. Why?
It's just like this, if I haven't been eating right, if I haven't been exercising, and let's say I get back to my old weight, a hundred pounds from what I weigh now, and let's say I haven't exercised for six months, and suddenly I've got to run a mile, I'm not going to make it, I'm going to collapse after a little while. So I want to urge you, I want to urge you, and I'll talk to those that are in the midst of the battle right now, it's like, well, it's a little late, okay, but I want to urge everyone else, pray through Ephesians 6, beginning in verse 10 in particular, and look at what it means, and how to put on spiritual armor, and then understand the principles, and then get God's word in your heart and your mind. You say, I don't memorize scripture.
Well, however you do it is fine. You can just have something you look at a bunch of times a day. You can have something that an alarm goes off on your phone once an hour, and you read a verse that's a key verse to meditate on. And you can say, Lord, I want my life to be pleasing to you, and where the world is in my life, where darkness is in my life, where compromise is in my life, show me, Lord, so I can give myself to you afresh, and where we fall short, we turn quickly, we don't harden our hearts, we turn quickly and get cleansed and get washed.
May it be so that we establish deeper roots in God. Look, when some hurricane winds come by, and you see the giant oak tree still standing, it's not just the strength of the trunk, it's the strength of the roots, and the roots are hidden underground. You'll only be as strong as you are in your secret life. You'll only be as strong as you are in your private life. I can do a lot of things through natural gifting I have. I can talk well.
You just give me a subject, I can talk about it. I can debate subjects. I can do a lot of things well in the natural.
But that doesn't mean that I'm walking with God. You may be able to do a lot of things well in the natural. Your business may be successful. You may just be good at raising kids. You may have a lot of natural gifts. It doesn't mean necessarily because things are going well outwardly, because you have natural gifting, that you are spiritually strong or spiritually thriving. So ask yourself this question, how deep are my spiritual roots? How widespread are my spiritual roots? Ask yourself that question.
And then don't be condemned if you realize the roots are barely under the ground, or they're very shallow, or they're barely widespread. One day at a time. One day at a time. Make a determination. I've got to put first things first.
I've got to put first things first. And then when that attack comes, you will have stability. You'll have resources.
You'll have strength. I heard Derek Prince say decades ago that he had talked to different believers that survived imprisonment under Communist rule in China. And a common denominator he found is that those that survived imprisonment the best, conditions we can't even imagine, they were those that had the word in their hearts. They were those that had more scripture stored up inside of them. And that was a resource for them in solitary confinement or thrown in prison. It was an ongoing resource and source of life.
Quality communion with God and prayer, digesting the word of God on a daily basis. Make these things priorities in your life, and you'll be amazed how you stand strong when in times past you would have collapsed. OK. You find yourself right now under attack. You find yourself right now feeling, this is too much for me.
I'm in over my head. The day of evil has come. The financial collapse has come. The marital collapse has come. The health collapse has come. The popularity collapse has come. The friendship collapse has come. Whatever the thing. And it's like everything pouring in on me.
And I do not know how to survive. Joshua Chapter 1. Joshua Chapter 1. I don't know if you've really thought about this, but when you think of Joshua, what comes to mind? Courageous, right?
You know, bold. We can take the land along with Caleb, right? General in God's army succeeds.
Moses takes Israel into the promised land. He may have been all those things, but it's also possible that in himself he was weak. Or for sure, after watching his entire generation die in the wilderness. All of them.
All of them. Only he and Caleb survive of men 20 years old and more at the time of coming out of Egypt and rebelling against God's commands to go into the land. They're the only ones that survive now 38 years later of their generation. And Moses, the great leader of Israel, is gone. Maybe Joshua is feeling weak in himself. Joshua Chapter 1. Joshua Chapter 1. God promises Joshua, I'll be with you the way I was with Moses. Verse 6. Be strong and courageous, because you will lead these people to inherit the land I swore to their ancestors to give them. Alright, Lord.
Got it. Alright. Verse 7. Be strong and very courageous.
Okay, you just told me that, Lord. Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the law of my servants.
And there's the importance of the word in your heart and mind. Verse 9. Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. And then at the end of the chapter, the people say to him, we'll do whatever you want.
