FEAR IS YOUR ENEMY

I am going to talk about getting rid of fear. FEAR IS DEFINED AS A DREAD, UNEASINESS, OR ANXIOUSNESS.But from a biblical standpoint it is a spirit.
II Timothy 1:7 says, " God has not given us a spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind.
When we were anointed by God we have world overcoming power, but when fear becomes dominate in our lives it creates an atmosphere of negativism and destruction. You've heard people say that a little fear is healthy, but according to the Word of God there is no such thing as a healthy fear.
I. Instead of empowering you, fear paralyzes you.
II. Instead of giving you wisdom, fear causes you to make poor decisions.
III. Instead of the blessing of the true anointing of the Holy Spirit, the anointing of the spirit of fear brings a curse.

The anointing that comes with a spirit of fear will make you miserable The scripture says that fear has torment. It causes you to be tormented. There is a saying that goes like this. A brave man dies once but a coward dies a thousand times.

According to Romans 8: 1-2 there are two spiritual laws operating in the earth. Understand a law is an established principle that can be expected to function the same way every time. For example the law of gravity. Whatever goes up must come down. When the law of thrust and the law of lift supersedes the law of gravity, planes fly. When you cut the engines off, the law of gravity kicks in again.

The two spiritual laws operate the same way every time. They are the law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death. Every human on earth is living their lives under one of these two laws. There are no other choices. The sad part is that even being born again does not mean a christian lives his/her life under the right law.

You've seen it and I have seen it. Spirit filled Christians, broke, busted and disgusted, sick and unhappy. The reason is, they haven't broken away from the law of sin and death and entered into the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus.
Actually these two laws are reciprocals of each other. For ever spiritual force and substance in the realm of life, there is a reciprocal force and substance in the realm of death.
In the first you will find the force of hope. In the other you will find its reciprocal, despair.
Under the law of life you will find agape love. The kind of love that gives and gives. Under the law of death you will find the reciprocal of agape, total selfishness.

One of the most powerful forces in the realm of the law of life in Christ Jesus is the force of faith. According to God's Word, faith will move mountains and do miracles. The universe itself is a product of faith

Faith has a reciprocal under the law of sin and death called fear. In fact fear always rushes in when faith is not present.We get a clear picture of this when they are caught in the boat during a storm.
Matt. 8:25-26, " And His disciples came to Him, and awoke Him, saying, Lord,save us we perish. And Jesus said unto them; why are you so fearful, O you of little faith. Then He arose and rebuked the winds and the sea; and there was a great calm."
Judging from His reaction when they awoke Him, they should have had more confidence. The Lord does not rebuke people without a reason. He evidently had taught them what faith in God could do, but when it came down to the rubber meeting the road they allowed fear to rush in and destroy their faith

If you have fear, you have no faith.
If you have faith you have no fear.

Attending to the Word of God establishes faith.
Attending to the words of the devil establishes fear.

We are alot like they were. However we know from studying the Word they changed to people of great faith. Some of us have been with Jesus many more years than they were and we still fall apart every time the devil says boo. We hear about a flu going around and immediately we declare ourselves a reciprocate of the flu. That is exactly what they did in the boat. They begin to see themselves dead. Fear will keep you subservient to the devil.

Listen, here is a truth you should settle once and for all. Don't receive the things that you see nor the report that you hear if it is contrary to the Word of God. Whose report will you believe,what you see and hear or the Word of God.
Fear gives place to the devil, allowing him to operate freely. It is only when you receive the knowledge that fear is to the devil what faith is to God, that you see the need to do something about the fear that is in your life.
It was not when the storm begin to blow full force that they begin to fear, it was when they saw the storm coming. Their fear allowed it to get to the point where it might have destroyed them if Jesus had not been in the boat. That is why Jesus said, " where is your faith." In essence He was saying, " why is this happening? Why is there so much water in this boat? Why have you allowed your fear to generate this circumstance rather than taking authority over it by faith.
Listen. Get this into your spirit. Satan cannot operate in your life apart from fear, no more than God can operate in your life apart from faith. Fear gives the devil a place. Take for instance you get a bad report from the doctor.
Generally your first reaction will determine the out come. That's you in the boat. You can declare the truth of God's Word over the report, or fall apart and allow the wind and the waves to over whelm you.
You can say, doctor I know whose I am and in whom I believe. His word says I was healed 2000 years ago and I believe I will go with His report; Or you can fall apart and allow fear to direct you to your grave. If you pay attention to the devil's words and the doctor's report rather than the report of the Lord, fear will immediately wrap it's icy fingers around your heart. If left unchecked fear will open the door to the devil to come in and to steal, kill and destroy.

