The Spirit of Fear: Part 2

Today, I am just setting a scriptural basis for what I want to talk to you about. In order to understand the spirit of fear, we must understand it's opposition... the fear of the Lord. The fear of God is the scriptural fear that we must live by. 

These are several scriptures that urge us to fear the Lord & has many promises to us when we do.

Throughout the Word of God you will find the Lord giving direct commands for us to fear Him...because He is God. Deut.4:10b says, "...the Lord said to me, 'Assemble the people to me, that I may let them hear My words so that they may learn to fear Me all the days they live on the earth and that they may teach their children.'  Ps. 86:11 says, "Teach me thy way, O Lord;...unite my heart to fear thy name. Ps. 34:11 pleads, "Come ye children, hearken unto me: I will teach you the fear of the lord."  

Several times in the Book of Leviticus when God is giving the Law to the people, as he is dealing with the subjects of how to treat each other, he ends each with "fear your God." 

Ps.2:11 says, "Serve the Lord with fear, and rejoice with trembling." Ps. 5:7 says, "But as for me, I will come into thy house in the multitude of thy mercy: and in thy fear will I worship toward thy holy temple." Ps. 22:23 commands, "You who fear the Lord, praise Him..." Ps. 6:9 also commands, " O worship the Lord in the beauty of holiness: Fear before Him, all the earth." When we worship God, it is an open display that we fear Him.

Many times the Bible speaks of the fear of the Lord such as found often in Proverbs. Here are some of the rewards spoken of in Proverbs alone when one has the fear of the Lord... it brings wisdom, causes us to hate evil & to turn away from it, causes our days to be prolonged, gives us strong confidence, is a fountain of life to us, brings riches, honor & life, etc... Ps. 25:14 says, "The secret of the Lord is with them that fear Him..." Ps. 33:18 states, " The eye of the Lord is upon those who fear Him." Ps. 34:9 reads, "O fear the Lord, ye His saints: for there is no want to them that fear Him." Etc... They're are blessings that come upon us when we fear God.

Matt. 10:28 (NAS) says, " And do not fear those who kill the body, but are unable to kill the soul; rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul & body in hell." Only God has the ultimate authority in our eternity. He is the only one able to meet out the judgment of the way that we choose. Ps. 119:120 says, "My flesh trembles for fear of Thee, and I am afraid of thy judgments. Rev. 14:7 states, "...Fear God, and give glory to Him; for the hour of His judgment is come: and worship Him that made heaven, and earth, and the sea, and the fountains of waters."

Ps. 19:9 reads, "The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous all together." This scripture verifies what so many of us already understand. To fear God is not the same kind of fear that you feel from the devil, or an enemy, or even people that you might have the wrong kind of desires to please. It is a revering of Him as the ultimate authority. He is God, and because of this we trust Him enough to serve Him as our God. He is not a mean, abusing god, but rather the just & one true living God. Even when He corrects, it is driven out of love for us, and not to harm us. When we walk in the fear of the Lord, our heart has confidence.  

satan, however, in his desire to be God, imitates Him by distorting true fear; the fear of the Lord. satan always twist & distorts truth. It doesn't matter how he can get you to fear, but the fact that he can get you to fear. If he can get you to fear people, circumstances, and him he has done his job. satan's kind of fear operates out of plain fear, fear of man, &  man-pleasing. Any fear that it not directed towards God is not an appropriate fear. Here are several scriptures that urge us what not to fear.

The Lord desires that we fear Him only, and not man, our enemies, or the devil. He actually warns us not to fear others. 

Look at Jer.1:17, "Now gird up your loins, and arise, and speak to them all which I command you. Do not be dismayed before them, lest I dismay you before them." Wow...that was a very direct command to Jeremiah to speak to the kingdoms, yet fear no one but God. It came with a warning that if he feared the people, he would be overcome by fear in front of them. He was warning Jeremiah not to trust in man's ability to harm him more than trusting in God's ability to deliver him. 

Ps.27:3 confidently states, " Though a host should encamp against me, my heart shall not fear; though war should rise against me..."

