Fear

Fear is a dominating and debilitating emotion of the soul which takes root in the human mind over time. The Devil's big lie to us about fear is to convince us that we are not acting in fear but just good "ole" common sense. God's love casts out fear but it requires a lot of hard work to allow that love to flow in our lives. Our spirit does not experience fear because it has been made perfect in Christ but we do not experience life on earth totally by the spirit part of us. We live in a unperfected soul which gets its input from the five senses sending messages from a fallen world and Satan himself.  

ROM:8:15 For ye have not received (In your spirit) the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.

 2 TI 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

HBR 2:15 And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.

 HBR 13:6 So that we may boldly say, The Lord [is] my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me.

1JO 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear: because fear hath torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.

So how are we made perfect in love? The short answer is "a lot of hard work". Peter explains the process in the following scriptures.

2 Pet. 1:4-8 Whereby are given unto us exceeding great and precious promises: that by these ye might be partakers of the divine nature, having escaped the corruption that is in the world through lust. And beside this, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue; and to virtue knowledge; And to knowledge temperance; and to temperance patience; and to patience godliness; And to godliness brotherly kindness; and to brotherly kindness charity. For if these things be in you, and abound, they make you that ye shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 

REV 2: 10 Fear none of those things which thou shalt suffer: behold, the devil shall cast [some] of you into prison, that ye may be tried; and ye shall have tribulation ten days: be thou faithful unto death, and I will give thee a crown of life. (This was spoken of the suffering church of Smyrna which received no reprimand)

If not in spirit, however, every Christian experiences the emotion of fear in the unsanctified areas of our mind. Although our spirit has no fear, our soul has not yet been fully sanctified. Fear is the negative emotion that accompanies having to step into the uncharted territory of these unsanctified areas of our thought life. The mind is a battlefield and when we are forced to face up to the changing circumstances of the world around us, we are also forced to face up to wrong ways of thinking. Some ingrained in our mind since birth. A perceived loss of control is then triggered, causing fear. Never mind whether the perceived loss of control is real or not. The fear, we feel, sure makes our perception of the loss seem real, thus triggering  the very real feeling of fear. But it is just a feeling.

Actually, for a Christian, F.E.A.R. is simply "False Evidence Appearing Real" and is rooted in nothing more than unbelief or a lack of knowledge about what the bible says. Ouch! That hurts our pride to hear me make a statement like that. The truth can hurt but it also sets us free. Phl. 4:13 says, "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me". Does "All things" include overcoming fear? No doubt, it does.

We can choose to deal with fear two ways. The first and most common way for Christians is to rely on the limited resources of self or others stronger than ourselves (parents, pastors, teachers, friends, spouses, the government, etc.) and that will sometimes bring limited temporary relief, or we can choose to utterly destroy fear by applying the word of God to whatever we fear. 

Do this when fear comes. Memorize the scriptures above and apply them to every area of your thought life where fear resides. Next, if you have yielded to the anointing of the Holy Spirit, ask him to tell you what physical steps to take, to overcome the fear you are feeling. He actually speaks to Christians through our thoughts, not in an audible voice, but in a soothing, calming way which brings peace to our mind instead of torment. The more one listens to His voice, the more it can be recognized. When we do what He tells us to do, we become empowered by God to produce life giving results. Once, as a soldier, I applied what I am telling you to do here, and He rescued me and six other men, facing off against a force of hundreds of enemy soldiers. Not one man got a scratch. Had I not first listened, and then heeded what the Holy Spirit was telling me, although it made absolutely no sense to my natural thought processes, myself and the other six men would have been killed.

God equips us to handle all fear with what I call the hammer and the anvil. The knowledge of who we are (as a born again believer) in Christ, is the hammer and the knowledge of who God is, as revealed in His word, is the solid unmovable anvil. The knowledgeable use of these two great truths crush fear but to gain a steadfast knowledge of who we are in Christ, it is important that we first understand how we are made, that is, with a spirit, a body and a soul. I find it to be very hard to understand many New Testament scriptures pertaining to who I am in Christ without, first, understanding the tri-fold nature of myself.  

Remember, fear that is not dealt with quickly can become a very deep rooted cancer which will bury itself in the subconscious mind. At that point, it often, if not always, attracts a shield of pride, which can then make fear harder to deal with or even recognize. This is why we must not only read and memorize the scriptures above, but we must mediate on them until they become a part of our subconscious belief system. Then and only then will our most deep rooted fears be exposed and eradicated.

Here is one last thought. In a word, "FEAR" is all about "CONTROL". Here's what I mean by that. The Devil uses fear to control the church and God's people. 

I hear so many Christians say, "I know God is in control". No, God is not in control or you wouldn't feel the way you do! He was in control of everything at one time but He gave that control to mankind a long time ago. (Gen. 1:28) And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moves upon the earth. If God was in control, do you really think the world would be in the mess it is in today? If God was in control of your life do you really think that you would feel the way you do some times? God only controls the portions of our lives that we are willing to allow him to control because he gave away control of everything pertaining to the earth a long time ago or else his prophet would have been lying when he said in Psa. 115: 16, "The heavens are The Lord's, but the earth he has given to the children of men". The word "earth" here also includes everything in the earth, including you, and everything you choose to do, like who you pick as a spouse, your employment, your friends, your community associations and politics, your schooling, how you raise your children and yes, even which child you are going to allow to live or die in the womb. If you don't remember anything else I say, remember this. God only takes back control of the parts of our lives, which we are willing to turn over to Him here on earth. There will be a reckoning at another time but not now. I am not talking about that judgment. I am talking about the here and now and the shared dominion granted to us by God which we share with other human beings who are often very wicked people and sometimes these wicked people force others to do things against their will, when they have the power to do so. Older people sometimes abuse children whom they can easily control. Powerful people in government often abuse the human rights of other not so powerful people. God does not condone this behavior but he will not go back on his promise when He gave mankind total supremacy over his actions her on earth, to do good. He has put mankind in charge and it is up to mankind to choose good over evil. However, we Christians have a hope that the world does not have. We do not have to depend on fallen man to do the right thing. We have the Spirit of God living within us to show us what to do if we will only start depending on Him instead of ourselves and other people. The only way out of the messes of this world is to turn over every situation in our life to the Holy Spirit for His instructions on how to deal with each and every circumstance.

Doing things our way paves the road for fear to enter our life. Godly hope starts to die. Instead of acting on Godly hope we begin dealing with our circumstances by seeking carnal solutions. (Rom. 8:7) Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.  Godly hope is the catalyst which activates faith. (Heb: 11:1) Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. Another word for hope is vision. When we loose our hope we loose our God given vision. 

After hope activates our faith, that faith produces Godly fruit (substance) causing the love of God to flow more strongly through us to others and the world. The next time you experience fear, let that be your warning that you are trying to handle things your way or on the advise of others. If fear is present, just stop and listen to the Holy Spirit until you hear from Him and then do what He says do. You will be amazed at the results. Know why? Because you are giving back to God what was His in the first place, CONTROL!

NOTES:

Our spirits are sealed but our mind is exposed to sin from the world, the lies of the devil and our own fallen nature.

Eph. 1:13-14 In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of truth, the gospel of your salvation: in whom also after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that holy Spirit of promise, Which is the earnest of our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased possession, unto the praise of his glory.