Breaking Free From The Spirit Fear Part 2 by Pastor Dolapo Lawal: MP3 Download & Sermon Notes

There is a clear distinction between the fear of God and fear for God.

The fear of God is not a human attitude — it is an impartation from the Holy Spirit. Isaiah 11:2 lists the seven spirits of God, and among them is the spirit of the fear of God. This fear is a work of the Spirit in us, producing reverence for God from a place of revelation.

Fear for God is intimidation — a desire to stay away from God. This is what 1 John 4:18 addresses when it says perfect love casts out fear. But that casting out does not eliminate the fear of God.

There is a great deal of pollution and contamination in the church today. The major reason is the absence of the fear of God.

God's own definition of the fear of God is revealing. In Genesis 22:2, when God asked Abraham to offer Isaac, he said — "Your son, your only son, Isaac, whom you love." God was not asking for a sacrifice. He was asking for the same thing Jesus later articulated: loveth me more than this.

God blessed Abraham with Isaac. But God's blessings can become the very things that draw people away from him — the same dynamic as Adam's response in the garden: "The woman you gave me." What was given becomes what distances.

Genesis 22:12 — After Abraham stretched out his hand, God said, "Now I know that you fear me." Fear and love are used interchangeably. The fear of God is this: to receive from God and understand that he is the source. Everything is a resource. Nothing is your source.

The fear of God is a reverent response to who God is, and it flows from a place of revelation.

Proverbs 9:10 — The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Three definitions of wisdom matter here:

• Wisdom is the ability to identify foolishness and abstain from it — Some people are so foolish they cannot recognize when they are being foolish
• Wisdom is the ability to discern value — A five-year-old child will choose a large stuffed animal over a trip to Dubai, not because she is wrong but because she cannot yet discern value
• Wisdom is the word of God — A foolish person says "but" after God has spoken. His words are not suggestions. When the word of God says something about a person, any opinion contrary to that is foolish reasoning — what the Bible calls an evil report

The fear of God produces obedience, humility, and holiness. Psalm 25:14 — "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear him, and he will show them his covenants." There is revelation reserved for those who fear God.

Hebrews 12:28 — "Let us have grace by which we may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear." There is a way of ministering that God will not receive. Ministry entered with presumed confidence rather than fear can easily become a message that is no longer God's.

God is Father, but he is also God. We are family, but we must never be familiar. He is holy. He is a consuming fire.

How Fear Disguises Itself

Fear rarely introduces itself as fear. It often disguises itself as wisdom.

• Fear hides as being careful — but careful listens to God; fearful listens to consequences
• Fear hides as being cautious — but caution checks alignment and does not avoid action
• Fear hides as being calculated — but calculation submits numbers to God; fear uses numbers to say no
• Fear hides as being reasonable — but reason submits to revelation; fear argues with revelation

If operating in the spirit of faith, a person sees how large something is and takes it to God. If operating in the spirit of fear, a person sees how large something is and says, "I cannot do it."

Peter walked on water not because he was prayerful — he was audacious. "Bid me come." The storm was not the devil. Light and darkness cannot coexist; if Jesus is on the water, the devil is not there. The devil was inside the boat, making the disciples afraid.

Fear is a sign of a defeated thought life.

From the moment fear is permitted, the thought life has been defeated — God's word was not allowed to win. Fear is convenient and sounds intelligent. When Uber was conceived, what would the objections have sounded like? "Two strangers meeting for the first time in someone's car — this is a security liability." Those objections would have sounded very sensible. Fear does not always shout. Sometimes it explains itself very well.

Not everything sensible is from God.

Anything that constantly talks a person out of obedience is not wisdom — it is fear wearing intelligent language.

The Consequence of Playing Small

God told Joshua that anywhere his feet stepped, he would take. Joshua died without covering all the territory given to him. Because of unconquered ground, the Philistines remained — and every problem the Philistines caused Israel traces back to one man not fulfilling his full potential.

There is a thin line between contentment and settling. Some people use Christian language to settle, thinking they are practicing contentment. If God gave five talents and they were not multiplied, the result is what Psalm 106 calls leanness of soul — an inner restlessness that comes not from ingratitude but from unused capacity. The person with more may feel it more acutely than the person with less who used what they had fully.

When manna fell in the wilderness, all they had to do was collect it. When they entered the promised land, manna stopped. God said, "There is a land flowing with milk and honey — go and get it." Getting milk requires milking a cow. Getting honey requires dealing with bees. The promised land is not a place of effortless reception; it is a place of work and possession. It is possible to be so accustomed to wilderness-style ministry — where the atmosphere carries everything — that when God calls toward the promised land, it feels like suffering.

Are you going to play small again this year?

God said he is able to do exceedingly, abundantly above what can be asked, thought, or imagined. His starting point is the peak of imagination. He called a barren man the father of many nations. That means it is possible to be something before having the result to show for it. The name had to change from Abram to Abraham before the child came.

Abraham did not have a pastor, a sermon series, or a prophetic community when God told him to carry his son to Moriah. He simply went — and what stopped him was not his own reluctance. It was another word from God: "Do not lay your hand on the lad." The only thing that should be able to stop a person from following through on what they have heard from God is another word from God.

Father, we receive the word. Take your confidence back. Drop the lie. Fear is seeing life through the past. Show us what you have shown — count the stars; so shall the seed be. You are the faithful God who does not lie.

The hand of God is resting on your life. General restoration. Come and receive it.

How to Fight the Spirit of Fear

Join a church that dispels fear. Jeremiah 23:4

The environment in which faith is nurtured matters. A gathering that constantly amplifies fear — through catastrophic thinking, anxious prophecy, or culture of unbelief — reinforces a defeated thought life. A gathering that speaks the word of God boldly, names what God has said, and models audacious obedience builds the capacity to walk on water.

You are not allowed to play small this year. Begin to pray in the spirit — not mindlessly, but with your heart in it. Take your confidence back. Drop the lie. Fear is seeing your life from the past. See what God has shown you.