Fighting Fear - Renewing the Mind

Here are a few Scriptures from yesterday's message that concerns how to deal with fear. I'll try to go into detail from my notes, so as to explain them in greater detail. Enjoy!

Church: World Changers Church International
Pastor: Dr. Creflo Dollar
Date: 12.05.2004
For More information: www.worldchangers.org

Being More Than A Conquerer

The first thing I really got from the message today was the understanding that Fear is not natural....being that it isn't from God, and is directly corrolated with Satan. I can recall listening to the pastor speak about how satan tries to misguide us into believing that having Fear is a good thing. It was interesting though that the first thing that popped into my mind was the famous phrase about Satan himself:

"The Greatest trick of the Devil is getting us to believe that he doesn't exist"

As first that didn't make a whole lotta sense to me, but revelation revealed that Satan often times will try to get us, the flesh, to believe that things he manifests are not from and or about him, but that they are either #1 From God, or #2 a manifestation of our own, such as fear! Which directly corrolates to my next point of interest. You see the message helped me understand that the "Toleration of Fear leads to Contamination of Faith."

II Timothy 1:6 - 7 -- "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. (7) For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. "

A sound mind...yes I must admit, having a sound mind does lead to the abomination of fear. I can recall various times in my life where there is spiritual warfare taking place within the confines of my own mind. I can even recall (and discuss) times in my life where I didn't have that strong, sound mind, and would allow evil to win that battle...but now I know that even though satan may have manipulated me for a short period of time......We (God and His Kingdom) still wins the war! Now that is trully inspirational.

It's rather interesting though.....how satan works his wickedness. You see satan has come to a point where he feels that he needs to hone in on the #1 Fear - "Getting us to believe that what God promised won't come true." You see if he can get us to believe that then we will begin to doubt God in all areas of our lives. Seeing that Fear = Unbelieving. We will get to the point where we are afraid to do right by God, because we won't believe, and will have fear, that what He has for us....is for us. This can be conquered by having that sound mind and relationship with Christ.

Revelations 21:8 - " But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Having fear denies God access to our lives. I remember the message from two sundays ago, when pastor depicted the lines of fear & faith. See, faith is a direct connection with God, while fear is a direct connection with satan.

God even went so far in this message to bring Job and his situation into the light. For those of you who know the story of Job, I'll spare the details, and for those of you who don't see THIS SITE. Throughout all of the things that had occured in Job's life, he never realized that "fear" had brought him to the place in which he was in life, until...

Job 3:25 - "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me."

I took from this message, that when we are afraid of things in life, we are essentially fostering the manifestations of these fears into our lives.....I wanna say that there was a movie about this once before....maybe Ghostbusters or something....yeah that was it! You remember when the guy had to think of one thing, and he was trying to think of something that was "the most harmless thing imaginable, but it was really something he was afraid of! Im sure there was another movie about that too.

So back to this fear issue.....its seems to me that fear is nothing more than an escort to hell. Seems like satan is the car, and fear is the driver....constantly asking you if you want a ride!

Its interesting though, how fear tries to reap its spirit into not only our lives, but also the lives of those whom we read about in the bible. It talks about in Matthew 14:26, that the men "feared" that who they saw wasn't the Son of Man...that He wasn't Christ Jesus....it says specifically that they were "afraid." But we learned that Jesus showed up to show us that we can live life free of fear, and that fear only places us in bondage. That His mere presence was to free us from that bondage. I actually didn't know this until sunday, but two of the main reasons for Christ appearance as man was to #1 paralyze satan and his ability to harm us and or destory us & #2 The placing of power in our spirits....to give us the ability to overcome, and to outlast fear.

Yet and still, satan is still in the workings of trying to get us to believe that we are still in bondage...that we are still filled with fear, but it took me really analyzing myself to see that I have not recieved the spirit of bondage & of fear. Its just not in my bloodline of Christ. Man that is a wonderful feeling. Although, I do realize that I live in this world where fear seems to be fostered, yet and still, I figure that if I go at it in a daily manner, and constantly fight that fear....I know that I/We win! So all of those 2nd thoughts (doubts) that arise concerning my spiritual walk with the Father, I know I have to rebuke those in the name of Jesus who is my Lord and Savior.

I do realize that it is a work in progress, but I know that I can make it. I know that through Christ, I can locate the "root" of my fears...whether it be financially, health, mentally.....whatever....I know I am going to win....so until next time..same place, maybe not the same time.....you guys remain blessed and annointed!

KJD

All Glory Given to the Father, the Son, & the Holy Spirit