The Fear Factor

The speaker begins by expressing gratitude to God for another week and a new month. They discuss the importance of the Holy Spirit in teaching and enlightening believers. They then introduce the topic of fear and its role in the lives of believers. They explain that the enemy uses fear as a weapon against believers because they are loved by God. They emphasize that our battles in life are based on how much God loves us. The speaker then talks about how they were led to two different passages of Scripture, Esther 9 and Genesis 9, which both discuss the fear factor. They explain that fear can come from God and serve His purposes. The speaker defines fear as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous or likely to cause harm. They highlight that fear works on the mind and creates a mindset of danger or threat. Praise the Lord. Hallelujah. Praise God. It's another Sunday. The glory belongs to God for another week, another new week. We are grateful to God for preservation for last week, for last month. This is another glorious month of October, and we are indeed grateful. Today is the second Sunday of the month of October. We are grateful for life. And so today, as always, we are expecting the Holy Spirit to come and teach us, to breathe upon the Word of God, and to give us illumination, enlightenment, as to what God will have us say on today. We are going to speak about a subject that many teachers talk about, because you can't be a teacher of the Word and not speak about the subject, our topic for today, which I have titled, The Fear Factor. Today, we are going to talk about fear and the role of fear in, not the role, the assignment of fear, because you know, everything that God uses has an assignment in the lives of the believer. And everything that the enemy uses also has a purpose in the lives of the believer, because truth be told, the enemy is just as focused on the believer as God is. The Bible says that God is mindful of his children. God is mindful of us. And that's why God always goes out of his way to bless us, because God is mindful of us. The enemy is also very mindful of us. The enemy is mindful of us because God is mindful of us. And the difference is why? The difference for this attention that we get from God as human beings, as people, the difference between the attention we get from God and the attention we get from the enemy is love. God is mindful of us because he loves us. The enemy is mindful of us because God loves us. And anything that God loves is a problem for the enemy, because the enemy vies for God's attention. The enemy is so desperate for God's attention, and he comes after what God loves, because he knows that that is the direction of God's affection. So if, for example, as a human being, somebody wants your attention and you're not giving it to them, what do you think they're going to do? They're going to go where your attention is, because they know that if they can follow your line of affection, your line of attention, they can get your attention to move from one place to another, from one person to them. And so this is why the enemy is so fixated on God's children, because God is so mindful of his children. God's heart is directed at his children, and so the enemy is directed at God's children, because the enemy covets God's attention. I hope that is clear. And if you analyze that, you will see that your struggles, your battles in life, they are predicated on one thing, and one thing alone, how God loves you. The enemy hates you because God loves you. And one of the weapons that the enemy uses against you is fear. So fear is a factor in our existence as children of God. Now, before we progress, we're going to say a word of prayer, because we always start and we always finish with prayer. So in the name of Jesus, Holy Spirit, we invite you on today to do what you always do. We invite you to do even greater things tonight. We invite you to illuminate our minds, to enlighten the eyes of our understanding so that we can know the hope of God's calling upon our lives. We invite you now as we speak that you will touch our tongues to speak even as the oracles of God. Help the speaker to speak only what you would have me say. Help me not to speak from the flesh, but to speak what thus saith the Lord. Let the words of my mouth and the thoughts of my heart be acceptable unto God on tonight. Let ears be open to hear the word of God, and hearts be receptive as fertile ground, and let your word transform our lives tonight. In the name of Jesus, release a fresh anointing tonight, Holy Spirit. Release unction to speak tonight, Holy Spirit. Let Jesus be glorified. In the name of Jesus Christ, we pray. And so tonight, we have two passages of Scripture which are very, very interesting to me. The reason why this is interesting is, you know, as we follow Christ on this platform to say what He would have us say, we are discovering many things. We're discovering that when God has something to say through this program, through this recording, He tells us what He wants to say. He even says to us how to say it. And I have said before on this platform that very often when God is wanting to say something, He brings that message through different people, several days, sometimes even only hours before we record. And so now we are learning to be mindful of the Holy Spirit and to be sensitive to what God will have us say. So we are usually trying to be tuned in to the Spirit so that we can pick up on what God is trying to tell us that He would have us say. Now, I am saying that because while preparing this message, the original Scripture that God gave me was from the book of Esther. From the book of Esther. And when I made my notes originally, I wrote Esther as EST. And then, you know, because we're getting along also in age, from time to time, we get confused