Does it seem to you we’re surrounded by bad news these days?
It does if you’re paying attention!
All you have to do is listen to a news broadcast or check the latest headlines to know we’re living in stormy times.
Whether it’s a literal storm like the hurricanes that hit the U.S. last year, the devastating wildfires that destroyed large areas of California earlier this year, political or economic turbulence, another war or pandemic breaking out somewhere…trouble always seems to be threatening. Day after day, we’re constantly hearing reports either about some catastrophe that’s just happened, or being warned of one that’s about to hit.
Second Timothy 3:1 says, “In the last days perilous times shall come.” And clearly, those times are here.
In the midst of everything that’s happening, there tries to arise a horrible cloud of fear because if the devil can get us into fear he can get a grip on us. Fear gives him the freedom to do what he wants to do. It produces all kinds of evil, both in the world and in our own lives.
But I’m here to tell you that there’s an answer to fear.
The answer is the love of God.
According to 1 John 4:16-18, those of us who “have known and believed the love that God hath to us” don’t have to fear. We can say no to it because “God is love; and…. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear.”
The Amplified Bible, Classic Edition says, “full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out of doors and expels every trace of terror!”
Our attitude is: I have no reason to fear, because my God loves me and He will protect and provide for me.
I remember one time when reports began to circulate about a gasoline shortage in our area. Some of the local gas stations had already run out and it looked like the situation might get worse. For a lot of people, that prospect was frightening.
But as born-again believers, those kinds of shortages don’t scare us. Because we believe the love God has for us, we’re not afraid of them. Our attitude is: I have no reason to fear, because my God loves me and He will protect and provide for me, one way or another.
God has never had a problem providing for His people. In the Bible, we see Him do it time and again. We can even read about it in other historical writings.
During that gasoline shortage, a friend reminded me of the miracle of Hanukkah. It took place in 516 B.C. when the Jews liberated the Second Temple in Jerusalem during the Maccabean Revolt. For years, the Temple had been under Greek control and the Jews had not been able to worship there. So, when they started to light the Temple candles, they found they had only enough pure oil to keep the candles burning for one day.
To purify more oil would take eight days. But the candles were lit anyway and, miraculously, they kept burning for eight days—on a single day’s worth of oil.
Beloved Laborers Together With God
I have a little ring that I bought in Israel. Inscribed on it are the words from Song of Solomon 6:3: “I am my beloved’s, and my beloved is mine ” (New King James Version). Those words apply to all of us as believers.
We belong to Jesus. We are His beloved, He is ours, and He is an all-sufficient Provider. When He was on earth, He never ran out of anything. Anytime it looked like there wasn’t going to be enough to meet the need, He supplied more than enough for anybody who would listen to Him and act by faith on His Word.
He’ll do the same for us today. In the midst of everything that’s happening, if we listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit and do what He tells us to do, we’ll be fully protected and fully supplied. No matter what comes our way, we’ll be able to stand in faith on God’s promises and say, “There’s no fear here!”
We don’t have to limit ourselves to just looking to God for our own households, either. We can extend our faith on behalf of others.
We’re to use the grace God has given us to pray, making way for His intervention in situations. We’re to pray for the purpose of bringing His mercy and power on the scene.
Many people in the world don’t know what we know. When the storms of life hit, they don’t know to believe the love of God and the promises in His Word. But through our prayers, we can help make a way for His mercy to reach them. In fact, that’s part of our responsibility as Spirit-filled believers.
First Corinthians 3:9 says we are “labourers together with God” or “fellow workmen with and for God (AMPC). And as workers together with Him we’re told in 2 Corinthians 6:1 that we are not to receive “the grace of God in vain” or “to no purpose” (AMPC).
Grace is God’s power working in us, for us and through us. We’re to use it to work with Him on whatever He’s doing. Because we’ve been given this great grace and empowerment, we have the privilege and opportunity to help accomplish His purposes.
When a storm hits our nation like on the East Coast some months ago, for instance, we’re to use the grace God has given us to pray, making way for His intervention in the situation. We’re to pray for the purpose of bringing His mercy and power on the scene.
