Faith Over Fear

0:00:00      Can you imagine a life without fear? It is possible, and I’m going to tell you how to get it in the next more faith, more life episode. Hello, everyone, and welcome again to another more faith more Life podcast. Oh, it’s so great to be together. And we’re going to talk about fear, really, when we get right down to it. Can you imagine a life without fear? What would you be like if you weren’t afraid of so many different things?

0:00:21      And so there’s so much to be nervous about. Today we’re titling our three episodes, faith in the times of uncertainty, faith in midst of uncertainty, and we live in uncertain times. What’s going to happen right now? We have wars popping up. We don’t know they’re going to escalate. Is there going to be a world war three? We know that there’s other nations that seem to be practicing for war. And then we have uncertainty.

0:00:46      With the economy and food, I’m just hearing, like, the shelves could be empty again and hard to find things, and this could happen. That could happen. And so there’s so many things that we’re uncertainty about today. And then fear and anxiety can come in. And then what about just personal, your own personal life? Maybe you’re uncertain about how you’re going to pay your bills or uncertain if the job you’re doing now is really what you should be doing with your life. Just uncertainty.

0:01:16      And all of a sudden, anxiety and fear can come in. What if somebody gets sick and dies? What if my husband or wife decides they don’t love me anymore? I mean, there’s so many things that can take over your life. And so we have to first realize fear is natural, normal to the natural, normal person. Okay? But we can overcome it because we’re going to walk with God, and God doesn’t have fear. God has never been afraid.

0:01:46      So if you’re going to walk with God, it’s hard to say, lord, I’m really scared. You know what I mean? I’m really afraid. You know how I feel, don’t you? You know how it feels. He’s going to say, nope, never been afraid. God has no fear. And so as we take on the character of God, the kingdom of God, and the things of God, we can work on our fear. Now, we wouldn’t want to get all our fear taken away.

0:02:08      So that next thing you know, we’re just wandering through traffic saying, I’m not afraid to be hit by a truck. Well, that’s, that’s. You’ve moved out of fear and into stupidity. Right? So there are things that we want to be cautious of. We want to be cautious with our lives, but we don’t want to be in fear. Okay? So fear, get this. Fear is most fear is an increase of learned behavior. Learned, okay?

0:02:36      So we have natural fear that we have. But then we learn to be afraid by having people influence us with fear, telling us what to be afraid of, right? And we tell ourselves what to be afraid of. Okay? But in the kingdom of God, faith is also learned behavior. You can learn to walk by faith. And faith. The Bible says faith comes by what you hear. Okay, so what are you hearing if you hear fear all the time?

0:03:06      If you see fear all the time, if you see uncertainty and you’re uncertain all the time and you get anxious, then you’re starting, you’re learning behavior, right? You’re learning fear, you’re learning anxiety. And so most people, they don’t have faith because they lack information. They lack information. See, the Bible says faith comes by hearing the word of God, all right? You don’t have enough information to walk by faith because we don’t live in a culture right now where the Bible is really promoted much, maybe not at all.

0:03:42      You may go to a church and hear a sermon where there’s barely even a scripture in it, or maybe a scripture reference might be in it or whatever, but really understanding and hearing the word of God is, is lacking. We have, like the Bible called, we have a famine in the land for the word of God. So if faith comes by hearing, and I’m telling you, actually, most fear comes by hearing, okay, not all. Cause we have a natural fear. Like I said, you don’t want to jump off a building or something.

0:04:11      You know, heights, you’re afraid of heights? Maybe really high places. But we have this learned behavior. The more we’re around fearful people, the more we’re going to learn to be fearful. Okay? But the more we’re around what? Faith people who are feeding us new information. The reason people get overwhelmed by fear, even though they’re Christians, is they don’t have enough information about God. Who has no fear? They don’t have enough information.

0:04:41      So there’s all kinds of scriptures, of course, that we can pull out about fear. The Bible is full of information about fear. Obviously, the words fear not are everywhere, right? And so, you know, fear not, don’t be afraid, neither be dismayed, for the Lord is with you wherever you go and these kinds of things. And so we need to learn that information. So I have more information now to tell you, like God is with you wherever you go.

