Bill Johnson - Overcome Fear and Step Into Courage and Freedom
They say, «What doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.» At this point, my dear, I should be able to bench press a Buick! I think one of my all-time favorites—if I can find it, it just disappeared on me—here it is: it’s the hormone guide. My voice is changing, so it’s divided into three categories: Dangerous, Safer, and Safest.
Dangerous: What’s for dinner?
Safer: Can I help you with dinner?
Safest: Where would you like to go for dinner?
Dangerous: What are you so worked up about?
Safer: Could we be overreacting?
Safest: Here’s my paycheck.
Dangerous: Should you be eating that?
Safer: You know there’s a lot of apples left.
Safest: Can I get you a piece of chocolate to go with that?
And here’s the last one:
Dangerous: What did you do all day?
Safer: I hope you didn’t overdo it today.
Safest: I’ve always loved you in that robe.
Why don’t you open your Bibles to 1st Samuel 15? I’m actually going to do something very similar to what I did last Sunday night, so if you were here, you will hear the basic part of the message again. How many of you understand the devil is not creative? He doesn’t create; he just distorts what’s real. Whenever he talks to us, he lies, and he lies to create a distortion field. He’s the father of lies. What he works to do is lie to us so that the problems we’re facing appear bigger than the solutions we carry. He lies to convince us that the problems we face are bigger than the solutions we have.
You are a carrier of the presence of God, the Spirit of God; you live in the will of God. You and I have been given this incredible privilege to display the King and His Kingdom. The enemy tries to make us mindful of what we lack, while instead, the Word of God tells us what we have. For example, if I could put this in monetary terms, if you were to receive a bill for $5,000 that you owe for car repairs, and you have $100 in your check account, then you know you don’t have enough to meet the need. But if you have a million dollars in your account, and you receive a bill for $5,000, it’s not that big of a deal. The enemy points out the size of the bill; the Scriptures point out what you carry in your account.
That’s right, and lies get us to shift our focus. This is a time where I believe the Lord is reemphasizing the fear of God in opposition to the fear of man. The fear of man is a crippling disease of the heart. It causes people to lose the courage that God has given them and compels them to take a safer path that is much more well thought of by whoever it is that they fear. The fear of man is when you have to run through your mind what a certain person or group of people might think about you if you were to take a certain direction in your life.
I personally believe that disappointment, resentment, and the fear of man are the three biggest cripplers in the body of Christ. The fear of man dislocates people from their usefulness and effectiveness. When you and I have the Spirit of the resurrected Christ in us, He is looking for expression. Resurrection seeks out dead things. The Spirit of the resurrected Christ is in us, looking for impossibilities because that’s the appetite of God: to fix what’s unfixable, to restore what can’t be restored. That’s who you are; that’s what you and I have been called to be.
The fear of man connects us to an inferior reality that simply is not true, where we have to rehearse in our minds what someone thinks before we make a decision. This actually separates us from the lifestyle of courage that is our nature in Christ. Since the devil can’t create things, what he works to do is take every personality trait and every gifting that we have and get us to try to operate outside the lordship of Jesus. Let me try to explain this: you can take someone who is very sensitive to the Spirit of God, to the heart of God, very sensitive to the needs of people around them. You take that gift outside the lordship of Jesus, and they become cowardly. They become easily intimidated; they withdraw from the grace that God has given them. What is it? It’s just the same gift. One works under the lordship of Jesus and is called a sensitive spirit. Outside the lordship of Jesus, it’s something completely different.
It causes people to withdraw from who they are. Perhaps the best example of this in Scriptures is Peter. His gift was that he was very bold and brash, but outside the lordship of Jesus, he would say things at the wrong time. You find on the Mount of Transfiguration, God interrupts Peter in his incredible discourse of what the will of God might be. God starts talking because Peter had a knack for opening his mouth at the wrong time. He was so good at it that one day, he had the courage to rebuke Jesus about His plan to die on a cross. He didn’t think that was a good idea, so he stirred up the courage and rebuked God. And when you rebuke God, that’s not a good plan.
But when you take that boldness that Peter had and put it under the lordship of Jesus, you get someone who eventually is said to have been hung upside down on a cross, according to tradition, because he didn’t consider himself worthy to die in the same manner as his Savior. So, you take someone who’s bold like that, put it under the lordship of Jesus, and all of a sudden, you have someone who will stand up on the day of Pentecost, surrounded by thousands of mocking people, and stand there boldly to declare what God is doing.
