The King James on 2 Timothy 1:7
For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.
21st century English in the Holman Christian Standard Bible, same verse
I know that I have covered this before on this blog. I keep coming back to it because it is a point for which KatieLyn, the runaway bride had minimal revelation. Her mother, Gwen, had even less. I can make that judgment based upon their actions and words.
♦ This scripture clearly states that God has not given us a spirit of fear. If God did not give it, then from where did it come?
It is not a trick question. Fear comes from the enemy of God.
♦ What is the enemy's mission? The enemy comes only to steal and kill and destroy; John 10:10. Whenever loss, death, and destruction happens, the enemy is behind it. He makes it his job.
♦ When does the enemy conduct this mission? He is always prowling around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 1 Peter 5:8. It is naïve to think that the enemy wasn't out to stop this wedding. He was steadily looking for opportunity.
♦ What does the Bible say to do about the enemy?
It says, after submitting yourself to God, resist the enemy. cf James 4:7. The reason to submit first is (going back to today's lead scripture, 2 Timothy 1:7) to make the power, the love, and the sound judgment of God available to you. The power, the love, and the sound judgment becomes available to the submitted believer, but it does not manifest until the faith-action of resisting the spirit of fear is taken.
KatieLyn did not resist the spirit of fear. That is why she fell out of the will of God. She was submitting herself to God. Power, love, and sound judgment were available to her if she had resisted fear, but she had not been taught to resist.
In fact, her mother was spouting off the exact opposite of what the Bible says here. Gwen was saying that giving in to the concerns and misgivings was the smart thing to do. A mature Christian would have been resisting fear. A good parent would have taught the child to resist fear. A Christian whose mind was jumbled but whose heart was right would have kept his mouth shut and sought the Lord. Based on Gwen's words and actions, her mind was jumbled but her heart was too proud to admit that the enemy was cluttering her mind and her choice to listen to the enemy was confusing her. Instead, she claimed God was the source of her misgivings, a claim which is anti-biblical and insults the character of God. God did not give Gwen a spirit of fear.
God does not give the spirit of fear, and He most certainly does not lead his sheep with a foul spirit. Neither can a believer sit by passively and expect God's will to manifest. For God's will to manifest, the enemy must be resisted. (This is pretty evident in national politics, and now you can see how and why that battle is in trouble—back at the home front, parents have not been sufficiently teaching their children to resist the enemy.)
It bears repeating, for God's available power to manifest, the enemy must be actively resisted.
Combating fear was a problem for the Apostle Paul. He wrote about it in 2 Corinthians 7:5, 6, "For even when we came into Macedonia our flesh had no rest, but we were afflicted on every side: conflicts without, fears within. But God, who comforts the depressed, comforted us by the coming of Titus…" The enemy was trying to force fear upon them. He does that a lot. This world is full of fear. But Paul did not run and go into hiding. And when the Lord sent Titus to comfort Paul, Titus did not tell Paul that he was "very brave" and "did the right thing" by running away from God's plan. No, Titus comforted Paul by encouraging him in his calling.
We were not "allowed" to talk to KatieLyn after she ran away, (that dysfunction is covered in the "Triangulation" post,) but we heard enough from Gwen to realize that operating by fear is fairly 'normal' in their house. The Bible, however, teaches that we should aim for a fearless life, to walk as fearlessly as Jesus did. This opens up at least two topics for future lessons from a runaway bride:
1. Fear and worry are choices that we have a great deal of control over, and if we are completely submitted to the Lord, can master fear in full.
2. Knowing the will of God provides a strong foothold for standing against and resisting fear.
Before closing out today's post, however, I want to go back to the three spirits that Paul wrote to Timothy about when listing the spirits God gives to help combat the spirit of fear:
The spirit of power - This power is an attribute of the Holy Spirit that was of such high importance that Jesus said, "But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you;" John 16:7. We should take advantage of this power to resist the ruses of the enemy.
The spirit of love - Love is timeless and has a vision of eternity. KatieLyn's actions were incredibly short-sighted because, even though she was trying to see long-term, she did not look through the lens of love with faith. Love seeks the glory of God and does not fear for self.
The spirit of a sound mind - A sound mind is connected to sound instruction from God's word and from "the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you." John 14:26. You MUST know how to be led by the Spirit of God if you are going to consistently have a sound mind and make good decisions.
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