Study Notes

I.      What’s God’s will for you where fear is concerned?  Does He want you to have some? Are there times he wants you to be afraid? Is it ever okay to be afraid?

A.    If God would have said “fear not” once it would have been important, but he said it hundreds of times (Approximately 215 references regarding “fear not”)

1.      63-Fear not; 26 Be not afraid; 22 don’t be afraid; 57 Misc fear not (Fear ye not, fear thou not, fear him not, fear them not, be not thou/ye afraid, neither fear, shall not fear, fear no more, no shall make you/thee/them/thou afraid, in nothing be terrified, Take no thought, don’t be fainthearted, be careful for nothing, don’t be troubled); 40 Be of good cheer, be courageous, take courage, be sober, be still; 9 I will not fear, who shall I fear, ect, misc

B.     There will never be a circumstance every where fear is acceptable or ok with God

1.      Phil 1:28 (KJ/AMP)-In nothing be terrified (Do not for a moment-That’s never)

2.      Philippians 4:6-Be careful for nothing

C.    I don’t care who it is that’s walking in fear, fear is not okay for anybody at anytime

1.      Somebody said well the Bible says David was afraid

2.      If God said it over 200 hundred times then it’s not okay for anybody

3.      Luke 8:49-Jairus had plenty of reasons in the natural to fear, but Jesus said fear not (he didn’t say try to, but I’ll understand if you get afraid)

D.    You’ve been commanded by Jesus to fear not (John 14:27)

1.      Is this a commandment like thou shall not commit adultery or lie?

2.      Will God ever be okay with adultery or lying?

II.     How does God feel about fear?

A.    Revelation 21:7-8-Fear keeps company with the abominable, with murderers, with whoremongers, sorcerers, idolaters, and liars

1.      According to God operating in fear is on the same level as whore-mongering, idolatry, lying, and murdering (They all ended up in the same place)

a.    Is fear a bad thing in God’s eyes?

2.      All these are going to have their place in the lake which burns with fire; if you’re saved you’re going to heaven, but this scripture gives you insight into how God feels about fear

B.     Psalm 45:7-God hates wickedness therefore He hates fear

1.      Part of loving and respecting God is loving what he loves and hating what he hates; we ought not treat things lightly that he hates because it’s disrespectful

2.      We should not treat lightly something that God hates; If God hates fear I hate it

C.    1 John 4:18-God doesn’t have any fear in him because he hates it

1.      Ephesians 5:1-You’re to imitate God so in you there should be no fear

2.      God’s attitude toward fear-Growing and maturing in Love/God will throw fear out the doors without caring where it lands

III.   Dispelling fear myths

A.    Myth 1: Everybody is/has to be afraid of something

1.      Psalm 34:3-A guy who has been delivered fro all fears, fears nothing

2.      1 Peter 5:7-You’re supposed to cast all care on him so you should have none

B.     Myth 2: A little fear is good/healthy

1.      If it was good/healthy God would have gave you some, but He gave you none (Js 1:17, 2 Tim 1:7, Rom 8:15,)

2.      If fear was good there would be some in God b/c everything good is in him

C.    Myth 3: Everybody’s is going to have fear and the best we can do is just learn to live with it, manage it, and just do some things afraid

1.      Perfected love expels every trace of terror (1 John 4:18)

D.    Myth 4: It’s not realistic to think that you could have no fear

1.      Hebrews 2:15, John 14:27-If Jesus delivered you from fear and told you to not let your heart be afraid then it’s very realistic to believe that a person could have no fear and live a fear-free life

IV.   What does it mean to be afraid?

A.    There’s a difference in feeling afraid and being afraid/walking in fear

1.      People thought feeling afraid & being afraid was the same thing (Being=action)

2.      It’s never okay to be “afraid” because God said “don’t be afraid” (Jn 14:27)

3.      You can feel one way and be another (feel depressed & be joyful)

B.     Don’t mistake the opportunity to fear with actually being afraid/operating in fear

1.      Frightened emotions and fearful thoughts are the opportunity to be afraid

a.    People have experienced the emotion of fright or have a fearful thought and they believe that is being afraid; but that’s feeling afraid

2.      Thoughts & emotions operate in the soul and you can’t stop them from coming

a.    When they do come you have the opportunity to fear, but that doesn’t means you are being afraid

3.      If just having a fearful thought or frightened emotion meant you were being afraid nobody could ever “be not afraid”

a.    People get the idea that they can’t help it where fear is concerned because they think feeling afraid is being afraid

b.    You can’t help the feelings or thoughts that come, but you can help it concerning what you do in response to those thoughts

4.      Not knowing the diff. between feeling & being afraid leads to fear-myths

a.    TRUTH: Everybody will have a frightened emotion rise up at some time

b.    TRUTH: Everybody will have a fearful thought cross their mind

c.     TRUTH: Everybody will have the opportunity to be afraid

d.    TRUTH: Nobody ever has to be afraid

e.    TRUTH: Everybody can life a life free from fear “never being afraid”

C.    Psalm 56:3,1-You can’t be afraid & be trusting God at the same time; you can feel afraid and trust God at the same time, but you can’t be afraid and be trusting God

1.      You can trust God in the middle of frightened emotions and fearful thoughts, but if you are afraid you’re not trusting Him (John 14:1,27)

2.      Anything you do afraid, you do not trusting in him; God doesn’t want you doing things with the fear (Judges 7:3,10, Deuteronomy 20:8)

D.    People feel afraid and then in response to those feelings they starting being afraid; The confess the fear, they act afraid

1.      When the feelings of fear arise you disagree with them, not agree with them (Galatians 3:13, Deuteronomy 28:66, Psalm 107:2, 2 Timothy 1:7)

a.    It’s not the truth, the truth is you’re free from fear

2.      In the middle of fearful thoughts & emotions you say I’m free from fear

E.     Fear is a perverted/twisted form of faith

1.      God put faith in Adam and when Adam sinned Satan twisted/perverted faith

a.    So what was faith in God to bless, to heal, to provided, to protect became faith in Satan to kill steal, destroy, and bring misfortune in his life

b.    Fear is confidence in the enemy to bring misfortune/harm in your life; particularly more confidence in Satan to harm you than God to keep you

2.      Mark 4:40-“Why are you so fearful? How is it that you have no faith?”

a.    The believed that storm was going to harm them and that belief was fear

3.      You can’t believe opposite things at the same time

a.    They couldn’t believe the storm was going to kill them and Jesus was going to save them at the same time

b.    They had no faith in him because all their belief was in that storm

F.     Both faith and fear need actions

1.      James 2:16-You’re not truly operating in faith until you’re acting in faith 

a.    You can feel like you believe and faith thoughts but true faith is revealed not in how you feel or how you think, but in how you act

2.      Fear w/o works is dead; you’re not truly operating in fear until you act in fear

a.    You might have frightened emotions/feel afraid or fearful thoughts, but you’re not afraid and operating in fear until you chose to act accordingly

3.      Any time somebody is in fear, they are in fear because of what they believe, not because of a feeling they have

a.    The feelings that stay around aren’t the fear, they are a result of the fear

b.    If you put your confidence and put it in God, the feelings will go