and we mix things up. I couldn't figure out what Esther was. I was like, what book is Est? E-S-T. I couldn't figure out the word, the name Est. So I thought perhaps it was a mistake. And so I went on to Google, and I Googled the passage. And I Googled fear. And my research on Google led me to Genesis, the book of Genesis chapter 9. And what I found in Genesis chapter 9, verses 2 and 3, was identical to the notes I had taken. The notes I had written while I was preparing during a quiet time with the Lord during the week. And I said, surely this must be the passage of Scripture. It is the book of Genesis. And maybe I wrote Est by mistake. So I had made up my mind that the book of Genesis chapter 9 was the passage of Scripture that God had given me. But as I was going over my notes this evening, getting ready to record, the Holy Spirit opened up my mind to realize that Est is in fact Esther. And I was, I thought, how could I not catch that? Est, you know, Esther, Est. And so I went into the book of Esther, and I found the original Scripture that the Lord gave me, which I had confused for the book of Genesis. And guess what? They said the exact same thing. Which is one, sometimes when God is unveiling Himself and unveiling His Word and unveiling His instructions in my journey, this journey of ministry, sometimes I am in awe of God. God is real. God is on time. And God is present. He listens. He listens to every conversation. And I'm sure God has a great time rolling in laughter when He sees some things that we do. You know how a parent would laugh at a child? I'm certain that that's how God has a great time, amused by some things that we do as His children. How can't you remember Est? How is it that Est doesn't remind you of Esther? And you go into the book of Genesis, and then when you get to the book of Genesis, you find that what you're looking for is in fact in the book of Genesis chapter 1. So that's not the Scripture God gave you. God was just trying to lead me to a second Scripture to use as backup for tonight's meeting. So, our first passage of Scripture comes from the book of Esther chapter 9 verses 1 to 4. Esther 9, 1 to 4. I read, The Bible says, The opposite occurred, in that the Jews themselves overpowered those who hated them. Verse 2. The Jews gathered together in their cities throughout all the provinces of King Ahasuerus, to lay hands on those who sought their harm. And no one could withstand them, because fear of them fell upon all people. Verse 3. And all the officials of the provinces, the satraps, the governors, and all those doing the king's work, helped the Jews, because the fear of Mordecai fell upon them. For Mordecai was great in the king's palace, and his fame spread throughout all the provinces. For this man, Mordecai, became increasingly prominent. Blessed be the word of the Lord. Our second passage of Scripture is from the book of Genesis. Genesis chapter 9 verses 2 and 3. The Bible says, And the fear of you, and the dread of you, shall be upon every beast of the earth, and upon every fowl of the air, and upon all that moves upon the earth, and upon all the fishes of the sea, into your hand are they delivered. Verse 3. Every moving thing that lives shall be meat for you, even as the green herb have I given you all things. Hallelujah! This is a powerful word. And it's even more powerful, like I said, because of how God led me to two very different Scriptures saying the same thing, which is confirmation to me that this is what the Lord will have us discuss on tonight. So, our subject is the fear factor. The fear factor. If we look at our Scripture from the book of Genesis chapter 9, we will immediately understand that God uses fear. Because each time as believers we talk about fear, we always seem to say and seem to believe that fear is of the devil. Fear is of the devil. There's no doubt about the fact that fear is of the devil. But also, fear can come from God. God can use fear for His purposes, to serve His purposes. That's also given. Now, while I was getting ready, I looked into the definition of the word fear. I looked into the dictionary. I think my definition comes from the Oxford Dictionary. Because sometimes when we look online, we can't really tell exactly which dictionary. We just find definitions. We can't really tell these days which dictionary. So, I think it's from the Oxford Dictionary. And the dictionary defines fear as an unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous or likely to cause harm or a threat. An unpleasant emotion. So, that is talking about the mind. Fear is an object that works on the mind. Causing the belief. So, it is not a substance. It causes belief. It causes a mindset. It causes an understanding that someone or something is dangerous or likely to cause pain or a threat. Likely to cause. Has not caused. May not cause. May never cause. But fear creates an emotion that has the effect of creating a belief that someone who may or may not even have any plans to do what you are afraid of, or something that may not even have the ability to create the outcome that you are afraid of, fear gives you the belief that such a one, such a thing is dangerous and likely, probably can cause you harm or is a threat in some way. And because of this emotion now, you enter into a cycle. And you begin to behave and you begin to react to this emotion. This abstract emotion that has no foundation other than in your mind. Now, from this definition, it is evident that fear is not something that God would give to his children. Because fear is torment. The Bible says fear is torment. Even from this definition, we can see that fear, an unhealthy fear, is torment. Now, God will not give his children an unhealthy fear. God will not give his children an unhealthy fear. But from time to time, God will allow us to have a reverence, for example, for