Text: 2 Tim. 1:7, Ps. 27:1-2
By: Jeremiah Emakpor (Deacon)
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Fear is the bad feeling that you have when you are in danger; when something bad might happen, or when a particular thing frightens you. It’s one of the emotions identified with man. Emotion is the expression of one’s feeling. Others are love, anger, worry, hatred, joy, sadness, etc. Fear is classified as a negative emotion because it is destructive. Fear destroys mentally and physically. It can lead to excessive thinking which in turn can result to High Blood Pressure. Also, fear can make the heart to skip and beat faster which can result to Heart Attack or Heart Failure (death).
Fear originated from sin. It appears to be the first emotion that man experienced after he sinned (Gen. 3:9-10). Fear torments and also brings defeat (JEROBOAM-I Kings 12:26-27; ISRAELITES AND GOLIATH – I Sam. 17:8-11).
Physically, fear enters man as a result of what he sees (PETER-Matt. 14:30), hears, feels, smells or tastes. Spiritually, fear can also enter man by what he thinks or dreams (PHAROAH-Gen. 41:1-8; NEBUCHADNEZZAR-Dan. 2:1).
Satan uses fear as a weapon against man. Such fear precipitates unbelief in man. Satan supplies the mind of man with pictures of doom, calamities, disasters, failures, hopelessness, impossibilities, etc. These negative pictures can create fear in one.
Satan can also translate one’s fears to reality. Fear is a product of thoughts. Satan as a spirit being has the ability to read one’s thoughts and so knows when one is afraid.
-Job was a man whose fears were brought to pass by Satan. Job chapter 1 tells us that God had built a hedge around Job, his family and properties. But chapter 3 tells us the thought life of Job- “What I feared has come to me.” (Job 3:25). What Job said is this: In my thought life, I saw fearful things happening, so what I’d seen, happened.
Our great patriarch, Abraham, also had the problem of fear to grapple with (Gen. 15:1-3). What were his fears? He feared dying childless – and that Eliezer was going to take charge of his house and he wouldn’t have the promised child. Abraham’s statement, “seeing I go childless” shows that he had been developing mental images of Eliezer of Damascus, a servant born in his house, not his own blood descendant becoming the heir of all his estate. But God said, “FEAR NOT, Abram: I am your shield.” So that Abraham can operate in FAITH and not FEAR, God had to replace the negative picture of childlessness in Abraham’s mind with a positive one. This He did by asking Abraham: “Look now toward heaven and count the stars, if you able to number them, and He said unto him so shall thy seed be.” (Gen. 15:5).
-Abraham was told to count the stars when fear grips him at night. Does he have anything to count during the day when fear comes against him? Yes-sand! God also promised him that his seed would be as the sand of the sea shore (Heb. 11:11-12). As he wandered in the desert, Abraham kept counting. Whenever the fear image comes: you will die childless, he’d replace it with a faith image by believing what God had said and looking at the stars at night or counting the sand by day. So by faith Isaac was conceived (Rom. 4:13-25).
God knew the effect of fear, so He forewarned some of His prophets about dangers of FEAR. 366 times God said in His word “fear not” (that is, do not be afraid or dismayed).
Jer. 1:8, Ezek. 3:9, Joshua 1:9, Ps. 23:4, Prov. 28:1, Isa. 35:4, 41:10, Heb. 13:5-6
Fear is defeated with perfect love (I Jn. 4:18). Ask God to fill your heart with His love (Rom. 5:5), and in the name of Jesus Christ aggressively command the spirit of fear to get out of your life. Love forgives all wrongs (I Pet. 4:8). If you don’t forgive, you will live in fear.
Satan can access one’s thoughts and thoughts give rise to fear, so guide your thought life. So hear good and see good (Rom. 10:17). Job during his prosperity began to see fear image. His thought life entertained picture of disaster: From prosperity to poverty. He received what he saw. Think right. You are a product of your thought. Good thinking produces good product. Why are you afraid? What are you afraid of? Fear not (II Tim. 1:7).
Fill your thought life with Jesus (Isa. 26:3). Fix your eyes on Jesus Christ (Heb. 12:2).
Have you seen fear or faith? Evil or good? Failure or success? Poverty or prosperity? Just as Satan brings to reality your negative thoughts (fears), so also God brings to pass your positive thoughts that are built on faith. Remember that, “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he.” (Prov. 23:7). What you hold on your mind will get into heart. Think small-receive small. Think big-receive big.
-Any time the devil comes against you, giving you negative pictures; find a faith picture in God’s word and believe God’s promises.
Always be in the right relationship with God (Ps. 139:22, Jam. 4:7). God’s fear comforts, Satanic fear torments. God’s fear motivates, Satanic fear dominates.
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