“But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects.” (Acts 28:5)
There a lot of negative “snake” thoughts and emotions that come at us during stressful times like these we live in. Paul was on the island of Malta, having just survived shipwreck he was gathering wood to build a fire to help people warm themselves. As he did a deadly poisonous viper fastens itself to his hand and bites him. The islanders expected him to go into convulsions and die. But Paul just shook it off. Paul obviously remembered Jesus’ words in Luke 10:19, “I have given you authority to trample on snakes and scorpions and to overcome all the power of the enemy; nothing will harm you.”
What should you do when a snake of fear, hopelessness, bitter anger or hurt fastens itself to your mind? I saw a funny meme of a Chihuahua looking fearful and saying is that you Rona? In the present plague many have a feeling in their body and their minds rush to fear. There is also all of the fear of touching things that might be infected. Thoughts can come of fear that I’ve been infected or infected someone.
My point is to tell you that you have authority in Jesus to shake these off into the fire. We have weapons to cast down strongholds and take every thought and emotion captive, we can lasso these wild Stallions of the enemy with the word of God, and make our minds and emotions obey Jesus.
Dr. George Crane wrote a book called, “Applied Psychology.” He made a great statement about how emotions can be changed by motions. When we take a positive action we can diffuse negative thoughts, lies, or reactions. Martin Luther said, “We can’t control what birds fly over our head but we can refuse to let them make a nest in our hair.” I challenge you to make some predetermined decisions based on this paradigm. When I feel _______ I will _________. The way we shake off serpents is with a decision to take the tools of Jesus like His Word, His praise, His joy, His kindness and use them to replace the negative thought or emotion. For example Jesus did this by answering the devil’s thoughts with “It is written.”
Steve Bauchland, with Ignited Hope Ministries wrote a book called, “Just laugh at that,” Based on Psalms 2, where it says God laughs at the enemy’s threats against Him. He suggests laughing at lies the enemy shoots into our minds. Jehoshaphat brought singers to praise as a response to the enemy’s threat of annihilation. A few years ago I decided that if I woke up in the middle of the night and couldn’t sleep instead of sheep I would go through the alphabet and think of attributes of God I could praise Him with beginning with each letter.
Here are some examples of choices that will shake off serpents.
When I feel fear I will make a faith declaration.
If I see only bad I will sing and praise God that He is good.
If I feel sorry for myself I will pray for others
If I feel discouraged I will rejoice in the hope that things will turn out for my good.
I’d like to encourage you to make a bold declaration now that “no weapon formed against you will prosper during this corona virus attack.” In Jesus’ name.
Love,
Dale
To watch a short video of this blog go here: https://www.facebook.com/PastorDaleWalker/videos/549868735647887