Sit
211. Fear – What is it all about?
2 Timothy
1:7 says that we have not been given the spirit of fear, but
of love, peace and of a sound mind.
Adam.
The first thing that Adam felt, after he sinned, was fear. What caused it? The cause was a combination of several factors – separation from God, sin, absence of fellowship, independence from God as Adam began to depend on his own intellect. Fear did not exist until Adam became disconnected from God by sin.
It stands to reason then, that we can overcome fear by getting closer and closer to Jesus. 1 John 4:18 says, “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” This is normally a process and may not come instantly, although sometimes it does.
Fear is the opposite of faith. It is the expectation that something bad is going to happen.
“But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him” (Hebrews 11:6).
Fear is a spiritual being,
later it becomes an emotion.
We live in a world where the invisible is actually
more real than the physical; we just can’t see it with our eyes or hear it with
our ears. We need to come to God’s
Word to “see it.” Ephesians 6
states that we are in a fight with the invisible forces.
How does the invisible world
work? Planet earth is ruled by words.
Mark 11 shows how the words of Jesus destroyed a sick fig tree.
First, we have thoughts put into our heart; then, our hearts take the
thought and meditate on it, our mouth will speak it out, and then the invisible
world has the license to produce what we say (Luke 6:43).
Our
words are either seeds of faith or seeds of fear.
Satan influences us to create fear on earth by causing us to say words of fear. “Oh, I am scared to death” or “I am afraid I will never have enough money” or to our children, “You are going to be killed if you are not more careful.” Then, we begin to see fearful things happening in our life and we honestly become more and more fearful. This causes a cycle that never ends without the delivering power of Jesus.
In many cases, there are actually things that we would naturally and should legitimately fear. War does not cause faith, it normally causes fear. The word “cancer” does not cause faith, but fear. But our reaction to these things always needs to be with faith filled words, not with fear filled words.
2 Kings
6-7 shows an example.
The guard received what he believed. Everyone else received what they believed. The guard died and the others lived. This is the story of a famine in Samaria. Things were so bad that they were eating people and donkey dung. Elisha gave a prophecy that in 24 hours there would be plenty of food. One of the guards at the gate said that even if heaven’s windows opened up, no such thing could happen. Well, the next day a miracle happened and the food abounded. As the people ran out the gate of the city to get the food, the people trampled this guard.
2 Kings 7:2 (KJV) says, “Then a lord on whose hand the
king leaned answered the man of God, and said, ‘Behold, if the LORD would make
windows in heaven, might this thing be?’
And he said, ‘Behold, thou shalt see it with thine eyes, but shalt not
eat thereof.’”
He feared, and received what he feared! In faith we believe God and receive what we believe.
Jesus conquered the cause of fear. He redeemed what Adam did.
The Cross absorbed everything evil, so we need not fear anything.
But that
freedom does not come easy. The
only antidote is The Word!
The feeling and torment of fear is involuntary. The thing we must understand is that we
do not have to accept it when it comes.
Our only job is to quote and stand on the Word. We need not feel condemned when we feel
fear. Feeling fear is not bad,
acting on it is.
What events in our life can
produce fear?
Fear of death. Hebrews 2:15 (KJV) says, “and deliver those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
Fear of evil. Proverbs 1:33 says, “But whoever listens to me will dwell safely, and will be secure, without fear of evil.”
Fear of war. Psalm 27:3 says, “Though an army may encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war may rise against me, in this I will be confident.”
Fear of evil tidings. Psalm 112:7 (21st Century KJV) says, “He shall not be afraid of evil tidings; his heart is fixed, trusting in the LORD.”
Fear of man. Proverbs 29:25 says, “The fear of man brings a snare, but whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe.”
Isaiah 51:12-13 says, “I, even I, am He who comforts you. Who are you
that you should be afraid of a man who will die, and of the son of a man who
will be made like grass? And you forget the LORD your Maker, who stretched out
the heavens and laid the foundations of the earth. You have feared continually
every day because of the fury of the oppressor, when he has prepared to
destroy. And where is the fury of the oppressor?”
