what Fear is; its origin and ills

MESSAGES FOR JANUARY 2016: 

OUR MONTH OF FREEDOM FROM FEAR

Theme: Understanding Our Dominion over Fear

Message for Sunday the 3^rd of January, 2016

Topic: what Fear is; its origin and ills

Introduction: This Month, our business shall be first to understand what fear is, it’s origin and how devastating it can be to us. Then we shall embark on a series of truths that would help us renew our minds to the point where we can move from fear to courage and eventually to a fearless lifestyle – the lifestyle of faith.

What fear is: Fear is defined in the Farlex English dictionary as follows:

1.     A painful emotion or passion excited by the expectation of evil. It is an uneasiness of the mind upon the thought of future evil likely to befall us. It is that which causes or is the object of alarm, apprehension or occasion of terror, danger or dreadfulness. Fear also means to be anxious, to be suspicious, and to be doubtful.

2.     Medically, fear is an emotion innate in man and animals to enable him anticipate and avoid danger. Once this danger is past, the fear leaves. However, if the fear does not leave after the danger is past; the person is diagnosed with a mental condition that would require treatment. The bible calls this type of fear that would not leave even after the anticipated danger is past together with the first kind above as the spirit of fear. It is an evil spirit that must be cast out. When it is handled spiritually, the person is set free.

3.     Another definition of fear is the reverence given to God which causes us to want to honor him with our lives by doing what He wants for us.

For our purpose, we shall be looking at the first and the other kind of the second type of fear because they are the types of fear we would seek to dominate until we eliminate them completely.

The Origin of Fear: Simply put, the origin of fear is sin. The bible is our main text for this message as we understand it to be the creator’s manual for mankind and his environment. In Gen.3:10 where fear was introduced, we could see that man became afraid after he sinned and the result was that he was attempting to keep what he thought was the secret from God because his understanding had become perverted by carnality. From that day, fear has grown so many branches and has been dressed up with different names like phobia etc.

Some types of fear and the consequences of entertaining them:

1.     The fear of man: This is the kind of fear that prevents us from taking some noble steps in life because of what we think the opinion of others about them would be. For example, some believers are afraid to testify to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ because they care about the displeasure it would bring to some people. The result of this kind of fear is that they become entrapped and at the end miss out on the blessings of God. Prov.29:25 says the fear of man brings a snare but whoever puts his trust in the Lord is safe. In other words, the antidote for the fear of man is the fear of God and trusting God. See Isaiah 50:5-7; Jer.1:17-19. When we fear man, we stand the danger of incurring the wrath of God. Jesus counsels us not to fear man or the devil but to fear God because he has the power to not only kill but to cast a man in hell. See Luke 12:4-5.

2.     The fear of death: This is by far the worst kind of fear as it is the foundation for every other type [see Heb.2:14-15]. For instance, the fear of exercising faith for healing without the use of medication even when the medication can kill a person is the fear of dying by the disease. Sadly, in most cases such people are still killed by the said disease because what a man fears has a way of mastering the man. For example Job’s experience shows us that what he feared most was the loss of his glory and children and as such even his dedication in offering sacrifices all the time was connected to that fear. See Job 3:25. To combat this fear, God gave us salvation through Jesus Christ who not only destroys him who had the power of death but was also manifested to destroy his works. See 1John 3:8 and Acts 10:38.

3.     The fear of the unknown: This kind of fear is what robs people of the potential of pioneering any good cause because they would not be able to take the first step of faith. This happens because they are not sure of the turn out and what they may suffer if the move does not work out. This is why many people who would have been employers of labour today are trapped in their jobs where they are not fulfilled and are dissatisfied with the salaries for which they live and which could barely meet their needs. This I believe is the reason why the man with the one talent in the parable of the talents failed to deliver on his potential and ended up losing what he had to the one with five talents. Instead of trading with what he had to increase it, he chose to bury his talent and work for the one with the five talents and lost his one talent to the five talent now ten talent man. Many corporations where people work are even owned by two talents people who have chosen to brave this fear of the unknown to start and diligently pursue their purpose. Thus to overcome this kind of fear, we need to be courageous and this is actualized by meditating on the word of God to the point of doing it. See Joshua 1:8, Luk.19:12-26 and Matthew 25:14-30.

4.     The fear of failure: this kind of fear has placed a huge pressure on man more that many other kinds to the point that many have sacrificed their family life and other noble relationships on the altar of the fear of failure through being workaholics. Sadly, when we get down to it, at the time of their passing on from time, if they were asked to live their lives over again, they would choose differently but there is actually no spare life. The story of the rich fool exemplifies this. These people get so busy trying to ‘make it’ that they do not have any room for God in their lives. See Luk.12:15-21; 16:19-31; Mt.16:26 and Mark 8:36-37. The way out of this kind of fear is to find out your purpose from God and pursue it comparing your efforts with your purpose and not what others are doing. Then you will have an accurate perspective of success and failure. You will know that success is knowing your purpose and pursuing it to its logical conclusion from God’s perspective. When this is done, the fear of failure is done away with.

In summation, like we have seen earlier, the entire process of overcoming fear in its totality begins with the first step which is taking advantage of God’s solution to fear which is the new birth experience. Should you desire to do so, you can do it right away by saying the following prayer out loud and you will begin your journey from fear to faith:

Heavenly Father,

Have mercy on me a sinner. Today, I believe that Jesus died for me and you raised Him from the dead for my Justification. I therefore declare that Jesus Christ is my Saviour and Lord and from today, I renounce the fatherhood of Satan and embrace Jesus Christ as my Saviour and Lord. Thank you for this father in Jesus’ name!

Amen.

Congratulations! For more information and resources that would help you grow in this new life, please visit our website at www.kingdomheirsministries.org and our blogs at www.flourishinggirl.blogspot.com and follow us on twitter at alero_nanna and on face book on www.facebook.com/flourishinggirl www.facebook.com/khmii2015; www.facebook.com/thewellbeingcenter. Or www.facebook.com/kingdomjointheirsfamily email:  jointheirsfamily@gmail.com.   

Remain on top of your challenges in Jesus’ name!