Snakes Have No Ears

I was reading yesterday and came across the question “Do snakes have ears?” Not knowing much about snakes, I found this interesting. Snakes have no ears, but why?

Most snakes have no real sense of hearing. They can sense vibrations, but they have no ears. In the natural realm, serpents are just another creature. Yes in the spiritual realm they represent darkness. In the spiritual realm, faith is.inked to hearing. Snakes have no ears to hear, so the enemy doesn’t live by faith.

The enemy attacks in the realm of no faith. He wants you to doubt- doubt God’s goodness faithfulness, provision. When you give in to doubt, then discouragement, anger, anxiety, and the propensity to sin comes. This is seen clearly in the Garden of Eden to the temptation of Messiah.

You defeat the enemy by faith. It is written in the Bible that when the flaming arrows of the enemy comes you way, you’ll extinguish them by the shield of faith. When that though of discouragement, anxiety, doubt, bitterness, or temptation comes your way, lift up the shield of faith.

Stand by the Word of God. Hold to His love. Declare His goodness. The serpent is deaf, but you are not. Use your advantage. Stand by faith and crush the serpent underfoot.

Is Fear About Pandemic A Sin?

I usually stay clear of the issues in today’s society. In my writings. But this has been on my heart for quite some time.

The COVID-19 pandemic is eliciting a lot of different emotions and reactions for many people, and the most common one is fear. Fear of catching the virus, fear of dying or having a family member die, fear of losing a job, fear of being able to pay bills, and fear of what the future will look like.

A common response I’ve seen from believers in Christ facing very real fears lately is the idea that as believers, we shouldn’t be scared. Beyond that, there are people who believe that if they are scared, then that means they don’t have enough faith and they are in sin. After all, the Bible tells us multiple times to not fear, so wouldn’t it be disobedience if we fear?

While the Bible does encourage us many times to not fear, it doesn’t mean that being scared is a sin. Fear is an emotion that is given to us by God. In its most primal form, it’s meant to protect us from danger and give us energy and motivation to get out of harms way or avoid a catastrophe. Much like anger, the presence of fear itself is not a sin, but it can lead to sinful behavior if we are not careful.

Go ahead be angry. You do well to be angry- but don’t use you anger as fuel for revenge. And don’t stay angry . Don’t go to bed angry. Don’t give the Devil that kind of foothold on your life. -Ephesians 4:26-27-

Fear is not a pleasurable emotion, and if given the chance, most of us choose to avoid it. But fear is not something we can just instantly turn off, it often creates an internal struggle. So when we find ourselves fearful, how we respond in a way that honors God and doesn’t give the Devil a foothold in our lives?

Here are A Few Ways How.

Take Your Fear To God

But when he saw the wind, he was afraid and, beginning to sink, he cried out, “Lord save me!” -Matthew 14:30-

When we start to sense fear rising up in our soul, the most important thing for us to do is to take that fear to God in prayer. You can be brutally honest with Him about what you are scared of and how it’s making you feel because He already knows.

In Matthew 14, Peter experienced fear when he was walking on water and began to sink, so he quickly called out to Jesus to help him. Jesus immediately held out His hand for Peter and kept him from drowning.

Peter’s first reaction was to ask Jesus for help because despite being scared in the moment, he knew Jesus was trustworthy. When you are scared, God is there to extend His hand to help you avoid drowning in fear.

If you feel like being afraid is a sin, or if you’ve been taught that it’s wrong, it can be tempting to try and avoid God for fear of Him being mad at you. This creates the fear cycle.

Explore Where Your Fear Is Coming From

Let Us Examine Our Ways And Test Them, And let Us Return To The Lord. -Lamentations 3:40-

Depending on their past experiences and personalities, some people may have a greater natural propensity to fear than others. If you have experienced abuse or rejection as a child, or maybe you have a more timid personality, these factors may cause you to fear more often and strongly that others.

Maybe you are so fearful because you lost a loved one, or are considered high-risk for the virus. Whatever fears you are facing, there are reasons behind it and the more you tap into those fears the better chance of getting to the root of them and moving forward in a healthy way.

Fear becomes sin when we attack other people who are not afraid. Or berate them because they are not afraid. When we make our fears all about hurting other’s or blaming others for your fear. The Devil has a foothold on you.

Recognize The Blessings God Can Bring From Your Fear

Praise be to God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in our troubles with the comfort we ourselves receive from God. -2 Corinthians 1:3-4-

Being comforted by God during the pandemic will strengthen your relationship with Him and deepen your faith and you will see the results of that for a long time after this is over.

Approaching The Mountain Top

The Bible says that our walk in the Lord is like going up a mountain. It’s an upward call, as ascent. Going up a mountain teaches us how to ascend in our calling in the Lord.

The mountain narrows until we reach the pinnacle, the thinnest part of the mountain. The secret of success in our walk is the higher you go in the Lord, the more we have to stay close to the center, the less we can go off to the right or to the left. The higher we go in the Lord, the less we can fool around, the more focused we need to be, the less we can afford to be distracted from God’s calling or engage in things which have no eternal value.

Our time, energy, resources, finances, work, home, marriage, our all- focused to the glory of God. God is calling us to the heights, we must learn to walk the straight and narrow. Stay closer to the center, focus all our lives to His Glory, and we’ll walk the heights and our feet shall stand on the pinnacle. Higher ground -Psalm 84:11-

Go one step higher in the Lord today. Get rid of one more distraction, sin, or compromise, and zero in on God’s perfect will for your life.

