Now is the time to abandon a life of worry, anxiety and fear, and launch into a life of faith, boldness and power!
Transcription
Carlie Terradez:
Did you know that fear changes your perception of how you see God and what He has and will do for you. Listen up and tune in as we discover and unpack this a little bit more.
Speaker 2:
Why live a normal life when you could be living the Abundant Life? Welcome to the Abundant Life program with Ashley and Carlie Terradez.
Ashley Terradez:
Hello, and welcome to Abundant Life. We’re so glad you’ve joined us today in the lounge. We’re excited. We’re talking about being fearless. We’ve actually been teaching this for a few episodes now. We’re talking about living a life without fear, without those things holding us back, praise God.
Carlie Terradez:
Right.
Ashley Terradez:
We don’t want fear. God hasn’t got fear for us.
Carlie Terradez:
Amen.
Ashley Terradez:
We’re not talking about fear of the Lord. Fear of the Lord is different. That’s a reverence and an honoring of God because He is awesome and He’s almighty. We’re talking about fear that comes from the natural circumstances. Fear from our flesh and fear that the enemy tries to give us, which holds us back. It’s not good. It’s not good fear. It involves torment. We’ve been learning about how perfect love, God’s perfect love for us casts out that fear. It’s God’s perfect love. We have a revelation of how much God loves us, how much God loves you. He loves you so much, praise God. You don’t have to fear. You don’t have to fear that you’re going to have lack. You don’t have to fear that you’re not going to make it because God loves you. You can rely on Him. Praise God. Isn’t that neat?
Carlie Terradez:
Amen. Amen.
Ashley Terradez:
So we’re looking at, this is 1 Peter 5. 1 Peter 5, start at verse seven. I’m cutting right in here. It says, “Casting all your care upon Him, for He cares for you.” This is the good news. God cares for us. He loves us, praise God. John 3:16, “He loves us so much that He sent his only begotten Son”. I mean, that’s how much God loves you. He loves you so much. He’s your Father and He loves you. Praise God. “Casting all your care on Him, because He cares for you.” Verse eight: “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks around like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.” Now I like how you put this, the devil is walking around as a roaring lion.
Carlie Terradez:
He’s not even a roaring lion.
Ashley Terradez:
He’s not a roaring lion. You could say Jesus defeated the devil and He took away all his weapons.
Carlie Terradez:
Defeat.
Ashley Terradez:
He defeated him.
Carlie Terradez:
He’s footless.
Ashley Terradez:
He defeated him. He basically kicked his teeth in. He hasn’t even got any teeth anymore, the devil. He’s just like an old lion with no teeth, praise God. Because Jesus took all his power away.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s right.
Ashley Terradez:
Jesus took all the devil’s power and authority away. And it says, “Whom he may devour.” So, it’s almost like the devil just can’t kill, steal and destroy without permission. And like you say, “What do you do? Take yourself off the menu.”
Carlie Terradez:
Basically, the devil has to ask permission to devour us. He says, “Seeking whom he may devour.” That’s like saying, “May I have a cookie?” “No, you may not. It’s dinner time.” Right? I mean, he has to ask.
Ashley Terradez:
He says, “May I devour you?”
Carlie Terradez:
No, you may not. And when we stop listening to the enemy’s lies and stop meditating on the things that generate fear in our life. Stop entertaining and settling and learning to live in the state of just being afraid of everything. Spot fear for what it really is, which is a lie and a deception of the enemy. The beginning of this series, we’ve talked about fear as being false evidence appearing real. It is a perception of failure. It is a perception of defeat. It is a perception of sickness or poverty. It is not who we are truly created to be. We were created to be victorious, to be successful. To be healthy, happy, prosperous people.
But the fear comes in; the lies of the enemy comes in. He’s like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour. Who he may consume, or be consumed with fear. And when we spot his lies, we’ll take ourselves off his menu. We’ll say, “You’re coming at me, but I recognize the lies for what they are. That’s not who I am. And that’s not what God says about me. And I’m not going to buy into your lies.” When we do that, we refuse to fall for the lies of the enemy. We take ourselves off the devil’s menu.
