The major enemies of our faith and how to overcome them – Part 1

You are listening to:The major enemies of our faith and how to overcome them – Part 1

  • Enemy #1: Fear
  • Enemy #2: Unforgiveness
  • Enemy #3: Doubt and unbelief

Hebrews 11:6

The Bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. So, we must live a life of faith and in order to do that, we must identify the enemies of faith and learn how to overcome them.

ENEMY #1: FEAR

The Greek word for fear means “to be intimidated by the enemy, to be in dread, terror, and flight. This is not God’s will for our lives that’s why God said so many times in His word: “Fear Not”.

Fear and Faith are contrary to each other. Fear keeps you from moving forward and from doing the will of God. Fear keeps your focus on something else and not on God’s truths.

Fear and faith are both built on information. Faith is built on the knowledge of God’s word while fear comes from information from our natural senses, bad reports, and intimidation from the enemy.

SOLUTION

Study the Word of God and meditate on it. Built your faith according to Romans 10:17

When the devil came to tempt Jesus, Jesus’s answer to all of the enemies’ suggestions was the same: “It is written”. This should be our answer too. But first, we need to find out what it’s written on the Word of God.

Find a Bible verse that applies to your situation, believe it in your heart and make bold declarations of faith.

Here are a few examples.

  • God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7).
  • The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. (Hebrews 13:6).

When fear tries to come into your life you need to resist it in the name of Jesus. Believe the Word of God because that is the truth.

The Bible says in John 8:32 (KJV) 32 And ye shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.

ENEMY #2: UNFORGIVENESS

Unforgiveness is a huge hindrance to your faith.

Mark 11:25 25 And when ye stand praying, forgive, if ye have ought against any: that your Father also which is in heaven may forgive you your trespasses.

When you choose not to forgive, you choose to keep yourself captive to the past. You choose to keep yourself from moving forward, and you choose to keep yourself from living the life of faith that pleases God.

SOLUTION

Choose to be obedient to the Word of God and forgive. Obedience will bring blessing into your life.

Stop dwelling in the past. Quit thinking about what happened and how much it hurt you. Give all your hurt to the Lord, ask Him to heal your wounds and choose to move on.

Lastly, pray for those who hurt you. Bless them and speak life over them and their families.

Luke 6:27-28 says,

“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: [h]Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, 28 bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

ENEMY #3: DOUBT AND UNBELIEF

Doubt and unbelief are huge enemies of faith. They are negative and are completely contrary to faith.

Doubt is defined as being undecided or skeptical about something, tending to disbelieve. Doubt means to be fearful, apprehensive, or suspicious.

Unbelief is failure to believe or having a lack of faith. As you can see, you can’t have unbelief and faith at the same time.

No one is immune to doubt, it happens to all of us. It even happened to the great men of the Bible like Peter and John the Baptist. We just have to learn how to overcome it.

Matthew 13:58 And he did not do many mighty works there because of their unbelief”.

SOLUTION

When thoughts of doubt and unbelief pop in your mind you need to cast them down and choose to believe the Word of God instead.

The stronger our faith is, the less doubt and unbelief will show up in our lives. The key here is to feed your faith with the Word of God. (Romans 10:17)

Mark 9:17-25 (NKJV)

17 Then one of the crowd answered and said, “Teacher, I brought You my son, who has a mute spirit. 18 And wherever it seizes him, it throws him down; he foams at the mouth, gnashes his teeth, and becomes rigid. So I spoke to Your disciples, that they should cast it out, but they could not.”

19 He answered him and said, “O faithless generation, how long shall I be with you? How long shall I bear with you? Bring him to Me.” 20 Then they brought him to Him. And when he saw Him, immediately the spirit convulsed him, and he fell on the ground and wallowed, foaming at the mouth.

21 So He asked his father, “How long has this been happening to him?”

And he said, “From childhood. 22 And often he has thrown him both into the fire and into the water to destroy him. But if You can do anything, have compassion on us and help us.”

23 Jesus said to him, “If[c] you can believe, all things are possible to him who believes.”

24 Immediately the father of the child cried out and said with tears, “Lord, I believe; help my unbelief!”

25 When Jesus saw that the people came running together, He rebuked the unclean spirit, saying to it, “Deaf and dumb spirit, I command you, come out of him and enter him no more!”

From this passage, we see that believing will wrought mighty miracles

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