How to overcome the spirit of fear
Welcome, my Fidus Achates!
This blog is intended to help illuminate and tear down one of the most powerful weapons that the enemy of our souls is using to keep us in bondage to his evil schemes. That weapon is FEAR! Come with me on an adventure to overcoming the spirit of fear.
H
ave you ever tasted the cold sour taste of fear? The kind of fear where cold chills trimmed with a prickly sensation flood your body, adorning itself in a distinct sense of nausea. No matter how strong and powerful we are, there is always something that can cause the heart to flutter and the pulse to weaken. Fear is destructive to us as paralysis of the brain. It makes our thoughts become arthritic and our memory sluggish. It is the thing that makes the eloquent stutter and the brave panic. A fully matured fear becomes virtually impossible to camouflage. Telltale signs like trembling knees or quivering lips betray fear even in the most disciplined person [1].
We may not be daunted anymore by our childhood nightmares, however, there are still occasional moments when our maturity gives way to the fanciful imagination of the fearful boy or girl in us, who peeks his/her head out of our now fully developed frame like a turtle sticks his head out of its shell with caution and precision. The Lord looks beyond our facade and sees the trembling places in our lives. No matter how spiritually mature we try to appear, He is still aware that lurking in the shadows is a mirage that puts us to flight [2].
Fear is a multifaceted phenomenon. For the sake of this article, I would like to put fear into three categories. Good fear, natural fear, and demonic fear. The Bible sometimes uses “fear” for respect and reverence. Job 28:28 reads,
And he said to the human race, “The fear of the Lord—that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding.”
The Fear of God
The Hebrew term for “fear” in this verse is yir’ah, according to Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. It means a moral fear or reference. It means a moral fear or reference. The term reference means to respect or revere. Whenever the Bible talks about the fear of God, for instance, “the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom [3],” it means to reverence to God.
Natural Fear
My two year old son, David Danso, begins to cry and yell, “I’m scared!”, whenever our lights go off. The question is “what is he afraid of?” Human beings naturally are born with the predisposition to be afraid. And this fear helps us to shun anytime that will seek to endanger us or pose a threat to our very existence.
Demonic Fear
Whereas the fear of God implies reverence to God, bad fear carries with it a certain connotation of terror and intimidation. That kind of fear is not a healthy attitude for a child of God to have about his/her heavenly Father. But tragically, many believers find themselves in this position. Many Christians have developed the notion that God is “wicked” and is always ready to destroy the sinner. And forget that Jesus Christ is loving and caring, and therefore intercedes for us when the devil is about to destroy us. Contrary to this notion, John 3:16 reads,
“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him may not perish but may have eternal life.
Jesus Himself sought to debunk this notion. That is why on several occasions He presented God to us as our Father.
Demonic fear, however, is the dread we go through as a result of images, projections, and imaginations the enemy sends to our minds. The main reason why demonic fear comes about is to weaken our faith. Faith and fear are antagonistic to one another. Wherever there is faith, fear diminishes and vice versa.
Fear weakens our defenses
The enemy projects fear so as to weaken our defenses. Ephesians 6:16 reads “With all of these, take the shield of faith, with which you will be able to quench all the flaming arrows of the evil one”. When you are rich in faith, every weapon the enemy throws at you in the form of thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and arguments is blocked by the shield of faith. The only way the enemy can get us unprotected and launch his raid on us is when he injects fear to dissolve our faith. Understand, therefore, that anytime the enemy projects fear to us, he does so because he is after something precious in our lives; which is currently under the guard of our shield of faith.
Fear is a spirit
It is expedient to note that fear is a spirit. The strength of the enemy lies in his ability to deceive. The enemy deceives us on daily basis, on the existence or the true constituents of things. Many have sadly bought into the lies of the devil. However, the Bible states explicitly that fear is a spirit. Second Timothy 1:7 reads,
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear, but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, “Abba! Father!”
We see from this scripture that fear is a spirit, and that it is not given to us by God. Therefore, if its origin is not God, then it is of the devil. Also, Romans 8:15 says, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind”. Fear, understandably, can be equated to insanity. Whenever one’s heart is gripped with fear, it starts to cast images on his/her mind. Imagine someone with the spirit of fear walks into a basement to find the light switch far from reach, every mop and bucket becomes a sinister and a wild creature that is almost ready to pounce and devour him/her. Isn’t this insanity??
How fear operates
We are in a constant battle with the enemy, and our minds are the battlefields. The enemy raises thoughts, ideas, suggestions, and imaginations as arguments into our minds, and we need to cast them down and bring them to the obedience of Christ, by using the weapon of the word of God. The Bible says in 2 Corinthians 10:5,
Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.
When you refuse to bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ, the enemy builds a stronghold in your mind with those thoughts and imaginations. Once the enemy takes possession of your mind, he invites the spirit of fear to come and take over. Then you begin to feel that you will die, you will not make it, you will be sick, etc., depending on what kind of images he casts as imagination on your mind.
How to deal with the spirit of fear
Prayer
No psychological or counselling session can fully eradicate fear since it is a spirit. You don’t counsel a demon, you cast it out!
Someone who is in the shackles of fear can totally be emancipated through true prayer. The bible says,
No man can enter into a strong man’s house, and spoil his goods, except he will first bind the strong man; and then he will spoil his house. [4]
Because the enemy builds strongholds in the minds of those he impacts the spirit of fear, his strongholds need to be devastated in prayer, to fully liberate those he has in captivity to give them total emancipation.
God’s love
Furthermore, when we become conscious of the love of God, it casts away fear. When a child is standing on top of a wall, and his father asks him to jump so that he catches him in the air, even though the child is afraid of jumping from that kind of height, he knows that his father loves him and will never allow him to fall. The love of his father serves as his insurance policy. In the same way, even though we may go through dangerous situations, we know God loves us and will not forsake us. Therefore we should have no reason to be afraid, despite the winds and the storm that hit on us. Psalm 23:4 reads,
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me.
The Love of God has no boundaries. The Pacific Ocean, 64 million square miles in size and 14,042 feet deep, CANNOT contain the love of God. The love of God is that which throws a party for the prodigal son despite his stupidity. No sin or mistake is able to plunk us from the love of God.
1 John 4:18 reads,
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.
Now, you have the Love of God to sail you through every time and season, and you are equipped with His word and prayer to destroy any lofty thing that seeks to exalt itself against the knowledge of Christ.
Therefore, what are you afraid of?????
References
[1] Thomas Dexter Jakes, Naked And Not Ashamed, (Shippensburg: Destiny Image Publishers, 1995), 1
[2] Thomas, Naked And Not Ashamed, 3
[3] Proverbs 9:10
[4] Mark 3:27
Nana Ama
Thank you Pastor Daniels for this message. God bless you ??