South Shore Pentecostal Church

Tina Ouellette: Welcome to the Apostolic Truth Radio Program with Pastor Craig Ouellette, a radio ministry of South Shore Pentecostal Church located in Whitman, Massachusetts. At a time when many Christians do not know what to believe, South Shore Pentecostal is honored to bring you clear biblical teaching on which you can confidently build your faith. Thank you for joining us.

J. Craig Ouellette: We're going to talk about deliverance from fear today. Deliverance from fear. Amen. Let's read these scriptures here. Psalm 34, verse four. As I think most of us know, David went through quite a few different situations where he really needed the help of the Lord. In Psalm 34, verse four, it says, "I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears."

"They looked unto Him and were lightened, and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles. The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him and delivereth them. O taste and see that the Lord is good. Blessed is the man that trusteth in Him. O fear the Lord, ye His saints, for there is no want to them that fear Him."

In the New Testament, in 2 Timothy chapter one, verses six and seven, is a scripture that we probably touched on on Wednesday night. I know that we end up at this scripture a lot, but it's principle scriptures; we'll end up saying them again and again. Amen. 2 Timothy chapter one, verse six and seven says, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind." Amen.

Finally, in 1 John chapter four, verse 18, a very important scripture. 1 John 4:18 says, "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." You should understand that word "perfect" as "mature." It's not talking about "he that feareth is not flawless." It's saying "he that feareth is not made mature in love." Amen.

We're talking about deliverance from fear today. As Christians, there are things you have to keep in your mind. There are things you need to think about every day in relation to God and living for God. We always have to remember that we're in a spiritual war. We have to remember that. We don't always have an attack or a battle necessarily every day, but we do need to remember there is an enemy out there that is looking to get our soul.

There are people that believe once saved, always saved, but that's not what the Bible teaches. The Bible says, "He that endureth to the end, the same shall be saved." The book of Revelation says those that are with Jesus are called chosen and faithful. Amen. These scriptures are familiar just to remind ourselves here this morning. "We wrestle not against flesh and blood," this is Ephesians 6:12, "but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places."

This is not talking about people, but it's talking about spiritual forces that are behind people. Many times when you have a person doing something to you because you're a Christian and you get mad at them, it's kind of like you're mad at a puppet and not the hand controlling the puppet. The devil is often using people in their ignorance.

In 1 Peter 5:8, it says, "Be sober, be vigilant because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about seeking whom he may devour." He's looking for an opportunity in my life and your life. If we're vigilant and we stay close to God, he's not going to have an opportunity. Amen.

Then Paul said to Timothy in 1 Timothy 1:18, "This charge I commit unto thee, son Timothy, according to the prophecies which went before on thee, that thou mightest war a good warfare." He's telling Timothy he's not talking about Timothy fighting other people. He's saying that in order for you to live for God, you're going to have to fight a spiritual warfare. Amen.

Again, keep in mind in the Christian life, we need to understand that this world is not our home. We're not of the world. The minute you got born again, you're not of the world anymore. What happens is God blesses us and the devil steps back and we can get comfortable in the world and forget we're not of this world. Amen.

Jesus said in John 15:18-19, "If the world hate you, ye know that it hated me before it hated you. If ye were of the world, the world would love his own, but because ye are not of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore the world hateth you." A lot of times it's not you personally; it's the Spirit of God in you that they detect.

If you have people that are being influenced by demonic spirits, a lot of times they will act against you or me and not even understand why they're acting against you or me. It's the spirit that's influencing them that recognizes the Spirit of God in us and causes them to react in a certain way. Amen.

So understand that sometimes people might be against you, seem hostile towards you, or seem unfriendly to you and you're going, "What's going on?" It's got nothing to do with you personally, but the Spirit of God in you they recognize and are reacting about that or against that. Amen.

We're not of this world because we've been born by the Spirit of God and the devil hates the Spirit of God. Do you believe that? The devil hates the spirit of Christ. Because the world is dominated by sin and the devil, it also hates the spirit of Christ in us. Amen.

Now, here's what usually happens. Somebody gets born again and you get enthusiastic about God and you might go out in the world and try to talk to somebody about God. All of a sudden you get a whole big tidal wave of stuff coming against you. You just got introduced to spiritual warfare. What the devil's trying to do is shut you down so that you do not become an influence. Amen.

