Now is the time to abandon a life of worry, anxiety and fear, and launch into a life of faith, boldness and power!
Transcription
Ashley:
Did you know the devil is afraid of you? That’s right! We don’t have fear him. He actually fears us. Find out why.
Speaker 2:
Why live a normal life when you could be living the abundant life? Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley:
Hello! Thanks for joining us today. My name’s Ashley and this is my wife, Carlie, and we’re so glad your with us in the lounge. Praise God! We’re excited. We’ve got the show, we’re talking about being fearless and about what it means to live fearlessly. And, in fact, this is part of a series but what we’re talking about today, one of the things we’re going to talk about today, is how the devil, the enemy, actually fears us.
Carlie:
Yup. He has a fear all of his own. Now, he is absolutely terrified of us because if we will understand what we have on the inside of us, in Jesus, exactly what he’s paid for, we become deadly to his plans and his deceptions. You know, this is two-fold, really, because not only does the devil know that we have authority over him, but when we start to see through his lies, he can’t trick us anymore.
Ashley:
Right-
Carlie:
We stop falling for his deception.
Ashley:
The only thing he has over us is deception.
Carlie:
That’s right!
Ashley:
And I remember asking one of our kids, I think it was Hannah when she was little-
Carlie:
It was, yeah.
Ashley:
… it was Hannah. And we was talking about what’s real and what’s fake. Do you remember that? And we said what’s real and what’s not real or what’s real and what’s fake and now, I said to our … I trick her. She was about, I don’t know how old she was-
Carlie:
Four, I think she was.
Ashley:
… four or five.
Carlie:
Yeah.
Ashley:
And I said is the devil real or fake? Is the devil real or fake? And I remember she thought about it. She looked out the window and you could see she was really thinking about it and she went, “Dad?”, she said, “the devils real, but his weapons are fake.”
Carlie:
Right.
Ashley:
The devil is real, but his weapons are fake. I thought, wow! That’s a better revelation than a lot of the body of Christ have, right, about the devil? That’s the truth.
Carlie:
It’s true.
Ashley:
Jesus defeated the devil and if you’re a believer today, if you’re born again today, you have authority over the devil. But what he does has, he can try and deceive us. That’s the only weapon he has over us is deception so once we know the truth, the truth will set us free, right? We can’t be deceived anymore.
Carlie:
Amen. You know, we were talking last time about the fact that fear is not part of who we are. Are born again believers, God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. He’s put in us His nature, His character, and they are fruits of our spirit, right? And joy, love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, self-control, all of those things that are mentioned in Galatians 5:22 and 23, but not once is fear mentioned.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
It’s not a fruit of our born again spirit.
Ashley:
It’s not.
Carlie:
It’s not who we are. It’s not who we are designed to be and once we start understand who it is that God has created us to be, man, we become deadly to the plans of the enemy because we have been given all authority over him. I mean, and when we start to use it, we become … it talks about this in Romans 8, doesn’t it? We become more than conquerors.
Ashley:
Amen! Yup, in fact, I can pull that up now. Romans 8. Romans 8 we can … well, first of all, there’s a verse in Romans 8:14, “For as many or as led by the spirit of God, these are the sons of God.” You know, you are a son or a daughter of God. You’re a child of God.
Carlie:
Amen.
Ashley:
If you’ve given your life to Jesus, you are a child of God and it says in verse 15, “For you do not receive the spirit of bondage again to fear.” We received a spirit of power and of love and of a sound mind.
Carlie:
Yeah.
Ashley:
You didn’t receive a spirit of fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.” This was a very intimate phrase. This was like daddy God or, you know, Abba God. It’s something’s very personal-
Carlie:
It’s very paternal.
Ashley:
Yeah, paternal, Father God. This is a powerful statement here and then verse 16, “The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, and if children, then heirs, heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ.” We are heirs of God. We’re joint heirs with Christ. Everything Jesus gained at the cross, everything Jesus gained at his deathbed burial and resurrection, are ours now and, you know, when we got born again, praise God, we got in-Christ-ed, if you like. We got … we’re now in Christ and now we’re in Christ, we get all these things including peace, and faith, and that doesn’t include fear.