0:05:11      So fear does not have to be your choice every time. When you have the choice to walk by faith and faith can overcome your fear, it’s just learned, it’s learned behavior. It’s learned thinking behavior too, because your brain being around people of no faith that haven’t walked in faith or lived by faith or walked through life in a faith mode, well, they’re going to put off their anxieties, right? People have a presence about them, right?

0:05:42      And all of a sudden they’re putting off their fears and anxieties. And then you’re hearing it and you’re around it and it’s just you getting on you. But imagine if you were around faith people. That’s why we need to have churches, have people of faith going to them, right? Not people of fear, but people of faith. So more people can be around and influenced by people of faith, and then we would have still have normal fear, right?

0:06:09      You’re not going to want to go stand on railroad tracks all day long, right, and not be afraid. There’s something to be afraid coming sometime, right? We don’t want to lose that fear, obviously, and be stupid and have no wisdom. We don’t want to lose our caution because even the Bible cautions us. It says the devil, Satan, roams around like a roaring lion seeking. Can you imagine that? He’s seeking someone right now, someone to devour.

0:06:36      Okay, well, then I need to be cautious. I have just been warned to be cautious. The Bible says I need to be cautious of what I let in my head, in my heart, you know, guard my heart. That’s caution, right. But as I go out in the world, I’m not going to be afraid, okay? I’m not going to be in fear. I’m going to walk by faith, not by sight. Cause there’s plenty of things to be afraid of. There’s plenty of things to be uncertain of.

0:07:03      But I can learn faith by one hearing the word of God. So faith comes by hearing something different than what you’ve been hearing. And in our case, of course, it’s the word of God. So we need to go to a church where there’s a word of God because we need to hear it. Especially if you live a very busy life and you keep saying, I’m going to read my Bible, I’m going to pray, I’m going to seek God, and then, whoops, where’d the time go? The whole week’s gone by and I haven’t done it yet. Well, put down on your calendar every Sunday, you’re in church, at least you got to set a time, a Sabbath time, set apart with God where you can hear some faith and you can sing some faith.

0:07:39      And I have faith preached to you and be around faith, faith, people. So fear is something we can deal with because the Bible says this. It’s a great scripture. Paul wrote it to Timothy in the Bible. And he says, listen, timothy was about 30 years old maybe when he heard this, I’m guessing maybe about that age. And Paul wrote him and said, God did not give you a spirit of fear. Now, there’s some different translations of that.

0:08:11      God did not give you the spirit to fear. That’s a good one, too. That’s a good translation. You know, the people, people who know the languages, know Greek and all that, they know where the emphasis is, and sometimes they can, a different translator will emphasize different things. So for God did not give us a spirit of fear. So if you have fear, you’re dealing with fear, abnormal fear, or fear runs your life.

0:08:39      Or like I tell people, fear makes decisions for you. And I tell fear is a terrible decision maker. It very seldom makes the right decision. Very seldom caution can. Wisdom can. But fear is not a good decision maker. God did not give you a spirit of fear. God does not give you his spirit. So you can live in fear. Right? Another translator who translated it a little differently to try to understand what Timothy was going through said, God did not give you the spirit of being timid.

0:09:14      Now, that’s a whole different thing, because if it’s being timid, it’s like he’s holding back maybe who he’s supposed to be. He’s holding back the kind of preaching he’s supposed to preach. He’s holding back the kind of life that he’s supposed to demonstrate. He’s timid about it. And a lot of people are intimidated in life. You can see it on them. They just. Every. Everything about them holds back, you know, and they just can’t seem to break out of it. And you realize God didn’t give you his spirit so you could walk around fearful or timid or backwards or holding in.

0:09:49      No, but a power. So God gave you the spirit for power, right? And for power and love and a sound mind. Those are the things that come out of people. Then I’m walking in the power of God. I’m walking in the love of God. And my mind is solid. It’s solid. I’m not running scared through life afraid of everything, but I have faith in God. Have faith in. Well, there’s another one who has faith in God, and we need to do that. So we want to have faith instead of fear. And it is possible to do that.

