Freedom From Fear

[Ann Doupont]

The psalmist David told us in Psalm 34:4, “I sought the Lord. He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”


Knowing that God is no respecter of persons, we can accept that what He has done for one person, He will also do for another – if that other person does what the first person did. So, what did David say that he did?

He sought the Lord. What did the Lord do? He heard him. How is it that the Lord heard David? Would that not mean that David had to have talked to Him? Yes, it does mean that. So also do we need to do that – to talk to the Lord about our fears.

What happened next? The Lord delivered David from all of his fears. It doesn’t say that he was delivered from part of his fears, but all of them.

I believe that, based on this and other verses, this is the Lord’s will for His people – to be totally free from all unreasonable fears. There are many verses in the Bible that tell us to “fear not.” So, if we have fears, it is the Lord’s desire for us to be freed from them.

In 2 Timothy 1:7, we find that God has not given a spirit of fear. So, from this, we can see that fear is a spirit. The verse continues, “but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” The Greek word translated “sound” means “disciplined.” In order to have a sound mind, it is necessary that we discipline our thoughts, and to bring them into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

As we look at 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, we see how to do this. It tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. These strongholds are thoughts that have been built into our thought lives over a period of time. They can be the “what ifs?” as in “what if this happens?” Or, “what if that happens?”

Verse 5 continues, by saying, “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

We can say, “I cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and I bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” We can repeat it over & over until it becomes a new stronghold in our thoughts to replace the old ones.

1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Fear is not trusting God. Since He has said to “fear not,” if we are afraid, then we can confess our fears to God as sin asking Him to forgive us, and in using this verse in 1 John, we will then be forgiven and cleansed from our unrighteousness.

Since fear is a spirit, we can take authority over it, like we would do with any other spirit, by simply saying, “I take authority over fear, in Jesus’ Name,” based on Luke 10:19. Or, we can bind it in Jesus’ Name, and loose ourselves from it.

If you are bound with many fears, like I used to be, it may take some time to go through the process of being freed, or delivered, from all of them. But, know that it is God’s will for you to be liberated from them, and that He will do it.

 

[paulnoel]

Ann thank you for this uplifting devotion.

God bless you.
Paul.​

 

[JPPT1974]

With the Lord we are freed and liberated from all of our worries and fears thanks be to Him!

 

[Levi44]

If you are bound with many fears, like I used to be, it may take some time to go through the process of being freed, or delivered, from all of them. But, know that it is God’s will for you to be liberated from them, and that He will do it.
Dear Anne - Thank you so much for your wonderful devotion. And it is so very true. For years I would not fly and finally in May I flew for the first time in years and loved it. I had finally learned to trust our dear Lord and it did liberate me so very much.

God bless you - Hedi

 

[crzy4god]

Meditate on these Sciptures deeply. Say them, mutter them, think about them deeply, ponder them, declare them in the first person. They are weapons to defeat that evil demon of fear which is stopping you from doing the will of our Father in heaven.

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

1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.

Psalm 27:1 The LORD is my light and my salvation; Whom shall I fear? The LORD is the strength of my life; Of whom shall I be afraid?

Joshua 1:9 Have I not commanded you? Be strong and of good courage; do not be afraid, nor be dismayed, for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.


Genesis 26:24 I am the God of your father Abraham; do not fear, for I am with you.

Psalm 91
1 He that dwelleth in the secret place of the most High shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty.
2 I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust.
3 Surely he shall deliver thee from the snare of the fowler, and from the noisome pestilence.
4 He shall cover thee with his feathers, and under his wings shalt thou trust: his truth shall be thy shield and buckler.
5 Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day;
6 Nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday.
7 A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee.
8 Only with thine eyes shalt thou behold and see the reward of the wicked.
9 Because thou hast made the LORD, which is my refuge, even the most High, thy habitation;
10 There shall no evil befall thee, neither shall any plague come nigh thy dwelling.
11 For he shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee in all thy ways.
12 They shall bear thee up in their hands, lest thou dash thy foot against a stone.
13 Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder: the young lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet.
14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.





