The Love Challenge

By Denise Renner

Jesus said in Matthew 5:43-44, “You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you.” That is a command that so many of us hear, but I think we don’t always understand just how difficult a thing He was asking of us.

You see, an enemy is not just a person who we don’t like. It isn’t just someone who annoys you or is mean to you all the time. An enemy is a person who really wants to do you harm. Jesus says in that verse that He is talking about those who curse, hate, misuse, and persecute you — these are people who truly have malice in their hearts towards you. 

Friend, I really believe that this is the highest level of love, to love those who hurt us, and I want to tell you a few stories about this amazing love today, both to show you what an amazing, shocking command this is and to encourage you that it is not impossible to do.

If we ever need a picture of what it looks like to love our enemies, then of course there is no better place to look than at Jesus. Just think about how much Jesus loved Judas. He knew that this man was going to betray Him someday, yet He acted as a blessing to him. In all the time that Judas walked with Jesus, Jesus loved him, prayed for him, protected him, and fed him. Even in that last moment in the Garden of Gethsemane, when Judas had just identified Jesus as the Man the soldiers should arrest, Jesus called him friend (see Matthew 26:50). To that last moment, Jesus was offering restoration to the man who had given Him up to die a horrible death on the Cross.

Even when Jesus was on the Cross, in all that pain and humiliation, He was showing love for His enemies. The Bible says in Luke 23:34, “Then Jesus said, ‘Father, forgive them, for they do not know what they do.’ And they divided His garments and cast lots.”

I want you to think about that friend. Jesus was on the Cross, blood pouring off of His body from the marks left by the scourging and the nails in His hands and feet, having to push up on those nails just to breathe. He was hanging completely naked in front of everyone who passed, including His own mother. From all sides, He was hearing blaspheming, hatred, and ridicule. People were mocking Him, saying, “Call out to Your Father and ask Him to take you down from that Cross if He’ll hear you.”

He was in such terrible suffering as He was bearing the sin and sickness of every single one of us, and everyone was ignoring or ridiculing Him for it, but in the middle of all that, Jesus fulfilled His own sermon. He said, “Father, forgive them. They don’t really understand what they are doing.”

This is the kind of love that I’m talking to you about! That sounds so amazing, friend, but you’re probably also thinking that it sounds really difficult. You might be saying to yourself, “Well, that’s Jesus, but I couldn’t do it like that.” It’s true — in our own strength, this kind of love is incredibly difficult, but I want to give you the encouragement that God has equipped you to do it.

Romans 5:5 says, “Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us.” Friend, when you were born again, the love of God — the very same love that Jesus used to love Judas and forgive the crowds who mocked Him on the Cross — was poured out into your heart! It’s not love for those who are easy to love. It isn’t romantic or platonic love. It is the agape love of God that would dare to love someone who hates you. 

You may feel like this command is too difficult for you to do, but you have to remember that God has absolutely outfitted and equipped you with everything you need to love your enemies, bless those who curse you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you. 

As you read this, you might still be thinking that this sounds like such a difficult assignment and you are never going to be able to do it. I know that when we are looking at Jesus’ example or at stories in the Bible, it can feel like those people are just better or more faithful than us, so I want to tell you a couple more stories about this amazing, high-level love that might feel less far-off from you and your life.

I know a story of a Christian man who was married to his wife for over four decades. He loved her so much, and they were so happy in their marriage, but one day, something horrible happened. They had a neighbor who had a drinking problem, and one day, he was driving around drunk, and in that state, he ended up hitting the Christian man’s beloved wife and killing her.

That is so heartbreaking, friend. Maybe you’ve lost people who you loved. It can be so easy to look for blame when we go through pain like that, and sometimes it really is someone else’s fault, but we don’t have to hold onto bitterness toward that person. When this Christian man learned who was responsible for his wife’s death, instead of getting angry or giving out hate, he just started praying for that neighbor of his. He started doing good for him and showing love to him, and eventually that neighbor was so filled with shame that he started lashing out at that godly man with hate and resentment.

He was so horrible, but even that didn’t stop the man whose wife he had killed — he just kept praying and loving his neighbor all the way until he died. That might seem like a lot of work and pain for nothing, but friend, at that Christian man’s funeral, the neighbor’s heart just opened up to Jesus because of all the love that he had been shown. He had spent so much time resisting that love, but it kept coming after him for all those years, and that day, it finally broke down the barriers of his heart!

Another story I want to tell you comes from a friend of mine who went through so much pain in her family. She married this wonderful man who she loved so much, and for a while, they had a wonderful marriage, but then he started drinking. His drinking grew to be such a big problem, and then one New Year’s Eve, she found him in their bedroom, on their bed, dead from drinking too much alcohol.

She was so overcome by grief that she became an alcoholic herself, but thankfully, as her son grew up, he would minister to his mother, and eventually, he was able to lead her to Jesus. 

After the struggle of losing her husband and fighting her alcoholism, she must have been so happy and relieved, but the pain in her life wasn’t done yet. Over the years, something dark started to work in her son’s mind, and someone offered him drugs and got him hooked on them. One New Year’s Eve, my friend came home, and on the same bed where she’d found her husband, she found her precious son dead from a drug overdose.

This is such a traumatic event, friend! She could have been devastated and angry. She could have gone back into her old behaviors or held onto bitterness at the people who had traumatized her, but she didn’t do any of those things. Instead she found the young girl who was responsible for getting her son on drugs, and she started visiting her in prison and ministering to her. No one would have blamed her for avoiding or hating that girl, but my friend instead forgave her and showed her the love of Jesus, and that young girl was able to receive Christ in prison. She was set free by a woman who loved and prayed for her enemy.

These aren’t distant stories, friend. These are real people living out the love of God in today’s world, and you have that same love in you. You can let go of hate and bitterness and pain, and you can give prayer, kindness, and truth to people who are horrible to you. In fact, you can make an eternal difference in their lives!

Friend, I want to challenge you today to intentionally live with this love of God toward your enemies. Ask yourself, “Is there somebody right now who is my enemy? Is there anyone who has hurt me, taken things from me, or misused me? How can I exercise love for that person? What are the ways that I can bless them and pray for them right now?”

This is a really high road, but it is one you can take. You have that love on the inside of you, so instead of thinking about how hard it is and how much you don’t want to do it, I want you to say, “Lord, I have these horrible feelings toward this person, but that really isn’t what matters. What matters is that I can say ‘Yes’ to You. I can say ‘Yes’ to this powerful love that’s on the inside of me.”

When we let go of what we want and depend on what He has put inside of us, we become able to give amazing, selfless love to those people who the world would call our enemies — and that is something that sends ripples into eternity!

Trusting the Process

By Denise Renner

Have you ever been in a situation where you really lost it all? The enemy of our souls is a thief, and he will do anything he can to take what matters to us and break our hearts. Sometimes he comes with a really powerful strike that we feel we may never recover from. If you’ve been in that place before or you’re in it right now, I want to tell you that you are not alone. The Bible tells us that even David, the man after God’s heart, suffered devastating loss.

While he was on the run from King Saul, David and the men who were loyal to him were staying in a city called Ziklag, so when they went off to other places, their wives and children and everything they owned would stay there. Well one day, the men came home to Ziklag, and they found the worst possible thing had happened while they were gone:

“Now it happened, when David and his men came to Ziklag, on the third day, that the Amalekites had invaded the South and Ziklag, attacked Ziklag and burned it with fire, and had taken captive the women and those who were there, from small to great; they did not kill anyone, but carried them away and went their way. So David and his men came to the city, and there it was, burned with fire; and their wives, their sons, and their daughters had been taken captive.”

— 1 Samuel 30:1-3

How horrible would that be — to lose absolutely everything that you’ve ever gained in your life, everything you’ve worked for, everything that you love? You come home and find that all of it has just been burned down or taken away. It’s difficult for most of us to even wrap our minds around such a tragedy, and the Bible tells us, “Then David and the people who were with him lifted up their voices and wept, until they had no more power to weep” (1 Samuel 30:4).