2 Chron. commands, " you need not fight in this battle: set yourselves, stand ye still, and see the salvation of the Lord with you...fear not, nor be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them: for the Lord will  be with you."

Deut. 20:3-4 says, "...Ye approach this day unto battle against your enemies: let not your hearts faint, fear not, and do not tremble, neither be ye terrified because of them; for the Lord your God is He that goeth with you, to fight for you against your enemies, to save you."  We are to trust God in the midst of physical wars with pagan lands, as well as the spiritual battles with the devil.

 Prov. 29:25, "The fear of man bringeth a snare, but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." To fear man is a trap because we are not fully trusting God when we fear man. We are actually saying to ourselves that man has more power than God. He will confound us when we do this; it is a trap of satan. 

Gal. 1:10 asks, "For do I now persuade men, or God? Do I seek to please men? For if I pleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ." It is evident that Paul was rejecting walking in fear & man-pleasing as he wrote this passage. He was defending truth & the gospel versus going with the flow. Man-pleasing is a form of fear.

I. Thes. 2:4 says, "But just as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, so we speak, not as pleasing men but God, who examines our hearts". It is important to know that we are pleasing God rather than giving men what they seek.

Ps. 3:6 says, " I will not be afraid of ten thousands of people, who have set themselves against me round about.

Ps. says, "Be not afraid of sudden fear, nor the onslaught of the wicked when it comes..."

Ps. 56:4 says, "...I will not fear what flesh can do to me."

Is. 35:3-4 commands, "Stengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees. Say to them that are of a fearful heart, be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; He will come and save you.

Is. 41:10 commands again, "Fear thou not; for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God, I will strengthen thee; yea, I will help thee..."

Is. 51:7b says, "...Do not fear the reproach of man neither be dismayed at their revilings.

Eze. 3:9 states, "As an adamant harder than flint have I made thy forehead: fear them not, neither be dismayed at their looks..."

Heb 13:6 says, " The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do to me."      

These scriptures are very clear in conveying the message that we are not to fear people whatever the circumstances may be.

Rev. 2:10 encourages us, "Fear none of the things which though shalt suffer." The word promises us in Ps. that many are the afflictions of the righteous, but the Lord delivers them out of them all. We cannot fear suffering for whatever reason; we must trust God in all things.

Ps. 23 is probably one of the most well-known scriptures in the Bible. Verse 4b says, " Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me. David recognized that satan nor any evil could harm him because God was with him.

2 Chron. 17:38b-39 says, "...Neither shall ye fear other gods. But the Lord your God ye shall fear; and He shall deliver you out of the hand of all your enemies. Chapter 17 tells us 3 times not to fear other gods who we know are manipulated by demon spirits.

Judges 6:10 states, " ...I am the Lord your God,  fear not the gods of the Amorites..."



Can you see from many of these scriptures just how worship & fear are intertwined?

Spirit of Fear - Part 1

I want to begin to speak to you concerning an area that I truly believe is one of the main culprits that keep us from being effective, productive, & obedient in the things of God. As you have noticed, I have been taking a poll on fear. Is it an emotion or a spirit? Well, we need to go to the word of God for the answer; the Word answers all things rightly. We can all form our opinions that come from our own belief system that can seem so right to us, yet still be very wrong. Therefore, we must always seek the Word for every answer. 2 Tim.1:7 holds the most well-known scripture on fear, although the Bible is inundated with this subject; many times not even using the Word fear. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind." If you study out this word 'spirit' in this passage of scripture as it is written in the original Greek language, it is referring to a superhuman being along with the mental disposition of a natural being. 

The word fear simply means timidity; fear, which by the way, both function as nouns, which are persons, places, or things. Timidity & fear are really one in the same because timidity denotes a backing up; a resistance to going forward. Webter's:Timid means to exhibit a lack of courage, boldness, or self-confidence; shy. 1. Fear means an apprehensive and agitated feeling caused by the awareness or expectation of danger, pain, or evil; dread. 2."A state" of feeling an emotion. (state- is a noun, which is a person, place, or thing) 3. Feeling of concern or anxiety 4. Cause for alarm  5. In order to avoid or prevent ***Notice this one in particular. 6. Awe or reverence especially toward God.

