Today I will continue my current series entitled, REASONS WHY NOT TO FEAR! Reason #3: What you Fear Will Come on You!
Let’s look at Job 3:25 from three translations and then talk about it.
(Job 3:25 NIV)
What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me.
(Job 3:25 ERV)
I was afraid something terrible would happen, and what I feared most has happened.
(Job 3:25 MSG)
The worst of my fears has come true, what I’ve dreaded most has happened.
So what does this mean for you today? A few things:
1. Do not allow yourself to be ruled by how you feel.
a) You cannot be ruled by how you feel. Feelings change. Feelings fluctuate. If you allow yourself to be ruled by how you “feel,” your life will be wishy-washy and unstable. On the other hand, if you choose to live by faith — living only by what God said in His Word and what He is saying to you every day by His Spirit — you will not be moved by the changing of the times and seasons. Right now, with everything going on in the world due to the Coronavirus disease (COVID-19), people are ‘freaking out.’ Emotions are running high. People are afraid. This is NOT the time for you to allow yourself to be governed by fear or any emotion. Especially due to the fact that when you fear, you actually open the door to the enemy. What you fear, in many cases, will come upon you, because your heart is open to it. DO NOT ALLOW FEAR to grip your heart. Believe God. Stand in faith. Enter into God’s rest. Fear is not of God!
b) We are called and commanded to live by faith, not feelings. Feelings change. God’s Word towards you will not. Stand on the Word and tell your feelings how to feel!
2. Fear opens the door to the enemy.
a) The more afraid of something you become, the more susceptible to it you are. You open doors for things to happen to you when you fear.
b) Most believers know the story of Job, but most don’t know that Job opened the door for some of the things that happened to him to happen because he allowed fear to get ahold of his heart. Job 3:25 tells us what Job feared the most, what he dreaded, actually came upon him. Job said with his own lips that what he was afraid of would up happening to him.
Have you ever met someone who said, “I need to hurry up and get this done because if I don’t I’m afraid that ‘such-and-such’ will happen to me.” Only to find out later that the very things they were afraid of happened. Why? It is because fear opened the door to it. Fear opens doors for us, just like faith does. Fear is a negative form of faith. Faith is a positive expression of your confidence in God and His Word. Fear is a negative expression of your confidence in satan and the thoughts of fear he is putting in your head.
c) Many believers live in bondage to fear. But they are doing so without realizing that Jesus delivered us from this bondage. The Bible says, “Since the children are made of flesh and blood, it’s logical that the Savior took on flesh and blood in order to rescue them by his death. By embracing death, taking it into himself, he destroyed the Devil’s hold on death and freed all who cower through life, scared to death of death.” (Hebrews 2:14,15 MSG). They are people who live their entire lives under the bondage of the fear of death. The text tells us that Jesus delivered us from it. The fear of death is the mother of all fears. I told you before that there are 588 types of fear (or phobias). Jesus delivered us from them all! Don’t live in fear, because when you fear you are subject to the bondage associated with whatever you are fearing. Said another way, fear opens you up to the possibility of bondage, and like faith opens you up the possibility of liberty. Choose faith over fear every day!
3. Don’t meditate on the wrong things.
a) What Job feared the most came upon him. What he dreaded came to pass. This tells me that while he was truly blessed, he spent time fearing ‘losing it all’, and what he feared wound up happening to him. Don’t make the same mistake. Take control of every negative thought. When the enemy brings a thought that is not like God, a thought that does not line up with God’s will for your life, cast that thought down immediately! Don’t entertain it. If you give the devil your attention for 5 seconds, he will have your mind for 5 minutes. If you allow that to happen often enough, you will find yourself meditating and medicating on the wrong things. Before long, what you fear will come upon you!
b) You can stop the cycle of fear in your life. You do this by building up your faith. You do this by meditating and medicating on God’s Word day and night. Just like the enemy can use doubt to cause your faith to fail, you can use doubt to cause your fears to fail. Allow me to explain.
When you receive a Word from God and you believe it, the enemy will come and attempt to sow seeds of doubt. Why? Because doubt leads to unbelief. Unbelief leads to fear. Fear leads to a faith-failure. When you are in-fear, you are no longer in-faith. But that same cycle can be played out in reverse. Let’s say the enemy puts a thought in your head like, “You are going to get the Coronavirus disease.” Or, “Coronavirus is coming to your house!” If you believe that thought, and you express confidence in it by repeating it OUT LOUD, or doing things to align with it, you are living in fear. But just like doubt can erode your faith, doubt can erode fear. When satan puts that thought in your mind, you can simply say, “Nah, I doubt it! God is my protection.” Doubting what satan said will lead to NOT BELIEVING (or unbelief) what satan said, and that will lead to a fear-failure. So instead of doubting God and allow doubt to cause your faith to fail. You can doubt satan and allow this positive form of doubt to cause your fears to fail!
c) In order for your fear to fail and your faith to succeed, you must know which thoughts to receive and accept, and which ones to refuse and reject. DO NOT meditate on the wrong things! What you fear, you are opening the door to!
d) In closing, believe God and doubt the enemy. If you doubt what the enemy can do in your life then you will close the door to fear. If you remain in fear you will open doors that you want closed and close doors that you want open. God’s desire is that you close every door to the enemy!
That’s enough for today.
Declaration of Faith:
Father, I live by faith and not by feelings. I live by faith and fear has no power over me. I decree and declare that I will not doubt You, but I will doubt whatever negative thought the enemy puts in my mind. I refuse to open any negative doors with fear. Fear does not and will not rule over me. I refuse to give space the devil. I doubt what He says and I believe what You say. I meditate and medicate on Your Word Father. I am quick to receive and accept what You say, and at the same time, I am quick to refuse and reject what the enemy says. Fear has no place in my life! Jesus delivered me from the bondage associated with fear. I meditate on Your love towards me and perfected love casts out ALL FEAR! I declare this by faith! In Jesus’ name. Amen!
This is Today’s Word. Apply it and prosper!
