Don’t be intimidated in any way by your enemies. This will be a sign to them that they are going to be destroyed – Philippians 1:28 New Living Translation.
When we choose not to yield to fear then we’re sending a clear signal to our enemies – “victory is coming!”
We know that people are not our primary enemies. Rather it’s the demonic kingdom that is against us, described as rulers and authorities, world forces of darkness, spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places (Ephesians 6:12). Although our enemies are primarily from the demonic kingdom we are often uncomfortably reminded that this antagonism to us is manifested through people, whether they are earthly authorities, neighbours or family.
Fortunately God has provided spiritual weapons that destroy these strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:3,4).
Our key verse in Philippians shows us one of these spiritual weapons – bold faith (which is a lack of fear). Our bold faith and lack of fear is a signal to the demonic kingdom that they will be defeated in the current battle.
My paraphrase of Philippians 1:28 – If you’re not afraid of them, then they are afraid of you.
Conversely if you’re afraid, this gives the unseen realm power over you. Just as sharks can detect blood and movement in the ocean so the demonic realm can sense our fear and then gain a foothold in our lives.
If you start feeding stray cats then you’ll soon wonder why you get every cat in the neighbourhood coming to your door. In the same way if we “feed our demons” then they’ll stay and bring their friends. Fear is demon food. Instead, repent of your belief that bad things will happen, find some good scriptures to build your faith, meditate on and verbalise those scriptures.
As you replace your fear with faith you’ll be hanging up two signs in the invisible realm:
- Fear is no longer served in this kitchen
- Warning: electric fence – powered by Jesus – do not come near