Think Like Jesus

I woke up in the middle of the night, heart pounding, mind racing, filled with anxiety—and I heard “You’re thinking like Margot, not like Jesus. You need to think like Jesus—Margot is dead.”

I sat straight up...how did Jesus think?

He thinks that all things are possible to him who believes. [Mark 9:23]

He thinks that, if we ask the Father anything in His name, He will do it. [John 14:13,14]

He thinks that all things belong to us, and we belong to Him, and He belongs to God. [1 Corinthians 3:21-23]

He thinks that, when you speak to mountains, trees, wind, money, bodies, etc, they will obey you. [Mark 11:22-24; all 4 gospels]

He thinks that the Father loves us as much as He loves Him, that He has given us His glory—the glory that the Father gave Him! [John 17:22,23]

He thinks that we're One Spirit with Him. [1 Corinthians 6:17]

These are all scriptures! This is the mind of Christ! And I was crucified, buried, raised up and seated in heavenly places with Him. And He and the Father dwell in me by the Holy Spirit!

So now, when I start to worry or fret, I remind myself that I’m thinking like a dead person...and I tell myself to think like Jesus!

The Purpose of Fear 4

 

"No one can stop you but you." [Bill Winston]

The spirit of fear is sent to get you to stop in your tracks, period. It is sent to create doubt and unbelief to stop your faith from producing.

'For who provoked Him when they had heard? Indeed, did not all those who came out of Egypt led by Moses? And with whom was He angry for forty years? Was it not with those who sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness? And to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who were disobedient?

So we see that they were not able to enter because of unbelief.' [Hebrews 3:16-4:2]

And why were they in unbelief, which ultimately led to disobedience and NOT entering into His rest? Because they were terrified by the giants stationed at the edge of their Promised Land. Fear. Even though God had promised them victory, their fear stopped them cold.

Fear > Unbelief > Disobedience > Wilderness [the UN-promised land]

It is sent to bring the thing you fear upon you [Job 3:25]. The Israelites feared that they would die in the desert [Exodus 14] and die they did, just as they had believed and spoken.

Don't Look
Don't look at the circumstances. Don't listen to the voice of the deceiver. In the words of David Crosby, don't give in an inch to fear.

Instead, unite the Word of God with faith and enter into His rest [Hebrews 4]. For all of the promises of God are YES in Him. [2 Corinthians 1:20]

Read Fear, The Purpose of Fear, The Purpose of Fear 2, The Purpose of Fear 3, Fear--The Deadly Enemy

 

 

The Purpose of Fear 3

Read Fear, The Purpose of Fear, The Purpose of Fear 2

We are told to look at the eternal unseen and not the temporary seen! [2 Corinthians 4:18]

While faith shows us the unseen will of God, fear shows us the evil unseen. Fear whispers a word to us and we immediately see the evil coming to pass.

I've heard many people, myself included, say "I just have trouble visualizing."

With a little further investigation, we see that what they [I] really mean is that we have trouble visualizing good things coming to pass in our lives.

Which is really a problem, because Bible hope is the earnest expectation that God's promises are true and will come to pass...and faith is the SUBSTANCE of THINGS HOPED FOR! The conviction or evidence of THINGS NOT SEEN!!

I'm going to repeat that...faith is the SUBSTANCE of things HOPED for...evidence of things NOT SEEN!

Since fear is faith's evil twin and what we fear befalls us, it stands to reason that fear is also the substance of things feared, the evidence of bad things not seen!

People, Satan KNOWS how things really work! That's one of the reasons he's deceived us into 'thinking rationally, thinking logically.' Because worldly wisdom—natural rationality—denies the supernatural completely and cripples us from walking in its power.

Eternal
2 Corinthians 4:18 says '...for the things which are seen are temporal [temporary], but the things which are not seen are eternal.

The Greek word for eternal here is aionios—without beginning and end, THAT WHICH ALWAYS HAS BEEN AND ALWAYS WILL BE, never to cease, everlasting.

In the church world, we tend to think of eternal as meaning after we die...but that's not what it means! When we read that God's Word is settled forever in heaven, it means it is settled eternally...without beginning or end, that which always has been and always will be!

It is finished...what? The works of God, from the FOUNDATION OF THE WORLD! [Hebrews 4:3] If we could pull back the veil and see into the spirit, we would see God's forever settled Word!

