by Kenneth Copeland
Are you afraid of the devil? Do you fear that the devil can destroy you at any given moment?
Well, if you are a born-again, Holy Spirit baptized, Bible-believing Christian, you don’t have to be scared of him. In fact, he should be scared of you. If you are living a Spirit-filled life, fully understanding your covenant rights, then you should be so spiritually fierce that every morning when you get out of bed, he shakes in his boots and says, “Oh no! He (or she) is up again!”
“Well, I’d rather not antagonize the devil,” you might say. “He’s got some serious power. He owns practically the whole world!”
No, he doesn’t. He doesn’t have the title deed to anything. Let’s look at three reasons why you don’t have to be afraid of the devil.
# 1 – You don’t have to be afraid of the devil because Jesus already defeated him.
Jesus took everything away from the devil. Through the Cross and the Resurrection, He “spoiled principalities and powers” and “made a show of them openly, triumphing over them” (Colossians 2:15). He completely stripped Satan of all his power and authority and left him with zero. Nada. Nothing.
#2 – You don’t have to be afraid of the devil because Jesus now owns the whole earth.
If Satan is going to control or influence anything now, he has to steal it because Jesus bought the earth back in its entirety. All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to Him (Matthew 28:18). He is the “heir of all things” (Hebrews 1:2), which means he owns everything that exists, and He is “upholding all things by the word of his power” (Hebrews 1:3).
#3 – You don’t have to be afraid of the devil because you are a joint-heir with Jesus.
As Jesus’ joint heirs, everything that belongs to Him belongs to us and we’re jointly responsible for exercising authority over it (Romans 8:16-17). That’s why Isaiah 9:6, prophesying about Jesus, said “the government shall be upon his shoulder.” The government referred to there isn’t the political operation of Democrats and Republicans and such. It’s the governing authority of the kingdom of God which came to earth when Jesus was raised from the dead.
Jesus has given us the responsibility of enforcing the victory He’s already won over the devil. He has commissioned us to manifest the kingdom of God in power and authority on earth just like He manifested it here Himself over 2,000 years ago.
Don’t ever doubt that you are born of the same Spirit. You’ve been given His Name which is above every other name (Philippians 2:9; Ephesians 3:14-15). You’ve been made righteous with His own righteousness, raised up together with Him, and made to sit together with Him in heavenly places (2 Corinthians 5:21; Ephesians 2:6). As a partaker of His heavenly calling, you have the same mission (Hebrews 3:1). What’s more, Jesus Himself said, “He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father” (John 14:12).
You don’t have to be afraid of the devil. Instead, you can be like Jesus and walk in just as much authority over the devil as He did. You can see to it that everything in your life is upheld according to the will and THE BLESSING of God.
Source: Kenneth Copeland, “Upheld by The WORD of His Power, 0813 BVOV, 2013 Word of His Power Conference, Word of Life Church, 2/14/13, 7:30pm (kc021413)
