2 Timothy 1:7-8
7 For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Not Ashamed of the Gospel
8 Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God,…
Simple but not so Simple
These two seemingly simple verses actually open up an arena of the characteristics God has given us and how He expects us to be. But first, let me set the stage. 1st and 2nd Timothy are both letters to Timothy from Paul. Very briefly, Paul was giving Timothy guidance and motivation to be the man God created him to be and not to let his young age deter him. I highly recommend reading, mediating on and praying over both of these books. Both are excellent sources and are road maps to be the man or woman God created us and wants us to be. With that said, today I want to concentrate on just these couple of verses and how they are instrumental in my own life and testimony.
Holy Spirit Showed Me
On July 8, 2022 during a Bible Study I had a fully awake vision. It lasted about three minutes measured by time in this realm, but where I went and what I was shown time took on a totally different meaning that it has here. The vision started out that I was shown a breathtakingly beautiful spiritual being. As I was looking at this spiritual being, Holy Spirit spoke to me and He said, “This is what God sees when He looks at you. And the reason you were so successful before your stroke was because of the gifts God gave to you. Additionally, the reason you were chosen for this mission (dealing with the stroke and everything that came with it) was because of the gifts God gave to you”. At that point, I was allowed to leave my physical body and just be my spiritual self in a realm that is not this realm. There are no words that can give that experience any justification, but amazing and freedom are the closest words that I can think of. Freedom in the sense that there was no pain, no fear or worry, no weight of a physical body just total inundated freedom. After an undisclosed amount of time I was back in my physical body with the memory of what I was told and experienced. For 10 months I questioned God why I was given that experience. Then in May 2023, He gave me the answer. He said, “You know what I see when I look at you, you know that I gave you gifts that allow you to do great things and I expect to be the man I created you to be”. At first I was like, OK, I can do that and that isn’t that difficult. However, I’ve learned with each thing God gives me, it’s always has a deeper meaning than just face value. Surprise , this case is no different and I could go on at length of how many of us say the right things, outwardly we do the right things to satisfy man and I fell into that trap more often than I want to admit. To be honest, it’s an everyday battle. It’s a continuing battle because we have an evil adversary, Satan, who hates us and wants to destroy us. This is particularly true if we are on track with our God given purpose, actively pursuing God and our life shows it.
Is There a Valid Reason to Fear?
This brings me back to 2 Timothy 2:7-8, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me (Paul) His prisoner, but share with me in the suffering for the gospel according to the power of God,”
Self Reflection
I’m going to get a little more personal now. When you read the promises in the Bible that God gave to you how do you treat them? Let’s be honest, it’s easy to treat the Word of God in so many ways. We can be nonchalant about what we read, we can read it for head knowledge and not take it to heart, we can read it and almost immediately forget it, we can be distracted and becomes disjointed and meaningless, and the list goes on and on.
Knowledge is Power
If you don’t recognize the promises in the Bible or you don’t process them and remember them or you don't take them to heart how can you put them into action? How will your faith grow if you don’t know what to have faith in? I want to offer this, try looking at the Bible from a little different perspective than you may have in the past. Look at the Bible as a warrior’s guide to spiritual warfare and it gives you all the “secret” clues how to overcome your enemy in every battle. It gives every reason to be confident, every reason to not fear, every reason to love and not to hate. It gives you every reason to be loyal to the Truth and be able to stand firm against any attack or accusation. The Bible and the promises held within it unveil the true nature of Christ and lets us know ALL of our power comes directly through Him. You realize that standing alone on your own power leaves you vulnerable, even a sitting duck to Satan’s attacks. Knowing Jesus doesn't happen by chance it has to be deliberate, a choice!
Somebody Needs to Read this, Maybe it's You
I just about stopped here, because I can write a book about this subject and my goal for these blogs is to be short, sweet and to the point. But today, I’m being prodded to write more. To be clear, this is for believers and nonbelievers. In spiritual battle there is one thing that will protect you more that anything and one thing that gives you the power to take the offensive into evil’s lair and not be scathed. And that is simply JESUS! The more you get to know Jesus and build a strong enduring relationship with Him the more effective you will be as a spiritual warrior in this battle we call life. You may ask, “How do you do that”? Actually it is simple, spend time with Him in prayer; read the Bible and make it a heart issue (take it to heart and remember); and meditate and spend alone time with Him to name a few. If you do that starting now, you will be a different person this time next year. Ok, that all I have for this article. My hope is that it will give the motivation and inspiration to get to know God more and continually strive to become man or woman God created you to be.
May you always walk in the Truth!
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