Carlie:
Right.
Ashley:
And then … there’s a good, “joint heirs with Christ. If indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Praise God. God … we have … this is such a good deal and then if you go down, the whole of Romans 8 is so powerful. We haven’t got time to read it all, but if you skip on down to verse 37, verse 37, Paul puts it this way. He says, “yet in all these things, in all these things, we are more the conquerors through Him who loved us.” In all these things we are more than conquerors. You know, Jesus did the work for us. He paid the price. He did the work for us and now us, through our relationship with Jesus, get all the spoils, praise God.
Carlie:
That’s a great deal!
Ashley:
We get all the good things. He took all our, you know, pain and suffering and sin and fear and all those things to the cross and we get to exchange them for all His righteousness, and health, and healing, and peace of mind, and faith. Praise God. It’s the gospel. It’s awesome what God has done for us in Jesus, praise God. It really is. The word gospel, you know, it means almost too good to be true or too good to be true and it really is almost too good to be true.
Carlie:
Right.
Ashley:
The gospel. God is so good to us and there’s no fear in there. There’s no fear in love. Perfect loves cast our fear so we know now, we need to say this, at least once during the show, make sure people understand. We’re not talking about the fear of the Lord. There is a fear of the Lord, but that’s different. The fear of God is completely different to the fear we’re talking about here.
Fear of God is a reverence. It’s a honor for the fact that God is awesome. He’s-
Carlie:
God almighty.
Ashley:
He’s God almighty and that’s a healthy fear. But that’s the different type of fear. That fear doesn’t involve torment and it doesn’t involve any type of, you know, when you feel like your intimidated-
Carlie:
Like anguish.
Ashley:
… or anguish-
Carlie:
Mental pain.
Ashley:
… or yeah. It holds you back or anything like that. The fear we’re talking about is the fear that … it’s bad fear. I mean, it’s from the enemy. It’s going to torment you. It holds you back and I’m sure people watching have all experienced this, some type of fear in their life and when you have that fear, it could be a long-term thing. It could be something that just happens, you know, through an event or something like that.
When we have that fear, it does, it paralyzes us. It makes us … it makes you immobile, you know? It immobilizes … it’s not a good thing. It’s really not. We don’t need fear in our life.
Carlie:
So we’ve been touching on, through this series, some of the characteristics of fear and how to differentiate fear and faith. Because sometimes people ask this question, “well, how do I know if I’m in fear and how do I know if I’m in faith?” We’re talked about how faith … how fear, rather, can bee subtle. It can be sneaky. And many times, people will come for healing, for example, and they say well, you know, I’m believing. I’m in faith. But actually, when you listen to their prayers, they’re not full of faith. They’re full of fear.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
But it was so subtle they didn’t realize and one of the characteristics of faith, being the antidote, the polar opposite to fear, we can’t be fear and faith at the same time, but faith is where we access the promises of God. So, it’s important to know the difference.
One of the characteristics of faith is peace. Being in peace. So we’ve … you know, I think we may have used this example already, but for the people that are just joining us, you know, when we see people, sometimes, praying really frantic prayers-
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
… like, almost like crisis-driven prayers, their motivation isn’t faith at all. It’s fear. It’s in the name of Jesus, in the name of Jesus! It’s almost panic-stricken.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
And I want to look at an example in the scriptures here, of how Jesus identified fear and how they overcame it, okay?
Ashley:
Now, if you’re watching, you know, there’s nothing wrong with praying in the name of Jesus. That’s not the point. The point is, is that … because I can hear people emailing us right now.
Carlie:
You can hear them emailing already?
Ashley:
I can hear the keys tapping as their emailing us like you said don’t pray in the name of Jesus! No, we’re not saying that. What we’re saying is, is that if your prayer is fear, sometimes our prayers can be … we can be in fear when we pray and we want to help you receive everything God’s got for you, praise God, and that’s why we want to address these things and say, you know what? Sometimes … you know, we’ve been there. I’ve been there where I’ve been praying but really my motivation has been fear out of faith.