That doesn't mean you don't need to use wisdom and understand that people that aren't born again do not understand where you're coming from, but the devil does not want you to talk about what God has done for you. Because he knows that there are people that are not happy in their life situation. They're looking for an answer and you've got the answer if you're born again. He wants you to not say anything because he doesn't want somebody to find a way out of his system. Amen.

Paul wrote to Timothy and he encouraged him to war a good warfare. When we go to 2 Timothy chapter one, we find out that this Paul is trying to again encourage Timothy. It seems like Timothy is battling with elements of fear in his life. Now Timothy is called of God. He's an evangelist. He's a person Paul has sent to see how churches are doing. He's a person that sometimes Paul has left in a place to carry on the work that's been established.

Paul says in 2 Timothy 1:6, "Wherefore I put thee in remembrance that thou stir up the gift of God, which is in thee by the putting on of my hands. For God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power and of love and of a sound mind." Take note that Paul refers to the spirit of fear. There is a spirit of fear. I'm not talking about rational fear.

You should fear jumping off of a building and getting hurt. You should fear going 100 miles an hour down a 25-mile-an-hour street. There are some things you should fear; they're rational. You should fear being dropped in the middle of the ocean without a boat or a life jacket or anything. We're not talking about that, but we're talking about situations where we feel a fear coming upon us. Oftentimes we can't pinpoint the source.

It's just we feel uncomfortable. We feel weak. We don't know what to do. There is a spirit of fear and fear does not come from God, that kind of fear. Now we should fear the Lord, but the fear of the Lord is not you're running around shaking. It's you are observing, you're showing proper respect to God.

Paul said that verse: "God has not given us the spirit of fear, but power, love, sound mind." The spirit of fear will induce in us a fear that makes us feel like giving up. When you feel like giving up, it's not God. When you feel like quitting, I'm talking about living for God and doing things God's way, when you feel like quitting or giving up in something that God ordains or has put you in, it is not God; it is a spirit of fear.

It'll induce feelings like hopelessness. It paralyzes you. Now maybe you've never experienced those, but I'll tell you it happens. The spirit of fear can come where you feel like you don't know what to do. You don't have an answer. You're afraid there's nothing you can do. That's a paralyzing fear. It seems to create a dark cloud that feels like it will never pass.

The spirit of fear will do that. It will create a cloud in your life. It'll take away all your peace. It'll cause you to wake up in the middle of the night and have to pray. Amen. That's the spirit of fear. These are feelings and attitudes that are not from God. Paul told Timothy, "Stir up the gift that is in you." He said, "Remember that God's Spirit gives us power, love, and a sound mind." Amen.

Paul was saying there's something you've got to do: stir up the gift. He says there's something you need to remember: what God has given us. Overcoming the spirit of fear: when fear starts to come our way that makes the person make you want to give up, make me want to give up, the first thing to recognize is it's not God. God doesn't want you to quit.

God doesn't want me to quit. God doesn't want you to quit, even if we made a mistake. God doesn't want you to quit. Even if you made 10 mistakes, God does not want you to quit. Do you believe that? That's why He gives us the Holy Ghost with resurrection power. You make a mistake, you feel like I'm buried, I might as well die and just stay in the grave, but resurrection power says I can rise above that by the power of God.

Amen. That Holy Ghost is resurrection power, not just for when the trumpet sounds but to resurrect ourselves above the circumstances and situations that the devil tries to throw on us and that the world tries to throw on you. That's why I say stay close to God. Stir up the gift that's in you. Know that resurrection power is there.

The longer you come to church, the better you can understand that if when you come to church you're seeking God. You'll many times come into church when you didn't feel like coming to church. You felt like staying home. Your mind was telling you what's the good you're going to have in church? Might as well just stay home and go the next time because you're too down, you're not going to get anything.

You're fighting a spirit of the enemy. But when you come in and start to praise God, you leave and you felt resurrected above that. You understand the Spirit of God gives you resurrection power. God gives us a spirit of power. The Greek word is dunamis and it means power, strength, capability, authority, military strength. So when I get the Spirit of God, I get power, ability, I get capability to live for God, capability to continue, capability to fight the devil and win the battle. I get capability, I get authority over the powers of darkness. I get authority to live the way God wants me to live.

