[00:00:00] The Bible says, Enter His gates with thanksgiving, and to His courts with praise. I invite you to join me now in coming into the courts of praise, God's holy presence. Will you join me as we together say, Praise the Lord, Amen. And let's say it ten joyful times. Praise the Lord, Amen. Praise the Lord, Amen.
[00:00:28] Praise the Lord, Amen. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord. Amen. Hallelujah. Well, that word amen means so be it.
[00:00:57] So we are affirming the power of praising the Lord in this affirmation. And I hope you'll practice this often. That whenever you're being beset by a feeling of hurt or disappointment and being overwhelmed by fear, simply rise up and defeat that spirit of fear. I have long time said that the devil has an allergy to praising Jesus. And let's praise him and overcome and have a conquest of fear today.
[00:01:26] You see, we're living in the closing days of time. Even if we ministers never mentioned it, doubtless many would realize it's because of the terrible oppression of the enemy and through the appalling acts of sin openly flaunted before our consciencered nations. The battle between spirit and flesh has reached such a screaming pitch that even once stable Christians are floundering, being deceived or overpowered by the world.
[00:01:55] As nations pit each other against each other secretly to develop new weapons of horror, each struggling time produces more devastation. It's more severe than a bomb or a chemical. It's the regions and legions of darkness feverishly working against you, bringing spiritual weapons to bear against your life as a child of God. Now into this bitter struggle,
[00:02:22] the devil has injected his most demoralizing weapon of all, and that's fear. Several years ago, I heard a friend say, I don't know what's wrong with me, but I have a feeling of dread in my soul. There's fear in my heart. At that time, I thought the Holy Spirit was sending conviction in his heart, and he needed to repent. I know now that my judgment was critical and unjust. My friend was just being oppressed by a spirit of fear, and he was experiencing deep hurt.
[00:02:52] Now many of you to whom I speak today, you're being confused. You need to realize there's a great difference between Holy Spirit conviction and evil spirit oppression. If the Holy Spirit convicts you, the heaviness of heart will depart when you repent of the hasty words or the thoughtless action that brought the conviction. God's Word plainly says, If we confess our sins, He's faithful and just to forgive us our sins
[00:03:20] and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. However, after we're cleansed, the enemy may come along to dig up the matter again and oppress you with a spirit of fear for your very salvation. He may cause you to doubt the baptism of the Holy Spirit or your healing. You may find yourself pleading for forgiveness which was granted long ago. Now this is a spirit of fear and should be recognized and combated as such. It's the oppression of the devil.
[00:03:50] Such oppression will not only hurt you, but it'll drive you to a destruction spirit. You'll feel everything's in despair. It'll cause you to mistrust others, to doubt God and His Word, and to question the reality of salvation and spiritual things. This oppression is a sharp, terrifying, accusing voice that threatens to smother your prayer life under a blanket of unbelief.
[00:04:17] Always remember that this fear is not from God. 2 Timothy 1.7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and a sound mind. God has given you power, a spirit of power. You ask power over what? Jesus says to His disciples in Luke 10.19 Behold, I have given you power over all the power of the enemy. In Acts 1.8 we learn that we will receive power to witness.
[00:04:47] 1 John 4.4 We are of God and have overcome the devil already because he that's in us is greater than he that's in the world. If you are a person who is saved, you've already become an overcomer of the devil to the extent of the fact not only are you saved, but you can overcome the devil on one front and overcome him on all fronts. Long ago God said to Joshua, No man should be able to stand before you
[00:05:16] all the days of your life. And we have the same God within our hearts. Only now we have better promises and a more sure word of testimony. We have the word of God in Hebrews and in James. Now if Joshua back under the law could be strong and a good courage, how much more should you and I under grace? God has not given us a spirit of fear. He's given us a spirit of power, power to work, power to witness,
[00:05:45] power to overcome the devil on every front. And God has given us a spirit of love. Love is not one of our natural attributes. It's an attribute of God. The Bible says, 1 John 4, 8, God is love. Galatians 5, 22 tells us that love is a fruit of the indwelling spirit of Christ. Love is a powerful force, granting and greater than anything the devil has concocted. Love is the way to conquer fear,
[00:06:14] for perfect love casts out fear. Note that if we cease to reverence God, if we cease somehow to reject his working for help us to overcome, we'll have real confusion. The Bible says, Love covers a multitude of sins. It's covering your sin by the blood of Jesus and wash them away so completely that those sins no longer have record of you in heaven.
