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What is FEAR?
18 January 2014
Episode #371
With Martha Kilpatrick and hosted by John Enslow
Special guests: Jim Pierce and Carole Nelson
(M) This is the Thesaurus, “inertia, inactivity, passivity, sloth, tiredness, apathy.” You named it Carole as laziness, and that’s so brilliant, because what I said about how passive we are about fear. We’re used to it. We think it’s, it’s human and inevitable, and subconsciously we accept it, whereas if I had stolen something I would have known it was a crisis. If I had lied about somebody I would have known it was a crisis. But the very nature of fear, I believe, in part is a demonic result is that you, you are lethargic about it, you just don’t do anything about it, you just don’t ever confess it, you don’t have any passion left to deal with the fear; you’re just its victim. And that’s part of the power of Satan, who has you, when you are in fear he has you under his thumb so to speak, and he can cause you to be that lethargic; so it’s brilliant that you saw that.
(J) Well I can prove it.
(M) Ok.
(J) Ok. So I was sittin’ here and I saw that what fear calls forth from another person that’s around someone in fear, is pity. And I’ve, I’ve been around fearful people, and I’ve been a fearful person. And what, it becomes like an insipid, poor thing, and calls forth. Normally how people respond to fear is pity. “Oh my goodness, they’re so afraid, awww,” you know what I mean?
(M) Hmhm.
(J) Ok. So pity, what does pity say? Pity says that my God is not good, and that I’ve been wronged. Ok. So pity is an insult, so fear leads to pity, pity leads to insulting God by saying God’s not good. So it’s a little insult to the character of God. It’s bringing the assault on God’s own character, to say, ‘You are not good.’ ‘I’ve been wronged, and You are not good.’ And then the reason why there’s lethargy is seen in the talent servant; the one talent servant, says you wicked and lazy, lazy servant, you are lethargic, because why? He believed incorrectly about God, ‘You’re hard’, ‘You do things that are crazy God’, ‘You, You, You put me in to situations that are….’ ‘So I’m just gonna stay here in my fear.’ And He was passionately against it, because it was an assault on His very character and Name. ‘Oh, you really do believe that about Me, you wicked and lazy servant, then you will go exactly where you believe. You will go to the place of outer darkness, because you believe that I am that Person, I will be that Person. You go!’ That’s why it’s so evil; that’s why fear is just so heinous. And I have to deal with fear regularly. I mean even not thinking that, we’ve got a mass of work and things to do. What is the breaking disturbance in someone’s soul that, ‘oh my gosh, there’s so much to do and I can’t get it done.’ You’re in fear that God will not come through and get done what He wants to do. It’s fear. And that’s why it’s so demonic. So you have to say, ‘ok’. And Jennifer called me out on it, she said I have to trust God with my day, and I have to literally turn it over to time, because at any point in this day, because of the set up of the office, my day can be captured with calls, with ah, different fires. And I have to trust it. Because I have my agenda of what I know I need to get done, and because of all the things that I know I have to get done, if I have six or seven calls, and those calls are each a half an hour, my day is being sucked away and I’m not going to get it done. So I have to surrender my day at the very beginning to say, God, here’s my day; You do what You want to, because I can’t, I can’t control this. And I’m feeling a tremendous weight of the responsibility of what I, I need to do, and what I need to get done. And I got, yesterday I got into it, I’m like going, God, I mean I just broke under it. I was like, God, what are You doing? I have got to get this stuff done; this stuff has got to get done; I can’t ‘not do’ this stuff. You’ve gotta do it. And ah, I mean, you know, it breaks physically; I woke up this morning tired. And it’s fear. It’s fear that He’s not gonna get it done, it’s fear that the way it is, it’s gonna take you out. And ah, so it’s an insult to God. I’ve written about it. I’ve had incredible experiences where God did weeks worth of work in one day. (John, let’s his breath out.) So I confess my fear, just scratch a little on the, scratch and sniff, its boom, there’s, there’s some more fear coming up.