He said you've got power and you've got love. The Greek word is agape. That's godly love. That means I can love beyond my own ability. That means I can love like God loves. That means I can love somebody that I wouldn't have been able to love, but because God's love is in me, I can now love them. I can love them in a way that I thought was impossible. I can love things I don't like or people I don't like because the love of God gives me power. I can learn to overcome by the Spirit of God.

And He gives me a sound mind. The word is sophronismos, self-control and moderation. When the devil's coming upon you with a spirit of fear, it's often hard to think rationally. It's often hard to remember a scripture. It's often hard to remember how to pray. It's often hard to remember what the next step is. But I've got a sound mind from God. I've got ability to control my mind. I can take authority over my thinking. I can bind the devil and I can tell the devil I'm not going to go crazy. I'm not going to flip out. I'm not going to crawl under a pew. I'm not going to curl up in a ball, but my mind is going to be stable. I'm going to have victory and authority in God because God has given me a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind. Devil, you're not going to mess my mind up. Hallelujah! Let's give Him praise. Glory to God.

Amen. We're not doing it by ourselves; we're doing it by what God has given us. You know, a key scripture in the Bible for Christians is in John 15 where Jesus says, "Without me ye can do nothing." Without me ye can do nothing. Let's go there for a moment. Gospel of John chapter 15.

Jesus is talking about being connected. He's talking about the necessity of connection. Amen. John 15, He said, "I am the true vine. My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me that beareth not fruit he taketh away, and every branch that beareth fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more fruit. Now are ye clean through the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide in the vine, no more can ye except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches. He that abideth in me and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit, for without me ye can do nothing."

In other words, I cannot live the Christian life without a connection to Jesus. All right. Now it says "abide." Abide is not "visit." Abide is a constant thing. Abide is not once in a while. Abide means I've got a connection. Abide is where I live. Visit is where I go sometimes. He doesn't say just "touch base" with me. He doesn't say just "visit" me once in a while. He says you've got to connect to me and hold the connection. You've got to stay connected to me.

That's why we come in here and we want to worship God. We want to praise God. I want to make sure I've got a connection. If my connection's broken, I want to renew my connection. I've got to have a connection to God. And if I've got my connection, I can do whatever I need to do. Amen.

Again, the Amplified Bible expands the sound mind as "calm and well-balanced mind and discipline and self-control." You know what that means? That means that even if you were an undisciplined person, with God you can become disciplined. That's right. Even if you were a nervous person, with God you can become calm. Even if you had emotional swings and different things, you can become well-balanced with the Spirit of God. God has not given us the spirit of fear, but power, love, sound mind.

But notice before he said that to Timothy, he said, "Stir up the gift that's in you." And I realize he's probably talking about some spiritual gift that he's got from Paul laying his hands on him, but it also refers to the Holy Ghost that's in us. Sometimes we've got to stir the gift of the Holy Ghost up in us. Amen.

So overcoming the spirit of fear: the first step in fighting the spirit of fear is to recognize that what we are feeling does not match what God's Spirit gives us. That's the first step. That's spiritual discernment. We learn to discern as you start to live for God. As you pray and come into the presence of God, you start to learn the presence of God. Now you're developing discernment. There's a difference between when you feel it and when you don't feel it.

Then when you start to come in against demonic spirits, you've got that to compare against God's Spirit. You recognize that's not God. Now God is developing discernment in us and we develop that by praying and worshipping and coming together and being in the body. When we stir up the gift of the Holy Ghost and we start to feel God's Spirit, we start to get that understanding and God starts to bring to our mind the things we need to understand. When you're dealing with a spirit of fear, the first thing is recognizing it's not from God.

God is life, right? God is love. God is light. Life comes from God. God's not interested in destroying life; He's interested in keeping life. Right? God is love. God's not interested in seeing us get destroyed because He loves us. He's interested in us succeeding. Amen. God is light. God's not interested in us being bound up in a prison of darkness, but God's going to shine a light to show us a way out of the situation. Hallelujah!

The second step, once I recognize this is not God, is to seek God. The first verse we read: "I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears." When he started to seek God, David had a lot of problems where there were a lot of questions in his mind. "Have you forsaken me, God? I'm like one that's going down to the pit. My bed has been a bed of tears all night long. There are many against me without a reason. They're making lies against me without a reason." But I sought the Lord and He heard me and delivered me from all my fears. Hallelujah!

