Handling Fears, Worries & Depression (Part 1)

                                        Be not afraid of sudden Fear.. Prov 3:25

The first manifestation of the fall was shame and fear, and since then it’s been one long journey in fear,
both as a species and intimately as individuals, yet fear ought not be, it was never part of the plan for His children yet it has become normal in most lives and I believe this grieves God greatly, that His Children born of love live lives of fear, fear of tomorrow, fear of heights, fear of death, and the mountainous list goes on. You might not be able to get everyone of the fear train just yet, but it’s your responsibility to get yourself off that train, and the first step is realizing it’s not normal for a believer to live there, many times, what you can live with you will live with, but when you refuse to live with it, though it takes you an hour, a day, a year or ten years, you will live without it, and that’s God’s will for us to live without fear for His love has no room for fear. Let us in this first lesson get acquainted with certain perspectives;

The Whispers of Satan
Not every thought you think is yours! Alot of Christians get horrified of the kind of thoughts that cross
their minds, the wonder ‘how can I think of such a thing, what kind of a filthy/fearful mind do I have?’
The truth is simple; those are not your thoughts, most of those thoughts are whispering suggestions of
the devil to you.
Like Joseph Prince would say ‘the devil speaks using first person pronouns’, he won’t come and say
‘you’re gonna die’, he’ll say ‘I’m gonna die’, ‘my body is loosing energy’, ‘I wonder if I’ll see the end of this
year’, ‘I want to sleep with that person’, ‘I am feeling certain symptoms, I must have cancer or some other dreaded disease’ and on it goes, when he whispers these words in your ears, you hear them and think they are yours but they aren’t, it is at such times if you have been letting the Word dwell richly in you and you in it, that the Word reacts against such thoughts, scriptures and renewed mindsets counter such thoughts. So realize those thoughts are like birds flying over your head, you let them make their nest and hatch their eggs on your head when you begin to think and meditate on them and worse believe them.

A word on thoughts; you don’t stop thinking on something by telling yourself you wont think about it,
you don't stop thinking on something by not thinking about it, you stop thinking on something by
thinking on something else; if I told you ‘do not think of a white horse, stop thinking of a white horse,
don’t imagine a white horse!’ Guess what, you were thinking of what you were not supposed to be
thinking of, but if I say ‘brown eagle, flying over the setting sun over a hilly mountain on a cloudy day’
you see a different imagination takes up your mind and you because you are thinking of this brown eagle you forget the white horse. Don’t just refuse to think of death, think Life! And continually keep thinking life. Think about what you’re thinking about, don’t just let your mind drift off on default mode, hold it and direct it’s path.

Repelling Sickness

Curry Blake in teaching on repelling sickness told a story of a place he once worked,
among the staff was a certain man with the most vile and snappy attitude, everyone wanted to avoid
him because if you walked up to him with a message for instance, on greeting him, he would sharply and violently respond ‘What do you want!’ in a growling confrontational manner, because of this his attitude most people often stayed away from him. Curry Blake said this was the image he received when praying, the Spirit told him that’s how the attitude of the believer should be towards sickness, if a headache comes on, you shout it out ‘What is this!, Get out!! Now!!! in the name of Jesus’. And if I may add; this should also be our attitude towards the whispers of Satan, once you catch such thoughts in your head repel it violently ‘I wont die!!!, I’m not gonna fall sick!!!, I don’t lust!!!, I’m the healed of the Lord!!! No weapon formed against me prospers!!! I’ve already got the victory!!! in the name of JESUS!!!’, SHOUT IT OUT! Let your body hear you, let the environment hear you, let the devil hear you.

