In episode 62 of the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, Greg Ryan delivers a sermon‑style teaching on spiritual warfare, focusing on the first steps before putting on the full armor of God described in Ephesians 6. He anchors his message in the biblical command “Do not be afraid, only believe” (Mark 5:36) and stresses that belief must be rooted in God’s Word, not human opinion. Ryan connects the need for readiness to the Parable of the Seed (Mark 4), illustrating that only good soil—i.e., a heart grounded in Scripture—allows spiritual growth. He then recounts the Old Testament account of King Jehoshaphat in 2 Chronicles 20, highlighting how standing firm, worshiping, and trusting God led to a miraculous victory without fighting. Throughout, he emphasizes the Holy Spirit’s role as the Helper (John 16:7) who guides believers in truth and battle. Practical exhortations include making daily time for Bible study, using worship and praise as weapons, and relying on the Spirit for direction. The episode concludes with a call to listeners to engage the Word, sing praises, and apply these principles to experience spiritual victory.
Welcome to episode 62, In the Beginning Was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God, and the Word became flesh and dwelt among us. Spending time in the Word of God is the best way to spend time with God. Welcome to No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, where we will encourage, inspire, and empower you to live your best life in Christ. Here's Greg.
Welcome to episode 62. I want to remind you that this is the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast, and the only believe part is the Word of God. When Jesus— if you remember back in Mark 5:36, it says, as soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he said to the ruler of the synagogue, 'Do not be afraid, only believe.' So I just, I hadn't read that in a while, and that's one of our anchor scriptures, but it's— and it reminds us to not have any fear, only believe. And it's the word of God that we're to believe. And again, I got to jump up on my soapbox, we have got to be in the word of God to be able to believe the word of God. And so when Jesus said, 'No fear, only believe,' I believe he was talking to all of us. And to remind us that, hey, and then Paul brings it up in Ephesians 6, reminds us to put on the whole armor of God that we may be able to withstand against the wiles of the devil. Because the devil is going to lie to us, the devil is going to deceive us, and if we have the word of God to back it up or to come against that, that's what we need. That's what we need to only believe is the word of God, not what I say, not what anybody else says, but what does God say? All right, well, whoever needed to hear that, there you go. Now I want to continue on my lesson about standing. We're still in Ephesians 6:10-18, and we have not begun to put on the whole armor yet. This is prepping us and getting us in the right mindset. And if you remember back in the power of the seed, and that's in Mark chapter 4, the almost the whole chapter, chapter 4 is, is based on the seed and the kingdom of God. And Jesus talked about in the first part, and then he explained to his disciples what it meant, but about the four types of soil or ground that a seed can be planted into. And three of the four were not good. They were not good soil. But there was one good soil. There was one thing. And I think that's, if you can picture, that's what I think God is trying to get us. He's wanting us to be prepared to put on the battle because life is a battle, and we've talked about it. It's a battle to the death. None of us are getting out of this thing alive, but if we can fight the way God wants us to fight, we can have a victory. And I think there's a lot of us walking around today that are not walking victoriously through life, and we're beaten down and we're not living our all for God. And I believe it's because we're not in God's word. And I don't, I don't want to get on to you. I wish I had more time to stay in his word, but you know, life happens and we've got to get out and make our living and we got to go do our thing. But we do need to take time to get into the Word of God. And if you're watching a lot of stuff on TV, or if you're— why, you know, I hear people tell me all the time they don't have time. Like, I've got time to get into the Bible. Well, I make time. You know, we've all got the same 24 hours to get into the Word of God. It's how we choose to spend our 24. And I don't mean to get— God's not mad at you if you don't read his word. You know, God's— I told you, God's not mad. He's not mad at you. But if we're going to defeat evil We need to get into God's word to figure out the truth, and the truth is what's going to make us free. Well, I want to get back into the armor, but we're standing. Remember, we talked about standing, we talked about surrender, we talked about meekness, we've talked about a lot of things in this armor of God. Before we even put the armor on, God's getting us prepped, but part of it is standing. And, and Paul said like 4 times, you know, stand and stand therefore, and being able to withstand And so we need to just stand in the face of any onslaught by the enemy, anything, any kind of storm. We just need to stand strong. And in the last episode, I talked about a tree, you know, and how we need to, in the spirit realm, and one of the symbolisms for men are trees. And we need to, we need to stand firm and get our roots down, and our roots being into the Bible and into the water of the word. But I want to take us to 2 Chronicles 20, and it's a story that I think can illustrate what God will do if we will stand and we will believe. We'll see that when we read this. But this story is incredible, and I want to pick it up in 20:15. And he said, listen, all you of Judah and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat, thus says the Lord to you: do not be afraid nor dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours but God's. Tomorrow go down against them. They will surely come up by the ascent of Ziz, and you will find them at the end of the brook before the wilderness of Jeruel. You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourself, stand