Ashley Terradez:
That’s good. The only thing the devil has got to get us is deception.
Carlie Terradez:
Lies and deception.
Ashley Terradez:
He tries to deceive us. And if we’re not deceived, if you know the truth, then we’re not deceived. He can’t deceive us, praise God.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s right.
Ashley Terradez:
I’m thinking about, we talked earlier about taking every thought captive. We take those thoughts captive early on.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s right.
Ashley Terradez:
Let me continue reading here. Verse nine, “Resist him.” Resist the devil, it’s talking about. “Resist him, steadfast in the faith, knowing that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world.” Now let me read this same passage. We’re talking about 1 Peter 5:7-9. Let me read this in the Amplified version. This really brings some things out. I use the New King James translation, Carlie uses the Modern English translation [crosstalk 00:04:46].
Carlie Terradez:
Which is real similar to the New King James version.
Ashley Terradez:
… as her main Bible. But I often use the Amplified. I use a lot of different translations: the Amplified, the Passion, even Young’s Literal Translation. But I like the Amplified here because it really brings out some of the Word in here. So this is the same passage in the Amplified. 1 Peter 5:7, “Casting the whole of your care, all your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns once and for all on Him.”
Carlie Terradez:
That’s good.
Ashley Terradez:
Isn’t that good? “All your anxieties, all your worries, all your concerns, once and for all on Him, for He cares for you affectionately and cares about you watchfully.” Jesus loves us. He cares for us, affectionately. It’s we have an affection. It’s an intimate caring. It’s not just a caring because He has to, have obligation. I think sometimes we think like, “Well, God has to care for us. I mean, he’s God and we’re His children. He just have to care for me.” It’s like, “He has to do it. Oh, come on then and He [inaudible 00:05:39] tolerate us.”
No, this is a caring affectionately and it’s a caring watchfully. So not only is it a caring affectionately, because He loves us, but He’s caring watchfully. It’s a proactive caring. It isn’t like God waits for us to get into trouble and then rescues us. No, it’s a proactive. If we will cast our cares onto the Lord, He will proactively, He will warn of us of things to come. That’s one of the things the Holy Spirit does, right?
Carlie Terradez:
Mm-hmm (affirmative).
Ashley Terradez:
He’ll warn us about things to come. And then verse eight, “Be well balanced, temperate, sober of mind, be vigilant and cautious at all times; for that enemy of yours,” look it says, “that enemy of yours, the devil, roams around like a roaring lion in fierce hunger, seeking someone to seize upon and devour.”
And then verse nine, “Withstand him; be firm in faith against his onset, rooted and established, strong, immovable and determined.” We have to be rooted, strong, immovable and determined.” We have to be rooted, strong, immovable and determined. Again, we’re not making this happen. God’s already given us all the tools we need to resist the devil. He’s given us all the tools we need to be able to resist his lies and resist the wiles of the devil. When he comes out we’re fully equipped. So we’ve already got these things, we just have to use them.
Then it says here: “Knowing that the same identical sufferings are appointed to your brotherhood, the whole body of Christians, throughout the world.” So you’re not alone in this. Whatever it is that you’re in fear of, or whatever it is that you’re going for, you’re not alone. Already we read this earlier in a previous episode. But Jesus, in Hebrews it talks about how we haven’t got a high priest that doesn’t know our sufferings. He knows our sufferings. He’s been tempted in every area like we have been, but without sin. But also here, it’s saying not only has Jesus gone through it, our fellow brothers and sisters, all around the world. All the people that are born again, all the people that trust in Jesus have similar things come against them.
The devil likes to come, as with thoughts and maybe a fear of you’re not going to make it, or this isn’t going to work out. Or who do you think you are? And things like that. We’ve got to understand those things they’re not just uncommon. They’re not just special for you. They’re the same tricks. The devil does the same tricks to everyone.
Carlie Terradez:
Right. He’s not very creative actually.
Ashley Terradez:
No.
