"Principality of Fear" - Day 9 - Part 2-3c

[Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks, PsyD]

”Principality of Fear”

* Fears That Torments Us – Part 2-3c

II Timothy 1:7 is clear: "For God bath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." The antidote to fear is a vital relationship with the Godhead. Power is the Holy Spirit, love is God the Father, and a sound mind is Jesus, the Word. When we are established in the Holy Spirit, the love of the Father, and the Word of God, Satan’s fiery darts of fear can never hit us!

Another fear that torments us is the fear of failure. One Scripture will defeat this evil spirit. Proverbs 24:16 says, "For a just man falleth seven times, and riseth up again: but the wicked shall fall into mischief." Though a righteous person falls, i.e. fails, seven times, the Lord’s strong hand will lift him up. That is powerful news. If we ever attempt anything in life, we will experience some failure. It is not a question of failing; it's a question of how to respond to failure. You might say, "Well, if I never try out for the team, I can never be cut." That attitude in itself is a failure fueled by the fear of failure. Not acting on a Holy Spirit-inspiration because of fear of failure is failure. God has made provision for the failures of His saints. He pledges to pick us up and set us on our feet again. Just as God did, we need to make provision for failure in our life. The fact that He created forgiveness proves that He made provision for our failures. If we don't make provision for failure, we'll be bound by a spirit of fear. Instead, we'll go into denial and never deal with it or do anything; by our inaction, satan wins a battle. Every one of us avoids dealing with certain areas of our life. This avoidance arises out of fear, but it is certain that during the course of life, these problems will surface; and it makes no difference whether or not we are born again. It's amazing how often we hear, "I never had these kinds of troubles until I saved." When we got saved we entered into a spiritual war that we must learn how to win. We would have had trouble anyway, but God saved us and gave us power to deal with the problems. God's grace worked on our behalf and we didn't even know it.

Every one of us has areas of life that bring us shame and produce failure. These are the areas that need to be sanctified and renewed. We're not to be afraid of failure, we are to learn from the failures and let God heal our broken hearts. Avoiding the areas of our lives that need to be sanctified pushes us into denial and torments us. We can pray, "God, take this thorn from my flesh, but I want no part of its removal." That's not realistic. I John 1:9 say that if we ask, God will forgive. God will never remove our fears if we fail to face them and deal with them.

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May God bless you all and keep you all! Believe that God has greater things coming for you all and your families, in 2017-your best is yet to come!

Dr. Dorothy E. Hooks