Fear of lack of money and food. Hebrews 13:5 (Amplified Bible) says, “Let your character or moral disposition be free from love of money [including greed, avarice, lust, and craving for earthly possessions] and be satisfied with your present [circumstances and with what you have]; for He [God] Himself has said, ‘I will not in any way fail you nor give you up nor leave you without support. [I will] not, [I will] not, [I will] not in any degree leave you helpless nor forsake you nor let [you] down (relax My hold on you)! [Assuredly not!]’”
Matthew 6:31-33 says, “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or, ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What should we wear??’ For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness; and all these things shall be added to you.”
There are some “good” fears. There is the fear of the Lord. But that is not an expectation of something bad. That is a reverence for an awesome loving Father and Friend.
It is good to be afraid to stick your hand in a fire; otherwise, you will get burned.
I feel that this quote puts our release from fear in the hands of
God. It is taken from the daily
devotional book titled, Streams in Desert 2, October 16.
I sought
the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears (Ps. 34:4).
I once heard the famous Scottish preacher, John
McNeil, relate this personal incident. During his boyhood in Scotland, he
worked a long distance from home. The walk home took him through a dense forest
and across a wide ravine. The ravine was known to house such nefarious tenants
as wild animals and robber gangs.
Darkness would often gather before he got to the woods, and he said,
“How I dreaded to make the last part of the trip! I never went through those woods
without trembling with fear.
One night it was especially dark, but I was aware that
something or someone was moving stealthily toward me. I was sure it was a
robber. A voice called out, and its eerie tone struck my heart cold with fear.
I thought I was finished. Then came a second call, and this time I could hear
the voice saying, ‘John, is that you?’ It was my father’s voice. He had known
my fear of the ravine and the darkness of the forest, and he had come out to
meet me. My father took hold of my hand and put his arm around me; I never had
a sweeter walk in my life. His coming changed the whole trip.”
That is God’s relationship to you and me! He is your
Father and my Father. Through the darkness and mist we hear His voice – He has
come to meet us. Just at the time we need Him, He will be there. Through the
darkest moment of life our Heavenly Father says, “Fear not! Here is My
hand! I will walk the rest of the
way with you.”
Mrs. Charles E. Cowman
Nor will I rebel if the Master
Sees fit in His plan divine,
To lead me through darkest of valleys.
Without e'en a ray of light.
Where loneliness wrappeth around me
The awesomeness of the night.
I will not, I dare not to falter –
And He who is wise and true
Has promised Himself to be with me
Until I am safely through.
Danson Smith
Prior to the time when I met Jesus, I was one who was given to fear. I had fear of the unknown, fear of the night, fear of failure, and, most of all, fear of death. God has wonderfully delivered me from many and most fears. Sometimes the deliverance came instantaneously, other times it came as a process of overcoming during a period of years. When I first heard the teaching about fear, I determined that I would never fear again. Well, it did not work. I asked, “Lord, why am I still fearing?” He said, “Because your fear is in your will. It has been put there over a period of years and it will take the Word of God to change your will.”
One day in 1998, after I had been a believer for more than 18 years, after being in spiritual warfare for more than two years with a financial challenge, I told the Lord that I was tired of fear. I confessed it to Him as sin and asked Him to take it away. He answered me from the following quote in a book that I picked up.
Quote from
Hearing Heart, by Hannah Hurnard, pages 42-47
Fears, of course, are quite a different matter. The
sooner every fear is got rid of and turned into faith the better. I learnt this as a very young Christian
through reading a little article in a C.A.W.G. magazine; an article written for
nervous, worried, and anxious people.
It said something like this: never mind if temperamentally you are very
fearful and prone to anxieties and worries, for that gives you a wonderful
opportunity to practice more faith than other people. Turn every fear into faith at once, and look what an
advantage you have! Endless opportunities of putting God’s gracious promises to
the test and of trusting Him.