If you'll seek God, God will deliver you from your fear. God will bring you out so that you do not have to be afraid. You can have what you need, the victory in God. Paul told Timothy, as we already said, "Stir up the gift that's in you." In other words, seek the Lord. Stir up the spirit that's within you.

In the Lord's presence is fullness of joy, the Bible says. Psalm 16:11: "In His presence is fullness of joy, at His right hand are pleasures forevermore." If I can get into His presence, darkness has got to go because I can't have the darkness and joy at the same time. Amen. When I've got joy, I've got confidence. When I've got joy, I've got peace. When I've got joy, I know that God is there. So I need the presence of God. I need to enter into the presence of God. This is why we need the Holy Ghost. Amen.

Paul was telling Timothy, just like David, "Seek the Lord, stir up the gift." That's why again sometimes you come in here and you made it in here, but then you don't feel like lifting your hands. You don't feel like worshipping. You don't feel like praying. You don't feel like listening to the Bible. All you can think about is what you're going to do when you get home. That's where you've got to fight some spiritual warfare. Stir up the gift that's in you. He's still worthy of my praise. I'm going to praise Him.

I'm still going to lift my hands up because He's worthy of my praise. Amen. I'm going to call Him Abba, Father. I'm going to reach up. I'm going to say, "God, I praise You. Lord Jesus, I thank You. I just need a lift up. I need You to pick me up." Others might have cast me down, but I know You're my Heavenly Father. You're not going to cast me down. Lord, I praise You. Lord, I give You praise and worth. Hallelujah! I magnify You. I exalt You. I lift up Your name.

Again, since God is love, in His presence we will feel love. So looking at that scripture 1 John 4:18 again, it says there is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Mature love casts out fear. When you love somebody and they love you, people can say other things, but that doesn't affect you because your love casts out the fear that that accusation brings. When you know that God loves you, the devil can't come on you and make you afraid you're lost. The devil can't come on you and say you might as well quit and give up because you've got the love of God. You've felt the love of God. Amen. And you cast out that fear. It doesn't have a place in you because you love God and you know He loves you. Mature love casts out fear. That's what it's saying. Amen.

It goes on to say, "He that feareth is not made perfect in love." A lot of times we've got fear because our relationship with God is not the way that it ought to be. Back again in Psalm 34:7, it says, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them." Do you believe God sends angels today? I do. Amen. God sends angels. We don't always see them. Sometimes we feel them. That's right. Sometimes we feel the presence of angels. Amen.

But a lot of times angels are there in our life situations to protect us. And when you fear God, the Bible says God's angel is there to protect you in your situation. Now it doesn't mean you don't go through anything. It doesn't mean there's no rough spots. It doesn't mean you won't skin a knee or scrape your toe or something. But it means that God is watching. God is limiting. God is protecting. God is going to work with you in the situation.

Let's go back and look at that Psalm just a little bit more and read down to there starting with verse four. Psalm 34 and four, he said, "I sought the Lord and he heard me and delivered me from all my fears. They looked unto him and were lightened and their faces were not ashamed. This poor man cried and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his troubles." David's saying twice, "When I sought God, God came, God delivered me." Amen. When I sought Him with a whole heart, when I sought Him as God and not just somebody to help me deal or remove the situation, but I seek Him as God. I seek Him as the creator that He is, that He's worthy of my praise, He's worthy of me serving Him, He's worthy of me humbling myself under His hand, He's worthy of commanding my life. When I let God do that, God is going to deliver me from my fears. God is going to save me out of my troubles. And the Bible says, "The angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them."

I was listening to a preacher on the way to Brother Steven's last night and I heard the end of the story on the way back home. He was talking about how he had a daughter by C-section early and they said she's going to die because she's swallowed too much stuff in the womb in her lungs. While the doctors are telling him to get out of the room, all of a sudden he sees an angel come in, reach into that incubator, and the baby starts to come alive. A man calls him and says, "I was praying and let me tell you what I saw." He said, "I saw a group of angels. One move out, go to the incubator, put its hands in, and heal the baby." I'm telling you, God's angel encampeth round about. Hallelujah!

