Do you know that fear is contagious?  It’s like watching someone yawn, before you know it, you are yawning.  Therefore, it is important that we learn not to fear and the only way to do that is to know the depth of the power that lies within you because you are a child of God.

The 20th chapter of Deuteronomy tells us that when we go to battle with our enemy and our enemy might have a lot of weapons and appear to be stronger than we are, we are not to be afraid for “the Lord thy God is with thee.”  It goes on to tells us not to allow our hearts to faint because God will fight with us – to save and deliver us.  If we become terrified, others will notice that we are afraid and they, too, will become fearful. Fear spreads quickly and how can you win a battle if you go into the battle afraid to fight.

Speak to your fear; speak to your situation that looks like it will destroy you.  Words are powerful and Believers have been given authority over serpents; all we need to do is know who we are in Christ and engage in that divine authority that is there to help us.  If you are totally surrendered to God, you will become fearless as the enemy flees from you time after time after time.

One of the weapons we have to fight fear is to pray in the Spirit.  Praying with words of understanding is powerful but praying in the Spirit puts you on a higher level.  The Holy Spirit is in total control and will direct you in this heavenly language that is just between you and your Heavenly Father.  If you do not yet have this gift, ask God to touch you and He will activate this part of Himself within you that will only serve to draw you closer to Him.

“For I the Lord thy God will hold thy right hand and say to thee “fear not, I will help you.”  (Isaiah 41:13).

When you experience what you might identify as a crisis in your life, it could be that it was allowed by God to become a divine design.  A crisis is never planned nor expected but it has been allowed to come into your life because your heavenly Father thought that it would be the most profound way to teach you a life lesson that you will never forget and to let it become part of your testimony – a testimony that will glorify God. The Apostle Paul, in his writings to the church at Corinth, testifies of the many things that he had to experience, such as being stoned, beaten, ship wrecked, hunger, thirst and differences with fellow believers.  Yet, he pointed out that these things all led to further the gospel.  Things do happen to us but they have a purpose – a divine purpose and God will use it not only for your good but for the good of His kingdom.

Nothing will ever just happen to you without it having a purpose.  Look at your life situations with spiritual eyes and ask God to show you His plan to use it for His glory.  It is not God’s plan to destroy you or cause you to turn away from Him.  The Apostle Paul was in the center of God’s will but was not spared tribulations that would have destroyed a lesser man of faith. God’s plan is to have a relationship with each one of us and when you find yourself in a hard place, cry out to God and He will hear you and He will deliver you – not some of the time but all of the time.

Job was a honorable and righteous man who lost everything but he remained faithful to God and was so blessed that the latter half of his life excelled the first part of his life.  Joseph experienced 13 years of hard times but through it all never lost his faith and became the second most powerful person in the land of Egypt.  These men were tested and their test turned into a powerful testimony that still shines today.

Life is a journey that has many twists and  turns, many ups and down and good times as well as bad times.  How do you respond when things just happen in your life?  Will God find you faithful at the end?  WIll you hear “well done thy good and faithful servant?”  God is in control and when you submit and allow Him to mold you into what He wants you to be, you will know that no matter what it looks or feels like, God has a plan for you and you will only accomplish His will after going through His divine design.

It’s easy to have a negative attitude in today’s world because there are so many things that an individual has to deal with on a day to day basis – home, work, finances and relationships just to name a few; but believers must keep in mind that we are not to see things the way non-believers see things.  We are to live by faith, believing that everything will work together for our good no matter what the circumstances look like.

There is a story in the Bible about Caleb and Joshua.  They were two of the 12 spies that Moses sent into their promise land to come back with a report about the inhabitants and the land itself.   Ten spies came back with a report that the land was fruitful but the inhabitants were giants and they would not be able to conquer them.  Caleb, the older, and Joshua remembered the promises of God and reported that yes there were giants in the land, but they would be able to conquer them.  God noticed the attitude of these 2 men and even spoke of Caleb as having ‘a different spirit.’  Caleb had lived a long time and he knew that God keeps His promises.  God had led them to their promise land and He would enable them to enter it.