0:10:25      It’s Paul. Now, if you just back up with me, what is fear? Okay. Fear is normal and important when you’re living a wise life and a cautious life. But if it’s making decisions and driving you in life, then that’s not good. All right? So how did you get that way? You learn to be fearful. It’s learned behavior. Okay? It’s learned behavior. And so if you were. If you were a kid and you got bit by a dog, all right, I got bit by a dog more than once, probably. But I remember riding a bicycle and a little terrier could hardly even reach the pedals, was chasing me on my bicycle, and finally jumped in the air and bit me on the back of the leg and tore the skin and it was bleeding and all that.

0:11:12      Okay. At that point, what could have happened? I was. I don’t know how old I was, you know, just early learning to ride. Five, six, seven, whatever. What could have happened? I could have got a fear of dogs, right? Or maybe I could have got a fear of riding a bicycle. I don’t know. But I could have walked away with something. I don’t need. I don’t need to be afraid of dogs because I had a bad ex. A bad experience with a dog.

0:11:37      Cause not all dogs are going to bite me. And most will never, never will, right? And so we have learned behavior of being afraid of certain things. And I told our church the other day, I said, listen, get this. Most of the things that you’re fearful of happening will never happen. I’m probably a lot older than a lot of you. And so I realized, looking back on my life, the things that possibly I was afraid was going to happen never happened.

0:12:04      It never happened. So fear can drive us in a. In an unusual way, to almost lie to us, to be afraid of things that probably are never going to happen. There are certain things that we cautious of. And like I said, it’s normal to a certain point if it stays in the area of wisdom and caution. But if it moves into the area of driving us and decision making for us and we can’t sleep at night, right. And we’re nervous all the time and anxious about everything all the time, then you’re giving your life away, and you need to have some new learned behavior.

0:12:39      So you have to. You need to read the Bible, get it. Your new information is what faith comes by hearing. So in order to get rid of fear, you can’t just say, stop being afraid. Have you tried that with your kids or with somebody? Tried it with you. You have a kid who’s afraid of the dark, and this big old adult comes in and says, stop being afraid of the dark. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Did that work?

0:13:04      Nope, didn’t work. So what do you do with the kid? Give him new information. Start reading the word of God to him. Because faith comes by hearing, hearing the word of God. So new information, like this scripture right here, Isaiah 41 ten, do not fear, for I am with you. Do not be dismayed. Well, I would say that’s what we’re talking about today. In an uncertainty world of uncertainty. We can be afraid. Right? We can be dismayed. We can be confused. Confused, right. So he says, do not fear.

0:13:36      Why? What are you saying, guys? I’m with you. I am with you. Do not be confused or be dismayed. For you know what? I am your God. I’m your God, and he’s my God. A that makes us a different kind of person. And that’s why the Bible actually says, you know, when you are born again, you become new, a new creature. And actually, did you know what that really means? It actually means you’re going to become the new humanity.

0:14:05      New humanity. And part of our new humanity is, I am a person of faith now. I still have caution. I still have wisdom, but I don’t have fear driving my life. I am a person of faith. How did you get that? I got it by new information about God. God’s with me. I don’t have to be dismayed. For the Lord is with me. He’s with me wherever I go. And so now with this new information, I’m going to believe it and start believing in now even the promises of God, because he, he promises to help. He promises to rescue us. He promises to comfort us. He promises mercy. He promises forgiveness.

0:14:42      All these promises. Now I might feel, I might think, feel guilty all the time, or I’m anxious all the time, I’m angry all the time, or whatever things you have that somehow you’ve picked up along the way. So now we want to replace that with new information, right? With God’s promises. All right? So we don’t have to be dismayed. We don’t have to be afraid. Okay? We don’t have to live in fear, and we can get the promises. God’s going to help me. He’s with me. He’s going to bless me. If I let him, if I will seek him, I will find him. Right.

