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"Owe no man
anything..."
-Romans 13:8
"...the borrower becomes the lender's
slave."
-Proverbs 22:7
"...the
righteous man shall live by faith."
-Romans 1:17
"...without
faith it is impossible to please Him."
-Hebrews 11:6
"No one can
serve two masters..."
-Matthew 6:24
"The Lord
will make you abound in prosperity..."
-Deuteronomy 25:11
"...God
loves a cheerful giver."
-2 Corinthians 9:7
"...the
Lord... is giving you power to make
wealth..."
-Deuteronomy 8:18
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Greetings in the name of Christ Jesus!
Biblical prosperity is the state of total well being
where God
is meeting all your needs: spirit, soul and body.
The Bible tells us that just before Jesus is to return to
the earth there will be wars and rumors of wars,
famines, earthquakes, tribulations, murder, hatred,
the emergence of false prophets and lawlessness
(Matthew 24:6-12). Another account says there will be
dismay among the nations, "in perplexity at the
roaring of the sea and the waves" with
people "fainting from FEAR" at the expectation of the
things that are coming upon the World (Luke 21:25-
26). In sum people will be terrified by their horrific
environment as the earth increasingly manifests the
consequences of the Curse that came from Adam's
capitulation in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:17-19
and Deuteronomy 28:15-68).
Many people believe we are seeing these
environmental signs today: catastrophic weather,
increasing terrorism, widespread sickness and
disease, wars, famines, major fires, global warming,
etc. To make matters seem even more frightening,
people are treated to a constant stream of
sensationalized alarm and negativity through the
World's media. The result is a prevailing fear and
dread among the people of the earth just as the Bible
prophesied.
Because of this environment, most people live in
some degree of anxiety and concern for the details of
life and family. They speak negatively, they worry
about every physical symptom, they are concerned
about financial lack, indebtedness and job security
and a host of other factors that separate them from
the peace they long for. But there is good news for
Christians: we don't have to live in fear. In fact, except
for a respectful fear of the Lord and His Word, we
aren't supposed to experience fear at all because fear
doesn't come from God.
"For God has NOT given us the spirit of fear; but of
power, and of love, and of a sound mind." (2 Timothy
1:7)
The Greek word translated FEAR in this scripture
means literally to be "timid." The dictionary defines
fear as the alarm and agitation that are caused by
danger. People who are fearful have difficulty trusting
God; therefore, fear works as the opposite of faith and
NEVER comes from God. Instead of fear, God has
given us the basic elements that we need in order to
live by faith: power (authority), love and a sound mind.
In fact, Jesus told us not to let our hearts be troubled
and instead to believe in God and live in peace (John
14:1, 27).Therefore, since fear does not come from
God and since according to scripture fear IS a spirit,
the only possible source of it is Satan.
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The Origin and Nature of Fear |
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Friend, did you ever consider that there was no fear in
the Garden when God originally created it for the man
and his wife? The Garden was a complete paradise
and all their needs were met in abundance. There
was absolutely nothing to be afraid of or concerned
about. As the familiar story goes, the Lord
commanded them not to eat the fruit from the tree of
the knowledge of good and evil because if they did
they would surely die (Genesis 2:17). They had
access to all the other plants and sources of food in
the Garden but their one rule was that they weren't
supposed to eat from one particular tree. Eventually
though Satan appeared to them and convinced them
to disobey God's rule and eat the forbidden fruit
(Genesis 3:1-6); and immediately following that act of
disobedience, the condition of fearfulness was
brought up for the first time.
3:8 "They heard the sound of the Lord God walking
in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord
God among the trees of the garden."
3:9 "Then the Lord God called to the man, and said
to him: "Where are you?'"
3:10: "He said, 'I heard the sound of You in the
garden, AND I WAS AFRAID because I was naked; so
I hid myself.'"
From this biblical account of Adam's fall from the plan
of God, we can come to several important
conclusions concerning FEAR:
� First, it was the enemy who came and
tempted the man and his wife (Genesis 3:1-5). Satan
doesn't cause us to sin but he can tempt us just as
he did Jesus in the wilderness (Matthew 4:3-11).
When we're tempted, we have to make a choice.
When we make the wrong choice, the result is sin;
therefore, SIN IS THE ROOT OF ALL FEAR.
