Fear Brings a Snare

The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe (Proverbs 29:25).

Fear and faith are both great motivators. One produces freedom and growth, the other produces bondage and lack. Fear can paralyze a human personality.

Fear attracts Satan and his kingdom the way faith attracts God and His power. Paul told Timothy that fear is a spirit. For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). I resist fear the same way that I resist the devil.

I’ve learned to resist fears that come. Fear is like Satan coming with a package for you and asking you to sign for it. Fear comes with all kinds of things attached to it; fear of failure, fear of success, fear of sickness and disease, fear poverty and lack, fear of calamity. Phobias plague humankind.

Identify your fears and stand against them. I’ve found it helpful to speak God’s word out loud as an antidote for fear. I then express in clear terms what I believe. Often I pray and stand in faith by speaking out loud.

When I was young, I had my palm read at a Methodist church Halloween carnival (how absurd!). I was 12 or 13 years old at the time, and the person told me that my “lifeline” on my hand was short and that I would die young. Immediately fear seized me! Fear of dying young lingered in the back of my mind until I was Spirit Filled years later. When I learned that God promised long life, I took the Word of God and chased that fear away!

Another antidote for fear is action! If a fear tells you not to do a certain thing, do it anyway! I just simply refuse to allow fear to rule me.

Back in the 1990’s I took a group from our church on a missions trip to Guatemala. The ministry we worked with had a beautifully refurbished DC-3 aircraft for transportation to hard to reach areas. The short of the story is that during a storm the plane crash on top of a mountain! I was one of those who went to the crash site to try to help survivors. When I reached the site, aircraft parts littered the cornfield where it had crashed. The fuselage had broken into several pieces; the aircraft parts were everywhere. I could hardly believe what I saw.

Then I had an unusual experience. A fear grasped me. Suddenly I heard the words, “You better cancel your next missions trip.” I had another trip scheduled to India a couple of months away. I recognized the enemy’s ploy. I spoke out loud, I would rather die than to be ruled by this fear, I resist that thought in the name of Jesus! I’m going on my next trip. I refuse this fear. God my Father will take care of me. Immediately the fear vanished like ice on hot pavement!

Don’t allow fear to remain in your life. Treat it for what it is, theFalse enemy seeking to rule you. A good acronym for FEAR is False Evidence Appearing Real. Years ago a friend told me, fear is always based on a lie; deal with the lie and the fear will die.

Feed your faith on the Word and starve your fears. Refuse to give them place. Act in opposition to them. Speak out loud what you believe and keep it up throughout the day until the fear leaves. Action, faith, and words will defeat fear every time!

Vacation Time Again!

I’ll begin a two week vacation after I preach the second service today! My family and I will be enjoying the beach this week! We all need the relaxation and rest that comes from taking time away from the normal routines of life.

Our culture does not value rest as it should. And I am a “delivered” workaholic! Twenty years ago I was not able to take a vacation and enjoy it because my sense of personal value was all tied up in performance and works. I would become agitated and upset just a few days into a vacation back then.

Now I am settled in who Jesus is to me, and I know that He loves me, not based on my performance, but based on the fact that I am a human being made in His image.

Paul held a pastor’s conference in Ephesus in Acts 20 and admonished the pastors to take heed to themselves and to all the flock over which the Holy Spirit made them overseers. There’s a lot of wisdom there.

Before a pastor can really help others, he must take care of himself spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically, and in his personal relationships with his family.
So I’ll miss the flock this week! But I know that if I’m going to continue to be an effective pastor I must do as Jesus told the disciples and come away and rest awhile.

I’ll continue my blog during vacation though. I enjoy staying connected with you. I’ll leave you with some quotes I put together from C.H. Spurgeon’s book entitled Lectures To My Students. I believe they emphasize the need for rest well.

