Sid: My guest Pastor Charles Cowan Pastor of a 2,000 member strong Faith Is The Victory Church in Nashville, Tennessee. Has just written a book; the titled “How to Deal With the Cares of Life.” And you might say “Well, that’s not bothering me right now.” Well blink your eyes a few times and you will find yourself in a situation in what is going on… Charles with what’s going on the world right now. I mean since 911 I mean you can’t turn your television on without a particular color terror warning. You can’t turn your TV on without suicide bombers; you can’t turn your television on without hurricanes and tornadoes. I mean the Bible does say that men’s hearts will suffer because of fear.
Charles: Yeah it’s what He said “Men’s hearts will fail them for fear of looking to that which will come upon the world.” And this thing it seems like it’s intensifying obviously and the whole design is that this thing Satan in this last day in this last hour he is bringing things to bear upon people and God’s people that are causing them to allow fear into their lives. Which is bringing pressures; bringing them into a place of stress and they’re laden with the cares of life.
Sid: I’m going to get our Mishpochah very upset with me unless I take you back you’re on an airplane all of a sudden it plunges sharply downward. Fear comes up in your throat a tangible force it shouldn’t be you know better but it does. Fear literally, the spirit of fear and that’s the Bible calls it literally filled that in tire plane. The plane then levels and then all of a sudden starts shaking again. And you’ve got a choice as you explained on yesterday’s broadcast, we all have choices. Follow the external stimulus, or the word of God. It sounds so simple but that’s our choice. And as I said that God just told me there are people listening to whose backs and necks are healed in Jesus Name. Charles we got you back in the plane; it’s shaking all over you’ve just plunged down what’s going on inside of you and what are you doing about it?
Charles: Well what I’m doing now, what I’m feeling at the moment is an extreme amount of the emotions within me and thoughts that are racing through my mind as to the outcome of this thing as we described yesterday. But now I found this out that when situations arise they’re going to determine whether I am spiritual or carnal. When I say they will; I will determine whether I am carnal or spiritual when these things come against me.
Sid: Now when I hear the word carnal I usually think in terms of sexual sins and things like that. But when the Bibles using the word carnal it’s relying on what your flesh and mind perceive and what the word of God says.
Charles: When a person of a carnal mind is when they are moved only by what they hear and what they feel.
Sid: And you know what I find a lot of people that state the word but when something suddenly; and these things always seem to be suddenly come at you you go on the carnal side versus the Spirit side.
Charles: Well here’s the problem sometimes I think in my estimation it is that people know what the Bibles says but they have maybe reduced it down to using it only when there is such an occasion like this to use it. But we know this that you know you have a leak in your roof and you’re up there while it’s raining trying to fix it you’re probably not going to get it fixed. And so what people fail to do is to fill themselves with God’s word before crisis comes; before this stress comes; before the Satan begins to tighten this thing down on them. And fill their heart and fill their mind with the reading; the reading of the word and mediation in the word of God, or thinking upon the word of God.
Sid: Explain to me what you mean my meditation.
Charles: Okay, meditation is just simply as I see it it’s just simply where I train my mind to think on the scriptures. That I can do that when I am driving down the road you know I pick out certain scriptures or a number of scriptures from the Bible. And I just think upon them. Now people sometimes say this they say “Well, you know you just can’t think about the scriptures all the time.” But the truth of the matter is that we all are thinking about something all the time. And it’s rare that our mind, our minds, are not in that thinking mode or process or even many times people lay down at night and can’t go to sleep because their minds are racing. And so what I mean by that is I take scriptures that pertain to what God has done for me in Christ Jesus. What did Jesus accomplish for me when he went to the cross; did He do more for me than just make a way for me to go to heaven?
Sid: Charles you and I understand that and we can talk about that all we want right now. What I want to know is what was going on in your mind and what were you saying with your mouth after these things came upon you in that airplane; that’s what I’m interesting in?
Charles: Two things that I forced myself to think on the two scriptures was “That He has given His angels charge over me to keep me in all of my ways and to bear me up in their hands less I dash my foot against a stone.” And then in Isaiah’s writings where he says “No weapon formed against me shall prosper and every tongue that rises against me…” and so forth. Those two scriptures are what I began to speak out of my mouth; I began to focus my thoughts and my thinking on the word of God. I began to think on the word of God that God is faithful and He cannot deny Himself. That “God watches over His word to perform it.” I just flooded my thoughts with those scriptures and just refused; I mean when a thought would come of that fear again and what was going to happen I would just continually say to myself what God said “This is what God says; this is God; God cannot fail; God will not fail and He will not fail me.” And I began to just saying that and saying that and as the pilot brought that plane down and leveled it off you know I felt a little bit of relief from the pressures of the fear that was trying to engulf me. But then we were in that turbulence and here comes that emotion back to me again and the pilot comes on and says “Ladies and gentlemen we’re 80 miles out of Little Rock and we’re going to take it that we’re going to land in Little Rock.” And then just a few short minutes later he comes back and says “That we’ve been informed that there is an ice storm that’s moving eastward and they have just informed us that the airport at Little Rock has just been closed.” Well here comes those same emotions almost overwhelming; my mind is so so in turmoil at this time but I knew what to do. I knew how to confront the situation; I knew that the word of God was my answer. So I began to speak a little louder to myself; “No weapon formed against me shall prosper; every tongue that rises against me in judgment I will condemn; He has given His angels charge over me and they are bearing me up in their hands; I will not dash my foot against a stone and I will be safe because God says that I will.” So he comes then; the pilot does the captain comes I’m sure he didn’t mean it quite like it came to me but he said “And we are going to make an attempt to make it to Dallas Fort Worth. Well, I know this you don’t try up there; you do or you don’t. And so…
Sid: (Laughing)
Charles: And here comes that Satan flooding my mind with that “You’re going to try; he’s going to try; he’s either going to do it or he’s not going to do it.” In this case he’s not going to do it and I just spoke a little louder what God said about my situation. What God had done for me in my protection; in my safety and I said that until my mind quieted; till the emotions left my body and I could sit there in that plane in that turbulence. And I had a perfect peace about me because God’s word had brought me into a place of peace though I was in the midst of the storm. God’s word by His spirit had brought a peace to me that I could sit in the middle of a storm knowing that the end of the storm while I am yet still in the storm. I said “I will be safe; this plane will land; I will go to the convention that I’m going to; I will return home to my family because I knew that God… if God said it that’s the way it’s going to be because God cannot lie and God does not fail.”
Sid: You know what I’m wondering? I’m wondering you know when that tape recorder as you put it in your book starts going off in your mind if you spend a great deal of time watching violent sports on television; watching violence on TV. Maybe more time than you’ve spent reading the Bible, I can see how Satan can pull that tape out rather than the scripture.
Charles: Well he’ll sure do that. You know what you fill your mind with; what the individual fills their mind with that’s what Satan, you know over on his side of the ledger, that’s what he does. He’ll push that play button and he’ll run all of these things that we see like on TV and all that we hear on the news and all of the bad that is happening in the world and he’ll play that tape over and over and over again. And Satan will use those things to try to erase from our mind the word of God that we have placed in our mind. And so that’s why when Paul said “We’re to bring every thought into captivity…”
Sid: Awe we’re out of time right now. Mishpochah this is so important and the times we’re living in….
