When your faith was first born, you chose to trust in God’s promises and rely on them for your eternal future. As your faith matured you learned the truth in the promises of a God who cannot lie. Step by step, decision by decision, your faith grew with each choice made to place your trust in God’s plan and not your own. The walk of faith for a believer is one filled with spiritual conflict between the carnal human mind and the spiritual heart for the Lord. You can often feel as if you are taking two steps forward and one step back, but you must persevere and endure until the end because the eternal reward will be more than worth it in the ultimate outcome. At the moment you accepted Christ as your Savior, the Holy Spirit was sent to dwell within your heart to begin the process of bringing your faith from its infancy to final maturity. This process takes your entire life, but the result will be so wonderful that it will be beyond your ability to comprehend. It is the Holy Spirit that called you to Christ, sanctifies you by His power, and give supernatural gifts through His baptism. He was sent to be your encourager, helper, and guide through this world of darkness and difficulty. Paul talks about Him in 1 Corinthians 12-14. You may not know all about Him or understand everything He does, but trust in Him. Regardless of your denomination He is available to you and will assist you when you need Him.

2 Timothy 3:1-5 “But mark this: There will be terrible times in the last days. People will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God—having a form of godliness but denying its power. Have nothing to do with such people” 

The times we are living in are filled with spiritual discord. Spiritual warfare rages daily and only those who are founded on the rock will be able to withstand the enemies of God. Our mission, as the church, is to go and make disciples of those who are separated from God. We are to share the good news of the gospel with those at risk of ending up in an eternal Hell. To do this, we must be bold enough to stand for the truth regardless of the opposition and persecution we may face. Those whose faith is lacking in the knowledge and discernment of the Word of God will fall away and will be unable to be bold enough to stand firm when needed. Paul vividly describes the times we are now living in his letter to Timothy. Even though your decision to follow Jesus and accept him as Savior has saved you from eternal separation from God in Hell, the enemies of Christ will still relentlessly attack you in an attempt to prevent your witness from persuading others to believe in him. We must be bold in our faith to silence the demonic voices trying to persuade us to keep our testimonies to ourselves. The lost desperately need the good news of Christ. Have the courage to speak out against what you know to be wrong, even if no one else stands with you. If your walk is with the Lord and the Holy Spirit dwells within you, what do you have to fear? God Himself prepares the way for you to accomplish His mission through your willingness to follow Him. You have absolutely no reason to fear anything. The future God has promised to you is glorious indeed. If God is for you, who can be against you?