Carlie:
And that’s the key. You know, it’s not even necessary to what we’re saying that’s wrong. It’s the motivation that’s driving behind it. It’s the driving force.
Let’s look at this. This is in Luke 8. This is the story of Jairus it’s also mentioned in Matthew 9 and Mark 5. I’m looking Luke’s version here, okay? But it says here in verse 49, “While he was still speaking, someone from the synagogue ruler’s house came saying to Jairus, your daughter is dead. Do not trouble the Teacher.”
Now, remember, Jesus was on the way to Jairus’ house because Jairus has met him and said, “you know, Jesus, come to my house. My daughter is dying. If you come to my house and lay hands on her, she will be made well.” Jesus got delayed.
Ashley:
Yeah.
Carlie:
He met the woman with the issue of blood. Now, if I was Jairus, I can imagine me standing there thinking, “Come on! I don’t have much time!” You know? I’m running out of time and the whole time thinking, you know, I understand this woman needs ministry, but I’ve got my daughter at home who’s dying.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
Getting impatient. Getting frustrated trying to hurry him up a little bit.
Ashley:
When I read the gospels, you know, any time … this is one instant … there’s other instance like when the … Lazarus was sick and they called for him and stuff. I don’t see Jesus panicking. I don’t see Jesus being moved by any type of need, you know?
Carlie:
By the crisis, even.
Ashley:
No. He seemed to be very calm. Yeah, his will was to heal every time but he didn’t run to situations. He was very calm and I think it’s that peace, he was operating in peace.
Carlie:
He stayed in a place of peace constantly.
Ashley:
He knew his authority and he operated in peace and if Jesus did it like that, we can have that same peace.
Carlie:
Right.
Ashley:
And we can operate like that.
Carlie:
And remember, you know, Jesus would have known the beginning from the end, as well. So he’s … he knows that even if Jairus’ daughter is dead, or does die, then he can tend the power of life and death.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
So even if the worst happens, he can raise her from the dead.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
So he doesn’t have the same level of fear. He stays in peace because he doesn’t have to entertain fear in the same way that Jairus is.
Now, look at this. He goes on and he says … So, in the meantime, the report comes and because of the delay that Jairus’ daughters actually died, okay? And they said to him, “Jairus, your daughter is dead now. Do not trouble the Teacher.” Now, this is the kind of report that no parent ever wants to get. You know, we’ve been through, not the same situation, but a really bad situation with our daughter where she was basically sent home form the hospital to die with a week to live and we got a really negative doctor’s report and that moves you at heart level. I don’t care how spiritual you are. That moves you and we had to battle to stay in a place of peace.
Now, the end of the story is a good one. You need to watch her on our website, her whole testimony, but in here in verse 50 it says, “And when Jesus heard it,” so, in other words, he heard the same report that Jairus heard that the child is dead. But look at his response. He answered him saying, “Do not fear. Only believe and she will be made well.” And I think this is really significant.
You know, in Mark’s version, I got it here in their amplified … in Mark’s account of this, it’s in Mark 5:36 in the amplified, he says … this is Jesus’ response to the report. He says, “Overhearing but ignoring them, Jesus said to the ruler of the synagogue, do not be seized with alarm and stuck with fear. Only keep on believing.”
And this is one of the characteristics of fear. It will paralyze people. It will stop them, it will strike them with fear. It will literally cause a paralysis. I’m remembering in the Old Testament, the story of Lot and his wife as they were escaping-
Ashley:
Oh, yeah, yeah. She looked back.
Carlie:
… and they were told not to look back and his wife looked back and she saw the destruction of the city and she was turned into a pillar of salt.
Ashley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carlie:
Now, I’m not suggesting you’re going to get turned into a pillar of salt, but fear paralyzes people.
Ashley:
I remember one time-
Carlie:
It was fear in that moment that caused that effect.
Ashley:
… I’ve been in situations where fear and, this is … I remember one time at the church I was working at, and I drove past it later at night and the door was ajar, open, it was like 11:00 at night-
Carlie:
Look like someone had broken in.