0:15:15      But here’s my new information. I need to seek him with all my heart. I can’t be half- hearted about this and become this new person who doesn’t drive around town in fear and afraid of traffic all the time. Afraid somebody’s going to hit me, you know, Orlando, or I’m going to be stopped by the police. Do you still do, are you still doing that if a police car comes up behind you, just like, uh oh. I noticed I was driving the other day, and all of a sudden, what happened? Everybody’s driving really fast, and now everybody’s driving really slow. Oh, there’s a police car, right?

0:15:50      And then there were the silly guys on the passing on the left. They couldn’t see the police car because there’s too much traffic and they’re in the left fast lane, I guess. And there’s this truck. Whoo! I wonder how fast he’s. Another one. Go. Well, you know what happened? On came the red lights and blue lights on that police car, and after him he went, right. So I saw that police car, and I still get cautious. Like, I’m not. I’m going to be careful. I look down at my speed immediately, and you probably do the same, same thing. Well, that part’s okay. But if I am afraid of police, which I’m so sorry that there are people that have been in situations with people of authority, and the people in authority made bad decisions, or a policeman made, a policewoman, I should say, made some bad decisions or went beyond their authority. And now we have people and children that are actually not just cautious of the police of making a mistake, but are afraid they’re going to get in trouble with the police when they’ve done nothing wrong.

0:16:51      And that’s too bad, isn’t it? Because most of them are good and helpful, but they’re always, there’s bad everywhere. And I’m sorry if that’s happened to you, because that’s not right. And so as we begin to understand this better, that if you have fear and it’s overwhelming fear or it’s just fear that is too far out in front. Right. In other words, as you’re trying to move forth in life, you’re running into fear and anxiety right before you run into anything, before you ever get anywhere, you’ve already run into fear.

0:17:27      And then fear robs you and says, you can’t do it, you can’t make it. You’re not good enough to do it. Somebody else is going to do it. God loves them more than he loves you. Whatever you’re hearing. So if you’re running into fear when you’re trying to make decisions and you’re trying to live life and you’re trying to be the parent you need to be or the worker you need to be or the friend you need to be, whatever, and you’re always, you know, you want to love better, more, but then you get fearful, right?

0:17:55      And you back down, or you think, I should go over and say something to that person, but, uh oh, I don’t know them, and I don’t know what they’ll think, and I don’t know what they’ll say. And yet inside is saying, you need to do that. It’s the right thing to do. But fear, you ran into fear before you ran into the person, right? So how do you do it? You need more information. You need to reprogram your information, because God is faithful, the kingdom of God is powerful, right?

0:18:27      God’s power is available to you, and you can become that new creature, new humanity. And what is it? What does that mean even? I mean, how are we going to recognize it? Well, love, power, right? And a sound mind that would, you’d be pretty new if you could live in that all the time, right? And if you didn’t have fear driving you and understanding, God’s not giving you fear. God’s not giving you fear. It’s coming from someplace else, somebody else, some information, some experience you had, whatever has planted fear in you.

0:19:05      And when you try to move forward in life, fear grabs you first. Are you getting it? Think about yourself for just a minute, just a minute, because you might think, well, I’m not really a fearful person. Then go, wait, wait, wait. I’m, I do have a little trouble advancing in life and trying new things. I do get fearful when I feel maybe a nudge from God or somebody else even says, this is the right thing to do. I do get fearful sometimes, but it doesn’t come from God, but it’s holding you back.

0:19:35      So think about it. Are you running into fear more than you should? If so, it’s not coming from God. And all I’m trying to do is get you now in a world of uncertainty is to walk by faith and grab faith in these uncertainties. Times right now with all the rumors of war going on, and they say what kind of war it’ll be and wars are happening, it’d be really an uncertain time. I grew up during part at least, of the war in Vietnam.

0:20:05      So we had a lot of anxiety my senior year in high school because people who graduated the year before me, they were going off to war and dying or coming back with parts missing, you know, and this was real, and they were just a year older than me. And now I’m turning 18, and I have to register for the draft. And then they had the drawing, you know, the lottery, and they would draw your birthday, and, okay, day one is whatever date. And if that was your birthday, you go, ah, I’m first on the list.

