I’ve been reading a book called Do the New You by Steven Furtick for my ladies’ Bible study and the section I read yesterday was about how we can start acting like the person we want to be one day.
This concept struck me as I read about it because so often we read or hear about setting goals and working toward them but not how to get there. We might hear “one step at a time” or “slow and steady wins the race” but the idea of acting now like you want the future you to act is compelling to me. It flipped my thoughts around.
In the book, Pastor Steven gives examples like if you want to be kinder then stop and think to yourself, “What would future me do in this situation?”
Pastor Steven also suggests not trying to do all you can do to be the future you because that can be overwhelming. Do the one thing in that moment that the future you that you want to be would do.
Whatever that one thing is for you is what the Holy Spirit will bring to your mind or point you toward.
The first thing that came to my mind as I filled out the study guide questions this morning was eating better and losing weight. The future me wants/needs to get the weight off. I do not eat horribly. I don’t eat a ton of sweets or fast food or sodas. I do eat a couple of things that are not good for me – wheat or gluten and dairy.
I seem to feel much better off both of them but both are a temptation to me.
There is so much I could do to lose weight but when I read about the idea of doing what the future you would do I thought, “the future me wouldn’t eat a sandwich or sneak something with gluten because it’s easier or tastes good. The future me would find an alternative that doesn’t include bread.”
So today when I reached for bread to make a sandwich, I found one of my rice cakes instead and put peanut butter on it.
When I thought about pouring a mug of milk to make some hot cocoa, I made tea instead.
This doesn’t mean I’ll never eat gluten or dairy again, but it means that the future me will do so sparingly until the future me finds substitutes that will fill me up and are quick to make.
I can’t do these things, one at a time, on my own. I need God to support me, to remind me I can do all things through his son Jesus.
I need him to help me do that one thing I need to do to become the person not only I want to become but he wants me to become.
I do want to clarify that I don’t mean that God wants us all to look a certain way or be skinny.
I do, however, believe he wants us to not give up on being a better version of ourselves inside.
I’ll leave with this quote from the book: “Do the thing you would do. Don’t wait. Do whatever you can, no matter how small, that moves you in the direction of the thing you would do if you could.”
Have you ever had someone suggest you can’t do something you want to do?
I don’t mean you are a 4-year-old child and you want to touch the light socket and you can’t.
I don’t mean you’re 21 and you want to drink until you can’t see anymore because you are upset about a breakup and someone rightly tells you that you can’t.
I mean you wanted to be an art teacher and someone told you that you weren’t good enough or smart enough.
Or maybe you wanted to be a writer or a pastor or a church leader and someone told you – “Sorry. Not possible. You’re a mom/too young/too old/not Christian enough/not smart enough/not experienced enough. You can’t do that.”
I’ve been there.
I was told once that I should be happy and content to be a mother and only a mother. That was all I was meant to be. The idea I could be a professional photographer and a mother was ridiculous to this person. It turned out to be ridiculous to me as well since I had (have) no business sense and the business failed. That’s another matter for another day, though.
During that same conversation, I was told another friend of ours should also be content to be a mother and stop trying to find other jobs to do. Her identity was a mother. Period. That’s where God wanted her and me to be, this person said.
Oddly, though, this person was a mother and teaching art at a private school. Somehow, she could be two things in life but we were only allowed to be one. Not sure how that worked in her brain but . . it did.
I was very confused by that conversation. It never made sense to me. Maybe she thought she was encouraging us and I misunderstood the conversation.
What I do know is that we should do what we feel God has spoken over us, not what someone else says God has spoken over us.
The other person may be well-intentioned. They may very well feel God has told them something about you and they think it is the right thing to tell you.
My advice is to always check their suggestion with what you feel God has spoken over you.
Another friend recently told me she heard the words “put it down” when she thought about me. We both knew she was talking about how hard I’d been striving to grow my social media to promote my books. I felt that advice truly was an encouragement from God and took it is such. I started picking up a book more than my phone and began to feel less stress.
In his sermon this past Sunday, Pastor Steven Furtick of Elevation Church said, “What people say about you only has the power over you that you give it. If your father spoke something over you, it doesn’t matter what they say.”
This doesn’t mean that fellow Christians won’t confirm something to you that you feel God has been telling you. It also doesn’t mean that someone really did feel like God told them something about you and your life they think you should know. They may very well be right about that specific thing.
Double check it, though. Don’t just go with it because they said God told them.
Pastor Steven urged those listening to him to remember that it doesn’t matter what someone told you that you couldn’t be. It matters what God has always known you to be.