� When God told the man that he and his
wife were not to eat the fruit from the tree of good and
evil, He also told them that if they ever disobeyed they
would surely die (Genesis 2:17). The Hebrew word
translated "die" in this scripture also means
SEPARATION in addition to describing physical death.
Thus, the Lord was telling the man that the
consequence of disobedience would be a spiritual
disconnection from the presence, blessing and favor
of God that would lead to an eventual physical death.
� When the Lord called out to the man and
said, "Where are you," it wasn't because He didn't
know where he was. Certainly, God knew their exact
location. Rather, it was to call their attention to the fact
that for the first time in their lives they were separated
from His presence and as a result He now
considered them "lost."
� When we sin, the result is a feeling of
being separated from God, a belief that we're no
longer worthy to fellowship with Him. It's Satan's
objective to make you feel that way, to undermine your
faith and have you come under fear so he can lead
you around by your Flesh. Under the Old Covenant the
separation was real and the only possible
deliverance was to obey the Law and hope for the
best. But under the New Covenant the presence of
God has been permanently restored by faith and He
will never leave us or forsake us (Hebrews 13:5).
� Fear comes anytime we feel separated
from the presence of God because God is love (1
John 4:16) and perfect love casts out fear (1 John
4:18). When we walk in our carnal nature, i.e. in the
Flesh, we feel cut off from the presence of God
because selfishness replaces love and we then
become susceptible to fear.
� All fear flows out of the fear of death and
the wages of sin is always death (Romans 6:23).
Eternal life is now available through Christ and death
has been defeated (1 Corinthians 15:54-55);
therefore, those who remain separated from God do
so by their own choice and ultimately are subject to
eternal death both spiritually and physically.
� When the man and his wife sinned in the
Garden, they came under the Curse (Genesis 3:16-
19). One of the consequences of the Curse is fear
(Deuteronomy 28:25).
Yes, Satan is the one who produces a spirit of fear
and we can be certain that he has a purpose for it. So,
simply put his objective is to separate us from God by
using fear to attack our faith. And if he is successful it
will help him carry out his three-pronged program: to
steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10) everything in our
lives that comes from God. Satan is also a deceiver
and a liar which draw on fear to produce his desired
results.
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Consequences of Living in Fear |
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The Bible instructs us in a number of places not to
live in fear. For example Philippians 4:6 says, "Be
anxious for nothing" Matthew 6:31 tells us "do not be
worried about your life " Many times in scripture
angels and others said the words of
reassurance, "fear not" (e.g. Luke 1:12, 30). On
several occasions, Jesus told His Disciples that their
fear demonstrated a lack of faith (Matthew 14:30, Mark
4:40). In sum, being fearful is something God wants
us to avoid because it produces undesirable
consequences.
Did you know that many precious Christian Believers
routinely live their lives in fear and dread? Anxiety
attacks aren't so uncommon these days even in the
Body of Christ. In fact, you may be reading this article
today and be one of those Christians. Maybe you've
lost sight of the fact that you don't have to live that way.
The truth is many of us are fearful about our finances
or an economic recession or the price of gasoline or
health issues or the dangerous environment or our
relationships or any number of other important
matters in life because we've stopped trusting in God
and have allowed ourselves to be separated from His
Word by apathy and disuse. Fear is a tool of Satan
that causes us to experience defeat in many
important areas of life:
� Fear robs you of your faith and without
faith it's impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6).
Faith is trusting in God; fear comes from transferring
your trust from God to yourself. When you allow fear to
replace your faith, you lose your ability to overcome
the World (1 John 5:4). When you live in fear, you give
glory to the works of the devil; when you live in faith,
you give glory to God.
� Fear robs you of your peace because
peace comes by faith (Romans 5:1). The World today
is longing for the peace that passes all
understanding but it's only available through Christ
(Acts 10:36, Romans 5:1). In fact, Jesus specifically
told us not to be fearful so we would be able to
receive the peace that He came to make available to
us (John 14:27).
� Fear robs you of your joy. Fear always
brings concern and anxiety that displace and replace
your joy. The Bible says that your joy is your strength
(Nehemiah 8:10). It's a major weapon to protect you
from the adversary and to bring victory over your trials.
When you lose your joy, you lose your strength to
successfully resist the enemy.