And God tells us clearly to look at that, not the temporary circumstance. So we must be able to do so... [Read That Which Has Been Will Be...]

Get that...His Word is, was and shall be settled eternally...without beginning or end, and all of the promises of God are YES in Jesus! And '...BY HIS DOING you are IN Christ Jesus, Who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption...'

But I Digress...
So we see that the things unseen by the natural eye are eternal and we are told to look at them...Jesus taught us to pray 'Your will be done ON EARTH as it is IN HEAVEN.'

Faith sees the promises of God as settled forever and speaks them into the earth. Fear sees the lies of the devil, and, if spoken into the earth, will come to pass as well.

That's the whole point!

Finally, Brethren...
'...whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.' [Philippians 4:8]

The Word of God is true...everything else a lie. Whispered anxieties and visions of tragedy are LIES, but if we meditate on it, our natural faith mechanism kicks into gear and we begin to draw it to us.

Why? Because THAT'S HOW THINGS WORK, THAT'S HOW WE ARE MADE!!

So instead, meditate on the promises of God—'For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are YES; therefore also through Him is our AMEN [so be it] to the GLORY OF GOD through us.' [2 Corinthians 1:20]

Read the Word aloud, close your eyes and see it coming to pass in your own life

Don't let fear fulfill its purpose of bringing evil into your life. Instead, let faith do what it was designed to do...to bring the blessings of God into your life.

The Purpose of Fear 2

Read Fear, The Purpose of Fear

'When my ANXIOUS THOUGHTS multiply within me, your consolations delight my soul. Can a THRONE OF DESTRUCTION be allied with You, one which DEVISES MISCHIEF BY DECREE? They band themselves together against the life of the righteous and condemn the innocent to death.

But the LORD has been my stronghold, and my God the rock of my refuge. He has brought back their wickedness upon them and will destroy them in their evil; the LORD our God will destroy them.' [Psalms 94:19-23]

This wonderful passage shows us what's really going on in the spiritual realm.

Anxious, tormenting thoughts come from without, not from within! Evil spirits have pirated thrones of authority that were made by and for Jesus—consider Colossians 1:16...

'For by Him all things were created, both in the heavens and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities—all things have been created through Him and for Him.'

We've seen, in Job 4, how the spirit of fear comes and whispers lies and deceptions. Now we understand that these spirits are devising mischief BY DECREE! They are decreeing destruction against us from these positions of stolen authority, and these decrees cause anxiety, or fear.

Why? Because Satan knows how things really work! He knows that what we believe and speak will come to pass...faith in God brings His Word to pass in our lives, and conversely, what we fear befalls us!

So these spirits of fear, of death and destruction, are banding themselves together against us.

The Good News
But the good news is really great! Jesus has stripped them of their power!

'When you were dead in your transgressions and the uncircumcision of your flesh, He MADE YOU ALIVE TOGETHER WITH HIM, having forgiven us all our transgressions, having canceled out the certificate of debt consisting of decrees against us, which was hostile to us; and He has taken it out of the way, having nailed it to the cross. When He had DISARMED the rulers and authorities, He made a public display of them, having TRIUMPHED over them through Him.' [Colossians 2:13-15]

And we know that it is His will that we walk in this triumph, because 2 Corinthians 2:14 tells us...

'But thanks be to God, who ALWAYS leads us in TRIUMPH in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.'

Hallelujah! It is His will that we reign in life through the One, Christ Jesus! [Romans 5:17, Revelation 5:10]

And we know that His will is settled forever [Psalm 119:89] and that He has rested from His works! [Hebrews 4:3,10]

Plus, we know that we are surrounded by songs or shouts of deliverance [Psalm 32:7] AND that the Blood of Jesus is speaking for us in the heavenly Holy of Holies! [Hebrew 12:23] Psalm 34:7 says 'The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear—revere, godly fear or awe—Him, and rescues them.'

I guess there's a lot going on around us...

Why Do We Need To Know This?
Why is it important to know these things?

First, the Word tells us that the truth will make us free. [John 8:32]

The Word is our only rock...it is the only place where we can discern what is of God and what are lies and deceptions of the enemy.

The enemy knows that fear will draw its object to us, so he knows if he can get us to fear he can bring his will upon us...and using doctrinal error and heresies, he can get us to blame God at the same time! Evil will befall us, we'll blame God, and we'll tell everyone we know about it, destroying not only our faith but the faith of all who hear it.