Furtick says he has to say often to himself, “Christ is in me. I am enough.”
That’s a hard one for me to say, but I’m going to try.
I don’t ever feel enough.
Even writing this blog post I have these constant thoughts running through my head:
“This is stupid.”
“This is going to offend someone.”
“I probably shouldn’t have brought up that story about the former friend. It makes her sound worse than she probably meant it even though it is something that still puzzles me.”
“I’m not good enough to write stuff like this.”
“Someone will probably read Steven Furtick’s name and tune me right out.”
We are never going to be perfect.
We are never going to get it all right all the time.
We are never going to please every person all of the time or even some of the time.
What we can do despite all of that is step into who God says we are – not who we or others say we are.
If we are taking a step that is wrong, God will correct us and turn us on the right path again.
In Jeremiah 1:5, God spoke to Jeremiah: “Before I formed you in the womb I knew you, before you were born I set you apart; I appointed you as a prophet to the nations.”
This was a message for Jeremiah but it can also be a message for us. He knew before we were born what the purpose of our life was and what we are capable of.
Who are we to question what God has spoken over us?
A couple of years ago a large church near us sent out an invitation online for people to come be baptized at their church.
My husband decided he wanted to do it.
This church is like a mini-mega church in our area.
I didn’t feel totally comfortable with it because their service seemed more like a show to me than an actual church service. I feel bad saying that because quite a few people we know attend the church and they are very kind, lovely people. Still, it’s the feeling I get when I attend.
My husband wanted to do it, though, so he called the church. The secretary said she’d send him some info and told him to send it back and he’d be on the list.
He filled out some personal information and sent it in, but had to fax it because they’d literally given him one day to have it back by and the church is about an hour from us so we knew it wouldn’t get there in time with the mail.
I thought the pastor would call him ahead of time, chat with him a bit, ask him about his decision, etc.
That never happened. No one from the church called except the secretary to tell him what time to be there.
We all went, including my parents, and he was placed in a line of other people getting baptized.
Still no one from the church spoke to him to tell him they were proud or good luck or how great his decision was or anything else.
Surely the pastor would come to speak to him before he was led up to the baptismal they’d set up in front of the worship team, right?
I didn’t see that happen but I was sure it had before he’d walked up and been dunked while the worship team sang a song from Elevation Worship in the background and right after a man read a small testimonial from my husband.
From my point of view it was like a conveyor belt. People went down and came up and then they handed them a towel and moved them on. They were already in T-shirts with the church’s name emblazoned on it. It was a great marketing opportunity, of course.
There was even a professional photographer.
No one from the church spoke to our family afterward, other than my parents who some of the parishoners knew. The pastor didn’t shake our hands, no staff members thanked us for coming – we just left the church like we just went through the line at the drive in.
I asked my husband in the car if the pastor had spoken to him at any point.
He shrugged. “Nope.”
I was indignant. “Are you serious? So this was just a marketing opportunity for them? What, they needed some publicity shots or something?”
I was angry and disappointed in the people who called themselves Christians.
My husband had at least hoped for a certificate but he didn’t even get that in the mail later.
None of that really mattered to him, though, he told me.
To summarize what he said: It wasn’t about the show for him or a pat on the back from the pastor or anyone else from the church. He did it for himself. For his own soul and for his family
I was sitting there feeling bitterness toward the church while he felt joy at having made a decision for his own heart and his own salvation.
A little background might be needed here. I was brought up in the church. I’ve been a Christian since I was five years old. My husband has been a Christian for several years, but more committed the last four or five. Yet he was the one who had an attitude of what really mattered was why he did it and who saw it and acknowledged it.
His response was a wake up call to me — a reminder to stop focusing on what I see as the failings of the church or God’s people.
People will never be perfect. They will never live up to the expectations I have for them because only God can reach our highest expectations.
In the end it truly didn’t matter that the pastor didn’t talk to him or the secretary never sent the certificate. There may have been very good and plausible reasons for those things not happening but even if there weren’t, it doesn’t matter.
What matters is my husband’s heart and the choice he made that brought him closer to Christ in a way that felt tangible to him.
I didn’t feel like writing a post about trusting God this week but I did it anyway.
There are times it feels unnatural to let go of a situation and walking in the knowledge that you cannot fix that situation.
Sometimes it feels impossible to let God take care of something, even though we know he is the only one who can.
I’m going through that now.
I have gone through it before.
I will also go through it again.