Ashley:
… looks like someone’s broken in. So I pulled the car over and I went in there it was a big auditorium and I walked across the auditorium and the light switch was right at the other end of the auditorium so I was walking through there and it was so dark and I’m looking around … what’s going on? And as I walked past the Pastor’s Office, the door was ajar like it was open, and there was someone standing behind the door like a man hiding behind-
Carlie:
And you think that was the robber?
Ashley:
… hiding behind the door.
Carlie:
Yeah.
Ashley:
Heard me come in. And I tell you what, when I saw that I was paralyzed with fear. And I was like what am I going to do? And I was thinking okay, and I was trying to sum up, okay. I’m going to have to pull that door open and go for it or do I run? What do I do? Do I confront him? Do I run? And I was … I remember it felt like a long time. It was probably only, you know, 30 seconds or so but that fear paralyzed me, like I couldn’t move.
And it was a fear of what’s going to happen? Has he got … you know, has he got a weapon? Is this person dangerous? What’s going to happen. And I was top of … I was really … I was paralyzed with fear. And in the end, I had the fight or flight, I guess, and I was-
Carlie:
The adrenaline kicked in.
Ashley:
… I went for it. Adrenaline kicked in and I didn’t run, I went for it. I pulled that door open to tackle him and tackle this robber and go for it.
Carlie:
And was he there?
Ashley:
No. It was the robes that the person. It was a … he had his robes hanging up behind the door.
Carlie:
But it felt real, right?
Ashley:
But in the dark, hanging from the hanger, it felt real and I [crosstalk 00:13:00]-
Carlie:
It felt real!
Ashley:
… fear and i was, I tell you, it paralyzed me!
Carlie:
You went through it!
Ashley:
I don’t want to tell stories that embarrass myself. Why do i … why don’t I tell stories that make me out to be a hero, rather than telling stories like I was scared of a Vicar’s robe. I mean, that’s that about?
Carlie:
I guess you must be secure in yourself.
Ashley:
That’s what it is. [crosstalk 00:13:18].
Carlie:
You got over your fear of embarrassment.
Ashley:
I’m over my fear of … man. I could just reveal all my stories that make me look silly. But anyway, that point, that fear was … I felt it in my body.
Carlie:
You were seized with alarm.
Ashley:
It does something to our physical bodies, you know?
Carlie:
It does.
Ashley:
We talked about this before about how it … what is it? The chemicals and stuff that kick in?
Carlie:
Yeah. All of those things.
Ashley:
Fight or flight and all that.
Carlie:
All of those hormones, all those endorphins, all running around your body.
Ashley:
Yeah. Adrenaline.
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Adrenaline, it’s just pumping-
Ashley:
So, it does. It really affects you when you’re in fear. You allow fear to take over, it can paralyze you and that’s a silly example but there can be real situations where, you know, I’ve seen people just … they won’t do anything because they’re scared of … their fear is just, you know, people scared of heights or scared of something and it locks them up. They can’t move.
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). And here’s the thing, you know, Jesus didn’t just breeze on by this and let this report go unnoticed. Remember, he was standing there next to Jairus and hears exactly the same report. Well, the situation looked hopeless. The situation looked beyond, beyond despair. But the difference is, Jesus had a different perspective on death than Jairus did and he addressed it right there in the moment. He didn’t move on. And actually, I studied this out and the tense that this is written in, in Luke … we’re in Luke 8:50, when he says, “do not fear, only believe and she will be made well.” This … he was actually saying this. The tense it was written in is called the present, imperative tense and it means a continuous action or a command and the reason that that’s significant in this moment was he wasn’t just saying oh, don’t … there, there, Jairus. Don’t worry, it’s going to be okay.
He was saying no! Don’t fear! Don’t fear! He was very firm. This was an absolutely command. Don’t fear and being that it’s a continuous action, it was like saying, don’t fear, now. Stop it right now and never do it again.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
He … this was really strong because Jesus knew that Jairus could not be in fear and faith at the same time. He needed Jairus to at least be in neutral, at least be in neutral, at least be … I mean, don’t … just don’t entertain that. Don’t let that seed of fear stop you.
