No Spirit of Fear

No Spirit of Fear

“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind. Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God, who has saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to His own purpose and grace which was given to us in Christ Jesus before time began,” 2 Timothy 1:7-9 NKJV

What causes us to fear? The most common factor in any fear or phobia is ignorance – we don’t know or understand what is going on. Xenophobia is the intense or irrational dislike or fear of people from other countries. Arachnophobia is the irrational fear of spiders. Homophobia, contrary to its current usage, is the totally irrational fear of men, not solely homosexuals but of all men. Actually, it is a classic example of fear through ignorance – in either meaning. 

In Christian terms, what are we really afraid of? In my opinion, one of the greatest fears is the fulfilment of the great commission. Even worse is the fear of the Baptism and Gifts of the Holy Spirit, which all somehow raises the spectre, (no pun intended), of the occult. Why is this? Perhaps it is because there is so much unbelief and disobedience in the Church. Churches are still teaching that these gifts died with the Apostles and that any demonstration of them now is demonic. Really? Since when did Satan heal the sick, and deliver the bound or oppressed? Since when did Satan do anything other than rob, kill, and destroy.

Fear is an awesome weapon and Satan uses it well. He is not fearful of anything except the Name of Jesus – his own personal nemesis. I like the story of Smith Wigglesworth who was awoken one night by Satan standing by his bed waiting to kill him. Wigglesworth looked at him, said “Oh, its only you.”, turned over and went back to sleep! Wigglesworth had no fear of the enemy. Rather, the enemy feared Wigglesworth because he used the Name of Jesus so well.

Fear is the Churches great mountain of opposition right now. Not fear of God, but fear of all things not of God. Fear in finance – get rich, stay rich, be prosperous when Jesus said it is easier for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven. Fear in doctrine, of missing the next fad, the next false teaching when the Bible says to beware false teaching and ear tickling preaching. Fear of the gifts of the Holy Spirit because they “died out centuries ago”.  Fear of Satan – I don’t know why because many are preaching that he doesn’t even exist. Fear of hell – again because so many now believe that it probably doesn’t even exist as we are all going to heaven. Finally, the Church fears repentance because it makes all their easy salvations into false salvations won by a false gospel preached by false teachers.

In the words of the old hymn, it is time to “Stand up, stand up for Jesus, You soldiers of the cross” It is time to “Lift high His royal banner, it must not suffer loss”. It is time to learn who we are in the Lord and to put fear where it belongs – back in the pit of hell where it came from. 

There is a war on Church. A war for the souls of all mankind. There is no time nor any place for fear. Haven’t you read the last page of the Book. We win!! Hallelujah \o/