Love Versus Fear: How to Win Every Battle You Face - Bill Johnson Sermon | Bethel Church

0:00 So if the Lord actually leads you into a battle, it's only because you are thoroughly equipped for victory. We interpret the attack when we're doing something wrong. No, it's affirmation. You're close to a greater victory. Why? Because the devil's nervous. Some people in this room are actually only a declaration away from victory. Waiting for someone else to prophesy, waiting for someone else to lay hands, and the Lord is saying, you know, I put my word in your mouth, declare it. Thank you. Oh, wow.

0:31 Another good day. I've got a couple things that I thought were funny. I don't mean to brag or anything, but this is like the fifth end of the world I've survived. I think that's funny.

0:52 I've got another. I don't mean to brag, but I finished my 14-day fast in 3 hours and 12 minutes. That's a good one. I like that. I saw one this last week. It said, I think there should be a calorie refund for everything you've eaten that you didn't think was that good. It wasn't as good as you expected. I thought, that's perfect. I'm in for that one. I like this one. I ate salad for dinner. Mostly croutons and tomatoes. Really just one big round crouton covered with tomato and sauce and cheese. Fine, it was pizza. It was pizza. I ate a pizza. so funny behind every successful person is a substantial amount of coffee that's uh amen all right let's uh open your bibles to isaiah 51 and we're gonna um we're gonna start there Isaiah 51.

2:06 Here's what I want to do. I want to talk to you about... Love versus fear. everything you hear and receive into your life gets filtered by love or fear everything that flows from us is affected by love or fear our reaction response to all the issues around us either take place out of love or fear they're the two defining elements of a person's life Oftentimes what we recognize is happening around us. Those who are motivated by love will pick up on the good news, see the hand of God at work. Those who are controlled, manipulated by fear will always recognize the works of darkness. And it doesn't mean recognizing the work of darkness means you're motivated by fear, but those are still the end results.

3:07 And so what I want to do is I want to talk to you about this issue of fear. and the reason is because it's the number one command in Scripture. It's repeated more often than any other. Do not fear. And when the Lord repeats a command as frequently as he does throughout this entire owner's manual, it's because he's exposing or revealing the number one tactic that the enemy uses to disengage us from our life source. He can't cut me off from my life sorts in the sense of I have a relationship with God. But in the same way that you can have a dislocated arm where you no longer have full use of it, he wants me to be out of function, out of my role, out of usefulness. And fear does that. Fear is where we actually agree with the enemy. And anytime you believe a lie, you empower the liar.

4:00 And so what the Lord does is he's exposing the tactics of the enemy. I don't like to become devil-focused. It's really boring to me, and it's unappealing, and there's nothing I like about it. But Paul does say, I don't want you to be unaware of the devil's devices. So that's an important thing that we realize the tools that he used. when the Lord says do not fear he's never saying it to expose what we're doing wrong in other words it's not a shame deal it's not a look at you you're blowing it again what he's doing whenever he says do not fear he's opening up to us that within reach is the grace to be victorious over fear it's never a command where here go take care of this it's always a partnership When he gives commands, he empowers us to do what we previously couldn't do. It's the nature of grace.

4:56 Grace enables, grace empowers. And so when the Lord says, do not fear, he's merely saying, okay, right at this moment, there is within reach the capacity, the grace for you to deal with this that's come against you. Having the experience of fear, the emotion of fear is not a sin. Partnering with it is. embracing it as though it were truth. How many know there's a difference between facts and truth? There are things that are true that aren't truth. you know a doctor's report don't pretend it's not there if a doctor's report is is there and it's they've discovered something wrong denial won't help you acknowledge what it is but then come into truth that deals with the fact that jesus has already taken care of that here's the cool thing about promises bob hazlett when he was with us here uh i think a month ago he made a comment that really has got me stirring and and uh It was something to this effect that whenever God gives us a promise, wait here, look at it this way.

