Saying NO To Fear

Fear isn’t always obvious, like a phobia or fear of something tangible.Sometimes, fear is hidden, yet manifests in our thoughts and actions. We may be afraid and not even realize it’s fear. Things like:

• Fear of failure
• Fear of man (disapproval, rejection…)
• Fear of the unknown
• Fear of intimacy

Other things like avoiding public situations, procrastination, people pleasing and even jealousy are manifestations of fear people don’t often recognize. If you have ever felt apprehension, worry, concern, or dread, you’ve felt fear. Fear is a real thing. Sometimes “religiosity” will cause people to stick their heads in the sand and deny fear. The Bible however, talks openly about fear. It says that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7 ).” So, we see fear is

1) a spirit

2) not from God

That means while real, we don’t have to accept fear in our lives. We may be challenged with it, but we can say NO to it! Satan loves to look for opportunities to afflict us with fear. He wants us to live in fear, rather than faith. When we’re afraid, we’re not trusting in, resting in, or relying on God. Fear will always bring torment and instability to our lives. The good news is, we can overcome fear.

Sometimes fear comes randomly. Maybe a thought of calamity comes to mind, or a sudden feeling of dread. Every thought and feeling we have is not necessarily our own. Satan comes to steal, kill and destroy and he loves to bombard our thoughts and feelings. This is why we must recognize his attack and fight back. It’s in those moments we have the opportunity to either accept or reject fear. Sometimes, the spirit of fear will leave immediately, but as with other attacks of the enemy, it often involves some consistent spiritual warfare. The Bible says to “resist the devil and he will flee (James 4:7)” The word “resist” implies there will be a push back, but know this, the power we have in Jesus makes our push-back greater and the enemy MUST flee. This what the Bible says about the spiritual warfare we are in:

For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh. ⁴ For the weapons of our warfare are not ^[a]carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, ⁵ casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ,

The last verse is saying:

1. We must cast down anything that comes against the knowledge of God. We say, “NOPE, not having it! This is not what God says, so you’ve got to go! I refuse to accept these lies.”
2. We must replace it with what God says. We need to know what God’s Word says, so we can replace the lies with Truth. No lie can stand against the Truth of God’s Word!

When our son was 5, he began having nightmares. A spirit of fear was attacking him through his dreams. Every night, he would wake up and come into our room afraid. We would pray with him night after night and allow him to sleep in our room. But every night he slept in his room, he still had nightmares. God showed us that He wanted to teach our son something very valuable at this young age. We believed satan was trying to determine his destiny right then and there. Would he be a person that said no to fear and walk in faith, or would fear rule his life in the years to come? We explained to him how the enemy was attacking him with fear and that God gave him the greater power to overcome. We had him memorize 2 Timothy 1:7,“God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” We confessed that verse together daily. He was now armed with truth, the greatest weapon of all. Next, we told him, that while he was free to come to our room at night, before he did, we wanted him to start using the authority God gave him. We wanted him to say out loud 2 Timothy 1:7 and tell fear to go in Jesus Name! Childlike faith is pretty amazing, because the next morning he ran to our room, “Mommy fear came last night, but I confessed my scripture and told it to go in Jesus name and it did!!!” Since that time, our son has never had another nightmare. Praise God!!! May we have the same childlike faith.

Growing up I didn’t really struggle with fear. I was pretty fearless. I knew what fear was though, as I watched one of my siblings deal with it throughout their childhood. They were born with many health issues, and as a baby almost died. Even though my family was saved and walking with Jesus, this trauma wounded my sibling, making them susceptible to the spirit of fear. God can heal and deliver us from trauma we may have experienced.

As a young girl, I also remember seeing my grandpa, a gruff old Italian man who was as tough as nails, deal with a spirit of fear. I remember him staying with us after a difficult surgery. One day I heard weeping and I peeked downstairs to see my grandpa sitting in a chair weeping, and my dad praying for him. I was in shock to see my tough old grandpa crying! This continued to happen for several weeks. My mom said that since his surgery, he had been dealing with fear. My grandpa had been saved for a long time, but as he faced this affliction, my parents prayed for him and encouraged him to sit in that chair and meditate on God’s Word. I’d peek down the stairs day after day and that Bible stayed open on his lap until soon, my grandpa not only overcame fear, he was more on fire for God than ever. What happened. He said no to that fear.  It was a very real thing he was dealing with, but he was fighting back. He didn’t just accept it as just part of his life now. He renewed his mind with the Word of God and received a healing transformation.

Our mind is part of our soul…and the Bible is very clear that while our Spirit becomes brand new, our souls still need saving (Philippians 2:12, 1 Peter 1:8-9). We work out the salvation of our soul (our mind, will and emotions) day by day as we walk this journey with God (Romans 12:1-2, James 1:21). Sadly, we live in a fallen world and there are things we were never meant to experience. Trauma that causes our souls to become marred by filth of this world. Does that mean we are hopelessly broken? No! Jesus, the Great Physician goes where no knife can go and heals our very hearts. When we get saved, our spirits become brand new. And our new born again spirit enables us to renew our souls and walk in the victory Jesus Christ paid the price for us to have. This walk however is a day by day process, The more we walk in an intimate relationship with Jesus, spending time with the only Perfect One, the more we become like Him. As we look at the Word, and connect with the Living Word of God, we are changed more and more into His image (2 Corinthians 3:18) The more we allow our spirit to rule and reign, the more our souls come into alignment with who God created us to be. This applies to all the enemies of our soul, not just fear; but pride, anger, sickness and so on. I wrote a 3 Blog series on healing of our which begins here if you’d like to read it.