I don't care if the lies come straight from the pulpit—anyone who hears that God has 'taken' a child has, from that point forward, less faith for the protection of their own loved ones.

We will have faith in something, because we are faith creations, made in the likeness of a faith God. He created the universe by faith, and He gave us power in the earth to create our lives through faith. And we know from the story of the Tower of Babel that this is true of all men and women, not just the re-born.

God's way of doing everything is by faith, and we, like all mankind, are created in His image. Then, when we are born again, we are born of the imperishable seed, which is the living and enduring word of God! [1 Peter 1:23]

The Deceiver
Satan is called a thief [John 10:10] and the deceiver [2 John 7]. If he can get you to take the fear, and believe that it is from within your soul, he's home free!

The truth is that God has NOT given us a spirit of fear [2 Timothy] and we know that the spirit of fear comes from outside of us to torment us with anxious thoughts. Its purpose is clear...what we fear befalls us [Job 3:25].

Jesus told us plainly that "The thief comes ONLY to steal and kill and destroy; I came that they may have life, and have it abundantly—have abundance." [John 10:10, NASB reference]

But praise God...1 John 3:8 says 'The Son of God appeared for this purpose, TO DESTROY THE WORKS OF THE DEVIL.'

Hallelujah!

Try To Remember
So try to remember, when fear or anxiety comes upon you, these things:

1. Fear is a spirit, coming from outside of you. It does not belong to you and is not from God.

2. We have been RESCUED from the domain—the authority—of DARKNESS, and TRANSFERRED to the KINGDOM OF HIS BELOVED SON. You've had a supernatural transfer, and you don't answer to your old boss anymore!

3. Satan has been defeated—disarmed—and made a public display of!

4. We have been given authority over ALL HIS POWER! [Luke 10:19]

5. Psalm 91:10,13 says 'NO EVIL WILL BEFALL YOU...' and 'You will tread upon the lion and cobra, the young lion and the serpent YOU WILL TRAMPLE DOWN.'

6. Angels have been assigned to protect you and render service for your sake, according to Psalm 91 and Hebrews 1. How do you activate this protection? By saying!

'I WILL SAY to the Lord, "My refuge and my fortress, My God, in Whom I trust!"

'For YOU HAVE MADE the Lord, my refuge, even the Most High, your dwelling place.

"He will CALL upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will rescue him and honor him. With a long life I will satisfy him and let him see My salvation."' [Psalm 91:2,9,15-16]

Say what God says! Defeat the tormenter the same way Jesus did, when He was tempted...IT IS WRITTEN! IT IS WRITTEN! IT IS WRITTEN!

And don't believe the lies.

 

The Purpose of Fear

We know that God is NOT the author of fear. Consider these scriptures...

'For you have not received a spirit of slavery leading to fear again, but you have received a spirit of adoption as sons by which we cry out, "Abba! Father!"' [Romans 8:15

'For God has not given us a spirit of timidity—fearfulness, cowardice—but of power and love and discipline. [2 Timothy 1:7]

'There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.' [1 John 4:18]

'"Now a word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, and made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed by my face; the hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still, but I could not discern its appearance; a form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice: 'Can mankind be just before God? Can a man be pure before hisMaker? He puts no trust even in His servants; and against His angels He charges error. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, whose foundation is in the dust, who are crushed before the moth! Between morning and evening they are broken in pieces; unobserved, they perish forever. Is not their tent-cord plucked up within them? They die, yet without wisdom.'" [Job 4:12-21]

'When you lie down, you will not be afraid; When you lie down, your sleep will be sweet. Do not be afraid of sudden fear nor of the onslaught of the wicked when it comes; for the LORD will be your confidence and will keep your foot from being caught.' [Proverbs 3:24-26]

I find Job's description so accurate—everyone can relate to the feelings he describes so well! We clearly see from these passages that fear is a spirit, and NOT from God!

So what, then, is the purpose of fear?

Natural reasoning tells us that fear is good—it warns us of impending trouble, or of situations that may be dangerous.

But this is not based on the Word. We are told, from Genesis to Revelation, that it is God Who desires to guide us, to lead us into all the truth, to show us things to come. Fear is not our guide, or our teacher.

Faith vs. Fear
We have seen, in many articles on this blog, that faith is God's MO—His way of accomplishing things—and Jesus told us plainly that faith is how we are to operate in the earth, too.