They were all so distressed and crushed by this loss, and David’s men were so hurt that they were even thinking about stoning him! Can you imagine how David must have been feeling, to have his life threatened while he was in the midst of grieving for everything they had lost? I truly believe that this was one of the darkest times in David’s life, friend, but the reason I wanted to tell you this story is because, in the middle of it all, David trusted God. Even though everything seemed lost and it looked like David’s life was about to be over, the very end of verse 6 tells us something so powerful: “But David strengthened himself in the Lord his God” (1 Samuel 30:6).

Now friend, I don’t know how David strengthened himself in the Lord, but I know that many times we can encourage ourselves in the Lord by remembering what He has done in the past.  Maybe David pictured Goliath laying on the ground. Maybe he was thinking of a time when he’d grabbed a hold of a lion or bear and killed it. Maybe he was thinking of all the years that the Lord was providing for him and protecting his life as he was running from Saul. Maybe David remembered “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want” (Psalm 23:1).

Friend, when something tragic happens, we don’t want to rush in and start praying fearful prayers. Our God is merciful, and He can pull us through the situation no matter what emotions we have, but if we really want effective prayers, we can’t let ourselves stay caught up in the emotion. Just like David, we have to take the first step of strengthening ourselves in the Lord.

The next step is to actually come to Him in prayer. We read in 1 Samuel 30:8, “So David inquired of the Lord, saying, ‘Shall I pursue this troop? Shall I overtake them?’”

Friend, what I’m sharing with you is the process of recovering everything that’s been lost: David found himself in this place of overwhelming despair, so he strengthened himself in the Lord, and then he asked Him, “God, what should I do?” He got into an honest position and asked the Lord exactly what he wanted to know.

Sometimes we say, “Okay, Lord, I’m going to pray about this horrible situation,” but we don’t even recognize that we’re just praying empty, religious prayers. We have to be honest, friend, because that’s the only way we can invite God into our real struggles. What really positions us to recover everything that we’ve lost is having full faith in God, and for that, we have to be believing in Him for the full situation.

David didn’t know what would happen, so he asked God, “Lord, Will I be able to do anything about this? Should I pursue the enemy? Will I be able to catch them? Will we be able to get back our wives and children and everything we’ve lost?” This could have been a really hard conversation, because it was possible the Lord would say “No,” but because David positioned himself to seek the Lord in that difficult moment, he received God’s answer, “Pursue, for you shall surely overtake them and without fail recover all” (1 Samuel 30:8).

That is beautiful. Because of his trust, David received a promise, he received comfort, and he received direction — everything that he’d been looking for from God. What faith it took for David to even ask the question, but when you do ask God honestly and you open your heart to His possibilities and power, you open your heart to receive answers and direction.

Then all that’s left for you to do is to act on the directions God has given you. Right after he received the Lord’s answer, the Bible says, “So David went, he and the six hundred men who were with him” (1 Samuel 30:9). 

They pursued the Amalekites who took everything from them, and God provided so that they would be able to catch them. As they were pursuing, they found an Egyptian servant who had been left behind by his Amalekite master because he was sick. They gave him something to eat and drink, and he told them that he’d lead them right to the enemy they were chasing!

Friend, this was a part of God’s answer. Our God can cause all these little things to fall into place in just the right way so that we can get where we need to go, and that’s what he did by putting this young man in David’s path. They were brought right to the camp of the enemy, and when they attacked, only 400 men were able to get away on camels — all the rest were totally defeated by David’s army!

This was such a joyous moment, friend! Look at what 1 Samuel 30:18-19 says: “So David recovered all that the Amalekites had carried away, and David rescued his two wives. And nothing of theirs was lacking, either small or great, sons or daughters, spoil or anything which they had taken from them; David recovered all.”

He recovered all! Everything David had was taken from him, but he got it all back because he put himself in a position to hear from God and to receive His power. He didn’t get there because he was logical and emotionless — he had lots of emotion. He cried so much that he couldn’t cry anymore. But in the middle of that grief, he strengthened himself in the Lord, and he prayed honestly to Him. Then when the Lord answered him, David obeyed quickly, and it opened him up to find the servant boy, who was the key to tracking down their enemies and taking back everything that was stolen.

Friend, there was a process David had to follow. He didn’t just charge in to get it back or give up because all was lost. He carefully took the steps that would get him to his goal. When you feel like you’ve lost it all and there’s no way you could recover it, you have to remember that. Instead of letting doubt flood your mind, strengthen yourself in the Lord and ask Him, “Lord, should I go in there? Should I believe You? Should I believe that I can recover all?” Then listen for His answer, and be ready to jump up and follow His direction!

The next time you find yourself robbed by the enemy or by the world, make sure you choose the right response. Don’t just say, “Oh Lord, this is an awful situation. I guess I’m just going to lose this. I don’t know how I’m going to get out of this.” If you view it like that, then of course you won’t recover anything! Instead you have to say, “You already know my situation, Lord. You’ve been faithful and powerful in the past, and I’m asking You now, should I try to recover all here? Could I do it? Will You stand with me?” Just by taking that step of strengthening yourself in Him and seeking Him for answers, you are putting yourself on the path to recover all. It might not happen all at once like it did for David. Maybe you’ll recover everything a few steps at a time. Maybe you’ll recover something at one time and something else at another. Maybe it won’t happen in the way or form you expect. The important thing is that you keep trusting the process and listening to the truth — then His power will be free to move and restore.

To Forgive Is Divine

By Denise Renner

God is a complete forgiver. He doesn’t have a ledger up in Heaven to keep track of how bad you’ve been and what you’ve done — if you’re born again, the blood of Jesus has totally wiped your slate clean.

Friend, that is the glorious forgiveness of our God, but we still have a tendency to think, “I don’t know if He forgives all of my sins. Mine are pretty bad.” I want to tell you that that’s not an unusual thing to think. I’ve had thoughts like that before, and I’ve had to renew my mind to the truth, and that’s what I want to help you with today. 

Of course, the best person we can look to when we want to be reminded of God’s forgiveness is Jesus Himself, and He actually has a parable about exactly this. The parable is found in Matthew, and it talks about a master who gathered all of his servants to see what they owed him. One of them had a debt of over a million dollars and no way to pay it back. So the master did what any creditor would do at that time: “But as he was not able to pay, his master commanded that he be sold, with his wife and children and all that he had, and that payment be made” (Matthew 18:25).

Of course, that isn’t where the story ends, because in the next verse, that poor servant begged for patience and forgiveness, and verse 27 says, “Then the master of that servant was moved with compassion, released him, and forgave him the debt.”

That is our Lord. There was no way that we could do enough good or say enough prayers to make ourselves acceptable to God, but He had compassion on us, and it is only because of that compassion that we can be forgiven.

Notice that the servant in the parable didn’t have to do anything — all he did was ask, and the master forgave. That’s what happens with salvation! When we realize that we are sinners and we’re going to hell if our sin is not taken care of, we can come to Jesus and say, “I believe that God raised you from the dead, and I confess you right now as my Lord. Forgive me of my sins.” Then He just comes and washes us of all our sin, no judgement and no demands. That is the kind of forgiver our God is!

Knowing all this, we have only one way that we can reasonably respond, and that is to start giving out forgiveness to the people in our lives. Friend, nowhere does God say that we should keep blaming people for what they did to us, not even a little. Instead His example shows us that we should totally release them from their actions or words that hurt us. It’s not easy, but let me tell you, friend, it is so worth it. 

Let me give you an example from my own life. Many, many years ago, I was struggling with this disease in my body and mind. My hands and feet were painfully cold all the time. I was struggling mentally and even having panic attacks, and I remember thinking to myself, “What is this? I’m a believer. This isn’t supposed to happen to me.”

I didn’t realize it, but I was feeling bitter toward someone close to me, and that bitterness and unforgiveness was wreaking havoc in my soul and in my mind. Through it all, I was seeking the Lord, because I had experienced His healing in my life before, but I still couldn’t figure out why I was having these symptoms.

