Be Determined to Stand in the New Year Deuteronomy 31 : 6 – 8, Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the one who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you. Then Moses called Joshua and said to him in the sight of all Israel, Be strong and of good courage, for you must go with this people to the land which the LORD has sworn to their fathers to give them, and you shall cause them to inherit it. And the LORD, He is the one who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed. NKJV Sometimes the Lord has to speak very plainly in order to get us to move forward in life. We see this in today’s passage as God ENCOURAGES Moses and Joshua to move ahead and possess the land of promise, even though there were enemies in the land. It is obvious that they were struggling with fear because of the instructions of the Lord. When fear gets a stronghold on our hearts, it will stop our forward movement in the Spirit. Satan doesn’t want us to be confident in the Lord and inherit the promises of God, so he attacks our confidence in the Lord. It is Satan’s aim to take courage away from our hearts and paralyze us so that we won’t advance against his forces. Most everyone has a dream or a set of goals that we want to accomplish in life. Have you ever set out to live “your dream” or accomplish a certain goal and had a setback or hit a wall? Whenever we reach forward to achieve greatness, and the enemy doesn’t want us to obtain the prize, he will attack us through unforeseen circumstances in an attempt to shake our confidence and get us under the control of fear. When a person is under the influence of fear, it robs them of their confidence; consequently, they don’t have the power to do the things that God has placed in their hearts to accomplish. Therefore, before a person can begin to move forward, they must first address and overcome the fear that is in their hearts because of the attack. At this point, we must allow faith to fill our hearts, giving us the courage to face our fears and overcome them. God spoke to Moses and said, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear or be afraid of them. When God speaks to us, and we listen to His voice, faith will overcome the fear, and courage will return to our hearts. Since we didn’t receive the spirit of fear from God, if we possess fear, it means that we have believed something to be true when, in fact, it isn’t. However, the only way we can allow God to reveal the blind spot in our hearts that has believed a lie and the only way to overcome the lie is to listen to His voice and obey Him. God has you covered! There’s something about the statement that God told Moses to convey to Joshua about fear that needs to be highlighted. The Lord told them to stop giving fear and discouragement a place in their hearts. He also reassured them that He was with them and would not leave nor forsake them in the conflicts that lie ahead. Consequently, they had a choice to make. Would they choose to allow fear to hold them captive and rob them of the Promised Land, or would they choose to listen to God and overcome the fear and face their enemies? It comes down to this. Do you believe that God is still for you, even though you’ve been attacked by Satan? Do you believe that He will fight your battles for you, even though God requires you to face your greatest fears? If you really believe God is for you and will fight your battles, then you will overcome the fear and inherit the promises of God. Let me leave you with a scripture that Paul wrote to the Christians in Rome. Romans 8 : 31 – 39, What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? Who shall bring a charge against Gods elect? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, and furthermore is also risen, who is even at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written: For Your sake we are killed all day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter. Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. NKJV You Can Do It through Christ, Pastor Asa Dockery
Posted on: Tue, 13 Jan 2015 00:02:41 +0000
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