For God has not given us a
spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
—2
Timothy 1:7 NKJV
It had only been a few days since
God had spoken to me these words as a response to my cry for deliverance and
for guidance: “What must one do to go to heaven?” Though God had informed me of
the way out of legalism, becoming like a little child again, I was far from
having arrived by the moment He asked this question. So maybe a couple of
nights after that, a feeling of terror woke me up; and a weird, robotic, female
voice spoke. It said, “I am afraid.”
That next morning, I pondered
what had happened that night. Standing in the washroom, I exclaimed, “What was
that?”
No sooner had I asked the
question I heard the Lord say: “Go love on someone else and it will leave you.”
Surprised, I repeated the words.
“Go love on someone else and it will leave you? I don’t understand, Lord. I
don’t understand the connection.” I knew I would find the answer in Scripture,
so I tried to recall Bible verses that would shine some light on the Lord’s
statement. I quickly remembered these two Scriptures: “For God has not given us
a spirit of fear, but of power and of love
and of a sound mind”[1] as
well as “perfect love casts out fear.”[2]
This was it! Oh my! Wow, Lord!
The Lord’s powerful statement
revealed to me a couple things. First, there is indeed such a thing as a spirit
of fear. When the Lord spoke, He said, “And it will
leave you.” Second, I didn’t have feelings
of love flooding my soul for anyone when God spoke to me; I was full of fear!
This suggests that we do not need to wait for feelings to show up before we
start loving others. Instead, loving others consists of actions born out of a
decision that we make in obedience to the Lord.
That day, by faith, I called
someone in need and ministered to her. I loved her in action as I ministered to
her the best that could with a sincere heart. By the end of the day, the spirit
of fear was gone. I would love to tell you that it never came back, but I have
had to fight against that spirit numerous times. However, the Lord taught me
that day a way of living, a new lifestyle whereby as we abide in it more and
more, the spirit of fear will have less and less entrance into our life. That
way of life is love. He also taught me that love is one of our greatest
spiritual protections in this spiritual warfare.
It is wise to love, and without
love, we will be miserable. But love will cost us something. It usually
involves some sort of sacrifice, but from experience I know that not walking in
love will cost us more. It will cost us our joy, our peace, and ultimately our
victory. Have you lost your joy? It could be that you need a deeper love walk.
One of the best ways in the kingdom of God to invest in ourselves wisely is to
lose sight of ourselves and to take care of the needs (spiritual, emotional,
physical, financial, etc.) of others. This way, we build treasures in heaven
that no moth can destroy.[3] If
you really want to take care of yourself, take care of others also. As we take
care of others’ needs, God will take care of ours.
Love is a mighty spiritual weapon
and is a powerful spiritual force. Consider the apostle Paul. He was filled
with so much love for his own kinsmen that he wished he was cursed himself
instead of them![4]
Let us take ourselves off our minds by casting our cares on God, and let us go
and love on someone else.
Jesus described a practical way
to overcome anxiety in Matthew 6:31 KJV, where He says, “Therefore take no
thought. . . .” Once we confess our sin to God, it is cleansed
by the blood of Christ; and we can stop thinking about it from that moment on
because it has been dealt with. The same is true about all of the cares we
carry; once we give them to God, we then take no thought about them anymore
because they are taken care of by our Father in heaven. When we get ourselves
off of our own deficiencies, we get happy because we don’t have so many cares
and anxieties to deal with anymore. Anxieties and fears are there when we have
ourselves and our own well-being on our minds all the time. A triumphant life
cannot really be ours unless we learn to love one another. And we find freedom
when we begin to operate in the new lifestyle Jesus offers us: love.
—Kathleen Kaczmarek, The Law of Redemption,
Chapter 7, Pages 223-226.
[1] See 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV.
[2] See 1 John 4:18 NKJV.
[3] See Matthew 6:19–21 KJV.
[4] See Romans 9:3.
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