If you have been diagnosed with a serious illness or are experiencing alarming symptoms in your body, it is very important that you learn to deal with fear. The devil will try to get you into fear over what the doctor or your body tells you. You must deal with fear. Do not entertain it. You cannot operate in faith and fear at the same time any more than you can put your car in first gear and reverse at the same time.

Fear is not of God. God wants you to be free from fear.


Luke 1:74:

That he would grant unto us [through part of Christ's work], that we being delivered out of the hand of our enemies might serve him without fear,

You are delivered from fear! "For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear..." (Romans 8:15). Through death Jesus destroyed him that had the power of death, that is, the devil; and delivered them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage (Heb 2:14-15).

"There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is not made perfect is love" (1 John 4:18). So part of overcoming fear must be acknowledging the presence of your loving Father. "I will fear no evil, for thou art with me" (Psalm 23:4). "God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear..." (Psalm 46:1-2). "But whoso hearkeneth unto me shall dwell safely, and shall be quiet from fear of evil" (Proverbs 1:33). "Fear thou not, for I am with thee: be not dismayed; for I am thy God: I will help thee; yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of my righteousness" (Isaiah 41:10). "For I the LORD thy God will hold thy right hand, saying unto thee, Fear not; I will help thee" (Isaiah 41:13). "Fear not, for I am with thee" (Isaiah 43:5).


This is further amplified in Psalm 91. The following belongs to the man who "dwelleth in the secret place of the Most High" and "abides under the shadow of the Almighty" and "says of the LORD, "He is my refuge and my fortress: my God; in him will I trust:" "Thou shalt not be afraid for the terror by night; nor for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the pestilence that walketh in darkness; nor for the destruction that wasteth at noonday. A thousand shall fall at thy side, and ten thousand at thy right hand; but it shall not come nigh thee." Here God tells you that you do not have to fear sickness if you abide in him, even if 11,000 people around you have just dropped dead from it.


In other words, you have heard that cancer has killed millions of people. The doctor tells you that you will probably have cancer because it runs in your family. You can confidently state that you to not have to have cancer, let alone die from it, because you abide in the secret place of the Most High.

This may run contrary to what your Christian friends will do. Some of them may panic and think that they need to hold an all-night emergency prayer meeting for you. You don't have to panic, even if you are diagnosed with a fatal illness. Even if thousands have just fallen from the same thing, you do not have to fall.

Satan loves to work you over about supposedly faith-filled Christians who died because from the same condition you have. Don't let that distract you. You can never really know someone else's heart or someone else's situation, and you will probably be in for a few surprises when you get to glory. You can still receive your healing, just as you could still get saved even if thousands of people around you go to hell unsaved.


"Do not be afraid of sudden fear, neither of the desolation of the wicked, when it cometh. For the LORD shall be thy confidence, and shall keep thy foot from being taken" (Prov 3:25-26). "In righteousness shalt thou be established: thou shalt be far from oppression; for thou shalt not fear..." (Isaiah 54:14). Note that sickness is the oppression of the devil (Acts 10:38).

Fear, like faith, is a force that changes circumstances. "The fear of the wicked, it shall come upon him" (Prov 10:24). What you say and believe in your heart will come to pass. Jesus did not say that this principle only applies toward positive things!

Jesus contrasted faith and fear: "Why are ye so fearful? How is it that ye have no faith?" (Mark 4:40). "Why are ye so fearful, O ye of little faith?" (Matthew 8:26). Jesus told Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, "Fear not: believe only, and she shall be made whole" (Luke 8:50).


The most common thing that angels say seems to be, "Fear not."

It is vital that you dwell on things that will encourage you in your faith (the Word, testimonies of people who got healed of fatal illnesses by faith, etc.) instead on those things that would encourage fear (finding out how horribly Uncle John suffered before he died, ignorant books by promoters of unbelief, etc.).


The spirit of fear


2 Tim 1:7:

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

Peter's problem in walking on the water was wavering mentally, not giving in to a spirit. But here the Bible talks about "the spirit of fear." Anyone who has walked with the Lord and attempted to do anything for him has felt the opposition of the devil through the spirit of fear. The devil tries to intimidate you out of doing the will of God. When he tries this, speak to the spirit of fear and command it to leave in the name of Jesus. Power, love and a sound mind belong to you. It is the wicked, not the saints, whose hearts will faint for fear of the times (Luke 21:16).

Since there is only one verse about the spirit of fear, we should not be too quick to categorically state that the source of all fear is a spirit of fear. You can do a good job working yourself into fear without any help from the devil if your mind is not renewed with the Word of God. Jesus did not tell Peter or the others to rebuke a spirit of fear; he told them to believe instead of fearing. Faith is the antidote to fear. Trying harder not to fear is not the antidote. You don't overcome sin by trying harder not to sin; you overcome sin by believing God's Word, which in particular, tells you that you have victory over sin now.



Fear is a choice


John 14:27:

Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You can let your heart be afraid, or you can "let not your heart be afraid." It is your choice. You never have to fear. The Bible is full of commands to "Fear not." If it weren't your choice, and you couldn't do anything about it, God would be unjust to command you not to fear! Therefore, you can choose not to fear.

This does not mean that you will not feel fear, any more than you will not feel anger or jealousy at times. Between your flesh and the devil, you will feel these things and many more. But it is up to you whether you resist them and reject them or give in to them. It is not sin to be tempted to sin, and it is not sin to feel like sinning. It is only sin to actually sin!



Fear IS faith

Fear is really faith running in the wrong direction. If you are in fear, you are afraid because you believe something! You believe the wrong thing, but you still believe something. Most likely, you believe that something awful will come to pass when you have no proof that it will. If you are in strong fear, you have proved that you can operate in strong faith! You are going not by circumstances, but by what you believe your circumstances will be in the future. If you can do such a good job of acting on what you believe, even without natural proof, just turn it around and start treating God's Word the same way that you treated the bad report that got you into fear.

How many times have you lost a good night's sleep over something that never really happened? I've done it more than once. The problem was that I let contrary circumstances become more real to me than God's promises.


If you can believe that something bad will happen even though you can't prove it, surely you can believe that something good will happen instead, even though you can't prove it in the natural. Everyone believes something. What you believe will determine what you say, and what you say will determine what you receive. It works in both directions. Stop using this principle against yourself, and start using it for yourself!


The best way to beat fear

God has already given you all things pertaining to life and godliness. All things are yours. You are complete in Christ, and God has promised to take care of you. If you believe this, there is no basis for fear. All fear is rooted in ignorance or unbelief of something that God said. If you are in fear in any area, there is guaranteed to be Scripture that covers your situation. If you would believe that Scripture, you would no longer fear. You would replace your faith in the devil and the world with faith in God. God has provided all that you need to triumph in Christ in every situation. You will find your answer in his Word. Please note that it's not a case of praying on and on. It's a case of finding out what God says and choosing to believe that instead of something else.


Rather than just trying not to fear, which is really trying not to believe something, find out what to believe and believe that instead! You can't believe God's Word and believe that you're going to fail at the same time.