2 Tim.1:6,7 – Therefore I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

The spirit of the world intends to intimidate Christians to stop them from proclaiming the gospel of Jesus Christ. It is the gospel that will bring individuals from darkness to light and actually change entire regions. When we open our mouth and proclaim God’s word God’s word always goes out and produces fruit. So the pushback that you feel that causes you to back down is spiritual resistance that is intended to do just that, to cause you to keep your mouth shut.

Think about this for a moment, if the Lord is in us and upon us and His words are alive and powerful every time we speak out, things happen. Can you imagine if a whole congregation would speak up consistently? A whole region would be impacted by the power of His word. Here is how Adam Clarke described Paul’s admonition to Timothy.

“Stir up the gift of God, which is in thee. The gift which Timothy had received was the Holy Spirit; and through him, a particular power to preach and defend the truth. This gift is represented here, under the notion of a fire, which, if it be not frequently stirred up, and fresh fuel added to it, will go out. This is the precise idea which the apostle had in his mind; hence the term anazōpyreō, which signifies to stir up the fire; to add fresh fuel to it. From this it plainly appears, that if Timothy had not continued to be a daily worker with God, he would have received the grace of God in vain. The Latins have a similar metaphor, excitare igniculos ingenii, to stir up the sparks of genius.”

Recently the leader of the ministry “Turning Point” was assassinated while he was doing a public event. Why would someone have such strong feelings about all of this to bring them to the point of shooting Charlie Kirk with a gun? It’s important to get this, it wasn’t political opinions that caused that young man to pull the trigger, it was the spirit of this world that despises what Charlie was doing, igniting college campuses with the power of the gospel.The spirit of the world is the spirit of antichrist. Be careful who you listen to, make sure you are filled with God’s word and Spirit on a daily basis.