That’s good! It’s the same trait, but one is under the lordship of Jesus and the other is outside. This issue called the fear of man has affected probably everybody in the room to some extent. The fear of man masquerades as wisdom, especially in religious circles; it masquerades as wisdom. It hides behind the need to seek counsel instead of realizing that sometimes God will speak only to you and won’t speak to anyone else about what He told you to do.
Unfortunately, what I’m going to share with you today is rather dangerous because some people will try to mimic the absence of the fear of man and, in doing so, become harsh, indifferent, and callous towards people. That’s counterfeit; that’s not the real deal. I don’t think it’s possible to be genuinely free from the fear of man without being a compassionate, loving individual, one who is genuinely concerned about people.
So, the fear of man is something the Lord wants to deliver us from, but is it possible that the fear of man is simply a negative expression of a gift that has been misused? I believe it is. What is the fear of man under the lordship of Jesus? It’s the unusual gift to be able to see a problem or a decision through another person’s perspective. Those who live from the fear of man, outside the lordship of Jesus, are constantly running through their minds, «This is what they’ll think, this is what they’ll say.»
What is it? It’s a gift misused. Used correctly, it gives us an incredible ability to discern the heart of another person and recognize their unique perspective on the world, and gives us incredible opportunities and abilities to communicate well with people we’ve been concerned about.
With the fear of man, their opinions dictate how we live. Outside the fear of man, we become people with insight who are able to serve the broken places in their lives. I’ve read a number of studies over the years—articles written by those who have worked with the dying, including nurses, hospice workers, or perhaps even family members who spend an unusual amount of time during the last days and weeks of a dying person’s life.
I’ve noticed a common theme in every report I’ve read on this subject. The number one regret among those who are about to enter eternity is that they lived their lives according to the expectations of the people around them and not their dreams. They never stepped into what was truly in their hearts, what they genuinely yearned for. They became someone who worked in an occupation because Mom or Dad expected it, or maybe because siblings or friends thought they should be doing this.
They adjusted their lives according to the opinions of those around them. The tragic thing is that the fear of man, while it’s not a heaven or hell issue, will always keep you from God’s best for your life and mine. It cripples us and blocks us; it serves as a blockade in coming into what God has designed for us.
He didn’t design for there to just be one giant killer. As you read through the story, there were at least four or five other giants killed in David’s day, and they were all killed by people who followed David. If you want to kill giants, follow a giant killer. Be around people who have courage. Don’t restrict yourself according to the random opinions of people around you. This doesn’t mean we shouldn’t value people; it just means there are times when the Lord will speak to me and not to anyone else.
I believe in seeking counsel, and I do it often. We make so many decisions here as a team and a group. But there are times when the Lord speaks, and that’s what’s required. The will of God has to be our supreme appetite; we must hunger and thirst for what God wants for our lives and through our lives.
We have a bizarre story here with King Saul in 1st Samuel 15—a strange story. Samuel, the prophet, told him to go into battle. He was to destroy a particular group of people—remind you, this is the Old Testament, where fighting for holiness meant destroying every bit of unholiness they could find. They were to kill all the people; they were to kill the animals—they were to sacrifice everything before the Lord.
In verse 9, it says, «But Saul and the people spared Agag, who was the king, and the best of the sheep, the oxen, the fatlings, the lambs, and all that was good. They were unwilling to utterly destroy them, but everything despised and worthless, that they utterly destroyed.»
It’s amazing how often people give offerings of that nature; they give what’s excess or what they have no need for. When David made the decree, «I will not offer to God anything that doesn’t cost me something,» that heart attitude keeps us on the edge of breaking into new realms of the will of God.
We move down to verse 19. Samuel says, «Why did you not obey the voice of the Lord? Why did you sweep down on the spoils and do evil in the sight of the Lord?» Saul said to Samuel, «But I have obeyed the voice of the Lord, and gone on the mission on which the Lord sent me, and brought back Agag, king of Amalek, and I have utterly destroyed the Amalekites.»
But the people took the plunder. Remember what Adam said? «It was the woman you gave me.» Remember what Eve said? «It was the serpent.» Now Saul is blaming the people. The best of the things which should have been utterly destroyed to sacrifice to the Lord your God at Gilgal.
Then Saul said to Samuel, «I have sinned, for I have transgressed the commandment of the Lord and your words, because I feared the people and obeyed their voice.» King Saul actually entered into what the Bible refers to in this chapter as witchcraft. He wasn’t worshiping devils; it was just rebellion that is as the sin of witchcraft.
The preference he had in his heart for fearing people over the fear of God introduced him to a realm of the Spirit he was not qualified to handle, and he became delusional—literally tormented in the demonic realm because he resisted the fear of God and embraced the fear of men. The great tragedy for me is this: anytime we give a virtuous name to a dysfunction, we legitimize that dysfunction. We don’t only give it permission to stay; we give it the power to increase.
