Satan cannot do anything TO you apart from fear any more than God can do something FOR you apart from faith!
That is such a profoundly accurate and yet simple statement! After all of the detailed study that the Lord has had us doing on this subject all year through these blogs as well as the Covenant Living broadcasts, I believe we now have a much better understanding of that statement.
I am impressed of the Lord to “zoom out” this month however. Have you ever heard the expression about not seeing the forest for the trees? Sometimes we can get so caught up in studying the details of something that we lose sight of a truth seen in the larger picture.
We know that fear, when believed, spoken and acted upon, is a powerful spiritual force that will bring about stealing, killing and destroying in people’s lives but it doesn’t start that way in the life of a believer.
You see, when a person accepts Jesus into their hearts, the Love of God (God Himself) is shed abroad in their spirit and actually recreates their spirit into a brand new being that didn’t exist before that moment! That spirit is now made in the very image and likeness, and actually has the same DNA, of God Himself! That is truly amazing, isn’t it?!
Because of this process, we know that fear is no longer being produced by that new spirit. Let’s look over at Galatians chapter five.
“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law.” – Galatians 5:22-23 KJV
We see very plainly here that now our new selves are producing the force of faith – not fear. So, how does fear become introduced into a believer’s life?
To answer that question, we must first understand how a human being is made. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 KJV gives us insight into this, “And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly; and I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
Spirit. Soul. Body.
Simply stated, you ARE a spirit; you HAVE a soul (consisting of your mind, your will and your emotions); and you live IN a body.
We know what our spirit (the real us) produces from Galatians 5 but we also know that, after becoming born again, our spirit is sealed by the Holy Spirit according to Ephesians 1:13.
Satan cannot get to your spirit! He can’t just put fear into you. In fact, look at what the Holy Spirit tells us in Colossians 3:3 KJV.
“For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” – Colossians 3:3 KJV
Our lives are hidden in God!
We (our spirits) have been recreated, sealed and hidden; however, our souls have not. Our spirit has been recreated but our minds must be renewed! (Romans 12:2 KJV)
This is the area in which satan has the ability to try to work but even then he has to have our cooperation and get us to take fear into our spirits where it becomes the force that produces his results in our lives.
To be succinct, his process works like this. . .
- He introduces a thought (word) of fear
- You begin thinking about it more and more (meditation)
- You end up TAKING the thought by talking about it (Matthew 6:31)
- You just fed that thought of fear into your spirit where it became the spiritual force of fear and gave satan the authority and power to bring those results into reality in your life!
BUT HERE IS A KEY. . .
Thoughts are like birds! You can’t keep them from flying over your head but you CAN keep them from building a nest in your hair! You can stop the whole process right there in step 1! You can (and should) as the proverbial saying goes, “Nip it in the bud!” Turn over to 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 KJV.
“For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war after the flesh: (for the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ; and having in a readiness to revenge all disobedience, when your obedience is fulfilled.” – 2 Corinthians 10:3-6 KJV
Not some thoughts – EVERY thought that is contrary to the knowledge of the Word! Bring them into captivity and cast them down before they ever get a chance to build that nest! You are, quite literally, killing fear in the “bud” stage before it has the opportunity to bloom or produce the fruit that satan intended to bring into your life!
If you need a little help getting started in being able to discern whether the thought lines up correctly, He gave us a “cheat sheet” over in Philippians 4:8 KJV, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”
If a thought you are experiencing doesn’t fall into one of these six categories, capture it and cast it down and replace it with what the Word of God says about it!!
As you do that, you are engrafting the Word into your being and, as James 1:21 tells us, it will produce deliverance and soundness in your mind, your will and your emotions!