Are You Living in Fear or in Faith? It's Time to Stand Out!
The Marriam-Webster dictionary defines Fear as: ‘an unpleasant emotion by anticipation or awareness of danger.’Here is a question for you before continuing with this article.Are you living in Fear or in Faith?Faith in God is the complete trust in God; trusting God wholeheartedly.So, can you still identify whether you are living in Fear or in Faith?Fear and Faith are both emotional concepts. They can cohabitate together, meaning you can have both Faith and Fear. They work simultaneously but not on similar measures. Meaning you can only have more of one and less of the other. One has to sound louder than the other.They both can live in the same house but not the same room. One has to sit in the basement and the other in the upper room. So it is possible to have both Fear and Faith in your heart.
Weapon called Fear
The devil’s biggest weapon is Fear; the devil thrives on Fear. He plants fear to terrorize us. The enemy’s biggest weapon is not death, not a sickness, not viruses, nothing but Fear. The devil does not need your money or your car (He doesn’t drive). The devil does not need your husband nor your wife. But he wants to threaten you with Fear of losing your possessions.The Bible describes the devil as the ‘Accuser of brothers and sisters.' We would undoubtedly assume he accuses us to God. However, put on your schizophrenia glasses and see this from a different perspective. It is foolish to believe that God would almost certainly consider the accusation from the devil, Although the devil’s accusation about you might be right. God is aware of the hate behind these accusations; before the accusation and after the accusations, God’s Love continually remains the same for you. It is why the devil has never been successful in accusing you to God, so now he turns you to accuse you to yourself.
The Accuser is closer
The devil is the ‘accuser of brothers and sisters’ to God’ day and night’, and he also accuses brothers and sisters to themselves. That’s right. The devil sits on your left shoulder while the Angel (the messenger from God) sits on the right shoulder. The devil whispers accusation in your left ear, causing confusion, division, guilt and fear. Be careful of the second voice, be careful of the louder voice and be careful of the contradicting voice because that’s not God.
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One of the tactics the devil uses is not always guilt, but Fear. He does not just whisper about how horrible you are, but he also whispers about how horrible your life will collapse. He continuously plants ideas in your mind to stir your feelings and cripple your emotions. The devil would cause things to happen to you to awaken your sense of Fear. He would replay your old memories of failure to drop you into a pit of despair.
Words of Fear
Sometimes the devil does not just cause things to scare you but he uses people closer to you to speak Fear. You would be surprised how much your friendship circle says a lot about who you are and where you are in life. We become a lot like those around us or act a little like those around us. It is easy to catch on with the lingo daydreaming and fit in with the wolfpack. We become what we hear and what we focus our eyes on.If what we hear has such an impact on us, then here is a question.Who speaks Fear in you?Jesus rebuked Peter after Peter tried to intervene in Jesus’s grand plan of salvation for the entire humanity. Jesus was telling His disciples about his death and resurrection, and Peter opposed the idea. so Jesus stood up to Peter and said to him:“Get out of my way, you Satan! You are an offence to me because your thoughts are only filled with man’s viewpoints and not with the ways of God.” Matthew 16:23Peter was not the devil, but he was possessed with a spirit of Fear. Jesus was aware of an evil spirit whispering Fear and speaking through Peter. Jesus rebuked him because He did not want to hear the Fear coming from Peter’s mouth.
About Spirits
So Apostle Paul sends his memoir to young Timothy as he was debuting in ministry. In his second memoir, he alarms young Timothy to discern spirits because not all spirits come from God. He says to young Timothy:For God will never give you a spirit of fear but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love and self-control. 2Timothy 1:7Therefore, if there’s another spirit that does not empower you to stand up against atrocities, trials or any other thing that’s against you then that is a spirit of Fear. If there’s another spirit that awakens feelings opposite to love (pushing you to hate yourself and others), then that is a spirit of Fear, and it’s not from God. Suppose you lose control over your life, your emotions, career, studies and many more. And you find yourself in a state of depression, remember that it is Fear and it does not come from God.