Why the Enemy Attacks You: Lessons from Peter’s Spiritual Battle | John Giftah | Christian Sermon

0:00 Hello everyone, welcome to this edition of the Fuel for the Soul with John Gifter podcast. If you've been checking out our episodes for this week, I've been doing a series of lessons that we can take away from the incident recorded in Acts chapter 12. Alright, just looking at the first five verses of the scripture, there's one thing I want you to just pay attention to, right? King Herod has just put the Apostle James to death. And now he's on the verge of putting the apostle Peter to death. He has imprisoned the apostle Peter.

0:30 But here's the thing I wanted to understand. He arrested Peter and this was the Passover period. So if you look at verse 4, it says that he imprisoned Peter, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. And this just caught my attention because he just arrested Peter, the fisherman, And now he's a preacher and he's just going around preaching. This Peter, and what is he doing to him? He's placing him under a squad of 16 soldiers. Like think about this, 16 soldiers to guard one Peter.

1:08 16 soldiers for one Peter. It's like, oh my gosh. It doesn't make sense for one fisherman or for one crazy dude who's going around preaching. You want to keep 16 soldiers. I mean, just think about this on a practical note, right? Like 16 soldiers, salary, all of that, that much of effort King Herod put on this one Peter. Can you think about this? Sometimes this itself shows how much King Herod feared Peter. Sometimes we don't know what we carry. we don't understand the depth of what is in us. We don't understand the reality of what God has placed in us.

1:49 Sometimes we are looking at ourselves and we are like, oh my goodness, you know what? I'm just a nobody. I'm just somebody out there and I'm just making it through life. No, you don't realize the depth of how much the enemy is scared of you. Can you think about this? The enemy was actually scared of Peter. The enemy knew that Peter was not an ordinary dude. And that's why the enemy was keeping 16 soldiers to guard one Peter. Now, I want you to think about this. Are there areas in your life where you feel like, oh, I'm just a nobody, nothing special about me, nothing great about me.

2:30 You know what? I'm just trying to live my life. But if you only looked at how much of trouble the enemy wants to put at you, you would realize how much God has actually placed in you. The fact that King of this place, King Herod, had to keep 16 soldiers to guard Peter showed how much King Herod feared Peter. The fact that the enemy is trying so much to attack you and trouble you shows how much he fears what God has placed in you. So don't discount yourself. Don't think that you're just a nobody.

3:12 If you were a nobody, the enemy would not care about you. He would not place 16 soldiers to guard you. If you were a nobody, the enemy would not bother about you. The reason the enemy is attacking you, the reason why you're being tortured and troubled and tormented the reason why all of these opposition and all of these things that have intensified is because of what you carry is because of what is in store Peter was going to be a great vessel for the kingdom of God Peter was going to bring souls to the kingdom in multitudes and that's why the enemy feared Peter and wanted to take his life See, sometimes when you look at the kind of attacks on your life, you may think like, what is wrong with me?

4:03 No, nothing's wrong with you. The attack is not because there's something wrong with you. The attack shows what is right about you. The level of calling God has placed on your life. So instead of feeling intimidated, instead of feeling less than, instead of actually sitting in self-pity, oh, look at all the troubles. Say, you know what, if I'm facing all these troubles, that shows the magnitude of the calling that God has placed on my life. I'm going to choose to know and walk in the authority that God has given me.

4:36 And that is how Peter walked with that authority. And that's how we still speak about Peter, who was able to do great things for the glory of God. And that's what God will do in and through your life. When you walk with that awareness that, you know what, I'm not a nobody. I am a child of the king. I am a mighty vessel in his hands to fulfill his purpose over my life. So when you walk with that to be the light in the darkness, to build the kingdom of God, all hell will break loose against you. But you will come out victorious in Jesus name.

5:14 Share this with someone and leave a comment. I will share. I will catch up with you guys very soon. God bless you.