There was an example when Jesus, in the gospels, he was … he had to take a man out of the town, a blind man out of the time, to pray for him and he said he could not do many mighty works in that town because of their unbelief.
Ashley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carlie:
Because of their unbelief. Unbelief is basically belief in the negative. It’s based in fear. It is the basis of fear. And so, if we don’t check fear, if we don’t contain it, if we let it go unchecked, if you like, it’s going to produce unbelief in us and it’s going to hinder us from receiving everything that God has for it. It’s going to hinder us from operating in spiritual gifts. It’s going to hinder us in hearing God, in believing Him and receiving His love and then it’s going to hinder us in exercising our authority.
And it’s going to allow fear to just remain in our life. So Jairus, when Jesus looked at him, he was being so stern because he loves him so much. God doesn’t want us to be in fear. He doesn’t want us to be unbelief and unbelief, unchecked, will lead to fear. And unbelief will stop us from receiving everything that God has for us.
So he goes on and he says, “do not be afraid, only believe.” In verse 51 it says, “when he came to the house, he permitted no one to go in except Peter, John, and James, and the father and the mother of the girl.” In fact, it says he shut them out. He shut them out. Why did you think he shut people out? Doesn’t that seem a little bit, you know, like … these people are mourning. I mean, surely he’d want to minister to everybody that was there, right?
Well, Jesus was focused. He knew how toxic fear can be, and this is the thing, if we’re in an environment where we are surrounded by fear, if we’re not careful with that fear of other people can start to take root in us. Their reactions, their grief, their pain. Jesus wasn’t being uncaring and uncompassionate. He was being focused and also, he was helping them to see the beginning from the end. Remember, Jesus has a different perspective on death than other people did.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
He wasn’t shutting the door on the people, he was shutting the door on the unbelief.
Ashley:
Amen.
Carlie:
And this is something that we can do, too. We can learn to shut the door on unbelief. To literally see fear head on and stop it in it’s tracks. He actually removed people from the environment and stopped them coming in. He created in that room, an atmosphere of faith. Fear and faith can’t coexist.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
So in that room, in that moment, there waws either going to be fear or there was going to be faith. It wasn’t going to be both of them. And so it says in verse 52, you can see some of the reasoning for this, “all wept and mourned for the girl.” They were distraught. They were in grief because all that fear will do, is it will highlight the natural circumstances.
You see, fear, one of it’s characteristics is it focuses only on what it can see with its five senses. Only what’s happening in the here and now.
Ashley:
The natural-
Carlie:
Only the natural things. What faith does, as being the opposite, is it goes beyond the five senses. It operates in a spiritual realm outside of fear.
You know, Hebrews 11:1 says that fear is a substance of things hoped for-
Ashley:
That faith is-
Carlie:
… the evidence of things not seen. Faith. Faith. Thank you very much. Thanks for clearing that one up.
But faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. It operates in an unseen realm. Faith operates in just … fear operates, rather, in just what it can see right now.
Ashley:
Yeah, the natural realm.
Carlie:
In the natural stuff. But Jesus in that moment, he was looking beyond the natural. He could see the girl was dead. He wasn’t ignorant of the fact. He could see that the people were crying. He could see the same situation that everybody else was seeing. But the minute he started seeing by faith, he’s seeing beyond the natural circumstances.
Ashley:
Yup.
Carlie:
And that’s the point in which we’re going to receive. So he shut out the natural circumstances, some of them, in the closing the door. He shut the door to-
Ashley:
Reminds me of the-
Carlie:
… unbelief.
Ashley:
… when he prayed with the blind man, he led him out of the city.
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative). Exactly.
Ashley:
He led him out the city because of their unbelief and it says that he could not do many mighty works because of their unbelief.
Carlie:
Yup.
Ashley:
So he led the blind man out of the city to pray for him and then he received his sight.
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley:
So, yeah. There’s unbelief, like you said, it’s not the people, it’s the unbelief that’s the issue.