him. God expects a reverence for him. God expects a fear in his heart of his children for him. But not out of the fear of danger, but reverence. So, an unhealthy fear is a danger, is a torment. And that is something that our God as our Father will never give to us. Why? Because in 2 Timothy 1.7, God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, of love. Fear is a spirit. This is why fear can enter into the mind to create an emotion, to create a belief that will have actual consequences. Fear is a spirit. Now, fear as a spirit can be deployed by a spiritual force. Because fear is a spirit, it is deployable by a spiritual force. Satan is a spiritual force who can deploy and weaponize fear, and does weaponize fear to paralyze you and I as children of God. Satan uses fear to paralyze the children of God and to prevent us from moving in the things of God. And when Satan uses fear against us, it has one result. And it is intended to have that result. And what's that result? Fear by the hand of Satan immediately eliminates our fear in God. Remember, fear is an unpleasant emotion. It plays on your mind. And the result is unbelief. It causes you to believe that something or someone is dangerous. So when the enemy releases fear as a spirit into your mind, immediately it causes you to believe something that you know to be right. It causes you to believe that that thing is no longer accurate. It eliminates your faith in something that you know. You already know something. You know what God has done because of what God has done in the past. You know the outcome of what God did. And because of those things, your faith in God grew. But when the enemy deploys the spirit of fear, what happens is that your faith that you have been standing on is immediately eliminated by fear. And you become paralyzed by fear. You become fearful that something or someone is so dangerous and you are afraid to move. You no longer have faith in what you knew, in what God did yesterday. You no longer have faith in that because now the spirit of fear has made its way into your mind to create an emotion that causes you to believe something that is not and may never happen. And when this happens, Satan wins because Satan's plan is to eliminate your faith because your faith is your strength. The faith on which you stand is your strength. Your faith is in God. Faith proves the reality and the existence of God. Why? Because we don't see God with our eyes. Our faith is the evidence of the reality of God. Faith in God is the substance, is the evidence that our God is. And the enemy doesn't want anyone to believe that our God is. So he will deploy the spirit of fear to paralyze you and to eliminate your fear, your faith. And immediately you stop talking about the victories that God gave you, the victories that God wrote for you in the past. You stop talking about those things that God did to get you to where you are now. Because of a temporary situation, Satan wins in that scenario. When you allow the spirit of fear to reign and rule over your mind and have free reign and build a mansion in your mind, you eliminate faith and you thereby eliminate the victories and the evidence of the reality of God in your life. And your testimony is also paralyzed because you're too afraid now to speak. You're too fearful now to speak because the things that gave you the confidence to speak before, those things now don't look so true to you because of fear. Now, when God deploys fear, because we said earlier that fear is a spirit and fear is deployed by a spiritual force. Satan is a spiritual force. Our God is a spiritual force. Satan weaponizes fear against God's people. God deploys fear against our enemies. When God deploys fear, He uses fear to terrorize our enemies. So that means that fear has the same purpose. Fear terrorizes. Fear paralyzes. Fear has the same purpose. It depends on who is deploying fear. It depends on whose hand, who is operating the spirit of fear. If it is the enemy, the enemy is operating fear against God's people to do what? To terrorize and paralyze and immobilize us so that our faith is rendered null and void. Fear has the same function. The result of fear is the same. Whether it is deployed in the hand of God or deployed and weaponized by Satan, the outcome is the same. The difference is who is the target. So when God deploys fear, God deploys fear as a weapon against our enemies to terrorize our enemies. To terrorize our enemies. That's why the book of Genesis, in the book of Genesis, one of our scriptures, our second reading, the Bible says, and I read, and the fear of you and the dread of you shall be upon all that moves upon the earth. Everything that moves upon the earth, God has the ability to deploy fear upon everything that moves upon the earth. Not just human beings, but animals will be afraid of you. Animals will be terrorized. Dread is even a higher level of fear. When God deploys fear as a weapon against our enemies, not only human beings will fear us, even animals, even the birds of the air, any and everything that moves on the surface of the earth becomes afraid of you. Because God has weaponized fear. God has deployed fear against them. They become terrorized of you. And you see, what really happens there is that they are not afraid of you per se, because you are a mere mortal. You are a mere mortal. They are not afraid of you. When God deploys fear against our enemies, our enemies see the awesome power of God and how God is fighting for you and for me and the fear and the dread of you, as the Bible says, is because of how God is fighting for us. So the enemy becomes terrorized of us because of the God who is fighting for us and how he is fighting for us. And so God is glorified and Satan is put to shame. The dread, the fear and the dread of us falls upon all men. Falls upon all men because