Overcoming Fear
Have you ever experienced fear trying to overtake you? I have. Sometimes it was like a knot in the pit of my stomach. Sometimes it’s an overwhelming heart-pounding, lump-in-my-throat feeling. Another time it was a gnawing feeling of dread lurking nearby trying to invade me. I’d like to describe some incidents where I experienced fear.
One time I was 16. I was startled awake around 5 am by hearing cupboard doors banging shut downstairs and Dad cursing loudly. Instantly I knew why he was mad. I remembered! The night before, after my date left, I discovered the bottle of Scotch Dad had left on the dining room table to take on his fishing trip was gone!
Oh no, my date had taken it as a prank! I had gone to sleep with a sick, sinking feeling of dread. And now I was wide awake with my heart pounding wildly. I wasn’t a believer then but I know I prayed frantically until, with great relief, I heard Dad slam the front door and drive away. Greg later returned that unopened bottle of Scotch and received a blistering scolding from Mom. I knew the star athlete wasn’t ever going to ask me out again.
Another time my two sisters and I were jarred awake. We heard Mom and Dad having a loud argument. That soon escalated and turned violent with Dad choking Mom. We could hear her sobbing and gasping for him, telling him to stop, that he was hurting her. Then she broke away and called the police. All that time we were silently listening overcome with fear. But when the police arrived Mom didn’t press charges. It would be too humiliating if friends and family learned what had happened.
Both of those incidents were normal fear-for-your-safety natural fear. Now I’ll relate two experiences of how I was attacked by a spirit of fear and how God rescued me.
Here’s the first incident. I was now a Christian, and someone I loved was severely depressed and living in another city. I prayed and prayed of course. Along with prayer, all I could do was try to encourage him with long phone conversations and letters.
One evening I was listening intently to a speaker at a Full Gospel Business Men’s Fellowship meeting. He described how his son was depressed and graphically described how the son had shot himself by putting a gun in his mouth and pulling the trigger. He narrated how the blood had soaked his sox and filled his shoes. He related how the chief neurosurgeon was there when he normally shouldn’t have been working…How the bullet missed killing him by a fraction of an inch…And how it only marred the roof of his mouth resulting in a slight lisp! His reasoning, memory, and intelligence were left intact! It was a miracle! God protected this praying Dad’s son!
As he was describing this horrible, bloody incident in gory detail, I heard a faint hiss, “It could come to this!” I recognized it was a demonic attack. I felt an icy cold fear trying to enter my very being! I prayed in tongues and proclaimed 2 Timothy 1:7 God has not given me a spirit of fear but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind! I said it again firmly rebuking in tongues furiously, and the spirit left.
Then I was literally shocked when I heard God ask in a whisper, “Would you still praise me if it did come to this?” It was a very serious, sober moment as I realized that this could actually happen.
My response came instantly from deep within. “Yes, Lord, I’ll still praise you even if it did come to this with him because I trust You and love You.” With that total relinquishment and placing my loved one in God’s hand, came a beautiful overwhelming peace. I knew without a doubt that if anything terrible like that happened to him, God would turn it around for his good. Romans 8:28. And I’m glad to report nothing that terrible happened to him before he finally gave his life to Jesus. It was almost that bad, but God supernaturally protected him four times!
Another incident was when a man backed me into a corner. I was terrified because I could see murder in his eyes. His normally hazel brown eyes were pitch black, and I knew instinctively I was looking at a spirit of murder!
But suddenly supernatural faith rose up from deep within me. “Greater is He within me than he who is in the world! I rebuke you in Jesus’ Name!” I exclaimed loudly with a supernatural confidence!
He looked shocked just like someone slapped him. (I wonder if an angel intervened — ?!) He then turned, and ran and threw up! He was instantly delivered from a spirit of murder that he had since he was in his early teens.
His dad used to beat him bloody and unconscious until one day when they went hunting, he looked right over the barrel of his rifle aiming at his dad and pulled the trigger! His intent was to kill his dad, but for some unknown reason the barrel jerked up just as the trigger was released. His dad never beat him again, but he had opened the door to that spirit of murder. We later believe an angel pushed that rifle up. Thank God he didn’t murder his dad!
I believe that both of those last two incidents had positive results because I cooperated with Holy Spirit over the years as He was leading me to pray and read the Bible and memorize scriptures. And as I yielded my tongue and heart to Him and prayed in my heavenly language, it enabled God to pour faith into my open and surrendered heart as the scripture Jude 20 reads But you, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost.
So I want to encourage you to continually draw closer and closer to the Lord by praying in tongues and with your known language. And read the Bible and memorize verses. Let God prepare your heart. The amount of faith you have is in direct proportion to the amount of time you spend with Jesus and reading His word. Allow God to grow your faith, so it will be strong and vital when you need it. The Word of God will rise up from your inner being, and you will be able to speak scripture wielding it like a sword to chop down the enemy of your soul along with his lies when he attacks. And you will come out victorious every time!