Carlie Terradez:
One of the characteristics of fear is it can only look backwards. It can only look back because the devil doesn’t know your future. He can’t see ahead. He doesn’t know the beginning from the end. But he has been around long enough to have observed plenty of people to know what their hot buttons are. What types of fear, what types of things are going to get them discouraged or afraid, or in worry, or in concern. And he can only look back. So he can only look at your past negative experience. If he can bring up your past negative experience enough, he can project that, make you project that and see that it’s going to be your future. That’s a lie.
You see, faith sees the future, but fear can only see the past. So when faith will say, “I see what’s going on here, but God’s bigger than that.” Whereas fear says, “I see what’s going on. And I remember what happened last time. And it’s going to turn out just the same way.” It will change our perception, fear or faith. Depending on which side of the equation we’re on, it will change how we see our lives ahead. How we view our future. How we view challenges. How we see whether we can overcome. We determine it in our heart. You know in Proverbs 23:7 it says, “As a man thinks in his heart. So is he.” This is important because if we perceive ourselves to be a victim, we’re going to have a victim mindset. If we perceive ourselves to be maybe in a challenge, but see ourselves as victorious, we’re going to become victorious.
We can see this all through the scriptures, actually. I like the example here in Numbers. You know, in Numbers 13:1, we mentioned this in our previous session, actually. About the spies and the land of Canaan. How their unbelief held them back from entering in. Let’s look at this time a little bit more detail in the realm of perception. It says here in 13:1, “And the Lord spoke to Moses, saying, ‘Send men that they may explore the land of Canaan, which I am giving to the children of Israel.” So God has given them, He has given them the land of Canaan. So it’s yours. This is the promised land.
Ashley Terradez:
It’s a done deal.
Carlie Terradez:
Yep. “And pick people from each tribe and send them in.” And Moses sent them, the people, and he divided them into groups. He picked out the people he wanted and he sent them in and he said, “Go in.” In verse 18: “And see what the land is. The people that dwell in it, whether they are strong or weak, few or many; and in what land is it they dwell in.” Good, bad. Whether the cities are either, whether they’re fortified or they’re in tents. What the land is, whether it’s fat or lean, whether there’s wood or not. Whether there’s provision in there. And look at His instruction: “And you be courageous.”
Be courageous. In other words, don’t be afraid. “Be courageous and bring some of the fruit of the land.” Because it was the time for the “first ripe grapes.” And so He sent the spies into the land, not to determine if they could take the land, but to figure out how. And there’s a big difference. You see, the instructions that God gave Moses and Moses passed onto the leaders of those tribes, was to go in and figure out; it was a reconnaissance mission. The question was never an if. But their perception was so warped. You see, they’ve just come out of Egypt and parted the Red Sea, but they’d forgotten all of the amazing miracles that God had brought them through. All the ways that He provided for them. He delivered for them. He defeated armies for them. I mean, supernatural deliverance.
But out of the spies that went in, there was only two that came back with a positive report because their perception was not warped by the fear of the things that they saw in that land. This is really interesting. Fear will warp our perception of just even everyday situations. This is really interesting, actually. I’m thinking of an example here. We had an everyday situation. Do you remember that buggy that we had?
Ashley Terradez:
Oh yeah, yeah, yeah.
Carlie Terradez:
It was like a beach buggy and it didn’t have any seat belts.
Ashley Terradez:
Oh, when you drove it. Okay, so-
Carlie Terradez:
Hang on a second.
Ashley Terradez:
Let me get the story right.
Carlie Terradez:
Let me preface this a little bit, because I’m speaking, right? Okay. So he told me that this buggy, when all the time he was driving it around with his friends, he told me, “It’s perfectly safe.” And I said to him-
Ashley Terradez:
It’s like a Volvo. It’s safe as a Volvo.
Carlie Terradez:
“It doesn’t have any seat belts!” And he’s all, “Oh, but you know what? This has got a roll cage on this thing. If you roll it, I mean, you’re not going be hurt. Just keep your arms inside, you’ll be absolutely fine.” He led me to believe that this buggy was perfectly safe.
Ashley Terradez:
The reason being is, it was an unfinished project. I didn’t want you to be worried. And I only used it a little bit on the road.