I believe there are times we have to do what feels unnatural in our walk with Christ.
Natural for me is to lay awake and worry.
Natural for me is to try to fix it – whatever it is.
Natural for me is to manipulate a situation so I can fix it in my own power.
More times than not, trying to fix a situation on my own has resulted in disaster.
This week I am in a battle of the mind.
When I start to ruminate on an issue we are having as a family this week, I have been trying to tell myself to stop and that God will handle this situation. Sometimes it has worked and sometimes (like part of today) it has not.
Instead of lying awake in bed or walking around the house writing my hands, I have picked up a book, taught a kid a school lesson, watched a funny old show, cooked, or made myself a cup of tea and taken ten minutes to slowly sip it.
Am I succeeding in letting God take control of my situation this week?.
Sometimes I am. Sometimes I am not.
The last three days I have been anxious and paced, rolled over at night a few times, stared at the ceiling, and overthought a bunch – but I have done all of those things less than I usually have when life is stressful and I call that progress. Slow progress but still progress.
I’m not going to lie — It has felt like I’m doing something wrong by not worrying or ruminating or trying to figure it all out.
It has felt like I am not my normal self.
Sometimes, though, in certain situations, being our normal self is exactly what God doesn’t want us to do.
He doesn’t want us to be our normal anxiety-ridden self.
He doesn’t want us to have a God-complex and think that we can do what only he can do.
He wants us to know that he is in control, even when we don’t understand what he is doing.
All this could change tomorrow, but, hopefully, I will remember that even if it feels unnatural to trust and place my worries in his hands, I need to do that because God is God and I am not.
I read a quote recently about the real test of the Christian faith is not if we love Jesus but if we can love Judas.
Ouch.
That’s something I had never really thought about.
Loving Judas.
Have you ever thought about loving the man who betrayed Jesus to the Romans and whose actions led him to his death?
I mean, if he hadn’t done that then Jesus wouldn’t have been led to the cross and died there for our sins, right?
Or would God have found another way?
Sometimes I wonder why God couldn’t have found another way.
Was it God’s plan or Judas’s free will that led him to do what he did? God gave him free will but he also knows the future so he allowed Judas to condemn himself to hell – I have to be honest that this kept me awake last night because I didn’t like the idea that a man was allowed to go to hell to complete God’s plan.
This is how my brain worked as I thought about it all: Did he walk himself to his doom and direct path to hell or did God help him along?
It is a twisting and turning journey in my brain that I don’t want to take. I’ll never really know no matter how many times I think about it anyhow. Not until Jesus calls me home. Then it will be one of the first questions I ask him.
This past week I thought about who the Judas are in my life. Or who were.
The people who did things to me or those I loved that were so horrible I can’t imagine how to forgive them. I’ve actually come a long way in forgiving those who did things to me or maybe those who were rude and dismissive to family members of mine.
But those who sexually and mentally abused children I know?
To be honest and open — I can’t say that I’ve been able to forgive that person. Not even a little bit. And I don’t know how I ever will. In the Bible it says we must forgive those who sin against us, but how? How do you forgive the monsters in the world? That, to me, is only a forgiveness God can give because as humans it’s too big of a task.
As soon as I read that question a few months ago about loving Judas two people came into my mind. One I’ve slowly been able to forgive but might never fully trust again. The other? I see only red when I think of them.
I wish I could write here, right now, that I thought to myself about that one person when I read that quote, “Yes, I can love the Judas in my life because God has called me to,” but I didn’t think that. Not at all. I thought, “Oof..” like I’d been punched in the gut. I thought “Wow. What a question.”
But at no time did I think, “Yes, Lord, I can.”
Because I can’t.
Not now, and without Jesus supernaturally hallowing me out and replacing my humanness with his holiness, I don’t see how I ever can.
Jesus loved Judas therefore he can love even us when we are at our lowest and darkest.
This is something I’ve read and heard before and the next question is if he could love the real Judas, can I love the real Judas in my life?
For now, all I can say is, “I’ll keep praying about it.”
Because at this point, at least in one case, – even though the Bible says God can not forgive us if we do not forgive others – the answer is no.
As Thomas who asked to be helped with his unbelief, I am asking God to help me with seeing others as he sees them. Maybe one day I will.
The song Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus has been running through my mind for a couple of weeks now.
I’ve been humming it when the anxiety starts to overtake me.
When I say anxiety has been overtaking me, I mean it has been overtaking me completely. My body has been trembling, my legs have been weak, and my mind has been clouded.