Anytime we give a virtuous name to a dysfunction—and it’s done often, trying to cover our tracks: «I meant well» or «I was sincere"—we give a virtuous name to something that was simply wrong. Saul’s case is that Samuel confronts him, and he doesn’t say, «Forgive me; I was wrong.» He says, «I did everything I was supposed to.»
Only after God starts peeling back every layer is he left with one thing: «I’ve sinned because I feared man.» He wanted to blame everyone else, but he was the one to blame. Jesus gave a strong warning to the disciples in Mark chapter 8—a favorite chapter of mine that has had as much impact on my life as any other chapter in the Bible, aside from Isaiah 60.
In that chapter, He says to the disciples, «Beware of the leaven of Herod and the leaven of the Pharisees.» This is something I realize we’ve gone over countless times, but I want to use it in a different context this morning. He says, «Beware of the leaven of Herod"—leaven, of course, is the yeast you work into dough—the leaven of Herod and the leaven of the Pharisees.
Herod represents the political system; the political system is humanistic in nature. The political system has man at the center of everything; it doesn’t mind us believing in God; just don’t bring Him into the daily affairs of life. If there’s anything that seems to define or describe much of the political environment in our nation right now, it’s that you’re mocked for having any dependency upon God. You can believe in Him, but keep it peripheral.
We separate church and state, a man-made invention. You can’t separate God from anything. NOP: like someone said, as long as there are tests, there will be prayers in schools. Jesus gives this warning about the leaven of Herod and the leaven of the Pharisees.
When we lived in Weaverville, we would make homemade bread. Our only heat was from a wood stove. Sometimes, Benny would put the dough together, but it wouldn’t rise, so she’d put it out by the wood stove because the heat would activate whatever yeast was in the dough. Problems will always activate and reveal whatsoever leaven has been worked into your thinking. When God brings stuff to the surface, it’s never to humiliate you; it’s always to bring to the surface something that can be forsaken through repentance and confession.
It’s bringing something into the open so that when I see, «Oh God, I chose to fear that person’s opinion more than Yours,» you see—that’s not to cause shame; it’s not to cause me to turn and run; it’s to cause me to have an open book and say, «God, forgive me.» I didn’t realize I was doing it or maybe I did, but I see this is just dumb, and you confess it to the Lord and repent.
The whole reason he brings things to the surface is so that we can deal with them; they do us no good hidden. So many people live with so much stuff hidden; they just keep burying things, hoping they never show their ugly head. In His mercy, God brings them to the surface—not to embarrass, but to position us to deal thoroughly with this issue, in this case, the fear of man.
So this story with Herod—I want you to turn to Matthew the 14th chapter. We have two verses in Matthew that I want to read, and then I’ll try to tie it together. In Matthew 14, Herod took his brother’s wife. John the Baptist told him that’s a no-no, so Herod wanted to kill him. It says in verse 4 that although he wanted to put him to death, he feared the multitude because they counted him as a prophet. He didn’t kill John the Baptist; he didn’t do what was in his heart because he feared the multitude.
There’s another passage here that’s quite interesting. Herod is giving a speech in Acts 12, and it says, «On that set day, Herod, arrayed in royal apparel, sat on his throne and gave an oration to them. The people kept shouting, 'The voice of a god and not of a man.' Then immediately, an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give glory to God, and he was eaten by worms and died.» That’s got to be one of the grossest stories in the Bible.
Here’s what I want you to see. It’s a puzzling story to me. Here’s Herod standing before a crowd of people, giving a speech, and he actually dies because he didn’t give glory to God. Why was he expected to give glory to God? Because God gifted him to move a crowd unusually through a gift of speech. I’m telling you, we’re going to see this in the next couple of years in our political realm where God will anoint people who don’t know Him yet, but He will anoint them for His own purposes.
In this particular case, Herod brought a word to these people, but he didn’t recognize that it was God’s favor on his life. Even though he was an evil, wicked king, that bothers a lot of people. The Bible tells us that He reigns on the just and the unjust. It reigns, and that reign is blessing; it’s not a reign of punishment. It reigns on the just and the unjust. God woos people through His kindness. The scripture is still true: «Repentance is given as a gift through kindness.»
So here we have this unusual story where Herod, in chapter 14, fears man and doesn’t do what’s in his heart, but in Acts 12, what happens? He ends up dying because of the place he gave to the praises of man. You’ve got to make this connection: the fear of man creates an unusual appetite for approval from man.