If faith is the assurance—the substance, real being, actual existence—of things hoped for, the conviction of things NOT SEEN, it stands to reason that fear is faith's evil twin. It is the assurance, the substance, of darkness—of anything that is directly opposite of God's Word.

'"For what I fear comes upon me, and what I dread befalls me."' [Job 3:25]

'What the wicked fears will come upon him, but the desire of the righteous will be granted.' [Proverbs 10:24]

Faith or fear, both spiritual forces, cause resultant effects in the natural world. Faith in the promises of God bring those to pass in our lives—so, too, does fear bring what we fear to pass.

Therefore, if fear is a spirit not from God and brings the object of our fear to pass in our lives, it stands to reason that fear is Satan's MO. As described in Job, fear comes and whispers lies to us...if we react in fear, it will befall us.

Fear is Satan's way of bringing evil into our lives, just as faith brings God's promises to pass.

So What Do We Do?
If we can truly grasp the nature and purpose of fear, we can resist it! If we know and understand that it's soles purpose is to bring destruction into our lives, we can stand against it in the power of the Name of Jesus and His Blood.

We've got lots of great Scriptures to help us...

'You are from God, little children, and have overcome them; because greater is He who is in you than he who is in the world.' [1 John 4:4]

'For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith.' [1 John 5:4]

'For if by the transgression of the one, death reigned through the one, much more those who receive the abundance of grace and of the gift of righteousness will reign in life through the One, Jesus Christ.' [Romans 5:17]

'But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer throughHim who loved us.' [Romans 8:37]

'But thanks be to God, who always leads us in triumph in Christ, and manifests through us the sweet aroma of the knowledge of Him in every place.' [2 Corinthians 2:14]

'And they overcame him because of the blood of the Lamb and because of the word of their testimony, and they did not love their life even when faced with death.' [Revelation 12:11]

We are called to reign in life, walk by faith, and overcome the evil one. That is our calling. And while Satan has his own agenda—to prove that he is greater than the God within—we can and should overcome him.

In the words of David Crosby, don't give in an inch to fear!

Related Posts
Fear
Fear—The Deadly Enemy
Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled
Do Not Let Your Heart Be Troubled 2

 

Fear

Fear is a spirit. You think it's an emotion, but it's actually a spirit. Listen to Job 4:12-16 describe it perfectly:

'Now a word was brought to me stealthily, and my ear received a whisper of it. Amid disquieting thoughts from the visions of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, dread came upon me, and trembling, and made all my bones shake. Then a spirit passed by my face; the hair of my flesh bristled up. It stood still but I could not discern its appearance; a form was before my eyes; there was silence, then I heard a voice...'

2 Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of timidity—fearfulness, cowardice, fear—but of power, love and discipline. Hallelujah! Our reborn spirit is one of power, love and discipline!!

Think about this...if fear is a spirit, what is it's purpose? To deceive us into stopping or changing our direction. Why? Because wherever that spirit is standing to bring fear and dread is the the edge of your promised land.

Remember the giants in Numbers 13? Right at the edge of fulfilled blessing! And the spies said '...we became like grasshoppers in our OWN sight, and so we were in their sight.' Not the other way around! They became afraid and felt small and defenseless—and that's how the giants saw them! They demonstrated Proverbs 23:7...'For as he thinks within himself, so is he.'

Isn't that true in every situation? How we think and talk about ourselves shapes the way others see us? Doesn't every sales and success program focus on changing the inner image to create new and better circumstances?

A Clue 
Look at it this way...it's a clue.

Wherever fear manifests itself in you life, you know you're on the brink of fulfilled blessing in that area. God has already blessed you—spirits of fear are there to deceive you into believing otherwise, to keep you from walking in the fullness of abundant life.

Romans 12:2 tells us to be transformed by the renewing of our minds, that we may PROVE what the will of God is, that which is GOOD and ACCEPTABLE and PERFECT. If we are deceived we cannot prove how wonderful His will is, and that is the whole point.

So, if you're afraid of money issues, know for a certainty that you are already rich...if you're afraid of public speaking, know that you will have tremendous success in speaking. If you're afraid you're not going to get your healing, know for sure that you are already healed and that the spirit of fear is trying to make you believe otherwise.

Because faith, or belief, is how we access the things freely given to use by God.

This is the first in a series of articles on fear...