“The bow cannot be always bent without fear of breaking. Repose is as needful to the mind as sleep to the body... Even the earth must lie fallow and have her Sabbaths, and so must we…Rest time is not waste time. It is economy to gather fresh strength…A little pause prepares the mind for greater service in the good cause…Fisherman must mend their nets, and we must every now and then repair our mental waste and get our machinery in order for future service…To tug the oar from day to day like a galley slave who knows no holidays, suits no mortal man…Millstreams go on forever, but we must have our pauses and intervals…Who can help but be out of breath when the race is continued without intermission…Even beasts of burden must be turned out to grass occasionally; the sea pauses at ebb and flood; earth keeps the Sabbath of wintry months; and a man, when exalted to God’s ambassador, must rest or faint; must trim his lamp or let it burn low; must recruit his vigor or grow prematurely old…It is wisdom to take an occasional furlough. In the long run, we shall sometimes do more by doing less…On, on, on forever may suit our spirits emancipated from this heavy clay, but while we are in this tabernacle, we must every now and then cry halt, and serve the Lord by holy inaction and consecrated leisure…Let no tender conscience doubt the lawfulness of going out of harness for a while, but learn from the experience of others the necessity and duty of taking timely rest.”

Relationships are Worth the Risk

Relationship carries with it the element of risk. There is usually risk associated with everything that is worthwhile in life. During a television interview in 1981, Kenneth Hagin was asked what one trait he would desire most for his graduates. Without hesitation he replied, The willingness to take risks. I was in the audience that day during the taping of this interview, and I was waiting for the typical spiritual response when Kenneth Hagin was asked this question. I was surprised and challenged by his answer.

By personality I am a risk taker. Some are not. I’ve been willing for most of my life to go where I believe the Lord is leading me, knowing full well there are no guarantees. That has brought me to where I am today.

Relationships carry with them the risk that you could be rejected; that the person could mistreat you or take advantage of you. When you choose to be loved by the Father, He will so fill you with His personal love and acceptance that you’re just simply satisfied within yourself by Him. You don’t relate to others out of need, but out of a full, satisfied heart.

In that context, you can bear any kind of treatment. Yes, it’s emotionally wrenching at times when people respond to you out of their personal hurt or judgments based on past relationships, but there is such rich gain in being with others that to me it just makes it worth it. The truth of God’s Word lived in the context of relating to others over a period of time has the potential to produce radical personal transformation.

I’ve been rejected in relationship often. I think it just goes with the territory of being a pastor. None of us are fully mature, and when you’re ministering and living out of His life, sometimes darkness is exposed. Sometimes it is exposed in me and I have to be willing to lay the wrong thinking, the wrong emotions, or wrong actions at the foot of the cross. The cross is where what I want to do and how I feel about a situation meets the Word and God’s will for me. And I choose God’s way over my thoughts and feelings.

Darkness is exposed at times in another person while I am relating to them. I must choose to remain loving, caring, and real. I must choose not to judge them, but rather lovingly woo them. This can be the difficult part of relationships. My cross is where I chose to defy my feelings and love and reach out. I must be willing to stay with truth in love and not force my will on the other person.

We carry with us baggage from past relationships. We carry judgments about people and about life in general. And those judgments produce expectations that people may mistreat us again the way others have in the past. We must be willing to lay these judgments down by forgiving those who have mistreated us. We must be willing to risk closeness again though these expectations tell us that we’ll be harmed again.

That’s where the love of God come shining through. God’s love poured out in our hearts is the antidote for trouble in relating to others. I must recondition myself to act, respond, and abide in love. That’s where my spiritual growth occurs. For without love, I am walking in the flesh and in darkness.

Though this may be long, listen again to 1 Corinthians 13:4-8 in these several translations tied together. Make a choice today to risk close relationships. There are worth it!

Let me describe love. It is slow to lose patience; love stays in difficult relationships with kindness, and it always looks for ways to be constructive. There is no envy in love. It is not possessive and never boils over with jealousy. Love makes no parade of itself; it never boasts, nor does it puff up with pride. Love is never arrogant and never puts itself on display, because it is neither anxious to impress, nor does it cherish inflated ideas of its own importance. Love never gets irritated and is never resentful. Love holds no grudges, and it keeps no record of evil done to it. Love refuses to be provoked and never harbors evil thoughts. Love is not rude or grasping or overly sensitive, nor does love search for imperfections and faults in others. Love does not compile statistics of evil or gloat over the wickedness of other people. On the contrary, it is glad with all good men when truth prevails. Love celebrates what is real and not what is perverse or incomplete. Love never does the graceless thing. Love has good manners and does not pursue selfish advantage. Love never insists on its own rights, never irritably loses its temper, and never nurses its wrath to keep it warm. Love is not touchy. Love can stand any kind of treatment because there are no limits to its endurance, no end to its trust. Love bears up under anything; it perseveres in all circumstances. Love’s first instinct is to believe in people. If you love someone, you will be loyal to him no matter what the cost. You will always believe in him, always expect the best in him, and always stand your ground in defending him. Love never regards anyone or anything as hopeless. Love keeps up hope in everything. Love’s hope never fades. Love keeps on keeping on! It trusts in God in every situation and expects God to act in all circumstances. Love goes on forever. Nothing can destroy love. Nothing can happen that can break love’s spirit. In fact, it is the one thing that still stands when all else has fallen.