One thing we can learn from that story is that our attitude will dictate whether we experience victory or defeat.  If we have a negative attitude, everything will look negative and it will rob us of what God intends for us to have.  Secondly, we should not be afraid of the giants in our lives.  Expect the giants, after all, the children of Israel arrived at the place that God had promised to them but in order to possess it, they would have to fight.

We must learn to fight the giants in our lives and we can do so beause of Almighty God on our side.  Our ability to enter the land God has promised us is based on the position we take relative to the power of God.  If we believe that if God said it, then it will happen, we must do whatever it takes to possess our promise.  Satan wants you to believe that you will never win; that you will never achieve much but that is 100% not true.  You are more than a conqueror and if God be for you, who can be against you?  God will notice your faith or lack thereof.  If you are fighting your giants with a negative attitude you will lose.  If you are fighting your giants with faith, this attitude is what will give you the victory because you will stand out in a crowd just like Caleb and Joshua.

If God has made you a promise, don’t you think it’s worth fighting for?

Scripture tells us that all of God’s promises are yes – meaning they belong to every believer if they have the faith to believe.  God, as He is known to do often, makes specific promises to individuals, but the problem is will that believer walk with God long enough and trust God enough to do whatever He asks of them?

Many times God’s promise is made years before it is fulfilled and the waiting period involves test after test after test.  Man wants things to happen over-night.  We seldom want to wait on anything but there is a process everyone has to go through before God will allow us to inherit His promises.  The character of a person is revealed in how he handles the test.  Your circumstances will appear to be the exact opposite of what God has promised and how you handle the crisis that come your way is God’s way of showing you how much more you have to grow.  You will never know that God is all you need until God is all you have left.  When you are at the end of the end and everything is out of your control, if you show God that your faith will not waiver and that you believe He is who He says He is and that He will do what He says He will do, God will honor your display of faith. Arriving at the end of yourself causes you to make important decisions.  Will you decide that things are too difficult and stop trusting and believing or will you do all that you can do and then be still and allow God to do what only He can do?

Your journey on this earth will have many fords in the road but the spirit of God is there to guide you.  God has not brought you this far for you to fail.  God has a plan and if you run your race faithfully, one day you will walk right into your very own promise land.  Never doubt.  Hold Steady and keep your eyes upon the Lord.  The miracle that you need is just beyond your present situation.  Walk by faith and not by sight all the days of your life.  You could be just one prayer away from your promise land where you will truly see the glory of God.

The Bible tells us that Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy but Jesus came that we might have life and have it more abundantly.  God is in the restoration business and no one can restore to the degree that God can.  Just think about Job.  After having lost everything, and because he remained faithful to God, God restored Job with twice as much as he had before.  Restoration is also the theme of Joseph’s story.  He was a young boy of 17 when his brothers sold him into slavery and then he had to experience prison because he was unjustly accused of rape.  His gift of dream interpretation caused him to come before Pharaoh and later he was made #2 in Egypt.  But God did not stop there.  God gave Joseph a son which he named Manasseh which means ‘God made me forget the pain of my past.’  His second son was named Ephraim which meant ‘gain in the land of affliction.’

God did not forget all the pain that Joseph had gone through but He had a restoration plan that healed Joseph in such a way that he no longer felt pain.  Joseph did not forget what happened to him but he could give his testimony without it causing him any pain  and God wants to do the same for you.  God knows everything that you have gone through and He does not want you to live in pain.  God does not want your relationship with Him to be marred by what happened in the past.  God loves you that much; so much so that He wants to be the center of your life and not pain and He will heal you like only He can.

If you are true and faithful to God when you are being tested, God will restore what the enemy has stolen from you.  You have a Manasseh, created by God, that is coming to you.  Believe it.  Speak it out loud and trust that just like Job and Joseph, you will one day look back and see the goodness of God in your life.  God doesn’t just replace.  He increases by multiplication.  God wants to repay or bring into your life something so powerful that it will take away all memories of the pain you have experienced.  Remainful faithful to God and He will remain faithful to you.