We'll do whatever you want. Verse 18. Whoever rebels against your word and doesn't obey it, whoever you may command them will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous. Four times. Four times.
Three times. God says at one time, the people say, be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. Be strong and courageous. That suggests to me that Joshua was overwhelmed with the task. That suggests to me that maybe at this stage of life, if he was more confident earlier, he didn't have that same confidence. Now you're leading.
It's not Moses. It's all on you. And maybe that's the biggest collapse of all. It's all on you. So here's the point we start with in terms of I'm in the battle. I feel under it.
We go back to this word from Ephesians 6. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. This is too big for you to carry. This is too much for you to carry. This is too difficult. This is too impossible. Be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. What does that actually mean? How do I do it?
How do I do it? You say, God, this is too big for me. I'm in over my, I can't fight this. I can't fight it emotionally. I can't fight it mentally.
I can't fight it socially. Whatever it is, I can't fight it. Be strong in the Lord. So, Lord, I'm asking you, Jesus, just as you carried my sin, you carried my burdens.
You carried every pain that I have right now. I'm asking you to lift it off. And I'm saying, Lord, be strong in me. Make yourself strong in me.
Work in me. Strengthen my heart. Strengthen my mind. Strengthen my life. That's the first thing.
That's the first thing. It's too big for me. It's too heavy for me. Jesus, you said your yoke is easy and your burden is light. You said in you I'll find rest. So I'm asking you to lift this off of me and give me your strength.
Paul realized this very profoundly, 2 Corinthians 12, that God's power is made perfect in our weakness. Lord, I'm not big enough for this. I'm not strong enough for this. I'm not wise enough.
But you are. You are all wise, all powerful. Work in me. Find your strength in the Lord.
It's almost like someone pushes a button and you get into this hyper gear and you take off. Lord, your strength in me. Your wisdom in me. Everywhere you don't have it, confess to God that he does. Renew your heart. Renew your mind.
And take hold of that. Isaiah 40 verse 31. That those who wait for the Lord, put their trust in the Lord, will renew their strength. They'll mount up with wings like eagles. They'll run and not be weary. They'll walk and not grow tired or faint.
And it's interesting. You fly. I can't really fly anymore. You run.
I can't really run anymore. And you walk. You just keep going. You just keep going.
And then after a while, you start to fly again. Lord, I'm exchanging my weakness for your strength. I'm not relying on me. I'm not relying on my power.
I liken it to this. God gives me an assignment. I'm 70 years old. I'm in good shape, thankfully, but I'm not athletic. You know, I can't jump high or do things like that.
Run really fast. I can do good workouts, sustain them. Let's say God gave me an assignment that I have to be able to dunk a basketball. Well, at my best, when I was maybe 17, 18, because my hands weren't big enough to really palm the ball, I could take a smaller ball, like a volleyball, and just barely with one hand get it over. Okay, now it's 70. That would mean a lot of exercising, a lot of learning to jump.
Big exercises, different things, stretching. But maybe with a lot of hard work, it's possible. Maybe. But if the assignment was you are to play LeBlanc James one-on-one basketball, full court, one-on-one, and beat him five straight games, 10-0, well, the only way that would happen is if he was asleep on the sidelines, because he would beat me every game, every point, period, end of subject. It's impossible. Ah, that's what you have to do. Realize your situation in the natural is impossible, and only God can fight. Only God can do it.
Our best efforts fall short in the day of evil. So rather than, I don't want to do all that, I'm going to take my refuge in you. I'm going to find strength in you. Your strength can become my strength.
Your wisdom is going to become my wisdom. The anxiety, the care, I cast off. Take that burden off of me.
It's the first major thing to do. Second thing, remember, that paralyzing fear, it's all over. God's not with you. God's not for you. God's against you.
That paralyzing fear, everything is going to be destroyed, and you're going to die a miserable, lonely death. That's not the voice of God. That paralyzing fear is not the voice of God.
When Elijah thought, better I just die, it's no, that was not the thought of God, or the voice of God, or the plan of God. What does it mean, everything's going to go great? We may go bankrupt. Someone we're praying for may die. We may go through hardship. I don't mean that everything's just going to go according to our desires and plans. We do go through hard things in this world.