This new, lovely idea gripped my heart and gave me a
completely new attitude towards my fears.
They could all be turned into faith. It seemed to me that this gave me almost an unfair advantage
over normal, healthy people. For
people who have more opportunities than others for practicing faith ought
surely to be able to develop a strong faith more quickly than others.
I shall never forget the amazed and awed feeling that
came over me when I was still a student at Ridgelands, when one of the other
students said to me, “I almost envy you and your stammer, Hannah, it seems to
keep you so close to Him, and make Him so real to you. Whereas I am always slipping away into
unreality, and trying to manage without Him.” It had never occurred to me that anyone observing what I
felt to be my awful handicaps should think them something to be envied.
But, of course, really, we all start equally
handicapped, though our handicaps differ in kind. Capable, self-confident people with wisdom and much common
sense have to learn faith too, and to keep turning their own talents and
abilities into utter dependence upon God.
Natural strength is often as great a handicap as natural weakness, both
must be utterly yielded to the Lord.
But it was when I was introduced to Frank Boreham’s
books that I really made the discovery of the blessedness into which my fearful
nature could lead me. Surely Frank
Boreham is the prince of writers for those who are fearful of heart. One day I came across his sermon on
scarecrows, and that simply amplified and glorified the principal of turning
fear into faith, and it has inspired me to go forward along some
frightening-looking path more times than I can number.
He says, “As with the virgins in the parable, so with
the birds of the field, there are two kinds, the wise and the foolish. A wise bird knows that a scarecrow is simply
an advertisement. It announces in
the most forceful and picturesque way that in the garden which it does it’s
best to adorn, some very juicy and delicious, fruit is to be had for the
picking. There are scarecrows in
all the best gardens. Every thoughtful
bird learns in time to regard a scarecrow as an invitation to a banquet. He feels as a hungry man feels when he
hears the dinner bell ring, and swoops down upon the delicacies to which the
scarecrow calls him.
If I am wise I too shall treat the scarecrow as though
it were a dinner bell. Every
giant in the way which makes me feel like a grasshopper is only a scarecrow
beckoning me to God’s richest blessings.
Faith is a bird, which loves to perch on scarecrows. She knows that where there are scarecrows,
there are strawberries. All our
fears are groundless.”
So life for me became more and more transformed. But I was so taken up with the new joy
and liberty which had been given me
that I did not at first realize how much else there was for me to be
liberated from beside my fears and my stammer. I was very little changed in matters of temper, irritability
and selfishness. I felt myself so astonishingly transformed within that it
would never occurred to me that there were others who would doubt the reality
of what happened.
One evening, however, I tried to tell one of my
sisters who was home during the university vacation, a little of the amazing
thing that had happened to me, and to urge her to seek for the same joyful
experience. She listened for a
minute or two and then said deliberately, “It is people like you, Hannah, who
put me off being a Christian. You may be happier yourself, but I can’t see that
you are any less selfish, nor as far as I can judge any easier to live with. You go about impertinently preaching at
everybody, and remaining just as determined to have your own way in everything
as you were before.”
I was completely taken back by this counter attack,
and horribly confounded, for I knew how much truth there was in it. At last I blurted out, “But you know
the Lord Jesus isn’t a bit like me.
Don’t look at what I am. He
is the One who is perfect. He only
took me in hand such a short time ago.
In the end, you know, He has promised to make all His followers, even
me, like Himself, and to perfect that which concerns us.”
But it is a long painfully slow job, having the roots
of selfishness and bad temper and irritability and laziness, and all the other
sins and defects so natural to human nature, put to death. A much more difficult job than being
delivered from infirmities and handicaps.
But His endless, patient love never gives up. It will never fail.
How skillful He is. Nobody
reaches as He does.
I now
keep the following sign on my desk:
“Fear is
like a scarecrow. To the unwise
bird it is a hindrance. To the
wise bird, it is an invitation to a banquet! Only the Cross of Jesus Christ can make this possible.”