Also as a side note; Brother Blake also taught that the devil often used two approaches in trying to afflict
the believer with sickness; for those who are calm and not prone to spiritual violence, he would put
small sicknesses on them, sicknesses that they could live with, that they would just take as one of those
things (oh, at my age is normal for this!, oh, it’s flu season that's why! Oh, it’s my torn in the flesh from
God to keep me humble or show me some great revelation! Oh, God is punishing me in some way! Oh,
it’s just a slight headache! it’s not that bad, it only affects me on weekends! Etc) and overtime the devil
keeps adding and adding and it keeps weighing them down, such that a point comes when it completely
weighs the believer down and overcomes him totally. For the more violent spiritually, he would try to put a heavy, fatal illness on them, one that would try to snuff their lives in a very short period, the type that before they realize their faith it has already taken it’s toll on them. The mindset we should have is to
never tolerate even the smallest pain or become comfortable with it, it must never become our new
normal, we must fight it quickly and violently; either it will die and leave us or we will die and leave it but
we will not stay together, we refuse to live with that affliction. And then we must stay alert continually,
perceiving the battle before the war cries start sounding and staying positioned such that we are ready
to win. This same point applies to fear don’t believe the lie ‘it’s normal for a mother to worry about her
child when he/she goes out’ No! For the Spirit filled mother it’s not normal, it’s normal for her to speak
words of preservation and rest in Faith not languish in anguish, waiting for the bad news. You don’t get
there though by wishing, you get there by exercising those faith muscles on every day things, many on
leaving home are plagued by the imagination of their homes being bugled before they come back, NO!,
refuse the thought, it’s not your own, declare ‘this house is preserved in the Name of Jesus!’ have faith in
the Word of God, have faith in the Word of God from your mouth! Like Bro Myles Munroe would say
‘kingdom faith is not faith that escapes trials, but faith that is built by, endures and overcomes trials.’
 

The Knowledge of His Presence
Realizing that God is ALWAYS with you, no matter what, no matter where, is one of your biggest tools of
faith. The presence of God is not when we come to a church building, the presence of God is where we
are, wherever that may be. GOD never leaves us, even when we make mistakes or sin, He’s still with us
and in us. Jesus said ‘I’ll never leave you or forsake, I will be with you always even to the ends of the
earth’, Rom 8:35 till end points out what shall separate us from the love of God? It answers; neither life
nor death, nor angels nor demons shall ever separate us!
The awareness and consciousness of the presence of God is what some call ‘the practice of the presence
of God’, and it should be our norm, it is taking God beyond Sunday Service and quiet times and prayers
before meals and every other occasion and taking Him with you actively into every moment of life; you
have to learn to realize and acknowledge God in every and any environment, always bringing your mind
back to the fact that right now, right here, God is here with me; in the kitchen while cooking stop and
think thoughts on God, while playing video games pause and say ‘Jesus I LOVE you’, regardless of what
you’re doing the point of bringing the thought of God back to mind and speaking your love to HIM right
there, remembering what he’s done, who He is and that He is with you is the practice of the Presence of
God, and when you do so it pours a refreshing of His love and His power, and it draws you into deeper
intimacy with Him. It is this awareness that will naturally come forth in times of danger, persecution,
sicknesses, despair and give you an unusual courage to face the un-faceable and dare the un-dareable.
Have you been told you have a fear of heights? They lied to you o believer the only fear you have is the
Fear of the Lord! Realize, He’s with you 10,000 metres above sea level as He is with you in the middle of
the Equator. Start with courage and you’ll soon end up with faith, for courage is not the absence of fear
but the willingness to continue in the midst of it.

This practice of the presence might not be easy at first start, and may seem impossible, you may catch
yourself going several hours without remembering or acknowledging God, don’t despair, when you catch yourself simply confess your failing to God and ask grace for a renewed strength to love Him everyday, every time and don’t stop, keep moving on. A good place to start is reading bro Lawrence’s book ‘the practice of the presence of God’ from which I have culled many of these particular thoughts.
 

The Revelation of God’s Love
There is no fear in love but perfect love casteth out fear; because fear hath torment. He that feareth is
not made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18

One of the greatest revelations I’ve had in my life is the revelation of God’s unconditional, everlasting,
never ending, always flowing, unstoppable love for me! It’s not a theory or a doctrine, the revelation of
God’s love is an experience, and if you’re wondering if you’ve ever had it, your yet to, it’s so definite and
all encompassing, your eyes grow bright and your heart enlarges to bursting, the weight of God’s love
rests on you and you just know it without a shadow of a shadow of doubt that you are dearly loved by
God, it makes loving your enemies a walk in the park, it makes praying for those who hurt you natural,
your heart is lightened even nature seems to take on a new beauty, life in your eye gets a beautiful new
make over.
The revelation of God’s love is a definite post salvation experience, it is beyond the general God loves
you, it’s so much more intimate and deeper, it is the understanding and receiving of God’s fierce
unconditional love for and to you. You know you are loved, beyond what you ever did, are doing or will
ever do, nothing qualified you, nothing can disqualify you, not even you.
It is this revelation that gives you courage to believe that indeed all things work together for your good,
you know you are too loved by God to be disadvantaged in life, too loved to be cut short by God, too
loved to live in debt and poverty and sickness, too loved to not share this love of God with others.
How does one receive this revelation? Truly, I heard other believers talk of it and I understood them but
it was not till I experienced it myself did I then truly understand. I really didn’t know there was
something as such for no preacher had preached it to me, the path I know for now in receiving this
revelation of God’s love is meditation. Truly meditating, mulling over and pondering how much God
loves you is the path I know to receiving it. My story is that I kept on listening over and over (can’t tell
how many times) to a song by Kim Walker titled ‘how He loves us’, I heard every word of the lyric and I
kept mulling over it as I listened to it, it got to a point that the heavens broke over my soul, I was crying
lost in the overwhelming realization of how much God loves me, this was the beginning, as I have learnt
that the revelation of God’s love is continually expanding as we go through various phases of life.