Carlie:
Yup. Exactly.
Ashley:
And that people are carrying that unbelief.
Carlie:
Exactly, and you know, the people, all they could see was death. All they could see in the natural. He needed to help, Peter, John, James, the father, and the mother of the girl see beyond what they could only see in the natural. You see, fear will highlight in us. It will highlight our natural lack: our natural lack of ability, our natural lack of resources. It can only operate in the … what it sees.
But faith goes beyond and it enters a realm, the supernatural, where it’s using God’s ability and God’s resources and that’s what enabled Jesus to see death as temporary. See, faith sees things that are eternal. But fear only sees things that are temporary.
If you are afraid of something, you know what you can do? You can shout at it, temporary! Right? It’s coming to pass. It’s subject to change. If it’s in this natural world, it is subject to change.
Ashley:
Yeah. Amen.
Carlie:
I mean, that’s powerful, isn’t it? And it says here in verse 53, “they laughed at Him.” He said, rather to back up into verse 52, “they all mourned for her, but He said do not weep. She is not dead but sleeping.” So he’s seeing death and temporary. “They laughed at Him knowing that she was dead and He put them all outside, took her by the hand, and called little girl, arise. Immediately her spirit returned and she arose immediately.” And she got up, and she was made well.
But that happened because Jesus shut the door on unbelief, you know? And people will ask well how do we get rid of unbelief? If unbelief and fear are linked together, how do we get rid of unbelief? What do we do?
Ashley:
What do we do, Carlie?
Carlie:
What do we do? I’m glad you asked!
Ashley:
Through belief, right? We need to … by believing, that’s … really, unbelief is just not believing, right? It’s like belief in natural circumstances.
Carlie:
It is a type of faith.
Ashley:
Yeah, it’s like a faith in reverse.
Carlie:
Exactly. It’s the devil’s kind of faith.
Ashley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carlie:
It’s fake faith. That’s what it is. When we’re entering into fear and unbelief, we’ve bought more into the lies of the enemy than we have into the truth of God’s word and that’s why those emotions, even if something’s not real-
Ashley:
Yeah.
Carlie:
… or it’s temporary, they start to become very real in our emotions and our feelings and everything in the natural body starts to respond to something that’s not even true.
Ashley:
And it’s … you know, sometimes it can be a subtle, just temporary … like we’re talking about-
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley:
… just because natural circumstances. Just the natural circumstances that we live, our five senses. Sometimes it can be more directly linked to the devil, but a lot of times it’s just our natural circumstances-
Carlie:
Yeah.
Ashley:
… and this II Corinthians 4, I like how Paul puts it in II Corinthians 4:8 … well, back up to verse 17 its his friend light affliction … his light afflictions, you know, they’re … Paul’s light afflictions weren’t very light.
Carlie:
They weren’t particularly light!
Ashley:
They weren’t very light. You know, day and the night and the open sea and things like that. I mean, he was … he had a lot of afflictions. But it says here, it is far more … “just for a moment, is working for us far more exceedingly and eternal weight of glory.” This is II Corinthians 4:17 and verse 18, “while we do not look at the things which are seen”, we do not look to the things that are seen, “but the things which are not seen.”
He’s saying we’re not look at the natural circumstance, we look at the eternal circumstances. “For things which are seen are temporary. The things which are not seen are eternal.” Just like you’re saying. You know, so we need to focus on the spiritual things. We need to focus on-
Carlie:
Yes.
Ashley:
… what the Lord says through His word, who we are in Christ, the natural circumstances are temporary.
Carlie:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley:
That includes sickness. That includes lack. That includes, you know, struggling with seeing or addictions. Them things are temporary compared to the word of God, compared to who we are in Christ. Amen?
Carlie:
Amen. You know, let’s look at this scripture. This is in our Hebrews 3:16. Let me just turn there real quick. But if we don’t keep a check on fear, and we tolerate it, we learn to live with it, if you like and it’s not normal. It’s not part of who we are. It shouldn’t be part of our born again nature. But it will lead to unbelief and it’ll hinder us from receiving everything that God has paid for us.