Carlie Terradez:
But the reality, the truth of this was…
Ashley Terradez:
It was an unfinished project and I had to finish it. It was road legal, but there was a few things that had to get finished on it.
Carlie Terradez:
And it wasn’t…
Ashley Terradez:
It wasn’t quite as safe as a Volvo. I wouldn’t have put anyone I love in it [inaudible 00:12:29].
Carlie Terradez:
Until he found out one day that I was out with my friends and we were taking it for a spin. And then what happened?
Ashley Terradez:
I was at a friend’s house and I didn’t realize. I was babysitting, the kids were young. I called her phone, she wasn’t answering her phone.
Carlie Terradez:
Because I was driving.
Ashley Terradez:
I finally got through to my friend and he said, “Oh yeah, they went. Carlie took that buggy of yours out with my wife.” And I was like, “Not the buggy.”
Carlie Terradez:
Not the buggy. The really safe buggy that was safe as a Volvo. That buggy.
Ashley Terradez:
It was even wet out. I mean, it was even wet on the roads and stuff. And I was phoning you. You didn’t answer your phone. And after about an hour, I thought that’s it. There’s no way you haven’t died in this buggy that’s you have obviously wrecked and obviously you are dead somewhere.
Carlie Terradez:
So where was your mind in all of this?
Ashley Terradez:
Not in a good place.
Carlie Terradez:
It was thinking, it was not in a good place. It was starting to think back about how when you had driven it the last time, you had actually rolled it.
Ashley Terradez:
Oh yeah, I did. Yeah, I did roll it, yeah. But it was on a field. It was in a field.
Carlie Terradez:
And you started to think back and remember how actually it’s really not very safe at all.
Ashley Terradez:
Yeah. What happened was, we took it on a wet field and I was doing power slides. All the men are going to like this; the women don’t worry about it. I was doing power slides. It was a two-seated buggy power slides. And my friend said, “I’ll get out and film you power sliding.” So I thought, “How cool is that?” So he got out, but I didn’t realize not having him in the passenger seat wasn’t a safe distribution of weight. I needed the ballast. So what happened was, as I power slid, without him, it just rolled. I rolled it.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s what happens when you do that.
Ashley Terradez:
And it went over. [inaudible 00:13:56], I hurt my arm really badly. But anyway.
Carlie Terradez:
So he was remembering their past experience. His perception now, suddenly, of this buggy with me in it was quite different.
Ashley Terradez:
It was more of a deathtrap than a Volvo I would say.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. So fear had crept in.
Ashley Terradez:
Yes. I was fearful. I’m going to get in trouble for this.
Carlie Terradez:
And then what happened? What was the process in your mind when fear crept in? How did that end?
Ashley Terradez:
Fear crept in, I started to feel grief. I started to think, what am I going to do? Selfishly, what am I going to do on my own with three kids as a single dad?
Carlie Terradez:
So the fear had started to project your past crash onto me, which never actually happened. I never crashed. I was perfectly safe.
Ashley Terradez:
But you’ve never had a car wreck at all.
Carlie Terradez:
No, I’ve never had a car wreck. I’m a very safe driver. But your past experience of car accidents started to warp your perspective and fear started to project the past into the future.
Ashley Terradez:
[crosstalk 00:14:48].
Carlie Terradez:
It hadn’t actually happened.
Ashley Terradez:
It hadn’t wrecked or rolled.
Carlie Terradez:
But it started make a negative projection that wasn’t even true. And then what happens to your emotions in that time?
Ashley Terradez:
My emotions. I was feeling grief.
Carlie Terradez:
I came back and he was a sniveling wreck. I mean seriously. He was absolutely-
Ashley Terradez:
I think I was actually crying.
Carlie Terradez:
He was planning my funeral.
Ashley Terradez:
It just worked up. I was just sad a little bit. I was good. I was checking the life insurance.
Carlie Terradez:
What?
Ashley Terradez:
It’s okay. I wasn’t.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s terrible.
Ashley Terradez:
I was concerned. I was genuinely concerned to the point where I started to feel grief. After about an hour, I felt I did have emotions of fear and emotions of even grief thinking something bad must’ve happened to you because that buggy was, it took a lot of work just to keep it on all four wheels.
