Fear

Fear is the essence on which the Enemy feeds on. Dear brothers and sisters, fear is not your friend. Many people do not talk about fear or the manifestations of it because it is another one of those "exposing me" type subjects. If we can get past the exposing of self, we would be able to expose the enemy and his evil plans to devour the people of God and there would be more believers delivered from Fear and all its demon friends that serve it. Pride in all its ugliness does not like to show any form of a black spot. Pride is self-righteous and will not let the world know that they are sinners and long to be set free. Fear comes in many forms: sorrow, terror, dread, fright, panic, alarm, trepidation, anxiety, isolation, worry, nervousness, uneasiness, jumpiness, fretfulness, loneliness, seclusion, insecurity. The list goes on and on and on. Fear comes to destroy the work of the Lord in you and through you. If you submit to Fear, it will ruin your friendships, your job, your family, your marriage and your walk with God, which is the most important of all. The world sees anxiety as a sickness, so they prescribe a pill for you so you wouldn't get jumpy or freeze up every time you get around people. Anxiety is a fear of man and this kind of fear will damage you if you let it. Fear of man stops you from communicating with any person. It stops you from ever accomplishing anything in life, even to the point where you will not take your driver's license test because you're afraid of having to stand in line at the License Bureau. Many are afraid of failing the test while others are just plain afraid and have no idea why. Fear will stop you from ministering to someone and to do the will of the Lord.

Fear will make you feel worthless and unworthy of one's attention or love. Fear will make you want to run and hide every time someone encourages you because you don't believe them when they say you are a blessing. It will make you run the other direction if a persons raises their voice whether it is at you or someone else. Fear will make you feel like it is your entire fault when things go wrong. Fear will not stop until you have isolated yourself totally and completely from the world and around the ones who love you.

The Lord blessed us with another beautiful baby girl recently. When I look at her, I see no fear, but pure and utter innocence. I cannot comprehend what goes on through her mind, yet I can almost imagine what she is saying through her facial expressions. She has no need to be afraid of anything or anyone. We are the ones who introduce fear to our children. Through games, stories they hear, movies we allow them to watch and books they read. Once again, the list goes on. I encourage you all to watch your children carefully. If you don't know what they are watching on television, sit down with them and take a look for yourself. Don't be deceived, even if the cartoon seems harmless. Young children pick up on everything. Don't use the television as an excuse to occupy your children. Encourage them to use their imagination with toys and the great outdoors. Children should not have to be afraid of the dark or what's in their closet or under their bed.

Fear and its emotions are terrifying if you let it control you. You'll find yourself covering every crack in your home because you're afraid that someone is going to come in and murder you and your family. You will not watch the news because it is too close to the reality of what is really going on in your town or city.

With fear controlling your thoughts, you could think of every way possible to die, even if you were in an empty room with no doors or windows. The dread of being alone is terrifying. This kind of fear will not bring you to conviction or repentance, but to self-pity, luring, sexual immorality, depression, oppression, condemnation and self-loathing. This kind of fear will not let you love or receive love in return, but it will let you believe that the entire world is against you and that everyone is out to use, abuse you.

Fear has been given much leeway in this world we live in and we have let it rule in our homes, our lives and in the body of Christ all too often. All my life I let fear have its way with me. When I was a child, I would stay up as long as I could until my little eyes could not stay open any more because I felt that I had to protect my family. I was 7 years old. I remember one woman saying to me that when I got afraid to clap my hands. In the early hours of the morning while it was still dark outside I would clap my hands silently and sing to myself and pray at the same time until I was able to sleep. If I was not doing that, I was standing next to my parent's bed. Some nights I slept in their room and other nights I slept with one of my sisters. Up until I was 13 I would sleep in my parents room now and then. In the evenings after everyone had gone to bed, I would check every outlet in the house and make sure they were off. I would check light switches, the television, the VCR and even the oven. I was so afraid that a fire would break out and burn the house down.

