Victory through Fear We KNOW we have the victory in all things in HIS promises! Why are we cast down? Why is our soul cast down? Why do we let ourselves get into a turmoil about the situation we are in, whether it be our personal lives, our children, the government or the world? We know we have the victory sooner or later! God has promised in His time He will reveal Himself as All in all! Our hope is in Jesus Christ and what He has done. Even though it is darkness all around us we know that He is even God of the darkness. He hasn t left; He overcomes the darkness with His light. We seem to sink into the darkness and finally forget God is there. The world calls it depression, God calls it neglect. We neglect His word and start believing the world system. We sink further and further into the pit of murky mire. Even though we are sinking, God is yet commanding His loving kindness over us and when we turn our thoughts toward Him, a song of praise will come forth and hope will return! As we start praising Him the waves of darkness has to go. They can t stand Ps 42. As we praise Him, even for just a few minutes, the action starts! He starts bringing us out of the darkness of confusion, hurt, disappointments and pain. Our problem is we don t have the patience to wait on Him! We want it yesterday Ps 40. Patience is a virtue and gift from our Father. The N.T. teaches us in many places that we need patience to bring forth fruit Lu 8:15. Patience is brought forth by problems in our lives- Ro 5:3. We are like-minded with God as we develop patience Ro 15:5. We have need of patience Heb 10:36. Our faith grows as we learn to wait Gal 3. Temperance and patience work together 2Pe 1:6. Just a few places in the N.T where we are told to HAVE PATIENCE. Don t expect everything we ask for to pop out of the sky. God is faithful and patient but He is not a magician! What He has promised is real not an illusion. As we praise Him, He will put a new song in our mouth and others will know something is going on. You see, He doesn t do anything just for you! He will include those around you for His glory. He is proud of His works and very open and public when we allow it. Others will know it was all Him and you had nothing to do with it. He knows how to keep us humble.
As we praise and wait we will learn to delight in His will and our will becomes less important. After a time we start praying for others to be delivered because we know once again that He is our only hope and His promises are real. We finally start wanting the same thing for others that are living in the same darkness that He has lifted us out of! Self pity and this poor me attitude goes by the wayside as we realize He thinks about us always--24/7! Good News, Huh? The Lord takes pleasure in those who fear Him and those who hope in His mercy Ps 147:11. Praise His name forever! Question: What is the fear of God? Should we fear that God will throw us out of His Book of Life if we do something that displeases Him? Will He send us to a burning hell forever? Would He destroy His creation, His own children if we disobey Him? I think not! Proverbs one tells us that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge. Let s look at Isa. 50:10 for a second. Isaiah tells us that to fear the Lord is to obey the voice of His servant, trust in the name of the Lord and stay (dwell) upon his God. Malachi 3:16 tells us to speak often one to another of Him and think (dwell) on His name. First Samuel 13:14 tells us to obey His voice and not rebel against Him. Those few verses above define the fear of God. There are several more but these do a good job. Therefore, if we fear God (obey, don t rebel but speak of Him often dwelling on Him and His promises) we will be blessed by Him and we can trust in His word. Not fearing, not obeying and thinking on Him puts us in a place that we can t receive from Him. He doesn t withhold His blessings, we have put up our umbrella of not fearing and so the blessings are lying there waiting for us to move out and trust Him again. It s pretty simple but so hard in a crisis when we need to trust Him! So far I have shared Old Testament scriptures and there are many more. Just think of all the old prophets that feared the Lord and the kings that had no fear of Him. Before Jesus came there was no way out for them that had no fear. They had to live miserable lives with all the curses that God sent. Jesus came to rid us of that and give us a way back. Amen! Let s go to the New Testament. We will start with Act 9:31 the church walked in the fear of the Lord and was multiplied. Here is the perfect answer to how to build a church. Of course we don t build the church but Father does as we walk in the fear of Him. In Act 10:2, Cornelius is described as a devout man because he walked in the fear of the Lord.