Carlie Terradez:
So the emotions and the grief that you’re feeling on the outside, what happened on the inside? What happened on the outside?
Ashley Terradez:
On the outside, I was obviously very, I was in grief.
Carlie Terradez:
Were your eyes leaking?
Ashley Terradez:
My eyes. There may have been some perspiration around my eyes, probably.
Carlie Terradez:
Sniveling wreck.
Ashley Terradez:
I was cutting onions. I was cutting onions.
Carlie Terradez:
Sniveling wreck.
Ashley Terradez:
I’m a crier, okay. When emotions get to me, sometimes I cry.
Carlie Terradez:
He’s the designated crier in our family.
Ashley Terradez:
We’re at the movies, sad scene. I look and all three of my kids, and my wire are looking around, [crosstalk 00:16:02], “Is he crying yet?”
Carlie Terradez:
Is he crying yet?
Ashley Terradez:
So that’s just me, I can’t help it I’m a sensitive soul.
Carlie Terradez:
He’s quite sweet.
Ashley Terradez:
So anyway, I was very upset, is the point you want to get to [crosstalk 00:16:10].
Carlie Terradez:
He was very upset.
Ashley Terradez:
You can move on from the buggy now.
Carlie Terradez:
And so, you know-
Ashley Terradez:
We got rid of that buggy. Just so you know, the buggy’s gone. It went to a home. Someone actually finished it and put safety belts on it and actually finished the steering and everything so it’s good.
Carlie Terradez:
Well, that’s good.
Ashley Terradez:
Your point being?
Carlie Terradez:
My point being, that our past experience can try to project our future. Even though it hasn’t happened yet, fear can creep in and it can start trying to make [inaudible 00:16:32] in our life that aren’t even true. If we start listening to them, we’re actually going to start to feel the emotions of those, and we’ll start acting towards those things.
Now look at this report here. This is really interesting. Back to the spies here in Numbers 13. The report came back and it says they returned, in verse 27, and it says, “The reported to him and said, ‘We came to the land where you sent us, and surely it does flow with milk and money, and this is the fruit of it. However, the people that dwell there are strong and great and the cities are very fortified, and also, we saw the children of Anak there.” And there’s all kinds of tribes there.
Ashley Terradez:
They were giants, right?
Carlie Terradez:
They were basically giants. They were very tall and… Not species of people, that sounds bad. But you know what I mean? They were very tall people, very big people. In verse 30: “Caleb silenced the people before Moses.” In other words, I could imagine Caleb just thinking, “I’ve just had about as much of this as I can take. All of this whining and complaining. God told us this is our land. Canaan is our land. He told us to go into it and you know what? He saw the same things as Joshua and Caleb.” He saw the same things. Exactly the same things. Had exactly the same experience as these other ten spies.
But he had a different report, look at his report. “He silenced the people and said, ‘Let us go up at once and possess it, for we are well able to overcome it’.” Now that word possess is yarash, it means to evict the previous tenants. The previous tenants in our life are fear, doubt, unbelief, discouragement, pain, rejection, abandonment. Whatever negative emotions you can think of. So there is some dispossessing to have here. When you possess something means to go and take it with forces and evict, seize by force, and utterly destroy the previous tenants.
So Caleb and Joshua, it says later on in the passage, they had a different spirit within them. Well, the spies, they report in verse 32, it says, “They gave the children of Israel a bad report of the land. Saying, ‘The land through which we have gone as spies is a land that devours its inhabitants’.”
Ashley Terradez:
I like how it says, [inaudible 00:18:36] before, it says, “We are not well able to go up against the people. For they are stronger than us.”
Carlie Terradez:
Right, so that was their perception. They hadn’t actually seen any devouring going on. There was nothing in that report that said we saw people being torn limb from limb and chewed on their legs or anything. I mean, there was no real devouring, but in their imagination. You see, in their imagination they saw this challenge and the fear that was in their hearts had started to… Really, what it comes down to, and we talked about this before, is insecurity. Because if they had recognized, if they had really put value on the things that God had done for them in the past. If they had rehearsed their past victories. If they had thought, “You know, God is bigger than this. He has delivered us from all of these challenges. He is faithful. He is good. He always leads us to victory. He always causes us to overcome our enemies. He’s led us through the Red Sea. We’ve defeated the Egyptians and now God’s given us this land. What are a few giants? What are a few giants compared to a Word from the Lord.”