Now it is okay to use some common sense. There is nothing wrong with making sure everything is shut off and locked before you go to bed, but not to the point of dread and terror. When we meditate on terror and things happening to us and the ones we love, we lose sleep because we cannot get the situation out of our minds. We play our fears out over and over again in our minds. This is why the Lord tells us to take every thought captive to Christ and bring those thoughts into the obedience of the Word of the Lord.

Dear Brothers and Sisters, fear is not your friend. If you are struggling with fear and have been for a long time, I encourage you to go to someone today. Tell someone before it is too late. If you are a person on the outside looking in at someone who has let fear become their very being, pray for that person like you have never prayed before. Pray and do not stop. Pray for their salvation. Pray that the Lord will deliver them out of the clutches of the Enemy. Pray and they would have the willingness to confess the fear and the hatred that comes with fear. I encourage you this week to search your hearts and see if Fear is ruling in your homes through your children, your wives, your friends and relatives and also through yourself. When Fear is in the home, the one it will always go to first is the weaker vessel. The wife. Husbands, I encourage you to watch and encourage your wives. Bitterness, unworthiness, guilt, sorrow, gluttony, a rattling tongue, jealousy, pride and spite are some of the cover-ups that fear uses to hide itself.

The one to really watch for is Suicide. Suicide is either very cunning and will lead the person slowly or it will hit like a lightning bolt and take yours or someone else's life in a heartbeat. The mouth speaks the overflow of the heart. The person or you may not even notice half the words that come out of your mouth. You may not even have suicide on your mind. But listen. When someone asks you how you are, what do you say? Many will say, "I need a bullet" or "Where's the nearest cliff". Many will say it as a joke, so then the matter is not taken seriously. In this case, Suicide is cunning. It slowly creeps in, until one day it has you, hook, line and sinker. Suicide will either take you in a heart beat or lure you in.

The enemy uses Fear to bring each child of God down. Fear is his leash and when used, most of his victims obey. Please don't let him have his way in your life. Fight and do what ever you have to do to serve the Lord. The enemy knows that his time is so short. He is not willing to go down without the fight. He wants to take as many people down with him as he can. The sad fact is that he has and is succeeding rapidly.

Dear bothers and sisters, come before the Lord today. Seek His face, for the time is short. Don't let fear overcome you. Don't try to fight fear alone because I can guarantee you will lose. Let Jesus become your fighting warrior. Let Him be your strong tower, your strength and the shoulder that you weep on. He knows your every worry, your every need. Let Him be the Lord of your life and live. Walk the path He has set for you. Come out of the house and be set free and live again with Jesus at your side. Come out from the depression and hatred. If you cannot fight and your burden is too heavy, know that the battle is Christ's and you only have to give it to the Lord.

The time is too short to be holding on to such things. The time is now to hold on to Christ with everything you've got and to walk in His will not our own. I don't even know you but I love you and don't want to see you go to hell because you did not know how to cope, or deal with fear. My heart breaks even now as some of you will read this weekly encouragement and reject what the Lord has in store for you: an eternity without tears or emotions that we are familiar with, an eternity where no one or nothing will ever have their clutches on you again. There are many who are hurting and alone. They are the remains of what fear leaves behind after you have lost everything. Seek deliverance and council. Seek and pray for someone who will listen!!! Sometimes all we need is an ear, tissues and a hug. Sometimes all we need is big piece of wood to slap the pride off us. Both of these, with a willing heart, are the start to recovery and the beginning of a life without fear. Don't be afraid to take that first step, which is confessing that fear is there and understanding why it's there and knowing that only Jesus is the way, the truth and the life from fear. Take the plunge to deliverance and into the mighty hand of Jesus Christ.

If you have any questions or need prayer in this area, please do not hesitate to send me an e-mail. Also I want you to know that you are not the only person going through this. Each person has or is or is going to meet fear and either take him in or throw him out. I fought and battled fear my entire life until I trusted Jesus to deliver me and now I am free. Free indeed to worship and do the will of my Father with joy, hope and most importantly, love. Love truly is the key to everything you do. When you are set free from fear, you will know. Without a doubt, you will know.

Please feel free to contact us with any questions amount this article.