Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha
Fear incapacitates, immobilizes, stagnates and
brings about loss of vision and direction. Fear is a tool that the enemy enjoys
using against believers to truncate the plans and purposes of God in their
lives. A number of Biblical examples include:
The use of fear against the army of Israel by
Goliath is an interesting case study. Through Goliath’s intimidating stature
and boastful words, the devil succeeded in instilling fear in the hearts of the
soldiers of Israel. A well equipped and well prepared army of hundreds of
thousands able men who left their homes to fight the Philistine army cowered in
fright because Goliath, a giant boasted of his might. What a shame especially
when a mere youth who had never served in the army brought Goliath down. So it
was not necessarily Goliath’s stature that incapacitated and immobilized the
army of Israel. It was the fear he spewed out through his intimidating words.
Please see 1st Samuel Chapter 17.
Fear was also the reason Lot took a decision to go
live in a cave in the mountains instead of Zoar where he escaped to safety from
Sodom and Gomorrah. Living in a cave alone with two grown up daughters led to
the incestuous union that produced Moab and Ammon. Fear births wrong decisions.
The Israelites at a time in their history threshed
wheat in winepresses because they were afraid of the Midianites whose pastime
was to destroy the livelihoods of the Israelites in order to impoverish them.
God empowered Gideon with great faith to overcome fear and destroy the
Midianites. Please see Judges Chapter 6.
Fear can also be crippling; in point of fact so crippling
that it leads to bondage and servitude as in the case of the Gibeonites who
assented to become woodcutter and water carriers for Israel. Please see Judges
Chapter 9. Though they deceived Joshua and the leaders of Israel into entering
a covenant of peace and protection with them, that deception borne out of fear
made them wood cutters and water carriers in Israel. In essence, fear can lead
to forced labor and forced labor does not lead to success.
Fear truncated Peter’s walk on the sea. What he
began in faith in response to Jesus’ invitation came to an abrupt end because
of fear. Beloved, fear has the capacity to impose limits on a person if a
person allows fear. Please see Matthew Chapter 14 verses 24 to 33.
Fortunately, the Bible has the panacea for fear
which is the word of God. The panacea is absolute belief or faith in the word
of God. When you choose to believe the word of God as the absolute truth over
any facts or situations that appear to defy the word of God, you walk in faith
and because the word of God energizes and gives peace, fear will automatically
disappear. David could have responded in fear to the words of Goliath. But
David’s faith in God and the word of God energized him to take up arms against
Goliath. You can do the same today and obtain the same results that David
obtained – defeat and destroy every Goliath in your path irrespective of how
big and formidable they appear. Goliaths of repeated failure, ignorance, financial
challenges and whatever can be defeated if you choose faith over fear. I pray
that God in His infinite mercy and love will destroy every stronghold of fear
in your life in Jesus mighty name. Receive grace and power from God to walk in
faith and victory in Jesus mighty name. Shalom.
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