6:02 God is outside of time. We are in time. Whenever he gives us a promise, it is already done in his realm. It's already a finished, completed thing. And so what we do is we pray, we obey, we cooperate. We do the things that he's assigned for us to do because we actually are used by the Lord to help bring the release to the breakthrough that we prayed out for. sometimes we have a role in seeing breakthroughs sometimes our only job is to observe and it's it's frustrating to try to figure out what season you're in because and the only way i know is is to is to try something and have it not work and then i go oops apparently it's the other season because there's two basic options one is the violence violence the faith is violent the kingdom of heaven suffers violence the violent take it by force The kingdom of heaven suffers violence.

6:57 The violent take it by force. When that season is going on in our lives, it's because the Lord is emphasizing our authority. He's wanting us to come face to face with how he's equipped us to be continuously victorious over the powers of darkness. But there's another season, and you can't do both at the same time. The second season says, Jesus says in Mark 10, unless you receive the kingdom as a child. You cannot enter it. So in one season, you're violently taking. That's the expression of faith. But in the other season, you're in a place of rest where it's brought to you. I mean, you can't do them both at the same time you get a whiplash. You hurt yourself. In the second season, the emphasis is not your authority as a warrior. The emphasis is on your childlikeness that receives an inheritance. It's something that's done for you.

7:49 and these promises the Lord has given us to really steer us, empower us to deal with the fear issue actually come in both realms they sometimes come as that commissioning or that compelling charge to pray with fasting, to make the decrees, fight the fight, fight the good fight of faith do whatever is necessary to see this fear issue defeated so that you can stand in absolute confidence but other times it's a grace thing, it's just a grace thing, it's always grace But it's a grace thing in that it sovereignly has released you as a gift. You didn't even fight for it. There's no work involved. Both are necessary. And so anyway, that's kind of what we're going to look at today. I want you to look at Isaiah 51. Did I tell you where to turn? Yes? No? Some of you heard me, some of you didn't. Isaiah 51. I've got a couple passages here, three actually, that we're going to read to try to identify why the enemy has had such a focus in that area.

8:48 because if we understand why he's made a priority of promoting fear, then it'll help us to have the resolve to keep insulated from things that we've been vulnerable to. All right? Isaiah 51, verse 12. I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you that you should be afraid of a man who will die, or the son of man who will be made like grass? And you forget the Lord your maker, who stretched out the heaven, laid the foundations of the earth. You have feared continually every day. Go back to verse 12. I, even I, am he who comforts you. Who are you to fear? That's an interesting approach to fear. You would think that the Father would come and pat us on the back and massage our egos and say, oh, here, here, I'll take care of everything for you. Everything's fine. He actually stands before us and he says, I'm the one who comforts you.

9:40 Have you noticed my size? who do you think you are being afraid who do you think you are did you actually think it was about you sometimes we need a wake-up call like that that that isn't the sympathetic pat that we thought we were going to get and instead it's the jar into the reality oh when i choose fear i'm choosing the inferior of the absolute manifested presence of god who is here to defend me in any and every situation fear is embracing the inferior who do you think you are being afraid nobody look at Isaiah 54 Isaiah 54 has a great verse on the fear that verse 13 is a prayer that I've prayed over my own children, still do I've been praying for probably 39 years verse 13 all your children will be taught by the Lord great shall be the peace of your children verse 14 in righteousness you will be established you will be far from oppression for you shall not fear. Look at that phrase. You will be far from oppression. Why? Because you won't fear. What is oppression? Oppression is that moment where we make agreement with a lie and we invite the atmosphere of darkness to influence our thoughts and our values.

11:08 It's actually a cloud of darkness that comes when we believe the lie. yes Bill that's a very good point when here's an interesting thing fear doesn't start off often times doesn't start off as a spirit a spirit of fear sometimes it's just a simple emotion you can work yourself into fear without the devil being 100 miles away we don't need him to be stupid I don't. I'll speak for yourself. So some sins we always, we think are spiritual, but actually oftentimes they start in the natural realm. And the extreme example of this in Galatians five actually refers to witchcraft as a sin that starts as a sin of the flesh. That's just bizarre. I mean, here's this, you know, cultic involvement, the demonic, all this world swirling about a person who's involved in witchcraft.

