CONFRONTING THE GATES OF HELL V- FEAR

Rom. 8:15 – The spirit of bondage has a wide range of spirits under it, one of which is the spirit of fear.  Fear is a very dangerous spirit and almost every one carry a bit of it.

The best way to solve a problem is to try to know as much as you can about it. Many people constantly live in denial

What is the origin of fear?

In the Garden of Eden. A perfect man was created by a perfect God and placed in a perfect environment with only one command. Man could not keep the commandment, he fell and one of the by-product of the fall of man is Fear.  Sin radiates fear.

Anyone who is fearful is in serious bondage. Fear is a spirit. (2 Tim. 1:7). Any spirit that is not from God is an evil spirit.  There are two classifications of spirit; the Holy Spirit and other spirits.

Fear is the police of the devil. Before the devil can steal from anyone, he will send his police in the form of fear. It is a mirage. A man of God once described fear as false evidence appearing real.  Fear has no substance if you resist it, but it is a gate of hell.  Rev. 21:8 – the same fate that awaits the idolaters, liars, the abominable, the unbelieving is exactly what awaits the fearful. They have the same destination. Fear is a dangerous gateway to hell.

Another terrible characteristic of fear is that it is Magnetic. What people fear usually happens to them if they don’t confront it.  Job’s fear caught up with him. Fear magnetizes evil.  Unfortunately, it is one of the spirits that will be very intense in this end time; the heart of many will be shaken.  Luke 21:25-26.

The Effects of Fear

1. Fear makes people see what is not there. Fear makes people reach wrong conclusions and as a result, they make wrong decisions. Fear not” is a command. (Matt. 14:26-27).
2. When people are afraid, they fight their divine helpers and hug their enemies.
3. Fear cripples the initiative. The fearful are easily depressed; they get into a state of hopelessness easily.
4. Fear makes people develop the “grasshopper mentality”. Remember the story of the spies (Numbers 13) who brought negative report, describing themselves as grasshopper, when compared to the people of the land. As they reported, so they were, for as a man thinks in his heart, so he is. All those who have grasshopper mentality cannot enter the Promised Land (Numbers14:36-38).
5. The fearful have no place in God’s kingdom. How can you confront a giant if you are fearful? The fearful have no reward, only overcomers are rewarded in God’s kingdom.  In general parlance, it is usually said that fortune favors the daring. Many cannot make progress because they have refused to be daring.
6. Fear is the opposite of faith and anything not borne out of faith is sin.
7. Timidity is another way fear hides itself. In Prov. 28:1, the Bible says “the wicked flee when no man pursueth: but the righteous are as bold as a lion”.  Fear makes people run when nothing is pursuing them.
8. Fear shortens life.
9. Fear causes defeat even before the fight begins. It is a potent weapon in the hand of the enemy.

To be continued………