2 Timothy 1:7 “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.”

Today’s verse is a verse that honestly should be set to memory so that we can recall it and quote it EVERY single time we feel that spirit of fear coming upon us!

God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, and love, and of a sound mind! If God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, where is it coming from? None other than the enemy! I’m not talking about natural fear that happens when we see danger or something; I’m talking about feeling fear for no apparent reason, for things like dangers that we don’t see or hear or anything, but have thought in our minds. I’m also talking about another definition of fear. . .

A while back a sister of ours in Christ Jesus told me about a definition of fear that God had told her and how He explained it to her, how HE defines fear. He told her that fear wasn’t just things regarding danger and self-preservation, but fear, spiritually speaking, was anything that caused you to stop or freeze or hesitate. In other words, anything that causes you to not move forward is indeed fear! How true that is, and that’s why we see that the fearful will not make it into heaven as we see in Revelation 21:8, since they are the ones who let everything stop them from doing the will of God. It also explains things we THINK would hurt us but we have no proof of it, so we let it give us hesitation to do this or that in our lives. Fear . . . is what causes us to stop or hesitate or freeze, and fear can take on the face of ANYTHING.

The first situation I faced as a new Christian, was regarding fear. I told of the story of how I was surrounded by others who tried to get me to be afraid, and I refused and told them the only thing I was afraid of was God and telling Him no when He asks me to do something. I grew up refusing to be afraid. I told myself the absolute worst someone can do to me was kill me and send me on my way to heaven (Yeah . . . the enemy threatens you with heaven?? What kind of threat is THAT?!). And that didn’t bother me one bit, I even prayed for death every night as a kid (until God finally got through to me on that). But I always saw myself as the opposite of fearful, never getting afraid. When this sister told me of that definition of fear though, it struck me hard. In God’s eyes, I did indeed have fear. My fear was that constant low self-esteem that I allowed to cause me to hesitate or never even begin, to do so many things God put in my heart to do. I was giving in to fear every time I let a person keep me walking forward, or every time I let a situation or a feeling of self-loathing or feeling unworthy because I stumbled in my walk with God . . . I had been letting fear get to me a lot more often than I thought or ever wanted! All that time of growing up hating fear and refusing to let fear get to me . . . when I had been doing just that so many times without realizing it.

How many times, realizing this definition of fear, have you let (or are now letting) fear stop you from doing something God told you to do, or you knew you had to do?

Timothy, in today’s verse, was being told the same thing: Don’t let fear stop you from walking in the Calling wherein God called you, or letting the Gift of the Holy Spirit flow through you, and definitely don’t let it cause you to hesitate in shining your light, being unashamed of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Let’s look at those verses surrounding today’s:

2 Timothy 1:5-9 “When I call to remembrance the unfeigned faith that is in thee, which dwelt first in thy grandmother Lois, and thy mother Eunice; and I am persuaded that in thee also. Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began,”

Reading all that, I suddenly see that God has been telling US all this through this past week of Bible Studies. We’ve been looking these past few days at Who we are in Christ, and being greatly encouraged that we CAN do what God wants us to do because of what our Father has done for us and made us, and we’ve been looking at answering the call of God, and even the gift of the Holy Spirit which we’ve been given! Even just yesterday we were reminded of what Jesus did for us, just as the last verse reminds us just the same thing. God truly is amazing, and knows how to plan everything out! Let’s not take what the Lord says lightly!

Fear is anything that causes you to stop or hesitate. That sin you committed last night? You know, the one that is making you feel unworthy to Praise and Worship God, or is lingering in your mind telling you not to dance before the Lord as David danced, or lift your hands, or truly enter before the Throne of God, singing in His Presence . . . that is fear causing you to be hindered from giving God the praise and worship He most definitely deserves!

Timothy was told that we weren’t given the spirit of fear, right after being told to stir up that gift of God which has been given to him. The same way, you must STIR UP the gift you’ve been given. And doing nothing with it, is the opposite of stirring it up!

Let us think of fear as the enemy it really is, trying to stop us from becoming better and stronger and growing and doing what we’re supposed to do for our Lord! When you feel or sense that hesitation, or that lie that you shouldn’t or can’t do this or that thing God says to do, rebuke it! Tell it to go back to hell where it belongs! Tell your mind to submit to the Lord Jesus as said in 2 Corinthians 10:5! May we never give in to fear again!

May God Bless you magnificently, and may He continue to strengthen us by His Spirit. I pray that we ALWAYS see the spirit of fear through God’s truth and tear it down in our lives so we remain unhindered in our walk with Him. I love you and will continue to pray for you, and ask for prayer for myself and the rest of the Body of Christ the same!

Love Always in Christ,
Your Friend,
And Brother,
Michael

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Psalm 47:1 “O clap your hands, all ye people; shout unto God with the voice of triumph.”

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