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10FIVEFear and TormentTorormentThe Twin Demonic PowersTwinFear often carries with it the twin spirit of torment.“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involvestorment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” (1 John 4:18)As we enter into fear and worry about the future or the consequences of some past action,a spirit of torment begins to haunt us. We find it difficult to sleep. Our thought life begins tofall into chaos and we cannot bring things into order.The Bible says in Luke 21:26:“men’s hearts failing them from fear and the expectation of those things whichare coming on the earth, for the powers of heaven will be shaken.”(Luke 21:26)Yes, there will be a day of great fear come on the earth before the return of Jesus Christ,but in the meantime, spirits of torment and fear are attacking untold multitudes.As we begin to fear, then we allow in the spirit of torment.Some years ago, when I was away from my home city ministering, I was staying in a motel.I had not taken much notice of the motif which was on the outside of the building, butsubsequently I had reason to do so.One morning I sat on my bed in my pyjamas, reading the Bible. When I got up there wereblood stains on the seat of my pyjamas. Obviously I had bled from the bowel. Immediatelyall sorts of thoughts entered my mind. Foremost among them was the fact that at the sameage my father had contracted cancer of the bowel.All sorts of tormenting thoughts entered my mind. “What if it is cancer?” “Your father hadthe same problem.” “There is no cure for it.” I quickly realised that I had to bring thesethoughts under control through the name of Jesus Christ. As I prayed about it, a peace cameupon me. I then realised that the motif on the outside of the motel took the form of a demonicMaori carving. I recognised that I was under attack and bound the spirits of attack.Subsequent extensive investigations and x-rays showed no problem whatsoever in mybody. That was quite a number of years ago. I have never bled since in the same area.However, in the time between first finding the blood stain and the final examinations, aperiod of three months elapsed. During that period I would waken from time to time withtormenting thoughts and fears which I had to constantly bring under the name of Jesus Christin order to obtain God’s peace. Dove Ministrieswww.doveministries.comFree Print On Demand Books

11SIXThe FrFruitsuits of Fear1. FEAR AS A KILLERFear can kill. In the Science Digest of 1980 there is an example of this. Fifteen people haddied as the result of an attack upon them. When their bodies were examined, it was foundthat a number of them need not have died because their physical injuries were not sufficientto kill them. Their heart cells had been destroyed by their body’s reaction to fear. It has beenproved that stress caused by fear can produce lethal changes in the heart muscle and cancause death. 1Dr Charles Mayo of the Mayo Clinic has said that fear affects the heart, the circulation, theglands, the nervous system and the health generally.Yes, fear can have a major effect upon our body systems.In Scripture we have the example of Nabal, who refused David’s request for help. Despitethe fact that Nabal’s wife, Abigail, subsequently fulfilled the request of David and placatedDavid’s wrath, nevertheless, Nabal died of fear when he heard that David had intended tokill him, before Abigail had caused David’s anger to be turned aside.“So it was, in the morning, when the wine had gone from Nabal, and his wife hadtold him these things, that his heart died within him, and he became like a stone.Then it came about, after about ten days, that the LORD struck Nabal, and he died.”(1 Samuel 25:37-38)According to legend, many years ago, there was a cholera epidemic in Constantinople.One hundred and twenty-five people died, apparently as a result of cholera, but followingexamination of their bodies, it was determined that, in fact, only five died from cholera. Theother 120 died from the fear of cholera. 2Fear is a killer force which is totally opposed to faith. Fear always anticipates that the worstwill happen and not the best. For example, what if I get sick, or lose my job, or can’t pay myaccounts, or what if my tax bill is higher than I expect. Fear is a negative force which operatesto destroy us if it can.3As we allow fear to enter, we allow that which we don’t want to happen, in fact, to happen.This is because we are allowing into our life the spirit of fear which is opposite to faith. Whenwe open our lives to fear, we are allowing in the exact thing that we don’t want to happen andwe are bringing into being the very thing which we fear. 4 As we tolerate fear and dwell uponit, this provides Satan with an opportunity to attack us.2. FEAR AS A THIEF“The thief does not come except to steal and to kill, and to destroy. I have comethat they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” (John 10:10)The devil operates through fear in order to steal from us our inheritance in God and alsoto steal our health, our possessions and anything else upon which he may lay his hands. AsJesus Christ has said, the devil comes to kill and to destroy.Many people are literally killed through fear because, as we have seen already, fear candestroy our health and our very lives.The Bible describes fear as a spirit.“For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound Dove Ministrieswww.doveministries.comFree Print On Demand Books

