The
fear factor. What we fear will control our lives. Fear is a hard task master.
This is another aspect of our positions and attitudes affecting what and how we
hear. The biggest enemy of Faith is fear. Fear of looking foolish, being wrong,
not pleasing men, failure, pride, etc., so many useless fears that keep us from
hearing the voice of God or hearing Him correctly. What would your hearing be
like without fear? What would your life be like without doubt, which is a form
of fear? Would the voice of God be able to speak to you about things you might
not like or want to hear if you had no fear?
You will never hear what
you want to hear until you are willing to hear what you refuse to hear.
28and not in any way
terrified by your adversaries, which is to them a proof of perdition,
but to you of salvation, and that from God.
Could fear be what holds us back or causes us
not to do what we are called do? What is it that you fear? Would you recognize
fear if we saw it in our lives or is it disguised as something else. If we are
to let our conduct be worthy of the Gospel we must not be in fear. We can not
stand in one spirit and one mind and strive together if we have fear of any
kind. Worry about what the outcome will be is a type of fear. Phil.1:28 says
that we are not to be terrified in any
way. That literally means to fear absolutely nothing that anyone could do to
you or what could happen as a result of your obedience to
1The wicked flee when no one pursues,
But the
righteous are bold as a lion.
We are the righteous-- Sometimes we act like
the wicked though. We seem to be running from enemies we perceive out of fear
more often than we stand in boldness with
Sometimes we wonder why we do not see what
the apostles or others have seen? We ask where is the power of the Gospel? The
world says, ” show us the power, give us
a reason to walk with this God you profess”. Could fear(that does not look like
fear) be the stone that most of us stumble over? Why do we listen to people or
voices that tell us we have no power of that we must compromise scripture
rather than be offensive in any way? We
all know that the “Word of His Power” is
our only hope? Did the Gospel of Power end with the apostles? We are crying out
for the power yet we do not see it. We live in fear of the enemies we face
without the Power of the Gospel, yet we make excuses and blame others for what
is not happening. What is it that impedes the Lord from working through us?
Could it be fear of failure, rejection by men or the thought that we are
unworthy? Could it be fear by any name?
If we are not seeing what we know is in the
Bible and what we long for why do we continue to do the same things we have
done for years.
I have heard some people teach a hard word
about going to hell if we don’t repent and change or receive
How can we be
satisfied with a washed down version of the Gospel in our lives? Could it be that we don’t fear God but men
instead? Are we compromising the Word because we fear being rejected? Do we
justify not having the power of
Many of us feel like we are second-class
sons when Holy Spirit does not do the miracles through us. We end up being
afraid to pray for others. We fear not being good enough or something. We do
not recognize the fear factor. We delegate our rights to others and so we have
“big” name Christians, people who have conquered the fear factor. We make a big
deal about them and when they fail we ridicule them for not being right. All of
our justifications and excuses are really based in fear. Many times our “fear “ is really pride.
We compromise our lives in
Holiness
removes the right to fear the enemy, any enemy. It removes the right to hold onto
our possessions or our status in the community. It destroys our right to fear
being without what “we” feel is important whatever it is. It causes us to be
emptied out for Him. We can no longer pray for others to do what we am told to
do. We can’t blame the pastor or the church for our disobedience. Holiness will
cause us to be humble or humiliated: To the point that we will realize what
shame we have brought upon
Did you ever ponder the Word saying God is
Holy? To be holy is to be set apart unto someone or something. It means to be
consecrated to something, totally centered on something or sold out for someone
to the point that you would die for them or their need. Did you ever ask yourself, whom is God
separated unto? Of course it is US who
He is consecrated to. Now that is an amazing thought. He is only asking or
telling actually us to be separated unto Him as He is to us.. that should take
away our fear but that thought can be
scary. There is so much that we don’t understand about all that is happening
around us. The unknown or change are places of fear for most people, but to
fear the future or change is to fear life.
Faith is said to be the opposite of fear. How
do we demonstrate fear? How should we demonstrate faith?
What do we hope
for? What is it we haven’t seen? Where is the evidence of our faith? It says
that faith causes you to have a good testimony. What is our testimony of faith?