(Carole) I had a choice to make when the circumstance arose. I chose to go down the road of fear. I could have chosen to go down another road. I could have chosen to go down and get on my face before God, and I didn’t do that, so every circumstance brings with it the choice of which road I will go down. Will I go down the road of responsibility, which is not necessarily anything but saying, yes, yes Lord; and, because circumstances do arise, and He brings them. And I, I, for me, I believe He planned those circumstances in His loving kindness, to bring me to even where I am today. I have a lot, lot further to go, but in my realization of Who He truly is, but I have a decision, and I didn’t make the right decisions.
(M) Just want to say one thing, and then we’ll all hear from Jim. Surrender, the decision is to surrender. The decision to avoid fear does not surrender; that’s what I’ve gotten down to; oh my goodness, its just surrender, the choice is surrender.
(Jim) The world is in fear. Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, that’s everybody in the world; that’s the world. The Lord told us to pray to the Father to lead me not into temptation. If I hear the word fear, I’m tempted. Deliver me from evil; that is what He’s talking about. For me that’s what He’s talking about, because that encompasses every aspect of my life that is outside of Him, because it all is based in fear. And just when you say the word ‘fear’, I’m tempted, I automatically start leaning into it, instead of ‘Lord, lead me not into temptation.’ It happened when you first, Martha, when you first, when you said the word fear when we first started this.
(M) Fear of fear.
(Jim) And it wasn’t until Carole started talking that I recognized I was being drawn in; just I was being tempted, and then John’s story… I, deliver me from evil Lord, I’m that evil of being tempted into fear. That’s my one prayer; that’s all I need.
(M) When you said the 23rd. Psalm, Jim, I had a revelation that I’ve never had before. “Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil. Thy rod and Thy staff comfort me.” The rod and the staff are His authority. And so it’s that, the surrender, my way out of it is to surrender to You, and let Your faith that lives in me be released. And Carole mentioned an incident where she called and was seeing really a horrendous problem, a huge tragic problem, and I heard, “There is no crisis. This is a good thing. This is getting rid of the evil, not being overcome by it.” And that… The surrender is to hear His Voice and His Will and His Dominion.
(J) Well I, instead of yesterday, I think everything is an invitation, all of our crises are invitations for God to come through. It’s basically He’s inviting you to invite Him in and to do it. And so what I did yesterday, and the reason why I woke up exhausted, is because I bolstered myself up, is that the word? I constantly use that word, is it? I bolstered myself up and structured myself to do it! And to endure, instead of breaking and just saying, “I’m, I’m a child, I cannot do it. I can’t do what You’re asking me to do. I invite You in, because You’re inviting me in.” (John speaks with deep emotion.) It’s a mutual invitation, RSVP so to speak. (He laughs.) And ah, so if you look at every crisis, if you look at every point that our soul is stirred up to fear, as an invitation to invite God in, that God’s inviting you, and you’re inviting Him, that union will… And that’s why it’s love. That’s why it’s love; it’s a mutual, loving union there that the two invitations are consummated and said, ‘YES’, I will stand here, Christ will be in this place at this moment. He will do it; His life, not mine, not Satan, Jesus; Jesus will live here in this moment.
(M) And that is surrender, and union.
(J) And that’s what I didn’t do. I said, ok, I just have to get it done, and then I went into the adult mode ‘to get it done’, ‘to finish it’, ‘to complete it’, I didn’t complete it, there’s stuff strewn all over the office that I didn’t complete yesterday. And I went to bed kind of tired, and I woke up exhausted, and I said, well, that was pointless. And the reason why is because ‘I did it’. Ok, anytime you’re gonna, you know, put your big boy shoes on and, and go do it yourself, it’s gonna trash you. And there’s another ‘invitation’; ok, great, go ahead and try; ok, you did it, here’s another ‘invitation’. It exhausted you, it completely wiped you out; I’m inviting you now, do you see the fruit of that? I’m inviting you to invite Me in. Oh, ok. See, even in the, even in the failing of it, even in the going into the fear and being an adult, and there’s still an’ invitation’, there’s always an ‘invitation’. God is always laying an ‘invitation’, for us to invite Him in. It’s amazing to me. Even in our sin, even in our stupid-ness, in our sheep-ness, He’s still saying, ok, ‘that didn’t feel good, did it’, ok, ‘invite Me in’.
