Facing Our Fears – Part 1
by Pastor Kimberly Lemler

Today I want to talk to you about a topic that we can all identify with. It’s something that plagues all of mankind and it’s the most effective weapon that satan uses against people in order to keep them in bondage.   This weapon is called FEAR…

Let me ask you a question. How many of you have some kind of fear or phobia living inside of you? A fear is defined as “a distressing emotion aroused by impending danger, evil, pain, etc., whether the threat is real or imagined; the feeling or condition of being afraid.” A phobia is defined as “a persistent, irrational fear of a specific object, activity, or situation that leads to a compelling desire to avoid it.”

Some of the most common fears or phobias are:  the fear of death-necrophobia; the fear of being trapped in small spaces- claustrophobia; the fear of being in open spaces-agoraphobia; the fear of flying-aerophobia; the fear of spiders- arachnophobia.

I was in an amusement park last year and we were chatting with a group of people on a picnic bench next to us.  I was standing near a tree where there was a huge spider trying to spin its way down to me and several of the people were coming all unglued just looking at that spider! I reached over and touched the spider and I said, “You mean this little thing! You’re afraid of this?”  They couldn’t believe I touched that little spider, the object of their fear. They were squirming around and jumping up and down like a bunch of kindergartners.

Fear is irrational. It is the polar opposite of faith. In 1 John 4:18 the Word says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in love.”

Fear is torment! It’s a horrible feeling that affects every part of our being. It’s torment! It gives physical and emotional symptoms and that’s exactly what satan wants. He wants to steal, kill, and destroy your peace.

Fear affects our minds and our bodies and it can cause mental and physical disease. There are over forty diseases that result from fear, anxiety, and stress such as heart disease, hypertension, colitis, Crohn’s disease, irritable bowel disease, ulcers, headaches, skin disorders, just to name a few.  Fear can take root so deeply that some women have even gone to the extreme by having their own healthy breasts surgically removed in order to avoid cancer. Their fear of getting a cancer diagnoses along with a fear of death causes them do something extraordinarily drastic.

When I was about five years old, I was petting a little dog that seemed quite harmless, but he apparently didn’t like me too much because he barked at me and lashed out and bit my mouth. I wound up in the ER with stitches and a major deathly fear of dogs.  After that, every time I saw a dog or heard one bark, fear would rise up inside of me and I would be a basket case. The danger of the previous situation was no longer there, but the thing I associated with that fear, the sound of the bark, was still present and I had to learn to disarm that fear by breaking that association.  In the Pavlov’s dog experiment, the dog salivated every time he heard the bell. How many of you have an association like this that’s keeping you in bondage today years and years later?

Now, there are many kinds of fears. There is a type of fear that is meant to help us avoid injury or death and I think I would rather call it using “wisdom” rather than the term fear. Of course you don’t want to walk out on a busy highway or put your hand on a hot stove or step off the ledge of a building. You don’t want to play with poisonous snakes or put your hand into the cage of a hungry animal. It’s wisdom to avoid these things.

Then there is the kind of fear that the Bible talks about and it’s really a reverence or a deep respect for the Lord. In Psalm, 34:9 it says, “Oh fear the Lord, you His saints! There is not want to those who fear him.” The Amplified version says, “Oh fear the Lord you His saints, revere and worship Him. For there is not want to those who truly revere and worship Him with Godly fear.”

So we are not to “fear” God. We should never be afraid of Him. He is the One we are to run to when we are in trouble. He is our fortress and our refuge.  We are to worship and respect Him.

Now what are some of the fears that we are NOT supposed to have and what can we do about them?

Next week, Part 2…

©Words To Heart Ministries, Inc.  Pastor Kimberly Lemler. 2010.

Facing Our Fears – Part 2
by Pastor Kimberly Lemler

I want to continue this month with my teaching on fear. Last time I left you with the question, “What are some of the fears that we are NOT supposed to have and what can we do about them?”

God does not want us to be afraid of: death or dying prematurely, evil, sickness, adversity, poverty, rejection, criticism, failure, commitment, loss, man, losing our salvation, abandonment, losing control, and of course, satan. I’m sure I could give a list of fears a mile long, but my point is that we are never to fear because God has given us His power and His authority to be overcomers in this lifetime. Life is never going to be perfect...we all know this.  That is something we can surely count on. But our God is in the business of delivering us from any kind of fear and its consequences.

What happens when we fear? The simple answer is that satan and his army of demons will get a foothold in our lives. The Bible says that we are not to give the devil place, but when we fear, we usher in all the nastiness of hell to be unleashed in our lives. When we fear we are saying to God, “You are powerless and satan rules.”  Fear and faith cannot exist together. We are either in faith or we are in fear…

In 1 John 4:18 the Word says, “There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has torment. He that fears is not made perfect in Love.”

Fear is torment! You know that feeling you get in the pit of your stomach when you are in fear about something? It’s a horrible feeling that affects every part of our being. It’s torment! It gives physical and emotional symptoms and that’s exactly what satan wants…

You know, the thing that really puzzles me is there are so many Christians who open the door to torment by embracing movies and TV shows that are filled with evil, terror, and fear!! I just saw a trailer of a new TV show that is all about evil and fear! And Christians are flocking to those kinds of shows in record numbers. They are going to horror movies and reading horror novels because they think it’s fun to be scared.   The world is going to dangle all kinds of things in front of our faces and we have to be educated enough in the Word to know that it’s those temptations that will pull us off our course and out from under the protecting hand of the Lord.

The bible says that “we have not been given a spirit of fear, but of power, love and a sound mind.” God doesn’t give us this spirit…it comes from satan. God has given us love and when we are perfected in love, that means we are in obedience to God’s ways, “Whosoever keeps His word, in Him verily is the love of God perfected”- I John 2:5.

I want you to make a list of all of your fears. Get honest with yourself and face these fears. Face them! When you are making your list, you will have all kinds of memories and feelings and you need to be prepared to deal with them.  Get rid of the horror movies and novels and anything to do with fear. Turn off that TV and stop giving place to things related to fear.  Repent and ask God for His forgiveness. Ask Him to show you all the ways that you have feared and then start declaring your unwavering faith in Jesus Christ and in His power and ability to deliver you and heal you of all your fears…

“Father, in the name of Jesus and by an act of my free will, I confess, repent and renounce having fear of _____________ (fill in the blank with your list). I ask You, Lord, to forgive me for not trusting You. I purpose and choose to forgive myself from my heart and I release myself from these fears. In the name of Jesus, and by the power of His blood, I cancel Satan’s authority over me in these fears and I can legally do this because You said that You have given us all power and authority over satan. I am now ready to use that power and authority. Holy Spirit, I invite you into my heart to heal me of these fears. Please speak your words of truth to me as I wait upon your voice… AMEN.”

“For I the LORD your God will hold your right hand, saying to you, Fear not; I will help you…"  - Isaiah 41:13

©Words To Heart Ministries, Inc.  Pastor Kimberly Lemler. 2010.