Breaking free from The spirit of fear Juni 18, 2009
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by Joyce Meyer
Everyone of us deals with fear regardless of our age, gender or nationality. And it’s a powerful force than Satan uses against us in an attempt to paralyze and keep us from moving forward to receive the will of God for our lives. I believe that the more attention we give to fear, the more power it has to influence and control our lives. Job 3:25 says, For the thing which I greatly fear comes upon me, and that of which I am afraid befalls me. The more we think about fear, the more opportunity we give fear to take control of our lives. I have found that the best antidote for fear is faith. Although you and I can’t do anything to keep the enemy from bringing his thoughts of fear against us, we can choose what we are going to think about. Through our faith and the words we speak, we can overcome Satan’s attacks.
Exposing Fear
Many years ago my outlook on life was extremely negative. I was so bad that even a few hours before Dave and I were married, I had this lingering feeling that he was going to back out. I feared that I would show up at the church and he wouldn’t be there. I had experienced so many disappointments, devastations, and hurtful situations in my life that my mindset had become, If I don’t expect anything good to happen, then I won’t be disappointed when it doesn’t happen. I thought that by thinking this way, I was protecting myself from being disappointed, but the truth was that I was miserable.
When I first began to seriously study God’s Word, the Lord showed me that I had many deep-rooted fears in my life. And one day while I was in the bathroom getting ready, God suddenly made me aware of a strong feeling that something bad was going to happen to me that day.
Within moments God revealed to me that I had lived with this feeling for most of my life. So I asked Him, ”What is this?” The Holy Spirit answered, ”It’s evil forebodings.” Webster’s II New College Dictionary defines the word foreboding as “a sense of impending misfortune or evil.” Now until this time, I had never heard anything like this. However, the Lord confirmed this in my heart by leading me to Proverbs 15:15. It says, All the days of the desponding and afflicted are made evil [by anxious thoughts and forebodings], but he who has a glad heart has a continual feast [regardless of circumstances].
As God revealed this to me, I began to realize that Satan had been playing the same recording in my ears all my life. It said, ”Something bad is going to happen to you.” The more I meditated on his message, the more it became embedded in my thinking and my speaking. I received, believed and spoke his thoughts of fear. As a result, I was in agreement with the enemy.
Faith in Action
Just as fear is a force that draws the will of Satan into our life, faith is a force that draws the will of God into our life. In order for my fearful mindset to be broken, my thinking needed to be renewed. God wanted to free me, but in order for me to receive His freedom, I needed to have faith. Hebrews 11:6 says that …without faith it is impossible to please and be satisfactory to [God]…
Once I recognize that fear was active in my life, I had to decide to stand against it. I purposely began to refuse Satan’s fears and choose to have faith in God’s Word. Even though it made no sense to my mind and I had no emotional feeling to back it up, I began to believe God for good things to happen.
God honored my faith and help me to develop a positive perspective. But it seemed as though something was still missing. So I went back to God and said, “I did what you told me. I stopped thinking and speaking fearful and negative thoughts, but I don’t see much change in my life.” His response was, “You’ve stopped thinking and saying the wrong thing, but you haven’t started saying the right thing.”
The Lord showed me that it is not enough to stop doing the wrong thing – we need to start doing the right thing. In this case, the right was a start speaking the promises of God. They key to keeping the devil off our back is to act in faith instead of react in fear.
Armed with The Word
I believe that one of the greatest weapons you and I have as believers is our mouth. Scripture gives us examples of the power of the spoken Word. When Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert, the Scripture says He defeated Satan by speaking the Word (see Luke 4:1-13). In the book of Genesis, we find that God spoke and created the world and everything in it. Romans 4:17 says that we serve a God who …calleth those things which be not as though they were (KJV).
With this in mind, I made a list of about a hundred confessions – all based on God’s Word – that I felt God wanted me to start saying. Two or three times a day. I would speak these things over my life. When God first called me, He put in my heart that I would have a worldwide teaching ministry. So one of the things that I began to say out loud was, “I get speaking engagements every day of my life – by mail, phone and in person.” At the time I began saying this, I hadn’t had one speaking engagement. Now I receive hundreds of invitations every month.