Rom 13:7 lists things we should render; things that are due to certain people. One of these is praise to whom praise is due. (Remember the definition of fear). Fear in the sense of an action is not what we are talking about here. Fear is an adjective; a description of our actions is what we are to concentrate on. 2 Cor. 7:1 encourages us by saying having therefore these promises (in chapter 6) let us cleanse ourselves perfecting holiness in the fear of God. It is so important to keep our mind on Him. In Matt. 10, Jesus is sending out His newly chosen disciples. He has given them succinct instructions of all they were to do and had already shown them as they daily walked with Him. He warns them of the hypocrisy and hate they would receive but He also encouraged them the same way He encourages us do not exalt them. There is nothing covered which shall not be revealed and hid that shall not be known. In other words, it doesn t make any difference how they get treated or lied to or evil befall them they are still to fear God; lift Him up, praise Him and God will take care of them. Cornelius, an Italian, in Acts 10:1-4, is described as a devout man; a man devoted to divine worship, earnest, sincere and hearty. In other words, he was a man that feared God. He was a man that prayed constantly, had God on his mind. God honored that by sending an angel of God to him. The angel of the Lord confirmed to him that his prayers had been heard. Cornelius took time for God and believed God s promises and he wasn t even a Jew! He was a Gentile; just a man that trusted and believed God. Father expects us to do the same. Romans 11:20 warns us not to be high-minded, proud or think we are above everyone else because we know God and others do not. Don t judge them but fear (praise, worship, trust) Him because we are where we are, knowing God s promise of deliverance for all mankind (Rom 11:32). Romans 12:21-28 should really stir us up! It is exciting. I will comment on verse 28 here but I suggest you read the whole passage. Verse 28 tells us since we have received an unmovable kingdom we should have grace toward those that have not entered in yet, knowing God has prepared a way for them also. In this rest of knowing, we can serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear! In other words, don t be concerned with others salvation. We live it and God will and is full able to take care of them. Remember, our God is a consuming fire, not to destroy lives but to re-build them. Praise our wonderful Father! There is none like Him.
In 1 Peter 2:12-17 we find that WE are responsible to reveal Jesus to others through our conduct! When they see our lives they will be quick to glorify God when He visits them! Then, Peter goes on to tell us how to do this. It is pretty simple obey God! Gods will is for us to do good and that will cause ignorant foolish men to be quiet. We are not to use our liberty in the Lord for an excuse to say or do anything that would offend others. Honor all men, love thy neighbor as thy self and fear God by thinking on Him, praising Him and believing His promises! That will keep us out of a heap of trouble! Remember, find the promise and stand praising NOT begging. Enter into His rest that He has prepared for us; know He is big enough to complete that which He has started! Put on the mind of Christ and having done all, stand, praising Him for what He is doing towards preparing the answer. Make yourself ready to receive His will and not your own. He knows best and that s what we desire in any given situation. He loves us more that we can understand and His grace abounds. We need to learn to let Him have His way in our lives. Receive the victory and move on. Sample prayer: Father, we desire to be anxious for nothing. We will bring everything to you in prayer and humility with thanksgiving and your peace, which is more than we can comprehend, will keep our hearts and minds in Jesus Christ, your beloved Son. Notice the order no anxiety, pray in humility and thanksgiving. Then the peace will come. With peace comes trust! Love you, Barbara <><><><><><><><><><><><><> Franks Fragment Why is it that Christians are always looking to hear something deep spiritually? They re always looking for the magic bullet that will connect them directly to Father. Well, this article, just as in playing golf, gets back to the fundamentals. If your setup is incorrect, you ll most likely hit a poor shot. Same situation in Christianity. Poor fundamentals, poor outcome. One doesn t need to look very deep in scripture to find out exactly what Father has in mind in order for us to put ourselves in proper position for Him to pour out blessings upon us. Remember the old saying when in doubt, read the instructions. We carry around the book, claim we believe it but don t do the things it tells us to do. Do we really know more than Father? I don t think so and neither does your pastor. Learn to hear directly from the source, not an intermediary. Pray it up,
praise it down. Frank Be diligent to present yourself approved to God as a workman who does not need to be ashamed, handling accurately the word of truth. (2 Tim 2.15) Life Givers Ministries PO Box 251 Lincolnton GA 30817 706 359 6977 frankd@minister.com