But you know what? They were insecure in some things. They were insecure and because they hadn’t become thankful for everything that God had done in their life, fear started to creep in. Fear started to creep in and it changed even their perception. Not just to the challenge, but how they saw themselves. They saw themselves with a victim mentality and you can see this here in their report. “It’s a land that devours its inhabitants. And all of the people, every single one of them that we saw, where men of great stature. They were giants, the son of Anak, which came from the giants.” And look at this. This is really important, verse 33. “And in our eyes we were like grasshoppers, and so we were in their eyes.” They weren’t really grasshoppers. They weren’t physically the size of grasshoppers. But their point here is, “Those people were so much stronger than we were, and we felt weak. And because we felt weak, we became weak.”
They weren’t weak. They were strong men. They were strong. They were brave. They had fought battles before. They’d survived slavery. They’d overcome challenges. They crossed the Red Sea. I mean, they’d escaped with their families from Egypt. These are men of great stature.
Ashley Terradez:
And really, there’s a rigged fight anyway because God had already promised to them.
Carlie Terradez:
It was.
Ashley Terradez:
You know what He said to them? “I’m giving you this land. This land is yours for the takings.”
Carlie Terradez:
It’s a done deal.
Ashley Terradez:
“All you got to do really is turn up and fight, and you’re going to win, because God’s already given them the land that goes with them. But if they don’t turn up and fight, then they’re not going to receive that land and what happened was-
Carlie Terradez:
They didn’t even want to show up.
Ashley Terradez:
No. What happened was, is they thought, “Well, we can’t do it.” Well, no, God was telling them you can do it. And Caleb there, reiterates, “No, we were well able. Let’s go take this land. We’re well able.” I think that there’s a great picture in our own lives for our healing, or for our prosperity. Whatever it is. Whatever promise you believe in God for. God has already given you that promise. You say, “God has already given me that promised land.”
The difference is, are you going to actually turn up and receive it? Are you actually going to believe it and receive it or are you just going to say, “No. I’m not able to do that. I can’t receive that.” And you’re not going to receive it. Are you going to let fear come in and say, “That’s not going to work for you? It might work for the other people. It might work for Ashley and Carlie. It might work for your pastor. It might work for this, that and the other, but no, it’s not going to work you.” Well, then you’re letting fear in. You’re letting deception in. And God is no [inaudible 00:21:54] of person.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s right.
Ashley Terradez:
Every promise of God is “Yes” and “Amen” and it’s for every believer. And God’s will is for every believer to be healed and whole and to be saved. Saved meaning all those things. Provision and health and wholeness and peace of mind. But if we listen to the lies of the enemy, it will say to us, “You are not able or it’s not for you.” Then you’re not going to be able to receive Him.
Carlie Terradez:
Yeah. Because one of the characteristics of fear is it only looks inwardly. It only looks at our own strength and our own capability. Maybe on the inside, they didn’t feel like they could over… They measured themselves up to the giants. They discounted the power of God that was with them. The armies that were fighting with them. It says this, I think it’s in 1 John. “The greater is He who’s in us, than He’s who in the world.”
Ashley Terradez:
Yeah, 1 John 4:4.
Carlie Terradez:
Right. God is with us. When all we do is operate in fear, we are saying basically the power of God on the inside doesn’t count. Man, the power of God on the inside is stronger than any challenge you can overcome. The only thing that stops us from entering in and winning those challenges is our perception of it, because God’s already determined the outcome. I remember when I was a high school student and being five foot nothing. I thought it was unusual they’d put me in for a hurdle race.
Ashley Terradez:
[crosstalk 00:23:08].
Carlie Terradez:
Right. I know. And high jump? I’m like, I’m the shortest kid in the whole school.
