WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, April 3, 2023, and this is Episode #14 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Dangers of Digital Currency".

If you have not yet heard about the imminent adoption of a digital currency system here in the United States and throughout the world, you will soon. Sometime this year, the United States will very likely make the huge transition from cash and credit cards to digital currency.

What exactly is digital currency, and why should we be concerned about it? 

According to journalist Leo Hohmann, digital currency is a "cashless electronic payment system that feeds on your personal biometric data." So what does that mean? It means that we will no longer be able to pay for purchases with cash or credit cards. Instead, we will pay with a scan of the hand or the face, a practice called facial recognition. 

Why the concern? It seems as though digital currency will make our lives easier, no? We won't have to carry around credit cards. We can pay with a simple scan of our hand. No more worries about not having enough cash on us or forgetting our credit card. So, what's the problem?

The problem is that the digital currency system is a cover-up for the implementation of the Mark of the Beast as prophesied in the Book of Revelation, chapter 13: 16:

"He [the AntiChrist] required everyone—small and great, rich and poor, free and slave—to be given a mark on the right hand or on the forehead. And no one could buy or sell anything without that mark, which was either the name of the beast or the number representing his name."  That number, as we learn in the following verse, is 666, the number associated with the AntiChrist.

Amazon has already rolled out its "pay by palm" platform to pay for purchases in its brick-and-mortar stores. Based on the Amazon model, the Panera Bread chain has announced that it is planning to roll out a digital system for purchases in its restaurants. J.P. Morgan Bank has also announced such a roll-out and plans to make it available to the banks and businesses within its purview. 

Other credit card companies have already introduced payment systems based on hand or face scans. For example, VISA calls its biometric system "contactless payment".  If you visit Visa's website, you can find a list of retailers already participating in its contactless payment system. These include McDonalds, CVS Pharmacy, 7-Eleven, Dunkin' Donuts, Starbucks, OfficeMax, Whole Foods, Aldi, and Costco, among others. Mastercard has introduced a similar biometric payment system that it calls "Smile to Pay".

Well, we won't be smiling any time soon when we learn what is really going on. 

The truth of the matter is that the world is being set up and programmed to accept the Mark of the Beast, the mark that will be required during the Tribulation in order to buy or sell anything. You might ask, "What's wrong with that?" If it makes my life easier by making shopping more convenient, what's the harm?

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

To subscribe to this podcast, click here.

If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 27, 2023, and this is Episode #13 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are You an 'Amateur Providence'?"

Sometimes we stand in the way of God by trying to help people instead of simply praying for them. In his classic devotional, My Utmost for His Highest," Oswald Chambers refers to this as being an "amateur providence".  

There is a fine line between helping and controlling, and we must continually be on guard not to cross that line. If we do, it is a sign that we have very likely allowed a Jezebel spirit to enter our lives.

What is a Jezebel spirit? Jezebel was the very domineering wife of the weak-spirited King Ahab, one of the kings of Israel. Her attitude was "My way or the highway."  She wreaked horrific destruction in Israel by promoting the worship of false gods. She killed God's prophets, and she was the cause of the murder of an innocent man.

Jezebel was in the grips of a demonic, controlling spirit that has become known as the Jezebel spirit.  The Jezebel spirit has been the destruction of many marriages, families, and churches. 

Jesus refers to the Jezebel spirit in Revelation 2: 20 when He addresses the church of Thyatira: “But I have a few things against you: You permit that woman Jezebel, who calls herself a prophetess, to teach and seduce My servants to commit sexual immorality and eat food sacrificed to idols”. Jesus is reprimanding the church of Thyatira for permitting the Jezebel spirit to continue to operate in its midst. 

How can we recognize a Jezebel spirit? Here are some characteristics:

1. The ultimate goal of the Jezebel spirit is control. This spirit wants its own agenda to prevail, and will do anything and everything to accomplish it. People in the grips of the Jezebel spirit are usually very insecure and see themselves in a negative light. They have usually been emotionally wounded in some way and seek significance in ruling over others. 

2. The Jezebel spirit rebels against authority, especially male authority. Usually this rebellion against male authority stems from a poor relationship with one's father.  One of the worst displays of the Jezebel spirit occurs in a church where the pastor is weak and allows himself to be controlled by this spirit. 

3. The Jezebel spirit is manipulative.  It tries to undermine divinely appointed leadership by pretending to step up to the plate in order to help, while all the while it is taking authority that does not belong to it. 

4. The Jezebel spirit operates clandestinely, often under the guise of sacrificial servanthood. If a leader is not discerning, he or she will be overcome by the Jezebel spirit.

