Do Not Be Intimidated

The enemy wants to intimidate you because he can't defeat you. If the enemy can't get you to stop by the spirit of fear, he will enact the spirit of intimidation to strip you of the courage you need to fight with power. Learn how to overcome the spirit of intimidation in today’s Bible Study.

Hello Beloved and welcome to Beloved Women with me, Christina Patterson where we encourage women in the love of Jesus Christ and the truth of God’s Word. If you’re new here, please be sure to subscribe for new videos on Mondays and Thursdays, and for those of you returning, welcome back. Thank you so much for watching, commenting, and sharing, as it truly helps us to reach more women for the kingdom. 

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Have you ever experienced a season where you were confident about yourself, something you were working on, or an idea you had, but then later your confidence completely went away? Or there was an area in your life where you were very encouraged in your ability to accomplish something, but out of seemingly nowhere you started to doubt if you could do it or if you were ever good?  Then you wonder to yourself why do I feel this way? I was so confident before and now I'm feeling very small and very insecure. Where are these feelings coming from? 

I wasn't sure earlier in my life what this was, but as I have grown in my faith with God, I've learned that many times what we’re experiencing is the spirit of intimidation trying to stop us from pursuing God's purpose in our lives.

The spirit of intimidation can be difficult to recognize because it causes us to often feel confused and unsure and it feeds into our insecurities. So we instead might first assume that something is wrong with us, we're making the wrong decision, or we're just overcome with doubt. Intimidation causes us to look inward at ourselves so we don’t recognize that we’re even under attack.

We know that the spirit of intimidation is real because if you really pay attention to scripture, you can see the enemy using the spirit of intimidation to try to stop God's people from fulfilling God's purpose and experiencing God’s promise in their lives. 

Think of David and Goliath. The Israelites are in battle with the Philistines and Goliath comes forth challenging any warrior from the Israelite army to fight him one on one and whoever conquers, wins the entire battle for their nation. None of the fighting men are willing to combat Goliath but David, a shepherd boy. 

Goliath knew that David wasn't afraid of him because David was willing to combat him one-on-one unlike all the other soldiers. So instead of trying to fill David with fear, he tried to intimidate David by reminding David of how small he was and how unqualified he was as a soldier. The spirit of intimidation wants you to think that you don't have what it takes and discourage you from believing that you can win by puffing up or magnifying a person or a scenario to make you feel small so that you will want to run away and not do what it is that God is calling you to do, or so that you will doubt the gifts and calling that God has given you.

The next example I want to share with you is that of Elijah. After defeating the prophets of the false god Baal at Mount Carmel, Elijah was at the height of his spiritual victory. In doing so however, he upset the evil queen Jezebel who threatened to take his life and when Elijah received that threat, he became intimidated and he ran away.

I think it's really interesting that Elijah was not intimidated by the 450 prophets of Baal that he just defeated on Mount Carmel, but you have this one woman, Jezebel, who gives him this empty threat that intimidates him. She was utilizing the spirit of intimidation. We have to realize that some people are operating in a spirit of intimidation to try to manipulate others to get them to do what they want us to do. This is why the Apostle Paul’s question in Galatians 1:10 is so important.

We overcome a spirit of intimidation with a complete devotion to serving God and doing what God calls us to do. 

I always wondered to myself what victory would have been Elijah's had he stood his ground and not let Jezebel intimidate him. But we’ll never know because in that scenario, the spirit of intimidation won. But what about you? What victory could you be forfeiting if you become intimidated? What victory awaits if you stand your ground?

The spirit of intimidation wants to strip you of the victory that is yours in Christ and it's unfortunate that many times, the enemy will see our potential for victory more than we will. So he will try to intimidate us to make us think that we're powerless, more weak, and that victory is beyond us.

Let’s look at the spies that Moses sent into the land that God promised His people before they occupied it to check out the land to see what it would be like. Some of the spies came back and reported that the people in the land were like Giants. The spies were intimidated by what they saw and they said that they were like grasshoppers compared to these people. But Caleb who was one of the spies was not intimidated and his report was completely different. He said:

So here we have some people saying, they can’t do it, and on the other end, Caleb is not only saying they can do it, but they were well able to do it. They did the same thing, yet they gave two different reports. The difference was some of the spies were motivated by the spirit of intimidation and Caleb was motivated by the power and promise of God. 

The spirit of intimidation cannot overpower the spirit, promise, and purpose of God in our lives unless we let it. And that’s what the Israelites did.

They believed the report from the spies that were intimidated found themselves wandering in the wilderness for 40 years instead of occupying the land Promised to them by God.  The spirit of intimidation will set you on a detour that God never intended for you to take. God is faithful and He will fulfill His promise in your life, but the spirit of intimidation will never lead you on the path that God has for you.

The Apostle Paul tells Timothy in 2 Timothy not to have a spirit of timidity. Timothy was a young man who was leading the church and Paul encouraged him not to allow his young age stop him from using his gifts. Timothy very well could have been intimidated by older saints and wondered if he was qualified enough to lead in the capacity that God called him at such a young age. We too have the same doubts that the spirit of intimidation will put in our heads. Am I creative enough? Am I old enough? Am I young enough? Am I pretty enough? Am I smart enough? Am I rich enough? As followers of Christ, it's not about us being enough, it's about the fact that we are called by the Most High God.

I love how David’s response when Goliath tried to intimidate him. He doesn't deny that he's not a warrior, that he's smaller than Goliath or that he doesn’t have as big and strong weapons. But that’s because he's not focused on himself. He reminds Goliath that he's come in the name of God. 1 Samuel 17:45 says:

David wasn't intimidated by Goliath because his fear was in the Lord and because he had a reverence and a respect for God and God's power. There was no man that could intimidate David no matter how big,because he knew the God whose side he was on was greater. If we want to overcome the spirit of intimidation that tries to slow us down, stop us, and strip us of our victories in Christ, we have to keep our eyes on God and remind ourselves that God is greater than man and our own weaknesses. We have to trust that God is the one who’s moving and active and has given us purpose. When we have spiritual sight and a heart for what God is doing and what He can do, we don't have to be intimidated by any man or situation. We can then walk boldly in the purpose that God has called us to.

The enemy wants to intimidate you because he can't defeat you. If the enemy can't get you to stop by the spirit of fear, he will enact the spirit of intimidation to strip you of the courage you need to fight with power. We know as Believers in the spirit even now, all victory is ours in Christ. The kingdom of God is at hand now, not later. We have nothing to fear,nothing to be intimidated by. So what is it that God is calling you to do? What gift has God given you that He wants you to use to serve the kingdom? Let me know in the comments and remember: do not be intimidated. Go forth and do all that God is calling you to do in the spirit and the power of our living God. 

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As always, thank you so much for watching and until next time, be beautiful, be blessed, and be loved.