COURAGEOUS continued

Power, love and sound judgment
2 Timothy 1:7 says in the NIV translation For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline. But in the HCSB (Holman Christian Standard Bible) translation it says For God has not given us a spirit of fearfulness, but one of power, love, and sound judgment.
Fear robs us of power, stops us being motivated by love and steal away our sound judgment. But God has not given us that kind of cowardly spirit. He has given us a courageous one.

Power
Ephesians 1:18 says ¹⁸I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, ¹⁹and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength ²⁰he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms, ²¹far above all rule and authority, power and dominion, and every name that is invoked, not only in the present age but also in the one to come.
That word “power” is in the original Greek δυνάμεως or dynameos, the word we know, where we get our words dynamite or dynamic from. That kind of power we receive as believers. The strength of God’s Holy Spirit living within us. Not our own strength but His.
Did you experience that power in you?

Love
There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. (1 John 4:18)
In the Koine Greek original the word love that is used is ἀγάπῃ or agape. That is the word for love which means unconditional or self-sacrificial love. This form of love is unique to the New Testamental faith and cannot be found in any religion.
When you come to know and realize God’s perfect love for you, the fear of His punishment is destroyed.
Can you testify to this eradication of fear after you found God’s perfect love in Christ?

Sound judgment
We are all in a spiritual battle. It is essentially a battle between truth and lies, and the battleground is our mind.
Fear distorts the truth. Every unhealthy fear is based on a lie. So, exercising sound judgment simply boils down to making a choice to see things the way God sees them, in other words how they really are.
Question. If there is any fear you experience? If so, try to find out the lie behind it. Then renounce that lie and ask the Lord to remove that specific fear. Describe below how that worked for you.

For a fear to be healthy, it must be present and/or powerful. Neutralizing just one of those attributes eliminates the fear. Most of our fears relate to a fear of death or a fear of other people.

The fear of death
Can you remove the presence of death? No, unless Jesus comes back first, every one of us is going to die.
What about death’s other attribute … its power? Christ died, ¹⁴Since the children have flesh and blood, he too shared in their humanity so that by his death he might break the power of him who holds the power of death —that is, the devil— ¹⁵and free those who all their lives were held in slavery by their fear of death. (Hebrews 2:14-15)

1 Corinthians 15:54-57 says “Death has been swallowed up in victory.” ⁵⁵“Where, O death, is your victory? Where, O death, is your sting?” ⁵⁶The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. ⁵⁷But thanks be to God! He gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.

The fear of people
Proverbs 29:25 says Fear of man will prove to be a snare, but whoever trusts in the Lord is kept safe.

God does not want us to remove ourselves from the presence of people. So, the possibility of someone not liking us and giving us the cold shoulder or worse is certainly ever present. It is powerful. By resolving in our own mind that, if push comes to shove, you will always obey God rather than people, you remove their power. They may be present, but they are no longer powerful.

Now, watch the 25:22-minute DVD video.

PAUSE FOR THOUGHT 2

Behind every unhealthy fear is a lie. Look at the fears below. Or elaborate on the fears you identified in Pause for Thought in session 4.1. If someone is prone to those fears, what lies might they believe? For example, a possible lie for (1) is “Satan is more powerful than I am”. See for this James 4:7 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

Fear of Satan and powers of darkness
Fear of the future
Fear of rejection
Fear of failure
Fear of confrontation
Fear of financial problems

Below, elaborate on lies and that you are prone to, and its counterpars in the promises of God.