Developing Godly Relationships

Romans 12: 9:10 says “Love is to sincere and active, hate what is evil, hold on tightly to what is good. Be devoted to one another with brotherly/sister,y affection as members of one family.”

God created us for community. We’re wired for relationships with our friends, spouse, co-workers or kids. God intended healthy relationships to be compassionate, sacrificial, honoring, and forgiving. Cultivating those qualities often means surrendering our expectations for relationships and trusting God instead.

Knowing Who You Are In Christ

As Followers of Chris we need to know who we are in Christ and learn to always reject negative thoughts. The moment you discover yourself and your identity in Christ, your value comes back, your worth comes back, and no opinion of man can devalue it.

1 Peter 2:9 says “ But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.”

The greatest discovery that anyone could ever make in a life is to discover who they are. It is possible for a person to be born again, Spirit-filled, sanctified, be a Pastor, Evangelist, Bishop, priest or founder of a church without knowing who he/she is. My question is who are you and what is your identity in Christ?

The devil is an expert in using his tools to get people to be completely ignorant about their identity. He even tempted our Lord Jesus three times thinking he could convince Him to surrender. The devil said to Jesus “If you are the son of God, command these stones to become bread.” This was done to make Jesus doubt Him identity. It means if Jesus didn’t Who He was, He would have surrendered to the devil. The devil tried again by saying, “If thou be the son of God, cast yourself down; because it is written that the angels will bear you in their arms.” Again Jesus defeated him. -Matthew 4:1-11-

It is very important for us to know who we are in Christ. If not other people or our situation may tell us who we are not. The devil spoke through the people who mocked Jesus, telling Him to come down off the cross of He was the son of God. -Matthew 27:40-

Even though Jesus has the power and authority to come down, He refused to listen to the voice of the devil. The devil may speak to Christ’s followers that if they are going through any problem in life it means God is not with them and that they are not children of God.

As followers of Christ we need to know who we are in Christ and learn to always reject negative thoughts and evil voices. We need to constantly reassure ourselves of the love of Christ for us and the power He had given us to be called sons and daughters of God. -John 1-12- We can confess but we are chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that we may declare the praises of Him called you out of darkness into His wonderful light as a declaration of our identity in God.

We need to know that whatever we are going through in life God is always with us and He is fully aware of the situation and will provide solutions in His own time. We need to let the life of Jesus, from His birth to His death on the cross be an example to us. Jesus was always talking about who and what He is, what His mission in life is. He said He is Living Water, the Bread of Life, the Son of God, the way, the Truth and the Life.

The soldiers that were sent to capture Elijah asked him to come down from the mountain and he said if he really was a man of God, Fire should come down and destroy them and it happened. -2 Kings 1:10-12- Elijah used the power and authority of God in him to call down fire to destroy the soldiers because he knew who he was in Christ.

Many people do not know who they are in Christ and when the devil comes they do not know which answer to give him and they are defeated. As followers of Christ we need to be well grounded in the word of God and be able to apply it to our situation.

Jesus asked Him disciples, who men says He is and who they themselves say He is. Peter said He is the Son of God and Savior of the world, shown in the flesh, Jesus reaffirmed that the Spirit of God was in Peter and that God was the one who revealed who He was to Peter and that God was the one that revealed who He is to Peter and that Peter answered correctly. This shows that Jesus Himself knew His identity that He is the Son of God.

The only one who knows who you are is God. If you do not know who you are ask Him and He will tell you who you are.

Why Do We Need To Know Who We Are?

1. To have a strong foundation to build our life on.

2. To have a great revelation of the power of God that is available to us.

3. To help live our life as God intended and fulfill our destiny.

4. To help us build a stronger faith in God.

5. To remove fear of the future.

Finding Faith In Uncertainty

Right now there is a huge amount of uncertainty in the world. There is a way to find courage in the face of uncertainty.

When life feels uncertain, it’s easy to doubt that God is really with us. But the same God who is with us during the good times is the same God who is with us during uncertain times. All throughout the Bible, the Lord has shown that He doesn’t abandon His children, you can be sure He won’t start now.

It’s an interesting time in the world right now, to say the least. The stores shelves are nearly empty, the school can’t decide whether they need to be open or not. The price of gas for our vehicles are skyrocketing. The control that we seek over our lives seems to be slipping away.

The Coronavirus and the thought about losing young American’s as Soldiers are killed while their fighting for freedom. Is the hardest part. How many people will die from either sickness or from the war on freedom.

The truth is, these kind of situations isn’t much different than the typical day to day situations, people will get sick and die everyday, and young Americans will always risk dying for our freedom. I don’t mean this profound impact on how your life should be lived. That would be ridiculous.

What I’m saying is that uncertainty is all about what is promised in God’s word.

If we’re going to talk about the reality of the danger and uncertainty of the world in which we live, we then must also declare the truth about the God, we follow is truly the world’s antithesis. Where our earthly future is fought with peril, our eternal future is safe and sound. Where our comforts of this life are fleeting and the routine we crave is fragile, the faithfulness and peace of our Lord is unyielding.

Isaiah 41:10 says “Fear not, for I am with you; be not dismayed, for I am your God: I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.”

Deuteronomy 31:6 says “Be strong and courageous. Do not fears or be in dread… for it is the Lord you God who goes with you, I will not leave you or forsake you.”

Even Jesus’s final words to His disciples before ascending to Heaven were a promise: “I am with you always, to the end of the age.” -Matthew 28:20-

So, why then, as children of God should these new challenges be any different? In a time when fear is so easily found, we as followers of Christ, have the greatest reason not to be afraid: the steadfastness and love of the one who conquered death itself.