JR Staton

Power

Dunamis is a Greek word which  literally means "power, might, strength or ability."   It is derived from another Greek word  dunamai which means "to be able or possible."  It is the power of God that changes a person's life and it is what has made the difference in my life.  Now I know that I will always be victorious if I mix my faith with the Gospel and obey God.  His power is available to every person that believes ( relies on, trusts in ) the Gospel. 

Overcoming Fear by Faith

II Corinthians 6:2 states:  "For he saith, I have heard thee in a time accepted, and in the day of salvation have I succoured thee:  behold, now is the accepted time;  behold, now is the day of salvation."  Salvation means to be made sound, be set at safety, be delivered from all evil.   Salvation comes by believing, or relying on, the Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ, which is the power of God for every area of our lives.

One of those areas in which God has dealt with me has been fear.   I knew fear was real but did not know that fear could be overcome or that fear could be a spirit ( 2 Tim. 1:7 ).  I knew that there were times where I just made myself do what I had to do even though I was not exactly brimming with confidence.  I thank God that He always protected me and never let me get in over my head.  Hebrews 13:5 says, in part, that He will never leave us or forsake us.  Those are nice words but it takes faith to believe them.  Otherwise they are just nice words.

Fear is everywhere.  You cannot see fear but you know it is there and at times, you can literally feel it.  Perhaps you have felt a knot in your stomach or just an empty feeling.  Maybe it was a sense of being surrounded by something evil.  Only the power of God can deliver us from fear and His power will manifest when we believe the Gospel.  1 John 4:18 states:  "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." 

Jesus told the disciples many times to "fear not" or asked "Why are ye so fearful?"  He knew that fear had manifested with them.  When He spoke those words to them, many times the power of God was then demonstrated so they would believe and not to yield to fear.  Believe what?  The gospel, because it is the power of God unto salvation.

God has shown me clearly that fear was ministered to me by members of my own family just as your family has done with you.  No one in my family willingly purposed to minister fear to me.  People many times share about their own experiences with others to "help them."  Some of those experiences really deal with common sense which is okay.  I will mention several things later that I was told I should or should not do. 

In this message I will share about one of those members.  My Dad and his brother had a half-sister named Bonnie.  Aunt Bonnie lived with her husband in the country and I used to love to go visit them.  They had dogs, cats, chickens, cattle, a horse or two, woods, ponds, etc.  Everything to entertain a youngster.  I stayed with them during the summertime and had a great time.  After her husband died I still spent most of my summers with her until playing baseball took up more of my time.  Even so I liked to visit her whenever I could.

One of the things I remember ( about fear and Aunt Bonnie ) concerned Steve, one of her dogs.  Steve was the biggest of her dogs and, while not overly playful, was fun to have around.  He would follow along on fishing trips or just walking down the dirt road.  Everything was fine until a storm began brewing.   When he sensed the storm he made a beeline for the barn or under the house.   If it began to thunder it was best not to be in his way.  Once he was in his safe place, that was it.  No amount of talk or enticement would dislodge him until the storm was past.  My aunt told me that some loud noise, probably thunder, had scared him as a pup and he had been scared of loud noises ever since. 

That is how it is with people as well.  Many people experience something unpleasant that happened to them as a child and the memory remains with them all of their lives.  It may have been related to a storm, being scared by someone, scared by an animal, being hit by a baseball, etc.  If you have been hit by a baseball, for instance, it does not feel good.  It can make batting a real adventure until you overcome the fear, especially if the pitcher does not have good control of his pitches.  Likewise, a bad experience while swimming has made many people scared of going back into the water.  What about having to go through the "bad" side of town?  Sure do not want to have a car problem there, do you?  

Let me list some other things that I experienced with Aunt Bonnie.  Many times she reminded me to stay on the path, if at all possible, to avoid ticks.  She warned me to stay away from poison ivy and poison oak.  Once, while seining for minnows, she said to be sure and hold the net in front of me in case we trapped a snake.  Of course, after she said that, I felt strange sensations around my feet and legs and was glad I could not see what was down there.  This was one of those times I made myself continue on for several more passes until there was enough minnows.

