Mountain Streams

FREEDOM FROM FEAR!

By David Brandt Berg, was first published April, 1975.

Just as "the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom" (Proverbs 9:10), fear of Satan is really the beginning of death! Fearing God is a form of worshipping God. To be afraid of God and to fear Him is really to give Him the respect that He should have, as most of us showed respect to our own natural fathers. (See Hebrews 12:9.) Therefore, to fear Satan, to fear the Devil is giving him just the kind of worship that he wants. It's a form of worshipping the Devil!

The Devil himself is in charge of death, as you can see by this Scripture: "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, He [Jesus] also Himself likewise took part of the same; that through death He might destroy him that had the power of death, that is, the Devil." Jesus, however, is more than able to "deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage" (Hebrews 2:14,15).

So you must rebuke that kind of fear just as Jesus did when the Devil tried to get Him to worship him on the mount of temptation. Jesus said, "Get thee behind Me, Satan: for it is written, thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou serve" (Luke 4:8). The implied meaning from the original is: "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God and Him only shalt thou fear!" You're only to fear God! "This," Solomon said, "is the whole duty of man; to fear God"--only God--"and keep His commandments!" (See Ecclesiastes 12:13.) When we are sinful or have done something wrong, we should be afraid of God. But you're not to be afraid of the Devil, ever! "Thou shalt worship the Lord thy God, and Him only shalt thou fear." (See Matthew 4:10.) God's Word says about other kinds of fear that "fear hath torment" (1 John 4:18).

We are therefore to "fear not them which can kill the body but after that have no more that they can do, but rather fear Him [God], Who can cast both body and soul into Hell!" (See Luke 12:4,5; Matthew 10:28.) We're not to fear Satan, who only has the power of death over the body, but we're to fear God, Who has the power of death over the soul.

So fear of the Devil is not of God, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind!" (2 Timothy 1:7). And, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee" (Isaiah 26:3).

Fear is the exact opposite of faith. Fear of the Devil, fear of death, fear of the Death Angel--this is the total opposite of faith! That's the kind of fear that will destroy you if you continually harbour it and are always afraid. It's damaging and disastrous to you, and will wear you down, wear you out, give you a nervous breakdown, drive you out of your mind and even kill you if you keep letting it torment you.

And believe it or not, that kind of fear and that spirit of fear is extremely contagious, just like a disease! Others who live with you, people whom you come in contact with, are apt to be afflicted with that same horrible fear. It's just as possible to catch things in the spirit as it is in the physical, in fact even more so! It's even more dangerous and easier to catch if you're not inoculated with the Spirit of God, because then you have no resistance against these spiritual diseases. Now with physical diseases you can become immune to a certain disease because you've either had it, or you've had a little touch of it through inoculation and your body has built up resistance against it so that you can no longer catch it.

Well, this same principle is also true in the spiritual: All of us are sinners, and in the past all of us have had a touch of the spiritual disease of fear, fear of Satan, fear of death, naked horrible fear of the Devil himself and the Death Angel. All of us have been afraid of the Devil at some time. But we must face our fears. There's no use beating around the bush any more, there's no use trying to deny that they're there.

The only cure is to call on Jesus, call on the Spirit of God! Call on the Lord and ask Him to deliver you!--To be thoroughly inoculated by the Spirit of God so that you have built up a genuine spiritual resistance to this fear so that you can't catch it any more. "I sought the Lord and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears" (Psalm 34:4).

Fear was one of the terrible problems of a girl I once prayed for, Helen Jones, who was marvellously delivered. She had been in bed for eight years and had gotten so thin, that her skin was stretched over her bones and she looked like a skeleton. She wasn't even able to eat any more, and could hardly even drink water.

And God showed us that her trouble was fear! Doctors couldn't find anything wrong with her. They examined her, tried everything, every test, and finally said, "Well, there's nothing medically wrong with her, we don't know what's the matter with her." Well, God is the greatest Doctor! He's the Great Physician Who can heal all our diseases, and forgive all of our sins. (See Psalm 103:3.)

And just before we went to pray for her we got this very Scripture: "Who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage," from Hebrews chapter two! When I went to pray for her, suddenly the Holy Spirit of God came down on me in such an anointing of power that I laid hands on her head and I rebuked the Devil and spoke personally to this fiend of fear; I rebuked him and cast him out in the name of Jesus and told him to depart from her and from that house! Because of our faith in God's Word and the anointing of the Holy Spirit and His power in that prayer, she was instantly delivered!

She arose that day and walked for the first time in years! She had been in bed so long that her feet were shaped like hands. She hadn't even been able to stand because they had been under the weight of the covers for so long.

But thank God, that day the Life Angel--Jesus Christ, God's Own Son--came into that room and rebuked the Devil and delivered her from that horrible spirit of fear which had kept her subject to bondage because of her fear of death!

She was instantly healed, and when we saw her just a few weeks later, she was well and strong. She had gained 40 pounds and was absolutely beautiful and charming! She entertained us in her home as a lovely hostess, perfectly well, fully restored, and with a good appetite. She had a new boyfriend and was perfectly normal, totally healed and in wonderful condition!

It says in Hebrews 2:13, "I will put my trust in Him"--In Whom?--In God! So tell the Devil that. Say: "Be gone, Devil, get thee behind me Satan! I'm putting my trust in God, in Jesus!" Verse 14 goes on, the idea being that He, Jesus, "that through death He might destroy him who hath the power over death, that is, the Devil." Now who is this Death Angel? It tells us right here that it's the Devil. So, if you're afraid of the Death Angel, it means you're afraid of the Devil, and that's a terrible thing to be. We're not to be afraid of the Devil; we're to pin our faith in God and to fear God and not to fear Satan. And verse 15 gives the promise: "And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage." So God is able to deliver us, who through fear of death were all our lifetime subject to bondage of fear!

God's Word says, "Resist the Devil and he will flee from you!" (James 4:7). You have power over the Devil, you can order the Devil what to do. The demons and evil spirits are subject unto us; they have no free will of their own. They cannot do as they please. (See Luke 10:17,20.) They have to do what we tell them to do in Jesus' name, and to get the Hell out of here! Praise the Lord!

If you know that you love God and that He loves you, you know that He's going to take care of you; you know that everything is all right because God loves you, so why should you be afraid? There's no reason to fear! His "perfect love casts out all such fear" (1 John 4:18).

You can have "freedom from fear" in Jesus! Ask Him to free you now from any and all fears of the Devil, in Jesus' name!--Amen!

Dear Jesus, I accept You as my Lord and Saviour. Please come into my heart, forgive me for all of my sins, and give me Your free gift of Eternal Life. Please fill me with Your Holy Spirit so that I will have the power to share Your Love with others, and to take a spiritual stand against any fears in my life. Please free me from any fears of the Devil. Amen.

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