Numbers 21:34 Do not fear him, for I have delivered him [your enemy] into your hand.




Deuteronomy 1:21 Look, the LORD your God has set the land before you; go up and possess it, as the LORD God of your fathers has spoken to you; do not fear or be discouraged.

Deuteronomy 3:22 You must not fear them [spiritual or natural enemies], for the LORD your God Himself fights for you.

Deuteronomy 31:6 Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you."

Deuteronomy 31:8 And the LORD, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; do not fear nor be dismayed."

Joshua 10:8 And the LORD said to Joshua, "Do not fear them, for I have delivered them into your hand; not a man of them shall stand before you."

Judges 6:10 Also I said to you, "I am the LORD your God; do not fear the gods of the Amorites (the ruling principles and idols of the world hostile to God), in whose land you dwell." But you have not obeyed My voice.

2 Kings 6:16 So he [Elisha] answered, "Do not fear, for those who are with us (angels of God) are more than those who are with them."

1 Chronicles 22:13 Then you will prosper, if you take care to fulfill the statutes and judgments with which the LORD charged Moses concerning Israel. Be strong and of good courage; do not fear nor be dismayed.

1 Chronicles 28:20 And David said to his son Solomon, "Be strong and of good courage, and do it; do not fear nor be dismayed, for the LORD God--my God--will be with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you, until you have finished all the work for the service of the house of the LORD.

2 Chronicles 20:17 You will not need to fight in this battle. Position yourselves, stand still and see the salvation of the LORD, who is with you, O Judah and Jerusalem!' Do not fear or be dismayed; tomorrow go out against them, for the LORD is with you."

Psalm 27:3 Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shall not fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.

Psalm 37:4 The Angel of the LORD encamps all around those who fear Him, And delivers them.

Psalm 46:2 Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;

Psalm 56:4 In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?

Psalm 118:6 The LORD is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do to me?

Isaiah 35:4 Say to those who are fearful-hearted, "Be strong, do not fear! Behold, your God will come with vengeance, With the recompense of God; He will come and save you."

Isaiah 41:10 Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:13 For I, the LORD your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, "Fear not, I will help you.

Isaiah 41:14 "Fear not, you worm Jacob, You men of Israel! I will help you," says the LORD And your Redeemer, the Holy One of Israel.

Isaiah 43:1 But now, thus says the LORD, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: "Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine."

Isaiah 43:5 Fear not, for I am with you; I will bring your descendants from the east, And gather you from the west;

Isaiah 44:8 Do not fear, nor be afraid; Have I not told you from that time, and declared it? You are My witnesses. Is there a God besides Me? Indeed there is no other Rock; I know not one."'

Isaiah 51:7 "Listen to Me, you who know righteousness, You people in whose heart is My law: Do not fear the reproach of men, Nor be afraid of their insults.

Isaiah 54:4 "Do not fear, for you will not be ashamed; Neither be disgraced, for you will not be put to shame; For you will forget the shame of your youth, And will not remember the reproach of your widowhood anymore.

Isaiah 54:14 In righteousness you shall be established; You shall be far from oppression, for you shall not fear; And from terror, for it shall not come near you.

Daniel 12:2 Then he said to me, "Do not fear, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand, and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard; and I have come because of your words.

Daniel 10:19 And he said, "O man greatly beloved, fear not! Peace be to you; be strong, yes, be strong!" So when he spoke to me I was strengthened, and said, "Let my lord speak, for you have strengthened me."

Joel 2:21 Fear not, O land; Be glad and rejoice, For the LORD has done marvelous things!

Zephaniah 3:16 In that day it shall be said to Jerusalem: "Do not fear; Zion, let not your hands be weak.

Haggai 2:5 "According to the word that I covenanted with you when you came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remains among you; do not fear!'

Zechariah 8:13 And it shall come to pass That just as you were a curse among the nations, O house of Judah and house of Israel, So I will save you, and you shall be a blessing. Do not fear, Let your hands be strong.'

Matthew 10:28 And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.

Matthew 10:31 Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Mark 4:40 But He said to them, "Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?