She greeted me on another occasion with the results of an experiment.  "Bug ( her nickname for me ), we are not going to drink any more Cokes."  I thought this was interesting because I drank them at my house with my parents.  She proceeded to tell me she had placed a piece of raw bacon in a bottle of Coke and it had dissolved.  The inference was that Coke would hurt us internally..."eat away our insides."  The alternative drink?  We drank a lot of sugary KoolAid that summer. 

Here are some more warnings from my aunt:  Be careful and do not fall in the water, you could drown;   Watch out for snakes ( no problem with that one ):  She told me this once just after she asked me to collect some eggs from the henhouse.  The problem?  She had, of course, seen a snake in there recently...probably just a chicken snake but it would not hurt me.  Thanks for the warning.  I could not wait to get out of there! 

Others:  Do not swallow a fish bone, it could get stuck;  Watch out for wild dogs because they might have rabies;   When you walk barefooted, watch where you step so you do not cut your foot...you might get lockjaw.  Of course, she had stories for most of these warnings.  Most came with this solution...get to the doctor.  It was only the grace of God that I did not become scared of my own shadow after hearing some of the things she talked to me about.  The grace of God and my dad.   God, I knew about.  Dad, I knew.

As a young boy I watched what my dad did.  When we were at Aunt Bonnie's, I watched where he walked in the woods or around the fishing ponds.  I followed, literally, in his footsteps.  He and I would return back to her house with no ticks.  If his brother and Aunt Bonnie were with us, they would be the ones with tick hitchhikers.  They would complain and my dad would just smile.   I could not see that he was bothered by the things I have mentioned.  Perhaps he had faith toward God.

All I know is that I knew nothing about faith at that time in my life so all I was doing was simply following my Dad.  What I now know is people that walk in the flesh do not believe the Gospel and cannot please God ( Romans 8:8 ).  As a result, see what Job 3:25 says:   "For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me."  If you or I continue to fear something, it will come to visit us at some point in our lives.  Be thankful because there is a way to prevent that visitation, or if it does come, to put it out of our lives.  How?  Rely on, trust in and adhere to the death, burial and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

I loved my aunt and had great times with her.  I minded her and helped her with work when she asked me to do something.  I just did not believe everything she told me.  There was a time when I drank too much cold water before going to bed.  I laid down and my stomach began to ache.  I guess I made a sound loud enough for her to hear me and she asked if anything was wrong.   I told her my stomach hurt. 

She asked if it was the right or left side and I asked her why she wanted to know.  This could only have been the wisdom and mercy of God that had me ask the question before I answered her.  She said if it was the right side it was probably my appendix and we would need to go to the doctor.  I said no, that it was my left side.  It really was on my right side.  I  got out of bed and went outside for a few minutes.  I do not remember specifically praying to God for help but I certainly believe He led me to go outside, away from that spirit with my aunt.  After just a few minutes, the pain went away and I went back inside and went to sleep.

James 4:7 states:  "Submit yourselves therefore to God.   Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."  We resist the devil in faith, believing the Gospel.  Hebrews 4:2 states:  "For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them:  but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard."  For the power of God to work in our lives, we must use our faith and believe the Gospel.  If not, we will not profit and fear will prevail.

I am not blaming my aunt for ministering fear to me.  I am sharing some of my experiences with you to show how easy it is for fear to become part of our lives.  Family members, friends, TV and radio advertisements, teachers, flu season warnings, holiday traffic death predictions, food warnings, and weather advisories, just to name a few, are always "speaking" to us.  Spirits use people to minister lies to other people.  In effect, they prophesy evil tidings.  Fear is ministered.  Speaking about everything but believing the Gospel and trusting God.

What to do about it?  Be honest with ourselves and God ( He knows already ) that fear is in our hearts about something.  Go boldly to the throne of grace so that you and I "... may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need ( Hebrews 4:16 )."  God, in His mercy and love for us, will show forth His power in a mighty way.

Psalm 56:3 has ministered to me many times:  "What time I am afraid, I will trust in thee."  You and I can trust in the power of God to overcome fear.  The same power that raised Jesus from the lowest hell ( Psalm 86:13 ), the power that cast out evil spirits, the power that has healed us.  Believe the Gospel today.  Use your faith to believe the Gospel and expect God to set you free from fear.  Keep believing until He does!  You will know.

I will close with Psalm 34:4 which states:  "I sought the Lord, and he heard me, and delivered me from all my fears."  God bless you.

E-mail me at jrs@jrstaton.com.