Do Not Fear

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 1^st 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.

Discard Limiting Mindsets

Written by Uyoyou Christiana Charles-Iyoha

The choices people make on a daily basis are major determinants of success or failure depending on the mindsets they are operating from. Mindsets vary and differ however, there are two basic mindsets that veer off into several branches – limiting and non limiting mindsets.

Limiting mindsets limit people by erecting mental barricades to progress. Non limiting mindsets propel people to heights they least expect as they act like eagle’s wings to help a person soar above what may appear as challenges but which are actually stepping stones. Some limiting mindsets are actually self imposed limitations because a person can never rise above his or her perception, a function of a person’s mental processes. Take for example the case of the ten spies who perceived themselves as grasshopper before the inhabitants of Canaan. That singular perception informed their decision not to attempt any further progress to the Promised

Land as they had concluded that the supposedly bigger and stronger inhabitants of Canaan would step on them (do not forget they had labeled themselves grasshoppers) and crush them. What a perception, probably an evil suggestion from the pit of hell that they refused to trash immediately it hit their mental processes.

Sadly and quite significant as well as very instructive is that the perception of themselves as grasshoppers against giants – an impossible match emanated from them and was their opinion of themselves. They were the ones who devalued themselves.

Some examples of limiting mindsets include:

Unbelief and doubt, extremely filthy garments that make people avoid you and refuse to do anything with you because they do not want your doubts and unbelief to rub off on their positivism. Discard this mindset and choose to believe God and His word so that the word of God can work for you – Luke Chapter 1 verse 45.