Faith seems to be such an illusive thing. Sometimes we feel we have it and
sometimes it seems to be nowhere to be found.
Maybe our faith is bound up in our fear at times. So again, we must come
back to this little four letter word –fear. Or maybe we should find out more
about how faith really works because the faith of a few at times have destroyed
the fear of the multitudes. If you read the rest of the 11th chapter
of Hebrews you will see what faith has done. It takes away the fear for many to
see someone walk in faith. It removes the hand of the enemies of our soul.
So if faith is the key to fear being
destroyed how does faith work.
Faith works
through Love. Such an easy answer but most of us don’t even know what God’s
love is. We only know how we have been loved so we are at a loss at
understanding God’s love. In this last
verse that I quoted we see that our works mean nothing, they don’t produce
faith. We see that faith is manifest or seen working through love.
If God is Love
then the characteristics of God must be the definition of Love. IF we walk in
the characteristics of God will there be room for fear? Does God who dwells in
us have any fear? Would He not know who He is? Is He big enough to handle
whatever comes? Maybe the key to faith is finding God within us and trusting
who He is. It God is for us who can truly stand against us? That thought might change the fear factor a
little!!
Psalm 23
A Psalm of
1 The Lord is my shepherd;
I shall not
want.
2 He
makes me to lie down in green pastures;
He leads me
beside the still waters.
He leads me in
the paths of righteousness
For His name’s
sake.
4 Yea,
though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no
evil;
For You are
with me;
Your rod and
Your staff, they comfort me.
5 You
prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies;
You anoint my
head with oil;
My cup runs
over.
6 Surely
goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of
my life;
And I
will dwell in the house of the Lord
Forever.
Words of
someone who has found Love, and lost fear. Words of a man who found God to be
true above all else. The fear factor can be overcame if you will just find
intimacy with the one who is and was and will ever be….Whom shall I fear, of
what shall I be afraid, You are with me and abide in me. I am your child and I
shall be saved—Made safe from my enemies.
The Lord is
my light and my salvation;
Whom shall I fear?
The Lord is
the strength of my life;
Of whom shall I be afraid?
6 The Lord is on my side;
I will not fear.
What can man do
to me?
5Let your conduct be without covetousness; be
content with such things as you have. For He Himself has said, “I will
never leave you nor forsake you.” 6So we may boldly say:
“The Lord is my helper;
I will not fear.
What can man do to me?”
If we were to
Judge ourselves we won’t have to be judged. The judgement He is talking about
here is nothing more than an honest truthful evaluation or ourselves. Are our
reactions to this statement about judging ourselves out of some kind of fear?
Do we really recognize them for what they are? How can we face them? Why do people offend us with the way they
treat us? No one can offend us unless we chose to be offended. What is it that
causes us to chose to be offended? Have we really died to all fear.
I want to wake
up looking like
I want to wake
up looking like
Fear is the illusion that doubt brings. By
our not “knowing” Him, we receive doubt and that leads to fear.
Fearlessness is not
something you can chant your way into, or pray enough to get. It is not
something that you can stand and pound your chest and yell to become. You can
do these things and gain a boldness and fierceness to walk through fear into
battle or into an action that overcomes fear, but fearlessness is something
else. To be without fear is a place that can only be found in the knowing of
who you are. It is a place of confidence that doesn’t need to boast or show
it’s muscle. It is a place of knowing, without thought for consequences, where
your actions don’t even have to be premeditated; you just do what needs to be
done. Failure, torment, fear, these things just can’t interfere with your
thoughts or actions that need to be done. It is a place of position and power
that breeds confidence and assurance in your actions. So many times we only
find we were without fear after we have went through some incident and are
looking back at what we did or what happened.
Being fearless is a part of relationships. It
is found in deep intimacies and places of great trust. Fearlessness never walks
alone, it is always in the company of Love and intimacy. Fearlessness shows
itself in many ways in relations, friendships and intimacies. It allows the
expression of love without the fear of rejection. God truly is fearless in the
expression of His Love. He knows His Love will not fail. Fear just can not
exist in the presence of such assurance and confidence. God knows that love
will never fail because He is Love and He never quits being Himself. Fear does
not exist in God, only in man. Intimacy destroys it’s right to exist.