In the middle of my struggle, I was ministering at a service with Rick one day, and in that service, this prophetically gifted man of God came up to me and said, “You are a very sensitive person, and you have broken places on the inside of you, but in 24 hours, you’re going to wake up in a different world.” 

I had been trying to get my heart right for weeks, but when that prophet said that to me, I was finally able to recognize the unforgiveness I was holding onto. I was able to use my mouth to speak forgiveness to the person I was bitter towards, and I released them from what they had done.

I went to bed that night, and the next morning, it was just like the prophet said: when I woke up, it was like Jesus had put His invisible hand down into my soul and took out all those tentacles of bitterness, unforgiveness, criticism, confusion, and fear. He just took them right out of my heart, and I was completely free. My hands were totally normal, my feet were totally normal, and my mind was totally normal.

Maybe you’re struggling with unforgiveness and bitterness as well. Maybe you don’t even know you’re in unforgiveness — I didn’t know I was, because I was so focused on what I wanted the other person to do to change. I didn’t even realize what I was opening the door to. But if you ask God to reveal that unforgiving spot in your heart and you give it to Him, He will gladly take that torment out of your heart. 

What is so amazing to me is that God’s forgiveness doesn’t even stop there: when we forgive, we have opportunities to help those who wronged us. How amazing is that! How like our Lord to not just forgive but to love and help the very person who hurt Him. The Bible says that He saved us “while we were still sinners” (Romans 5:8), while we were still hurting Him, but that didn’t stop Him from forgiving and sending His Son to save us. 

A great example of this is Joseph. If you know Joseph’s story, you know that he had every reason to be unforgiving. His jealous brothers had thrown him into a pit and sold him to the Egyptians, and then they had told his father that an animal had killed him. In Egypt, the lady of the house he was serving in lied about him and got him thrown in prison, and when a man who he’d ministered to in prison was released, he broke his promise to help Joseph get out too. Joseph had so many reasons for bitterness! 

But he never denied God, and when he got out of that prison, God elevated him. The only person who had more power than him in all of Egypt was Pharaoh, and when a famine arrived and Joseph’s brothers came to Egypt in need of food, he was in a position to save or to condemn them. He could have said, “No, I am never going to feed you. Look what you did to me!” He could have thrown them into the dungeon or had them killed — but instead, he fed them! He got his father and all his brothers’ wives and children, and he took care of them all until they died. He even got them the best land in Egypt. Now that is forgiveness! 

It was horrible what happened to Joseph. What his brothers did was wrong and unjust, but Joseph chose to forgive anyway, and because of that, his family was saved from starvation! I know so many stories of people who went back to those who hurt them and led them to Christ, and I believe that that is just so like our Lord. Friend, your forgiveness could give someone an entrance into life and salvation!

You might be reading this and saying to yourself, “You don’t know what’s happened to me. I can’t forgive something as bad as what they did.” It’s true that I don’t know what’s happened to you, but I do know that you and I have been given mercy, and I know that we did not deserve it.

If God just gave us what we deserved, we would have received hell, but instead He gave us mercy, and He and His forgiving power live on the inside of us. Romans 5:5 says that the Holy Ghost lives inside us, and He pours the love of God into our hearts. In John 17:26, Jesus says, “And I have declared to them Your name, and will declare it, that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

In other words, the love we have in us through the Holy Spirit is exactly the same love that God the Father loves Jesus with, so you and I don’t have an excuse — we’ve got all the equipment we need to forgive.

Let’s follow Jesus’ example and His command to forgive today. I promise you that when you do, it will release and rescue the people who’ve hurt you, and you will also be totally saved and healed from that bitterness eating you up on the inside. I truly want that for you today. Friend, it’s time to forgive.

Undercover Pride

By Denise Renner

It seems like we’re always in some state of worry — we’re in it or being tempted to do it or fighting against it, but we’re never quite out of it. When a concern comes, maybe a very natural concern that you do need to think about, your mind starts saying, “Oh, you need to think about that a little bit more. You need to know what happens if you fail. You need to think about what happens if it doesn’t work out.” Our minds just take that concern or that fear and keep cycling it around in our brains, and soon, instead of walking in peace that God purchased for us, we’re walking in the arena of our own thoughts and feelings. 

When this happens, we often feel overwhelmed by worry, and we think that it is something that we just can’t control or do anything about, but that’s not true. It is true that worry can feel overpowering at times, but don’t we have a God who is so much greater than that? So then why do we still worry?

A good way to understand this problem is to look at it from the other side, and the opposite of worry is peace, so let’s see what peace looks like according to Isaiah 41:10:

“Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.”

In this verse, the Bible says very clearly, “Fear not.” Friend, we’ve all known fear, and we know that it says, “I’m alone,” “I have to do this myself,” “Nobody cares,” “I can’t,” and “What if…?” Fear keeps pounding us with all of these words that destabilize us, but this verse says, “Fear not.” Very simple. Why should we not fear? The verse tells us that too: because God is with us. Then it says not to be dismayed, not to let anxiety or worry or pain settle in our hearts, because He is our God. He is on our side, within us, so there is no reason that we should have to let fear and worry be anywhere near our hearts. He promises that He will strengthen us and uphold us. 

Now this was written in the Old Testament, but we know that it works for us as believers, too, because Ephesians 6:10 tells us so:

Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might.

This verse isn’t telling us to be strong in a way where we grit our teeth and just bear this problem. No, it’s talking about being strong in the power of the Holy Spirit that’s on the inside of us. When you get born again, you get this magnificent power on the inside, not just a little power but the power of an army. You have an army on the inside of you standing against the enemy!

Why Do We Still Worry?

Now that we understand peace a little better, we still need to answer our original question, so I want to give you one more picture.

Just earlier this year, I had the privilege of going to see Noah’s Ark in Turkey. The ark was so magnificent and huge, but it was a bit rugged, so as we were climbing up it, I was leaning on my son Paul. I had a stick in my right hand and he was holding me by my left, and I leaned on him as we climbed that steep slope, and I’m sure that without being able to lean on him, I wouldn’t have made it to the top.

This is what happens when we realize that God is on our side. Proverbs 3:5 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding.” Right there, it says, “Lean on Him, not on yourself.” God is so powerful, and He promised that He would strengthen and uphold us, so why shouldn’t we lean on Him?

Well, friend, that’s where worry comes in. If I had chosen not to lean on the strength of my son as we climbed, I couldn’t have done it, so why would I have resisted his help? Because of pride. That’s the secret, friend. Worry is when we resign ourselves to being the ones who are going to settle the problem. We’re holding that problem so tightly in our hands and saying, “I can do this.” But when we act with humility, we can say, “Lord, I might be able to do this a little bit, but I need your help. I am going to quit trusting in myself, and I am going to lean on your right hand.”

Friend, we have incredible power, because faith will always overcome fear. The Bible says we could overcome the whole world with our faith, so we can absolutely overcome a few little worries. We have the power to say, “No, worry. No, thoughts. I’m not listening to you. I’m shutting you off and I’m planting my mind in the Word of God.

I’m telling you, friend, we’ve got to let go of what we’re worried about and put it in His hands. Let Him have it. Lean on Him. If we aren’t doing that, then we’re being prideful! We’re trying to control everything ourselves and not let Him take it, and that is pride, friend. You have to understand this, because this can really get us into trouble.

The Bible talks about pride at the end of 1 Peter 5:5:

“God resists the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”

He resists the proud. He stands against them. Friend, we do not want God to resist us, so we need to be humble. If we do, this verse says that He gives grace to us, so even better than Him not resisting us, He will be merciful when we confess our mistakes humbly.

The next verses say even more about this beautiful promise of God’s character:

“Therefore humble yourselves under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt you in due time, casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.”

There is so much in these verses for us, friend. First, we see that God resists pride. He doesn’t want it at all, and that makes us want to acknowledge it and say, “Lord, I’m sorry. I have been proud, and I worry about this and have not trusted you with it.” Then, it tells us that He loves it when we humble ourselves and say, “Lord, I give you this.” He draws close and gives us grace when we do that. And what is the next step? The next step is that He exalts us in due time. We humble ourselves so that we can receive His grace and power at just the right moment, the moment where it is going to be the most effective and powerful. That’s the power of humbling ourselves before Him!