Once my mind and mouth started getting into agreement with God’s will, God began to do mighty things in my life. The more I received, believed and spoke God’s Word against the devil’s deceptive lies, the less Satan was able to manipulate and control me. Soon I began to see radical changes in virtually every area of my life.
Don’t Fear Fear!
I believe that God wants to see His people set free from fear to live a life full of expectancy. Scripture tells us that His eyes search the earth looking to bless all who are looking to be blessed. Isaiah 30:18 says that …the Lord [earnestly] waits [expecting, looking, and longing] to be gracious to you …Blessed (happy, fortunate, to be envied) are all those who [earnestly] wait for Him, who expect and look and long for Him [for His victory, His favor, His love, His peace, His joy, and His matchless, unbroken companionship]!
I want to encourage you to open your heart to God, and ask Him to show you where you may have fear in your life. And although fear will try to attack you, it doesn’t make you a coward. Fear only becomes a problem when you and I receive it and let it control our lives instead of standing against it and confronting it with the truth of God’s Word. The next time fear attacks you, you don’t have to say, “I’m afraid… I’m afraid…” Instead, you can say, “I believe that God had a good plan for my life! Through Christ I am more than a conqueror!” (See Lamentations 3:25, Jeremiah 29:11, Romans 8:37.) By aggressively standing against Satan’s fears, we can shut the door on his plan for our lives and open the door to God’s blessings.
Kesaksian Juni 2009 Juni 18, 2009
Posted by conanmdn in kesaksian.add a comment
Dari saudari Diana, Jakarta
Sejak di PHK dari perusahaan asing tempat saya bekerja, saya mencari nafkah dengan menjadi guru bhs Inggris di rumah.Murid saya dari bermacam-macam latar belakang, ada anak SMU, mahasiswa bahkan karyawan.Salah satu murid saya, namanya Daniel.Dia termasuk anak yang tidak pandai.Nilainya selalu paling jelek.Tetapi dia anak yang rajin, tidak pernah putus asa.Kehidupan rohaninya pun cukup baik, dia rajin ke gereja dan rajin berdoa. Daniel belajar bhs Inggris karena dia ingin sekali bekerja di luar negeri.Walapun sebetulnya keluarganya sudah menganggap dia gila, karena keluarganya tahu bahwa dia bukan seorang anak yang pandai…
Dan untuk bekerja diluar negeri pada perusahaan yang akan dilamar oleh Daniel, standar Bahasa Inggrisnya harus Excellent.Jadi keluarganya selalu menyuruhnya untuk melupakan impiannya dan menyuruhnya bekerja di Indonesia saja. Apalagi biaya yg harus dikeluarkan oleh keluarganya lumayan besar untuk membiayai keberangkatannya.
Tetapi Daniel tetap berusaha keras dengan belajar dan berdoa.
Kalau pada anak normal 3-5 bulan saya mengajar sudah terlihat kemajuannya, ibaratnya seekor burung, maka sudah bisa berkicau walaupun belum sempurna.Tapi Daniel ini, sudah 3-5 bulan kondisinya tetap saja “bisu,” tidak ada satu katapun yang bisa dia katakan, yang membuat saya sukacita.
Saya tetap dengan sabar mengajar dia, tapi sesudah 7 bulan tidak ada kemajuan yang berarti saya akhirnya mulai putus asa. Saya mencoba berbicara dengan dia dari hati ke hati.Maksud saya supaya dia melupakan impiannya untuk bekerja di luar negeri karena kemampuannya belajar bhs Inggris sangat kurang, dan saya juga akan meminta dia untuk berhenti les dari saya, karena saya sungguh2 sudah putus asa.Saya kan juga tidak mau dibilang menerima uang les dengan cuma2 tanpa ada kemajuan dari sang murid.
Daniel berkata: “Ibu, kalau saya berjalan dengan Tuhan, saya percaya saya akan mendapatkan pekerjaan ini”.