These are the lyrics I have been singing when I can’t slow my mind down otherwise:
Turn your eyes upon Jesus. Look full in His wonderful face. And the things of earth will grow strangely dim In the light of his glory and grace.
Turn your eyes upon Jesus.
Not upon a celebrity pastor.
No upon a movement, even if that movement is good.
Not on a person or a group or a group of ideas.
Our eyes are to be on Jesus.
Not the Jesus other people say Jesus is.
Not the Jesus a pastor told us is Jesus.
Not the Jesus a TV show told us was Jesus.
The Jesus we know from reading the Bible. The Jesus we know does not condone sin but still loves the sinner.
Here are the rest of the lyrics of the song (which I don’t remember when I sing it!):
O soul, are you weary and troubled? No light in the darkness you see? There’s light for a look at the Savior, And life more abundant and free!
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, Look full in His wonderful face, And the things of earth will grow strangely dim, In the light of His glory and grace.
Thro’ death into life everlasting, He passed, and we follow Him there; O’er us sin no more hath dominion– For more than conqu’rors we are!
His Word shall not fail you–He promised; Believe Him, and all will be well: Then go to a world that is dying, His perfect salvation to tell!
The hymn was written by Helen Lemmel in 1922.
According to last.fm, “At age 55, Helen heard a statement that deeply impressed her: “So then, turn your eyes upon Him, look full into His face and you will see that the things of earth will acquire a strange new dimness.”
“I stood still,” Helen later said, “and singing in my soul and spirit was the chorus, with not one conscious moment of putting word to word to make rhyme, or note to note to make melody. The verses were written the same week, after the usual manner of composition, but nonetheless dictated by the Holy Spirit.”
As humans, it is hard to keep our eyes on Jesus and not on the storm swirling around us. Trust me, I’ve been failing at the message of the song for weeks now. I’ve succeeded a few times and felt better for it but I don’t keep my eyes on Jesus and on what he can do like I should. We need to daily remind ourselves where our focus should be.
A song like this one helps ground me, along with verses in the Bible.
You keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on you because he trusts in you. Isaiah 26:3 ESV
What helps to remind you where your focus should be?
What is my purpose? Why do I exist? A sense of self and belonging are two questions many of us struggle to answer.
And what if you are a foreigner in another land?
How does one adjust to a new culture? Discover their place in a new society?
For Mabel Ninan, born and raised in India and an immigrant in America shortly after marriage, the search for those answers sent her on a journey that led to an unexpected and exciting discovery.
God revealed she was not only an earthly immigrant but also a spiritual one, created with a unique calling to impact His kingdom. Mabel’s renewed perspective imbued her with joy and hope, urging her to share the message with others.
Drawing from her personal experiences and by examining the lives of biblical heroes, Mabel sheds light on what it means to live as a citizen of Heaven on earth. Far from Home will inspire you to:
Embrace your identity as a foreigner on earth.
Make your home with God.
Find community and common purpose with fellow sojourners.
Explore the intersection between culture, identity, and faith in this new release from an earthly immigrant who gained a spiritual perspective.
Far From Home by Mabel Ninan is a meaningful, inspirational, and powerful devotional written from the perspective of a woman who was a physical immigrant to the United States, but who also recognizes that humans are spiritual immigrants in a world we do not belong in.
Mabel Ninan moved to the United States from India in 2008 with her husband and was thrown into an unfamiliar world. There were days that her only comfort was Jesus who she’d known her whole life after being brought up in the church in a minority Christian community in India. Over the years, Mabel has lived in different countries and on different continents and no matter where she goes, she has found that Jesus is her one constant.
During her time of adjustment in the States in 2008, during her first move with her husband and family, she came to know Jesus in an even more intimate way, leaning on him during a time when she was lost, confused, and lonely.
The lessons she learned during that time are captured in this wonderful devotional that reminds all Christians about their need to call out and reach for Jesus instead of material things which will not sustain them during the hardest times in their lives.
The words of encouragement in this devotional came at the perfect time for me. I was given a free copy of the book in exchange for a review but was not required to give a positive review. I have no problem giving a positive review, however, because this devotional helped me remember that even when I feel like I don’t fit in with others, I do fit in with God.
This devotional’s main focus is to remind us that our identity is in Christ and not in what we, or others, believe our identity to be.
