Fear: The Temptation To Believe A Lie About God

Good evening, partners,

I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying life. Hard to believe it’s already May. Hope all you mothers out there got duly celebrated and honored.

I wanted to share something the Lord gave me recently about fear. Considering all that’s going on in the world right now, it felt like the right time to send it.

The other night I woke up and felt incredibly, irrationally afraid. It was odd. Maybe some of you have had a similar experience — like waking up from a nightmare and it takes a minute to shake the feeling.

Well, try as I might, even after a few minutes of quoting the Word, I couldn’t shake it. So I got up, checked the house, prayed, and put on a sermon.

I have a standard rule I like to live by: if I’m going to be inconvenienced, instead of sitting there wondering whether the enemy is being a punk or it’s just happenstance, I treat it as an opportunity to go deeper in prayer or the Word. Stupid devil. There ought to be repercussions when the enemy messes with you, you know?

And even if it is just happenstance, what a great way to turn a negative into a positive.

Most of the time, we just try to survive the moment, fix the problem, and then sigh in relief when it’s over. No way.

Wreck on the highway backing up traffic. Pray for the people involved, the families and first responders. Then Crank up some worship. Follow it with a sermon.  Extra bills come in, the flu hits your family, and some external drama manifests out of nowhere. Time to go deeper with God. Work on getting my footing, then I’m planning an additional offering, an extra volunteer shift, cleaning the house for the wife, take the kids out to their favorite park…You get the idea.

Make the enemy think twice about messing with you, because every attack just ends up increasing your faith and love instead of pushing you into doubt and a bad attitude.

Whether I’m over the top or not with that philosophy, I was definitely employing it that night. About an hour later, I fell asleep in my recliner with a sermon still playing.

Then the next day I still hadn’t heard from the lord why I woke up so afraid, until about halfway through it, then the Lord finally spoke to my heart — like He does with all His kiddos if we’ll listen:

“Jake, fear is just a temptation to believe a lie about Me.”

That was revelation to me.

God is good. He is and will protect you. If you mess up, He's merciful. I made the mistake of not rejecting the fear and the lie associated with it immediately.

The voice of fear had been raging in my mind like a warning, along with it was confusion alarm, and me wondering what I could have done wrong, if I was protected, what did I miss… I wasn’t fighting against the fear. I was fighting next to it, wondering why it was there, what i did to bring it on, instead of opposing it.

God leads with peace. He can absolutely sound an alarm to get our attention— I’ve had Him do it — but when He does, there is clarity with it. There is wisdom. There is direction.

Fear, on the other hand, brings confusion, panic, pressure, and torment.

The scripture reminds us: “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7).

God has given us a sound mind, so no warning from him will usher confusion. And Jesus said,

“Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. (John 14:27)

He left his peace, and then commands us not to let our hearts be troubled neither let it be afraid. Which means its our choice. (There is a pretty good book on this topic entitled: Let Not Your Heart Be Troubled. 😉  )

How do we do that?

For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ. (2 Corinthians 10:4-5 NKJV)

We do that by taking our thoughts captive, and forcing them to submit to the truth of God’s Word. We take those fear riddled lies, and all the emotions and confusion attached to them, and we cast them down like the utter rubbish they are. Instead of believing the lie about God,

Proclaim the truth:

The Lord is my Light and my Salvation—whom shall I fear or dread? The Lord is the Refuge and Stronghold of my life—of whom shall I be afraid? Psalm 27:1 AMPC

I know that You can do all things, and that no thought or purpose of Yours can be restrained or thwarted. Job 42:2 AMPC

He will not allow your foot to slip or to be moved; He Who keeps you will not slumber. Behold, He who keeps Israel will neither slumber nor sleep. Psalm 121:3-4 AMPC

The Lord has established His throne in the heavens, and His kingdom rules over all.

For the Lord of hosts has purposed, and who can annul it? And His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back? Isaiah 14:27 AMPC

What then shall we say to all this? If God is for us, who can be against us? Who can be our foe, if God is on our side? Romans 8:31 AMPC

Remember who has your back! Reject fear. Magnify your God.  

Love you all, and I’m grateful for each of you.

God is Faithful,

Jake