of what God is doing for us, fighting against them for us. That's why they are afraid. That's why they enter into dread. Paralyzing fear is dread. They become afraid of us because of who fights for us. And you see the thing is, you may never even know all the ways in which God is fighting for you. You may never know. Because if God was to open our eyes to see the battles that we are really fighting, the battles he is fighting and winning for us, many of us, in fact, many of us will collapse and check out the fear of what we see. And so God sometimes will shield us and God wouldn't even allow us to see the battles he is fighting and winning for our sakes. But you see, in the realm of the Spirit, they know. And those who do evil, they also know. They know what God is doing to them on account of you. So because you may not know, you may never know, but trust me, the enemy knows all the ways in which God fights for you. And because of that, they become afraid of you because of your God. So now, the reputation of God's people, like we saw in the book of Esther, chapter 9, verses 1 to 4, we saw that the reputation of God's people preceded them. The reputation of their God preceded them. People were afraid of them because God had earned himself a reputation as one who fights for his own. And when God fights for his own, you don't want to be in the middle of that. So, God's reputation, when God fights for you, when your intimate relationship is God and God fights for you, his reputation precedes you. And Esther 9, verses 1 to 4 is activated in your life. The fear and the dread of you comes upon everyone. That's why sometimes some people don't want to mess with you because of how God brings down his entire, his whole power. God brings down his whole power for your sake. Because, you know, the Bible says, Touch not my anointed and do my prophet no harm. The Bible says, God reproves kings for our sake. So, if God can reprove a king for your sake, a whole king, imagine what he would do to someone who is not so high up in the hierarchy. That's to tell you that God is no respecter of persons. He will use every arsenal, every weapon in his arsenal to bring down the weight of his authority and power for your behalf, for your sake. So that anyone who is trying to mess with you, when they remember how God fought somebody else for you, they won't try. Or they remember how God fought them in the past because of you. They won't try again. Because now, God has a reputation of fighting for you and God has a reputation of not holding back. God will annihilate an entire city because of you. God will reprove kings because of you. So the fear and the dread of your God is upon the people and his reputation precedes you. This is why, sometimes, like in a family, you would find that there is one person that people don't mess with that person. And that person might actually be a very quiet person. And that person might in the natural seem quite deficient in some ways. The reason is there is a battle. There is a power at work for that person fighting their enemy in that place, which is causing the fear and the dread of that person to be upon all the people in the area, all the people in the family, all the people in the office. And you don't know you're trying to align with them in the office and they keep rejecting you, and they keep pushing you away. You're trying to make friends. You're finding that maybe in your extended family you're isolated and it's almost like people are trying to just sideline you. They're trying to not come be close to you. You might find yourself in a new city or maybe you go for a conference and you're trying to join a certain clique or certain group or you're new in a school or you're new in town or you're new in a building and you find that people are kind of it's almost as if for no apparent reason to you almost like they're trying not to align with you and you're wondering what is going on. Let me tell you what's happening. Very often when there is a group of people especially in these days in these times with new age religion and illuminati and witchcraft and all kinds of things there are people who are walking with dark powers. There are people who are possessed with spirits and some of those spirits are familiar spirits. They are actually possessive witches who are living and working amongst us. Some hide their involvement with the kingdom of darkness. Some hide their involvement with witchcraft. Some hide their involvement with illuminati their involvement with the new age. Some hide that they are worshippers of the devil. Some hide but some don't. So especially now in our generation in this dispensation there is a lot of spiritual arsenal people are possessed by spirits and some of those spirits give them access and ability to see. And if you are a carrier of the spirit of God and you are anointed of God you may not even know how much power you carry you may not even know how anointed you are you may not even know you might be a prophet of God because the bible says touch not my anointed do my prophets no harm so you may be an anointed prophet of God and you don't know yet you are trying to find acceptance because they see you correctly and because they see you correctly they know the power that you carry they know the one who fights for you and they know that sooner rather than later they are going to try to do to you what their master wants them to do to you and they know what your God is capable of doing so they may have learnt a lesson elsewhere and they have unleashed the whole armour his whole arsenal his whole weaponry upon them for what they have done to someone else and now they see you coming and you are trying to make friends with them you are trying to be in your clique and they don't want any of your trouble because the fear and the dread of you they act like they