Saya sungguh malu, bagaimana tidak… Daniel seorang muda dan sudah mempunyai keyakinan iman yang menakjubkan. Saya berkata: “OK, you can join my class again if you can say that words once again in a good English!” (baiklah, kamu boleh belajar lagi sama saya kalau kamu bisa mengatakan sekali lagi perkataanmu tadi dalam Bahasa Inggris yang baik) – ini dengan maksud bahwa kalau dia tidak bisa mengatakan dengan baik, maka saya mempunyai alasan untuk menyuruh dia berhenti belajar (dasar saya sudah putus asa).
Tapi tidak saya sangka Daniel mengulangi perkataannya dengan bhs Inggris sempurna: “Mam, if I walk with Thee, I believe that I can get this job.”
Rupanya perkataan ini selalu diulang2 Daniel untuk membangkitkan iman dia pada saat dia sendiri putus asa… (makanya pada waktu saya minta dia mengatakannya dlm Bahasa Inggris dengan lancar dia berkata… jadi bukan karena dia pintar, tetapi karena dia sudah hafal…) Maka tidak ada alasan bagi saya untuk tidak mengajarnya lagi, setelah belajar selama 12 bulan, tibalah waktunya Daniel untuk maju interview di perusahaan asing tempat dia melamar.
Saya sebetulnya tahu bahwa Bahasa Inggrisnya belum sempurna sekali dan masih dibawah standar yang ditentukan oleh perusahaan, tapi kemauan dan iman dia bahwa dia akan ditolong Tuhan membuat saya pun bisa melepas dia interview dengan hati besar.
Pada hari dia interview saya berdoa terus, saya mohon kepada Tuhan agar Tuhan tidak mengecewakan Daniel yang sungguh bergantung pada Tuhan.
Siang jam 2, Daniel telfon saya dan mengatakan dia LULUS. Puji Tuhan!! Saya menangis terharu, saya merasa pasti bahwa tangan Tuhan yang sudah menolong Daniel, bukan karena saya guru yang hebat, atau bukan karena kemampuan Daniel berbahasa Inggris.Tapi betul2 karena tangan Tuhan… Saya minta dia datang ke saya dan menceritakan semuanya secara detail.
Ternyata si interviewer, yaitu orang asing yang seharusnya menginterview Daniel pada hari itu tidak ada, karena harus pulang kampung ke London karena ibunya meninggal, dan penggantinya adalah orang Indonesia yang nama keluarganya atau marganya sama dengan Daniel… yaitu “Sianturi.”
Jadilah interview itu bukan bhs Inggris full… tapi seperti ngobrol ngalor ngidul campur2 Bahasa Inggris dan Batak…
Saya PERCAYA bahwa ini bukan suatu KEBETULAN, yaitu KEBETULAN orang asingnya harus pulang kampung; dan KEBETULAN penggantinya “saudara sekampung” Daniel… TAPI INI SUNGGUH MUJIZAT TUHAN….
Akhirnya, tentu saja Daniel lulus interview dan sekarang dia sudah bekerja di Miami . Setiap kali telepon saya, Daniel selalu saya ingatkan bahwa dia mendapatkan pekerjaan ini hanya karena kebaikan Tuhan…. bukan karena kehebatan dia…. (karena dia memang bukan anak yang pandai) dan juga bukan karena kebetulan. Daniel menyadari itu dan ia selalu berkata: “Don’ t worry Mam, I always walk with Thee…”
“Serahkanlah hidupmu kepada Tuhan dan percayalah kepadaNya, dan Ia akan bertindak.” Mazmur 37:5
Setelah saya utarakan semua uneg2 saya, saya melihat raut muka Daniel yang sedih, saya pun sedih… bagaimana tidak, 7 bulan sudah menjadi murid saya dan saya minta dia untuk berhenti belajar karena saya putus asa… Tetapi jawaban Daniel sungguh “menampar” iman kepercayaan saya sebagai seorang Katolik yang percaya dan bergantung pada Yesus.