Based on the Word of God, I truly believe that fear is an actual being, a fallen angel, that has a name. After all, if you will study it out, the Word also speaks of a lying spirit, a spirit of infirmity, and other spirits that are called by a name. Heavenly Angels also have names, such as Michael & Gabriel. Now we can much more easily connect with these as being names rather than lie, infirmity, and fear. However, these are names that are used to identify spiritual beings that are able to emotionally, physically, & spiritually affect us if we pay them the attention that they demand.

I don't want to deal with too much at a time so I will bring you how ever many posts on this subject as the Lord lays on my heart to give. I will leave you with this, though...

Several years ago as God was giving me some incredible insight on the spirit of fear, He revealed something to me. Fear is the greatest form of worship that we could give to the Lord God Almighty. It is actually ...
'a form of worship' such as singing, clapping, dancing, etc...   At the time that He showed me this I had not even read the Webster's definitions on it. Notice again the last definition that is written above. ***Awe or reverence "especially towards" God. Note that it says especially towards God....hmmm! Does that mean that we could give that same kind of awe & reverence to someone or something else? Sure it does! This is exactly in line with what the Lord spoke to me years ago. Because satan wants to be God, although he can't be...he produces an imitation for all that God does or is. He doesn't want God to have our attention because he is jealous of God, therefore he produces an imitation in order to get us to pay attention to him. He wants us to be in awe of him. Now, if there is a right 'type of fear' that is a awe & reverence equaling worship towards God, can you see how satan would desire to imitate that? He imitates that awe with a 'spirit of fear.' I hope that I have not gotten ahead of myself. I will share about this & the fear of the Lord tomorrow.

Mercy Triumphs Judgment!

There is one area that I believe we as humans all struggle with, and even when we don't always realize that we are struggling with it, we still are. It is mercy versus judgment.  Have you ever met someone for the very first time, and very quickly formed an opinion of them? Maybe it was a good opinion & maybe it wasn't, but nevertheless, in a very short amount of time, you sort of had them "figured out."  Have you ever saw a brother or sister in Christ struggling in their life with strong battles, and came to the conclusion that it was because their life was not right with God? Have you heard someone talk about just how another had wronged them, listened to the situation, and determined that it was so... without... hearing their neighbor? Have you ever saw someone living in the pits of sin even after knowing the "better" way, yet still choosing to throw their life away? How did you act toward them when you saw them; how did you treat them? How did you feel... in the secret place of your heart... towards them?

These are just a few examples that I have used to help you to apply this to your life personally. We all can be so very quick to judge people or situations; it is the natural reaction of our flesh. We as Christians know that we are not supposed to walk in judgment towards others, and even the lost can quickly remind us of that, however, the Word of God does tell us to judge the... fruits... of people to know whether they are truly in Christ or not. I truly believe that this is because deception is so great, and the Lord does not want His people to be drawn away by wolves in sheep's clothing. He does not want us to be ignorant or taken in by something that's false. Not so quick, though, because there is definitely a fine line here. He says to judge the fruits not to walk in judgment towards people.

About a year ago, after praying for God to reveal to me anyone that I had wronged, the Lord began to deal with me concerning a certain someone that I had just washed my hands clean of per say. I was tired of seeing them destroy their life when they knew better. This was not your average "walking the mile" with someone, but it was walking in countless miles of circles with them, and with no change coming from it...at all! I had developed an attitude of judgment towards them, and actually felt justified by it. Most everyone that knew them felt the same way; they had burned a lot of bridges. The Lord began to deal with my heart & how it was callous towards them. He began to speak to me about walking in mercy towards them; just loving them where they were at. Of course, my flesh yelled, "...but that will make them feel even more ok to continue living the way that they live...they might never change if someone doesn't challenge them to!" God reminded me of the scripture in James 2:13 (NAS), "For judgment will be merciless to one who has shown no mercy; mercy triumphs over judgment."  I heard in my spirit man, "If you are going to err, err on the side of mercy." Well, I did repent to them concerning my wrong attitude & behavior of judgment. I chose that day to let God be the judge of their life & not me.