Relationships Directly Affect Spiritual Life

Our life challenges are spiritual in origin. Paul told the believers in Ephesus that we don’t fight against flesh and blood, but against demonic forces that can’t be seen (Ephesians 6). Paul told the believers in Corinth that we have mighty spiritual weapons with which to fight these battles (2 Corinthians 10).

Our spiritual weapons are the Word of God, the name of Jesus, the blood of Jesus, and praise and worship. The foundation that these spiritual weapons operate on is love. When we step out of love into any realm of self-centered living, we immediately lose our spiritual power and authority over Satan and his emissaries.

The believers in Ephesus had great spiritual truth. They were a well taught body of believers. They had some of God’s choicest servants ministering to them. Yet they were spiritually paralyzed because they had left the love realm and had become involved in strife.

Listen to Paul’s heart impassioned call here in Ephesians 4:25-32 (Amplified) for this body of believers to step out of the flesh into the spirit: Therefore, rejecting all falsity and being done now with it, let everyone express the truth with his neighbor, for we are all parts of one body and members one of another. When angry, do not sin; do not ever let your wrath (your exasperation, your fury or indignation) last until the sun goes down. Leave no such room or foothold for the devil [give no opportunity to him].Let the thief steal no more, but rather let him be industrious, making an honest living with his own hands, so that he may be able to give to those in need. Let no foul or polluting language, nor evil word nor unwholesome or worthless talk ever come out of your mouth, but only such speech as is good and beneficial to the spiritual progress of others, as is fitting to the need and the occasion, that it may be a blessing and give grace (God's favor) to those who hear it. And do not grieve the Holy Spirit of God [do not offend or vex or sadden Him], by Whom you were sealed (marked, branded as God's own, secured) for the day of redemption (of final deliverance through Christ from evil and the consequences of sin). Let all bitterness and indignation and wrath (passion, rage, bad temper) and resentment (anger, animosity) and quarreling (brawling, clamor, contention) and slander (evil-speaking, abusive or blasphemous language) be banished from you, with all malice (spite, ill will, or baseness of any kind). And become useful and helpful and kind to one another, tenderhearted (compassionate, understanding, loving-hearted), forgiving one another [readily and freely], as God in Christ forgave you.

The believers in the church in Ephesus had allowed the enemy to seep into their relationships and bring strife, envy, unforgiveness, malice, lying, gossip, and foul, offensive, anger filled words. Satan was unopposed. They had lost tremendous spiritual ground to demonic forces.

This clearly applies to our day. Satan is unopposed in most church because the believers’ authority over him has been neutralized by these flesh manifestations. Where there is unforgiveness, envy, backbiting, strife, and gossip, the Holy Spirit is quenched and spiritual gains are lost.

Don’t allow the enemy to use you to hinder spiritual effectiveness. Refuse to yield to strife and envy. Refuse to say anything behind the back of anyone that you wouldn’t say to them face to face. Refuse to sow discord or to speak negatively about anyone to others. Refuse the tendency to bear a grudge.

Don’t allow your ears to participate in gossip. Believe the best of every person, period. If you’re not satisfied with some area of church life or ministry, go to your knees in heartfelt prayer, asking the Father to intervene and bring change. Go from that place of prayer with expectations that God is working. Speak words of encouragement and consolation, not of strife and discord. Honor your prayers with your words and actions.

See the end from the beginning. Act to others as though you believe that God is working in them and in situation that you encounter. This is the love way. This is the path of spiritual freedom and power.

Remember that demonic forces sow discord, envy and strife. Recognize Satan’s work and resist him, binding him with the name of Jesus and by your loving words and actions.

We cannot separate our relationships and daily life from our walk with God. They are intertwined. How we deal with the relationships God places in our lives shows what kingdom rules us. The kingdom of darkness breeds discord, strife, and broken relationships ruled by walls of separation. The kingdom of God breeds love, peace, joy, right living, transparent relationships, and intimacy. Which kingdom rules you?

