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 Gift 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 twelve. All right, just looking at the first five verses of the scripture, there's one thing I wanted to just pay attention to. Right, King Herod has just put the apostle James to death, all right, and now he's on the words of putting the apostle Peter to death.

0:28 Okay, yes, imprisoned the apostle Peter. But here's the thing I wanted to understand. Right, he arrested Peter, and this was the passover period. So if you look at verse four, it says that he imprisoned Peter, placing him under the guard of four squads of four soldiers each. And this has caught my attention because he just arrested Peter the Fisherman, and now he's 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 sixteen soldiers.

1:03 Like, think about the sixteen soldiers to guard one Peter. Sixteen soldiers for one Peter is 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 sixteen soldiers. I mean, just think about this on a practical note, right, like sixteen 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.

1:42 We don't understand the depth of what is in us. We don't understand the reality of what God has placed in us. Sometimes we are looking at ourselves and we're 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 sixteen soldiers to God one Peter.

2:21 Now, I wanted to think about this. Other areas in your life where you feel like, Oh, I'm just a nobody, nothing special about me, nothing great about me. 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 sixteen soldiers to God 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.

3:08 So don't discount yourself. Don't think that you're just a nobody. If you were a nobody, the enemy would not care about you. He would not place sixteen 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.

3:47 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 attack life, you may think like, what is wrong with me? 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 or 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.

4:30 I'm going to choose to know and walk in the authority that God has given me. 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.

5:08 All else will break clues against you, but you will come out victorious in Jesus name. Share this with some one and leave a comment. I will share. I will catch up with you guys very soon. God bless you.