Believers have already heard it is only by faith we can please God, but did you know that you cannot act in faith if you are fearful?

      So the verse could read it is only be fearless faith we can please God and you would be correct in saying so.

      In the above video, a ninety + woman got into her car at a Walmart and a stranger climbed in the passenger side, sat down, claimed to have a gun and threatened to use it if she did not give him her money.

      She turned him down and began testifying of her faith in the Lord. Ten minutes later he said he should go home and pray. The fearlessness of a totally defenseless elderly woman overcame the evil.

PRACTICE SECURITY PRECAUTIONS AT ALL TIMES:

      The elderly woman in the above video had made the mistake of leaving her passenger door open, giving opportunity to the devil; and the wanna be thief climbed in. Security precautions do make a difference.

      Lets consider some of the other things you can do to avoid giving opportunity to the devil.

      Let's hope you do not have a bad habit of setting your wallet on the counter when making a transaction. Sometimes we don't have enough hands to do everything, but anyone who sets their wallet on the counter is likely to become distracted during the transaction to where they forget their wallet and lose it to a thief.

      Put your wallet away as soon as you have taken what you need out of it, then complete your transaction. You can always pull your wallet out of its place again if you need to. But setting it down on the counter is a bad habit.

      "I will build My Church; and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.," the Lord promised his people. (St. Matthew 16:18) So we are to seek revealed Light from the Lord and walk in it. In doing so, we have the knowledge by faith that we will overcome all the adversary does defeat us, but we ought not to give any opportunity to the Devil.

BE AWARE OF YOUR SURROUNDINGS:

      There was a man sitting in the side dining hall of a fast food restuarant which was out of sight of the employees.

      It was late evening.

      He was sitting alone in a booth. There was a man with a woman sitting several booths behind him. They were quiet.

      Two young thugs sat across the way in a booth. The man heard them threaten the young couple, calling out to them, "Quit looking at us!"

      A few minutes later the silence of the dining room was interupted again when one of the thugs called out to the couple saying, "Quit looking at us punk!"

      The man looked up from what his meditations in the Word, telling the two thugs, "Mind your own business!"

      They were quiet now, but the man could see they were conferring together. He wrote on the pad in front of himself saying, "They know I am trapped in this booth if they can get over here. They will each pick up one of the wood chairs near me and raise it up as a weapon to strike me at about the same time, thinking the chairs will also provide them with a defensive barrier."

      The couple departed leaving the man alone with the two thugs in the dining room. Sure enough, they meandered over to the other side of the dining room and began to lift wood chairs when the man turned to look at them, saying, "Welcome, pull up a chair and let's talk."

      The two thugs were completely disarmed by his cheerful fearlessness. Each one sat down at a booth. One in front and one behind him while he began to counsel them saying, "Why is it you hate your own country?"

      "This country ain't never done nuttin' for us man."

      "Really," the man replied. "Look at the state of the art library across the steet open free of charge six days a week where you can get on the Internet free of charge and take out video's, CD's, Cassettes and books galore."

      "Look at this modern restuarant provides food from early in the morning til late at night at reasonable prices where you can take your girl friends on a date with hardly any money at all and not be embarrassed.

      "Look at the well kept streets outside free from garbage and ruts in the road.

      "Even if your parents have never paid a dime in taxes, you can go to school free of charge and get an education, use the library, use the roads. And you haven't lifted a finger to build any of this country. How can you say no-body has ever done anything for you?"

      "No, man. We hate this country. We wanna burn it down." the skinny Chicano thug declared. He was apparently the leader of the two. The other thug was tall, white and muscular. Neither appeared to be twenty years of age yet.

      The man continued with his reproof. "I'll tell you what you ought to do. Get yourselves a couple of plane tickets and fly over to Northern Iraq where there are a homeless nation called the Kurds. The Kurdish people are scattered Iraq, Iran and Turkey where they are despised as a minority race. The roads of their cities are dirt. Their roads are full of water filled holes. Many of their smaller cities and towns do not even have one restuarant or a library much less a school worth calling a school.

      When you see the poverty and oppression they live under, you'll come back to America with a completely different attitude. We not only live in the greatest nation in the world, we want you to help make it even greater."

      The two thugs got up and walked out without a word. Entrapment in the booth was avoided by perceiving in advance what they would do. He kept himself positioned to get out of the booth fast if they got out of hand. Violence was avoided by speaking the truth in love. They departed unconvinced, but good seeds were planted in their souls.

      In due season they came into the Light of salvation. Be aware of your surroundings.

KEEP THE DOORS TO YOUR VEHICLES LOCKED:

      This may sound like paranoia, but in spiritual warfare you want every advantage at all times. We live in a very violent world which can erupt any time anywhere as Reginald Denny found out when rioters smashed in his passenger side windown, opened the door to his big rig truck and pulled him out of it where they broke 97 bones in his body. A riot is no place to be:

      Were it not for Bobby Green, a black skinned American hero who saw the violence on TV and drove to the scene nearby to carry Denny off to the nearest hospital in his truck, he would have died on the scene.

      In being aware of your surroundings, you have to be consciously aware of possibilities at all times.

AVOID THE APPEARANCE OF DOING EVIL:

      In spiritual warfare, you want to avoid becoming the prey. By appearing to be breaking the law, calls to the police are invited. You may think the police are always objective but unfortunately they are human too. Their first priorities are their own safety and promotion.

      If they can make the clean bust of a transgressor even if the person only appears to be a transgressor; some will make the arrest. There was a couple parked along a section of a public park where drinkers frequented to partake in their vehicles.

      The wife was surprised by a police officer who had slipped up to the open passenger window of the family van to inquire what was in the cups on the dash board. Fortunately for her, she was drinking coffee.

      Had she been more aware, the officer would not have been able to slip up on her undetected.

      To wage spiritual warfare successfully, you must work on being the head and not the tail. You must build an expanded awareness of your surroundings to where you see and hear what is going on beyond what you are immediately doing and saying.

      When you see someone multi-tasking (doing more than one thing at once well), they are doing what you want to do in spiritual warfare. They may be doing it to earn money. You want to multi-task to be the head in spiritual warfare.

      When you read about Bible greats, you are reading about spritually minded men who excelled at spiritual warfare. David slipping past the king's men to steal evidence from the king proving they were there while he slept in the supposed safety of a cave where they could have easily killed him.

      When they waved the evidence to the king from across the chasm to remind him of David's fidelity to him, they were waging successful spiritual warfare.

      When Elijah refused to be intimidated or fearful at the prospect of fifty of evil king's men apprehending him, God Almighty responded to his calling fire down from heaven to destroy them.

      Elijah was also a Master of spiritual warfare. Fearlessness is one of its most important ingredients.

      God warned Joshua, if the men of Israel were going to back him down by getting fierce in his face; the LORD would not countenance it. You will have no favor with God if you are fearful. He wants to work through fearlessness in his servants.