Personal Security Enhances Relationships

Just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved (Ephesians 1:4-6).

We usually project into our relationships what we feel about ourselves. If I don’t feel accepted by God and others, then I will withdraw and I will have the tendency to criticize others in my thoughts. A person may have a genuine motive of concern and a heartfelt desire to relate to me, but if I think negatively about myself, I will judge their actions toward me in a negative light.

Until we know that we are loved by the Father and fully accepted by Him, relationships will be difficult. The best thing that I can do to help myself in relating to others is to come to a clear understanding of how the Father views me.

The greatest change came in my own life when I saw that in Christ Jesus I am totally forgiven of all my past failures; that my past deeds are remembered no more by the Father; that I am accepted in the beloved; that God is now for me and not against me; that I am His workmanship, His own handiwork; that the Father has given me the same standing in heaven that His Son has before the Him.

These truths free me from condemnation and fear. They breed within me faith and trust. Self-doubt is such an enemy of relationships and closeness. The fear of being rejected taunts us all. Knowing that you are adopted into the family of God and with that adoption comes all the privileges of a natural born son or daughter to God.

Years ago the Father challenged me with 1 Corinthians 4:3-4 in the J.B. Phillips translation: But, as a matter of fact, it matters very little to me, what you, or any man, thinks of me – I don’t even value my opinion of myself. Paul was challenged with his past in city after city as he travelled. He once persecuted believers, committing them to prison or having them stoned. No doubt that children and family members of the deceased reminded Paul of what he did to ruin their family life. Paul had to forgive himself and rely on the mercy of God. He had to choose to no longer judge himself. He had to choose to believe the best of himself and others.

Love believes the best of every person. Love expects the best and never thinks the worst. Start with yourself. Believe that the Father loves you unconditionally and accepts you right now just the way you are. Believe that He has cleansed all your misdeeds and now treat you as though you had never done wrong. Instead of expecting to be rejected by others, choose to believe the best of them. Expect to be excepted when you walk into a room full of people. Expect others to be pleasant and kind when you engage them in conversation.

We usually receive what we give. Expect to be used by the Lord to encourage others today. Expect Him to give you the tongue of the learned, that you would know how to speak an appropriate word of encouragement to each person you meet today (see Isaiah 50:4). Think about yourself the way the Father thinks about you. Believe the best of others and look for the best in others today. Relationships are easier when you’re confident in who you are in Christ Jesus!

Stop Hiding

So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself (Genesis 3:10).

One of the results of the fall is a fear of relationships. In their sinless state, Adam and Eve were love dominated and fear free. The first result of the fall was hiding. They hid from one another, and they hid from God. Innocence turned to shame. Faith turned to fear. Trust turned to suspicion.

This fear of relationships and the resultant hiding still rules sinful man. And those who come to Christ must renew their minds to the love of God or this tendency to hide will still dominate their relationships.

My late friend Jack Frost would put it this way: When Adam sinned, he put a roof up and walls around himself to keep God and others out. Most people live with the roof up to keep God out, and the walls up to keep others out. Jesus came to demolish the roof and give us unlimited access to the Father in unbroken, intimate fellowship. We’ve been given the invitation to come boldly to the throne of grace to receive mercy and grace for every need.

Jesus also came to take down the walls that separate us from one another. Jesus prayed for the church in John 17 that we would become one with each other just as He and the Father are one.

Most people hide. Fear rules them and keeps them isolated from others. The only way to overcome this ingrained fear of close relationships is to open up and fully accept the love the Father has for you. God created us to be nurtured from childhood in an atmosphere of unconditional love create by two loving parents who walk closely with the Father. The parents receive the love that the Father has for them, the parents love each other, and the then the parents model this unconditional, self-sacrificial love to their children. That’s the way God intended for us to grow. Sin ruined God’s plan and stunted our growth. And our homes are broken and fear filled.

