Fearless

This is a message that has been growing in my heart and I was so blessed to be able to preach it in Rwanda and then again at Cornerstone youth last Sunday night.

I've noticed that fear has become an "issue" in the body of Christ and there really is absolutely no excuse for it. Today I'm just going to walk you through the notes of my message and my recent passion to see Christians, fearless. I'm going to do my best to give you the "readers digest" version and make this just a short read, so obviously I'm going to have to condense the message and just give you the big points.

First and foremost an often quoted verse "For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and sound mind" (2 Tim. 1:7)
If God has not given us a spirit of fear then we must conclude that ALL fear (not including fear of God, which I"ll get to later) must not be from God, but rather from the enemy. I know that I have no desire to have any spirit surrounding me that is not the Spirit of God. So that verse is very straight forward a spirit of fear is not from God and so we should not be living in fear. If you'd like another reference for that point then go check out Romans 8:14-15.

I believe that we have began to make light of fear. Often times fear is something we joke about, we tease about, or we just don't really see the enemy's role in fear. More often than not we just see it as something natural that we have to deal with. Everyone fears. That is a direct lie from the enemy because if you are a child of God you have been set free from fear. I'll go ahead and tell on myself because I'm definitely not above this struggle. I like to tease Maegan because Maegan USED TO (praise God) fear lizards. It was always a joke to me, i laughed and made fun of her and never saw the harm in it, until one day God gave me the revelation that He hasn't given us a spirit of fear! So, I laugh about Maegan having a spirit of fear from the enemy? Not so funny anymore.

Please go read Mark 4:37-41.
This is the well known story of the disciples in the boat and Jesus calming the storm. There are 2 major points to be made out of this passage, but I won't go into my usual detail and instead just go straight to the points.

First in verse 40. Jesus asks "why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith".
The very first point is that fear is in direct correlation with faith. Fear is simply put a lack of faith. When you fear you're showing you lack of faith that God is who He says He is, He's done what He says He's done, and you can do what HE says you can do. There are tons of examples I can give for this, but like I've said I want to keep it as short as possible so if you'd like to ask some questions on this point I'd love to talk about it with you.

Second in verse 41. "and they became very much afraid". Ok notice in verse 40 they were already afraid of the storm. Jesus calmed the storm and then it says "they became very much afraid". Explain to me how after the situation they were afraid of was resolved they then became very much afraid.
The answer is they went from a fear of a circumstance into fear of God. Notice their comment in vs. 41 "Who then is this that even the wind and sea obey Him?" They were no longer afraid of the circumstances, but of the Creator.
Another reference for this is in Isaiah 8:12,13

This is an important correlation to make. Fear is lack of faith in God, but it is possible to take fear of anything else and turn it into fear of God.
I think it is really important to state what fear of God is, so study that learn it and realize it. Moses tells us in Exodus 20:20 that fear of God will cause us to not sin and Romans 14:23 tells us that anything not done in faith is sin. So there is a great correlation between faith and fear of God and fear of other things. So take some personal time to study that.

I'll wrap this last part up quickly.
Before the day of Pentecost Jesus was always known as the only begotten son, after the day of Pentecost He is never called that again, but rather the firstborn son.
Why?
When you were sealed with the Holy Spirit you were adopted into the Kingdom of God. Jesus says in John 17:23 that with the same love that God loved Jesus, He loves believers.

So we can take comfort that we have a Daddy God that loves us, provides for us, and protects us just like He did Jesus.
Notice Jesus never feared. He knew who His Father was.
In life or in death He fulfilled the will of His father. Jesus said no one took His life from Him, He gave it up willingly. So Jesus had victory in life and in death.

I want to end with Romans 8:31
What can we say then? If God is for us than who can be against us?

God hasn't given us a spirit of fear and we are adopted as sons and daughters into His kingdom, therefore there is nothing we can fear. No circumstance, animal, person, nothing shall we fear.

As Psalms 23:4 says "I fear NO eveil; thou art with me".

For some more reiteration of how we should not be living in fear read Psalms 91.

I wish I could take everything I have to say on fear and it only take about 5 minutes to read, but unfortunately it's just not how it is. This is probably already longer than most people will read so, for those of you who made it all the way to the bottom, I hope this has blessed you just as this message has me. I hope you will put it into practice and stand firm. If you want to know more that i have to say on the subject, shoot me and email or text.

Be Blessed,
J. Tate