GOD HAS NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR (Part 1-2)

Eric Aboadwe
August 15, 2017 ·

GOD HAS NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR

Today’s reading of the Word is taken from the 2nd Book of Timothy where it says:
“For God has NOT given us a spirit of FEAR, but of POWER and of LOVE and of SOUND MIND” (2 Timothy 1:7).

We thank God for giving us another day, but most importantly for giving us His Word which is a lamp to our feet and light to our path (Psalm 119:105). He gave us the Word so that we may not stumble in our JOURNEY of FAITH. This is because the SALVATION of JESUS CHRIST has illuminated our path. For this reason the LORD said that whoever follows Him shall not walk in DARKNESS, but he shall have the “LIGHT of Life” (John 8:12)

The Lord Almighty has given us many BLESSINGS which includes “POWER, LOVE and of SOUND MIND.” However, before we dive into this one by one, our Scripture reading also says that “God has NOT given us a spirit of FEAR,” and I want us to look at this for today, and we will look at the rest the next day. So what kind of “FEAR” is the Bible talking about in the passage? To understand this “FEAR,” we must go back to our historical root concerning what happened to our first parents (Adam and Eve).

After Adam and Even TRANSGRESSED the LAW of God and they sewed fig leaves to cover their nakedness, the Word of God says that, “And they heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the Garden in the COOL of the day, and Adam and his wife HID themselves from the PRESENCE of the LORD God among the trees of the Garden” (Genesis 3:8).

Even though it say here that God came to visit Adam and Eve in the Garden and He was walking “in the COOL of the day,” spiritually it wasn't “COOL” for Adam and Eve at all. They were spiritually HOT because there was a serious problem. The problem was that SIN has entered into Man, and its brought a devastating consequences on him.

Therefore when the LORD God called Adam and said to him, “Where are you?” The Bible says that Adam replied, “I heard Your VOICE in the Garden, and I was AFRAID because I was NAKED; and I HID myself” (Genesis 3:10). When Adams says “I was AFRAID because I was NAKED,” we must understand that the word “NAKED” represent SIN. In other words Adam was saying, “I was AFRAID because I have become SINFUL.” This shows clearly that it is SIN which brought “FEAR.”

But what kind of “FEAR” is the Bible talking about? It is none other than the “FEAR” of God’s JUDGMENT. After the “FALL,” Adam and Eve became worried, and they were filled with insecurity because SIN ignited the RED LIGHT of danger (Hell fire). Therefore Adam and all his descendants could not escape from the sense of “FEAR” because their BODIES were ALTERED from RIGHTEOUSNESS into SINFULNESS.

This is the reason why even when a man is born again of the “water and the Spirit” (1 John 3:5), sometimes the FLESH gets terrified. This is because it is not the FLESH of a Saint which is born again, but it is his “soul” (Hebrews 10:39). That’s why among the holy men of FAITH in the Bible, whenever an angel appeared to them, they become “AFRAID” or terrified.

For example when the angel of the LORD appeared to Joseph in a dream when he was worried about Mary’s pregnancy of the Baby JESUS, the angel told him, “Do not be AFRAID to take to you Mary your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 1:20). The word “AFRAID” which is mentioned in this passage is different from the “AFRAID” which Adam spoke about when God came to visit him in the Garden.

Adam’s “AFRAID” was the “FEAR” of JUDGMENT, but Joseph’s “AFRAID” is the “FEAR” of getting WORRIED which is NATURAL for the human FLESH after it became ALTERED. That’s why in the Mountain Carmel VICTORY, even though Elijah prayed and God answered him by “fire” and he killed the 450 prophets of Baal, “FEAR” grabbed the FLESH of Elijah, and he ran away for his life when Jezebel sent him a letter to threaten his life that she will kill him just like how he killed the Baal prophets (1 Kings 19:1-3).

Another example is when the angel came to announce the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias the high priest. The Scripture tells us, “Then an angel of the LORD appeared to him, standing on the right side of the altar of incense. And when Zacharias SAW him, he was TROUBLED, and FEAR fell upon him” (Luke 1:11-12). It says here that “FEAR” fell upon Zacharias, and it is another proof that it is NATURAL for the human FLESH to get terrified.

And because God Himself is aware of this, and the angels too are aware, the angel told Zacharias, “Do not be AFRAID, Zacharias, for your PRAYER is heard; and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son, and you shall call his name John” (Luke 1:13). This shows that even when a Saint is “AFRAID” as a result of the FLESH, it is the Word of God which gives him the STRENGTH.

We must therefore know that the “FEAR” which comes from the FLESH of a Saint is as a result of the WEAKNESSES of the human FLESH, and this is very understandable. However in times of “FEAR,” the born again Saints must STRENGTHEN themselves through the Word of God by putting their “TRUST” in God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS fulfilled by the water and the blood of JESUS. That’s why king David said, “Whenever I am AFRAID, I will TRUST in You” (Psalm 56:3).

The truth is that when a person’s “soul” and “spirit” becomes born again water, the blood, and the resurrection of JESUS which fulfilled God’s RIGHTEOUSNESS (Matthew 3:15), there is nothing like “FEAR” of JUDGMENT. This is because the LORD JESUS told us, “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who hears My Word and BELIEVES in Him who sent Me has EVERLASTING LIFE, and shall not come into JUDGMENT, but has passed from DEATH into LIFE” (John 5:25).

This is the reason why the Apostle Paul said that, “Therefore, brethren, having BOLDNESS to enter the Holiest by the blood of JESUS, by a new and a living way which He concentrated for us, through the VEIL, that is, His flesh” (Hebrews 10:19-20). This means that God has giving us SPIRITUAL “BOLDNESS,” through the RIGHTEOUSNESS of JESUS, and this is the reason why the Apostle Paul is saying in our Scripture reading that “God has NOT given us a spirit of FEAR.”

