FEAR CAN’T GO WITH YOU

• DAY 48
• Fear File: Gideon 
• Scripture: Judges 7:3

Now therefore, proclaim in the hearing of the people, saying, ‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead.’ ” And twenty-two thousand of the people returned, and ten thousand remained.

Judges 7:3

Have you noticed that one of the first things God says after He gives us an assignment or a word is “do not fear?” He makes it a point to eliminate fear first; our text today is no different. When He got ready to audit the 30k manpower behind Gideon He eliminated fear first. God does not joke with fear, why should you?

You see, fear in all its manifestations is an enemy of faith and courage. If fear gains access to the heart it can defeat the mightiest of warriors before their enemy even throws the first blow. However, a man of faith can conquer a nation and defeat a million strong men full of fear. Faith is a shield that protects the heart. Your heart must be protected and guarded at all costs, for out of it flows the issues of life. 

The first place fear attacks us is in our minds. It starts with thoughts that are designed to stop us. It doesn’t look this way at first, it just looks like procrastinating on writing your book because you need to read another book you just bought to get more ideas or maybe waiting till you find a quiet place to think before you start writing or probably looking to buy a new computer. Fear doesn’t always come looking like destruction. But how did the thoughts get there? Accumulated interactions. Past experiences. Friendly suggestions.

Here Comes Fear

Nobody was born fearful. Children are bold and confident. But as they interact with their environment, they start to learn about threats and danger that is hidden in the things they see around them. They gradually become conditioned to respond fearfully. This will prove helpful to save them from burns and cuts and falling on the staircase. When we become adults, our interactions also condition us to fear. A relationship hurt us and we become afraid of vulnerability. A father walks away and we become insecure. And many other ways life breaks us. These interactions become our past experiences and suddenly a file is open that house our fears. All these fuels the fear within. They are the raw materials the devil uses to whisper his lies to our hearts so that we become too timid to try, to hope, to believe but the devil is a liar.

However, all our fears don’t come from within. The enemy often speaks the thoughts he is saying within us to those around us so that they begin to echo our insecurities as sound advice and we think that we are being irrational to believe that we are able to do what we have been called to. Because he has lost the war within, his only option is to speak his lies from without. And he uses the people you trust the most. Like he used Peter to try to stop Jesus. But the devil is a bloody liar.

Surrounded by fear

For Gideon, the fear within was conquered by the encounter with the angel of God and the Lord himself. He couldn’t fall for any of those cheap lies anymore; he knew now that he is a mighty man of valour. So the only thing left for the slithering serpent to do is to surround him with 20,000 fearful men. Can you imagine? He had more fearful people in his troop. So he would have had the majority second-guessing his every move and he probably would have lost the battle or barely survived. 

But God was not about to let that happen. He had invested too much into Gideon. He had poured out His spirit upon him. All the signs He showed him and all the work He put into building his esteem was not to have him fail. He did not do all that to bring Gideon here to be defeated. “So, Gideon,” saith the Lord, “first, I will separate you from fear.” 

God is saying to you that He did not bring you this far to have you fail to fear. So tell every fear in your vicinity to take a hike. Tell your past, to stay right where it belongs – in the past. Tell your insecurities to look for another host, because you’re done. And tell your sensible friends that this is the season of discernment, not intelligence. 

A War On Fear

Fear must be treated worse than a pandemic. It should be brutally annihilated from every sphere of your life. It should be met with the harshest reactions and like a roach, it should be squashed without mercy. Do I sound a tad dramatic? I don’t think so. 

Fear is dangerous and its goal is to destroy you by first making you inactive. Do you know how much damage the devil has done just by making believers inactive? Look at the laws we have to live by because we stayed away from politics. Let’s not even go into social media. The earth is groaning but you are sitting with your hands crossed lamenting in your bedrooms and staying silent in the streets? Your children are dehumanized, broken, and suicidal; your boys are addicted and weaponized; your daughters are trafficked and molested, yet you lay in the comfort of your couch shaking your head? The devil is a liar!

Amen

By the authority in the name of Jesus, I cast that evil spirit of inactivity and passivity off your life right now in Jesus’ name. Spirit of fear, you have no place in the life of this heir according to The Promise, I terminate your assignment over this life right now, by the authority in the name of Jesus. I draw a bloodline right about their life and I ban you from ever entering this life again. I seal that foothold with the seal of the Blood and the Name of Jesus, and keep you out forever!

Beloved, arise in the confidence of Christ and MOVE. Your days of passivity and staying on the sidelines are over. Get up and MOVE, in the name of Jesus.

Shalom

Watch today’s video here