12mind.” (2 Timothy 1:7)The spirit of fear does not come from God but is a spiritual power which comes out of thespiritual realm and attacks our mind. We have to realise that there is an intelligence (Satan)in the universe which is directed towards keeping us away from God and which is directedto destroying our peace of mind, our joy and which wants to rob us of eternal life. 5Usually the things which we fear most of all never happen. A great deal of the torment andmisery which we suffer comes from anticipating what might happen, not what actually is goingto happen. Most times it does not happen at all. 6“There they are in great fear where no fear was.” (Psalm 53:5)Yes, the Bible sums it up perfectly. People can be in great fear when actually there is noreason for fear to exist in their lives.The devil loves to throw lies into our mind and let us meditate upon them. As we do so,we play his game.Jesus said:“Then He said to them, “Take heed what you hear. With the same measure youuse, it will be measured to you; and to you who hear, more will be given.”(Mark 4:24)This Word can be applied positively or negatively. Jesus tells us to take heed to whatwe hear. If we are listening to unbelief, doubt, fear and all the other lies of the devil andbegin to absorb them, then in the same extent that we apply that fear in our lives, it willbe applied to us. Jesus Christ is telling us here to listen to Him, His Word and not thelies of the devil, so that we may have the peace of God.Again, Jesus refers to how we should hear:“Therefore take heed how you hear. For whoever has, to him more will be given;and whoever does not have, even what he seems to have will be taken from him.”(Luke 8:18)If we hear and listen to fear being spoken through others, then we will receive more of itourselves and we will lose the good things of life. However, on the other hand, if we listenand speak positively and move with those who love the Lord and follow His Word andreceive good teaching in accordance with God’s Word, then more of God’s goodness can begiven to us.3. IGNORANCE AS A CAUSE OF FEARMuch fear arises from ignorance or lack of knowledge of the Word of God.The Bible says in Hosea:“My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge. Because you have rejectedknowledge, I also will reject you from being priest for Me; Because you haveforgotten the law of your God, I also will forget your children.” (Hosea 4:6)I find that daily meditation on the Word of God and reading that Word on a regular basis,gives me faith:“So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the Word of God.” (Romans10:17)Before I was born again of the Spirit of God twenty years ago, fear played a major part inmy life. It drove me, it tormented me, it caused me to feel guilty and caused unnecessarystrife in my life. When I was born again, the peace of God came into my heart. It is a peacethat has remained ever since.My marriage was healed, our children came to the Lord and the peace of God began tofill our home instead of the fear of man. As this peace came into the lives of my wife and Dove Ministrieswww.doveministries.comFree Print On Demand Books

13myself, we found a new love for each other and for our children. For years the devil had triedto destroy our marriage and our home and had nearly succeeded. Even although I had beengoing to church for nearly twenty years, I had never been born again, nor had I reallysurrendered to Jesus Christ. Consequently, the Bible did not make sense to me. However,after I was born again, the Bible immediately came alive and I found in it the truths of God13by which I have lived ever since. This has been the answer to the fear that the devil wouldotherwise have planted in my life.The first evil force which gripped Adam after the fall was fear. Accordingly, it is deeplyingrained into all of creation:“So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I wasnaked; and I hid myself.” (Genesis 3:10)As Adam fell away from fellowship with God, fear attacked him as the ruler of this worldsought to exercise authority over him.4. FEAR AS A CAUSE OF DEPRESSIONFear also brings depression.“Anxiety in the heart of man causes depression, But a good word makes it glad.”(Proverbs 12:25)Many people suffer from prolonged depression, not understanding that often its causehas been fear entering their lives.The Bible refers to the spirit of heaviness which many have found to be depression.“.The garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness.” (Isaiah 6:3)The answer to depression is to praise God and to keep our thought life centred on theLord. We should also put on as a helmet over our mind, the hope of salvation.“But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith andlove, and as a helmet the hope of salvation.” (1 Thessalonians 5:8)Our mind should be centred on hope and our heart should be filled with faith. If we allowfear and anxiety into our lives, then we often open the door to depression.OTHER FRUITS OF FEAROther fruits of fear can be rejection, confusion and suicide. Often medical conditions suchas ulcers can result from fear.SEVENWororrr y - The Companion Spirit of FearWorry is a killer. It ranges itself alongside fear and robs us of the joy of life.Dean Inge has said that worry is interest paid on trouble before it is due. 1We need to recognise that fear and worry are sins.“But he who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not eat from faith;for whatever is not from faith is sin.” (Romans 14:23)Jesus Christ spoke of worry in Matthew. Here on six occasions He said, “Do not worry”.“Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what youwill drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and Dove Ministrieswww.doveministries.comFree Print On Demand Books