I thought I’d take a moment to share a personal reason for choosing to review this book. I had a good friend named Rev. Charles Reynolds who was a Christian missionary to India for over 50 years. He brought Indian tea home with him and had it stored in his and his wife Maud’s shed in a small town near where I grew up for years. One day I stopped by and I was suffering from a cold. He offered me a cup of tea and said tea solves a myriad of problems, including illness. I didn’t believe him but after a few moments of sipping the tea, I did actually feel better.
He often told me stories about his time in India, once raised money for victims of an earthquake there, kept in contact with the women’s medical school he helped build up when a missionary there, and wrote a book about he and his wife’s time there. Over the years his stories and mission somehow made me feel like I had a connection to the Indian people. I enjoyed reading about Mabel’s journey partially because of this, but also because of my own struggles to find my identity in an often chaotic and uncertain world.
About the Author
Born and raised in the minority Christian community in India, Mabel moved to the US in 2008 shortly after getting married. In nearly thirteen years of her marriage, her family has called ten different places across two continents and seven cities home. The challenges Mabel faced as an immigrant on the move led to a spiritual crisis that drew her nearer to God’s side where she learned valuable lessons about how to live as a citizen of heaven. Her mission is to inspire believers to embrace their pilgrim journey on earth and boldly pursue their heavenly calling.
A contributor to Guideposts’ All God’s Creatures: Daily Devotions for Animal Lovers 2022, Mabel’s writings have appeared in The Upper Room, CBN.com, Leading Hearts Magazine, and (in)courage.me. She hosts a YouTube podcast called Immigrant Faith Stories where she shares testimonies of immigrants, refugees, missionaries, and cross-cultural ministry leaders. She has been serving in various roles in women’s ministry for almost a decade.
Mabel enjoys reading, traveling, and dancing, but nothing gives her more joy than having conversations about the Bible.
Mabel is pursuing M.A. in Theological Studies from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. She lives with her husband, son, and Maltese pup in Northern California.
More from Mabel
When the idea of this book was birthed in 2018, I wanted to publish a collection of letters to my son. I wanted to keep a record of God’s faithfulness to me in a foreign country. How He became my all in all when I had nobody to call my own. How He gave me His all when I was empty. I hoped my stories and learnings would strengthen not only my son’s faith but also other immigrants like me. But God had a different plan for this book.
By 2019, the book underwent a complete change in its content and organization. It also targeted a different group of readers. I wrote for those who were coping with changes, those who wanted a deeper walk with God, those who found it difficult to belong or cling to hope in the midst of suffering, and those who were tired of going through the motions. My agent and I replaced the title of the book from This is not Home to Far from Home.
After facing rejecting from almost eight publishers, Far from Home found its home in Harambee Press, an imprint of Iron Stream Media that publishes ethnic writers. I was thrilled!
Far from Home is a nonfiction book but it is also part memoir. I’ve described what life was like growing up in India and I also recount a few experiences as an immigrant in the U.S. What makes Far from Home unique is also that the book introduces the reader to another culture, the Indian/South Asian culture. Some parts of the book read like a devotional while others are rich in biblical character studies and teaching.
Overall, I feel the book reflects who I am—an Indian, an America, an Indian-American, a storyteller, an immigrant, and a Bible teacher—though that was not my aim. I find it fascinating that I could be myself and tell my stories and use all aspects of my identity to declare the goodness and greatness of God.
There is a need for more diversity in our stories. I’m not saying this because diversity is the new buzz world these days. We need diverse voices and ways of worship because they reveal God’s power, beauty, and creativity. Testimonies from other cultures can open our eyes to a new way of experiencing God and His Word. They engage our brains and touch our hearts in a unique way. Reading books by diverse authors can enlarge our capacity for empathy, push back our defenses, and even turn our fear of the unknown into appreciation.
I hope my writing helps you see God from a different lens, a different angle. I hope it makes you want to read books by authors from varied cultures, races, and ethnicities.
And my desire, more than anything else, is that Far from Home convinces you that you’re never really far from home. In the triune God, you always have a home here on earth while you await a better one in heaven. A home that will be shared with people from all nations, tongues, and tribes.
To celebrate her tour, Mabel is giving away the grand prize package of a Paperback copy of book, customized notepad and bookmark (these eco-friendly products made by rural artisans in India help sustain endangered art forms and secure livelihoods), access to digital resources (recipe booklet, teaching videos, and audio prayers), and a $30 Amazon gift card!!
Be sure to comment on the blog stops for nine extra entries into the giveaway! Click the link below to enter.
