Real Fear

What is Real Fear?                                                                                                                      Today we live in a world of fear.  We see school shootings.  Our children are not always safe.  Our world is in fear of disease from food even in the United States.  We are at war with terrorists who want to change our way of living.  They want to terrorize people and keep them in fear.  There are wars and rumors of wars all around us daily.   Also today we are seeing our children abused physically and sexually.  They become intimidated and angry at society because of what has happened to them.

Fear and anxiety have surpassed depression and alcoholism as the
number-one mental-health problem in America.

To remedy this problem, our society prescribes more medication to “help” those dealing with depression or anxiety.  This only leads to further depression and frustration.  As our ministry conducts conferences and personal counseling we encounter people in bondage to fear all the time.  I recently took a lady through the Lord’s Prayer Journey (Steps to Freedom) who was dealing with anxiety and fear since she was a child.  After identifying the fear objects and renouncing them, she could then begin to have victory and walk in faith.

Fear will keep us from moving forward and rebuilding our lives.
This was Sanballat’s strategy and this is Satan’s strategy for us today.

For fear to be real, it must have two characteristics.  It must be powerful and it must be present.  Remove any one of these two objects and fear is gone.  For example, I grew up in the outdoors hunting and fishing in Louisiana, and one animal I respected was a snake.  I killed many snakes as I hunted and fished and they always got my attention.  When I came across a snake, I encountered something powerful and present, and only when I killed it was the fear gone.  Now, as I discuss my snake background with you, there is little to be alarmed over.  But if a snake is thrown into your room as you study, your whole demeanor will change. Why? Because a snake is in your presence and it is powerful.  The same is true with fear.  We become fearful and intimidated because we see the object before us as more powerful and stronger that we are.  The Jews were afraid of Sanballat because he had ruled over them and told them they were weak and helpless.  The Jews were also living in fear because of their past failures and they did not want to experience that again.  Fear kept them from moving forward and rebuilding, and fear will keep us from moving forward and rebuilding too, unless we expose our fears and walk in faith.

The reason fear is often so overwhelming to us is because we look at our fears apart from God.  We need to place our fears next to God and then see who is bigger.

Mark Keyes
Infusion Ministries