I recognize it. But that paralyzing fear that says, it's all over, just quit. It's never the voice of God. Never the voice of God. And you need to immediately say, I will not give place to those thoughts. 2 Corinthians 10 verses 3 through 5 about casting down imaginations, every thought that exalts itself against the knowledge of God.
Yes, Paul's talking about dealing with it among the Corinthians, but in our own minds we have to take captive thoughts. We have to say, I'm not going that way. That's not God. That's not the will of God. That's not the plan of God. That's not the heart of God. Well, how do you know the will of God, the plan of God, the heart of God? You read the Word. You read the Word. And you look at Jesus, and you look at how he's dealt with you mercifully and graciously through the years.
But that's what you look at. So you realize that voice, that feeling, that emotion, it is not from God. You say, well, what happened to that fellow with the brain tumor? We had many breakthroughs, but ultimately after several years of prayer we lost him. Yeah, we lost him. He's with the Lord, but we did lose him.
That did happen. But all the other lies and there is no God, that was not what happened. That was not reality. So let me say again, there may be hard times we go through, but the fundamental lie, there is no God. The fundamental lie, God is not with you.
If he's there, he's not with you or for you. That is from the pit. That is from the pit. And you need to identify it. Satan is the father of lies.
Take that captive. You don't have to meditate on bad reports. You don't have to meditate on bad words. Philippians 4, verse 8.
It is the things that are noble and pure and upright that we are to meditate on. There is no wonder that some of us have no faith because what we feed ourselves and fill ourselves with is junk and negativity and hopelessness and bad reports and gossip and bad news. So feed yourself what the word says, but I don't feel anything. It doesn't matter.
It's true anyway. Feed yourself what the word says. Get it in your heart.
Get it in your mind. So first you realize this battle is too big for me. I'm not fighting in my strength but God's strength. Second, you recognize the voice of paralyzing fear is not from God.
The thing that knocks the wind out of you, that is not God's voice. When God warns us, when God corrects us, it brings life. There is hope with it.
There is light with it. There is truth with it. There is redemption with it. If it comes without redemption, if it comes without hope, if it comes without light, it is not the voice of God. Even when he rebukes us, it's in his love with a good outcome if we humble ourselves and repent.
So number one, this is too big for me. My strength is found in my weakness. God's power is made perfect in my weakness.
Second thing, that voice of paralyzing fear is not from above. And then third, what is the nature and character of God? If you didn't see the video we did recently on Chesed, just look for amazing Hebrew insights.
Just search for Hebrew insights and you'll get it into the steadfast love of the Lord. You focus on the character and nature of God. And you say, okay, maybe I'm suffering because I blew it. I made mistakes. I sinned. I made wrong choices.
Whatever. You humble yourself. You ask God to wash you, cleanse you. You need to make things right. You make things right. And then say, okay, do I have promises?
If God is for me, who can be against me? And you meditate on those. It may take days. It may take weeks for reality to set in. But reality will set in and you will see the manifestation of God's hand.
You will see the goodness of the Lord. And then you'll be able to take on the Goliaths. So intimidating. Satan loves to intimidate. Israel was intimidated by this giant, massive, whoa, very intimidating. It's a whole teaching on Goliath.
Maybe I'll do another day. But David knew, hey, I killed a lion and a bear. God helped me kill the lion and a bear already when they when they read it, the flock and tried to carry one of the sheep. I can take down this giant because I'm not fighting in myself. It's God with me.
God with me, God against him. So let that be your strength, friend. And you will see these principles working in your life. And you will come out of the attack of the trial shining like gold. Can I pray for you? Father, in Jesus name, for those that are in the day of evil right now, give them strength, give them hope. May light begin to shine in the darkness. May they see a good outcome, a redemptive final end. May they see that what Satan means for evil, you can turn for good. Give them a holy resolve. May your word become so clear in their heart and mind that nothing can shake it. And for others, Lord, that are not in that moment, Lord, may they too learn to put on the full armor of God and be strengthened day by day in their walk with you. Grace and favor in Jesus name. Hey, remember to click subscribe if you enjoy this video, share it with a friend and to get our Frontline newsletter, which is monthly, chock full of great digital content from inspiring message to Hebrew word study to testify testimonies and book excerpts, all free, all digital. Go to thelineoffire.org. Click subscribe. God bless.
