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Fearless Warriors
Victoria Boyson
www.boyson.org
More than any other enemy that the
Lord fought, He fought fear in the hearts and minds of those He chose to raise up, and the same is true for us. Fear is the enemy of faith, and without faith it is impossible to please God. He said repeatedly to His disciples,
"You of little faith...why did you doubt?" (Mt. 14:31). The enemy tries to sow fear in our hearts because he knows that without faith we are powerless. Fear is our enemy, not our friend, and we must fight against it
with all our might!
Fearing the Wind
It pleases God when we trust in Him and it hurts Him when we don't! In Matthew 14 Jesus' disciples were out late at night in a boat fishing when Jesus appeared to them
walking on water. His disciples assumed He was a ghost and were terrified. "But Jesus immediately said to them: 'Take courage! It is I. Don't be afraid'" (v.27).
Peter was so amazed at the sight of his friend,
Jesus, doing the impossible, that he decided he wanted to join Him. Jesus beckoned him to come, "then Peter got down out of the boat, walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and
beginning to sink, cried out 'Lord, save me!' Immediately Jesus reached out His hand and caught him. 'You of little faith,' He said, 'why did you doubt?'" Mt. 14:29-31.
Peter was actually walking on the water! He was doing the impossible! I feel certain he would have made it all the way to Jesus, had fear not entered his heart. Seeing the wind made his faith give way to fear, and fear robbed him of his ability to do the impossible. He was doing what was impossible in the natural, but when the waves rose up against him, he began to fear. The wind was sent to cause him to fear, and the minute he let fear into his heart, he sank. The fear he felt killed his faith for it was his faith in Jesus that kept him on the water.
The minute they stepped back into the boat, the wind died down, much like the lies of the enemy fade when we they lose their effectiveness. As we endeavor to do the impossible our faith will be tested by the winds and
storms of life, we can surely count on it. Yet, when we walk in faith even for a short while as Peter did, we learn more about the enemies of our faith. And we learn more about faith and trusting in God. Every time we step out of the boat and walk even just a few steps, our faith increases.
Every test of faith will increase the resolve in our hearts to fear nothing but God. We learn that in every set of circumstances we face...God is bigger! We learn again and again not to fear our enemy and say,
"Greater is He who is in [me] than he who is in the world" (1 John 4:4).
Committed to Victory
Faith in God is trusting in His ability and desire to help us. It is trusting in the fact that no one is
bigger than our God, and that our great big God wants to help us. He loves us. We are His kids and as His kids, He has given us HIS authority.
Once we see God as our Father who loves us and is able and willing to do
anything to deliver us, there will be no end to our faith in Him. No storm in this life will be able to detour us from following Christ in faith. Fear will have no effect on us.
Likewise, when we trust God with our own
physical well-being, we will not even fear death. For when we remove the fear of death, we become fearless. Like the Word says in, Ps. 23:4 "Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear NO evil,
[Why?] for You are with me." We are fearless because our great big enormous Daddy God is standing right next to us and saying, "You just go ahead and try to touch my kid and I'll stomp you like a bug!" It is not
us who should fear the enemy, but believe me the enemy should and does fear us, because God is making us His unstoppable FEARLESS warriors.
If a soldier enters a battle afraid to die, then he will be ineffective on the
battle field. He will continually be focused on saving his own life and not on winning the battle. He will not be fighting with his whole heart. He must love the cause he is fighting for more than his own life. "They loved
not their own lives even unto death" Rev. 12:11.
When a soldier goes to battle he expects to find fearful events happening, but he learns to charge towards the fighting because he knows that is where the victory lies.
He becomes an unstoppable force, a fearless warrior. He becomes victorious before he even fights a battle, because he has committed himself to victory.
"If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny
himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me. For whoever wishes to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake, he is the one who will save it" Luke 9:23-24. We must throw our whole self into
the battle, being ready to die, not fearing death or we will lose our lives and be consumed by death. A warrior that is FEARLESS is unstoppable! The areas in our hearts where we harbor fear of any kind will continue to keep us
vulnerable to the enemy.
Fear God Not Satan
"Do not fear those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell" Mt. 10:28.
It is more important that we obey God than fear the enemy.
God is the One in control, and He gives us His authority through prayer. So if God asks me to take a stand against the realms of darkness, then I know I have nothing to fear. We should not become presumptuous or arrogant, but we
should never fear the enemy, only God.
If we see fear as our enemy, we will fight against it with our trust in God.
Our faith in God, even in its smallest measure, will move mountains! Whether we like it or not, we are a target of the enemy, our only hope is to operate in the authority that God has given us through Jesus. We have authority over the powers of darkness, the devil knows it and it is time we believed it!
The Lord cares for you "and even the very hairs of your head are all numbered.
So don't be afraid" (Mt. 10:30-31). Our Heavenly Father will stop at nothing to save you and help you. You have only to trust Him! Do not lose faith in Him…He will save you.
Pray this with me:
Though I walk through the very shadow of death, I will NOT fear, because You oh Lord are with me. And because You are with me I refuse to fear! In Jesus' name, Amen.
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