Attack Your Fears!

             My wife and I talk to people all the time. And I would venture to say that the most common problem that people suffer from is fear. It is just so sad to see how so many people entertain fear, and it totally conditions their lives. And it is greatly nurtured by the media, since the News only reports bad and sensational stories that make people fear. Social media, and the web are filled with scary pictures and scary stories.

             The fear of failure is probably one of the greatest fears people have. –The fear of failure in life, in love, or in work. The fear of hurting others is also very common, because of our failure, the fear of letting people down, disappointing them, disillusioning them, discouraging them. –The fear that because of our failure, others will also fail and this is the most difficult to bear. The fear of failing ourselves is probably least of all. In a way, that is fear of the truth about ourselves: We don’t want to admit our limitations and shortcomings.

             The reason we don’t like to talk about our fears is because that would expose our innermost selves. Yet, we don’t realize how much fear is subconscious until we analyze it and try to put it into words.

             Being afraid to talk about our fears is one of the worst fears of all, because fear is like a disease: We can’t find the cure until we confess we have it and reveal the symptoms. And it often seems like a shameful disease, because if we’re honest, we know our fears are often the result of our failures-past failures or possible future failures.

             But whatever your fears may be, it pays to face them and draw a line of distinction between the truth and the lie, between reality and the imaginary, between fact and fear.

             It not only pays to face your fears, to acknowledge and confess them, but also to take a positive stand against them. It won’t do a bit of good to try to take the “positive thinking” approach and say, “fear, you just don’t exist, so I’m going to ignore you!” It doesn’t pay to try and say there’s no such thing as evil, sin, or sickness, and just try to ignore the facts. That would be like trying to ignore that you have a disease when you’ve really got it. As long as you try to hide it, you can’t very well find the remedy.

             You have to differentiate between reality and the imaginary, the truth and the lie. It doesn’t do any good to just shut your eyes and hope the problem goes away, or hope that when you open your eyes again you’ll find out it didn’t exist, that it was just your imagination.

             As any military strategist knows, it’s impossible to win a war as long as you stay on the defensive. Defensive warfare is doomed to defeat. To win a war you have to launch an attack; you have to go on the offensive. You have to attack the enemy! You have to take the initiative! You have to attack and invade and overpower! You can’t just sit there and try to ward him off while he attacks and invades, or he’ll eventually overpower you. A passive defense never won a war.

             Attacking initiative is what wins a war. This is why commando and guerrilla warfare is so successful, even when greatly outnumbered and outgunned. By sudden surprise attacks in unexpected places and weak spots in the enemy’s defenses, a few commandos can do a lot of damage. They can hit and run before the enemy even knows what happened, and before the enemy has a chance to retaliate.

             Fear is the exact opposite of faith. People don’t realize that fear actually has power over you, especially if you voice your fears. “As a man thinketh in his heart, so is he” (Pr 23:7). Most people don’t realize that whatever comes out of their mouth is what they are sowing on their path. If you sow fear, you will reap fear. But if you watch your mouth and your thoughts and don’t allow fear to overpower you, you then can live in faith and reap a harvest of blessings all along your path, just because you keep SAYING good things about your life. “For verily I say unto you, That whosoever shall SAY unto this mountain, Be thou removed, and be thou cast into the sea; and shall not doubt in his heart, but shall believe that those things which he SAITH shall come to pass; he shall have whatsoever he SAITH.” (Mk 11:23) Notice that Jesus said 3 times in that verse that it has to do with your SAYING.

Once you realize that fear is the Devil’s tactic to get you NOT to trust God, you can then recognize fear a lot easier.

             ”God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7). And, “You [God] will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You” (Isaiah 26:3). God promises “perfect peace” to those whose minds are fixed on Him, to those who trust in Him (Isaiah 26:3). So if you are troubled by a spirit of fear, put your trust in the Lord. Just tell Satan, “Be gone, Devil! Get out of here! I’m putting my trust in God, in Jesus!” The Bible says that if you submit yourself to God and resist the Devil, he will flee from you (James 4:7). God’s Word makes it clear that we are in a spiritual warfare (Ephesians 6:12), and that our weapons are not physical, but spiritual and mighty, to the tearing down of strongholds (2 Corinthians 10:4). This is a picture of God’s people attacking the spiritual strongholds of the Devil and ripping them apart.

             Jesus said  that ”The gates of Hell shall not prevail (triumph) against it [the Church]” (Matthew 16:18 KJV). What this really means is that the gates of Hell will not be able to defend themselves against the attacking Church. The Devil’s territory, his fortresses, Satan’s strongholds, his gates, will not be able to withstand the onslaughts of God’s people.

             So the picture Christ painted was not of the Church standing fast behind its closed doors while all Hell attacks, but of Hell trembling behind its closed doors, while the Church is in an all-out attack against Hell’s gates, which are collapsing and crumbling under the weight of the power of God through His Church. The people of God are on the offensive. The people of God are invading Hell’s gates. Do you get the picture?

             Jesus said, “I give you authority [power] over all the power of the Enemy” (Luke 10:19). Through Jesus’ name and authority, you have power over the Devil and can order him what to do. The demons and evil spirits are subject unto us; they have no free will of their own. They cannot do as they please (Luke 10:17, 20). They have to do what we tell them to do in Jesus’ name.

             If you love God and know that He loves you, you know that He’s going to take care of you; you know that everything is alright, because God loves you. So why should you be afraid? There’s no reason to fear! His perfect love casts out all such fear (1 John 4:18).

             So face those fears, they are of the devil! Attack him! Resist the Enemy and he’ll flee from you! Face your fears in the power of God’s Spirit, standing on the promises of His Word, and you cannot fail!  How cool is that?