This verse even tells us why we should do this. It’s not because we get a reward out of it. It’s not just because God is powerful, which He is. It’s not because it’s His job. It’s right there in verse 7: It’s because He cares about you. This God with all the power to take down every kind of worry cares for you, and He wants you to cast your cares on Him. He wants you to lean all your weight on Him, because He wants you to live in peace, not in worry and torment.

He wants peace for us, friend, but we have to make the choice to stop worrying, and it is a choice. Our flesh will want to worry, and it will want to be prideful and resist God’s help, but we have to see that worry for what it is. Even if we aren’t feeling it right now, we have to say, “God, I am making the choice to give this worry to you. I know you are powerful and in control even if I want to handle it by myself.” We have to be in God’s Word and talking to Him so that when the worry comes and we want to be prideful and handle it ourselves, we have the Holy Spirit to point it out to us and show us the right way to act.

That’s the wonderful thing about our God, friend — He doesn’t expect us to handle it on our own. It’s our choice, but we aren’t all alone trying to make that choice. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit. We can pray so simply, “Lord, I see that my worrying is not getting me anywhere. It’s like I’m on a treadmill, and all I do is go on and on without getting anywhere. I need your help to get off that treadmill.” You can just open your mouth right now and say, “Lord, I don’t know. Lord, I don’t understand. Lord, I can’t do this. ” That’s okay. He knows that you don’t, and He knows that you can’t. That’s why He wants to help you!

Friend, Matthew 11:28-30 tells us that God does not want us carrying a heavy burden. He doesn’t want us to be crushed under this worry, because He didn’t create us to carry that. If you’re struggling with worry today, if you can’t get rid of that pride that says, “I can handle this, God. I don’t need help,” then I hope you will just take a moment today to admit to yourself that that is a lie. Even if you don’t feel it yet, just let yourself say to God and yourself, “Actually, that’s not true. I can’t handle this.” You might not yet be ready to make the choice to just lean on Him, but when you admit that you need help, the Holy Spirit will come to you and start working in your heart, and in God’s perfect time, He will fulfil that work and set you free from your worry.

Faith for a Friend

By Denise Renner

I want to start by telling you a story that you’ve probably heard before, and that’s the story of a man I’m going to call Joe. Joe was a man living in Capernaum, and for a long time, he had been paralyzed so that he could not walk. He couldn’t get a job or go out with his friends, and you can imagine that after a while, he was just feeling so discouraged. 

Well, one day, Joe hears about this man named Jesus who’s staying in Capernaum. Joe has heard a little bit about this man and how He’s done miracles and healed people, but he thinks that it’s probably just rumors. Besides, even if it is true, how is Joe supposed to get to Jesus for healing? He can’t walk.

While Joe is thinking about this, four of his friends come in, and they’re so excited about a plan that they have, and Joe’s wondering what’s going on. Finally, one of them tells him, “Joe, we’re taking you to see Jesus.”

They take out a mat and place Joe onto it, and together, the four of them lift him up and start walking to the house where they have heard Jesus is staying and teaching, and Joe is starting to feel some hope that maybe he will get to see Jesus today and he will get healed.

You probably recognize this story by now, so you know that when they get to that house, things do not look good for Joe’s hope. Jesus is in this house, and all these people are crammed around Him, so many people that the crowd is spilling out of the door and into the street outside. So many people are here to listen to Jesus’s teaching that it is absolutely impossible to get one more person in there, especially a man lying down on a bed.

Now, we don’t know anything about Joe’s faith, because the Bible doesn’t really talk about it. When his friends carried him up to this house and saw that it was too crowded for them to get to Jesus, it’s very possible that Joe just gave up. He saw the crowd and realized that there was no way his friends could get him to Jesus, so he just sighed and said, “Let’s just go back home. There’s no point in staying here.”

We don’t know what his faith was like, but we do see his friends’ faith. When they walked up and saw the crowd, they could have said, “Now what are we going to do? We can’t even get in. Sorry, Joe, but we just can’t get to Jesus today. Maybe He will show up somewhere tomorrow and we can take you then.” But they didn’t say that. No, these men are so full of faith, and they are not going to bow to this obstacle of not getting in.

So there they are with Joe and they talk for a little bit, and they decide, “Well, we could go up the stairs, tear off the roof, and lower him down to Jesus.” Can you imagine? Who thinks like that? Only people with faith, friend.

They start up the stairs, carrying Joe, and I’m sure they’re saying, “Don’t drop him, guys! Don’t drop him,” and Joe’s saying, “Don’t drop me! Don’t drop me!” Finally, they’re on the roof, and they don’t even hesitate. They put Joe and his mat down and start tearing a hole in this roof.

Inside of the house, Jesus is preaching to the crowd, and everyone’s just so delighted to hear every word that comes out of His mouth, but then something starts dropping on their heads. People start muttering and looking around, and they see it’s these little bits of the roof that are falling on them. This dust and straw is even dropping down on Jesus, and He looks up and to see what’s happening too.

The next thing everyone sees is four men looking down from above. Everyone is talking and wondering what is going on, and then they watch as these four men begin to lower a bed with a rope, and on this bed is Joe. The whole crowd can see Joe now, and they start shifting around, trying to make room so that these four friends can finally lay him down on the floor before Jesus.

Now, this is the part I want you to pay attention to, friend. Jesus looks at Joe, and then He looks up at those four friends. You can imagine they’re probably all gathered around the hole they had made trying to see if Joe’s going to get healed, and Jesus sees them, and the Bible says that He saw their faith. That’s what I want you to think about today. We don’t know what Joe’s faith was like, but we know that there was faith in his four friends, because Jesus saw it, and He did some amazing things for Joe because of it.

The first thing Jesus says to Joe after seeing the friends’ faith is “Son, your sins are forgiven you” (See Mark 2:5).

The crowd is probably thinking, “Jesus, his sins are not the problem here. It’s that he’s crippled. He’s very crippled.” But Jesus sees past the surface. He sees into Joe’s heart. Like I’ve said, we don’t know much about Joe’s heart, but Jesus did. He knew everything, and maybe He knew about the guilt in this man that prevented him from receiving healing. Maybe Joe had hurt someone before he got paralyzed. Maybe he was ashamed of his paralysis or of how it happened. Maybe he was just bitter from all the years of paralysis, and he’d snapped at his friends and family who were trying to take care of him. We don’t know, but Jesus saw Joe’s heart and saw that he needed to be forgiven, so that was the first thing He said.

Well, some of the scribes were in the crowd, watching and listening, and they started thinking to themselves, “How dare Jesus forgive sins? Only God can do that.” But the Bible says that Jesus perceived in His spirit that they were thinking this, and He starts answering them. He asks them this amazing question:

 “Which is easier, to say to the paralytic, ‘Your sins are forgiven you,’ or to say, ‘Arise, take up your bed and walk’?”

—Mark 2:9

This is such an incredible thing that Jesus is talking about. He’s asking, “Which is easier?” but He already knows the answer. He knows what He was sent to do, and He’s telling them that forgiveness and healing are a package deal. He’s saying to those scribes, “It’s the same. I am the Messiah, and I was sent to do both, and I’m going to show you right now.”

And then, friend, I’m sure you remember what He said to that crippled man:

“I say to you, arise, take up your bed, and go to your house.” 

—Mark 2:11

And the Bible says that immediately, Joe got up and picked up his bed, walking, just like Jesus said, his sins totally forgiven and his body totally healed, and it all started with those four friends.

Who is Your Joe?

This is an amazing display of Jesus’ knowledge, power, and love, friend, and it started with four friends and their great faith. When they met the obstacle of Joe not being able to walk, they carried him. When they couldn’t get in the room, they took the stairs. When the roof was in their way, they opened up a hole in it, and they got Joe in through that hole. Their faith was speaking so loud to Jesus that it opened a way for God to do an amazing miracle for their friend.