12:10 The scripture says it starts off as a sin of the flesh. What is witchcraft in its basic form? It is the want to be in charge and to control your environment so that you remain in charge. It is the absence of trust in God. And it starts as a sin of the flesh. It becomes supernaturally empowered and eventually becomes very demonic. becomes a stronghold of the demonic. Does that make sense to you? The same is true with fear. Fear oftentimes just starts as, I got a bill in the mail that I didn't expect and I don't have money for. I mean, you start feeding into that thing and pretty soon in no time at all, you're just buried in fear and worry, anxiety, all the junk that all of us face. Every one of us deal with this stuff. And so we get buried in that thing and it actually invites the spirit realm to come and reinforce and it becomes a much bigger battle than it was when we were just dealing with our own discipline.

13:03 One more passage I want you to look at. It's in Philippians chapter 1. and then I want to talk to you for a little bit. Philippians 1 is one of my favorite ones on the subject of fear.

13:24 Verse 27 says, Let your conduct be worthy of the gospel of Christ, so that whether I come and see you or am absent, I may hear of your affairs, that you stand fast in one spirit with one mind, striving together for the faith of the gospel. Here's the verse. not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them proof of perdition, but to you of salvation. Now think through this verse. This is really powerful. Not in any way terrified by your adversaries, which is to them proof of eternal judgment. So think through this. Every time you and I are victorious over a fear issue, what is broadcast on the PA of hell, or the powers of darkness, is pending doom, absolute eternal judgment. And they try to get you to fear so they don't have to think about what's coming.

14:23 I've got some really good news for you I heard just recently every time we are victorious over the fear issue what happens is the enemy all the powers of darkness come face to face with the fact that they are eternally doomed and there is no solution and that's what the victory over fear does is it pronounces, it announces, it reminds what is coming their way. No wonder the powers of darkness work so hard to get us in fear, both to dislocate us in our sense of effectiveness, but also to erase from their thinking what they are facing. That's amazing. That's amazing. So here's the deal. Fear absolutely kills us.

15:19 Fear absolutely messes us up in the worst possible way because it connects us to a lie. So I've got just a series of questions. I've got to make this in briefer in this service. But I've got just a series of questions, and here's the first one. What are you doing? Pertaining to the fear issue, pertaining to the temptation to entertain, thoughts, negative thoughts that really cause you to become weak and fearful. How many of you, you've become so fearful over something, so anxious over something, you couldn't get it out of your mind, you couldn't stop thinking about it all evening long, into the night, it kept you up at night. How many of you have lost sleep over thinking stupid things? alright so we know you know how to meditate So now we just need to change the subject that you're focusing on.

16:18 You're going to feed yourself on that which kills. You're going to feed yourself on that which gives life. And it is a choice. It is a choice. there's this strange thing i've noticed i've noticed creeping up in me every once in a while lifts up its ugly head the strange thing about predicting something wrong so that you have a confidence that you know what you're talking about did that make sense if it didn't don't worry about it just flush but if it made sense to you it's just not right it's not right people do it all the time in the church. They prophesy tragedies coming and this and that so that they appear discerning when tragedies come. Was that the goal? To be discerning or to actually affect the course of history? If you want to affect the course of history and you see something negative coming, start praying so that you can change what's coming. It's the same thing with fear.

17:19 You know, people, Jack Hayford made a statement years ago that really rocked me. He said, how would you treat a friend who lied to you as often as your fears do? That was a joke. Bad joke, but it was a joke. So here's the question. What are you doing? Turn to 1 John 4. Here's probably the most well-known passage on fear, at least for many of us. 1 John 4. 1 John chapter 4, starting in verse 17, love has been perfected among us in this, that we have boldness in the day of judgment. That's an amazing thing. Because as he is, so are we in this world. But I'd love to bring that subject up again. But not today.