Look at this in … this is in Hebrews 4, 3 rather … let me make sure I got my scripture right. Hebrews 3 and I’m going to start in verse 12, here. It says, “be attentive, brothers, lest there be any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, and you depart from the living God.” He’s … not necessary that we’re operating in sin or thinking on things that are evil, but it puts evil and unbelieving there together in the same scripture. I mean, that’s pretty strong, isn’t it?
Ashley:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Carlie:
Because God understand just in the way they … that sin is harmful to us, unbelief … for whatever reason, not believing in the word of God, is harmful to us and it’ll actually, an unbelieving heart, will cause us to depart from the living God, the power of the living God. It will draw us away from the things of God and into believing even more lies.
In verse 16 it says, this is actually talking about when they were trying to enter into the Promised Land and this is The Story of the Spies. We’ll reference this in Numbers 13. This is the story of the spies that went out to spy out the Promised Land. They came back with an evil report and some of them just couldn’t wrap their mind around getting past the giants that they could see.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
Even though God had promised them the land, they couldn’t … all that they could see waws the physical challenges in from of them-
Ashley:
And that put them in fear. They were-
Carlie:
… and it put them in fear-
Ashley:
… at fear of they. They said they are mighty people-
Carlie:
And they were unbelieving.
Ashley:
… they’re going to … yeah, these are mighty people and they’re going to squash us like a grasshopper-
Carlie:
Exactly.
Ashley:
Basically.
Carlie:
Exactly. We’ll look at that in second. But it says here, in verse 16, “for who were those who heard and rebelled?” Talking about the report. The report of the Lord, right? It “was it not all of those whole came out of Egypt led by Moses.” Remember, these are the same people that have seen the plagues. They’ve seen Moses, you know, the plagues of Egypt. They’ve seen God do amazing, mighty things.
Ashley:
Parting of the Red Sea.
Carlie:
The parting of the Red Sea. I mean, this is … this is huge!
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
And here they are, and suddenly they’re like oh! Hang on a second! There’s a few giants in the land. I just … obviously … they’d forgotten all of the amazing things that God had done.
Ashley:
Right.
Carlie:
And this is what fear will do. You see, it’ll make you forget the good things that God has going on in your life and have you focus on everything that’s wrong and because of that, their hearts were hardened and they actually became disobedient. Look, “and with whom”, this is verse 17, “and with whom was He grieved for 40 years? Was it not with those who had sinned, whose bodies fell in the wilderness?” Some of them just … they never actually entered the Promised Land. They died in the wilderness because their fear and their unbelief kept them out.
“and to whom did He swear that they would not enter His rest, but to those who disobeyed? So we see that they could not enter” into what? Into the rest. Enter into the Promised Land because off their unbelief. And then it goes on in chapter four to say, you know what? “therefore, since the promise of entering His rest remains, let us fear lest any of you should seem to come short of it.”
Now, we don’t want to miss out on anything that God has for us because fear in our life has been, uncome unchecked. Jesus was really quick about pointing this out and about dealing with it. You know, one of the first steps to dealing with fear in our life is to spotting it and to dealing with it. Don’t let fear go unchecked and Jesus will lead you into victory. Amen?
Ashley:
Amen.
Speaker 4:
Had chronic pain in my shoulder. I can’t sleep at night. I’m healed. I can hear better. Praise God!
Carlie:
Thank you, Lord!
Ashley:
That’s awesome. Praise God!
Speaker 5:
Ashley and Carlie, I think they’re amazing. I think they have a great ministry. I think they’re inspired. I think God’s really working in their life.
Speaker 2:
Through the many outreaches of Terradez Ministries, people are being saved, healed, baptized in the Holy Spirit and are receiving financial miracles!
Speaker 6:
Oh, it’s wonderful! We’re supporters. We started supporting them last year and since we’ve done that, we have been so blessed. Our house is paid off. Our cars are paid off. We are debt free.
Speaker 2:
Join Ashley and Carlie in spreading the good news of abundance and freedom. Become a partner today!