Part 3 – Discouragement

Discouragement we’ve all felt at one time or another. It’s that feeling of pure and utter disappointment. It’s pressure from trials making us feel weary and tired, like we cannot go on. It’s one of the enemy’s most comprehensive tools against us as believers. To make us wonder if following Him is even worth it? Oh, but my friends, it is worth it! It’s always worth it. You see, despite our lack of confidence or enthusiasm. God can still use us and strengthen us from the inside out. We can’t allow ourselves to get blindsided by the devil’s tactics. The devil likes to use all of his D’s to try and trip us up and destroy us. The devil’s goal is to make us feel overwhelmed and consumed by our situations. His goal is for our hearts to be discouraged. He wants us to lose hope in doing the right thing. He wants us to forget about goodness. He wants us to be lost, broken, depleted, and defeated. A heart without hope becomes sick. Don’t let your heart become sick. Don’t give in to the devil’s cravings. He craves sick hearts. If you let him, he will devour your soul. He wants us overtaken by a feeling of oppression. The oppression that makes us feel like we can’t overcome. The pressure makes us ask ourselves, what is the point or purpose? But oh precious child of God, there is always hope and a purpose. Jesus Christ is the way the truth and the light. He is our hope, and He will lead us and guide us through it all. He will help us all believe in the plans and purpose that God has for each of us.

Please remember, child of God, what Psalm 34 has to say. Take your negative thoughts captive, stand on what God’s Word says, invite your Heavenly Father into your situation, take authority over discouragement. PEACE BE STILL for you, my friends. It’s time for you to stand firm in the Faith and time for you to fight back! Today’s the day for you to give the devil back his dish of discouragement and walk-in Faith with no more walking in the darkness of discouragement. Do not be discouraged, and we know God is with us and for us, so who can be against us.

Dear friends, let us not forget that Jesus paid it all. There is no sin or problem that he didn’t pay for with his precious blood. Every single problem we will ever face has already been paid for him by his blood and unfailing love, and we’ve been set free. I can face tomorrow because of who He is, and so can you. One step at a time. One breath at a time. One prayer at a time. Worshiping and rejoicing because the Holy Spirit is with us and for us. Praise God and HALLELUJAH, my redeemer lives. Your redeemer lives. He loves and gives. May we never forget that by his love and blood, we’ve been set free. Discouragement doesn’t have to hold us captive anymore. Our chains have been broken through him!

Let’s take a look at Colossians 3:15 “Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. Be thankful.”  Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through Psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts, and whatever you do whether in Word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. You see, God has blessed us with so much. Every day of life that we receive is a gift. The air in your lungs that’s a beautiful gift and, when we take the time to stop and think about it, there’s so much to be thankful for. We need to open our eyes to all that God’s given us and realize that we have so much to be grateful for.

Daily we are to live in peace, not chaos and darkness. You see, God wants us to be thankful for everything and all circumstances. Now I know what you’re thinking; being grateful is easier said than done in all events. Still, with the Lord’s help, nothing is impossible. It all starts with hitting the pause button. Next, we need to take our issues to the Lord in prayer. After all, He is a great listener. He’s never too busy or too tired to talk to us. He died to disarm all the D’s the devil tries to dish out.

No matter what you’re thinking, feeling, or dealing with, it’s time to bind it up and cast it out in the name of Jesus. He desires us to become a people of unity, order, and love. When we’re living a life of discouragement, we aren’t living in harmony. Our lives don’t have order; they have chaos, and they lack order and balance that only God can provide. We don’t feel loved; we feel depressed and consumed by darkness. But it doesn’t have to be this way. We need to choose to let the Lord of the universe equip us to overcome discouragement. Let us not forget who He is that lives inside of us. We should come against discouragement by coming against it with a firm, stern voice. We use the authority and the power of the blood to fight back. We use the name of Jesus against the devil and all of his destructive toxic dishes.

Now, friends, it’s time for you to stake your ground in a firm foundation of what God’s Word says. The devil wants us to give in to those fight-or-flight feelings we all have at times. Instead of facing him and his challenges, he wants us to run. Don’t run, and don’t be overtaken. Remember, the joy of the Lord is your strength. Strength to rise up on wings like eagles and not be discouraged. Think back to everything that Jesus has already accomplished on the cross for us all. The devil comes to steal, kill, and destroy, and Jesus comes to give life abundantly. You do not have to take the poison the devil dishes out because you have a choice. If you know that it brings death, don’t eat it and don’t drink it! We should want to eat only the pure manna from Heaven, God’s Holy Word. The spiritual bread of life has the power to fill us every day. You see, friends, we can have victory because we are overcomers.

Do you realize who you are? Sadly many people don’t. God loves you and me so much, and He has such big plans for our lives. Some days we wake up, and we don’t want to keep going. The enemy has a way of coming against us to make us feel like we are not worthy of the lives we live. At times we struggle to do what needs doing. I’m not talking about domestic stuff, but spiritual. I can cook breakfast, lunch, and dinner, and yet sometimes I can’t sit down and write what the Lord put in my heart to write. I want to do more for Him, but I feel stuck. Do you ever feel stuck?