0:20:36      If your birthday was whatever today is, whatever is this in October or whatever it is, then, and that’s your birthday. And they say, okay, here’s number one. And they pull it out, and it’s October. You’re first on the list. You’re going to go to war. You’re going to go to Vietnam. Okay. And then, okay, now, birthday number two. And, oh, no, that’s my birthday. Well, you’re going to be on the list. Well, mine.

0:21:01      My number was one. I think I have this document somewhere. It was 113. Okay. I thought to myself, there’s 365 days. I’m 113. I’m kind of up in the middle. I’m up in the upper 1st, 3rd, right. I could go as the first third. And they did it by counties. Every county had to supply so many, draft so many people. And I had no idea my county was going to be what? And so, you know, I saw other people get letters. You’ve been drafted. You have to report. You have to. And they went to war.

0:21:36      And I’m just waiting. I was one a. If you know anything about the military, I was one a. That means you know what a is. It’s the first letter of the Alphabet. That means you’re ready to go, and you’re ready to go if they call you, you have to go. I didn’t have a deferment. I didn’t have anything like that. And so I go, and I finally, my letter came. I remember it so well. My brother and I, we were painting my mother’s living room, painting it green or something, and my letter came in the mail from the.

0:22:06      Well, from the, you know, not the war department, but from them on that. And I knew what it was immediately. And I said, I don’t know what’s in this? I don’t know. Well, I got it. I opened the letter, and you know what? I was experiencing a little bit of anxiety. Yeah. I wasn’t a Christian then, so I didn’t have that faith to know, you know what? I’m not going to be dismayed. I’m not going to be afraid, for the Lord is with me wherever I go, and if I go, the Lord will be with me. I didn’t have that.

0:22:33      So I was anxious, I was nervous. So I finally, I opened it and undid the letter and began to read. And it said, my county has fulfilled its number to 112. Birthday 112. And I was birthday 113. I got away by one number, right. And the others had to go, okay. Now I’m so relieved, you know, and like, ah, I’m so relieved. I don’t. That fear’s gone. At least I’m not going to go to war. So. But it was there up to that time. I’m living like, am I going to get my letter today?

0:23:11      And. because I don’t know how many it’s going to take to fill, you know, the quota from my county. So fear is a powerful, powerful thing, and it’s real, and it can be running your life, and it can make decisions for you. So this is very, very simple. We want to move into the faith realm. Why do, why are you weak in faith? And some people are? Why? Because you don’t have enough information and you need to get the word of God.

0:23:36      Get around people of God, get around faith people, if you can. If you can find them and change your information, reprogram yourself, because faith comes. How? By hearing. How did most of your fear come? I’m not talking about caution and wisdom, but just fear. Where did it come from? You heard something, you saw something. Faith was programmed into you. It’s not natural to you, but. But. Or did I say faith or fear? Fear is not natural to you.

0:24:03      It’s natural to be cautious, but not to be fearful. Right. It didn’t come from God. And if you belong to God, then how come you still have what doesn’t belong to God in you? Directing your life. Reprogram yourself. Faith comes by hearing. And hearing. What do we hear? Start hearing the word of God. All right, well, I hope that helped you today as we begin to reprogram ourselves and realize we live in a world of uncertainty. And we’re going to hit episode two next time. But right now, we’re just going to concentrate on the fear and getting rid of the fear that’s driving us and making decisions for us, and we’re going to become people of faith. Be sure and subscribe. Be sure and tell your friends. Be sure and look on.

0:24:46      Maybe if you haven’t, get the book If You Only Knew: A Guide For The Clueless Generation. And we’ll have a new book coming out soon. There’s also cds and other books there. Well, I’m so thankful to be together, and if this podcast is helping you then get the help. If it’s helping you, it can help somebody else. If you tell somebody about it, then they can get it. And especially if they’re dealing with fear. Look how easy this really is. Okay? Just reprogram by hearing the word of God. Until next time. Bye.