We need to
work on fears for the long haul and begin to replace our images of fear with
images of faith. The author of the book Fear Free was a friend of mine.
He went home to be with Jesus in 1982. His book has always ministered to me.
Quote used by permission - from Fear Free, Jim Tumlin, Author - pages 27-37.
-REPLACE THE FEAR IMAGE WITH A FAITH IMAGE-
A powerful example of a faith image being developed is
found in the fifth chapter of the Gospel according to Mark. The part of the story I would like to
refer to begins in verse 21. Jesus
had just crossed the Sea of Galilee and was met by a great throng of people when
he landed at Capernaum. Through
this great crowd, a desperate man, a ruler of the synagogue, made his way to
Jesus and fell at His feet. He
begged Jesus, saying, “My little daughter is at the point of death. Come and lay your hands on her, so that
she may be healed and live.” Reread that passage.
This man, Jairus, could see in his mind Jesus laying
His hand on his daughter and she being healed and raised up. Jairus had a faith
image. He was the ruler of the
synagogue and could have heard Jesus teach there on many Sabbaths. As we continue this story, we see
Jesus, who is always moved by faith, going with Jairus. As they are walking toward Jairus’s
home, Jesus stops and exclaims, “Who touched me!” He turns around in the crowd
and sees a woman, I’m sure with the greatest expression of gladness and joy and
love on her face, mixed with trepidation, looking up at Him. In Mark 5:33, it says this woman told
Jesus her whole story, the whole truth.
She told Him she had had an issue of blood for twelve years, had spent
all she had on many doctors, and was no better, instead, she was worse. She went on to say she had heard the
reports concerning Jesus. “Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by (or about)
the Word of God” (Rom. 10:17). In
John 1:1, Jesus is called the Word of God.
When this woman heard of Jesus, she heard about the
Word, and faith began to arise in her heart. She probably heard of Him healing the cripples, blind,
paralyzed, and lame. She began to
see, by the formation of a faith image, herself being made whole. She repeated to herself, “If I can only
touch His garment, I shall be restored to health.” She told Jesus this.
She may have said, “I kept saying this and I heard you were in
Capernaum. I forced and pressed my way through the crowd to get to you. I reached out, I touched the hem of
your garment, and immediately all the bleeding stopped.” Jesus said to her, “Daughter, your
faith has restored you to health and made you whole.” The text goes on to say that while He was still speaking
some came from Jairus’s house and said to Jairus, “Don’t bother the teacher any
further, your daughter has died.” The Amplified Bible translates the next
verse, verse 36, the best way I have seen, “Overhearing, but ignoring what they
said, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue (Jairus), ‘Do not be seized with
alarm and have no fear only keep on believing.’” The Lord Jesus is teaching us
several valuable lessons here.
First, the words of an evil report will produce fear and in the light of
who our God is we should ignore anything contrary or in opposition to God’s
Word. Second, keep on believing. Do not quit believing.
No matter how bad it may look in the natural realm,
Jairus made his confession of faith, his faith image was expressed in Mark
5:23. “Lay your hands on her, so
that she may be healed and she shall live.” Jesus knew that the news of his daughter’s death would bring
fear, a fear image in the mind of Jairus, so He immediately said, probably
interrupting these men bringing the report, “Don’t be afraid, only
believe.” In other words, keep on
believing what you said earlier about your daughter being healed and living as
soon as I lay my hand on her. Do
not let fear in, or your faith image will dissolve. As we continue to read this story, we see that Jairus did
not say another word, he did not act on fear, but rather kept on
believing. We know this because in
verse 41, Jesus placed His hand on the little girl’s hand, and she was instantly
healed and raised up.
The points in Mark 5 are so important I would like to
go over them again to make sure what the Holy Spirit revealed is fully
understood.
What the woman with the issue of blood heard about
Jesus began to change her image from fear and failure, to faith and
healing. This image of faith and
healing was built by faith filled words.