5. The family of one who has yielded to the Jezebel spirit is often chaotic and out of order.  The Jezebel spirit always requires the presence of the Ahab spirit in order to accompli...

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

To subscribe to this podcast, click here.

If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 20, 2023, and this is Episode #12 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "A Warning from the Watchman". 

Did you know that God has called certain people to be watchmen? What is a watchman? A watchman is a person who stands guard and keeps watch for those he loves in order to protect them from oncoming danger and harm.

There are all kinds of watchmen. We have security guards who protect businesses at night. We have watchmen who protect students at schools, and watchmen who protect neighborhoods.  And there are also watchmen for entire countries.

A father is a watchman for his family. He keeps guard against any spiritual, physical, and financial harm toward his wife and children. A pastor is a watchman for his congregation. He keeps guard against any spiritual deception and harm toward his congregants. 

There are also watchmen called by God to alert the world of the impending doom predicted in Bible prophecy. These are end-time watchmen, and I am one of them.

End-time watchmen are often misunderstood, ridiculed, and mocked. But that comes with the job. :) We choose to overlook those obstacles because of our love for the people for whom we watch. We see a bigger picture that, perhaps, they do not yet see, and we seek to show them that picture for their ultimate safety.

Today, I want to share with you some warnings that I see as a watchman for the United States. These warnings are not of my own creation. They are all predicted in the Bible. I can, therefore, share them with the authority of God's Word backing me.

So, please take heed and search the Scriptures for yourself. You will discover that what I am saying is true and should be heeded.

1) The United States of America is being taken over by totalitarianism. (If you missed it, see my last post titled "The Totalitarian Tiptoe" at the link provided. The Bible predicted that shortly before the Rapture (that world-shattering even when Jesus removes His Church from the earth), there would arise a "new world order"--a global system whose purpose would be to subjugate humanity under the dictatorship of a man called the AntiChrist. 

2) The rise of digital currency. We are already seeing this happening as the world economy gives up cash and moves toward a digital currency platform. Many, including myself, consider this move a great threat to our personal freedom. Digital currency will allow the federal government to monitor our every transaction and to challenge each one based on our religious belief system and our political ideology. If we think the way the government thinks, we will have special purchasing privileges. If we do not, we won’t.

3) The invasion of America by foreign troops. It is no secret that countries like China and Russia are enemies of the United States. Already, there are reports of Chinese and Russian submari...

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

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If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, March 6, 2023, and this is Episode #10 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Wired for Worship". 

It has been said that man cannot live without someone or something to worship. If man does not worship the one, true, living God, man will worship another man or he will worship himself, or he will worship some thing.

Why is this so? Because God designed us this way. It has always been God's will that we worship Him. Worshipping the one true God is the only way for us to experience life, freedom, joy, and peace. But, when we choose to worship a false god—such as another man or thing, or oneself—we will experience destruction and death.

Today men have turned away from the one true God and are worshipping false gods. Some of these false gods include the following:

__Politicians

__Movie Stars

__Music Idols

__Entertainment (such as video games)

__Planet Earth

__Health and Fitness (Yes, health and fitness)

__Money and

__Sex 

In the Book of Revelation, chapter 4, the Apostle John is taken up into heaven where he sees God's throne. The throne is the focal point of Heaven, and on that throne sits the one true God. In this chapter of Revelation, John describes everything he sees in relation to the throne. 

Today we have denied the throne of God. We have replaced it with atheism, which says there is no throne, and with humanism which says there is a throne but man sits on it. Both of these worldviews deny the throne of God. Only Christianity acknowledges that God sits on the throne.

Let me ask you, my friend, who sits on the throne of your life? Is it a job, a career, money? Drugs? Sex? Alcohol? Is it a political leader, a rock star, or even a spouse? You see, even a loved one can become a god in one's life.

When the disciples told Jesus that his mother and brothers were standing outside the house in which he was preaching and they were asking to speak with Him, what did Jesus say? He said, “'Who is my mother? Who are my brothers?' Then he pointed to his disciples and said, “Look, these are my mother and brothers. Anyone who does the will of my Father in heaven is my brother and sister and mother!'”  (Matthew 12: 48-50 NLT). Here the Lord was showing us that no thing, no person, must come between us and the will of God. Anything that does is called idolatry. 

So, I ask you again. Who or what sits on the throne of your life? Whom or what are you worshipping? Is it someone or something other than the one true God? If so, it's time to repent and turn to the only true and living God. No one can love you more. No one can better provide for you. No one can give you peace the way God can. No one can bring healing to your body as only He can. No one can heal your broken, shattered heart as only God can.