So he goes on to say, "O taste and see that the Lord is good." Listen, if God's delivered you, you say, "It tastes good." Amen. I taste and see. I'll take another bite of that, Lord. Amen. I like that meal. Amen. Because I can taste that God is good. Hallelujah! God is faithful. Taste and see. In other words, understand that God is good. "O fear the Lord, ye his saints, for there is no want to them that fear him." When we fear God, God's hand is in our lives.

The fear of the Lord includes hating the things God hates. If we look over in Proverbs 8:13, it says, "The fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward or crooked mouth do I hate." That means liars, people that don't speak what they really mean. The fear of the Lord is to hate evil. When you want what God wants, when you want to do it God's way, that's the fear of the Lord. And when you do that, God says His angel is going to be there. His presence is going to be there.

The fear of the Lord involves respecting what God says: His word. If I just take parts of the Bible but ignore other parts, I don't really fear God. If I ignore certain parts because I don't like them, I don't really fear God, or I don't believe the word is from God. But if I really believe this is the word of God, then I'm going to observe everything that I need to out of this. Correct? Amen. And the Bible says when I fear the Lord, He's there to protect. He's there to protect.

The fear of the Lord means to show reverence by conforming to His will. See, God's trying to make us. God's trying to get us to be like Him. In our humanity, some things we adjust too easy and some things we don't because of our personality or whatever. God is trying to deal with us and make us into His image and likeness. If I'll fear God, then I'll let God work in my life the way He needs to work. In order to battle the spirit of fear, we must be submitted to the Lord to stand on what He said.

First, we recognize it's not from the Lord. Then we start to claim what we've got in God. But I've got to be submitted. Just believing doesn't mean I can beat the devil. Do you understand that? The Bible doesn't say Christians won't have any problems, but I've got to stand on what God says. Amen. I've got to be submitted to what God is saying. Look over in the book of Acts. Acts chapter 19. Thank You, Lord. Acts 19:13.

"Then certain of the vagabond Jews, exorcists, took upon them to call over them which had evil spirits the name of the Lord Jesus, saying, 'We adjure you by Jesus whom Paul preacheth.'" They're believing in the name. They're believing there's power in the name. That's why they're using the name against the enemy. All right. "And there were seven sons of one Sceva, a Jew, and chief of the priests, which did so. And the evil spirit answered and said, 'Jesus I know, and Paul I know, but who are ye?' And the man in whom the evil spirit was leaped on them, and overcame them, and prevailed against them, so that they fled out of the house naked and wounded."

You've got to have more than just belief; there's got to be a submission, a commitment to God. Amen. So here's people that believed in that name. They're believing power, otherwise they wouldn't be saying the name. They're trying to add that to their arsenal of whatever they do. Amen. But the evil spirit said, "I know Paul and I know Jesus, but I don't know who you are." But if you know Jesus and Jesus knows you, those demons are going to know who you are. They're going to be afraid of you because they know you've got power. You've got authority. You've got the Spirit of the living God in you. You've got ability to bind the power of the enemy. You've got a power to break strongholds. You've got power to tread the spirit of the enemy underfoot. The devil knows that. He knows when you are submitted, he better run. He might try to fake you out a little bit, but once he sees you know God and God knows you, he knows the minute you raise that sword of the Spirit and start to speak with authority, he is done. Hallelujah! Let's give Him praise.

The Bible doesn't say when you're living for God there's no problems, but it does say we'll come through victorious. Amen. Romans 8:35: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" None of those can separate us. We might go through them, but it can't separate me from the love of God. And you can be in physical problems but be lifted up by the Spirit of God above the physical problems so that they don't bother you the same way other people are bothered. That's why some people could be tortured and still praise God, burned at the stake and still praise God, be whipped and still praise God, be rejected and still praise God because they are in the Spirit far enough that these, like Paul, these wounds don't bother me. Amen. I feel them, but I feel something bigger. I feel something greater. I feel the Spirit of God. Hallelujah! And God lifts me up.

Put ourselves in the Lord's hands. Overcoming, we've got to be submitted. Submitted means I'm putting myself in God's hands. That's why sometimes people are not submitted. They won't really put themselves in God's hands. They can say the right things. They know the right things. They know the scriptures. They know the right actions. Sometimes they are sincere and they mean it, but they're really not putting themselves into God's hands.