Our study continues.........

BLESSED are those who have the spiritual “BOLDNESS.”



Eric Aboadwe
August 16, 2017 ·

GOD HAS NOT GIVEN US A SPIRIT OF FEAR (Part 2)

Our study is a continuation and so we will take the reading of the Word from the 2nd Book of Timothy once again where it says:

“For God has NOT given us a spirit of FEAR, but of POWER and of LOVE and of SOUND MIND” (2 Timothy 1:7).

In our previous study we were able to look at the historical background by which “FEAR” came about when Adam and Eve became SINFUL beings. We also learnt that there are two different kinds of “FEAR.” One comes as a result of the WEAKNESS of the human FLESH which is NORMAL, but what the Apostle Paul is talking about in our Scripture reading is the “FEAR” of JUDGMENT.

I have always been saying that none of the Apostles ever said something which CONTRADICT each other, and therefore it is people’s misunderstanding of the “Scriptures” which makes them think and say that the Bible sometimes CONTRADICT itself. All the disciples and God’s servants in the Old Testament had one message which is about JESUS CHRIST and His “SALVATION” work of saving the human race from “SIN.” Therefore all of them were having the same FAITH.

This is the reason why the Apostle Paul told the Ephesians, “One LORD, one FAITH, one BAPTISM; One GOD and FATHER of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all” (Ephesians 4:5-6). Those of you who have been on the platform for a very long time and those who have been following the sermons of the (True Living Bread & Water) will recall that we treated a topic under this Scripture passage which was titled, “ONE LORD, ONE FAITH, ONE BAPTISM.”

Therefore concerning what the Apostle Paul says in our Scripture reading that “God has NOT given us a spirit of FEAR, but of POWER and of LOVE and of SOUND MIND,” the Apostle John also talks about the same thing but in a different way. I therefore want us to take a look at it and see how “Scripture is interpreted by Scripture.”

So just like Paul, John the Apostle also wrote by the inspiration of the “Holy Spirit” when he said, “LOVE has been PERFECTED among us in this: that we may have BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is NO FEAR in LOVE: but PERFECT LOVE cast out FEAR, because FEAR involves TORMENT, but he who FEARS has not been made PERFECT in LOVE” (1 John 4:17-18).

When John the Apostle says that “LOVE has been PERFECTED among us in this: that we may have BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT,” it is the same thing which the Apostle Paul was talking about in our Scripture reading that “God has NOT given us a spirit of FEAR, but of POWER and of LOVE and of SOUND MIND.”

What the Apostle John says confirms the fact that the “FEAR” which grabbed Adam and Eve and the “FEAR” which the Apostle Paul spoke about in our reading is the “FEAR of JUDGMENT.” That’s why John said that “LOVE has been PERFECTED among us in this: that we may have BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT.”

When the Word says that, “There is NO FEAR in LOVE: but PERFECT LOVE cast out FEAR,” it means that when a person BELIEVES in the “LOVE” of God which has washed away all his SIN through the “water and the blood” of JESUS, it removes “FEAR of JUDGMENT” from the person because he understands that all his SINS were TRANSFERED over to JESUS when he receive the BAPTISM to “fulfill all RIGHTEOUSNESS” (Matthew 3:15), dying on the Cross, and resurrecting to complete the SALVATION of the humankind.

This is God’s “eternal purpose” (Ephesians 3:11) for every man so that “We may have BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT; because as He is, so are we in this world.” It is the POWER of God’s “LOVE” which has saved our “soul” completely from the condemnation of hell, and that’s why the Apostle John used the words, “LOVE has been PERFECTED among us.” And the reason is because so “that we may have BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT.”

Also when it says, “because FEAR involves TORMENT, but he who FEARS has not been made PERFECT in LOVE,” it means that unless a person believes that his SINS has been “blotted out like a thick cloud” (Isaiah 44:22), he will suffer the “TORMENT” of hell-fire. This is because you can only walk in God’s “PERFECT LOVE” when you receive the PERFECT remission of your SINS once for all.

We must therefore get it clear that NOBODY in this world can obtain “BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT” if he does not believe in both the “water and the blood” of CHRIST. We must not forget that the same John who talks about “BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT” is the very same person who said that JESUS CHRIST “came by water and blood” (1 John 5:6).

Therefore as a Christian, whether your pastor is the most famous preacher in this world or he is so brilliant to the extent that he has a PHD Degree in theology, you must know he is NOT the one who gives you “BOLDNESS” for “the day of JUDGMENT,” but it is JESUS CHRIST who gives you the “BOLDNESS” through His water BAPTISM and BLOOD, and the Bible says that “It is the Spirit who bears WITNESS because the Spirit is TRUTH” (1 John 5:6).

Please take note of the fact that it didn't say “And it is your denomination or pastor who bears WITNESS because your pastor is TRUTH” (False Doctrine 5:6). It says it is the “Holy Spirit” who bears the “WITNESS.” I am emphasizing on this because many Christians are suffering from a SPIRITUAL DISEASE whereby they believe in their “pastors” more the written “Word” of God. Due to this, the words of their “pastors” carry more weight than the “Word” of God. Therefore when God is correcting their FAITH, they will say, “As for us, our denominational teaching and FAITH is NOT like that.”

This shows clearly that the FAITH of many Christians were built on someone’s own THOUGHTS and not on the BIBLICAL FAITH. But in order to have “BOLDNESS in the day of JUDGMENT,” every Christian must believe in both “the water and blood” of JESUS CHRIST.

BLESSED are those who have obtained the “BOLDNESS” to enter “the Most Holy Place” (Hebrews 10:19).