Many people do, but thanks be to God, we are overcomers because of who He is inside of us. Jesus Christ lives inside of us. When we feel stuck, Jesus’s name has the power to pull us out. As I write this right now, I feel the depression leave, the sadness leave, and the feeling in my stomach growing warm as I write out that Jesus Christ is my King, Lord, and Savior. We are God’s approved workman. We can’t get stuck. If we get stuck, it means we are ashamed of Him, but in fact, we’re not. I’m so proud of my God, and I hope you are too. I am not ashamed of the gospel message of Jesus Christ. I know we can have victory in our lives. Jesus came to set us free He came to equip us against the enemy He came to love us He came to make us overcomers. When we feel like we can’t remember he came so that we can overcome, We have to stand on His promises and remember what His Word says about us. We are His chosen 1st Peter 2:9 We are loved Ephesians 1:4 We are His delight Isaiah 62:4 The apple of His eye Psalm 17:8 We should not be downtrodden, knowing who we are, who He is, and what He did for us. Greater is He who lives in us than he who lives in the world. We can overcome because we can do all things through Christ, who strengthens us. It includes asking God to help us overcome our struggles with discontentment.

The key to warding off the enemy is to Feed our Faith. By doing this, the enemy will starve to death. Turn to the source. Be in God’s Word. We can overcome anything the devil tries to dish out to us through Faith. After all, He is a God who hears us; when we laugh in joy and when we cry in sorrow, he hears our prayers; when discord, discouragement, and doubt come against us, we can push them away by turning to the Word. Let us not give in to how we feel, basing our lives on emotions; no, we should base our lives on God’s Word.

We must stand firm, resist the enemy, and he will flee. The spirits he brings with him will flee. We have to go to the living water, identify our emotions, our human nature, and we have to draw from a power greater than ourselves. Jesus will meet you right where you are. Unlike us, he is not afraid of our emotions. When we turn to Him, we can expect those emotions to disappear. We have to choose to fight our human nature by being hungry and thirsty for the things of God. Feed your Faith for the tactics and schemes of the enemy to disappear in Jesus’ name. When we start to activate Faith, tangible things will begin to change in our lives to bring love, light, and changes into our homes, relationships, and communities. Not by our power, not by our strength, not by our might, but by the power of who Jesus Christ is. Begin to use the Holy Spirit and the anointing it is given to share with and penetrate the words of Faith in our lives in Jesus’ name. The Word of God desires for us to have life more abundantly because who the Son sets free is free indeed.

Yes, the devil likes when discouragement between people brings calamity, hatred, and strife. He especially loves to see this happen in a body of believers. The enemy tries to turn people against each other. This is not the Lord’s desire. The Lord wants us to be in unity, peace, love, and fellowship. We can’t ignore God’s Word and what it says about our lives. Only by doing this can we choose to pay no attention to the enemy and begin to counter his dishes with verses just as Jesus did in the wilderness against the enemy. Philippians 2:1-4 ¹“Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, ²then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in Spirit and of one mind. ³Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility, value others above yourselves, ⁴not looking to your own interests, but each of you to the interest of others.”  This verse is to tell you that you can demolish the enemy and be encouraged by being united in Christ, by having a personal relationship with Him by answering the call to follow him and learn from Him, fellowshipping with the Spirit, we can be comforted by His love. We should desire to be tender and compassionate towards others. Having patience, gentleness, and self-control towards each other, ask him for the fruit of the Spirit to unfold themselves into your life; after all, He is our comforter, our friend, our power source that we can draw from. We can ask Him anything in accordance to the will in His Word, and what the Word can accomplish through fellowship with Him, Jesus Christ, and his name, the power in His name, can get things done. We can make His joy complete in us being like-minded, having the same love, being in one Spirit and purpose. Consider humility in loving others and putting others above yourself.

You see if we can keep our focus on Jesus and not on the world. We need to believe that he can change our hearts and our perspectives. He gives us compassion because Jesus is full of love, grace, and mercy for all of His people. He meets us all right where we are and loves us all unconditionally. We should love others like this. We should strive to be more like Jesus. We can accomplish this simply by hiding God’s Word in our hearts so that we may not sin against Him and model Christ by being a peacemaker. Our attitudes should be the same as Jesus. We cannot deal with the devils’ dishes and continue to be a Child of God. We have to decide who we are serving and submitting our life to.

Dear readers, please pay attention to God. Do not ignore what God’s Word has to say about a matter. Walk-in Faith, not in doubt. Choose to believe that God is always working even when you can’t see that he’s working. Truly be a Child of God and take on the nature of a servant. Don’t be afraid to humble yourself before the Lord, and He will rescue you every time. He is the great rescuer. Become obedient to Him and him alone. Be willing to die to yourself so that you can be born again in him. Christ will use obedience to change your life and mine.

Believe that Jesus’s name is above every other name. Using His name gives you authority over the enemy because Jesus Christ lives inside us. When we call on his name, we call on all power and control that belongs to Him. Remember that God created Satan and is under God’s authority, and nothing on Earth is beyond God. Every tongue will confess that Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father, by believing what the Word says about a matter, giving credit to the Father.

God, the devil’s dishes are putrid poison. I don’t want to partake in consuming any more of his deadly venom. I want today to be the day I take a stand with Jesus. Today I’m casting the devil out. Today I’m saying no more devil be gone. Take your discouragement with you!

If you just prayed that prayer, then you’re on your way. You believe that with God’s help, you can and will be a conqueror of all!

Author: Priscilla Campbell
Editor: Nadia M. Walker/ JJ Michael Smith