A lot of condemnation comes to people when they are told while going through a trial, “Hey you’re a new creation in Christ and you don’t have to deal with that anymore.” And I agree, no you don’t “have” to deal with that anymore, because Jesus paid the price. BUT very often that message is received as “you shouldn’t be dealing with that anymore.” And that brings shame, condemnation and confusion to people as they are growing in their walks with God and working out the salvation of their souls. It also negates the very Word of God, which clearly talks all throughout its pages about the transformation process that occurs as we walk with Christ day by day.

I know veterans who are in love with Jesus, but still struggle with the residue of PTSD. They are overcoming it more and more as they pursue God, but it’s a daily process of healing from the trauma they experienced. I know others who are dealing with the loss of a loved one. That’s a healing process that takes time. I also know many people who have gone through abuse and abandonment as a child, and while they are saved, they are still receiving healing and learning to walk as the child of God they were created to be. We are the righteousness of God in Christ Jesus. But that doesn’t mean we are perfect, it means we have been reconciled to God, now able to have relationship with Him through Jesus and enabled to learn to walk in the victory He attained for us through His death, burial and resurrection.

I knew this woman many years ago, who had dealt with a lot of abandonment and betrayal in her life. This caused her to have such a fear of her husband cheating on her. And no, she really didn’t have reason to. He was a good husband, but because of her traumatic past experiences, she feared this would happen to her. Because it was so real to her, she was constantly accusing him, not trusting him no matter what he tried to do to prove his love to her, and it was beginning to destroy her marriage. Was she not saved? Of course she was; she just needed to deal with this area in her life, receive healing and learn to walk by the Spirit of God. This fear was highlighting an area God wanted to touch. Even though we become saved, a part of our old man can still continue to dictate to us how we are living until we deal with it. That’s why the Bible says we must work out the salvation of our souls, to renew our minds, crucify our flesh and walk by the Spirit (Romans 8) These are all statements telling us there is change and healing that needs to take place within our soul. In all my years of ministry, I have seen this as a process in people, because God is a gentleman and He works in us layer by layer as we can handle things. If He highlighted every area all at once, we’d be overwhelmed and crushed by pain. But He takes our hand and brings us through the process as quickly as we are willing and able to surrender it to Him.

So, I prayed with this woman and encouraged her to keep pressing into God for healing from her past. I brought her to the Word of God and shared with her what God had taught me – that ultimately our trust has to be in God alone. Man is flawed. This world is broken. Our trust can never be in man or this world system. BUT GOD – the Perfect One can be trusted. The Bible says that those who hope in him will never be disappointed. I said ultimately, your trust must be in God for your marriage. Trust in Him, allow Him to heal you and God will do a miracle in your marriage. Hebrews 13:6 says, “So we can confidently say, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear; what can man do to me?” Thankfully she found freedom in Christ and her marriage is still going strong today!

Fear often causes us to control things. Did you know jealousy is born out of fear? It’s a fear of losing something or someone you love. Control is the earmark of fear. Some people have grown up in unsafe environments where they were not protected or nurtured, whether physically or emotionally. This taught them to fight to survive, and to survive, they may have felt the need to control things around them. When I see a controlling person, I know they have a lot of fear and behind that fear is a lot of pain that God wants to heal. We mustn’t judge people, but have compassion like Jesus did. We must speak encouragement and truth to them, and point them to Jesus so that they can be healed and learn to walk in freedom.

As I stated earlier, I never really dealt with fear growing up, then in my early 20’s I was in a very bad car accident that in the natural should have taken my life. It was a miracle from God I came out physically unscathed. Emotionally however, I experienced trauma and started to have PTSD symptoms. It was a spiritual battle for me. Suddenly the world seemed a scary place to me. Something bad could actually happen to me, and I imagined the worst. Our imagination is the very thing satan tries to get a hold of. That’s why we must be diligent to cast down vain imaginations and think on things that are lovely, true and of good report (Philippians 4:8). If we allow our imagination to run wild, it surely will. Again, it’s something we must bring into the submission of God daily.

I eventually overcame that fear, as I said no to fear and allowed God to heal me, but there have been times since then, that spirit of fear has reared its ugly head. While I have struggled with fear in some areas, there are other areas I am fearless in. People have marveled at my ability to speak up at injustice and stand up to someone twice my size when I feel someone is being taken advantage of. My fearlessness in one area is totally God’s anointing on my life, and the fear I have faced in the other area of my life shows me I need to seek God for healing and say NO to that fear. I say this because too often, people, especially Christians, feel ashamed to admit they are dealing with fear in an area of their lives. They feel it makes them weak or bad, and they suffer in shame and silence. We may face fear at times in our lives, but we can say what the Psalmist did in Psalm 56:3, “When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.” Fear may rear it’s ugly head, but we can overcome by putting our trust in Him.

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t think we should go around owning that fear. For example, I know someone who is constantly saying, “Oh no I can’t do that, I’m too afraid. I’m a scaredy cat. I’m afraid of everything!” She has accepted it as a part of who she is and is choosing to live with it. But again, I don’t think we should deny it either. Fear highlights an area of our lives that we need healing and transformation in. Instead of denying pain, fear, struggles, pride, anger, or sickness let’s acknowledge it’s there and bring it to the cross. That’s where we find the power to overcome. Let’s know and speak the Truth of God’s Word over our lives and to those we see struggling.  Let’s say no to the enemy, say no to our flesh and yes to walking by God’s spirit each day of our life, teaching others how to also. Let’s press into God and allow Him to apply the healing balm of His love to our hearts and heal us as only He can. Let’s endure the fiery trial of our sufferings, allowing it to purge us and bring forth the gold God has placed within us. One day at a time. Seeking more and more of Him. Being transformed more and more into His beautiful and powerful image.