18:11 There is no fear in love, verse 18. Perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. Jump down to verse 20. It's all in the same thought. If someone says, I love God and hates his brother, he's a liar. He who does not love his brother whom he can see, how can he love God whom he cannot see? The whole point is, is that when we confess, we have a spiritual experience, a reality in the unseen realm, it has to be measurable in the seen. How we treat the natural world actually illustrates and exemplifies what we are claiming to have happened in our own personal lives. So if I say I love God, but I don't love people, then I'm lying. All right. So what is he saying here? Perfect love casts out fear. I've only had half this equation settled in my thinking. In recent years, anytime I've made reference to this verse, perfect love casts out fear, the emphasis has been on making sure that I'm in a place to receive that loving touch from God.

19:14 Why? Because that love casts out fear. It's true, but it's only partially true. Why? because the scripture says perfect love. The word perfect there is the word complete. Love that is made complete casts out fear. When he goes on in the discussion, he talks about us loving people. So in other words, I have to give away what I've received in order for it to be complete. And it's only that kind of love that casts out fear. it's not just my experience on a prayer line or through a fire tunnel it's the experience i've had with god that has been translated into how i treat people here's the bottom line what are you doing what are you doing pertaining to the issue of fear what are you doing this the scripture compels us serve somebody stop waiting for another conference stop waiting for another prophetic word stop waiting for another person to come and massage your ego or help sympathize with the tragedies that you faced.

20:16 You know, at some point, we have to stop being impressed with the size of our problem. And our deliverance begins at the moment. We're no longer impressed with the size of our problem. And that's the challenge for every one of us. And some of you say, well, you don't know what I've gone through. No, that's true. And if I did, I would probably buckle or be as challenged as as your struggle. I wouldn't ever want to discount that. I'm just saying none of us want to stay there, so let's get out. And the way you get out is you find someone to serve that's worse off than you. Love has to become practical where it becomes demonstrated. So what are you doing? What are you thinking? What are you thinking about? Because if I'm fueling the lie, I've agreed with the liar, and tragically, I've empowered the liar. So he only comes to kill, steal, and destroy. So when you empower the liar, there's always loss and destruction as a result. So there has to be a point where find a scripture, a word of promise.

21:12 Read the Bible until he talks to you. And when you find that verse of scripture, memorize it, write it on a card. You may have to pull it out 50 times, 100 times in one day and quote it, pray it, declare it, sing it. But just take some responsibility. Take some responsibility for the very fact that the enemy is intimidated by your success and he hopes to dislocate your effectiveness by causing you to fear. That's what he's doing. He does not want to be reminded of eternal judgment. That's why he has targeted you, targeted me to fall into this issue of fear. So taking personal responsibility, what are you doing? Serve somebody. What are you thinking? Think what God says. Paul wrote us in the most horrific situation possible. Here's a guy who writes, everywhere I go, people want to kill me. That has to affect your approach on travel.

22:07 He says, everywhere I go, they want to put me in chains. You know, he's got this group that follows him. All they want to do is kill him. I mean, they've stoned him. They've done all this stuff, tried to kill him. He's had 39 lashes. I forget how many times. The guy's just, you know, he's got some reasons to be depressed. And here he's in a prison. He's in a hole in the ground. I've actually been in the hole that he was at in Rome. And he writes this letter that says, rejoice. Again, I say, rejoice. He found how to beat the fear thing.

22:37 He found something powerful. Anybody can rejoice when they have joy. In the kingdom, you rejoice to obtain joy. You actually cause your thought life, your emotional life, and your physical body to align with what God has made available. And in that yielding, in that sacrifice, in that obedience, brings a release of profound joy. Fear can't connect itself. It's like you become Teflon. Nothing sticks. Nothing sticks of that realm of fear. And so the question is, you know, what are we thinking? What are we doing? What are we praying? you know Jesus said come to me all you who are weary, heavy laden I'll give you rest there's a profound picture of exchange if when you pray you don't leave refreshed you probably weren't praying, you were complaining because the whole point of prayer is that you're supposed to get his heart and he's going to take yours he's going to take your junk and give you his good and that's the exchange that's the that's the deal of prayer so if you walk into the presence and you walk out as frustrated as when you went in you might want to think about how you're praying So what am I doing?

