is a liar.

In the last two weeks, I’ve had a series of dreams that represent an urgency from the Lord regarding fear. We have been listening to fear and not His voice. It’s time to turn up the volume of His Word and silence the mouth of fear.

Christian, what are you afraid of? Sickness? A vaccine? Death? All of them?

How many of us are going to start throat-punching fear by remembering the heart of Jesus? “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but He does give us fear when there’s sickness and disease everywhere, death, and destruction, chaos, confusion”…no?

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

We must stop blasting our feelings on social media based on our own fear. (Life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat it’s fruit. Proverbs 18:21).

We must stop passing judgement on each other for taking the vaccine or not taking the vaccine. This is pitting Christian against Christian, brother against brother, and sister against sister, and it’s all rooted in fear. James 4:11-12 says “Brothers and sisters, do not slander one another. Anyone who speaks against a brother or sister or judges them speaks against the law and judges it. When you judge the law, you are not keeping it, but sitting in judgment on it. There is only one Lawgiver and Judge, the one who is able to save and destroy. But you—who are you to judge your neighbor?” (NIV).

Don’t fall into the trap of self righteousness. We need to humbly examine our hearts and seek the Lord for our own family, then do what He tells us to do. Period. Not out of fear or any other emotion. He will speak. Are we going to listen? Then we need to be quiet. We cannot push what He said to us on someone else. That’s wrong, and it needs to stop. Remember, we sound like brass cymbals if we’re speaking (and typing) anything outside of love (1 Corinthians 13:1). We’re simply trying to feel better, but do we really feel better after venting emotions to anyone other than the Lord? I don’t. My anxious thoughts come right back a few minutes later. Only focusing on the Lord can change the soundtrack of my mind.

Fear creeps in so sneakily that we don’t even realize it’s him. We need to be asking ourselves next time we want to vent our emotions, “What am I afraid of?” If we submit ourselves to the Lord like we should be doing, the enemy will flee (James 4:7). Fear will flee. God can and will work all things together for our good (Romans 8:28), regardless of how anyone feels about this pandemic.

We are living in times where we have to be led by the Holy Spirit instead of our emotions if we want real change to occur. If we’re not, we will continue to fuel the fire of division and fear. (“The mind governed by the flesh (emotions) is death, but the mind governed by the Spirit is life and peace” Romans 8:6).

It’s time to stop letting fear win by sticking close to Jesus. Draw near to Him and He will draw near to you (James 4:8). Follow peace.

In the spirit of chopping off fear’s head, I’ll be writing often from the Word exposing fear. Join me daily in recognizing fear and picking up our SWords to end his reign of terror. No longer will fear have a hold of our minds, will or emotions.

Stay tuned.

P.S. I know this post is more bold than usual, so don’t be condemned. Be encouraged. Wreck fear. Trust God. Love people. His grace is sufficient.

Hugs,

Cristy

Photo cred: https://unsplash.com/@ilyasssed