What a wonderful time of year! The beginning of the Summer Season! School is getting out! The Sunshine has come to stay. The Frost is over and gone! Flowers are springing up and new life is everywhere! It is my favorite season bursting with the Joy of New Beginnings!

The only problem with all of this loveliness is that it never fails to happen that somewhere at sometime in the midst of this wonderful season, a nasty fly will find itself to someone’s soda glass and its own demise! The winged mosquito will raise many whelps on arms and legs, and tiny “chiggers” will jump out of the grass even by the campfire to cause those late night itches once again! Nevertheless, Spring and Summer are here, for better or for worse!

Have you ever noticed how many different kinds of bug sprays and insect repellents are on the market to choose from? My usual choice is “OFF” insect repellent: $3.99 (online sale!) . “OFF” is fine for my insect repellent needs! Of course, there are others like Deep Woods Insect Repellent that is loaded with DEET that you may prefer. Whatever repellent you choose, you must choose ONE of them in order to drive away the nasty little pests!

As I was studying my message from God’s Word for next weekend, I began to think about the time I spent in the sun yesterday and how very soon after the frost is over, we now need a can of “OFF’ beside our camp chairs!

I was considering the verse in God’s Word that says, “The weapons of our warfare are NOT CARNAL, but MIGHTY through GOD to the pulling down of Strongholds!”( 2 Cor. 10:4) It occurred to me as I studied, that God has HIS OWN formula for bug killer: especially for the peskiest one of all: “Beelzebub” “chief of the Evil Spirits” Yes, just another name for you –know- who! We have also heard the interpretation given for “Beelzebub” as “Lord of the Flies”. Yes, he is Satan, the devil, the evil one, the arch enemy of Jesus Christ.

But just as there is “OFF” insect repellent….God has His Strategy for “FLYSPRAY” with the Exact Same Title: “OFF”!!

God’s Strategic Formula is as follows:

First and fore most, when this spiritual strategy “spray” covers your spirit, you are going to have the very “scent” of it on you! That scent will be the “fragrance” of Jesus! That fragrance is what this “FLYSPRAY” is composed of!

The following are the ingredients for God’s Spiritual Version of “OFF”:

1. “O” is for OBEDIENCE: This is the one ingredient Satan fears more than anything else! Once we begin to operate in OBEDIENCE to GOD…he runs for the hills! Scripture says: “Submit to God (obey) and resist the devil (and THEN)…he will FLEE!!!”

2. Heb. 5:8 says “Jesus learned OBEDIENCE by the things He suffered!” God must think OBEDIENCE is very important to make sure we understand it!

2 Cor. 19:5 “Bring EVERY THOUGHT to the OBEDIENCE OF CHRIST!” Why is it so important to obey the Lord even in our thought life?? It is important because Proverbs 23:7 says, “As a man thinks in his heart, SO IS HE!” Wow! That is a major statement! What we think about in the deepest parts of our hearts determine WHO WE ARE!!!…our whole personality, our image, our understandings, our prejudices…our opinions…all come from our thought life!

This is a reason to be obedient for sure! If Satan can control our thought life, he can gain control over us!

Proverbs 16:3 says “Commit your works to the Lord and your thoughts will be established!”

When I used to suffer from depressive illness, I would hang on that word! When I reached out to others in any way to share in the food ministry I was doing, or the clothing give away, I would commit that work to the Lord…and little by little He began to change my thoughts! You know, we can DO good things just for the sake of doing good works, and never really speak the words or have the motivation in our heart of hearts to “commit our works unto the Lord.”…Therefore they just become “good works”…! It is when obedience is activated and right motivation is happening …It is when those works are truly “committed works” unto the Lord…that we begin to reap back greater value than we could possibly give! As our thought life begins to change, the devil will find his playhouse has been destroyed and he will leave and look elsewhere!’

3. “F” “FEAR OF THE LORD”: Prov. 16:6 says “In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity and by the fear of the Lord ONE DEPARTS FROM EVIL!!….So obviously, Satan DOES NOT want us to become involved in the Fear of the Lord! It literally is like a great wind which blows in the devils’ face!! And he is defeated once again!! If we operated in the Fear of the Lord we will begin to effect change in our lives and the lives of others as well! When that starts to happen; when REAL CHANGE begins to take place…the Fear of the Lord begins to REPLACE the Fear of Man/and other fears…thus SEVERING The cord of control and manipulations the devil desires to use on us to have his way with us!! He can’t attack what he can’t see! If we are hiding in the shadow of Almighty God as it says in Ps. 91 The devil will never be able to FIND US because he won’t be able to SEE US!! The Reverence and the Fear of the Lord is the “Fountain of Life” it says in Prov. 14:27!!! That means life flows out of that Fear of God! New Life!….Holy Life!…Life given and maintained by God and Reverence toward Him!

