No Fear

John 10  : 37 - 39, If I do not do the works of My Father, do not believe Me; but if I do, though you do not believe Me, believe the works, that you may know and believe that the Father is in Me, and I in Him." Therefore they sought again to seize Him, but He escaped out of their hand. NKJV

Fear is a very powerful force and is used by Satan to hold people in bondage. Do you have fear in your life, and that fear controls what you do or don't do? If so, please don't feel alone, because you're not. Because of sin, we have received the spirit of bondage to fear. Why? Because sin brings forth death, and death produces great fear. The key is to overcome fear through our obedience to the Father, who loves us more than we could ever love ourselves.

The passage above gives just one account of where people sought to kill Jesus. Yet, there are many stories in the gospels that let us know that His life was threatened many times; still, no one could stop Him. You see, Jesus wasn't in bondage to fear, and even though He knew there would be attempts to kill Him, He didn't allow man's plans and intimidations to cause Him to disobey the Father's will. Now that, my friend, is liberty in the Spirit.

Has the Lord ever told you to do something, but because you were intimidated by the fear of man, you chose to disobey God? The Father loves us too much to allow us to be controlled by fear, especially the fear of death. There have been times in ministry that I would obey God, and then I would hold my head down waiting for the proverbial "shoe" to drop. This just indicates that I wasn't developed in the love of God. It's obvious that I loved the Lord, or I would have disobeyed Him instead of confronting "my fears." But, I wasn't developed or completed in His love. I didn't have a trust in Him to the point that I could rest in the truth that He would keep me... even in the presence of my enemies.

If you will read Job 1, you will see where God is bragging on the faith and strengths of Job. God told Satan that there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God and shuns evil?" NKJV

Although God revealed these good qualities in Job, we read a little later that Job was consumed by fear. He said, "The thing that I feared the most has come upon me." If the thing that he feared the most happened to him, then what were the other things that he feared less than this one, and how many were there? Makes you begin to think that fear held Job in bondage, doesn't it? Before his children were killed in the collapse of their home, Job tells us that he continually sacrificed to the Lord on behalf of his children. He was afraid that they would sin against God and die, so he sacrificed many animals. Guess what? They died while throwing a party.

The attack of Satan against the faith of Job in his God caused him to face and endure the very thing that he feared the most. Yet, through it all, and even though God had allowed Job to go through the pain of losing his children, Job never stopped trusting God. "Though God slay me, yet I will trust Him." Job understood that, in this world, we can suffer horrendous losses. He knew that it was possible to live through his worst nightmare. After his nine month ordeal had ended, Job, once again, experienced the goodness and faithfulness of God in his life. This time, he wasn't controlled by fear; because of Job's continued faith in the fiery furnace of affliction, the fear had been replaced with the character of God. The love of God had been perfected or developed in the heart of Job, and fear was cast out.

The Father loves us too much and has given too much for our redemption to allow Satan to torment us with the spirit of fear. We have been given the Spirit of adoption. Now, Satan can't control or manipulate us through fear, because we are being perfected in God's love.

In Love with God,
Pastor Asa