14the body more than clothing?“Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns;yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they?“Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?“So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how theygrow: they neither toil nor spin; “and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all hisglory was not arrayed like one of these.“Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is throwninto the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?“Therefore do not worryworry,, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or‘What shall we wear?’“For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows thatyou need all these things. But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness,and all these things shall be added to you.“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its ownthings. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.” (Matthew 6:25-34)Jesus Christ has given us the answer to worry, namely to seek first the kingdom of God andthe righteousness of God and everything shall be added to us.We have not been promised a worry free life. There will always be trials.“These things I have spoken to you, that in Me you may have peace. In the worldyou will have tribulation; but be of good cheer, I have overcome the world.”(John 16:33)As the Apostle Paul preached:“strengthening the souls of the disciples, exhorting them to continue in the faith,and saying, “We must through many tribulations enter the kingdom of God.” (Acts14:22)However, there is a world of difference between suffering tribulation as a Christian asopposed to suffering it as a non-Christian.“The wicked flee when no one pursues, But the righteous are bold as a lion.”(Proverbs 28:1)Those of us who have faith in Jesus Christ are able to call upon the name of the Lord todeliver us and we have access to the Throne of Grace in times of tribulation. There is acommon saying which says,“Those who live in worry invite death in a hurry.”Fear and worry can bring on over-eating, anxiety and stress. Many people are grosslyoverweight because, as they have learned to live in fear, then they have taken to food oralcohol in an effort to overcome the fear or worry. Following fear and anxiety, people oftencome into a state of stress.Dr Charles Mayo has said, “I have never known anyone who died of overwork, but I haveknown many who died from fear, anxiety and worry.” 2Jeanni Mills, in her book, “Six Years with God”, tells how the infamous Jim Jones told hisfollowers in 1975 to drink some wine. After they had drunk the wine, he told them that it waslaced with cyanide and that they had forty-five minutes to live. One girl ran out of the building Dove Ministrieswww.doveministries.comFree Print On Demand Books

15and a shot was fired at her. She appeared to collapse. Forty-five minutes later Jones thengot up and said, in fact, that there was no cyanide in the wine and the girl had only been shotwith a blank. In this way he had controlled them by fear. This was three years before he killedall his followers in Guyana, but it shows how fear can be used to control our lives. 3Pastor Gary Greenwald, Pastor of Eagle's Nest, California, gives the example on hisexcellent tape on fear, of the doctor who was called by the husband to visit his sick wife. Thedoctor went into the bedroom and then came out and asked for a chisel. The husband waspuzzled about this but found him a chisel and gave it to him. The doctor went into thebedroom and a short time later came out and asked for a long knife. The husband becameconsiderably concerned, but without asking questions, gave the doctor the knife. The doctorreturned to the room but a while later came out and asked for a hammer. By now the husbandwas getting extremely concerned but, still trusting the doctor, he gave him the hammer. Thedoctor went into the room then a while later came out and asked for a hacksaw.By now the husband was beside himself and he shouted to the doctor, “What do you wanta hacksaw for?” He could see the doctor cutting up his wife, hammering her, using the chisel,the knife, everything upon her. He was terrified.The doctor’s answer floored the husband completely. As the husband demanded to knowwhy the doctor needed all of these tools, particularly the hacksaw, the doctor replied, “I amtrying to open my briefcase!”This story shows how our imagination can run riot as fear enters and begins to control ourmind.EIGHTEntryy Points of FearEntr1. SEPARATION FROM GODJust as Adam, by his sin, opened himself to the spirit of fear and thus separated himselffrom God, so also we must be aware that our sin separates us from God.“Behold, the LORD’S hand is not shortened, That it cannot save; Nor His earheavy, That it cannot hear. But your iniquities have separated you from yourGod; And your sins have hidden His face from you, So that He will not hear.”(Isaiah 5

Some of the greatest enemies we have in life are fear and worry. We worry about this, we worry about that. We worry whether there will be bad news. We begin to be anxious and fret over things which develop in our minds and cause the fears to get even greater. Guilt is a great enemy. Because of guilt for past