The fear going on today

II Timothy 1:7: [7] For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

"When Paul tells Timothy, 'God's not given you a spirit of fear' he's talking about fear in a spiritual sense because Timothy is being a bit timid in the ministry and Paul's trying to give him a little kick in the pants--a little encouragement to say, 'Get on with getting on,' " explains Michigan preacher Brandon Smith.

"Your spirit is kind of the nature, the disposition of your soul. Scripture talks about having different spirits and some are good and some are bad. You can have a spirit of wisdom, a spirit of jealousy, a spirit of judgment and knowledge, or a spirit of slumber. How is it that you're going to carry yourself as a Believer? What spirit are you going to have?

"The spirit that God's given us is what Paul tells us in I Thessalonians when it says, 'but God, who hath also given unto us his holy Spirit.' The spirit God has given us is Himself, not those things that aren't edifying or profitable for us.

"So, if God hasn't given you the spirit of fear, where would it come from? If it's contrary to what God's doing, the answer would be it's coming from the Adversary; it's part of the lie program. It's getting you to move off of who you are.

"Why is it that Satan would have you operate in fear, because, by the way, this fear is going on today. It could impact all of us; some of us could be moving off of standing firm and might give into it. Some others will come and go a little bit.

"The spirit of fear is meant to frighten and intimidate you. Who has the desire for those in the Body of Christ to not operate as who we are? You know, Satan hates God and God has given us Himself, so Satan hates us.

"We have been given the blessing of God; we've been given His Holy Spirit which lives within us and so these are all things Satan hates.

"You know, Satan hates Pauline truth. One of the things that evidences that is he's blinded many of the people to it. He doesn't seem to be blinding many people to Catholicism.

"One of the first things we ask each other when we get together in a group is, 'Why don't other people see this? It's so wonderful.' Well, when you start to answer that, you have to start with the issue of the Adversary and the fact he doesn't want it spread.

"The curse of the Garden was not Satan's greatest defeat. The Nephilim being destroyed wasn't Satan's greatest defeat. Even, I would go so far as to say, when he gets kicked out of heaven in the Book of Revelation that's not his greatest defeat because that's an outcome of where his greatest defeat took place and that is in the crosswork of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Colossians 2:15: [15] And having spoiled principalities and powers, he made a shew of them openly, triumphing over them in it.

"Satan wants to attack the message because he hates it and it has embarrassed him. It exposed him for who he truly is."

(to be continued)