I want you to understand that this is what your faith can do. Sometimes, we have friends or family who are struggling, and they might not be able to ask Jesus for help. Maybe they just don’t know Him yet, or maybe they feel like they need to hide something from Him. Maybe they just don’t know how to ask or don’t think they’re very good at it. Well, friend, the good news is that you can help them. Joe wasn’t able to get to that house by himself, and maybe he didn’t think he could get a miracle; maybe he didn’t even want his friends to bother with taking him to Jesus. But they weren’t giving up. They decided to go up and make a hole in the roof!

When I read this story, I think, What am I willing to do for my friends who are in trouble? What kind of faith am I willing to exert so that they can receive from Jesus? Let me ask you that question: What kind of faith would you exert for someone else? Can you pray for them? Can you just keep on meeting and talking with them, even though they refuse to come to Jesus? These men had so much faith, and they exerted it to carry their friend across town and lower him through the roof. Can you do that? Can you just walk or drive your friend to where they need to go?

When you exert your faith through words or actions or prayers, you are doing the same thing as these friends, putting someone in a place that they couldn’t get to on their own, a place where the Holy Spirit can come and work in their hearts. Thanks to your faith, they can be put right in front of Jesus, right in the place they need to be to receive the healing and forgiveness of God.

Maybe you don’t think you can. You might be thinking, ”How can my faith affect someone else’s life? If they don’t have faith, how am I supposed to help?” Well, if you ever doubt that God can use your faith to put someone in the just right place, I want you to remember this story, and I want you to remember that it started with four friends who got together and said, “Let’s take Joe to Jesus.”

Taking Down Fear

By Denise Renner

I recently heard a statistic that more cases of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, heart problems, and anxiety exist today than ever before. Even though some of the most sophisticated medical solutions now exist for people to access, these physical infirmities persist because of fear. Fear has a voice in this world, and it is a formidable voice that screams, “You’re not going to make it.” A woman I was once very close to confessed to me that the reason she had suffered a heart attack was because of the fear she carried. She admitted, “I know that this came because I was worrying and worrying and worrying and worrying.”

That fear opened the door for sickness to come into her body, but I want to tell you that torment is not what God intended for her or for anyone else. Second Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. That is what I want to share with you today.

Exceedingly Great Power

According to this verse in Second Timothy, the first thing God has given us is a spirit of power, not fear. What does that word “power” mean? Ephesians 1 tells us that God’s power is “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,” and it is the same power that worked in Christ when God raised Him from the dead (Ephesians 1:20-21).

What is amazing news for us is that this power that I’m talking to you about is not out there in the atmosphere somewhere. In Ephesians 1:19, Paul says, “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us.” In other words, that power is coming toward you right this minute, right this second! Friend, this is something to think about! God’s power — miracle-working, healing, raising-from-the-dead power over all principalities, powers, dominions, and every name that’s named — is the power that’s coming toward you right now.

I know from listening to my husband teach that the Greek word for “exceeding” means that this is a power beyond what you need, a power that completely encompasses your problem, and the word for “power” tells us that it is effective for the mission for which it is sent. The power coming to you has the ability to take dominion over anything that stands in its way.

To give you a picture of how powerful He is, I want you to look at Hebrews 1:3, which says that God, through His Word, is holding all things together. Every atom that exists in this world is held together by the Word of His power. The reason the atomic bomb works is because it causes the atoms inside to split, and that creates the explosion. Well who’s holding all the atoms in all the world together so they don’t do that? God is! By the Word of His power, He’s holding your body together, and He’s holding your clothes and your house together. He is holding together every atom in our bodies so that we don’t just explode into the atmosphere!

Friend, that very same power was given to you to overcome fear. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, the same power that said, “Let there be light,” and there was the sun, 1,000,000.3 times bigger than the earth (Genesis 1:3)!

Jesus’ life gives us even more examples of His power. In Matthew 10:8, He says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

I’m talking to you about the power that is coming towards you right now! This is power that He has given you to pray for the sick, to pray for yourself. This is resurrection power! That’s the power I’m talking to you about, and that power absolutely overcomes fear. The best part is that God gave us this salvation and power for us to experience it here and now on the earth, not just in Heaven somewhere when we die.

You may ask, “Well where do I start?” God said to start right where you are. God didn’t just give you your hands to work or clean your house or hug people or work on a computer. In fact, the Bible says that your hands are holy, and if you lay them on the sick, the sick will recover. So start with yourself. Lay hands on your body and say to yourself, “I release the power of God to this part of my body.”

Jesus went through the suffering, ridicule, shame, and torment of the cross to get that power on the inside of you. He suffered it all for you and me to receive the power of God on the inside of us, so He wants us to activate it, use it, and lay our hands on the sick to see them recover by the power of God.

Perfect Love

The next thing we have been given according to Second Timothy 1 is love. John 17:26 tells us that the very love that God loved Jesus with is in us. The very love — not fifty percent, not ninety percent, but the very same love shared between the Father and the Son! When you were born, you didn’t have that love. You might have had a great personality or been a really kind person, but you didn’t have the love of God. But thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). When you are born again, it comes by the power of the Holy Spirit and is poured all over your heart.

It is important to recognize this, because the next thing we will realize is that God’s perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). I studied the phrase “cast out,” and I found that it means to kick out. To give you a picture, imagine that your dog or cat did something really bad. Maybe they hurt you, so you yelled at them, “Get away from me! Get out!” That is the same word used to describe the way God’s love casts out fear. You are the one with the power, not your fear. You can say, “You get out, fear!” You have been given that authority from God.

You have casting-out-fear love of God in you, but you’ve got to recognize it. You may say, “But you don’t know what’s going on in my life.” That’s true. I really don’t, but I know that God has given you something that’s more powerful. When fear comes, you can’t just keep listening to it. You have to say, “Fear, you get out of here. You go. You are not from God.”

The best thing we can do to cast out fear is meditate on what God has given us. I just want to speak to you very practically: You can’t watch the news for eight hours a day and expect to have great love and peace bubbling up in your heart, because there’s enough to see in the news that will bring fear. Instead you have to do what Joshua 1:8 says and meditate day and night on the Word of God. If you do that, it says you will have good success.

Once you discover this love on the inside, you need to do something with it because, while love is a noun, it is also action. Jesus’ love was not passive at all. His love was so active that He came and He gave up everything for you and me without us even asking for it. His love was an action. I know I’ve seen this truth in my life: when you recognize the love of God on the inside of you and then give it away to others, you will start to be healed as well.

A Sound Mind

The last thing Second Timothy 1:7 mentions that God has given us in place of fear is a sound mind. This one is really practical because it means you have saved brains! Ephesians 6 tells us about the armor of God, and it says that the helmet of salvation goes on our heads, because when you are born again, you receive power for your brain to work for you. God’s power is here for us to think right, and when we think right, we overcome fear.

I don’t know about you, but there have been times when thoughts have come against my mind that I didn’t want to stay there, and they had to come down. You need to ask yourself — who has the authority and power to bring those thoughts down? Not your husband or wife, not your child, not your preacher or pastor, not your best friend. No, you are the one who needs to bring them down.

Remember that you have a weapon. The enemy is trying to tell you what you will think, what you will believe, what you will be or not be, but you have a spear by the power of the Holy Spirit, and you’re poking that spear right in the back of that enemy and saying to him, “Nope, you’re not telling me what to do. You’re not keeping me from my dream. I’m not bowing to you.” When the enemy comes in with some foreign agent like fear, anxiety, or confusion, we must bring it down!

You might be in a place where you’ve listened to those thoughts so much that it’s almost habitual. You’ve developed a habit so that your mind just thinks about all the bad that is happening in the world or about all your problems at home or at work. If you’re stuck in that place, then you really need to start pulling those thoughts down one by one and replacing them with something else. You have authority over your thoughts.