You see, God is the One Who created you.

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

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If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, February 27, 2023, and this is Episode #9 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Paganization of America". 

When I studied the history of Western Civilization in college back in the mid-sixties, the cultural consensus was that the West had overcome the primitive beliefs of earlier peoples who worshipped gods and goddesses, mythology, and other forms of paganism. We in America--and in the West-- had now become a rational civilization, a civilization that eschewed ancient myths, ancient forms of worship, and ancient philosophies. We now had science, and science poked holes in such silliness.

If only my history professor back in those days could see what is happening in our country now! We have embraced the very culture we once termed as foolish and primitive. We have returned to those destructive lies. We are once again worshipping pagan gods in America.

In a pivotal book titled The Return of the Gods (affiliate link), Rabbi Jonathan Cahn posits that America's return to paganism began in the sixties when prayer was removed from our public schools. This heinous act, Cahn points out, was the first step in separating our children from God and God from our children. Since then, it has been a downhill battle in our land to save our children from wickedness and destruction.

We have only to look at the staggering suicide rate among children between the ages of nine and fifteen. We must ask ourselves why. The answer is clear. Without God, there is no hope.

Sadly, we have come a very long way from the America in which I grew up.  Just to give you an example: From 1950 until 1954, I attended Kindergarten to fourth grade at the public school in my town. My first grade teacher, Miss Ritter, had a Bible on her desk. Every morning, our class had to rise for the reading of the Word. After reading a passage from the Bible, my teacher prayed aloud. After her prayer, we saluted the flag. (Click here to read my heartwarming story about Miss Ritter, titled "Miss Ritter's Bible".)

If a public school teacher today did what my first-grade teacher did back in 1951, today's teacher would be fired and, possibly, charged with breaking the law. And we wonder why our youth have gone astray?

If you've ever watched old television programs like Leave It to Beaver, you get a glimpse of what America was like back in the 50s. I can vouch for those TV shows. I grew up in the fifties and sixties. America back then was a wholesome place, a country where the consensus was a moral one, even among those who were not Christian. It was considered shameful to have sex before marriage. Today, we blatantly promote sex before marriage. In fact, we even encourage young people to live together without getting married.

Of course, there has always been sin, even back in the 50s and 60s.

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

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If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, February 20, 2023, and this is Episode #8 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "The Great Awakening or the Rude Awakening?"

If you've been listening to the news lately, you know that there is a Great Awakening going on in the heartland of our country. It began at Asbury University in Kentucky, and it is now spreading to other Christian universities in the Midwest. People are coming from all over the United States to experience this great move of God. 

A similar move of God occurred at Asbury University—then Asbury College—back in 1970, the year in which I was born again. That move of God also spread across the United States, reaching as far west as an Anglican church in the state of Washington and as far east as Pennsylvania and New Jersey where I lived.

So, what is going on?

What we are witnessing is, I believe, a final outpouring of God's mercy before the return of His Son Jesus Christ. You see, my friend, God does not want anyone to go to hell. In 2 Peter 3: 9, His Word says this: "The Lord is not slow in keeping his promise, as some understand slowness. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance."

So, what we are witnessing through this Third Great Awakening is God's response to hearts hungry for Him. Many in our land—especially our youth—have experienced hopelessness and despair at the direction in which our country has gone. Many have cried out to God for help. And God has graciously responded.

But, lest we become proud or complacent, let us be forewarned that this Great Awakening precedes the Rude Awakening when the Age of God's Grace will cease and the Age of God's Wrath will begin.  You see, God's mercy endures for a season, but at one point it will no longer be available. At one point, it will be too late to receive it. 

Are you willing to take such a risk? 

There is a verse in the Bible that most people are not aware of, but it is a verse that should put the fear of God in our hearts. The verse is found in the book of Galatians, chapter 6, verse 7: "Do not be deceived: God cannot be mocked. A man reaps what he sows."  This verse makes clear that when it comes to God, we will not get away with anything. Whatever we plant is what we will harvest. In other words, what goes around comes around.

So, do not take this Great Awakening for granted. Do not make light of it because a similar awakening may never come again. Perhaps not in your lifetime, at least.

Instead, ask yourself this question: What am I going to do with this great outpouring of God's mercy? How am I going to respond to this Great Awakening? Will I participate in it by accepting God's invitation to be saved? Or will I walk away and remain in my sin and rebellion?

The choice is yours,

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

To subscribe to this podcast, click here.

If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, February 13, 2023, and this is Episode #7 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "Are You Connecting the Dots"?

