Replacing Fear With Power

This past Sunday, I heard a sermon in which the pastor was reminding his congregation of the way in which we Christians, so often sort of put the Holy Spirit in the background of our faith, both in our church and in our personal walk. He preached from the text of 2 Timothy 1:7-8. As I have meditated on that passage since listening to him, I find myself drawn deeply into thoughts of the second verse of that letter to Timothy.

2 Timothy 1:7
For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.

I love the Word of God. I never cease to be amazed at how it works in my life. Hebrews 4:12 tells us that “…the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart.” The more I mulled over this statement from 2 Timothy, the more it began to judge the intentions of my heart, many of which really don’t demonstrate that I am allowing the Holy Spirit to change the way I live, as much as He wants to.

The first aspect we see here, is spoken of in the negative. We have not been given a spirit of fear. As a man, I don’t ever want to display a sense of fear in front of my fellow man. Neither do they, yet most of us, men and women, live out our Christian lives in fear. This is what hinders our witness and why we so often dim the light of Christ in our lives. If we let the Sword of the Spirit, God’s Word, pierce deeply into our joints and marrow, judging the intentions of our heart, can we honestly say we consistently speak out in sharing Christ?

In response to the fact that we do not have a spirit of fear living within us, we then see that we have power. For those of you who remember the old TV show, Home Improvement, you will recall that Tim the Tool Man Taylor, was always talking about more power. He was constantly tinkering with everything he could get his hands on and tweaking things so that they would have more power. Wouldn’t we all like to have more power. Guess what? God has given us a spirit of power and that power is complete in itself. It does not need to be tweaked in any way; it simply needs to be exercised. A power tool is completely powerless unless you turn it on and use it. We simply need to exercise our faith and when we do, the same power that raised Christ from the dead, lives in us.

It is this power, which enables us to attain the fullness of the Christian life, by which we must walk. Galatians 5:16 instructs us to “walk by the Spirit” and if we do that then we “will not carry out the desire of the flesh.” The desires of the flesh are selfish desires. But as our text from 2 Timothy tells us, we have been given a spirit of love. Again, if we turn to the Word of God, in this case from 1 Corinthians, chapter 13, we learn that love “does not seek its own.” The Holy Spirit empowers us to love as God calls us to love. The love that God calls us to is not speaking of itself as an emotion, which emanates and is manipulated by our feelings, but it is a love that is dictated by our choice to act. Love is a choice. The Holy Spirit empowers us to make choices that override our selfish desires and our own feelings. This is how we can, with all our being, love our enemies. It is how we can forgive the unforgivable.  It is how we shine the light of Christ, who took upon Himself, the horrible payment of our personal sin.

Finally, we see that we have been given a spirit of self-control. There is no limit to the effects of the power God has given us in changing our lives. This Holy Spirit power enables us to overcome addictions. 2 Corinthians 10:4 is clear, “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Read that again. “For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds.” Addictions are strongholds. We have been empowered to overcome them by the power of the Holy Spirit, who lives in every believer. We have the power to say no to sin. We have the power to live a disciplined life in Christ, one that reflects to the world, His light. Yes, every single believer has this power, this spirit. Again, open the Word of God.

1 Corinthians 3:16
Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?

If we are truly Christ’s. we have this power living in us. We have the power to have self-control and choose what we do, how we act, and what we think. We have the power to love as Christ loved. We have the power to overcome all fear.

Yet, we fail so often. What do we do about this? The answer lies in the verse before the one I am speaking of.

2 Timothy 1:6
For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands.

The Spirit lives in us, but like a power tool that remains unplugged and turned off, His flame will burn low and be ineffective. God calls us to action. Like any fire, if we want it to burn brightly, we must fan the flame, kindle the fire, stir up the coals, and keep it ablaze. We do this by staying in God’s Word, being in constant prayer, by worshipping God, and by meeting with other believers though our local churches. We must get up and walk in the Spirit.

Open your Bible, ask the Spirit of God to help you flame the fire of the gift of God. If you do, you will find the spirit of power, love, and self-control warming your heart to action and will be restored to the joy of your salvation.

Be strong in the Lord Always.