You might be saying, “Oh, I just can’t control my thoughts,” but that is a lie. You can overcome your thoughts one by one, you can pull them down, and you can choose another thought. You can replace your fearful thoughts the way the apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8, by thinking on whatever is true, like the story of Jesus’ birth and death for us; whatever is noble, like the sacrifices of others that have put you where you are today; whatever is just, like God putting all the sin and sickness on Jesus, and Him bearing the cost of it; whatever is pure, like a little baby, or lovely, like a sunset or a flower. When we do that, we’re casting our thoughts upward. By our own choice, we are casting down thoughts that are trying to attack us and choosing to fix our eyes on God instead.

The Bible goes on to say that if there’s any praise about it, think on these things (See Philippians 4:8). This habit is going to bring down those other thoughts that are causing you fear. If you say you can’t do it, then you will allow yourself to stay in that place. But if you say, “No, I can,” then you will become responsible for your thoughts, and you will be able to do something about them. That’s when you will become free. That’s the power that you have — to use your saved brain.

We are living in a day and time where there are so many things going on. There is so much confusion, so much fear, and we don’t always have the sermons and verses memorized that we need for every single situation, but we do have the power of God inside of us, and we’ve got to use it. God has given us so much equipment so that we don’t have to be overcome by fear, but we can overcome it and be victorious with a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.

The Cell of Unforgiveness

By Denise Renner

If you’re having trouble understanding the importance of your forgiveness today, I want you to picture a wife who is married to a horrible, ungodly husband. This husband has wounded her physically and emotionally, he’s been unfaithful to her, and after all these years of his bad behavior, she wants nothing to do with him. Many of us might think that she is perfectly right to be angry and to hold those wounds against her husband; after all, all of us have had someone we couldn’t forgive, someone who hurt us so bad that we wanted nothing to do with them, and that’s why I want to make sure you understand the power that your forgiveness — and your unforgiveness — holds. 

In John 20:23, Jesus tells us very clearly what happens when we have an unforgiving attitude:

“If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”

This verse tells us that if that wife refuses to forgive her husband, carrying those wounds into her prayers, the husband’s sins against her will be retained, meaning they’ll stay stuck instead of being cast far away from him. Think of it like a prison cell where the husband sits with all of his horrible, poisonous behaviors. When the wife refuses to forgive, she is slamming the door to that cell and locking it up tight, so the husband and all his nasty behaviors and words are just sitting in there and getting worse and worse. 

Do you see how important your forgiveness is? We may want to keep that other person in that spiritual prison, but Jesus says that we have the power to release them, to open up that cell so that they can come out and all the nasty stuff can be cleaned away. That is the power of our forgiveness, friends, and it is a huge responsibility!

Now, this does not mean that we are in any way someone else’s savior. The husband in our example could escape the prison himself if he made the decision to repent before God and his wife. However, the wife’s unforgiveness could be the very thing that hinders the Holy Spirit from working in his heart to bring him to that repentance! The wife might pray every day for her husband to be changed and to come to God, not realizing that she is hindering that process herself by holding onto the sins that he has committed against her.

If that wife doesn’t send away her husband’s sins, she retains them, and as long as she retains them, those sins remain on the husband, and he is held to his old pattern of behavior. She can pray for 14 more years, but until she releases him, she locks him in that prison and holds him captive to his sin. On the other hand, the moment she chooses to forgive, she opens the door for the Holy Ghost to clean out that cell and work out God’s will in her husband’s life.

Something that we don’t always realise is that our unforgiveness doesn’t just keep our offenders captive to their sins. When we refuse to forgive, we bind ourselves as well. You might say, “But they’re the ones who hurt me or insulted me. Why should I be punished?” Well, friend, that’s what unforgiveness does. It’s not that we’re being punished, but that unforgiveness is not from God, so it will hurt us if we try to keep it around.

Think of it like a string connected to the spiritual prison we’ve locked that other person in. When we hold unforgiveness, we hold on to that string, and if you’ve ever tried to move around with a string attached to you, you know that it gets very tricky. When you try to move this way or that, you just trip and get tangled up, and when you try to walk away, you find that that string just pulls you back to that person and that pain and all the poisonous stuff you tried to lock in that spiritual prison.

I know that in my life, any time I didn’t forgive someone, it has opened the door to sickness in my body, anxiety in my mind, and all these horrible attacks of the devil. Unforgiveness is so awful, friend, because the only person who wins with unforgiveness is the devil.

Thank God that isn’t the only possible ending to the story! You see, just like your decision not to forgive can lock that other person in a cell and bind you to the pain they caused you, your forgiveness can do the opposite. Jesus said that it works both ways, so if you forgive that person, if you release them and throw those sins far away from them, you will open up the opportunity for the Holy Spirit to enter into their hearts and change them eternally. That’s why forgiveness is one of the most important spiritual gifts we can give people.

Stephen’s Quick Forgiveness

We find a great example of this principle in Acts 7:54-60.

In this account, we see that Stephen, a leader in the early church, was very close to death. He had been a bold witness for Jesus, and the Jewish leaders were furious about that, so now they were all gathered around him, ready to stone him to death. According to what we know about stonings, the leaders would have been pelting him with large rocks — not just little pebbles but rocks that would crush his skull and kill him. It was horrible, and Stephen was just seconds away from seeing Jesus face to face, and that’s when he did something incredible:

And they stoned Stephen as he was calling on God and saying, “Lord Jesus, receive my spirit.” Then he knelt down and cried out with a loud voice, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” And when he had said this, he fell asleep.

—Acts 7:59-60

Stephen was just seconds from eternity, and the last thing he did with those few precious, painful seconds was ask, “Lord, do not charge them with this sin.” That is powerful.

Now, I want you to notice who it was that Stephen forgave. Who was in that audience? Acts 8:1 tells us:

“Now Saul was consenting to his death.”

There stood the future apostle Paul, just a young man at the time, fully approving of and even enjoying the spectacle of Stephen’s death, and in those last few seconds of his life, Stephen forgave him!

Now, Stephen didn’t know the future apostle Paul was standing in the crowd. He didn’t know the plans God had for him or how far his ministry would reach, but Stephen didn’t want to die with unforgiveness in his heart. Huge stones were being hurled at him. He was bleeding, experiencing great pain, and sensing that his life would slip from him in mere moments. Yet, in the midst of all this, he found the strength to say, “God, forgive them.” Because Stephen was willing to forgive, the man who would become the apostle Paul was released from his sin, and God was able to work in that young man’s life to do amazing things.

I believe that this moment has so much eternal significance, friend. Of course, God could have used anyone. He could have found someone else to spread the gospel and inspire and guide the Early Church. He could have found other ways to touch Saul’s heart, but because Stephen used his final moments to forgive, God didn’t have to do all that. In that one act, Stephen released the future apostle Paul to fulfill his own destiny in God!

A Heavy Responsibility

Most Christians don’t realize the kind of power they have in the spiritual realm — power that can operate both positively and negatively. Our attitudes affect people, and an attitude of unforgiveness is especially powerful. When we don’t forgive, we hold people in the place where they are. They are hindered from changing and going further in God because we are keeping them tied to their sin, and we can’t grow and heal either because we are keeping ourselves tied to that person and the pain they caused us.

We need to forgive as quickly as Stephen did. When our offenders are throwing stones at us, we must immediately free them and not hold it to their charge. Let’s cry out to God to make us more like Stephen. Let’s develop an urgency in our spirits to release people at the precise moment of offense. Let it never be said that we are responsible for holding a single person captive in the prison of past offenses!

If God is calling you to release someone in your life today, don’t try to change that person, but choose to forgive them so that you can see them walk in freedom one day.

It is so vitally important that you forgive quickly and refuse to hold offense. Just think — What if Stephen had held on to the sin of his offenders? In a few seconds, it would have been too late. 

God has given you a tremendous responsibility with this power to remit or retain sin. If you are struggling with unforgiveness, consider this: What call is on the person’s life whom you are refusing to forgive? How many lives will they touch for God’s kingdom if you release them?

You may not know the answer, but neither did Stephen know about Saul’s calling; he just forgave.

