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Wednesday, July 31, 2013

I Ain't 'Fraid of no Ghost

Psalm 27:1 (KJV) - The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear? the LORD is the strength of my life; of whom shall I be afraid?

Do you remember what movie theme song that line was from? Our enemy has used fear as a weapon against the children of God from the beginning. Creating a crisis in our lives and then motivating us to respond out of fear. Fear of losing, fear of pain, fear of humiliation, fear for our life, fear we won’t have enough, the list goes on and on. Satan loves to make us feel insecure. I have seen men cower behind cars in the face of gun fire or freeze in their place when confronted by an attacker. One of the greatest dangers of fear is inaction. It can paralyze the strongest among us and stop us in our tracks. I remember once as a patrol officer my partner and I were dispatched to a “man with a knife” call. There were four police officers that responded to the call and I was trying to reason with the man. I had my baton and mace out as I was talking to the man, a former Laotian Army Captain, who was very drunk. The other officers were standing behind me with their guns drawn. The man was about 20 feet from me and there were civilians around that I felt were in danger so I sprayed mace in the man’s face to disable him. I expected the man to fall to his feet but instead he became enraged and ran at me. In a split second he had covered the 20 feet. He was holding the knife in an attack position like an army commando would. His training was proficient and he was going to kill me. The police officers behind me should have opened fire and shot the man but instead they froze. Fortunately I was able to defend against the attack and disable the man. In that moment, facing the same threat, some allowed fear to overcome them and other trusted in their training and stepped into the battle.
Often our lives are just like that confrontation. The enemy is upon us without warning and we must trust in what we know to be truth in order to overcome him. Paul says in Romans 8:31, “What shall we then say to these things? If God be for us, who can be against us?” Let me warn you right now! Lots of people and things can be against you. The enemy hates you and the image of God that is in you. He will attack you and try to destroy you. People will lie about you, slander you, undermine you, try to tear you down, and set in wait for you. The idea of Romans 8:31 isn’t that our lives will be a bed of roses with everyone just falling over before we get there, it is that with God we are more than conquerors through Jesus Christ our Lord! You are a vessel of the Holy Spirit! God lives in you and when you learn to trust Him and follow His ways there is no weapon formed against you that can prosper.
When that knife wielding, former jungle fighter, lunged at me I had no time to reason. I had to trust my training. My baton blocked his knife and using a technique that I had practiced time and time again in the police academy I disabled his arm and used his own momentum to place him on the ground. The battle was over and I had won. When the enemy comes at you like a flood overcome your fear with the faith. Faith that God has equipped you with everything you need to stand against the attacks of the enemy.

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