She spoke them (verse 28). The natural circumstances, her bleeding, and
weakened condition only produced fear.
She went beyond the natural circumstances by speaking faith filled
words. These words destroyed the
fear image, and also they painted a faith image of healing and wholeness on the
inside of her.
-FAITH FILLED WORDS-
Faith filled words will program your spirit to see a
different image within yourself.
You will begin to see yourself well and you will get well, even though
you might be experiencing great pain, swelling, or even bleeding at that
moment. I think it was Kenneth
Hagin who said, “When the supernatural comes in contact with the natural, then
the natural has to change.” God’s Word is supernatural, it is a supernatural
force, and as it is continually applied to your natural circumstances, they
have to, and will, change.
Proverbs 18:21 says, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue.”
And if God’s Word, which is filled with the power of God and will not return
unto Him void or empty, is constantly spoken in faith, then the natural
circumstances that are contrary to the Word will have to change to the same
form and similitude as the Word that is spoken. Your body will change and be healed. II Cor. 4:18 says,
“While we look not at the things that are seen, but at the things that are not
seen, for the things that are seen are temporal; but the things which are not
seen are eternal.” The word “temporal”
means, subject to change.
Therefore, what we see or feel in the natural plain is subject to change
by the supernatural Word of God.
This is exciting! No matter what may be wrong in your
body, or family, or finances, or social life, it is all temporal, subject to
change, by a steady and diligent application of God’s Word! When an un-movable
force, the Word of God, contacts a movable object, a temporal object, or your
need, the object is subject to change, and you win! Praise the Lord!
-HOW TO DESTROY THE FEAR GIANTS-
One of my favorite stories in the Bible has to be the
story of David and Goliath. This
is an explicit picture of how fear paralyzed a whole army and how the faith
filled words of a shepherd boy came to pass, and defeated a giant. This exciting story is found in I Samuel
17. Beginning with verse 8, the
Amplified Bible states that Goliath, the giant, began to shout to the ranks of
Israel and challenge them to send one man to fight him. It would be a winner takes all
situation. Goliath said, “I defy
the ranks of Israel this day; give me a man that we may fight together.” When
Saul and all Israel heard the words of the Philistine, they were dismayed and
greatly afraid. We stated earlier
that faith comes by hearing the Word of God, by the same token, fear comes by
hearing the words of Satan. When
you read about the Philistines in the Old Testament, you can always associate
them with Satan. Goliath was the
spokesman for the Philistines, therefore, he is a type, or agent of, the
devil. Notice again, his words
made Israel “dismayed and greatly afraid.” But we have another character
entering this story in verse 12. A young shepherd boy from Bethlehem… a clear type and picture of Jesus
Christ. I John 3:8 says the reason
the Son of God came was, “that He might destroy the works of the devil.” Now we
are about to see a preview through the life of David, how the Lord Jesus Christ
defeated Satan, which literally means adversary.
David was the eighth son of Jesse. The number eight itself is very
significant in Biblical numbers.
It is the number of "new beginnings" and according to the
Companion Bible, appendix 10, eight denotes resurrection, regeneration, a new
beginning or commencement. It is
the number which has to do with the Lord, who rose on the eighth, or new, “first
day.” In the Greek alphabet, each letter has a numerical value. The sum of the numbers that spell Jesus
totals 888. It, or its multiple,
is impressed on all that has to do with the Lord’s names, the Lord’s people,
the Lord’s works.
To say the least, this is extremely interesting as we
study how David defeated Goliath.
Please follow the details of this story closely with me, it will show
you how to defeat every fear giant in your own life.
I Samuel 17, verse 16 says Goliath came out morning
and evening and defied the army of Israel for forty days. Remember the number of days,
forty. We saw this earlier in
Numbers 13 and 14, referring to the twelve who spied out the land for forty
day, and were afraid of the giants in Canaan. Ten of them brought back an evil report, which put fear on
all the people. Because of that
fear they roamed for forty years in the wilderness and that generation died
without seeing the Promised Land.