And sometimes the only way you can fight the spirit of fear is you've got to say, "God, here I am. This is what I'd like, but You know what needs to happen. I put myself in Your hands and I'm going to trust You to bring me through. I'm not asking You, I'm not demanding that You do it the way I want. I'm submitting myself to You. And if there's going to be suffering that I've got to go through, then help me go through it. But if I can go through without suffering, that's fine. I'd like that, but I'm submitting myself to You."

Paul doesn't quit because God does not take the thorn out of his flesh. "Come on, Lord. I've gone through enough. I've given up enough. I've given up everything I've worked for. All that my life before I've made it dung. I've been rejected by my family. I've been rejected by the people I associated with. And now I've got a thorn in my flesh. I'm asking You to heal." God says, "I'm not, but my grace is sufficient." Sometimes we've got to put ourselves in God's hands. "God, I don't like it, but You know what I need. God, I don't want it, but You know what I need. I put myself in Your hands." And God is able to deliver us. And once you put yourself into God's hands, the spirit of fear's got nothing to grab on to.

That's how the Hebrew children could get in the fire. They submitted themselves to God. God said don't bow to any other idols. Nebuchadnezzar, we're not going to bow. "I'm going to throw you in the fire." Yeah, okay, we're not. "Our God is able to deliver us out of the fire, but whether He does or not, I'm not going to bow to your god." Into the fire they go, but the angel of the Lord encampeth round about them that fear Him. God is there with Him in the fire, those men. God brings them out of that situation. Hallelujah! They were submitted to God. "We don't like what's about to happen, but that's not the reason. That's not going to change our actions. We're going to let God be in charge." They weren't afraid to go into that fire because they had put themselves into God's hands. They had submitted themselves to God. It's okay to pray, "Lord, deliver me out of this. Lord, let this pass. Lord, get this out of the way." That's okay, but we've got to be prepared that if God does not do that, I'm still serving You, Lord. I'm still going to worship You, Lord. I'm still going to trust You, Lord. I'm still going to praise You, Lord. Let's give Him some praise.

That's why it says in Romans 8:36, he said, "What shall separate us from the love of God?" and he lists a whole list. But then he says, "As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter." In other words, we put ourselves, our lives in Your hands, God. If You offer us up in a sacrifice, so be it. If You don't, praise God. And then he goes on to say, "Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors." In tribulation, I can be a conqueror. In distress, I can be a conqueror. In persecution, I can be a conqueror. In famine, lean times, I can be a conqueror. In nakedness, I don't have everything I need, I can be a conqueror. In peril, it's dangerous, I can be a conqueror. In war, in sword, I can be a conqueror. Amen. I can, you can. Amen.

Obstacles to defeating the spirit of fear is we don't have a good relationship with God. That's why it's important to build that relationship with God. You get the Holy Ghost from God, you get baptized in Jesus' name, your priority needs to have a relationship with God. You put God first and God will cause the other pieces to fall into place. God will guide you. Your priority is to have a relationship with God. Amen. I need more than belief in Jesus in order to defeat the spirit of fear. I've got to cast down imaginations.

Understand the devil's a liar. He's going to say all kinds of things that aren't true. But he also is a studier. He's a hunter. He studies humanity. And he studies each one of us individually. Maybe not him personally, but there's enough demons around that they're watching. They're watching to see what you do by yourself, what draws you, what aggravates you, what pleases you, what doesn't. They're watching. And when the battle comes, they will come back on you with imaginations. You'll feel the spirits. You'll feel darkness. If you're involved in spiritual warfare, you're going to feel that sometimes. And God lets that happen so that you know there is an enemy that's real. Amen.

So to cast down the imaginations and thoughts and fears, the devil's going to say, "No hope for you. You know, Brother Matt's got hope and Sister Suzanne's got hope and somebody else's got hope, but not you." And if you've done something little bit wrong, you can feel like, "Yeah, they're right." It's very easy to slide into that. But if I've got a good relationship with God, then I can say to the devil, "No. Yeah, I did the wrong thing, but God has not forsaken me. He said, 'I'll never leave you nor forsake you.' I've got His name. I've got His spirit. I'm trying to live for Him." So I can defeat the spirit of fear because I know the relationship.