When it comes to our testimonies, we tend to talk ourselves right out of sharing. We tell ourselves, “Well, I don’t like talking to people,” “I’m not very good at telling it,” or “I just don’t know how to explain it.” We take the simplest and most powerful tool we have and overcomplicate it until we are too afraid to use it. That’s why I want to tell you the story of someone in the Bible who knew how to testify. He didn’t have support or education or even understanding, but that didn’t stop him from sharing his story with anyone who asked.

In John 9, we learn the story of a man who was blind from birth. One day, Jesus and His disciples happen to pass by, and it’s so interesting, because the first thing the disciples ask when they see this man is, “Whose sin made him blind, his own or his parents?” They want to know what the blindness is a punishment for, but Jesus tells them, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned, but that the works of God should be revealed in him” (John 9:3).

Now, I want you to think about that for a moment. This man has been blind his whole life, and he has probably heard hundreds of times that his blindness was some kind of punishment, but then here comes Jesus, and He says, “No. You’re not made to bear a punishment; You’re made to bear a testimony.” That’s powerful.

So Jesus calls this man to Him, spits in the dirt to make clay, and then wipes that clay on the man’s face. This man probably has no idea what’s happening or what’s coming. He can’t even see Jesus, but he is fully listening, and after having this clay wiped on his face, he hears Jesus tell him to go wash in this pool nearby, so he obeys, and when he comes up, he can suddenly see!

What a miracle! This man has never seen one thing in his life: not the face of his mother or father, not the sky, not a tree, not even his own hand. He’s never seen anything, but now here he is with his sight and this incredible story to tell.

Now, when this man starts telling everyone about this miraculous thing that has happened, what do they all do? Do they celebrate with him and praise God? No! In fact, they doubt that it’s even him. You can read in verse 9 that some people recognized him, but others said it was just someone who looked like him. They said, “Well, he looks similar, but it can’t be the same blind beggar. That would be impossible.”

Can you imagine? He’s seeing for the first time in his life, and they’re trying to claim that he’s someone else! But he has a testimony inside of him, and it’s not brought down by their doubt. They’re all doubting, but he keeps saying, “No, no, no. It is me! It’s not somebody else; I’m the man that was born blind, and now I’m seeing.”

Of course, now everyone wants to know how such a thing could have happened, and when they ask, he says, very simply, “A Man called Jesus made clay and anointed my eyes and said to me, ‘Go to the pool of Siloam and wash.’ So I went and washed, and I received sight” (John 9:11).

Well, all the neighbors are baffled, so they escort this man to the Pharisees to get some answers. Can you imagine having such an amazing miracle and nobody believes you? People are saying, “Oh, it’s not really you. Let’s ask the Pharisees. They’ll know the truth.” I cannot even imagine experiencing healing and nobody’s happy for you; they’re just questioning you.

They get to the synagogue, and the Pharisees ask him how he received his sight. Well, his audience has changed, but his answer sure doesn’t. He says, just like before, “This man put clay on my eyes, told me to wash, and now I can see.”

Now the Pharisees start debating about this miracle. Some of them are saying, “Oh, this Jesus must be a sinner because He healed on the Sabbath.” Others are saying, “No sinful man could do these kinds of miracles.” They just can’t agree, so they ask the man who was healed. Now, he isn’t as educated as these important religious leaders, so maybe he’s intimidated by having to give an answer that even they can’t come up with, but does that keep him silent? Does he try to act all humble and unsure? No! The Bible tells us that he simply said that he thought Jesus was a prophet.

Well, once again, no one wants to believe this man. They need confirmation that he’s really the man who was blind since birth and is now healed, so they call his parents and ask them to identify him, and what do you think his parents do? They say, “Well, yes, that’s our son, and yes, he’s been blind since birth, but we don’t know about this healing thing. He’s a grown man. Just ask him.”

The Bible tells us that they were afraid of the religious leaders and of being thrown out of the synagogue, so they wouldn’t say anything about his healing. Can you imagine if your son was born blind got healed and you really didn’t give his testimony? That’s exactly what these parents did. Because of the fear of man, they didn’t admit this amazing miracle! Friend, do not let that be you. You say straight away what God is doing in your life — say how He delivered you. Speak up when people around you are talking about their problems, because that could help them, and if they don’t believe you, well, it’s your story — they can’t argue with that!

Even though this man is doubted by his neighbors, even though he’s being questioned by these educated and important Pharisees, even though his own parents are scared to tell this testimony, he sticks with his story. The Pharisees call him in once again, and they say, “Jesus must be a sinner, so how could He have healed you?” Once again, the man tells them the same thing he’s been saying: 

He answered and said, “Whether He is a sinner or not I do not know. One thing I know: that though I was blind, now I see.”

—John 9:25

You know, somebody might challenge your testimony and say to you, “Can you say how this happened? Can you explain it?”  Well, friend, your flesh might tell you that you have to answer that, and if you don’t, then you’re not presenting your testimony well, but that’s not true. How did it happen? It happened with the supernatural power of God; it doesn’t matter if they don’t understand. You can say, just like this blind man said, “I can’t explain it. I don’t know how it happened, but I know that I was one way and now I’m another way.” You don’t have to explain yourself; you just give your testimony and give God glory!

Even after this statement, even after he has answered them so humbly so many times telling them, “I don’t understand this. I’m not powerful or educated or anything, but this is what happened to me, and I’m not changing my story,” they ask him again, “How did this man open your eyes?”

Well, now the man gets a little frustrated:

He answered them, “I told you already, and you did not listen. Why do you want to hear it again? Do you also want to become His disciples?”

—John 9:27

This man is just so innocent. He doesn’t understand this whole religious debate or all the politics behind it. He is just so innocent that he thinks the Pharisees want to be Jesus’ disciples, just like he does, and when the Pharisees try to tell him that he’s being a bad Jew, that he’s not following Moses’ teachings, this poor man, this man who was a blind beggar just a few hours ago, starts preaching to these Pharisees:

The man answered and said to them, “Why, this is a marvelous thing, that you do not know where He is from; yet He has opened my eyes! Now we know that God does not hear sinners; but if anyone is a worshiper of God and does His will, He hears him. Since the world began it has been unheard of that anyone opened the eyes of one who was born blind. If this Man were not from God, He could do nothing.”

—John 9:30-33

That blind man was saying to those religious Pharisees, “I may not know as much as you, but I know that only God’s power can heal people, and since I’m healed, that Jesus must have had God’s power.” He may not understand all those politics and all those religious issues, but he understands his own story, and that’s more than enough. This man is not trying to offend anyone. He’s not trying to be better or smarter than anyone. He’s not trying to change or explain his story to satisfy all their questions. He just has one very simple story to tell again and again, no matter how much they doubt and interrogate and ask him to repeat. He just has a story to tell, and it doesn’t matter if he can’t explain it, because it’s the truth. And friend, that’s what you need to realize today: your testimony, your story of an encounter with Jesus, that experience that you can’t quite explain, that’s the truth.

I want to tell you a story. Many years ago, I was part of a women’s ministry, and I was meeting regularly with these women, and one of the leaders just caught my attention. She walked into every meeting that we had like she was a princess. She had her shoulders back, she had her head up, and she always looked beautiful.

It was just so obvious, so one day I asked her, “Every time you come to these meetings and every time I see you, you always carry yourself like a princess. Why is that?”

We were all very interested to know, so she told us. Her story began with a mother who was so abusive and beat her so much that she would bleed and have cuts on her body. It was horrible, and it caused so many psychological problems in her that she lost the ability to walk. When that happened, many people told her to give up because life in a wheelchair was just so difficult at that time. She didn’t, and by the grace of God, He sent a Christian woman to pray for her and heal her so that she could walk again.

At the time, she was 21 years old, and God had given her back her ability to walk and her hope to live out the rest of her life, but she didn’t give her life to Him just yet. Sometime after her healing, she fell in love with a man. She didn’t marry him, but they lived together, and they had a daughter. In the beginning, things were pretty good, but then this man started to drink. He stopped going to work, he started cussing her out every day, and she started to feel so broken-hearted. She even had a calendar that she would use to check each day when he came home drunk. This day — came home drunk. Check! This day. Check! This day, this day. Soon, she was checking all the days on her calendar.