Proverbs 111:10 tells us that the “Fear of the Lord” is the beginning of WISDOM! So let us reason something out here! Prov. 2:10-12 says “when wisdom enters your heart and knowledge is pleasant to your soul….THEN Discretion will preserve you and UNDERSTANDING WILL KEEP YOU TO DELIVER YOU FROM EVIL!!! That is what we are asking for when we pray the Lord’s Prayer; Yes! “Lord, deliver us from evil!!” Here’s how! Get the Fear of the Lord and it will happen!!

Is. 55:11 says: “So shall my Word be that goes out of my mouth. It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it.”..

God’s Word is VERY POWERFUL!! It brings the Fear of the Lord! It accomplishes what it sets out to do and even prospers in whatever it was sent to do!

Because the evil one is the Tempter, Jesus dealt with him in the wilderness and said to him, “Man does not live by bread alone but by EVERY WORD that PROCEEDS from the MOUTH OF GOD!” (Matthew 4:4)

This “Word” is not the Fear of God, but it is the WISDOM BORN OUT OF THE FEAR OF GOD and is the END RESULT OF THE FEAR OF GOD, being a Product of it! Wisdom is the OFFSPRING of the Fear of God, so to say!

Jesus said “My peace I give unto you…not as the world gives give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled: neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

On the other hand, if you DO get afraid, “commit your works unto the Lord and He will establish your thoughts!” Fear and terror come out and exist from and are birthed out of our very THOUGHTS!

Rom. 8:1-2: The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus has set me free from the law of sin and death!! WHY? Because by the blood and cleansing persevering power given to me by Jesus Christ’s work of Calvary, I am now able to “commit my entire life and works all to Jesus” and HE WILL change my thought patterns! He will give me a NEW LIFE! A NEW HEART!

He will shine his light on my pathway and direct my steps! He will meet me where I am ! He will meet me not with Personality ENSLAVEMENT, not with manipulation and control, but with an effective exchange of my depravity for His Beauty! My shattered and torn heart for His Brand New One!

3. “F” FORGIVENESS is the Blood Bought Weapon of our Warfare!…bought by the Blood of Jesus on the Cross of Calvary! In the one prayer Jesus told his disciples to pray, the line says “Forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us! This is a powerful statement! We are asking God to forgive us according to just exactly HOW we forgive other people! God honors this request! He has shown us just exactly HOW to FORGIVE! We are not only to forgive our friends, but to forgive EVERYONE! Why? We are not made or fashioned to carry a lot of heavy burdens around ! One of the heaviest burdens is bitterness which can turn into sheer hatred, if one carries around un forgiveness .If the church today could really tune into forgiveness there would be so much more harmony and healing! His Word says that if we forgive others their sins against us, God will also forgive us, but if we don’t forgive others, God will not forgive us either!! That is the most powerful statement of all! We are actually able to CHOOSE what judgment will happen for us! It is God’s will for us to BE FORGIVEN and to FORGIVE OTHERS!! This is the weapon that bores through chains of bondage like a God powered laser beam and cuts them off! These chains fall to the ground every time we forgive! Un forgiveness is a prison of grief and torment! Nobody should have to go there! Nobody should have to stay there! We should learn to forgive and do it as an act of our wills, not as an act of our feelings! We cannot live by feeling! Feelings lie! God’s truth does not. If he tells us to forgive, He’s not interested in how we feel about it and we shouldn’t be either! FEELINGS are manipulated easily by Satan, the enemy of our souls, and used by him to keep us from forgiving, when God TELLS US TO FORGIVE! So…we simply DO IT by an act of our will and leave the “feelings and their healings “ up to God! The healing of the wounds and feelings are His Business!

If we will apply the above three Ingredients to our spiritual lives, we will be walking in the fragrance of Jesus: God’s Spiritual Beelzebub Destroying Essence of Obedience, Fear of the Lord, and Forgiveness…(..O.F.F….)! Beelzebub will take one whiff of this and run screaming!

“And whenever you stand praying, if you have anything against anyone, forgive him that your Father in heaven may also forgive you your trespasses. But if you do not forgive, neither will your Father in Heaven forgive you.” *Mark 11:25.

When we apply Obedience, the Fear of the Lord and Forgiveness, all three we can then say to the devil, our adversary, “O.F.F. YOU GO!!”

He will discern the fragrance, the scent of Jesus, and depart at breakneck speed to get away from it and from you!

Article is copyrighted by Sondra Stallman.
May not reprint without permission from author.