True, there are people who work hard for recognition; they are usually struggling for identity. The need for recognition is usually tied to a fight for personal identity. The thought is that the recognition, the applause of man, will help give them identity, but it doesn’t. Any identity you get through the applause of man, you’ll have to sustain through the applause of man, which takes us deeper into the addiction called the fear of man.
Wow! Identity has to come through the wonder of God’s grace, the power of the blood of Jesus, and the voice of the One who calls us unto Himself. That is the only basis for our identity. Outside of that, we are privileged to experience honor in the celebration of people. One of the most basic needs of every person on the planet is the need for affirmation; they need to be valued and celebrated. I remember years ago, working with people who came out of certain religious groups, they had this expression: «I was tolerated, but I wasn’t celebrated.»
Everybody deserves to be celebrated by somebody, and it’s a substantial part of life. But that celebration that others give you is not the meal; it’s a supplement—it’s the spice. It’s the spice you put on beef, not carrots. It’s the spice you put on venison. I like carrots; I’m into carrots! But if we’re talking about enhancing a meal, I want to go beef. It’s either that or venison, one of the two.
So, honestly, the celebration, the honor, the recognition of people— we do need that in our lives, but if it is the basis for our identity, we’re in trouble because it won’t satisfy. It creates an appetite that cannot be fulfilled that way. It works in opposition to what God is trying to build in us because it enhances this thing we’ve called a virtue: affirmation, which is really the fear of man.
The beauty of affirmation is when we become celebrated, it becomes the seasoning on the meal; it enhances life itself. That’s the privilege of being in a family together, being around people who will stop and say, «Man, I loved the way you did that. The way you helped that person was so cool! How you gave up your chair and took a lesser seat—man, that convicted me! I’m so impressed with how you live!» We have these moments where people just stop and acknowledge the grace that’s functioning in our lives.
It’s a huge part of life; it’s necessary! But it’s not where our identity lies. It’s an additional touch of grace upon our lives that God is giving us as a gift. It only gets twisted when it undermines the very sense of identity and purpose that we have such a hunger for. Identity comes from a father, and knowing God as our father. We don’t have time for this right now, but it’s vital.
Fathers done right provide identity, a clear understanding of purpose, conviction for destiny, and an awareness of unlimited resources. That’s what fathers do. Because there’s always enough to do what’s right. In every household in this room, if your kids didn’t grow up with that, there’s still time! Work on your grandkids! There’s got to be the awareness that we have an identity in Christ; we have a destiny, purpose, and awareness of unlimited resources to do whatever we’re supposed to do in our lives.
Now we have this particular instance with Herod, who lives by the fear of man. The political system lives by the fear of man. Look at all the posturing going on right now; without pointing fingers or being hostile, observe in a discerning manner how often the fear of man works in the political system. You can tell what motivates a person or a group of people.
Go into any church in the country—throw a problem in the middle of that group, and you’ll find out who is governed by a political spirit and who is governed by a religious spirit. The Bible states that not only was Herod fearful of the people because they considered John to be a prophet, but later, in Matthew chapter 21, the Pharisees feared the people because they considered Jesus to be a prophet. The fear of man infects these two otherwise possible giftings from God in both the political arena and the religious community. These two realms of influence become perverted and distorted because the fear of man infects them.
Where God is taking us, none of us can get there through the fear of man. We can only get there through the fear of God. I hear people say, «Oh, there’s no fear of God in the New Testament.» Could a gracious read it? Well, you can’t have fear and love in the same relationship. You can’t fear God and love God. Whoever said that obviously wasn’t married!
I love my wife, but she scares me! You can tell how people think—I’ll tell you one of the ways you can tell—examine your heart. Take a controversy, throw it in a group of people, and see how the religious spirit wants to deal with the problem. The woman caught in adultery was thrown at Jesus' feet; the Pharisees came with stones because their zeal for righteousness was proven in judgment.
The religious community will always try to put an end to the problem through judgment. Those who live by the fear of man will try to show that they are right by judging what’s wrong. Then you’ve got the political system; how do they respond to problems, to conflict? Pilate is a great example. Jesus was brought to him and accused of all kinds of crimes. After he examined Him, he told the people, «I find no fault in Him.»
The people began chanting, «You’re no friend of Caesar if you let him go.» What is that? It’s what the political world does; it seeks advancement through manipulation, accusation, and control. Both of these themes are the offspring of the fear of man. The religious community tries to stone the problem with this woman, while Pilate seeks to create separation in people’s thinking. By washing his hands in front of them, he wants to create distance.
In the political spirit, you don’t ever want to be associated with someone who has a problem. If there’s any controversy in the political world, immediately all their friends begin to create distance. Why? Because that’s how the fear of man works. On one hand, you’ve got stones to create judgment and bring an end to a problem, and on the other hand, you’ve got a political spirit that seeks separation because they don’t want anyone to associate their name with that person.
