"Overcoming fear in our lives"

This is my first ever blog so I have moved officially into the 21 century communication. In this first blog I want to post up a message that the Lord has very much laid upon my heart. However I believe that it has a wider relevance to the body of Christ particularly at this time that we are in. My intention is to share three messages that I strongly believe are important to the church in this hour ,not withstanding that firstly and fore mostly they have been relevant to my own life as never before! The first message is called overcoming fear, the second walking in Gods covenant of peace and thirdly the power of living in psalm 91. However I would also like to post up a testimony of how the Lord has been leading jan and I in a new direction and to hopefully give to those of our friends who are interested a little more clarity and detail to the process that we have been walking through. I would like to journal some personal thoughts and accounts as well as to publish teachings, however I have been desirous to share these messages for 2010 with the prayer that the Lord would speak to you thorough them, and that those who read them may be strengthened and edified.


I believe that 2010 promises to be a hugely significant year .People will be realigned in Gods purposes,others will be restored from a Luke warm condition spiritually, so as they can run in the perfect will of God for their lives. Their is a shaking going on at an accelerated level so as believers we should not be surprised at what we see in the world right now,for this is the prelude to the release of the kingdom of God in greater power.
Over the last several months I have been reminded by the Lord of the urgency of taking a stand against fear in every form that it takes. The bible says that God has not given to us a spirit of fear but one of power and of love and of a sound mind(2 tim 1 v7) It also tells us that we have not been given a spirit that makes us a slave again to fear but we have received a spirit of adoption that cries out abba Father the Spirit of God bearing witness with our own spirits that we are the children of God(rom8,v15,16)
We must learn to divide and to distinguish between that which is of the soul and that which is of the spirit in our lives if we are walk in victory over fear .It is noteworthy how relatively few Christians have been taught to do this. There was even a highly visible evangelist who was once asked what the difference is between the soul and the spirit. He look slightly bemused and responded "I did not think that there was a difference"
Why is it so essential to distinguish between the spirit and the soul in overcoming fear? Because you and I can never fight fear and win by relying upon mental disciplines or will power only. Neither can we fight thoughts with other thoughts. We can only overcome fear by the word of God.
Fear you see is essentially a spiritual reality and has to be resisted in the spirit. What do I mean by that? Fear is one of Satan's choicest weapons to torment and intimidate the faith of a child of God.It is an evil spirit,it may be imperceptible to the natural eye but it is tangible. It can charge the atmosphere of a room,assail a soul to buffet it, and seek to tear out peace from the human heart,but thank God in Christ we have authority to drive out and keep out all fear from our lives. hallelujah!
I said that I believe that it is essential that we distinguish between that which is of the soul and that which is of the spirit in our lives and Hebrews chapter 4 v12 to 14 tells us how this is accomplished.
The word of God is living and powerfull or active sharper then any two edged sword piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit.So it is as we meditate upon Gods word that that work of separation is taking place in our lives. Remember that the Hebrew word for meditate is to mutter which indicates a vocal element being involved. Many people believe in silent meditation but that is often feeding the soul more than the spirit .By contrast the bible speaks of a muttering meditation,or as God said to Joshua "this book of the law shall not depart from your mouth,but you shall meditate on it day and night."josh 1,v8 Notice that the speaking was con joined to the meditating. I have learned several passages from the scripture that I can quote verbatim yet I have never attempted to memorize any of them. I simply repeated them out loud again and again and again until they got down into my heart,into my spirit where now they come out without my thinking.

I believe that some people worry about their memory or lack of, but if we would concentrate upon getting Gods word into our hearts then we would not need to try to think of the text because it would come naturally and spontaneously flowing out from within..Prov 4,20-22 speaks of giving attention to God word and keeping it in the centre of your heart.In the old testament the word heart was used synonymously with spirit. When people talk about the heart of the matter they mean of course the central issue or issues. Like wise when we speak of the heart of a tree we mean its core or centre. So when the bible speaks of the heart of man it is speaking of his core of his inwards parts or spirit. It is here that we inwardly feed upon Gods words and from here that faith in God is produced.
John wesley once said that the devil has counterfeited mental assent for true heart faith. It is in our spirits that we believe.Remember that jesus said in mark 11 22,24 that whoever says to this mountain be removed and be cast into the sea and shall not doubt in his heart but believes......
So faith is of the heart not essentially of the head.
Does this mean that our minds are unimportant to the Lord? Certainly not but what it means is that our minds need to be renewed by the word of God,and that the word of God is to be grafted into our souls. This is a work of cleansing and renewing and sanctification so that our minds can be used to the glory of God. After all jesus said that we are to love the Lord our God with all of our hearts and all of our souls and minds and all of our strenght,in other words with the totality of our being. But we do not look to our minds to give us mountain moving faith.That comes from the heart.
I have sat with men who had highly developed their minds and who gave great weight to the importance of "good biblical exegesis"yet I have seen in those circles a barrenness and a lack of the power of God or the presence of God. If all we seek to give priority too is the carefulness of our biblical expositions than we end up serving God primarily in our minds. Similarly I have seen great men of God who had little formal training or education,yet who possessed great faith in their hearts,a dauntless faith a mountain moving faith,and they raised up great works for God .I have learned that the quality of ones heart of our spirit before God is the most important thing.

Last year I experienced a test during which I had to overcome fear to a degree that I had to learn these things very rapidly and the things which I am sharing here are what got me out and gave me complete victory. At one point the oppression that came on me was so severe that my whole body shook uncontrollably. But when I learned to rise up in my spirit and to say "in the name of Jesus I command this spirit of fear to leave me,"I became free .Then as I began to feed my heart upon the word of God again and my spirit became stronger to rise up quickly when any fear would seek to subtly assail me, and to use the name of Jesus and the word of God to stand steadfastly against it,I have been walking free from fear .If you and I treat fear as something natural and normal than we will accommodate it,however if we see it as a deadly foe sent to rob us of our spiritual joy and peace than we can resist it every time.

Some people do not consider that they have a major problem with fear however they tolerate fears at a certain level a lot of the time.This can be just as destructive .Others believe that a little fear is healthy. Well then the bible would not command us not to fear. Yet others may point to Paul's words in 2 corn 7 v5where he spoke of having fears within. Does this not prove that he had fear they say? Billy Graham was once asked if he was ever tempted to doubt,yes he replied but I know what to do with the doubt when it comes . Paul was simply proving his humanness,but he also knew what to do with his fears . For he also wrote that we should not fret or be anxious for anything.He also wrote to timothy that God had not given him a spirit of fear .And he also wrote to the church at Rome that we are no more in bondage to fear .Now the apostle Paul practiced what he preached,and learned it no doubt as we all must in the nitty gritty of lifes challenges as he applied the truth which God had given him and walked in the light of it.

I believe that we must draw a line so to speak and declare a zero tolerance policy on all fear in our lives for God has given to us a covenant of his peace (isa54,10)and intends for us to abide in this all the days of our lives upon this earth.And how do we do this? by faith.
Every blessing to you all for 2010 and know that something good is going to happen to you in it.