Kenneth Copeland - Rumors of War: Finding Peace and Protection in Troubled Times

Rumors of War: Finding Peace and Protection in Troubled Times

If there was ever a generation where people needed to know how to enter into God's protection and stay there, it's this generation.

We face harm and harassment at every turn.

People drive down the street shooting guns through the walls of houses. Wars and rumors of wars are commonplace news. There's the drug war. There's violence in South America and the African nations. Then there's the Middle East.

It's literally all over the globe, staring us in the face.

Most people react to the danger in one of two ways. They either get calloused to it and ignore it...or they simply wring their hands and moan,

"Dear God, help us." But neither one of those ways will get us through. Ignoring the problems won't make them go away and, frankly, neither will our helpless cries of despair.

We have to deal with the dangers around us.

Whether it feels good or not. Whether it looks pretty or not. We have a part to play in them.

Jesus Himself knew we were going to have to face times like these. He warned us about them in Matthew 24. There He said:

"Take heed that no man deceive you. For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many. And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled."

See that ye be not troubled. That's what Jesus said we should do when we go through dangerous times. When we hear of wars and rumors of wars, we're not to let it cripple our faith and throw us into anxiety. We're to refuse to let that trouble enter into our hearts.

We're also to guard against deception. Take heed, Jesus said, "that no man deceive you."

You know, these days everyone has something to say about what's happening. The news media.

The politicians. Your next-door neighbor.

Everybody! Even though those people don't intend to deceive you, they're looking at things through the world's eyes instead of through the eyes of the Word of God.

If you'll let him, Satan will use them to fill your mind with worries. He'll use the media to bring to you all the terrors of war. To show you every kind of horrible thing you can think of.

Why? To stir up hate and fear inside you. To deceive you into abandoning your faith and letting fear fill your heart.

He creates wars outside you so that he can gain access to your insides. If it stays outside you, it won't accomplish his objective. He has to deceive you into opening your heart and mind and letting it in.

But you can guard against that by taking heed!

By paying attention to what God is saying instead of what the world is saying. By concentrating on Him, looking at things through His eyes.

That means, whether you're the one who's facing danger or the one at home praying for a loved one who's facing ityou have to lock into God's Word and stay there. It doesn't matter what's on television. It doesn't matter what's in the newspapers. Your future isn't based on that.

Your future will be determined by your faith in God's Word.

But I'll tell you right up front, it takes real commitment to keep your attention on that Word when violence is breaking out all around you because that violence is specifically designed by the devil to distract you from it. Let me show you what I mean. For years, there have been prophecies about a great and mighty revival that would come at the end of this twentieth century.

Sure enough, we're beginning to see the evidence of it around us. During a recent Southwest Believers' Convention, we experienced such an amazing outpouring of the Spirit that every person there realized we'd stepped across the threshold of that revival. We knew that it had begun.

Strangely, it was that very week that the incidents in the Middle East exploded quite suddenly. "What's happening here?" I asked the Lord. "What is this?"

He showed me that whenever He pours out His best in a mighty display of power, people get healed and saved and delivered and encouraged and set free from the bondages that have held them. We call that outpouring "revival" and when it comes, Satan tries to counter it by pouring out his "best." His best takes the form of relentless destruction, maiming, crippling disease, and death. In its ultimate manifestation, we call that "war."

All through history, and particularly during this century, the revival of God has paralleled war. We've seen mighty outpourings of God during this twentieth century, and at the same time, we've also seen mankind's most terrible wars.

Those wars have actually been Satan's specific attempt to sidetrack us, to take our attention off the outpouring of God and center us up on war instead. It's a diversionary tactic whose sole purpose is to stop the move of God.

How do we keep from falling prey to it? How do we keep from falling into the fear and deception Jesus warned us about?

Settle the Victory in Your Heart

First of all, we have to come to the complete and absolute decision that we are the victors.

The victory is ours and the battle is the Lord's.

We must settle that within ourselves.

It's imperative that we do whatever we have to do to get that into our spirits. We must stay in the Word; take communion every thirty minutes if necessary; fellowship with the Lord until confidence in Him rises up within us and chases out every thought of failure and defeat. Not only for us as individuals, but for us as a nation.

Let me tell you something. After Jesus defeated the devil and left the earth, the Bible says He sat down on the right hand of the Father. He sat down expecting all His enemies to be made His footstool (Acts 2:34,35). Do you understand what that means?

It means Jesus is not standing up wringing His hands. He's seated, confident in His victory. So you and I need to start acting that way too. We need to talk and act like Jesus has actually taken authority over the devil and his bunch. We shouldn't go around crying and acting like He never went to the cross. We shouldn't scream and carry on and wait for somebody to come get the devil off us.

No! We need to act as though Jesus has already won. As far as He's concerned, it's done.

So we need to learn to act as though it's done as far as we're concerned too.

We need to say, "Thank You, Lord! Praise You, Jesus!" and tell the devil, "You take your dirty hands off me and my loved ones. Don't you realize that Jesus is seated on the right hand of the Father?"

Remember this: You don't look up at the devil, you look down at him. He's under your feet!

Is it possible to have that kind of confidence in the midst of the kinds of threats we're facing right now? Yes! The Word of God says so. In Psalm 112, it says that the man who fears the Lord and delights greatly in His commandments "shall not be afraid of evil tidings: his heart is fixed, trusting in the Lord. His heart is established, he shall not be afraid, until he see his desire upon his enemies."

That kind of person is locked in. He's sure that the victory is his. Once you have that kind of assurance, nothingnot even wars and rumors of warswill be able to move you.

Speak Out Your Deliverance

The second thing we need to do to keep from falling into Satan's trap is to speak out loud about the deliverance of the Lord. Psalm 91 says, "I will say of the Lord, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust. Surely He shall deliver me...."

Notice that scripture doesn't say, "He will deliver me and then I'll go everywhere telling about it." No, it says, I'll say it and then, in response to what I've said, He will deliver me.

That's not just some super-spiritual idea either.

It works. I know one soldier who, during World War II, survived a bombing raid by huddling underneath a bunk bed shouting out Psalm 91.