Thus far we have seen that there are two laws governing the earth. The law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus and the law of sin and death. Faith activates one and fear activates the other. Now you would think that it would be a no brainer. That every born again believer would be racing to operate in the law of the Spirit of life, but if you pay close attention you will find that it is not so. It takes effort to walk in the law of life and it takes nothing to walk in the law of sin and death. Faith comes at a price and is rare. Fear comes cheap and is in abundance.

Remember this. Faith activates the law of life. Great faith doesn't just happen.
Romans 10:17, "Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God."
Fear comes by hearing the words of the devil. The words of the devil are those that are spoken contrary to the Word of God. Make a decision today to go after the things of God. In the Lord you will find victory over fear.

WE ARE HIS BODY IN EARTH

We ask Him to do things for us that He has told us to do. The Lord told us that if we had any mountains in our lives that were a hindrance to speak to them in faith and command them to move and they would obey you. Instead most people beg Him to do it. He won't. He has told you to. Read Mark 11:22-25. Also read Mark 16:17-20. God has told us how to handle situations that develop in our lives and if we do not do it God's way it want get done.

Listen, let me just talk to you. When Jesus left this earth, He left us with His armor, His name, His weapons and anointed us to use them. We have His blessing to take dominion and if we don't do it, it wont get done. He said, YOU do it. Do What? Exactly the same thing He did, when He was functioning in His other body while He was here on earth. You need to get a revelation of this. We are no less His body than HIS earthly body was that He used here on earth.

The difference between the two bodies, is the one He has here on earth now, is able to act independantly of the head, and as likely as not is walking contrary to what the head would have it do. The actions of the body should never have changed when Jesus left the earth. We should have went right on doing those things He was doing. Destroying the works of the Devil.

Now here is something else you should think about. If you choose the road of least resistance, as I call it, "Peaceful Coexistance with the devil", you are going to lose every time. If you aren't actively resisting the devil, or driving him back, you are losing ground. There is a saying, That if you give the devil a ride in the back seat, it won't be long before he will want to drive. It bears repeating if you are not actively resisting the devil, you are the loser.

Some of the works of the devil are: Sin, Sickness,Fear, Death, Depression,Murder,Temptation,Deception,Lust and rebellion. The Bible says, "For this purpose the Son of God was manifested that He might destroy the works of the devil."

As His body, we are to continue this ministry.

POINT TWO

Now concerning point 2. Most of the time we pray for things that He has already given us. II Peter 2:3 says, " As His divine power has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him who called us by glory and virtue, by which have been given to us exceedingly great and precious promises, that through these you may be partakers of the divine nature, having excaped the corruption that is in the world through lust."

Now if I know anything about English, has given, means it is something that has already been done. He has given to us all things that pertain to life and godliness. It is given to us through our knowledge of Him. In other words, the more knowledge and understanding you have of the Lord, the more you are able to receive of the things that He has already provided. The problem is, when someone gets saved ( confesses Jesus as Lord of their lives ) they think that they know Him.
However, you have just been introduced to Him. This is just a beginning. God has given us His Word and anointed teachers to help us come to the knowledge of the things that He has instore for us. They do not just happen. We have to apply ourselves.

God never intended for us to live in poverty; He never intended for us to live in bad health; He intended for us to be fruitful and multiply. You won't learn these things just by going to church. You learn it by the Word of God. By putting it in your ears, putting it in your eyes, putting it in your heart and putting it in your mouth. If you are not in a church that believes in the power of God and that His Word is our life-line, then you need to find another church.

God has already supplied everything that He is going to supply, and if you do not understand that, then you need to find a person full of faith to teach it to you.
Well thats all for now. Hope you take these things to heart. Later I will teach on point 3. We ask Him to do what He has told us to do.

FAITH IS

I was pondering the weak, anemic condition of the church a while back and the Lord seemed to say to me, that there were three primary reasons the church is in the condition that it is in.

1. A lack of knowledge concerning faith.
2. We pray for what He has already given us.
3. We ask Him to do things that He has told us to do.

Let me clear something up concerning faith. Faith is not a religion. Such as the Muslim faith, Hindu faith, Catholic faith or Protestant faith. These are belief systems. The Bible is clear concerning the subject of faith. Faith is believing something before there is any evidence that it exist.

Hebrews 11:1 says it like this. " Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen." The word HOPE from the Greek text means expecting with pleasure or earnest expectation. So you could say, "Faith is the substance of things earnestly expected with pleasure."

Here are some things about faith that you ought to know.
1. Jesus is the author and developer of our faith. Hebrews 12:1-2
2. God gives to every man the measure of faith. Romans 12:3
3. We walk by faith not by sight. II Cor. 5:7
4. The just lives by faith. Hab. 2:4; Ro. 1:17; Gal. 3:11; Heb. 10:38
5. Without faith you cannot please God. Heb. 11:6
6. Whatever does not originate from faith is sin. Ro. 14:23

This is just a brief excursion into the subject. the next time we will talk about what I mean by asking in prayer for what He has already given us.