I was scrolling through Instagram this past weekend when I saw a post/video from novelist Nadine Brandes. She was talking about acne she had dealt with after a virus during college. It was all across her face and she said many people would offer unsolicited advice or make awful assumptions about it. She eventually developed a deep depression over it because nothing worked to remove it — not medications or creams or expensive medication. All those things did was make her sick.
She said that one day she started to cover the mirrors in her house and began to focus on Jesus and her relationship with him. She stopped trying to take care of the problem herself. She wrote under the short video she posted that she never actually figured out what the source of the acne was, but one day, she began to notice it was fading, and then it was gone. She wrote, “All I can say is Jesus. Jesus removed the stress, the anxiety, and the shame. I think peace affects our bodies just as much (if not more) as creams.”
I could relate to her story, not because I have ever had her acne, or even because of the frustrating health issues I do deal with, but because I have found myself focusing too much on situations, people, and my perceived failures and not enough on Jesus many times.
Most recently this focus has come in the form of trying to figure out how to build a following for my books so I can earn a little extra cash to help my family financially, but also because I enjoy sharing my stories. I started checking off all these steps that “experts” insist you must do to be noticed on social media. I created an author page and group on Facebook. I searched for ways to increase interactions and followings on Instagram. I tried to do everything that was being suggested without totally driving myself crazy since I had walked that road before and ended up with a near mental breakdown.
I’ve learned there is nothing wrong with building a following, either to help promote your work so you can support your family or to get the word out about something you’re passionate about (like your faith in Christ), but if it is replacing your relationship with Christ then it will bring you more misery than you were prepared to handle.
Nadine’s post was a reminder to me to step back again, lay it all in Jesus’ hands and not worry so much about followers or sales or anything other than my relationship with him.
He’s the ultimate provider and all my hard work means nothing if I don’t lean into him and let him lead.
This is something I will have to remind myself of over and over again because so many of us know how it should be and we do fine for a while but then life — argh! Life gets crazy or scary or crazy scary again and we lose our way.
We forget to trust.
We lose focus.
We get distracted. It is in those moments of distraction that we have to be reminded of what we had committed to in the past, which was focusing on Christ and letting him take care of all that weighs us down.
Doing anything other than that will not only frustrate us but make us sick, mentally, spiritually and even physically.
Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication, with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God; and the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus. Philippians 4:6-7
Little Miss and I were watching The Chosen (a show that follows the life of Jesus) on Sunday and there is a scene where a demon-possessed man is attacking Simon. In the middle of the attack, Jesus arrives and shouts, “Out! Out of him!”
The man immediately spasms, then falls to the ground and is still. A few seconds later the man begins to cry as everyone looks on in horror mixed with relief.
“What happened?” Little Miss asked.
“The demon left because Jesus said it had to go,” I told her.
My own words stopped me.
Wow.
It left because Jesus said, “Out! Out of him!” or essentially, “Leave him!”
How many times every day should we be saying the same thing in our life? How many times should we be saying to our thoughts, our emotions, or worries: “No. You can’t be here. You have to leave.”
In TV, movies, and books, Satan is a caricature, a joking evil character who humans with common sense aren’t supposed to believe is real.
But if you’ve been around long enough, you know that there is evil in the world and that evil fits in well with the Bible’s description of Satan and his influence. You may deny in your mind that there is a real devil but deep down your spirit knows there is. All day, every day, voices whisper around you and you may not hear them or see who are speaking them, but they see you and they want to hurt you for their cheap thrills.
That’s when we need to be like Jesus and tell those thoughts, those residents of the spiritual realm, which torture us, or try to, that they have no place here.
That spirit who speaks to you has no power, and it needs to leave.
Fear?
Jesus says it has to go.
Anxiety?
Jesus says it has to go.
Jealousy?
Jesus says it has to go.
Infirmity?
Jesus says it has to go.
Anger?
Jesus says it has to go.
Hurt? Jesus says it has to go.
Doubt, depression, pride, arrogance.
All of it.
When Jesus says it has to go, then it has to go and it can go with one word from him.
One word.
But also one word from us because when Jesus rose to heaven he told us that the Holy Spirit would be with us to help us do as he had done here on earth. It is Jesus’ power through us, and we can demand that spirits, that demons, that all evil that goes against us leave.
Now.
“Out!” Jesus said.
We can do the same with the thoughts that come after us, with the spirits that come against us because don’t be fooled — there is spiritual warfare, there are battles going on around us in spiritual realms and we are fighting against more than flesh and blood.
Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.
Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God: Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the Spirit, and watching thereunto with all perseverance and supplication for all saints. Ephesians 6:10-18
