The Enemies of Faith and How to Overcome them

How many times have you wanted to believe God and at the same time battle with doubt and unbelief?

I can relate so much to the father in Mark 9:24. His son was deaf and mute and he found himself crying to Jesus: “Lord, I believe, help my unbelief”

I’ve said that phrase more times than I can count.

The Bible tells us that without faith it is impossible to please God. So, we must live a life of faith and in order to do that, we must identify the enemies of faith and learn how to overcome them.

Enemy #1: Fear

Fear and Faith are contrary to each other. Fear keeps you from moving forward and from doing the will of God. Fear keeps your focus on something else and not on God’s truths.

The Greek word for fear means “to be intimidated by the enemy, to be in dread, terror, and flight. This is not God’s will for our lives that’s why God said so many times in His word: Do not fear.

Fear and faith are both built on information. Faith is built on the knowledge of God’s word and fear comes from information from our natural senses, bad reports, and intimidation from the enemy.

Solution

Study the Word of God and meditate on it.

When the devil came to tempt Jesus, Jesus’s answer to all of the problems was the same: “It is written”. This should be our answer too. But first, we need to find out what it’s written on the Word of God.

Find a bible verse that applies to your situation, believe it in your heart and make bold declarations of faith.

When fear tries to come into your life you need to resist it in the name of Jesus. Believe the information written on the Word of God because that is the truth.

Here are a few examples:

• God has not given me a spirit of fear, but of love and of a sound mind. (2 Timothy 1:7).
• The Lord is my helper, I will not fear. (Hebrews 13:6).
• In God I have put my trust, I will not be afraid. (Psalm 56:11).

Enemy #2: Feelings of Unworthiness/Lack of understanding of righteousness.

Guilt, condemnation, and feelings of unworthiness are major enemies of our faith.

The devil will always come to accuse you and remind you of all the wrong things you have done. He is, after all the accuser of the brethren.

Solution

The Bible tells us that we are the righteousness of God in Jesus Christ.

You are not righteous because of how spiritual you are. You are not righteous because you are a good person. You are not righteous because you pray and read the bible.

You are righteous because Jesus’s sacrifice made you so. When you believe this, your faith is accounted for righteousness.

 For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.

2 Corinthians 5:21

When thoughts of unworthiness pop in your head you need to cast them down and replace them with what the Word of God says about you.

Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.

2 Corithians 10:5

Enemy #3: Not walking in love

Did you know that the bible says in Galatians 5:6 that faith works by love?

If you do not walk in love your faith will not work because God is love.

I read this great article by Gloria Copeland called How are Faith and love Connected? I highly encourage you to go read it.

Solution

We are all capable of walking in love all the time. God lives inside of us and He is love. The God kind of love lives inside of us. It is a fruit of the spirit.

Walking by love means to deny the tendencies of your flesh and choose to be governed by love instead. The closer your relationship with God is, the easier it will be to walk in love.

Pray and ask God to help you to walk in love, ask Him to show you how to see people the way He sees them and to love them the same way He does.

Enemy #4: Unforgiveness

Unforgiveness is a hindrance to your faith.

Many people ruin their health and their lives by taking the poison of bitterness, resentment and unforgiveness.

Joyce Meyer

When you choose not to forgive, you choose to keep yourself captive to the past. You choose to keep yourself from moving forward, and you choose to keep yourself from living the life of faith that pleases God.

Solution

Choose to be obedient to the Word of God and forgive. Obedience will bring blessing into your life.

Stop dwelling in the past. Quit thinking about what happened and how much it hurt you. Give all your hurt to the Lord, ask Him to heal your wounds and choose to move on.

Lastly, pray for those who hurt you. Bless them and speak life over them and their families.

“But I say to you who hear [Me and pay attention to My words]: ^[h]Love [that is, unselfishly seek the best or higher good for] your enemies, [make it a practice to] do good to those who hate you, ²⁸ bless and show kindness to those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.

Luke 6:27-28

Enemy #5: Hardness of Heart

The hardness of heart can have many manifestations. Here are a few:

• pride and selfishness
• self-justifying spirit
• prejudice, pre-judgment
• closing ourselves off from God and from others
• being cynical or skeptical
• unforgiveness
• spiritual blindness and self-deception
• absence of a loving and compassionate spirit

Solution

The walls that you build for your protection are the walls that separate you from God. Tear those walls down, come closer to God and ask Him to soften your heart.

Keep your mind focus on God and His word.

Enemy #5: Doubt and unbelief

Doubt and unbelief are huge enemies of faith. They are negative and are completely contrary to faith.

Doubt is defined as being undecided or skeptical about something, tending to disbelieve. Doubt means to be fearful, apprehensive or suspicious.

Unbelief is failure to believe or having a lack of faith. As you can see, you can’t have unbelief and faith at the same time.

No one is immune to doubt, it happens to all of us. It even happened to the great men of the bible like Peter and John the Baptist. We just have to learn how to overcome it.

Solution

When thoughts of doubt and unbelief pop in your mind you need to cast them down and choose to believe the Word of God instead.

The stronger our faith is, the less doubt and unbelief will show up in our lives. The key here is to feed your faith with the Word of God.

I found this awesome post that will help you on How to overcome doubt.

Enemy #6: Ignorance of the Word of God

God tells us in His Bible that His people perish for the lack of knowledge.

The most common reason for unbelief is ignorance of what the Word of God has to say on a subject.

Sometimes this happens because of wrong teachings or because we don’t study the Bible ourselves.

If we are going to believe it is important that we know the scriptures ourselves. It needs to be our revelation and not the revelation of others.

Solution

Read and study the word of God. But before you do, take time to pray and ask the Holy Spirit to give you knowledge and revelation of His Word.

Be very careful to who you listen to. If what your pastor preaches or what you hear on the TV or the radio does not align with what the Word of God says then don’t listen to it.

Be led by The Spirit, He is our helper and He will let you know when something you are listening to is not right.

Enemy #7: The Mind

The mind is powerful and sometimes it is an enemy of faith. The natural mind cannot comprehend the things of the spirit. The mind cannot understand the mysteries of God.

Mental agreement is trying to have faith with our mind but that doesn’t work. Faith must come from the heart.

Solution

You need to renew your mind with the Word of God. If you don’t renew your mind then your mind will always confront the things of the spirit.

And do not be conformed to this world [any longer with its superficial values and customs], but be ^[c]transformed and progressively changed [as you mature spiritually] by the renewing of your mind [focusing on godly values and ethical attitudes], so that you may prove [for yourselves] what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect [in His plan and purpose for you].

Romans 12:2

Defeating the enemies of faith

In life, we go through ups and downs so having a strong faith is necessary if we want to live a life of victory.

Jesus taught 2 keys that will help us defeat the enemies of faith: fasting and prayer.

When you use those 2 keys and you combine them with reading and meditating on the Word of God, you will strengthen your faith and you can confidently walk as the overcomer that he made you to be.

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