don't like you they act like you have done something wrong all they are trying to do is they are trying to preserve themselves it's about self preservation for them but you don't know that's why very often you may find that people don't want to get with you because you carry power because there is a force at work that will deal with enemies of God if they try to touch you so when God is working on your behalf don't be surprised when God is working for you fighting for you when God has set you apart as his own, as his prophet, his anointed don't be surprised when people at work, people on the job people in your environment they refuse to work with you they refuse to get with you they are running away from you there is a fear on them of your God and they see the presence of God in your life so they move away from you God is at work in your life leave them alone leave them alone the spirit of God in you is going to lead you to someone else who carries the spirit of God who carries light so you befriend that if you don't find anyone like that in your environment the Holy Spirit is on hand to be your companion Jesus said, Lord I am with you always I will never leave you nor forsake you so you befriend Jesus you befriend the spirit of God you are better off than opening the door than opening the door to someone who is obviously because they know who you are you don't know who they are and so when God is at work when God is at work for us, for me, for me for you, for his people when God is at work for us, God is on time God is on time God is on the beat God is on the job God is never late and God is at work when God perfects their plan against you let me tell you right now many of you may not know and that's why you will be afraid because you may not know how God moves in certain situations I'll tell you because I've seen God move many times in a situation where one should have been afraid when God when the enemy is perfecting their plan against you and you are anointed of God you are a prophet of God you are a child of God at the very same time God is also perfecting his plan when the enemy is perfecting his plan of attack against you because God is omniscient and he knows all things and everything was created by God the earth is the fullness of the world and they that dwell therein because God knows all things God is also at the very same time perfecting his plan for your preservation and your protection that's why the Bible said in the book of Esther chapter 9 where we just read that when on the day that the enemies of the Jews on the day the enemies of the Jews this is Esther verse 9 now Esther verse 9 Esther chapter 1 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 Esther chapter 9 that is what God does for his people that is how God moves when the enemy is planning against you when the enemy is perfecting his plan against you at the very same time simultaneously God has completed his own plan against the enemy when they move he moves why? because he sees all things he is omniscient he sees their minds he sees them coming before they think about it he already knows what they are trying to do he knows so when they are working and they are moving God is also working and God is moving so that when it's all said and done they see the mighty hand of God at work for you and the fear and the dread of almighty God falls upon them they become afraid of you and they glorify God because of how God has manifested himself on your behalf and hopefully when it's all done when it's all over the hope is that they will switch camps they will switch sides and begin to worship your God because evidently the power of almighty God is superior to the power of their own God you see in the end it's all about the manifestation of God's glory the fear and the dread of you upon your enemies is to serve one purpose to bring glory to your God so that the kingdom of darkness will understand the superiority of our God that's it it's to glorify God God isn't sending fear and dread of you upon all men so that men can worship you or men can decide that you are so awesome and so fantastic it is so that all flesh shall see God by the manifestation of his power in your life that's it brothers and sisters that's it so when we win and we win in battles and we see people and they are amazed by us really the end result is that they see Christ they see God they glorify our God and they are encouraged to change camps to leave Gods which are no Gods to be the only true God who has all power in his hand that's the whole idea and we thank God for his power we thank God for his grace we thank God that we don't serve a God who can't fight our battles we don't serve a God who can't save us we don't serve a God who can't defend us we serve the almighty God praise the Lord hallelujah well brothers and sisters it's been another wonderful evening looking into the word of God and my prayer for us is that we will from now on be open to see what God is doing be open to see how God is fighting our battles be open to see the awesome power of God and we would everyday work to get even more intimate with God because the closer we get to God the more intimate we are with God the more God fights our battles the more God shows up for us amen so we are going to close our meeting with a word of prayer as we always do we thank you for the eternal word of God we thank you for showing up for us tonight and teaching us as you always do we ask that you will release that anointing that will cause your word to take root in our hearts and grow so that we will not only be hearers of God's word we shall be doers also we thank you, we honor you, we worship you we thank you Lord we ask that you will preserve us you will fight our battles even on this week again at the feet of Jesus amen in Jesus mighty name we pray amen, take care everybody see you next week