Lock-down!
As we prepare for the days ahead I have not had much opportunity to get settled to write. However, that will surly change as the business and activities of life outside the home shuts down. I’m going to share Peter’s blog with you today just to keep in touch with you and to encourage you in your faith and journey with the Lord. Wherever you are, remember our enemy is real and so is the fight, BUT we win! The church is arising like never before and while we will have to walk through the valley and fight the good fight of faith, we will come out mightier and stronger, filled with the power, love, and faith of our Captain.
Please remember I am available on my emails if you need to chat.
Lock-down
Faith Over Fear
Now is a very good time to look up one of the 365 verses that say, “Fear not”. This is a time to be in faith, and not in fear. And faith only comes one way – by hearing the Word of God.
Romans 10:17 KJV
So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.
Notice how it does not say, “Faith comes by having heard…” No, faith comes by hearing. That is an active and continuous thing. You cannot rely on what you heard a preacher say 10 years ago in order to remain in faith. You cannot be strong in faith if you are only holding on to what you heard the Lord speak to you in your prayer closet in the 1900’s.
You cannot live off yesterday’s manna. In the same way that our outer man (our physical body) needs regular fresh food, our inner man also needs regular nourishment. And that nourishment comes from the Word of God. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus said: “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceeds from the mouth of God.” Now is the ideal time to feed on the Word of God. And in doing so, faith will come.
Not only does faith come by hearing though; fear comes by hearing too. Hearing what? Hearing anything that is not the Word of God. The news reports, the statistics, the opinions of others etc.
Fear, worry and anxiety enter into the hearts of people through hearing these things. And it is through fear, worry and anxiety that the devil tries to accomplish his plans and purposes on the earth. But it is through faith that God accomplishes His plans and purposes on the earth.
We do not want to be instruments and tools of the devil at this time. We want to be instruments and tools of God. And so, it is imperative that we be in faith, and not in fear. What you lend your ear to – what you listen to and how you listen to it – will determine whether you will be in faith, or in fear.
Fear is simply faith in reverse. It is faith in the devil and his deceptions. FEAR = False Evidence Appearing Real. You cannot fear without first receiving “false evidence”. And how do we receive false evidence? Through our ears. It comes by hearing anything that is not in line with God’s Word. Fear is rooted in lies and deception, while faith is rooted in the truth of God’s Word.
1 John 5:4 NKJV
For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. And this is the victory that has overcome the world -our faith.
Faith is the victory that has overcome the world (and everything that is going on in it). In John 16:33, Jesus said that in this world we will have trouble, tribulation, pressure and affliction but we can be of good courage and good cheer because He has overcome the world. The Greek word translated overcome also means to conquer, prevail and get the victory.
Jesus has already overcome the world (and everything that is going on in it). He has already prevailed. He has already conquered. He has already got the victory. And the wonderful thing is that it wasn’t just for Him. It was for you and me. He overcame on our behalf. He conquered, and now we are more than conquerors through Him that loved us (Romans 8:37). His victory is our victory.
1 Corinthians 15:57 NKJV
But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.
Jesus may have been the One that won the victory on the Cross, but then He gave it to us as we were raised up with Him in His resurrection. We receive everything that He earned and deserved. We are now totally united to Him. We have even been raised and seated in the heavenly places in Him. He is in us; we are in Him.
1 John 4:4 NKJV
You are of God, little children, and have overcome them, because He who is in you is greater than he who is in the world.
You have already overcome if Jesus – the Greater One, the Overcomer – is in you. But you are only going to experience the benefits of this through faith. We are saved by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8). Grace – God’s part – is already done and dusted. Now all that is left is for us to believe and receive through faith. Hence, faith is the victory that overcomes the world.
I encourage you to be in faith by surrounding yourself with, and saturating yourself in, the Word of God during this time.
With much love
Peter Martin
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We have a ministry to mainly African refugees and this is what I shared with them tonight. I feel led to share it with you too:-
At midnight tonight South Africa enters a 21 day lock-down. As we heeded our President’s call to pray tonight, our hearts went out to those who have no income during this time and face a life challenging situation. We were reminded about another lock-down in our family history. When my father was about 4 years old World War 1 broke out. Because my grandmother was a German immigrant and my grandfather had been sent to Germany for an education and to learn a trade (that was the practice of the Moravian missionaries) the family was confined to the farm where they were stationed for the 4 years of the war. No shopping, no medical help, no post, no outside contact for 4 years for a growing family! The climate allows you to grow some crops, but not others, using what seeds you may have stored away. There was no advance warning of the confinement, no opportunity for last minute shopping. Now here is the wonder of this story. My grandmother’s barrel of bread meal for her young family not only never got empty for 4 years, it also did not go bad! Be encouraged if you face 21 days of not knowing where the food is coming from. Sometimes things are so desperate and hopeless we cannot bear think about it.
Gen 21:15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. 16 Gen 21:15 And the water in the skin was used up, and she placed the boy under one of the shrubs. 16 Then she went and sat down across from him at a distance of about a bowshot; for she said to herself, “Let me not see the death of the boy.” So she sat opposite him, and lifted her voice and wept.
When we are too afraid to look, God is looking! He wants to open your eyes to see what He sees. We see what threatens to steal our life. God looks at what will give us life and a destiny.
17 And God heard the voice of the lad. Then the angel of God called to Hagar out of heaven, and said to her, “What ails you, Hagar? Fear not, for God has heard the voice of the lad where he is. 18 “Arise, lift up the lad and hold him with your hand, for I will make him a great nation.” 19 Then God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water. And she went and filled the skin with water, and gave the lad a drink.
Genesis 16: 13 Then she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, You-Are-the-God-Who-Sees; for she said, “Have I also here seen Him who sees me?”
May you like Hagar come face to face with the God who sees and discover that He has provided for your most desperate need and planned your destiny.