Abolishing Fear
John 4:18 Perfect Love Casts out all fear.
Is this truth? How is this possible?
Fear permeates every area of our life whether knowing or unknowingly. Fear of criticism, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of pain, fear of loss, fear of unmet expectations, fear of change and so on. If we take a hard look at every root in our lives that inhibits us or our moving forward, it most often stems from fear.
Why is it that fear plagues us so much? How do we stop fear? How do we become fearless?
It has less to do with the 5 steps to freedom and more to do with identity in Him. The truth is, once we discover who He is and who we are through Him, we truly can be unstoppable as we continue in His will.
To truly understand this, we must search the scripture. *Just a side note about scripture, no matter how eloquent and wise a book/blog/author writing may be, Scripture should be a constant standard of truth in each of our lives!
Let’s become like the Bereans and search the scripture.
(If you have never heard of the Berean’s, I suggest you go look it up in Acts. It’s worth the investigation. Acts 17:11 The Bereans…. they received the word with all readiness, and searched the Scriptures daily to find out whether these things were so.)
John 4:18 Perfect Love Casts out all fear.
When we look at this scripture it is very clear that this special (agape) love is what scatters fear. A very powerful statement. But it always leads me to another question. How do we get this (agape) love? As I was praying into this scripture the other morning, I could not get this phrase out of my head. Perfect love Casts out fear, perfect love casts out fear, perfect love casts out fear. Clearly the Lord was trying to lead me into discovery. As I dwelled on this scripture, I has this thought. "I wonder if the "fruit of the spirit love", is the same (agape) translation.
Galations 5:22-23
22 But the fruit of the Spirit is love (agape), joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, 23 gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.
Here we see that the byproduct of the spirit manifested inside of us is (agape) love. So, if perfect love casts out all fear and we receive and manifest perfect love through the spirit, then how do we get this spirit? Let's go over to John 15:4...
4 Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me.
Wow! We bear fruit, specifically the fruit of the spirit (agape-love) by abiding in Him! Just sit in that. Apart from Him you can bear no fruit. He is the life source.
If you are struggling with fear let this grip you. He is the life source, the Spirit that will bring about the fruit in your life of Love that will scatter all fear in your life. He is the way maker!
Abide-dwell-be in Him and Him in you. This denotes the idea of not just the word in you, but relationship and closeness to Him. What does it look like to be close to the God of the heavens and the earth?
I can tell you this, he is worth the journey of discovery.
