You Will Not Die But Live

A few years before the COVID storm rolled in, Vincent Cheung had already begun publishing more on faith. That stirred me to rethink and refocus. But it was the lockdowns themselves that forced a complete lifestyle shift: deeper devotion, bolder faith, and a daily pursuit of God that I had never known before.

God had warned me years earlier in a divine trance. He told me straight: I wasn’t internalizing Scripture with the faith and inner strength I should. Even after that, I was still partly blind to what it really meant.

When COVID locked most of us down, I found myself stuck at home. I even took the second booster shot. (Listen, if you walk in real faith, you have freedom in your choices—as long as you’re not willfully testing Him in bad conscience. Faith isn’t a straitjacket; it’s freedom wrapped in a divine safety net and unstoppable power.)

Still, afterward I felt half-dead for weeks. One afternoon in my living room I nearly passed out. Vision went black, veins and heart turned cold and sluggish, breathing shallow. Time slowed to a crawl. I had one foot in the grave, and it felt like the other was sliding in too.

I couldn’t speak out loud, i was so weak, but in my spirit I cried out to God. I remembered the dreams and prophecies spoken over my life that still needed fulfilling. Instantly, just enough strength flowed in. I pulled myself onto the chair, and the Holy Spirit spoke with crystal clarity: “You will not die. I will help you. I will restore you and strengthen you.”

I had no health insurance then, so a doctor wasn’t even an option—which turned out to be the best medicine of all. The Great Physician doesn’t charge co-pays, and He’s always faster than any app notification on speed dial.

That single word from the Spirit cut the fear off at the knees. I still felt rough for months, but real recovery began. Slow, steady, and supernatural.

That was the turning point. I changed my everyday life to seek God devotionally. I downloaded the Joseph Prince app and started my first consistent devotional. I signed up for Kenneth Copeland’s daily email. I remember laughing to myself: “I can’t believe I’m reading these guys!” The doctrine of God’s sovereignty is so easy, and you shouldn’t boast about knowing it as if it were a difficult thing to do. It is a doctrine no one can take from me. Reading faith teachers never once damaged my grasp of it. The real problem was that I knew sovereignty but wasn’t living in the joy, peace, and answered prayer of the Spirit in a true application of sovereignty. Knowledge of Sovereignty without faith is empty.

I needed to grow in these areas of faith. However, the Pentecostals and charismatics were too weak. The faith teachers were the only ones who did not qualify Jesus’ statements about faith.

Back in my teens I had prayed in tongues and grasped God’s absolute sovereignty from Romans 9 with no teacher at all. I was at my strongest when the Spirit filled me with power. The faith teachers simply reminded me how vital tongues really is. So I went all in again: praying in the Spirit daily, speaking God’s promises aloud as faith confessions and declarations, singing and praising more and more, cycling through my lists of promise verses, and feeding on faith preaching.

Within months the difference was night and day. Before, stress and fear kept me up at night. Now I slept like a baby—peace mandatory, snoring optional. Prayers started landing. Doubts showed up less and less.

My inner man had been weak, fed only by my own limited experience. Prayer used to come loaded with doubt, stress, and what I now recognize as demonic harassment—those force attacks Vincent Cheung describes so clearly in “On Spiritual Attacks.” Satan pushed condemnation, dread, and the feeling there was no way out. Godly fear brings dread but also shows the escape route with hope and the Holy Spirit shouting “yes” to every promise applied to you.

When you actually read the Bible you see the pattern: when you ask God for something, you should feel nothing but joy, peace, and rock-solid confidence. Anything less means weakness in the inner man—like trying to run a marathon on spiritual spaghetti legs.

Years later (we’re in 2025 now), some of those old weaknesses and demons have tried to creep back. But my inner man is stronger—measured mostly by faith—and I know how to take authority in Jesus’ name. I command them to leave, and they run with their tails between their legs. See my essay “Power Is What Will Finally Deliver You” (and the fuller treatment in Systematic Theology 2025, Faith Edition).

I’m not claiming perfection. I’m not yet at the level of power and faith I’m pressing toward. But the decisive difference a strong inner man makes is undeniable.

And the same upgrade is waiting for you.

All is not lost, friend. Renew your mind in faith and confidence in God’s good promises. Strengthen your inner man. Know how much He loves you and what He has already given you in Christ. When you pray, you will have what you ask. You will see what you confess. You will accomplish what you command in Jesus’ name.

You will not die, but live—and declare the works of the Lord.