Ashley Terradez:
You got a lot more to jump over.
Carlie Terradez:
I know, right?
Ashley Terradez:
Because you look like a [crosstalk 00:23:15].
Carlie Terradez:
Literally an obstacle.
Ashley Terradez:
It’s like an extra foot you go to do.
Carlie Terradez:
I know. I guess I was springy or something, I don’t know. But my nickname was Tigger, so maybe that was what it was. But they put me in for these jumps. And as I was training with the coach to do these hurdles, and it was a sprint, it was like over the hurdles, all in a sprint.
Ashley Terradez:
Did you hit your forehead?
Carlie Terradez:
I know, right? [crosstalk 00:23:32].
Ashley Terradez:
Carlie doing the hurdles.
Carlie Terradez:
Bang, bang, bang.
Ashley Terradez:
I just made that up.
Carlie Terradez:
You are so mean!
Ashley Terradez:
I just made that up!
Carlie Terradez:
You are so mean! But because like the hurdles were quite intimidating, they’d start you off in these little hurdles. Like they’d put the hurdle flat on the floor, like a twig. Then they’d raise the bar so that you kind of go a little bit higher each time. Well, I mean, and you’d get used to it. But this in particular I was doing, it was a hundred meters, which I don’t know where that is in Imperial. But a hundred meters, how ever many yards that is. And so it’s like a sprint, a fast sprint. Run as fast as you can over the hurdles.
Well, after the first couple of hurdles, I hit my knee on one of them and my knee was painful and bruised and a bit swollen. And so I went back in training. Went back and started over again. And this time I hit the first hurdle and the second hurdle and the third hurdle. And then I just got really frustrated. I’m like, even what I could do before I couldn’t do now. I started getting really frustrated. And the coach said to me, “Here’s the problem. As you’re going to run over the hurdle, you’re remembering in the back of your mind, and you’re feeling the pain in your knee of your past defeat. You’re carrying your past defeat into your future.” And so I was spending so much time trying not to focus on the hurdle and not hit it and go over it, then I was hitting every time at that point.
Ashley Terradez:
-on the hurdle and hit it.
Carlie Terradez:
I was focusing on the wrong thing. And here’s what fear will do. It’ll have you focusing on the wrong thing rather than, we started out the session with 1 Peter 5:7-9; “Casting our cares upon the Lord.” When we’re in fear, we’ll start to take our cares and our anxiety on ourselves. We’ll start to carry them and they’ll weigh us down like a burden. Then we’ll find ourselves weary and exhausted and tired. Just that physical stuff alone, that exhaustion will change your perception. We’ll start to think like a victim rather than a victor.
The coach said to me, “The only way to get past this is to focus on the finish line. You need to look beyond the hurdle that’s in front of you. Look beyond the obstacle to the finish line. When you keep the end in mind, you will sail over the obstacle that’s in front of you.” I believe this is a Word of the Lord for somebody today. But you need to stop looking at the disaster that’s around you and the disaster and the failure and looking back at where you’ve come from. Start looking forward with faith to where God is taking you. He has something so much better than where you are right now. So stop dragging along past fears and rest in the faith that God has put on the inside of you. He’s trying to lead you into your promise land. [inaudible 00:26:10] cast your cares on Him because He is well able to overcome. Amen.
Ashley Terradez:
Amen. Amen. Hey, thanks for joining us today. We’re so glad you was with us. We’re going to be back real soon with another program. We’re going to carry on in this series. We want you to know, you know you are well able.
Carlie Terradez:
That’s right.
Ashley Terradez:
Be encouraged. God has given you everything you need to overcome this fear. Whatever your fear is in your life you can overcome it. God has given you the ability to overcome it, praise God. God is fighting for you. He’s with you. Amen.
So if you need help, you can contact our ministry. We have prayer ministers available that will pray with you and agree with you. You can write to us. Whatever you need to do, praise God. Go get these materials. But I’m telling you, you are well able to take your promise land. You are well able to take the promise in God.
Carlie Terradez:
Your victory has already been determined.
Ashley Terradez:
Amen. Amen. We’ll see you next time.