There are numerous manifestations of this tormenting, binding, ensnaring fear apparent in our world today. Multitudes of people fear for their safety, hiding behind closed doors and barred windows and arming themselves with lethal weapons. People also fear failure, rejection, pain and sickness, poverty, old age, and death. There are so many fears that psychologists have developed an extensive list of common “phobias” to catalog them:
-Acrophobia: The fear of high places
-Agoraphobia: Fear of open and public places -Achmophobia: The fear of sharp objects
-Algophobia: Fear of pain
-Anthropophobia: Fear of man or a particular person -Astraphobia: Fear of thunder, lightening, or storms -Claustrophobia: A fear of closed places
-Ereuthophobia: Fear of blushing
-Gynephobia: Fear of women or a particular woman -Hematophobia: Fear of blood
-Hydrophobia: Fear of water
-Monophobia: Fear of solitude
-Necrophobia: Fear of dead bodies
-Nyctophobia: Fear of darkness
-Ochlophobia: Fear of crowds
-Pathophobia: Fear of disease
-Pyrophobia: Fear of fire
-Thanatophobia: Fear of death
-Toxiphobia: Fear of poisons
-Zoophobia: Fear of animals
And so the psychological cataloguing of this force called fear continues. If you are to deal with this powerful force then you must recognize fear for what it is. Fear is a spirit Satan uses to torment, dominate, oppress and control you:
2 Timothy 1:7 "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind."
When you become a born again believer, God gives you a different nature of “power, love, and a sound mind.” Thereafter, whenever you fear, it is because you allow the spirit of fear to seize control of your mental processes:
Romans 8:15 "For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father."
-Fear draws your focus from God to your circumstances.
-Fear immobilizes and paralyzes you when you face difficult situations.
-Fear is sin because “whatever is not from faith is sin” according to Romans 14:23. If you are not demonstrating faith then you are operating in fear and fear is sin. The Apostle John records in the Revelation 21:8 that:
"...the fearful, unbelieving, abominable, murderers, sexually immoral, sorcerers, idolaters, and all liars shall have their part in the lake which burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death.”
When you face a problem and you are not sure what to do, there is one thing you know not to do and that is to fear! If you have allowed fear to engulf you, then stop right now and confess fear for what it is!
1 John 1:9 "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness."
The opposite of fear is faith, and fear and faith cannot operate simultaneously. Matthew 8 provides a narrative about the Disciples of Jesus on the Sea of Galilee in a great storm that threatened to capsize their boat. They were fearful as they struggled against the raging torrents and Jesus said to them in Matthew 8:26:
“Why are you fearful, O you of little faith?” Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea, and there was a great calm."
The collation is apparent-If you are full of fear then there is little room for faith to operate. Both fear and faith have creative powers. Faith generates positive results and fear generates negative consequences.
After losing his family, servants, and flocks Job declared, “For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, and what I dreaded has happened to me” in Job 3:25. When you are fearful you release a negative creative force that prevents you from hearing from God:
Isaiah 66:4 "So will I choose their delusions, and bring their fears on them; because, when I called, no one answered, when I spoke they did not hear; but they did evil before My eyes, and chose that in which I do not delight."
You will never conquer your problems operating in fear.
-In Old Testament times the fearful were not allowed to go into battle for the Lord:
Deuteronomy 2:8 "The officers shall speak further to the people, and say, “What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.”
-When Gideon was building an army to confront enemy forces God told him in Judges 7:3:
“Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, `Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained."
The fearful were not allowed to engage in battle because fear paralyzes and renders a person immobile. The fearful freeze in conflict and have tendencies to retreat from the enemy. Every area of your life is either governed by faith or fear. In the face of impossible situations for which you have no answer you will either be mobilized by faith or conquered by fear. Fear binds and renders you ineffective to deal with the difficulties of life. Fear paralyzes, but faith energizes.
“Jehoshaphat feared” initially but he did not continue to operate in fear. If you peek ahead in the text of 2 Chronicles 20 you will discover that Jehoshaphat effected a mighty victory against the enemy. The question is, how did he make the transition from fear to faith? And more pertinent to your present situation is how can you be released from fear and begin to operate in faith?
No comments:
Post a Comment