As I was sitting here thinking about a post from my friends blog about fear. I thought God was telling to me write one as well. Not to copy my friend, but to let people know. I have many different friends than he does. Fear is a powerful emotion. After reading his blog I started thinking about when I was a kid, about 7. I had the big room in the house and I had a double closet with wooden doors. Laying in bed at night in certain light the knots in the wood looked an evil face. At least it did to me in the dark. I remember it would paralyze me to the point I would shake and ultimately call for mom or dad. Whoever decided to get up and see what I calling them for; they would always ask me what was wrong and pray with me. Most of the time it worked and I fell right to sleep, sometime before the prayer was finished. I eventually solved the problem and slept with closet doors open. I remember other times I had really bad dreams. I used to have the same dream all the time. It started with me playing with my brother in his room. For some reason it was dark out and the lights were off, but the hall light was on. My brother and I were playing and all of sudden a shadow on the floor would catch my eye coming from the direction of my room. Mine was at the end of the hall. And then peeking around the corner of my brother’s bedroom door would be an evil figure. Back then it looked like Dracula to me. At this point in the dream I was frozen in place. My heart was pounding and I started to cry. The figure would get more and more revealed in the doorway and then out of nowhere it would run at me. That’s when I would wake up yelling for mom and dad again. One of them would come in and comfort me and pray with me and I would fall back to sleep. That dream started for me around age 8 and stayed with me till I was 16.
“For God did not give us a spirit of timidity— of cowardice, of craven, cringing and fawning fear. But He has given us a spirit of power, and of love and of calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control” (2 Tim 1:7 Amp).
Fear is a powerful tool that the enemy uses on us. Sometimes it can be as easy as fearing fear. I know many people that have had bouts with fear. Fear is an unpleasant, often strong emotion caused by expectation or awareness of danger; anxious concern, panic or terror. God has given us authority. He has empowered us through the blood of Jesus Christ to rule over anything that is not of Him. He has put us in control of fear. He has given us the power to rule over fear so fear cannot come in and control us unless we let it. Some examples of fear include, but are not limited to:
Fear as a spirit: Fear can be an evil spirit that the enemy has sent to attack us (like the one in my dream). When we have an evil spirit attacking us, we cast it out in the name of Jesus. We are in a spiritual war and we need to realize that when fear tries to attack us, it is spiritual war time. We need to take authority over that spirit of fear and deal with it.
Fear as sin: When we allow fear to control our lives, we are moving in doubt and unbelief, we are not moving in faith and have allowed sin to creep in. The enemies kingdom is founded on fear and God’s kingdom is founded on faith. They are total opposites. We cannot have both operating at the same time. “Whatever is not from faith is sin” (Rom. 14:23b NKJ).
Fear as torment: Fear is relentless; it will pound us and pressure us. If we open a door to fear, it will attack us physically, mentally and spiritually. Fear keeps us from maturing. It keeps us from walking in God’s love and being convinced that He loves us. It also keeps us from realizing that Jesus has already delivered us from fear.
“There is no fear in love— dread does not exist; but full-grown (complete, perfect) love turns fear out- of- doors and expels every trace of terror. For fear brings with it the thought of punishment. And so he who is afraid has not reached the full maturity of love— is not yet grown into love’s complete perfection” (1 John 4:18 Amp).
Fear as a producer: Some of the fruits of fear are depression, despair, hopelessness and discouragement. If the enemy can get us to have this negative fruit in our lives, we have no ability to conquer fear. We need to allow faith, not fear, to be a producer in our lives. God is good; He is faithful! When you are believing the Lord for something, He will never let you down if what you desire is according to His Word.
The above examples of fear were taken from a devotional I found online called “Ruling Over Fear”.
It is my prayer that if anyone is struggling with fear that you be set free by the Power of Jesus name.
Live faith, NOT fear.
B
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