Dwight Fletcher | Liberation from fear

TO BREAK free of fear, the secret is to not focus on the situation, but to focus on the proper spiritual application to secure your liberation. Focus on God. 2 Timothy 1:7 (NKJV) tells us that “…God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”. Fear is a spirit that is a weapon of the enemy used to paralyse and rob us of God’s blessings.

There is, of course, legitimate fear which is meant to warn us of danger and keep us safe. This legitimate fear, if it becomes unhealthy, can be exacerbated by a spirit of fear which can then become chronic fear. Chronic fear strangles our lives and robs us of our ability to live it to the fullest. It can make us even afraid to try when there’s little or no threat. When chronic fear overtakes us, the only way out is to focus on God. As we do this, God gives us another spirit, His Holy Spirit, who sets us free and gives us the power to be victorious and break free from the oppression of fear.

God also gives us His Spirit of power in the person of the Holy Spirit and in turn, as Christians, we receive power when He comes on us. Through His Holy Spirit, God gives us the power to overcome. The Holy Spirit is also God’s Spirit of love. God is love and the Bible teaches us that “There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear…” (1 John 4:18, NIV). That tells us that fear and love cannot coexist. The closer we get to love, the further we get from fear. The reverse is also true. The closer we get to fear, the further we are from love. They are like the North and the South Poles. The closer we get to one, the further we move from the other. When we know that God loves us, and that there is no separation for Him to express His love to us and in us, fear cannot stay because there will be no place for it.

Fear sometimes affects our minds. Our perception of reality can become warped by the spirit of fear as it seeks to tighten its stranglehold on our lives. We see monsters where there are none, and may see mountains when they are only molehills. We may find that we feel easily overwhelmed even in normal circumstances. A sound mind comes from the Word of God, and Jesus is the Word of God. Soundness of mind therefore comes from our relationship with Jesus, as well as reading and meditating on His Word.

The Godhead (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) comes to our rescue when we are in fear and choose to turn to God. There may be things in our lives that we cannot change, but we don’t need to fear them nor live in fear as a result. God tells us that He Himself will uphold us with His righteous right hand. He didn’t say that He would remove us from every storm, but it means that as the storm blows, we have an anchor that’s absolute and won’t move, because that anchor is Almighty God.

Declare to yourself that on this day you are going to stop being afraid because Almighty God has got you in His right hand. “So that we may boldly say, The Lord is my helper, and I will not fear what man shall do unto me...” (Hebrews 13:6, NIV).