Who do You Say is Controlling Your Actions—R Fritz
I asked this question because I had to give a message to somebody. My statement was “do you love a person more than you love God.” You will say why did I say that. Jesus says if you love me, you will obey me so if you love somebody or something else more than him you cannot obey God. If you cannot obey, there are consequences for disobedience. God is merciful for a time and loves us. John 14:23 says and this is Jesus speaking Jesus answered and said unto him, “If a man loves me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode (residence) with him.”
There has to be a reason you cannot obey God. The biggest reason is “fear.” When I hear somebody say to me when I ask the question “Is fear the reason that they do not obey and their answer is “I am not afraid of anybody,” I know fear is the answer. When somebody does not even think about the question. That is them trying to divert the truth. They might not be doing it on purpose. There are many kinds of fear, fear of people or what people think is one of the biggest that stop people. Fear always wants to take our thoughts of what we perceive could happen in the future with what we see now. We start to believe those thoughts as possible truth in the future which in most cases never happens.
“Worry” is what a lot of people do daily, it is fear given a different title, a word that sounds normal to people. We are trying to use Satan’s tool thinking it actually does some good. Let’s think about what we are trying to do. We as humans have no control over what we are thinking we can change. Our tool for the future is “prayer.” We are in a war with Satan. That battle happens in our minds. Fear is Satan’s tool to undermine our relationship with Jesus Christ. Satan uses this tool, fear, as a weapon. Fear stops people in their tracks, changes their life to be miserable, or basically stops people from leaving their houses.
Faith is God’s tool, Hebrews 11:1 says “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” My question to you is how do we add to our faith? Romans 10:17 says “So then faith cometh by hearing, and by hearing the word of God.” This is the answer to those looking for more faith. This is how I received more faith. This is us winning the battle, the battle in the mind. Satan using fear and us using the “Word” with our faith to put Satan in retreat. You might think these are only my words speaking. They are not, I was taught by
the Holy Spirit to use the Bible as a tool to defeat fear and to stop it immediately.
I have endured fear for 50 years and not knowing it was part of me and finally overcoming it years back studying scripture and through the Holy Spirit giving me the scriptures to stop it immediately. When you shut Satan down, he will come back with a different scheme after a while. 1 John 4:16,18 says “And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love, and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect in love.” Perfect love (God)cast out fear and fear has torment. That torment has a particular feeling. That feeling I was shown by the Holy Spirit and so with that torment feeling I know when fear is present.
You have to want to overcome and be willing to change and listen to the Holy Spirit. You are fighting an enemy that by yourself you are not going to defeat. Look around fear is everywhere. It is not about doing what you think God would want me to do. You are going to lose. It is about you surrendering your will and obeying whatever the Holy Spirit commands. It took me a few years to overcome fear by building on my relationship with God. I struggled because I was not going to let fear control or stop things I wanted to do in life as well as what God wanted me to do. It is a matter of you not giving up. You first have to be honest with yourself and admit there is fear in your life. The tuff guy attitude and saying I fear nothing is also fear speaking. That is “Denial,” the tool Satan uses to keep people in fear. We have to know the tools Satan uses as weapons.
We should check every day ourselves by asking the Holy Spirit to make sure who is in control of ourselves, the Holy Spirit or the spirit of fear. God does not use fear to move anybody, He uses “LOVE.” Proverbs 15:33 says “The fear of the Lord is the instruction of wisdom; and before honour is humility.” That sounds different than the fear that Satan wants to give you. This is not man’s wisdom. James 3:17 says “But the wisdom that is from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, and easy to be intreated, full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality, and without hypocrisy.” There is a difference between the fear of God or learning God’s wisdom and obeying and the spirit of fear that Satan wants you to disobey God.
The answer to fear or anything that wants to control your mind is 2 Corinthians
10:4-5 and says “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;) Casting down imaginations, and every thing that exalteth itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ;” This underlined portion of that scripture changed my life forever by stopping fear immediately. Fear and thoughts could not exist because that thought had to be brought into captivity and obedience to Jesus Christ. In other words, it had to go immediately!
I have given everybody that reads this that opportunity to stop fear immediately. It is now up to each person to win that battle of fear in their mind. I have been given the tools to do that and the ability to obey God. Take the knowledge that God has given me and use it to defeat Satan and fear. God Bless.