Therefore beloveth, ask the Lord in prayer to cause you to realize how much He really loves you,
meditate on His love from scriptures and expect His touch, everyone’s experience is different but it is
always an experience.

The Impartation of Boldness
the Spirit of the Lord shall rest on him… the spirit of counsel and might… Isa 11:2
for God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind ….2 Tim 1:7
..the righteous are bold as a lion … prov 28:1

We already have the Spirit, when I say impartation of boldness, I mean the stirring of that spirit of faith
and boldness in you to manifestation all around you, scriptures speak emphatically on such ‘stir up the
gift of God which is in thee...’ we are children of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, we must let that lion in us
roar against everything against us. There are certain truths we must know and lifestyles we must live to
come to our full potential of faith and boldness;
>via the hearing of the Word of Faith: I’m not sure how to say this any clearer, you need to listen to
people who feed your faith, even as you starve your doubts. I was having morning devotion alone with
my mom one of those days and as we explored scriptures, she asked a question ‘why does it seem the
Word does not work in some peoples lives?’, my answer I feel was quite anointed, I told her we really do
not know what revolves in the heart of men, we see what happens, only God see’s and knows exactly
why it happens, I further pointed out, our job is to hold on to faith for ourselves, we must not be
distracted by those whom the Word seemed not to have worked for, we must rather look at those who
indeed the Word has worked in their lives, as scripture says ‘following them who through faith and
patience inherited the promise’. We know the Word is true and this is our truth, Brother G. Lake shared
his experience of driving back home from the burial of fellow minister, on the road he kept querying the
Lord whys such a man of God should die untimely, at some point he heard in his spirit ‘move to the other lane’, he knew he was on the right lane and ignored it and kept on questioning the Lord, after a while he heard those same words 'move to the other lane', he felt it unreasonable and kept on driving, finally he heard this time like a shout in his spirit ‘Move to the other Lane!’, he quickly moved to the wrong lane on the lonely, foggy, hilly road and in the same moment a truck which had lost control and moving on the wrong lane sped past the very lane he just moved away from, he quickly parked, mulling at the frightful event that would have just happened, then he heard the voice in his spirit again ‘if you had not obeyed me, you too would have died untimely and others coming to your funeral would ask how could such a man of God have died so untimely!’, needless to say that experience had a great impression on him and should have on us all as well.

So dear believer flood yourself with mp3’s and books of faith from men and women of faith, even as you
study the Word and keep studying it, after a while, there will be a transference of spirit, not the spirit of
the faith teachers but the dimension of the Spirit of God by which they minister.

>waxing bold in prayer: I don’t know if you’ve ever prayed for a thing or in the spirit so intensely and
fervently that you come to a point where an unnatural boldness and faith rises up in you over that
situation or you just felt like you’re walking on heaven here on earth, you are above everything. It’s an
experience in prayer, and the more you stay in such prayers and keep praying such, the more
permanently this effect is on your spirit, soul and even body.

For brevity we will pause here on this particular topic, the next installment, refuse to accept what God
has not given you, the Life of Love and Faith is the death of the life of fear, worry and depression, don’t
let the early morning news dictate your day, don’t let the fear soaked newspapers determine your meals, if need be fast off these things and feast only on the GoodNews of scriptures, the system of this world is programmed to constantly keep us on the fearful edge, but Jesus said it and we believe it ‘ These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace... be of good cheer; I have overcome the world’, for He has given us ‘the peace that passeth all understanding’, and it keeps our hearts and minds.

photo credit: thelsheriealert.com