[00:06:42] That same love will help you to be patient with a lot of things. You'll be patient with your loved ones, your fellow Christians. Whatever things seems to get you upset. And of course, 1 Corinthians 13, 4 says, Love is not puffed up. You won't be prideful. So this is my appeal to you, that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a sound mind also. This spirit of a sound mind, you'll recognize the tactics of the devil,
[00:07:11] and you'll measure every revelation, every vision given to you by the word of God. A sound mind will realize that extra touch required to simply know more of God's spirit and not some hatched up idea to exalt your life. Paul said in 2 Corinthians 2, 11,
[00:08:02] Don't remain passive. Don't remain passive. Rebuke him in Jesus' name. Don't spend a lot of time arguing with the devil, for God has given you authority over every situation. God has given you the perfect antidote for fear. Fear is the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. Thanks be to God. This is ours today to enjoy. And I want you to please understand that the great penalty of fear is it will produce in kind,
[00:08:32] just like it did for Job. You fear cancer, and that spirit of fear can actually produce cancer. You fear calamity, and you could be writing your own ticket for calamity. Fear of failure, and you're opening the door for failure to envelop your life. So dare rebuke fear in the name of Jesus. Call the spirit of fear by its right names, a deceiver, a liar, a faker, a fraud. James 4, 7, Resist the devil and he'll flee from you.
[00:09:01] Now if you're hurting, a spirit of fear will come into your heart and cause you to expect the bad. You can have destructive powers. And God wants you to realize that those natural problems you have are often caused by attack of the enemy, by having a nervous breakdown, or being able to sleep well at night, or somehow whatever way the enemy seeks to bring you into defeat, depression, destruction.
[00:09:31] And those were the results of fears. So just give no place to fear. Resist it in Jesus' name. Plead the blood. Quote the word. Praise the Lord. And once you experience God's miracle of setting you free by the power of his word, you'll discover that, thank God, you have the ability of God to overcome. Some of you need to realize that you need to improve your family relationships.
[00:10:01] And a spirit of fear will try to harass you because you find yourself upset with the other person. And of course, when you are harassed by fear, you have an attack of the enemy that's very decisive. So you can be one. God can use. I know some of you carry a heavy burden for your unsaved loved ones. But you can take the authority of God's word. Acts 16, 31.
[00:10:31] Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved in thy house. So also, the enemy of fear and the pain and the hurting you experience means that you need the deliverance of Jesus for the healing for your body. So hear me today, please. Begin to live the joy-filled, abundant life that God promises to you as his child. Father, as humbly as I know how,
[00:11:00] I come in agreement with every listening friend who this day is oppressed and beset by a spirit of fear and by the result of a spirit of hurting, hurting within their mind, within their spirit, within their life. In Jesus' name, Father, I pray for a release today for every captive life. And I give you thanks in Jesus' name. Praise God.
[00:11:28] Well, I've shared with you some hurting that many of my dear ones have experienced, my coworkers in God's work. And I can share with you much more about that. But I just want to ask you today to let this be the day when you say goodbye to fear, goodbye to the devil's device, and rise up and overcome. Well, one of the sure ways I know to have this type of victory is to live a life of praise.
[00:11:57] I said to you on one of my previous programs here with you that God has helped me to overcome fear and overcome being hurt by a life of praise. And I have made it my prayer request. Lord, I want to be a bold, passionate praiser. Why? For there's such power in praise to enable us to overcome hurts. And if you are one hurting, just stop and praise the Lord.
[00:12:26] The hurts will simply be overcome in Jesus' name. Join me now as we praise him together. Praise you, Lord. Amen. Praise you, Lord. Amen.
[00:12:54] Praise you, Lord. Amen. Praise you, Lord. Amen. Praise you, Lord. Amen. Hallelujah.