News and Updates
February 1, 2024
David Copeland · February 1, 2024
Newsletter · Volume: 24 Issue: 2
I was awakened by a dream last Monday morning that I was with a group of people in a certain location (I didn’t recognize where I was, but it seemed to be in a rural area, in a run-down resort, or an abandoned vacation place). For sure, it was an outdoor setting, with a run-down house we could go in and out of and get out of the sun.
The place was full of lions, both inside and outside. While they didn’t seem to be hungry, I knew they were there to intimidate us, and several distinct things stood out to me:
1.These lions could attack us at any time.
2.We could not run from them; if we ran, they would chase us and catch us, and we would become a snack to them.
3.We shouldn’t keep our backs turned to them; we must always be watching them in case they tried to attack. I can remember being very tired from the constant looking….watching…paying attention….being concerned that at any moment, they could jump and attack one of my team. I also remember waking up exhausted, physically exhausted. I felt like a truck had ran over me. I immediately remembered 1 Peter 5:8:
“Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. 9. Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings (afflictions) are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” NKJV
Here’s what this dream is speaking to me at this moment:
First, satan may attack at any time. I wish I could tell you that satan is never going to attack you, but he will. But thank God we have His promise that He (Jesus by the power of the Holy Spirit) will never leave or forsake us.
The one scripture Father kept dropping in my spirit all last year before the battle with cancer we just went through is found in Isaiah 54:17
“No weapon formed against you shall prosper, And every tongue which rises against you in judgment You shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, And their righteousness is from Me,” Says the LORD.”
The portion of that verse that Holy Spirit kept highlighting to me was “no weapon formed…” Now I will tell you straight up: I do not like it at all when satan forms things against me. I DID NOT enjoy battling cancer all last year. But the good news is, even though some attack from satan may form against you, it will not prosper. It cannot succeed in destroying you because greater is He who lives in you than he that is in the world!
He attacks either directly before or directly after a great blessing from the Lord. The reason he attacks is found in Mark 4:15
“Satan cometh immediately and taketh away the word that was sown in their hearts.”
There are five ways satan snatches the Word out of your hearts:
1.Affliction. Affliction, as it is used here, comes from the Greek word Thlipsis, which is “pressure,” both literally and figuratively.
2.Persecution
3.Cares of this world
4.Deceitfulness of riches
5.Lusts of other things
Don’t be surprised when Satan comes to steal away the Word that has been sown in our hearts. In Hebrews 10:32, the writer says it this way:
“But call to remembrance the former days, in which, after you were illuminated, you endured a great fight of afflictions;”
Afflictions or the pressures of this life do not come to make you strong. They come to steal the Word of God, the promises of God out of your life. The pressure you feel in your life right now is the amount of potential you have in God….
If you will hold on to the promise God is speaking to you right now. That is our response to pressure. Not running off, getting bitter and angry, and accusing God of betraying and forsaking you.
God never makes you a promise He doesn’t intend to fulfill. I know it sounds cliché, but it’s true: hold on, the answer is on the way!!