Have you figured it out yet that God is judging the earth? How else do you explain the apocalyptic events that are occurring all around us—and all at the same time? Earthquakes of immense proportions. Weather patterns that are unprecedented. Lawlessness that has run rampant. Insane thinking that defies description and credibility. 

Where is all of this craziness leading? To exactly where the Bible predicts it will lead: to the rise of the one-world religion, one-world economic system, and one-world government led by the worst dictator in human history known as the AntiChrist.

In case you don't know it, this dictator is already in the wings, waiting patiently to make his appearance on center stage after the Rapture and during the Tribulation. He will be the man who brings a supposed peace in the Middle East, the man who seemingly reconciles the world with Israel and Israel with the world, the man who gets the chaos under control after millions of Christians suddenly disappear in the Rapture. He will be brilliant, charismatic, and powerful. 

And, he will be a Deceiver!

In fact, he will be the human personification of the chief deceiver of all time, Satan himself.

So, you may be asking, how do you know all this, Dr. MaryAnn?

Simple. It has all been predicted in the Bible. Of course, if you don't read the Bible, you very likely will have no clue about what is really going on. All you see are the events, but you don't know what is going on behind the events and who is instigating them.

My friend, I urge you to read the Bible. God gave it to us as our manual for life. Just as you get a manual for your car, you get a manual for your life. That manual is called the Bible.

But very few people read it.

The Bible contains prophecies about the future. Most of these prophecies have already come to pass. Many of them are being fulfilled before our very eyes. And some of them have yet to be fulfilled.

Everything the Bible prophesies happens according to God's plan. But most people are not connecting the dots. Why not? Because they do not know the Bible. It's all explained in that Book above all books. The Book that is the best-selling book of all time, but the book that most people relegate to a shelf to collect dust.

But they do so at their own peril. You see, my friends, God is warning us and has been warning us all along of what the future holds. There are signs in the heavens that foretell the events of the last days. In the last few years, we've witnessed several blood moons, comets, asteroids, unusual planetary alignments, solar flares, and a host of other signs through which God is speaking to us. Well, you may say,

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

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If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

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Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, February 6, 2023, and this is Episode #6 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "How Close Are We to the Rapture?"

This past week, a new version of the movie Left Behind was released, under the directorship of Kevin Sorbo. This movie recounts the events that will soon transpire on earth as we move closer and closer to the Great Tribulation.

Unlike the two earlier versions of the Left Behind movie, Sorbo's version is like watching the morning news. The movie takes place against a backdrop of events that are currently happening in the world around us. What he portrays on the screen is what we are currently reading in the morning headlines or watching on the evening news.

Usually, apocalyptic-type movies present a scenario of a future yet to be unfolded. But Left Behind presents a scenario that is currently happening before our very eyes and that predicts the future yet to be unfolded. 

So, what does this mean for us? It means several things:

1) The Bible is absolutely true. All of the events happening in our world today—from the Covid crisis to the rise of trans-humanism, digital currency, the mark of the beast, and the AntiChrist—are all predicted in the Bible. Everything in the world is happening just as God said it would. All of these events are either taking place now or are being set up for the near future.

2) Current events mean that the Rapture of the Church is just around the corner. Bible prophecy will be fulfilled, whether we believe it will or not. We have no say in the matter because God alone is God. We are not. You see, my friend, God will have the final say, whether you believe it or not. So, doesn't it make sense to get ourselves on God's side? 

One of the greatest signs of the coming Tribulation is that man will declare himself as god. This is what the World Economic Forum is doing, especially through its spokesman Yuval Noah Harari, right-hand man to Klaus Schwab. If you haven't heard of Harari or his dangerous false teachings, check him out. 

3. You do not want to be left behind when the Rapture occurs. If you think the world is crazy now, it will be unrecognizable after the Rapture. When Christ-followers are taken home to Heaven, chaos will reign supreme. Imagine airplanes in flight suddenly without their pilots. Imagine cars suddenly without their drivers. Imagine mothers suddenly without their infants and children. All this is what will happen at the time of the Rapture when Christ-followers are removed from this earth.

So, how close are we to the Rapture? Very, very close. World events indicate that the Rapture could occur any day now. As my husband often says, the world is not falling apart. It is falling into place. World events are falling into place for the Rapture and the Tribulation to occur just as the Bible predicted the...

WINNING WITH THE WORD

“Winning with the Word” is a weekly blog that will help you to be a winner in life by applying God’s principles for living the abundant life as found in the Bible, God’s manual for life.

An invitation for you:

To subscribe to this blog, click here. 

To subscribe to this podcast, click here.

If this blog and podcast have blessed you, please encourage your family and friends to subscribe as well. Thank you!

