Holy Spirit: I gave you a rest yesterday, a spiritual oasis so that you would be refreshed and would have the strength to hear today’s message. Listener: I made the mistake of commenting, “Lord, when I heard those words, I began to anticipate this message with some trepidation.” His response was very strong. No! Trepidation is just a fancy word for fear! DO NOT FEAR. Rejoice that I trust you with this word. Be intrepid, without fear or apprehension of any kind. In fact, that is the focus of today’s Daily Bread. Fear is lack of faith, lack of faith in Me. If you had to trust your own strength, you would do well to fear, because your strength is truly inadequate to fight both Satan and self. But, I have given you My strength and the spiritual weapons listed in Ephesians 6:13-18. Go to your Bible and memorize them. Go to the Daily Bread post for September 3 for quick access to a teaching on these weapons, Trust in these weapons and Satan cannot stand before you. Fear invites him in, and then he uses fear to cripple you, to defeat you. But you have allowed him to do this by opening the doorway of fear through which he enters. Fear prevents you from hearing My words of comfort, encouragement, and instruction; blinds you to the paths to deliverance and victory that I am showing you; deprives you of My Presence in your time of greatest need. At the root of your fear is the fear that I will fail you…not the fear that I do not have the power to deliver you, but that I will not choose to deliver YOU. Fear that I do not love you enough to heal you, to provide for you, to protect you from your enemy. He is also My enemy. He attacks you to attempt to defeat a member of My body; to make you an ineffective member of that body. Recognize that fear is one of his strongest weapons. Fear is doubt, lack of trust, lack of obedience…all of these failures combined into one devastatingly effective weapon of destruction. But you must remember that My weapons are so much more effective than his! Also know that if you have been so weakened by prolonged fear that you cannot wield those weapons, you can turn to Me, and I will lift you in My arms and carry you to safety...IF you will cry out to Me and TRUST Me to carry you by the path that I have chosen. Turn to Me as you did when you came for Salvation. Then you received Salvation, deliverance from the penalty of sin because Jesus paid the price for your sins on the cross. Now know that He also purchased your freedom from fear on the cross. It is time for you to accept that deliverance and to walk in that freedom.