There is no weapon that the enemy could ever use against us that can prevail against mercy because mercy is an absolute act of unconditional love; the God kind of love. Even as Christians who are sold out to walk in mercy, we can still be pressured & deceived by the devil to fall into the trap of judging, but God is calling us just to love people right where they are at. Never at any point should we stop loving them or caring for their souls. Never at any point should we stop walking in mercy towards them. The Lord has often reminded me over the past year of the scripture in Romans that says, "It is the goodness of God that leads you to repentance." It is not our scorning or judging them, or even the quiet disdain in our hearts towards them that makes them want to change. That will not make them want to serve God at all...Not one bit! However, since there is no law against love, continual love & mercy will chip away the hardening of the hearts. It softens them; you may not be able to see that it's happening, but it is. If the world is such a hard place to live in, with so much hurt, pain, anger, rejection, etc...then if we as the Body of Christ are showing a perpetual goodness, which is love & mercy towards someone who is determined to live in the ways of the world, it will only be a matter of time before they need a place to run to. If they are receiving constant mercy & love from you as a Christian, you are showing them in action that Christ will also receive them, and they will know that they have a hiding place in Him. They will then be much more likely to trust Jesus Christ with their lives. If we operate out of judgment & rejection, how could that ever be appealing to them? It can't! If we do not live the Word concerning mercy to the lost and back-slidden, how can we expect them to desire what we have left to offer them???  I need mercy for myself, and so do you. If you sow it, you will reap it. Mercy triumphs judgment... Mercy always wins!

Great Is Thy Faithfulness!

One of the most reassuring scriptures from the Word of God to the masses of imperfect people is found so ever sweetly tucked away in the Book of Jeremiah. In chapter 3:22-23 (NAS) the Prophet Jeremiah reminds us that, "The Lord's lovingkindnesses indeed never cease, for His compassions never fail. They are new every morning; Great is Thy faithfulness." 

Just before this beautiful piece of scripture that brings so much encouragement to our hearts, Jeremiah is calling to remembrance his afflictions, his wanderings, and wormwood & bitterness that consumes his life. He is referred to as the weeping prophet, and Lamentations is the piece of literature that came from his heart being overwhelmed by brokenness over sin & the destruction of Jerusalem. Out of the abundance of pain and suffering came this incredible passage of hope. There is no doubt that this small portion of scripture has been the very thread that the masses of broken and hurting humanity have held on to through the ages of time; it has brought many through in the midst of their personal pain & suffering.

So many times, when I look at my failures, and then read this, it brings me great hope because God is promising me & you that even when we give up on ourselves, He will never give up on us. We can trust Him when we can't even trust ourselves. He is faithful! He will never cast us away. He is our portion, therefore, we have a reason to have hope!

I want you to think about times when you feel like such a failure in life. Have you ever had days when it seemed that you just made a mess of everything? We all have those days. Just remind yourself that when you have that kind of day, and you feel like you messed up even too much for God, that when you wake up the next morning there is a brand new compassion for you. God lovingly woos us to repentance. He is not this angry father that goes around brow beating us all the time & focusing on our failures, but rather loves us to the extent that we want to do what pleases Him. That is so hard for so many to understand because they didn't have mothers or fathers who parented them in the image of God. The Lord looks deep within us, sees the potential that He Himself placed in every one of us, and draws it out through circumstances that are less than pretty. If we did not have scripture of encouragement such as one's like these, I am convinced that many would not make it, but faint & give up through overwhelming discouragement. 

Aren't you glad that we serve the God of Hope...the one true living God who lovingly encourages us to be transformed into His image; the One who offers us a better way through Him? I am, and I am also very grateful that when I am less than what I know I should be, there's a new day coming in the morning; I will awaken to lovingkindness and compassion towards me. In light of this, aren't you glad that God isn't like us? Aren't you glad that He continues to have compassion on us when we don't have it together in life? His thoughts are higher than our thoughts, and His ways far above our ways. 

Praise the name of Jesus! He is a very faithful Lord and savior!!!