Maybe in 10 years, when their repentance has been proven, and they’re back in ministry and doing well, maybe then we’ll accept them. Oh wow! You courageous person, you! You know what? Not being well-liked really isn’t that bad at all!
I’ve had friends through the years who have done some pretty dumb things; thankfully, most of my friends don’t. But I’ve had a few rogue friends who just did that little number. What they did was inexcusable, but it’s not unforgivable. To create distance so people think I value holiness? If I don’t value it in my life, it doesn’t matter who I hang out with!
We have to rethink some things! Yes, just consider the way Jesus responded to people. They called Him a drunk and a glutton just because He hung out with people who were like that. He wasn’t afraid of the image He created.
I don’t want to create another kind of problem here, but I’m just trying to say be careful not to create separation between you and a problem. If you can be a help, stay in the relationship; if you’re going to be affected by the problem, then create distance for your own safety. Does that make sense?
If it’s going to lead you back into sin, then create the distance. But explain it. Just be honest. Say, «I’m struggling myself, and I want you to do well, but I don’t want to fall.» Just be honest! Don’t let the fear of man manipulate you. Don’t stand up in front of a bunch of Christian people and curse this and curse that just to prove you’re a just person who values righteousness. Stop it!
It’s got to be evident in our lives. If it’s not in my life, then it’s not real! Herod’s kind of a scary picture. Here’s a guy who lives by the fear of man, and he finally receives praise beyond what is reasonable: «The voice of a god! The voice of a god!» People start chanting this, and he lets it go to his head.
Why? Because he was a man who feared men. He had a need for affirmation, and here’s the deal: if you live by the sword, you’ll die by the sword. What does that mean? It means you can choose how you’re going to live because that’s how you’re going to die!
Wow! If you live in honor, you’ll die in honor. Let me end with this story. It’s a story I share every so often, one of my favorites. I probably read it 30 years ago. It was about a man who had been in a horrible automobile accident. He was a great athlete, very competitive, always involved in different kinds of sports, and in this accident, he lost an arm.
During his recovery, he tried to figure out what kinds of activities he could pursue now that he only had one arm instead of two. He experimented with different sports until he finally picked up the game of handball.
Has anyone ever played handball before? Has anyone here ever played racquetball? Racquetball is the fun, safer way! Handball is painful! You hit the ball; it’s about as hard as a golf ball. You hit it with your hand, and they put this cheap little leather thing over your hand that doesn’t work at all! I don’t like handball! Racquetball is fun, but handball is painful!
Well, this guy became very good. He progressed through the club he was part of, eventually winning the championship of his club. They entered him into the state competition, and he ended up winning the state championship in handball. A newspaper writer wanted to interview him after his victory, so he took him aside and asked him how it was possible that a man with one hand could win in a sport where all his opponents used two.
After all, when the ball came off the wall on this side, his opponent could use their left hand; if it came to this side, they could use their right hand. So they asked him how it was possible for a man to win in a sport where all of his opponents have two hands and he only has one.
He said, «Oh, it’s easy: options.» They asked, «What do you mean 'options'?» He explained, «When the ball comes off the wall, my opponent has to decide which hand to use. That’s all!»
So the reporter realized, «Oh! You limited your options and chose only one hand.» And he continued, «When something comes up that is the will of God, it matters not the price because the decision was made back there!»
I’m not interested in building something that looks wonderful to people; I want to grow bigger people.
That’s what my heart aches for. I want you to stand. I believe the Lord highlighted this for me; I talked about it some last Sunday night and again this morning because I believe this is a season, a moment, in our life as a church family where the Lord wants to highlight not only our need but the availability of an anointing for greater courage.
That’s what I feel like! I said all of that to say: you were destined for courage! You were destined for courageous choices. We are not destined to be indifferent towards people, lacking compassion for them. None of that is true!
We have been called to obey what God says without taking a public opinion poll. We want the will of God—period! Regardless of what it looks like. That’s the passion of our hearts.
So put your hand on your heart, and pray this with me:
Father God, I choose the fear of God. I renounce the fear of man. I embrace courage. I say no to a cowardly heart. I ask that You’d give me Your grace to recognize the difference between the fear of God and the fear of man.
And I ask for a double portion anointing for this next season for courage. Help us to be a family of courageous ones!
Amen!
So Father, I pray for this true spirit of breakthrough on the entire family, that together there would be new realms of courage, new realms of breakthrough, that all these things would yield to a people who have said no to the fear of man. In Jesus' name.