Somebody will come to you and say, the devil will come to you, but if you've been in prayer that morning and you had that presence of God you felt, you can say, "Wait, I know that I know God. I just felt Him today. Or I just felt Him in the bathroom a few minutes ago." Amen. So you know that you know God. That gives you power to cast the enemy down because you feel the presence of God. So to cast down imaginations and thoughts that fear will send our way, we must know that we know the Lord and be secure in our relationship with Him. So I've got to work. I've got to make a connection and I've got to work at developing a relationship with God.

One way you know you've got a relationship with God is when God asks you to do things you don't want to do, and you do them. Not with a sourpuss mouth, but with joy, trying to please God. You know that you know God when you've been through some storms and God has brought you through. You know that you know God when you can find Him in the midnight hour. You know that you know God and you've got a good relationship when you find yourself trying to talk to Him and pray to Him when it's not service time, it's not devotion time, it's not your prayer time in the morning. You've already done that, but I want another touch. You know that you know God and got a relationship with Him when you're reaching out to find Him and you're not asking for an answer. You just want a touch. You don't have a question you're asking Him about. Nothing wrong with asking Him questions, but you reach that point where I don't want to do that and that, I just like to have some God now. Just let me feel something of God. Just let me feel the presence of God. And God starts to show up.

Now you know you've got a relationship with God. When you've got a good friend, you don't just always go to them when you need something, but you go to them when you just want to be with them. Right? Now you're not afraid to ask them because you're good friends, but receiving something from them is not the basis of a good relationship, is it? The same thing with God. Prayer, worship, praising Him will develop a relationship with the Lord. It gives us confidence to know Him and that He knows us.

Of course, the relationship starts with the born-again relationship. You can try all you want, but you're not really going to have the relationship God wants you to have until you get born again of the water and the spirit. Because that's where God puts His Spirit and causes us to be birthed in His nature, reborn in His nature. That's the starting point of relationship: the baptism of the Holy Ghost and water baptism in Jesus' name and again it implies you've repented of your sins first. No repentance, you can get baptized a thousand times and it doesn't help you. You need the Holy Ghost speaking in tongues. That's the beginning of a relationship. And you have to grow in the relationship, just like as kids grow and grow in life. As they grow in life, their relationship with their parents and adults changes. As we grow in God, our relationship with God develops and changes. Amen.

Another obstacle: doubting that the Lord loves you. Sometimes we don't love ourselves. We pamper ourselves, but a lot of times we pamper ourselves, but we don't really love ourselves. We'll do things that we like, but sometimes those things that we did for ourselves that we like are not good for us. If we really loved ourselves, we would do the good things. Does that make sense what I'm saying? All right. Just because we do things our own way, a lot of times having things our own way is not really loving yourself. Right?

Jesus said that if I was going to follow Him, I needed to deny myself, take up my cross daily, and follow Him. For if I'll find my life, I'll lose it, but if I'll lose my life for His purpose, I'll find it. In other words, I've got to quit just doing what I like, what I want, and I have to learn to serve. I have to learn to serve others and God. That's part of growing up in God. I've got to learn to serve. That helps develop that relationship with God because I start by serving Him.

One of the antidotes to fear is develop a relationship with God. When you're in the presence of God, it should help you understand: if God loves me, I'm lovable. Right? All right. I might not find anything in myself good. Maybe my parents told me I wasn't worth anything. Maybe all the people I've run into or a good majority have come against me and tore me down and threw labels on me. But if I get into the presence of God, the peace, the joy, the love that comes lets me know God loves me. If God loves me, I can make it.

A lot of times we fall into traps because we try to get our affirmment from others rather than getting it from God. If I learn to get be affirmed by God, and again the more you're in His presence, the better that is, the easier it is: praying, worshipping, getting into the presence of God where God is speaking to our heart and our mind. That dimension where you're in the room with everybody else but your focus is on what God is saying to you. If you haven't had that experience, you can have that experience. God wants you to have that where He speaks things to you personally and you know it's God. I'm not talking about the revelation of other people's thoughts and things, but He speaks to you about you and Him and you feel the comfort of His presence. It lets you know that God loves me. Amen.

Hebrews 13:5, the last part of it says, "He'll never leave us nor forsake us." John 14:18, Jesus said, "I will not leave you comfortless. I will come to you." And of course, He's talking about coming as the Holy Spirit. Again, in order to defeat the spirit of fear, you've got to know the word of God. The devil knows the word of God. So he'll come at you with scriptures and he'll bend it a little bit. He'll bend it just a little bit and try to get you off base. So you have to know the word of God and you have to know the character of God, which you learn from the word of God.