Finally, she was so hurt that she just said, “I don’t know what to do with this man.” Around this time, somebody invited her to church, and she accepted the invitation, and she soon gave her life to Jesus. She went right back home and told this man she was living with, “I am not married to you, so I cannot sleep with you anymore,” and she moved to another room of the house. Jesus was already changing her, but she still didn’t know what she was going to do with this horrible man. How was that situation going to change?

As she kept praying, the Holy Spirit gave her a strategy. The Holy Spirit said, “Tonight, when he comes home, your weapon is love. I want you to dress in your best dress. I want you to make his favorite food. When he comes to that door, I want you to open the door and say, ‘Oh, my love, you’ve come home.’”

She did exactly what the Holy Spirit told her to do. This man came in late, as usual. He was drunk, he was ugly, and he smelled, but she presented herself like a princess, lovely and gracious and with all this delicious food ready, and that night, there was no change. He just came back drunk again the next day.

She carried out this strategy for two years, always presenting herself to him like a princess, always welcoming him with love, and after two years, he finally got saved. He married her, he adopted their daughter, he got a job, and he quit drinking.

Now, I have a question for you. Do you think any criticism, anger, or attitude of “I hate you! I’m leaving you!” would have ever changed that man? No. No, it wouldn’t have changed anything. Do you see what changed him? It was the weapon of unconditional love that had been shed abroad in her heart by the Holy Ghost.

I want to tell you today that this love is a weapon that no enemy can resist. The Bible says that love never fails. Never fails. I’m talking to you about the most powerful weapon that you and I have against the enemy and any of his assaults.

Proverbs 25:15 tells us how powerful love is. It says:

“By long forbearance a ruler is persuaded, and a gentle tongue breaks a bone.”

A gentle tongue, the Bible says, a tongue that is quiet, patient, and filled with love, not criticism. Proverbs 15:1 says that a soft answer turns away wrath. When a person comes at you with angry words and you don’t give back that same anger, criticism, and hate — that same attitude that says “I’m going to get even with you,” or “I’m going to guard my heart from you,” — then wrath will have to bow. Wrath will have to take second place to a soft answer, and where does that soft answer come from? It comes from a strong position of love.

God’s gifts just get better the more we learn about them, because this love is not just for other people to change. When we have it on the inside of us, we can’t help but change! 1 John 4:18 says:

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

It says that love is so powerful that it will cast out fear, rebuke fear, and cause fear to run from us. I have studied this idea of casting out before, and when it says love “casts out” fear, it’s referencing a disciplinary action. It’s like a bad dog is trying to bite you, but you say, “No! You don’t!” You start coming against that dog, and that dog goes off in fear because it’s been disciplined. Well, perfect love disciplines and stands in complete authority over fear.

You might be looking at all these incredible things that love can do and reading my friend’s story and thinking, “I don’t know that I have that kind of love. I don’t know that I could love someone like that for two years.” If you’re thinking that, then you need to understand that it’s not true. God has given us the very love that He loved Jesus with. John 3:16 says:

“For God so loved the world, this love that He gave His only begotten Son”

That is love, this unstoppable, undefeatable love that came out of God so that He had to send Jesus to save, heal, and deliver us. That love is in each and every one of us, not as a junior-size love but in the exact same measure!

This love is more than just a weapon, though. Ephesians 3:17 says that we are rooted and grounded in love. Think about the root system of trees for a moment. Do you know that there are 10 trees in the world that have the deepest root system, and these trees are very difficult for even cyclones and storms to blow over. Why? Because they’re rooted. They’re grounded. That’s what I’m talking to you about.

When we are like those trees, rooted in love, it doesn’t matter what storms the enemy may throw at us. It doesn’t matter what difficult people might try to push us over. By God’s power and by the Holy Ghost, we can give mercy. We can give them what they don’t deserve. Does God give us what we deserve? No, He doesn’t. He gives us mercy. In fact, the Bible says His mercies are new every morning. I’m telling you, friend, it’s time for us to use this love of God that’s in us and meditate on it, to think about it, read about it, and study it. Let’s get rooted and grounded in this love!

What a powerful weapon this is that can defeat every enemy and never break or waver, that can keep us steady even in the storm! We can win the battle, not by getting angry and bitter at other people but by loving them unconditionally. That’s so opposite from the world, but remember that love never fails. Friend, no foe can stand up against the power of love. You have a weapon that will defeat the enemy. It will defeat fear. It will defeat hate. It will defeat betrayal. It will defeat denial. It will defeat someone falsely accusing you. Do you know why this love is so powerful? How can any weapon be so powerful and perfect? Well, I’m going to tell you because it’s really simple.

God is love.

Bible Reading: 2 Timothy 1:7, Numbers 13, Numbers 14: 1-24, Numbers 14:30, Philippians 3:13-14

In this world that we’re living in today, we can easily be afraid of every little thing. Fear is just mounting up like a river that’s about to swell over its banks, but the Bible tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear. That fear that tries to come on you, God didn’t give you that.

Even so, fear comes to all of us, so we need to have some knowledge and tools to fight back. We can’t just let fear have its way and push us backward; we have to recognize the faith that God puts in us when we get born again and use that faith against fear.

The Assignment

In Numbers 13 and 14, we see a showdown between fear and faith when the Israelites start preparing to enter the promised land. First, Moses sends out spies, and he gives them instructions of what they’re supposed to bring back. He tells them eight things they are supposed to do:

1. See what the land is like.
2. See if the people are strong or weak.
3. See if they are few or many.
4. See if the land is good or bad.
5. See if the cities are like camps or strongholds.
6. See if the land is rich or poor.
7. See if there are forests there.
8. Bring back fruit.

They have their instructions, so they go out into the land.

Well, those spies get back, and they give their report, and they start saying some of the things that they were told to do. They say:

1. It truly is a land that flows with milk and honey
2. The people who dwell there are strong
3. Their cities are fortified

But then they start talking about how they saw the descendants of Anak there and how small they felt compared to them. They were supposed to come back with eight things, eight answers. That was the assignment. But now fear is speaking and they only come back with four things. They did not fulfill the assignment. They were overtaken with fear and didn’t do half of what they were told to do.

Fear is an enemy. Fear will stop us in our assignment. Sometimes, God tells us to do something, and we are ready to do it, and we start moving forward, but then fear begins to speak, and we start to back up, and that’s what happens to the children of Israel.

With the spies’ report, the rest of the people are all upset, and they start backing up. “No, no, no. We should have died in the wilderness. No, we should have stayed back in Egypt. Oh, I know. Let’s choose a leader, and let’s go back to Egypt and back to slavery.”

Faith Fights Back

But then faith starts to speak. Caleb speaks up. He doesn’t just say, “We are able to do it.” He says, “Let us go up at once.” Faith does not hesitate.

This doesn’t mean that faith takes away all the struggles. Paul shows us in Philippians that it may be a struggle. You can hear the struggle in Paul’s voice while he is in prison, but he encourages us to put fear and suffering behind us. Faith says, “I am not stopping. I am not bowing to the voice of fear, and I am going to press forward to the things that God has for me.”

For Joshua and Caleb, they have the whole rest of the people fighting back against them. Fear is speaking so loudly that the only thing that stops it and stops the people from stoning Joshua, Caleb, Moses, and Aaron is the glory of the Lord. The glory of the Lord wants to empower us as we go forward with our faith, and if we are faithful, He will look after us when challenges come.

As we build up our faith—praying in the Holy Ghost, reading the Word of God, meditating in the Word of God, watching what we say—we will overcome.

Discussion Questions

1. Sometimes, God gives us an assignment, either for our whole life or just for the day in front of us. What is the assignment God’s given you recently? How did you respond?
2. Has there been a time in your life where you were ready to go, but then fear caused you to back up? How did that fear speak to you? Was there a voice of faith speaking in that moment as well?
3. Sometimes, the struggles in life can be overwhelming, but the best thing we can do is put our faith in God and put our struggles behind us. What’s a struggle you’re dealing with today? Pray over it and give it up to God.