Also, recall Luke and Matthew’s recount of the
temptation of Jesus in the wilderness, which lasted forty days. The Lord Jesus had the same opportunity
to fear and rebel, but He used a powerful weapon that God offers to all of us
to defeat every giant and enemy of our lives. You will begin to see this unconquerable weapon shortly, because
David also used it against Goliath.
Verse 23, “Goliath the champion of the Philistine of Gath came forth
from the Philistine’s ranks and spoke the same words as before and David heard
him. And all the men of Israel,
when they saw the man, fled from him terrified.” Two portals to the human mind that brought fear and terror
were what they heard and what they saw. They heard his defiance and saw his
great size and they fled in terror. But in verse 26, we hear the voice of a
fearless man who knows his God and his covenant with God. “For who is this uncircumcised (means
without a covenant with God) Philistine, that he should defy the armies of the
Living God?” David exclaims to the fearful men around him. This shepherd boy, David, goes on to
say in verse 32, “Let no man’s heart fail (for fear) because of this
Philistine; your servant will go out and fight with him.” King Saul says to
David, “You are only a boy and Goliath has been a warrior from his youth.” Then
David does a very important thing in overcoming fear. He begins to remember and talk about
the past victories the Lord had helped him with. How he pulled a lamb out of a lion’s mouth and caught the
lion by his beard and smote him.
How he had also killed a bear.
David implied he was able to do these things because of his covenant or
contract with God, which all the Jews had with the outward sign of
circumcision. The word
“circumcise” literally means “to cut.”
When a Jewish boy was circumcised on the eighth day of his life, blood
was let and a blood covenant or contract or agreement was established with
God. A new beginning for him.
The primary reason Jesus had to shed His blood when He
died was in order to establish an agreement with all who would believe on
Him. The writer of Hebrews makes
this clear when he said, “without the shedding of blood there is no remission
or forgiveness of sin,” or there is no covenant with God.
David intimates, the same way he killed the lion and
the bear, he will also kill this uncircumcised Philistine. In verse 37, David said, “The Lord, who
delivered me out of the paw of the lion and out of the paw of the bear, he will
deliver me out of the hand of this Philistine.” Notice, David never makes reference to this Philistine as a
giant or anything too big for His God.
David was not afraid because he knew he had a contract with God which
promised him victory (Deut. 28:1-14). Goliath, the Philistine, had no such
agreement with God. If you are a
born again believer in the Lord Jesus Christ, you have, right now, the same
agreement with God that David referred to, and you also have better promises
(Heb. 8:6).
I Samuel 17:40 is an extremely interesting verse. It states that David chose five (5)
smooth stones out of the brook for his sling. Why five, when it took only one to kill Goliath? First, the
number 5 is the Biblical number of grace, or God’s favor. Second, there are five letters in the
name of Jesus, who is the expression of God’s grace and favor, and third, we
read in II Sam. 21:22, that there were four other giants who were descendants
of Goliath that David also killed later.
He needed the four extra stones to kill more fear giants in the
future. When the monsters of fear
attack us today, we have our five stones or rocks, the name of Jesus, who is
the Word of God, which defeats fear in every arena of combat.
In verse 45, David spoke to Goliath. He said something before he acted. “Then David said to the Philistine, you
come to me with a sword and a spear and a javelin; but I come to you in the
name of the Lord of hosts, the God of the ranks of Israel.” David did not come in his own strength,
but in the Name of the Lord which is Jesus, the anointed one. Then David begins to say boldly with
his mouth exactly what he is going to do to Goliath. “This day the Lord will deliver you into my hand and I will
smite you, and cut off your head and I will give the corpses of the army of the
Philistines this day to the birds of the air and wild beast of the earth; that
all the earth may know that there is a God in Israel, And all this assembly
shall know that the Lord saves not with sword and spear; for the battle is the
Lord’s and He will give you into our hand” (I Sam 17:45-47).