� Fear makes you self absorbed. When you
stop trusting in God, which is what happens when you
surrender your faith, you start trusting in yourself. Fear
is intensified because you sense that you'll never be
capable of bringing the solutions you had hoped for.
Also, when you have chosen to trust in yourself
instead of the Lord, you make yourself vulnerable to
the attacks of your adversary.
� Fear makes you grouchy and subject to
strife. Fear always focuses on defeat which brings
disappointment and despondency and makes us
hard to get along with. As long as we trust in
ourselves instead of the Lord, we'll fall easily into
strife because our emotions are controlling us. When
we move easily into strife, our relationships suffer;
fear always strains relationships.
� Fear moves you to make unwise and
expedient decisions and choices. When we're fearful,
we move out ahead of God and tackle things in our
own strength. There's no faith; God's not involved. An
example is when we try a "get rich quick scheme" in
response to the fear that God won't provide
adequately. Where there's no faith, there's no wisdom
because God's not in it.
� Fear robs you of love. The Bible says in 1
John 4:18 there's no fear in love. The two can't co-
exist. Therefore if fear prevails, our ability to love God
and the things of God is greatly diminished. If we're
unable to love, we can't fulfill the commandments of
Christ. (Matthew 22:37-40). If we can't fulfill the
commandments of Christ, we'll be unable to
accomplish anything (John 15:1-11).
� Fear causes us to have to experience the
very things we're anxious about. This is a principle
from scripture that we can see clearly in the story of
Job (Job 3:25-26). Whatever he feared he was forced
to experience in life and the same consequence
happens to Christians who allow fear to persist in
their lives instead of recognizing it for the work of
Satan that it is and resisting it as scripture has
instructed.
These are but a FEW of the main consequences that
come from fear. Unfortunately many Christians don't
realize that we've been equipped to resist and defeat
fear by trusting in God and by using His Word instead
of depending on our own strength and devises. As a
result Believers across the Body of Christ are
operating below their potential and are letting fear
block the prosperity and abundance God wants them
to have. Therefore, it's in the interest of every Christian
to take authority over fear, to kick it out of their lives
and to resist its re-emergence with the greatest of
determination.
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How to Overcome Fear |
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Keep in mind that fear comes from Satan and that
God has given us total power and authority over every
work of the enemy (Luke 10:19). Let's be perfectly
clear: BELIEVERS HAVE TOTAL POWER AND
AUTHORITY OVER FEAR. Therefore, to get the victory
we have to know what the Word of God says and then
apply the principles we find there to the task of
overcoming fear. In this article today we have
highlighted the following major steps for overcoming
this predictable work of the enemy:
1. You must first make the decision to come
into agreement with the Word which calls for you to
resist fear. You must decide to exercise the authority
over the enemy Christ has won for you instead of
being passive.
2. Second, you must re-energize your faith
and trust. Faith comes by hearing the Word (Romans
10:17); so fear comes by NOT hearing the Word
enough. Therefore, you need to get into the Word of
God and start reading and studying it to cause fear to
flee.
3. Third, you must come to know who you
are in Christ and start exercising your authority over
the enemy the devil. Tell him to get out of your life and
take his fear with him. If you resist him, he must flee
(James 4:7).
4. Fourth, you must focus on loving God and
others by faith. "There is no fear in love; but perfect
love casts out fear" (1 John 4:18). Strengthen your
faith by speaking out loud about your love for God.
5. Fifth, the Bible says that you can
overcome anxiety by prayer and supplication with
thanksgiving. Spend time with God in prayer thanking
Him for what He has done in your life and His peace
will return (Philippians 4:6-7).
6. Six, there are many scriptures that
connect JOY to the exercise of PRAISING the Lord.
Indeed, God inhabits the praises of His people
(Psalm 22:3); so by praising Him the sense of His
presence is released and in His presence is the
FULLNESS of joy (Psalm 16:11). The truth is if you are
a born again Believer, JOY already resides within you
(Galatians 5:22) and is just waiting for you to release
it as a mighty weapon against fear.
7. Seventh, another weapon against fear is
speaking in tongues. By speaking in tongues you
speak directly to the Lord (1 Corinthians 14:2), you
EDIFY yourself (14:4), you pray out of your spirit
instead of the Flesh (14:14), you build your faith (Jude
1:20) and all of these work to destroy fear.
