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“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but one of power, love, and sound judgment” 2 Timothy 1:7 CSB
These days, it seems like fear is everywhere.
Even so, God’s Word is filled with Scripture telling us “do not fear.” But how are we supposed to achieve such a tall order? Who are we, against the wickedness that permeates this world? Royalty, that’s who.
We are sons and daughters of the Most High God. We are betrothed to the King of kings and Lord of lords and are His co-heirs. We are also a royal priesthood. And as royalty, we have been given authority by the Maker and Master of the universe. How much authority? Jesus Himself tells us in Luke 10:19, “Look, I have given you the authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy; nothing at all will harm you.”
Don’t miss this. That’s a lot of authority! He even admitted in the next verse that, although we are not to be doing fist bumps and victory dances over the fact that the demons are subject to us in His name, nevertheless, they are subject to us in His name.
Do any of the political leaders in the highest offices, or the world’s most powerful kings, have this kind of authority? Not if they don’t belong to Jesus. And if any do belong to Jesus, they have this authority only because He gave it to them as royal children of God.
We tend to forget who we are in Christ — or worse, have never been taught in the first place.
We also tend to forget or have yet to be taught that there’s a colossal, unseen war going on in the spiritual realm, twenty-four seven. The servant of the great prophet Elisha experienced this truth firsthand.
The king of Syria made the mistake of going to war with the king of Israel, but each time he outlined his plans to his servants, including where he intended to place his camp, Elisha would go and warn the king of Israel, who would then avoid the king of Syria. After his plans were foiled several times, the Syrian king called his servants together and declared that one of them must be a traitor. But one of them explained that the prophet Elisha was to blame, pointing out that,
“…’No one, my lord the king. Elisha, the prophet in Israel, tells the king of Israel even the words you speak in your bedroom’” (2 Kings 6:12).
Thinking to pluck out this thorn in his side, the Syrian king had Elisha tracked down to the city of Dothan. He then proceeded to send a great army, including plenty of horses and chariots, to surround the city by night.
When Elisha’s servant got up the next morning and went out, he was greeted by a terrifying sight — the Syrian army had them surrounded! Horrified, the servant cried out to Elisha, “What shall we do?” Cool as a cucumber, Elisha told him to fear not, because those who were with them were more numerous than those who were against them. To make his point, the prophet then asked God to open the man’s eyes so he could see into the spiritual world. God did so, and the servant saw that the mountain was full of horses and not just ordinary chariots, but chariots of fire.
“But what about me?” you may be thinking.
I can’t see into the spirit realm. I can’t see the warrior angels who serve God fighting the evil ones. More than likely, the spiritual realm will remain invisible, but like the wind, sound waves, and so many other things, just because we don’t see them doesn’t mean they’re not there. And just because we don’t see the cosmic battles going on, doesn’t mean we can’t fight, too. And fight we must.
Yes, Jesus is the Lord of the Heavenly armies, and He fights on our behalf. But He also gave us a set of armor, along with a shield and sword, for a reason. In Ephesians 6:11–17, Paul reminds us who we are fighting against and to make sure we’re dressed for battle and armed. We are to do our part and not sit passively on the fence, wringing our hands in fear.
But what about our lives in the here and now? As we look around, we may be dismayed, as it seems the world is going to hell in a hand basket.
The apostle John tells us, “Do not love the world or the things in the world.” See 1 John 2:15–17. Does this mean that wanting a happy life and nice things is bad? No, wanting these things is not bad in and of itself.
But the world and, to some extent, the things we desire — houses, vacations, jobs, security, relationships, etc. are like red herrings thrown out by Satan. While there may be nothing wrong with wanting these things, we must remember, they are all passing away. It’s when we make these things into idols that we get into trouble. The devil knows this, and in order to get us to take our eyes off the eternal prize, that’s what he goads us to do, then he packages up the worldly desires into pretty boxes and throws them out like red herrings to distract us. Those distractions are two-fold: not only do we get distracted from focusing on the things of God and eternity, but we also get distracted from seeing Satan’s wicked chess game, with humanity as his unsuspecting pawns. And we fear. Sometimes to the point of being paralyzed by all the what-ifs.
Look up. Your redemption draws near.
Written By Lynn Churchill
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