In Christ we learn that the Father loves us with an unconditional, self-sacrificial love. This love is not based on our human performance, but on Him and His character. Fear has taught us to hide from others until we work to earn their approval. As we mature in Christ, we learn that the Father loves us, period. We can’t earn His love. His love for us is free. And He loves us when we perform well and also when we miserably fail. He doesn’t reject us when we sin, but has made a way of escape from its penalty of condemnation and fear. Our lawyer Jesus serves as our defense attorney when we sin and as we confess our sins, He pleads our case before the Father, cleanses us from sin, and restores our intimate fellowship with the Father. Our misdeeds are erased, never to be seen by the Father or others. This gives boldness to no longer hide but freely expose ourselves to God and to others.

If you know that you’re freely loved and freely forgiven by the Father, there is no reason to hide. There is no fear in love. If you still hide from others, the reality of the love that the Father has for you has not yet penetrated your spirit and my mind. When being loved unconditionally by the Father becomes a settled fact within you, fear loses its grip and you are free to come out of hiding.

Knowing you’re loved by the Father creates an atmosphere in your life of openness, honesty, and realness. Hiding ceases. Exposure to others is no longer scary. You’ve found the safe place called love. That safe place enables closeness with God and closeness with others.

Perhaps you’re still caught in the clutches of the fear of relationship and the walls are up and the roof is on in your life. Ask the Father to reveal His unconditional, self-sacrificial love to you. Get alone with your Father and pour your heart out to Him in sincerity. He will love you, forgive you, restore you, and brush your fears away. You will find Him to be sincere and tender, honest and real. And in this place of intimacy with Himself, the Father will help you take down the walls that isolate you from others. Start the journey to personal freedom today!

Relationships Strengthen

But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin (1 John 1:7).

My relationships (or lack thereof) show me where I am spiritually! The two great commandments according to Jesus are to love God and love people (Matthew 22:38-40).While we’re seeking to walk in the Word and walk with God we must also relate well to our friends and associates in the family of God.

There’s just no way that I can really be spiritually healthy and non-relational. The Monk in the monastery is not a true example of godliness. That is a picture of a person doing in the flesh only what God can do by the Holy Spirit through the Word. God never planned that we isolate ourselves from each other. Isolation is the fleshly way to deal with the problems and pressures that life brings.

Let me be really frank here and bare my heart. In the circles where the Word is strongly preached, we’ve not done a great job of fostering close, intimate relationships with others. We’ve been involved in functions that bring us together, but we haven’t in a large way sought to become close friends in church settings. I’m seeking to change that here at Victory!

We need the Word, we need the Spirit of God witnessing to our spirit, but we also need one another! There’s nothing that can replace the help provided by another caring believer when you’re going through a tough time. Sometimes when pressured you just need a safe environment of faith where you can honestly bare your heart without fear of being stigmatized or rejected. And that’s the kind of atmosphere we need to be involved in with each other.

When Peter and John were threatened by the religious leaders to no longer preach in the name of Jesus, they went back to their own company. There they had a place of safety and solace in the storm, and there they could pour out their heart to others and receive strength. They ended up having such a tremendous prayer meeting that the building they were in started to shake with the power of God!

I’m going to begin to emphasize getting closer to others in the days to come. Hardship is coming to this planet, and before the rapture it’s probably going to get tougher than it already is! We will need the closeness of relationships with other members of the family of God to keep each other inspired in faith and confidence in God.

There are presently two great ways to get involved in closer relationships at Victory. Firstly, by being a very involved volunteer. We have people who are giving many hours of volunteer time in various areas of ministry. In that context, I would encourage those folk to also develop close relationships with those who work with them in the helps ministry. These people will become their support group.

Then secondly, we have lifegroups which meet basically two times per month. Let me say that I’m going to be urging the lifegroups to become closer, and to open up for people to really begin to bare their hearts to one another. For these groups to be effective there should be openness and heart talk. We’re going to need this in the days to come. And we need it right now.

The human tendency is to substitute rules for relationships. Rules are clean and tidy. Relationships blur the lines at times and can be messy! But we are not robots, and life is fluid. Life is constantly changing and we are evolving into who we are in Christ! We need to learn to love each other through thick and thin, when things are going great, and when things are just plain lousy. God never changes in His love for us. His Word is forever settled in heaven. But we are ever adjusting ourselves as we experience personal change and as life flings towards us its challenges.

Get involved in close relationships. Invite others over to your home for a meal and a time of getting to know them. Go to lunch together when you can. Involve yourself in a lifegroup. Open yourself to be loved and love others. Watch the Father change you as you risk being involved in close relationships.