8. Finally, the Word tells us that we should
seek first the Kingdom of God instead of worrying.
(Matthew 6:31-33). Therefore, fear will depart when
our priorities come into closer agreement with His
Word.
Friend, you may have difficult issues in your life but
you don't have to be in fear about them. You can
release your faith that God will come to the rescue
and then you hope and wait for the best. If you give in
to fear, then you stop trusting that the Lord will show
up to deliver you from your trial. Focus on today and
stop worrying about tomorrow (Matthew 6:34)
because contemplating the future leads to fear.
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Some Final Thoughts |
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Today's newsletter is largely a reprint of an article we
first published in May, 2007. The reason for repeating
it is that conditions in the World today are noticeably
more traumatic than they were even just a little over a
year ago. People are crying out all over the earth
because of high gasoline prices, a mortgage crisis
that threatens millions of family homes and a US
economy that's apparently sinking into recession. As
this paragraph is written in June 2008, parts of the US
are experiencing some of the worst floods in the
history of this Country and a number of other
catastrophic natural disasters have killed hundreds of
thousands of people in many parts of the world.
But Friend, Christians are not OF this World. We're
not subject to the conditions that traumatize
unbelievers unless we choose to be or unless we fail
to exercise our power and authority or unless we
forget that the Cross made it possible for us to live in
peace and joy. All the disasters the World faces come
out of the Curse; they're not from God and Believers
by faith are not subject to the Curse (Galatians 3:13).
Christians have Someone to put their trust in; we have
a reason to hope that all things will work out right for
those who love God and are called according to His
purpose (Romans 8:28).
Remember, God has not given you a spirit of fear;
rather, He's given you power (authority), love and a
sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Therefore, resist fear and
it must flee because it comes from your enemy the
devil. Decide not to be passive about it
because you'll never be able to enjoy the
fullness of biblical prosperity in your life until you deal
with your fear. So, use your power, your
authority, your love, your faith, your sound mind, the
Word of God, your prayer time and your determination
to get rid of fear and keep it out of your life forever.
Speak directly to your fears and command them to
depart from your presence and they'll have to obey
(James 4:7). And remember that what's happening in
the World has no effect on the prosperity of FAITH-
FILLED Believers because "Jesus has overcome the
World" (John 16:33). Friend, "greater is He who is in
you than he who is in the World" (1 John 4:4). So
apprehend your power and authority in the name of
Jesus and don't be hesitant to use it!
Thanks for reading PLN today. We hope this
message has blessed you and opened your
understanding to the subject of FEAR. We'll be
looking for you again in three weeks on July 25. In the
meantime, may the Lord bless you and your family
with the fullness of biblical prosperity and with every
spiritual blessing.
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Sinners' Prayer |
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If you have never invited Jesus to become the Lord of
your life, you can do so today by saying the following
simple prayer:
Jesus I believe in you. I believe that you are the
Son of God and that He raised you from the dead. I
receive you as my Lord and Savior. Please forgive me
for my sins and come into my life today.
If you were sincere as you prayed, God has already
come into your life and you are a new creation. Now
ask the Lord to lead you to a good faith based bible
teaching church where you can be developed to fulfill
your potential in the Kingdom of God. If you're unable
to find a church, give us a call and we'll help you find a
good one.
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Prayer Requests |
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Please e-mail your prayer requests to:
[email protected]. We'll be
honored to bring them before the Lord each Tuesday
morning at 10:00 AM, Eastern Time.
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Donations |
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If you have been blessed and edified by
Prosperous Life Newsletter, please pray about
making a Spirit-led love offering to support the work of
the Ministry (Galatians 6:6-7). PLN is a non profit [501
(c) (3)] gift to the Body of Christ so your financial gifts
should be tax deductible (please consult your tax
advisor). You may mail your check or money order to
Cornerstone Consulting Ministries to 10621 N.
Kendall Drive, Suite 113, Miami, Florida 33176 or click
on the donation tab for other payment options. May
God bless you with His abundant harvest in return for
sowing your precious seed into this Ministry.
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Questions and Suggestions |
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It would bless us to have an opportunity to answer
your questions concerning any of the areas covered
by the ministry of PLN. We would also be
happy to consider your comments and suggestions.
Please feel free to e-mail them to us or give us a call
anytime during normal business hours at our toll free
number 1-800-357-4223.
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