Seven Spirits of Fear

Today's lesson will be a two-fer. There are two sides to the coin of fear. Heads: Acting on fear can restrict God from moving in your life. Tails: Acting on fear gives the enemy a right to manifest in your life.

KatieLyn acted on fear. Face it; no matter how many ways her family and friends try to spin it as being "courageous" to call off a wedding, running away is an act of fear. Running away in the middle of the night is an act of great fear. It would have been courageous to work things out. She did not even try. If working things out had proven impossible, a person of courage would be able to explain her position. She cannot.

Today's lesson is based on a sermon I once heard titled, "The Seven Spirits of Fear." I am not going to try to connect all seven to KatieLyn in this post; any reader of this blog will be able to see that some apply more than others, and all apply at least a little.

Heads: Acting on fear can restrict God from moving in your life.
It simply isn't true that God does whatever He wants. For example, a lot of people reject His gift of salvation. That is not what He wants, but to force it would deprive a person of his autonomy and freedom to choose. When you don't do what God wants you to do, in this example to accept salvation, or in KatieLyn's case to marry Joe, there is only so much that God can do about it. You have restricted Him with your choice. You cannot claim that "God didn't want me to get saved or He would have saved me no-matter-what" any more than KatieLyn can claim that if God had wanted her to marry Joe it would have happened no-matter-what.

Tails: Acting on fear gives the enemy a right to manifest in your life.
It is true that the enemy feeds on fear. Fear is not only the antithesis of faith, it also steals, kills, and destroys faith. That is who the enemy is: a a thief, a murderer, and a destroyer. Revelation 21:8 states that the cowardly and unbelieving end up in the lake of burning sulfur, so acting on fear is very serious stuff. Hebrew 10:38 says that we are to live by faith, and that God has no pleasure in those who draw back.


Here are the Seven Spirits of Fear— 

Fear of Change

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven. Ecclesiastes 3:1 It is not good to want to stay in the same season, although God does not change, He changes times and seasons, Daniel 2:21, and He does not want His children to regress but rather to press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call. Philippians 3:14. 

Fear of People

And don't be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. Jeremiah 1:8 This is one of the most disappointing of KatieLyn's fears, not because she was afraid of people, that is somewhat understandable, but because of the way she chose to not deal with it—she cloistered herself with a total information shutdown. Worse, her family mollycoddled her and allowed it.

Fear of the Unknown

We came to the land to which you sent us. It flows with milk and honey. However… the land, through which we have gone to spy it out, is a land that devours its inhabitants. Numbers 13: 27, 32. The people obeyed the wrong source of information, making decisions on what they saw could go wrong instead of on what God had told them. Their fear of the unknown kept them from receiving God's promises.

Fear of Responsibilities

The Parable of the Talents, ending with Matthew 25:30, Throw out the worthless slave into the outer darkness.  Fear of and failure to live up to his responsibilities caused the man to forfeit even what small blessing that he had.

Fear of Failure

For it would have been better for them never to have known the way of righteousness than having acknowledged it, to turn back. 2 Peter 2:21 The fear of failure comes from listening to voices other than God's.

Fear of Added Work

Therefore, my beloved brothers, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that in the Lord your labor is not in vain. 1 Corinthians 15:58  Running off into the night isn't exactly steadfast and immovable.

Fear of Things Falling Apart
For what I fear comes upon me, And what I dread befalls me. Job 3:25 In Job's case, God had given Satan permission to test Job, and Satan chose to afflict Job with the things that Job feared. Temptations, tests, and trials that believers encounter today are often chosen the the same way: it is the fear that you fear that comes to pass.
Every "reason" that KatieLyn has given is actually a fear that had not come to pass. She did not even make it to the testing stage like Job.  Running away because of a fear that things might fall apart was not the right thing to do.  

The Lesson
God did not give us a spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind; 2 Timothy 1:7.
God is not a God of confusion, but of peace, 1 Corinthians 14:33
Fear and confusion do not come from God. If KatieLyn was experiencing fear and doubt, then she either made them for herself or she took those thoughts from the devil. By choosing to doubt God, we restrict Him from working in our behalf.   When fear attacks our minds we must make a choice: we can identify it as a thought from hell and reject it, or we can act on that thought and allow the enemy access to our life.