WHEN you stop being afraid of God, your fear of God will be replaced with the fear of man. You must be afraid of something, which is usually your source. One thing that made Elijah to run was because Jezebel was not just an ordinary woman, but a satanic agent, 1 Kings 19:1-4. Women can hold the power to make or mar; any woman in Christ is a blessing to her household.

How do you overcome the threat of the enemy?

• You must trust in the ability of God to deliver you. In Daniel 3:13-18, Bible says, “furious with rage, Nebuchadnezzar summoned Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego. So, these men were brought before the king, and Nebuchadnezzar said to them, ‘Is it true, Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, that you do not serve my gods or worship the image of gold I have set up? …Then what god will be able to rescue you from my hand?” Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego replied to the king, ‘O Nebuchadnezzar, we do not need to defend ourselves before you in this matter...” These three Hebrew men trusted in the ability of God to deliver them. Do you trust in the ability of God to deliver, provide and make the impossible possible for you?

Two things that are crucial to God are His love and His name. The Lord loves us to the point that even when someone wants to take advantage of the fact that He is angry with us, he will prove to that person that even though He is meting out punishment to us, He still loves us. For example, in Obadiah 1:8-14, the Bible says, ‘in that day,’ declares the Lord, will I not destroy the wise men of Edom, men of understanding in the mountains of Esau? Your warriors, O Teman, will be terrified, and everyone in Esau’s mountains will be cut down in the slaughter…You should not march through the gates of my people in the day of their disaster, nor look down on them in their calamity, nor seize their wealth in the day of their disaster. You should not wait at the crossroads to cut down their fugitives, nor hand over their survivors in the day of their trouble.”

God got angry at the Edomites for standing aloof and not helping their cousins, the Israelites, in their time of need; rather they joined the enemies of Israel to plunder them. We should realise that those the Lord loves, He chastises. The Lord also demonstrated His love for us by sending His only begotten Son, Jesus Christ, to die for us on the cross. How else do we want God to demonstrate His love to us?

Pastor Ogunorunyinka, General Overseer, The Promisedland Restoration Ministries, Surulere, Lagos. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it