Fleas in the Barn

(Luke 10:19 KJV) Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.

This scripture has been so encouraging to me over the years because it

reminds me that I have the power to face any difficult situation. Jesus made this promise a reality for us when He was resurrected from the dead. The thought of having such power and authority also reminds me that we are no longer natural beings with a spiritual body. When we accepted Christ as Savior we become a spiritual being with a natural body. That means we can operate in the same power and authority that Jesus operated in.

The principle in our text is that our natural enemies are nothing more

than something under our feet...when we walk in the anointing as Jesus did.

As one can see in the following story it is easy to identify those who

are standing on this promise of God—according to our text—and those who

are not.

Many years ago it was a common practice for men who lived in rural areas (particularly in southern states) to go out into the woods and pray on special occasions, such as when their church was holding a revival. Sometimes the woods were full of men walking around, praying for God to send the fire of revival and save the souls of their loved ones.

It has been many years since this particular experience and I do not remember the specifics of the occasion, but I got together to pray with two of my neighbors from adjacent farms. Their names were T.A and Harold. T.A lived between Harold and I, so we decided to go to his house and pray in his barn, rather than going out in the woods, which was customary for us.

T.A and I were apparently standing on the promise of our text where it said,

“Behold, I give unto you power to tread on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy: and nothing shall by any means hurt you.”

Harold on the other hand was apparently not standing on the promise of our text and therefore the fleas in T.A’s barn were eating him alive. The fleas never bothered T.A and me.

I guess the point of this story is to never pray in another man’s barn unless you have the power to tread on his fleas.

The fact is, life is full of “fleas” (things that will attack our flesh, mind, will and emotions), and that is why the Lord has given us the power and authority over such things. In my seventy seven years of life I have never seen a time when more people were being attacked by the fleas of life (sickness and disease) than they are right now. The purpose of our text is to encourage us that God has already made a way for us through these attacks.

Father,

Thank You for making a way for us to get through life before we even knew we needed a way. As the disciples said, “...we believe but help our unbelief...” as we learn to fully walk in Your power Lord.

Amen