The Spirit of Fear

 

The Bible has 365 verses that admonish us to fear not. That is one for each day of the Gregorian Calendar Year that most of the world uses. Why is fear so crippling? How does is interact with faith? What does our Lord tells us to do when it is moving so strongly in our lives? The answers as ever are found in Scripture, but before we explore them, I want to share a personal story. 

I have battled the giant fear and its armor bearer anxiety for much of my life. As a child I had crippling moments when the giant sat on my chest and manifested its dark power. With intercessory prayer from family, my Lord Jesus rescued me from those bouts. However, the worst form of this monster came roughly a decade ago, when I began to experience persecution for being a Christian. I  have always been bold to wear crosses and signs of my devotion, but when I began to be harassed and get burnt burgers, I decided to conceal my cross under my shirt, convinced I was following, “I am sending you out like sheep among wolves, be wise as serpents and gentle as doves.” (Matthew 10:16). But despite the comfort of this verse, I was nagged by the ones I have used often in this blog like “pick up your cross and follow me daily,” (Luke 9:23) and “Now if we are children, then we are heirs—heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ, if indeed we share in his sufferings in order that we may also share in his glory.” (Romans 8:17). I came to a realization that while I wasn’t denying my Lord if asked, my boldness of being myself, who likes wearing crosses and have conversation starters had been imprisoned by fear. The spirit of fear was cunning, using Richard Wurmbrandt and the “wise as serpents” verse to convince me to live in fear of persecution and marginalize who I am. Worse I became acutely aware that I was not good at picking up my cross and yet asking you my readers to do so. 

The truth is that I was being mistreated by bad people regardless if they knew I was Christian, and the words of Peter filled my head, “For it is better, if it is God’s will, to suffer for doing good than for doing evil,” (1 Peter 3:17) only my mind changed that  to “ better to be persecuted for showing  my faith in Christ and being myself than to be mistreated anyway and be bound by fear, choking me from being myself.”

The Spirit of Fear exists, the Scriptures say, “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7). Its tactics at first are feelings and visions of terror and imaginations of worst case scenarios, but the more advanced onslaught of this giant is like the devil when he upped his assault on Jesus, “Then the devil took Him up into the holy city, set Him on the pinnacle of the temple,  and said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, throw Yourself down. For it is written:

‘He shall give His angels charge over you,’

and,

‘In their hands they shall bear you up,
Lest you dash your foot against a stone.’ ”

Jesus said to him, “It is written again, ‘You shall not tempt the Lord your God.’ ”.” (Matthew 4:5-7). See I was like that, I got duped by “wise as serpents,” being twisted as Scripture when there are verses that contradict shirking from persecution. Like Jesus I had to learn “it is also written,” to say back to fear. 

Our Lord Jesus told us faith, trust in Him and His power could move mountains, “Truly I tell you, if anyone says to this mountain, ‘Go, throw yourself into the sea,’ and does not doubt in their heart but believes that what they say will happen, it will be done for them.” (Matthew 11:23). I believe this literally and figuratively, that there are mountains of fear in our lives like our finances, our family, the state of the future in our countries, and so much more. Jesus can move those if we just trust Him, place our faith in what He said “If you ask Me for anything in My name, I will do it.” (John 14:14). I asked three years ago with a family member that another family member who was alcoholic would be delivered from alcoholism and be free, they had God speak to them and tell them they would lose everything, including their kids, and so that alcoholic family member quit drinking alcohol and God had them meet another Christian friend at that very moment who was an alcoholic and that friend and my family member stopped drinking together, and joined a Christian group; both are sober three years now! Did others pray? I am sure they did, but just an ounce of faith, when I and my family member prayed it wasn’t a deeply meaningful moment, nor was there fireworks or flashes of heavenly light, it was ordinary, but my family member’s mountain of alcoholism was moved. It was tempting to listen to fear, that this family member who was falling far into Bacchus, and Centaur’s grip was beyond hope and would lose it all. But that small moment of faith changed everything as people prayed, and my family member passed from “darkness into light.” (1 Peter 2:9). The same happened to another family member who was dying, we and others prayed, and against the prognosis, my family member lived. You may  say what does this have to do with fear? Faith is the anti-fear, fear told us the family member was doomed to perish, but we prayed in faith, asking Jesus to spare them and He did. 

Fear tries to bog us down in its black webs that it places on our mind and soul, it will use Scripture like the devil did in The Wilderness and all means to enslave you. You must as Paul Atreides in Dune days, “fear is the mind killer, let is pass through me,” and Vader who commended Luke, “Good you have control of your fear..” (Empire Strikes Back). We control this giant of fear with faith in The Holy Trinity. Fear only has the power we allow it. It will use current events, tapes of lies and self depreciation you have played in your mind, actual terrors like criminals and demonic beings that manifest to convince you they are strong when they are defeated, “The Son of God came to destroy works of the Devil,” (1 John 3:8) “greater is He who is in me, than who is in the world” (1 John 4:4). Jesus has even taken away one of fear’s greatest weapons, the fear of death, “Son also became flesh and blood. For only as a human being could he die, and only by dying could he break the power of the devil, who had the power of death. Only in this way could he set free all who have lived their lives as slaves to the fear of dying.” (Hebrews 2:14-15) and “” (Matthew). Christ has obliterated fear’s real fangs, claws, scythe, and power; but the creature like the devil tries to pretend it still has fangs, claws, and it wields power when you listen to fear rather than Truth who is Jesus (John 14:6). That is why we must “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy set before Him endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God,” (Hebrews 12:2) and step out on to troubled waters of our Sea of Galilee as Peter did. Fear will conjure waves and thunder, and bolts, but Jesus is able to calm any storm (Mark 4:39). Remember that you have power in Christ, for God lives in you, “All who declare that Jesus is the Son of God have God living in them, and they live in God.” (1 John 4:15). You fight fear with “..faith, hope, and love, but the greatest of these is love.” (1 Corinthians 13:13). For love allows you to focus on God and others, and when you do that there is no room for fear, you are too busy showing charity, love to God and his people; the fastest way to break fear’s grip is to love, for Jesus even told us to love enemies our (Matthew 5:43-45), whom we tend to fear. Amen.