(M) What I’m thinking of John is, that statement He gave me: “Weakness is man’s final invitation for which God endlessly waits.”
(J) Beautiful statement; it’s beautiful. It’s a beautiful statement.
(M) You have just struck me a blow, (she laughs) because I too am overwhelmed.
(J) But see if you look at the overwhelming…
(M) Down you go.
(J) But no, no, if you look at the… He knows us. He knows we’re but dust, and if He knows that we’re dust, and the overwhelming is an… If you look at it as a, an abuse, as a slight against your soul and against your person, then you go down Satan’s road and then you become the ‘one talent servant’ and you ‘bury your talent’, and you become lethargic and you die. But if you see that place as a invitation, it’s grace, then it’s grace. And God’s saying, ‘come on’, come, like your sign, “Come on guys, let’s go up the mountain.” Don’t worry about that. (John laughs.)
This is why every day I MUST believe I am dead in Christ. There is no other hope. There is no other life.
Little lamb who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?
Gave thee life and bid thee feed, by the streams and o’er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight, softest clothing, wooly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice, making all the vales rejoice
Little lamb who made thee? Dost thou know who made thee?
When I rest, fear is gone. I have tested this over and over… and I still go to the same disgusting place of works (wretched of me!). I am afraid Carole, John, Jim, etc., are not alone in their fear.
(I liked so much all your comments.)
Love!
Utterly incredible. I am lost for words … but am repentant. Thank you again.
The fear of fear is indeed where I get stuck and many I know get stuck. God knows that we cannot handle it I believe that is why He asks for our yes and our surrender with blind faith. If we saw the trial, apart from His grace and love we could not follow or surrender. When we even suspect that another trial is coming despite the good fruit that came from all the others we still dread and fear going through that shadow of death of self again.
But what John said is the message that gives rise to courage, hope and faith: “See, even in the, even in the failing of it, even in the going into the fear and being an adult, and there’s still an’ invitation’, there’s always an ‘invitation’. God is always laying an ‘invitation’, for us to invite Him in. It’s amazing to me. Even in our sin, even in our stupid-ness, in our sheep-ness, He’s still saying, ok, ‘that didn’t feel good, did it’, ok, ‘invite Me in’”.
It is has always been for me fear of not being loved and not knowing how to live what I believe, fear of His rejection…because all I knew in life was self survival, being tough, not quitting…
It is His love and His grace, His mercy and goodness that gives strength to my heart that in my weakness, in my failure, in my dependency, I now have hope! His invitation that still loves me when I fail and follow fear and the hope of endless invitation knowing I am but dust.
Fear was Adam’s Garden response to a choice based on a misperception of God’s character. From that perspective, fear can be received as a gift that exposes unbelief and sin. The enemy loses when we become aware of the fear and can name it. If you can name your fear, you can name your unbelief/sin and root it out through repentance and confession. We just have to pay attention to our fear. If we don’t, what we fear becomes the place we will compromise the Kingdom of God. If we fear rejection or being utterly alone, we will not confront when required by the Spirit. If we fear being misused, we will not show kindness and grace when required by the Spirit. We must combat fear in order to lose all of our “natural/programmed” inclinations so He can be who He wants to be in any situation. Our fear has to be removed out of His way. Not to mention that He loves us utterly and wants us to be free from the fears that drive us.
FEAR – Feelings Exaggerate Anxiety as Reality
FAITH – Fear is Annihilated as Incarnate Truth is Heard
Tricia this is true. We all have our core fears that have been planted by the enemy in the soil of our hearts early in life. It is usually through our pain and suffering that he sows his lies which are nourished by our own beliefs, our circumstances and perspective of them. Knowing our core fears and the lies behind them is crucial because then we can conquer them with faith in His Word of truth by His grace and love.
There are so many connections with fear and what it does to our body and how fear literally prevents us from life, from feeling love physically through the hormones and brain. Love does overcome fear in every way. “Perfect love cast out all fear”