23:57 What am I thinking? What am I praying? the last one is found in Joel chapter 3 what am I saying sometimes our efforts at transparency and honesty are so destructive and I want people to be honest if I ask somebody how they're doing and they're having a horrible day I'm not offended at all if they say man I'm having a rough day but if that rough day becomes a week and a month and a year and five years and ten years it's not a rough day anymore, it's a rough life and to be honest I don't mind if somebody who's negative fakes it because they're more pleasant to be with. Just between you and me.

24:51 But in Joel chapter 2 is a very interesting passage. Chapter 3, excuse me. He says, proclaim, verse 9, Joel 3, verse 9, proclaim among the nations, prepare for war. Wake up the mighty men, let all the men of war draw near. Let them come up, beat your plowshares into swords, your pruning hooks into spears. Let the weak say, I am strong. the Lord is I don't mind if somebody's just trying to encourage himself and they just make up positive things to you know I'm going to succeed I know I've failed but I'm going to succeed I think that's healthy I don't mind it at all in fact it just makes you more pleasant to be around but when God says let the weak say I am strong he has opened up a realm of grace a realm of empowerment that is released to you the moment you speak what he said to speak. In other words, strength becomes the reality when it's declared.

25:54 You know, I understand there's been a lot of abuses in the confession. I understand that. But it doesn't erase the reality. It's in the Bible. I know that we don't like abuses, like the abuses in some of the confession streams. I understand it. I don't think living in denial, if you have a bad medical report, living in denial is not going to help it go away. I think acknowledging what's there, but then anchoring your heart into truth, which is the period of fact, I think is the way to go. Declare what God is saying over your life. I think it's very important. Even if it doesn't look like it right now, declare what he's saying. It's just vital. So I believe in the transparency. I believe in the honesty. But God is declaring something to a group of people that are afraid. Now when Gideon had his army, he had 37,000 people in his army. God says, you have too many. Tell everyone who's afraid to go home. How many of you know if you're in the 10,000 remaining and 22,000, whatever it was went home you weren't afraid can we take that test again i i was fine when 33 000 were here but now you know two-thirds of the army just left i wasn't afraid but i've suddenly it's faced you know i'm starting to go there you know and that time he let everyone who's afraid go home this time he doesn't do that there are times where israel he god knew that they would not have the courage to face the enemy. So he took them the long way around because he knew they'd turn around and go back to Egypt. So if the Lord actually leads you into a battle, it's only because you are thoroughly equipped for victory. You are thoroughly equipped for victory. Israel, here's an important thing to remember. As Israel's going into the promised land, so the promised land is a picture of breakthroughs, of taking possession of increase and breakthrough and maturity, growth in this kingdom lifestyle. So this promised land, as Israel's going through, they were only attacked

28:01 when they were close to another victory. this represents a city israel's coming through as they're approaching the enemy that occupies it go oh no we don't want to lose and so they attack we interpret the attack we're doing something wrong no it's affirmation you're close to a greater victory you're great you're closer to greater inheritance to greater breakthrough you're closer to greater maturity to greater impact on the history and the course of humanity and all these things are right at hand why because the devil's nervous. So here's an army that didn't have the privilege of going home when they're afraid. He says, you don't get to go home. You're going to use a different tactic. I want you to declare your own strength and watch it become a reality. Honestly, some people in this room are actually only a declaration away from victory.

29:04 Waiting for someone else to prophesy, waiting for someone else to lay hands, and the Lord is saying, you know, I put my word in your mouth, declare it. Just declare, I'm strong. I'm strong. The enemy says, you don't look strong to me. Yeah, trust me, I'm strong. It's not human strength. I have the spirit of the resurrected Christ in me. You killed the Messiah. The Spirit who raised him from the dead is in me. So here's this challenge with fear. And I... something happens when you make fear a target.

