I’ve heard people say, “Well, look what God
did to Job!” What did God do to Job? He built a
hedge around him and blessed him with abundance.
At the end of the book of James, the
Word says that God was full of pity and mercy
in His dealings with Job.

For years now, we’ve read about Job and
have blamed God for Job’s situation, thinking
that God commissioned Satan to attack Job.
That’s not true! In Job 1, Satan came to God
and said, “Put your hand against Job, and he
will curse you.” He tried to get God to do it,
but God would not. He said, “Behold [look and
see], he is in your power.” Job was already in
Satan’s power by letting that hedge fall from
around him. He quit acting in faith, began
operating in fear, and that protective hedge fell.
Then he was vulnerable to Satan’s attack. The
sacrifices he made were not made in faith. The
Word says he made the same ones continually
(Job 1:5). He lost everything he had. Job didn’t
have the written Word of God to act on like you
and I do today. He said, “That which I have so
greatly feared has come upon me” (Job 3:25).

Then he began by trial and error to figure a
way to get back his faith again. He tried crying
about it, he tried cutting and hurting himself,
he sat down in the ashes—none of this did him
any good at all. Satan sent him some very religious
men, and they certainly didn’t help him!
They were the ones that said God had done it.
God Himself told these men, however, that
they had not spoken of Him rightly.

But the very moment Job moved back in
faith by praying for those men, he moved
back on the Word of God and God replaced
double everything he had lost. When Job
began operating in faith once again, his
deliverance was instantaneous.

We need to preach this instead of identifying
with Job’s sickness and failure. People say,
“Well, I’m just like poor old Job.” We’ll, if
you’re going to be like Job, then you will have
to get healed and delivered. Job wasn’t poor
either—he was the richest man in the East
when this began and then God doubled that!
All God has ever done and all He has ever said
has been deliverance, freedom and power for
His people.

I refuse to believe that my heavenly Father
would hurt me, even though I may not know
all the circumstances. It may look as
though He is behind it, but I refuse to fall for
that. I know He sent His Son to die for me, so
I’m not going to hesitate for one moment and
give Satan the opportunity to move in on me.

Trouble-preaching—being trouble-centered
and trouble-minded instead of being victoryminded—
will give Satan just the moment’s hesitation
he needs to defeat you.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

“Thou shalt be far from oppression; for
thou shalt not fear: and from terror; for it
shall not come near thee.” What does the
Word say about us where fear is concerned? First
John 2:5, “But whoso keepeth his word, in him
verily is the love of God perfected,” and 1 John
4:18, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love
casteth out fear: because fear hath torment.”

“Behold, they shall surely gather together,
but not by me: whosoever shall gather together
against thee shall fall for thy sake.” There is
no question about it—oppression, fear, and
terror will gather together against you. Satan
will still try to fight you even though Jesus
has defeated him through the cross. “Behold,
they shall surely gather together, but not by me.”
The Lord your Redeemer is speaking, and He
says that oppression, fear and terror are not
from Him.

“Behold, I have created the smith that
bloweth the coals in the fire, and that
bringeth forth an instrument for his work;
and I have created the waster to destroy.”
What is the Lord saying here? God created
Satan. Ezekiel told of how Satan was created
perfect, and then iniquity was found in him.
This is where the problem lies. God has given
His Word on certain indisputable points. He
will not break or go back on His Word, even to
Satan. This put God in the position of having
to keep His Word when Satan became involved
and keep His Word where man is involved. Satan is
trying to trap God in a lie—to trap Him into going back
on His Word. God would then be subject to the
“father of liars.” So what God is saying to us
here is, “I created the one who caused your
trouble. I will be responsible for it.”

“No weapon that is formed against thee
shall prosper.” Even though God created
Satan, even though Satan committed treason
before God and led man into treason, God
has provided a way so that no weapon Satan
forms against us will prosper.

“And every tongue that shall rise against
thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This
is the heritage of the servants of the Lord,
and their righteousness is of me, saith the
Lord.” The battle lines are drawn. God is not
your problem. Satan is your problem—he is
your enemy. But the good news is that
God has provided your complete deliverance
through Jesus Christ.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

In the world of the spirit, there is a challenger, a
counterfeit, an opponent of God who knows his
business. But there is also the armor of
God, the Word of God and the power to defeat
this opponent. The Bible says to resist Satan,
and he will flee from you (James 4:7). But when
a man hesitates—not opposing, but wondering—
then Satan can easily defeat him. We must
clearly distinguish between what is coming
from Satan and not blame God for something
that is not His doing. This is why it is so
extremely important to rightly divide the Word
concerning this issue.

Whenever God reveals His Word to a man,
Satan comes immediately to steal the Word
from his heart. Jesus said that he would. He
said the sower sows the Word, and Satan
comes immediately to take away the Word
which was sown. (See Mark 4.)
Satan has no defense against the Word
of God. He has no defense against the lordship
of Jesus or the Name of Jesus. He has no defense
against the bornagain believer who is walking in
faith and acting on the Word of God. He has no defense
against these because Jesus said that all power
has been given unto Him both in heaven and
in earth (Matthew 28:18). Satan has been
stripped of his power.

The devil knows he is defenseless, so in
order to stop the revelation of God’s Word in
the believer, his only tool is deception. He
must sow a deception—something that sounds
good and looks good but is really a wolf in
sheep’s clothing, He usually does this most
successfully in the area of religion. He uses
religion to blind and deceive the people. By
sowing the seed of deception through religious
tradition, Satan has robbed the Church of her
power. He has no defense against our real
spiritual weapons, but he can easily defend
himself against our carnal, religious traditions.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries

Luke 10:19
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.

Jesus gave Himself as the last sacrifice of
the old covenant. He became the sacrificial
lamb, offered upon the altar of the Cross for
one reason: to defeat Satan.

The blood Jesus shed is protection for
those who will receive it by faith. In Egypt,
the Israelites who applied the blood of the
sacrificial lamb to their doorposts were
delivered from the death angel. How much
greater is the protecting power of “the precious
blood of Christ…a lamb without blemish and
without spot” (1 Peter 1:19).

By His blood we are separated from every
curse of the law of sin and death and given
access to every promise of the Spirit of life
(Romans 8:2). By His Spirit we have the same
anointing power in which He “went about doing
good, and healing all that were oppressed of
the devil” (Acts 10:38).

Principalities and powers were spoiled in
Jesus’ victory over death. He destroyed the
authority of the devil and every demon of hell,
bringing them down to nothing and stripping
from them the armor they had trusted in!
Moments later, He stepped out of that tomb.
He walked out of there and said, “All power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth”
(Matthew 28:18).

That’s not where it ended either. He said,
“Therefore you go into all the world. You take
My Name. You lay hands on the sick and they’ll
recover. You cast out the devil. I whipped him;
you go enforce it.” (See Mark 16:15-18.)

How do we do it? Jesus said, “If ye abide in
me, and my words abide in you, ye shall ask
what ye will, and it shall be done unto you”
(John 15:7). We abide in Him by filling ourselves
with the Word so that we bring its promises
and authority into every situation that comes
before us.

The Word you meditate and act on
concerning your protection is the Word that’s
alive in you, and it will perform all God sent
it to do on your behalf. Just as we receive
wholeness for our bodies through faith, we
will walk in all the protection that is ours in
Jesus’ victory over our enemy, Satan, if we will
believe God for it.

Kenneth Copeland Ministries