After David had spoken this bold statement of faith in
his God’s ability, he RAN towards Goliath. The book of James says, faith without corresponding action
is dead, or void of power, inoperative (James 2:17). David spoke by faith, acted on the words, and the rest of
this powerful story is history.
David was a Mark 11:23 man, he got what he said, and so did Goliath, he
got what David said.
You must take the offensive against fear. Speak God’s Word louder than the voice
of fear coming against you. Say
what God has said and you will defeat fear every time, anywhere, and under any
circumstances.
Eighty different times we are commanded in the Bible
to "FEAR NOT." In
Revelation 1:17, Jesus says, “Fear not, I am the first and the last, and the
ever-living one. I am living in
the eternity of the eternities. I
died, but see, I am alive forevermore: and I possess the keys of Death and
Hades.” Just think of who lives in
you. How can we be afraid of
anything when we consider Jesus, the greater one living inside of us. We just say to the spirit of fear, the
force of fear, “Be gone”; the greater one is in me and no weapon formed against
me will prosper, because He gives His angels charge over me and they keep me in
all my ways. My ways are the ways
of the Word and nothing shall, by any means, hurt me. I have a blood covenant
with God and my God cannot fail.
The Lord is the strength of my life, of whom, or what, should I be
afraid. I am an heir of God and a
joint heir with Jesus. I dwell in
the secret place of the Most High and I abide under the shadow of the
Almighty. With long life, He satisfies
me and shows me His Salvation, Healing and Victory! (I John 4:4, Is. 54:17,
Ps. 91:11, Ps. 27:1-3, Rom. 8:17, Ps. 91:1,2,16). When you experience the force of fear coming against
you, say aloud the above five times, (5 = God’s grace and favor) and watch fear
flee. You are now resisting the
devil, who is fear incarnate.
We need to know that Satan has more fear than we do. He bluffs us. But we can “turn the captivity” like God did for Job. Job 42:10 (KJV) says, “And the LORD turned the captivity of Job, when he prayed for his friends: also the LORD gave Job twice as much as he had before.” The word, “turned” means that whatever Satan had put on Job, God put back on Satan. So, whatever fear Satan has put on you, you can put it right back on him!
God’s enemies, the invisible ones, are afraid of Him in you. Psalm 48:3-6 (KJV) says, “God is known in her palaces for a refuge. For, lo, the kings were assembled; they passed by together. They saw it, and so they marveled; they were troubled, and hasted away. Fear took hold on them there, and pain, like a woman in travail.”
Gideon spied on his enemies just before the war. God gave the enemies a dream which
caused fear in them. Judges
7:13-14 (KJV) says, “And when Gideon was come, behold, there was a man that
told a dream unto his fellow, and said, ‘Behold, I dreamed a dream, and lo, a
cake of barley bread tumbled into the host of Midian, and came unto a tent, and
smote it that it fell, and overturned it, that the tent lay along.’ And his fellow answered and said, ‘This
is nothing else save the sword of Gideon the son of Joash, a man of Israel, for
into his hand hath God delivered Midian and all the host.’”
The Israelite spies in Jericho discovered that the enemy was more afraid of them even though they outnumbered the Israelites. Joshua 2:9 (KJV) says, “And she said unto the men, ‘I know that the LORD hath given you the land, and that your terror is fallen upon us, and that all the inhabitants of the land faint because of you.’”
The Israelites’ enemies began to fear each other when the Israelites began to praise God! 2 Chronicles 20:22-23 (KJV) says, “And when they began to sing and to praise, the LORD set ambushments against the children of Ammon, Moab, and mount Seir, which were come against Judah; and they were smitten. For [fear of betrayal]* the children of Ammon and Moab stood up against the inhabitants of mount Seir, utterly to slay and destroy them: and when they had made an end of the inhabitans of Seir, every one helped to destroy another.”
* note from Amplified Bible
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