Luke 12:4 "And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.

Luke 12:7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.

Luke 12:32 "Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.

Romans 8:15 For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, "Abba, Father."

Hebrews 11:27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible.

Hebrews 13:6 So we may boldly say: "The LORD is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?"

Revelation 2:10 Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.

 

[crzy4god]

Although fear is a spirit, it is also a sin against the God who rightly commands us not to fear. If we have placed our trust in God through Christ, God has promised not to abandon us. Is it right to doubt God's word on this? Don't we believe that God is willing and able to help us if we trust Him and take hold of the provisions he gives us? It is a sin against God to fear evil. It is a sin to fear what evil men or devils can do, God commands us in many places "Fear not!" God promises to protect us and ultimately get us to heaven. But we need to trust in Him.

Read the many Scriptures in this section on Overcoming Fear and see how emphatic God is about this. He really wants us to know Him and trust Him.

Revelation 21:8 says "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death."

Fear and unbelief are related. We fear evil when we don't really believe the promises of God.

Fear is a serious thing. We should confess it to the Lord as sin, and call out to him for deliverance from it! Because once the powers of evil get an area in which they can dominate us, they don't let it go without a fight. However, these powers are no match for the Lord. "Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world" (1 John 4:4). Therefore we must call upon the Lord if we are still being afflicted with a spirit of fear, and the power of the Lord within us and upon us will set us free from all spirits of fear - many times people have more than one.

Common Consequences relating to Fear

Practical experience has taught that the spirit of fear is related to heart disease. If you get rid of the spirit of fear, anxiety will not weigh down your heart, and your heart will be healthier.

The fear of any evil thing tends to attract that same thing. Job was a righteous man, but he was afraid of something bad happening to his children. He said, "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me." (Job 3:25). Here is evidence that fear is a power which attract much evil to us. So don't give it a chance. There is no need. We should not be afraid of demons. We should put our trust in the Lord, and acknowledge Him as our deliverer.

In Psalm 91 God says:

14 Because he hath set his love upon me, therefore will I deliver him: I will set him on high, because he hath known my name.
15 He shall call upon me, and I will answer him: I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him, and honour him.
16 With long life will I satisfy him, and shew him my salvation.

 

[kentuckyboundpooh]

The psalmist David told us in Psalm 34:4, “I sought the Lord. He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.”


Knowing that God is no respecter of persons, we can accept that what He has done for one person, He will also do for another – if that other person does what the first person did. So, what did David say that he did?

He sought the Lord. What did the Lord do? He heard him. How is it that the Lord heard David? Would that not mean that David had to have talked to Him? Yes, it does mean that. So also do we need to do that – to talk to the Lord about our fears.

What happened next? The Lord delivered David from all of his fears. It doesn’t say that he was delivered from part of his fears, but all of them.

I believe that, based on this and other verses, this is the Lord’s will for His people – to be totally free from all unreasonable fears. There are many verses in the Bible that tell us to “fear not.” So, if we have fears, it is the Lord’s desire for us to be freed from them.

In 2 Timothy 1:7, we find that God has not given a spirit of fear. So, from this, we can see that fear is a spirit. The verse continues, “but of power, of love, and of a sound mind.” The Greek word translated “sound” means “disciplined.” In order to have a sound mind, it is necessary that we discipline our thoughts, and to bring them into captivity to the obedience of Christ.

As we look at 2 Corinthians 10:4-5, we see how to do this. It tells us that the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty, through God, to the pulling down of strongholds. These strongholds are thoughts that have been built into our thought lives over a period of time. They can be the “what ifs?” as in “what if this happens?” Or, “what if that happens?”

Verse 5 continues, by saying, “casting down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.”

We can say, “I cast down imaginations and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and I bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ.” We can repeat it over & over until it becomes a new stronghold in our thoughts to replace the old ones.

1 John 1:9 tells us that if we confess our sins, God is faithful and just to forgive us and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Fear is not trusting God. Since He has said to “fear not,” if we are afraid, then we can confess our fears to God as sin asking Him to forgive us, and in using this verse in 1 John, we will then be forgiven and cleansed from our unrighteousness.