still, and see the salvation of the Lord who is with you. O Judah, O Jerusalem, do not fear or be dismayed. Tomorrow go out against them, for the Lord is with you. I want to remind you of the name of this podcast. Cast, and not to pat myself on the back because I'm not this good, but God kind of quickened in my spirit, no doubt, no fear, only believe, that we are, you know, we're coming against— there's a lot of fear out there and there's a lot of doubt and there's a lot of unbelief. And he showed me those two scriptures in Mark, do not doubt, where he talked to the synagogue leader that his daughter was dying, and that way actually she died, and they gave him word, don't trouble the teacher, because Your daughter's dead. And Jesus turned— as soon as Jesus heard that, he turned to the ruler and said, do not be afraid, only believe. And I think those, those words are, are just as true today as they were back then. Do not be afraid, only believe. And then we go to Mark 11:23 where it says, say unto the mountain, be thou removed and cast into sea, and do not doubt. In their heart but believe what they say. You've got to speak it, but you've got to believe. When God speaks in his word, you've got to believe it. And the word of the Lord came to Judah and Jerusalem. They were, they were about to be attacked by a huge army, a multitude, and God said, look, this isn't your fight. Y'all just, y'all just show up and stand. And we're going to pick up this story. We're going to go to 2 Chronicles 20:20. So they rose up early in the morning and went into the wilderness of Tekoa. I'm horrible with all these names. You know, English is not my first language. And as they went out, Josaphat stood and said, hear me, O Judah and the inhabitants of Jerusalem. Believe in the Lord your God and you shall be established. Believe in his prophets and you shall prosper. 2 And when he had consulted with the people, he appointed those who should sing to the Lord, and who should praise the beauty of holiness. 3 And as they went out before the army, and were saying, Praise the Lord, for his mercy endures for ever. 4 Now when they began to sing and praise, the Lord set ambushes against the people of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, who had come against Judah, and they were defeated. 5 For the people of Amon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of Mount Seir, to utterly kill and destroy them. And when they had made an end of the inhabitants of Seir, they helped to destroy one another. So when Judah came to a place overlooking the wilderness, they looked toward the multitude, and there were their dead bodies, fallen on the earth: no one had escaped. When Jehoshaphat and his people came to take away their spoil, they found among them an abundance of valuables on, on the dead bodies and precious jewelry, which they stripped off for themselves, more than they could carry away. And they were 3 days gathering the spoil because there was so much. Now that is such a cool story, and I want to encourage you as you think about this, and I know I'm a terrible reader, the Bible, again, it's sitting on your nightstand or it's under your arm, or it's on your phone. You can pick it up. It's 2 Chronicles 20, and just get to reading that story again and ask the Holy Spirit, what is it that you want me to picture? Or what is it that you want me to get out of this story? And what I got out of this story, and with the, and with the illustration that God is giving me with the armor of God, it is talking about standing still and being, being obedient to God and God's word. And, and preparing yourself and praising and worshiping. All of these things come into play when we start, when we start following God. And there are 4 different foundations, and that's a whole totally different rabbit, but there are 4 foundations of the church, and you are the church. And there— and we'll get into that in another episode. I don't even want to start chasing that, but we are the church, and there are things that you and I need to do daily and yearly and monthly and weekly that will give glory to God and help us in our walk. But when we start thinking about standing against the enemy, I want you to picture what God did. And, and God's the same yesterday, today, and forever. And so if you can take these examples that God did back in the Old Testament, think about the power that we have now in the name of Jesus. And we have the Holy Spirit everywhere here on Earth. Remember when Jesus He says, "It's to your advantage that I leave." And I still, I'm shaking my head, I still can't get over that scripture. And it's in John 16:7, but he told his disciples, "Look guys, it's better for you if I leave, it's to your advantage, because I will send the Helper." And he has done that. Jesus has left, he's at the right hand of the Father, and he has sent the Holy Spirit. And the Holy Spirit is here. And he is so powerful. He is inside of you if you've accepted him as your Lord and Savior. And he's with you daily as your friend and your comforter, but he's also out there if you will let him. The Spirit of God will lead you, he will direct you, and he will fight the battles for you. If you just kind of are struggling in some area of your life, I want to encourage you, get into the Word of God, ask Jesus, ask the Holy Spirit, "What can I do today that will help me get through this thing?" One of the things that I'm encouraged to tell you is get into his Word. I know you probably get tired of hearing me say that, but if you've listened to this podcast before, you know I'm gonna say it, I'm gonna continue to say it. It's not about what Greg says, it's about what God says. The Holy Spirit will lead you into all truth, just ask him to start leading. Well, that's enough for this episode. I just looked up and I am way long, and I apologize. This is a pretty cool story, and I would encourage you to get into it and to see and apply it to your life. Put on some praise and worship music and go get a— get singing, sing and rejoice to the Lord today. Thank you for being a part, and I look forward to talking to you in the next episode.
Thanks for listening to the No Doubt, No Fear, Only Believe podcast at www.nodoubtonlybelieve.com.
