Scripture: 2 Peter 1 v 1 - 4: "Simon Peter, a servant and an apostle of Jesus Christ, to them that have obtained like precious faith with us through the righteousness of God and our Saviour Jesus Christ:
2 Grace and peace be multiplied unto you through the knowledge of God, and of Jesus our Lord,
3 According as his divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of him that hath called us to glory and virtue:
4 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."
Simon Peter was chosen by Jesus to be an apostle, a servant to His followers, those who have the precious faith of knowing they belong to God for eternity.
Peter prays that grace and peace would be multiplied by our knowledge of God and His Son, Jesus, because the more our relationship with Jesus grows, the more grace and peace we have. This puts all fear and phobias far away from us. The more we know about who we are in Christ Jesus, the more we realise is that fear is the opposite of faith.
Fear disturbs our peace. It causes us to worry and doubt. Fear is an instrument of our deadly enemy that unsettles our minds and causes our faith to waver. Fear can paralyze us mentally and physically and bring about needless suffering.
2 Timothy 1 v 7: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."
If God has not given us the spirit, or demon, of fear then it comes from Satan, who wants to steal our faith, create stress and tension....in our homes, workplaces, schools, churches, vacation resorts, cinemas, in vehicles, airplanes or ships at sea. As Job said, For that which we greatly fear is come upon us.
If we remain steadfast in our faith we will inherit the powerful and precious promises of Jesus, here on Earth and in the heavenly realms to come. We must not compromise the truth that is written in the Bible. Our faith in God brings us into line with His Word.
In the Old Testament God said that all witches must be stoned to death. There was no deliverance available for those involved in witchcraft before the death and resurrection of Jesus. Once we receive salvation and the Holy Ghost baptism, we are equipped to deal with witchcraft and many other things.
I was fairly new at events like these and a strange thing occurred when the church came to dedicate our new home. When they left there was a young married couple still sitting in our living room. They said they had no where to stay so we offered them temporary accommodation until they could find a place.
The husband had a bunch of music and looking through it I found one recording by Black Sabbath and it had witchcraft symbols on the cover. I told him that this had to be destroyed immediately as it was not staying in my home. We argued about it and I said if he wanted to keep it I would drop them back at the church when we went for Sunday evening meeting. He decided to burn the offending music and, brothers and sisters, the flames were purple and we heard screams coming out of the fire. He was suitably subdued.
That was not all! The next morning we decided to pray together. Suddenly, out of his wife's mouth came shrieks and cursing. I discerned a spirit of witchcraft and while I tried to bind it, her eyes wandered to her husband's eyes continually and I was getting nowhere. I sent him to make some tea, and tackled this demon again. Out of his wife's mouth this demon spoke quite clearly: it said, you are too strong for me, tell this zxcxz woman to spit me out in the toilet! So I did, and the lady was very relieved to be free.
The demon in her was drawing its power from the husband because he was bound by music like Black Sabbath, and attracted negative and evil spirits. So he was next and happily the Lord was glorified.
The Lord has given us power over evil and the ability to discern spirits to enable those who are bound and troubled by them to be set free. I was sitting in a doctor's waiting room when the Secretary at my son's school came in and sat beside me.
I asked her about her health and she said she had this terrible headache for the past two days. Jesus prompted me to ask what she had been doing when the pain started. She said she had been typing up grade 3 curriculum, and specifically how to make spells! I said she needed prayer against those spells, and we prayed right there and her headache was gone instantly.
These are the things that bring fear into Christian lives, and spoil our experience of the love of Jesus, until we take our rightful authority and set the captives free. Liberate your family, home, neighbourhood and schools by praying in accordance with the will of God. Ignorance is not bliss!
Exercise your precious faith as the apostles, disciples and Christians did back in Bible times. Those same demons are running the show, stealing our joy, creating our fears, because we let them. It's our job to stop them, but we get scared and back off, and they keep their control.
Twelve disciples turned the world upside down after the ascension of Jesus, and filled with the power of the Holy Spirit. They did not kowtow to the politics of the day, nor the Pharisees. When they were whipped and told not to speak in THAT name again, the name of Jesus, they told the officials......
Acts 4 v 17 - 20: "But that it spread no further among the people, let us straitly threaten them, that they speak henceforth to no man in this name.
18 And they called them, and commanded them not to speak at all nor teach in the name of Jesus.
19 But Peter and John answered and said unto them, Whether it be right in the sight of God to hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye.
20 For we cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard."
In some countries, like Canada, it is a criminal offence to use the Bible to convict people of the sin of homosexuality. Truly. No one can use the scriptures to share with gay people to set them free. There are many born again former gay people who are completely free today. Back in the Old Testament they suffered the same fate as witches, under the New Covenant, Jesus sets them free.
Great is His power, and great are His promises.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, Christ in us the hope of glory and our Redeemer, how wonderful that we can have such a precious faith and see Your miracles come to pass. We are in a war zone, and are soldiers in Your army. Lord reveal our skills to us so we can fight the good fight of Faith. In Jesus' name. Amen.