Since fear is a spirit, we can take authority over it, like we would do with any other spirit, by simply saying, “I take authority over fear, in Jesus’ Name,” based on Luke 10:19. Or, we can bind it in Jesus’ Name, and loose ourselves from it.

If you are bound with many fears, like I used to be, it may take some time to go through the process of being freed, or delivered, from all of them. But, know that it is God’s will for you to be liberated from them, and that He will do it.

Thank You so much for what you said, I have had many years of PTSD anxiety and last year had a bout with depression,Your words have uplifted my spirit .i am being taking off all medicines for all my problems .and ask for your prayers in the matter. But all that you said was so helpful to me .and again i thank you and ask God to bless you for sharing !

 

[Ann Doupont]

Thank You so much for what you said, I have had many years of PTSD anxiety and last year had a bout with depression,Your words have uplifted my spirit .i am being taking off all medicines for all my problems .and ask for your prayers in the matter. But all that you said was so helpful to me .and again i thank you and ask God to bless you for sharing !

I, too, have suffered from some PTSD, and once upon a time, was diagnosed with manic-depression (also known as bipolar disorder). I've been freed from it and off all meds for it, since 1983. God is good. All the answers are in His Word. We need to meditate on it day and night.

I wrote an article called "Inner Healing" that is also posted on these forums. That might help you, also. It's here under "Devotions." The last date posted there was August 5th.

God bless you. Glad to hear the good report of your being freed from meds.

With love,

Ann

 

[mamabear4]

Fear has taken so many different forms in my life already. Most of them were inhibitions concerning speaking to people, wanting to crawl into a shell and drawing a protective wall around me. This has proven very frustrating to my husband and caused many a misuncerstanding between us. I "sense" disapproval from him and react accordingly when he never felt that way at all. I procrastinate calling people on the phone because I'm afraid I'll not know what to say and so phone calls remain unreturned and soon I have folks believing that I'm ignoring them. The next thing I know my friends have cooled off and I'm sitting here wondering what happened.

As a child I was extremely shy, but since I'm an adult I've tried hard to "put away childish things" and be kind and loving to people, believe the best in them, and go out of my way to let them know that I'm interested in them. I'm now nearly at the half-century mark and still struggle a lot with shyness, but claiming God's Word (using many of the Scriptures that have already been posted here in this thread) God has enabled me to do many things for His Kingdom that I'd never have been able to do on my own. God is good, and He enables even the most faint-hearted to "mount up on wings as eagles, to run and not be weary and to walk and not faint."

 

[Ann Doupont]

Thanks, Mamabear4, for sharing so openly. I, too, used to have trouble finding the right words to say. But, in time and with practice, I got better.

For a long time, I prayed that God would give me the right words, for the right person, at the right time (and believe that He would do this). I also prayed that He would prepare the person to hear what I was saying.

Additionally, I have prayed for boldness. I used to be so afraid of standing before people in public and talking -- but then, after I was baptized with the Holy Ghost and fire, you can hardly shut me up.

Once upon a time, I drove on a trip about an hour and a half. During the whole trip, I confessed my fears to God -- all those I could think of (and even some I didn't really have, just to be sure). I'm no longer afraid. PTL for His grace and goodness (and deliverance).

God bless you.

With love,

Ann

 

[anchoress]

Dear friends, All your messages are just what I needed to hear. Please pray for one of my colleagues (a committed Christian) who is in deep fear for his livelihood, his whole well-being and circle of friends, and whose fear is making him angry and hostile towards everyone else - who then fear him!!

 

[Ann Doupont]

Dear friends, All your messages are just what I needed to hear. Please pray for one of my colleagues (a committed Christian) who is in deep fear for his livelihood, his whole well-being and circle of friends, and whose fear is making him angry and hostile towards everyone else - who then fear him!!

Hi there,

Welcome to CF. Perhaps you could share with him the message(s) on this thread. It's God's word that sets us free.

God bless.

With love,

Ann