“But Pastor Terri,” you might say, “a lot of us did pray about that storm. But it hit anyway.”
That’s true, but it doesn’t mean our prayers didn’t make a difference. They did!
As you may remember, the storm diminished greatly in intensity before it made landfall. And though it was still very destructive, there were also many testimonies from people who experienced divine deliverance. The team KCM sent to minister to those in the hardest hit areas brought back many such reports.
Sometimes all we can do about storms of that magnitude, whatever kind they might be, is make a difference in the midst of them. Although we might wish we could keep them from coming at all, we can’t because they aren’t just random occurrences. They’re manifestations of the curse, and Proverbs 26:2 says, “The curse causeless shall not come.”
The Lord said to me, “You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus” (2 Corinthians 5:21). “There is nothing that you cannot prevent, change or overcome.”
Catastrophic events always occur for a reason. At the root of that reason is sin—sinful activity in the nation; disregard for God, for His ways and His plan; disregard for innocent life; disregard for Israel; and other violations of God’s commands.
When all those things pile up, the earth itself reacts. Demonic activity begins to stir up natural forces to do evil. But regardless of what the devil is doing, we as believers still have a covenant with God. We can still walk with Him, stand in faith for what belongs to us, and intercede for others.
As we do, God’s blessing will continue to rest on our lives and households, and even stretch beyond us through our prayers.
Skillful In the Righteousness of God
In 2005, after Hurricane Katrina, the Lord said to me, You are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). There is nothing that you cannot prevent, change or overcome.
The Lord also spoke to my dad, Brother Copeland, along these lines one time. When it comes to things in your nation, He said, you can change things or stop things some of the time. When it comes to your community, you can change things or stop things most of the time. But when it comes to your house and your family, you have full authority. You can alter what satan has planned against you all the time when you stand in faith.
Some of the troublesome things that are coming on this world these days would be extremely difficult to completely stop. But we’re still to pray about them. We’re still to keep working with God to bring forth His will in the midst of whatever is happening.
Even though we can’t always prevent some of the storms that are coming on this world, the more skillful we are in the righteousness of God that is ours in Christ Jesus, the more we can alter their impact and the greater help to others we can be.
How do we pray skillfully about the different kinds of storms that are hitting our communities and our nations these days? you might wonder.
One of the primary ways is by praying in other tongues.
First Corinthians 14:2 says that one who speaks “in an unknown tongue speaketh not unto men, but unto God: for no man understandeth him; howbeit in the spirit he speaketh mysteries.” The AMPC puts it this way: “One who speaks in an [unknown] tongue…in the [Holy] Spirit he utters secret truths and hidden things [not obvious to the understanding].”
When we pray in tongues, we can pray out details that are unknown to our natural mind!
When we pray in tongues, we can pray out details that are unknown to our natural mind! For example, we may be praying about a literal storm, like a hurricane. Whether we’re praying before it hits or afterward, we only have a general knowledge of the situation. We don’t know, person by person and house by house, all the people in its path. We don’t know exactly where they are and what help from God they need.
Some of them might be making life-or-death decisions and needing God’s guidance. Others may need to be located and rescued. Still others might need food and supplies.
The details of each person’s situation are mysteries to us. But they are not mysteries to the Holy Spirit, and when we pray in tongues, Romans 8:26-27 says:
…the [Holy] Spirit comes to our aid and bears us up in our weakness; for we do not know what prayer to offer nor how to offer it worthily as we ought, but the Spirit Himself goes to meet our supplication and pleads in our behalf with unspeakable yearnings and groanings too deep for utterance. And He Who searches the hearts of men knows what is in the mind of the [Holy] Spirit [what His intent is], because the Spirit intercedes and pleads [before God] in behalf of the saints according to and in harmony with God’s will (AMPC).
So, keep praying both with your understanding as well as in other tongues. Keep using the grace God has given you to work with Him to accomplish His purposes. And remember that as a born-again believer, you are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus.
No matter how stormy this world becomes, you can believe the love of God and say no to fear. You can stand strong in faith and stay strong, knowing that “in all these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us”! (Romans 8:37).
~ by Terri Copeland Pearsons