If the devil's saying, "Yeah, but the scripture says this, so it's okay if you lie," well, God says liars are going to Hell. Does that verse mean all liars except the liars in this circumstance? Bible says God's a just God, a righteous God, a merciful God, a long-suffering God. I have to know God's way of thinking. The more that I know, the easier it is for me to combat the enemy.

When we look at Jesus and the devil, Jesus defeats the devil in the temptation with scripture. He speaks from the scripture. The devil gives Him a temptation; He says, "It is written." Devil gives Him another temptation; He says, "This is what the word says." Devil gives another temptation; He tells him, "Get hence, get behind me," because it's written "thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only." Matthew 4:11 says the devil left. When he saw that Jesus only had an answer of a word to him, the devil said, "I'm not getting anyplace." He leaves. If you stand on the word, the devil's going to leave you.

Now, standing on the word means you've been trying to stand on it all week too. It doesn't mean that all of a sudden you jumped over on the word in the middle of the situation. You were standing on the word before. Amen. The Bible says that through the Lord, we can do all things. Right? "I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me." Philippians 4:13. It doesn't mean all things that I want to do, but whatever I have to do for God, God is going to give me the strength to do it. Verse 19 says that the Lord will supply all our needs. God will meet our need. So when the enemy comes to you and tries to make you afraid, "Well, God's not going to help you now." No, the Bible says God's going to supply all my needs.

The spirit of fear will have a stronghold in our life if we require to work the Lord to work things out the way we want them. If when I'm praying to God, I say, "Lord, it's got to be this way, or I can't take it," or "Lord, it's got to be this way, or Lord, do this, this, and this," the spirit of fear is going to have a hold in me because God is not obligated to work it out the way we want. But He will supply what we need. He will not forsake us in the circumstance. He may be trying to give you a testimony. He may through that testimony be trying to win people that you've been praying for. Amen. If we work it out the way we understand and want it, none of that's going to happen. But the minute again, this goes back to, "God, it's in Your hands. I would like You to do it this way. This seems like a good way to do it. This seems like what I need. But nevertheless, not my will but Thine be done." Amen.

Let's stand here this morning. God does not want us burdened up with fear. No matter how long you live for God, there's going to be times where you're going to have to fight fear. You have to learn how to do that, but you can have the victory. God does not want us to be overcome by that. God doesn't want you afraid to go to bed at night because you're afraid you're going to have fear all night. God wants you to be able to lay your head on the pillow and go to sleep. Amen.

This altar is open. Amen. If you want to just come and thank God for deliverance from fear. If you're struggling with fear, God's got something for you here today. Amen. If you need to strengthen your relationship with God, this altar is open. In His presence is fullness of joy. Hallelujah! You don't know, you're afraid of the unknown that's coming, you're anxious for all the things that are coming your way. Let's bring it to God. Let's give it to God. Amen. Let's get in touch with the one that loves us with an everlasting love. Let God gird up your mind. Let God secure your mind. Make a fresh connection with God. Hallelujah! Come on. Hallelujah! Amen. Leave this place with victory and confidence in Jesus. Hallelujah! Leave this place, Lord God, believing that God wants you to be an overcomer. That God didn't bring you this far to let you go. But He really is going to supply every need. That He's really going to help you, Lord. Hallelujah!

Tina Ouellette: Thank you for joining us today as we have studied the word on Apostolic Truth Radio. My name is Tina Ouellette, wife of Pastor Craig Ouellette of South Shore Pentecostal Church, located at 58 West Street in Whitman, Massachusetts. If you love praise and worship, you will love services at South Shore Pentecostal Church, and we invite you to come and worship with us. Sunday School for all ages begins at 10:00 AM, and our Sunday evening service begins at 6:00 PM. Adult Bible study and children's church is held on Wednesdays at 7:00 PM. You can learn more about our church on our website at southshorepentecostal.com or you may call us at 781-447-1668. If you have been blessed by this radio ministry, you can help support Apostolic Truth Radio via online giving through Venmo at SSPCWhitman. Write us today and request a free copy of today's message and join us for another broadcast of Apostolic Truth Radio.