Be sure to check out our Featured Book of the Week at the end of this post.

______________________________________

 

Do you prefer listening instead of reading? Then click below to listen to today’s blog post on podcast.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, January 30, 2023, and this is Episode #5 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "You Are Loved!"

In my 77 years on this earth and my 50-plus years of ministering to people both as a Life Coach, a Licensed Minister, and a friend, I have discovered that an underlying root of all sin and suffering is the belief that one is not loved. Because all of us were created to love and to be loved, this false belief leads us to look for love in the wrong places, and when we do, we always end up in trouble.

The need for love is a universal need. We find it in every person of every age and nationality. We find the need for love throughout human history, as expressed in our literature and our historical documents. We find the need for love in every child as he trustingly reaches out to those who care for him.

The need for love is a need we cannot deny or escape. Yet so many of us try to do just that. The need for love is a need placed in our hearts by God Who created us so that we would look to Him to meet our need for love. 

The sad thing, however, is that while the need for love never goes away, the wrong ways we try to fill that need backfire on us and, instead of love, we experience suffering and sorrow. Broken relationships and broken hearts.

When babies do not receive the love they need, their souls become warped. They learn that they have to perform to be loved, or that they are not worthy of love, or that they are unloveable. These soul wounds continue to fester as the child grows up, making his adult relationships fraught with problems.

Moreover, when one does not receive the love he needs as a child, he begins looking for love in the wrong places. For instance, in drugs, alcohol, food, illicit sex, pornography, or crime.

Perhaps you yourself find yourself in such a situation. Perhaps you have looked to the wrong sources to get the love you need. If so, let me offer you hope.

No matter what you've done or where you are in life, there is One Who loves you and will always love you, no matter what. That One is God. He made you because He loves you, and He continues to love you despite the way you may have messed up your life. He wants to heal you and restore you. He wants to show you how much He loves you.

You see, my friend, all healing begins with the knowledge and belief that God loves you! Until you truly know and believe in the depths of your heart that God loves you, you will remain stuck in your bondage. Until you truly know and believe that God loves you, you will live a life of continual regret. 

So, you may be asking, what am I supposed to do? How can I know and believe that God loves me?

Well, the first thing is to ask yourself if you truly want to receive God's love. Some people don't, you know, and that is tragic. For only God's love can save you.

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Hello and Happy Day! This is Dr. MaryAnn Diorio, novelist and life coach, welcoming you to another episode of Winning with the Word. Today is Monday, January 23, 2023, and this is Episode #4 of Series 2023. This episode is titled "How to Fight Fear".

Wherever I turn, I meet people who are fighting fear. Fear is the buzzword of the day as people face job losses, pay cuts, inflationary food prices, health challenges, and relationship issues.

If this describes you in any way, let me share the antidote to fear so that you can rid your life of it once and for all.

Fear expresses itself as a powerful emotion, perhaps the most powerful of all emotions. We all know that sick feeling in the pit of our stomach when fear strikes. That overwhelming pressure on our chests. That painful lump in our throats. That relentless, irrational attack on our minds that causes us to picture the worst. These physiological changes when fear strikes are real and, I might add, harmful.

I grew up in an atmosphere of fear, with the result that fear became a stronghold in my life. For years, I thought I had no control over fear, so whenever it struck, I would allow it to take me wherever it wanted to take me. But after I came to Christ and was born again, I learned something about fear that blew me away. Something that gave me an insight into fear that totally changed my perspective on it and the means by which I fought it. Now, I want to share what I learned with you.

I had always thought that fear was an emotion. But the Bible says something completely different. Here it is in 2 Timothy 1: 7: "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."

Did you get that? I'll read it again. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear." Fear is a spirit! It is not a feeling. Yes, we experience negative feelings when we fear, but behind those negative feelings is a demonic spirit.

This revelation was a game-changer for me. It meant that I finally understood what I was dealing with when I felt fear. And because I understood what I was dealing with, I knew how to handle it.

You see, when we are born again, we receive the authority and power of Christ over the enemy. In Luke 10: 19, we read this: "Behold, I give you the authority to trample on serpents and scorpions, and over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you."   Did you get that? "I give you authority over all the power of the enemy, and nothing shall by any means hurt you." Jesus has given the born-again believer authority over ALL the power of Satan. And that includes authority over the spirit of fear.

When we feel fear, we are hearing the devil talking. He is whispering—or shouting—lies to us to divert our focus from God to himself. At the first signal of fear, then, we must recognize that we are dealing with an evil spirit, and we must use the authority that Jesus gave us to resist that evil spirit of fear so that it wil...