29:47 This may even sound like I'm contradicting some of what I've declared. I believe in praying about problems, obviously. If you're struggling with fear, you pray about it. But sometimes it becomes such an obsession that we fear fear. we actually contribute to what we're fighting against, and it becomes larger in our imagination than what it is. And sometimes just a shift in focus where we serve somebody, we take God's word into our heart, we actually think on it by choice. I put it on a card if I need to, bring it out, remind myself what he's saying. I do this with the scripture all the time. I have cards, I have things in my computer, in my iPad, my phone, just stuff to bring up all the time, just to remind me of what God is saying. Because as we've said for years, I can't afford to have a thought in my head about me that he doesn't have in his head about me.

30:44 It's not appropriate for me to entertain anything that violates what he thinks and what he says. And fear does that. and I've got this sense that what the Lord has hanging right in front of us the low hanging fruit if you will the next season of an unusual extraordinary breakthrough that we've been warming up for for a while this realm of breakthrough that the Lord is releasing to us right now for many of you in this room it's one confession away it's one decree away it's one act of service away it's one verse away that you memorize that you actually meditate on. Instead of feeding my heart with everything that's going wrong, feeding my heart with what God says about what's going right. It's just simple. He's not looking for anyone to be heroic. He's just looking for people to lean in the right direction. He's just looking for people to just embrace what he says and declare it.

31:39 The Lord asked Ezekiel, he said, look at that valley. What do you see? And he said, I see dry bones. And the Lord asked him a question. He said, can these bones live? And Ezekiel had the right answer. He says, thou knowest. I'm sure it was in Old English too, positive.

32:04 Thou knowest, Lord. In other words, I'm clueless, but I'm sure you know. And the Lord says, speak to him. So he began to prophesy to dead bones. some in this room all of us probably in some measure have situations where it's just a valley of dry bones it is so dead it's past dead it's beyond dead it's decayed dead and the Lord says say what I'm saying watch what I do say what I'm saying watch what I do John the Baptist's dad, Zacharias, had an angel appear to him and spoke to him and said, your prayer has been answered. I think it's William Barclay, one of the Greek language specialists, translates that verse this way.

33:02 He says the way that verse can be translated is, Zacharias, the prayer that you no longer pray has been heard. In other words, you gave up on it a long time ago, but it's still active before me. And I've heard it. You have reason, intelligent reason, to be absolutely encouraged because there's not one fear that is coming at you that does not come to you except out of the devil's own insecurity and his knowledge of his own pending doom. He's trying to cover what he has no control of, and that is eternal damnation. And you and I have the privilege, the privilege of walking in absolute upright confidence in the purposes of God over our life, regardless of what's happening.

33:57 So I want to encourage you. Let's go ahead and stand up, and I want us to pray together. And who's coming up after? Oh, Tom, you are. That's right. Come on up. I really had a burden, I guess, a heart to talk about this today, both because I've seen so many incredible, great things happen and because I've seen people that are really fighting through a fight. And I love triumph and victory. I love when my team wins.

34:31 They're not in the World Series, so we'll just have a moment of silence. And we all love when our team wins. We love triumph. We are born for victory. We were born for this. And the crazy thing is, is why contribute to our own defeat? And that's what fear does. And so I'm going to pray that the Lord would just put this like a resilience. He would put something around every person in this room that just repels fear. so father i pray that once again perfect love would cast out violently throw away fear fearful thoughts fearful experiences fearful things that have somehow put an anchor into our soul and i pray lord god let there be a mighty mighty deliverance a freedom from that power today for every person in this room every person in overflow rooms watching online just a sweeping deliverance of fear. But I pray beyond that. I ask, Lord, raise up an army that is known for courage, an army known for courage that actually knows their way around this subject so well that we can assist people coming into their greatest day of breakthrough, into their greatest day of strength. I pray all of these things for the honor of the name of Jesus. Everybody said, amen. Yeah, I'm so glad that you watched this video. I do pray that it's a great, great strength and encouragement to you.

36:02 And I've got a verse that really is my cry for all of us. And it's Psalms 20, it's verse 4. May he grant you your heart's desire and fulfill all your plans. That's my prayer. That's my prayer is that this would be the season of rich, rich fulfillment. Thanks for joining us.