Creflo Dollar - What Happens When Fear Becomes Bondage - Part 1
If you have your Bibles, go with me to the book of 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 7, 2 Timothy chapter 1:7. He says, "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and a sound mind". But not the spirit of fear. Now let's look at this same Scripture in the NLT, the New Living Translation. We'll spend a lot of times there this morning. "For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but", he's given us power, given us love and self-discipline.
Now, I want to take the time today, you know, this past week God spoke this to me and I'm like, "I don't know about that". You ever had God say something to you; he said do something, you're like, "I don't know how to do that". You know, he spoke these words to me. He said, "What do you do when fear sounds like God"? I'm like, "What"? And, you know, you go to researching things and checking things out and you're like, "Man, I can't find them". What do you do when fear sounds just like God? Now, we know we're in the end times and you know God has given us wisdom, but when I read this, 2 Timothy chapter 1 and 7, one of the things I thought about is how we respond to fear is what matters the most, how we respond to fear is what matters the most.
Fear doesn't come from God. The thing you fear the most is what will come on you. Fear is the faith of the devil. Like God needs faith in order to bring his Word to pass, Satan needs fear. He needs us to operate in fear in order to bring his will to pass. And over the years I've seen just in Christianity how people have slowly began to give excuse for fear to be in their lives, but the Bible says God has not given us the spirit of fear. Now, there is the fear of the Lord, which doesn't have to do with fright. The fear of the Lord is a respect and a reverence for God, but I'm talking about this timidity, this being afraid where does it come from? Like God has to have faith in order to do things in your life, Satan has to have fear to bring things to pass in your life. Before certain things can happen in your life, fear has got to precede it. And so my assignment this morning is to ask the Holy Spirit to help me to help you cast out the spirit of fear and so you can live a life free from fear.
Now, you know, church in the past didn't cast out fear, they just went foolish. They just started doing stupid stuff like, you know, they have glasses on and they say, "I'm not wearing my glasses," and they expect somebody to ride with them. Ain't nobody going to ride with you, 'cause you can't see. "But I have faith". Well, let me know when the faith has manifested. You follow what I'm saying? So I'm going to talk to you, this is what we need to look at, how to know when you're being controlled by fear. How do you know? Because the lines have gotten so thin and so gray that even church people don't even know when they're operating in fear.
How do you know when you're being controlled by fear? Because fear is the faith of the devil. Like God needs faith to bring his Word to pass, Satan needs fear to bring his word and will to pass in your life, and where there is no fear he cannot bring his will and his word to pass in your life. But lots of Christians have tolerated fear, and when you tolerate fear you contaminate faith. Fear tolerated is faith contaminated, and that's what the enemy has done. He's tried to talk, he's tried to get Christian people to tolerate fear, make excuses for us being there, saying it's all right for it to be there, and then when it comes time to operate by faith your faith has been contaminated.
And so we got to deal with it. And you have to know that all hell has been unleashed against me today trying to shut my big mouth because somebody going to get this thing today, and hell is trembling because of your very presence in here today. So you're going to hear a couple of voices today. You're going to hear, boy, you're going to hear two or three voices today. You're going to hear my voice, God's voice, and the devil's voice. But you are a free moral agent. You get to decide. So I got to stick with the Word today. Very little of my opinion has got to be put aside for what you got to hear today. Because if Satan can get a foothold of fear into your life, you will think it's faith, you will think it's okay; and by doing so you grant him access into your life and a lot of things going on and you don't even know it.
Now, I want to look at some things that happens when fear is allowed. Number one, let's look at what happens when fear becomes bondage, what happens when fear becomes bondage. Genesis chapter 3, verse 8, in NLT. Let's look at it there, when fear becomes bondage. Now watch this. Here's what I'm talking about here. "When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. They hid from God amongst the trees". Now, why would they hide from God? Now look at this in the King James. I'm going to be going backwards from New Living to the King James. They hid from God. "And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden".
Now, they had just disobeyed God, they had just eaten up the forbidden fruit, and now they're hiding. They're hiding. You see, fear did not enter the world until Adam and Eve chose to disobey God concerning the fruit in the garden. There was no fear, but they made a decision. You are a free moral agent. You can make a decision. They made a decision to not do what God told them to do. God said, "Don't eat of the fruit of this particular tree". Just one. "Don't eat of this particular tree right here". Why is it that we always desire something we know we can't have? You can't have that woman 'cause she married. Don't try to rap and see if she'll take it. You can't have her. She married. You can't have that man 'cause he married. Don't come around with a T-shirt on. I think you get what I'm saying, right?
So once they sinned, their sin created a confinement. Once they sinned, their sin created a confinement or a bondage of fear. They sinned, it created a bondage of fear as they covered their bodies and physically hid from God. They went from paradise to the prison of fear. They feared God's response to their sin. They feared their new awareness of sin. They became imprisoned by fear, not able to experience the freedom of their relationship with God because they had sinned and they were hiding from him. When fear takes over, we want to hide from everyone, especially from God. When fear takes over, you don't want to be around some saved person, especially when you know they're good and saved. Why? Fear keeps you in bondage; fearful of the future, fearful of sickness and disease, fearful of job loss. Fear can control us to the point where we will turn away and start hiding from God. That's all governed by fear.
However, Hebrews chapter 2, verses 14 through 15, let's read it out of the King James and then the NLT. Fear is the faith of the devil. Like God needs you to operate in faith in order for his Word to come to pass, Satan needs you to operate in fear in order for his word to come to pass. Fear brings bondage. Hebrews chapter 2:14 says, "Forasmuch then as the children are partakers of flesh and blood, he also himself likewise took part of the same; that through death he might destroy him that had the power of death," Satan had the power of death, "that is, the devil. And he wants to deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage".
People who have a fear of death are subject to bondage. You're in bondage because you have a fear of death. That's what this age is all about, the fear of death. The fear of death is what opens the door for the reality of death. He says all, throughout their lifetime they had a fear of death, and he said they were subject to bondage. You're in bondage because you had a fear of death. How many, and don't raise your hand, but think about this. The days that we're living in right now, has it produced a fear of death on the inside of you? Are you in this bondage that you are afraid, "I'm going to die"? Whether you have the vaccine or not. I'm not talking about that; I'm talking about, do you have a fear of death? Because when you have a fear of death, that is bondage, and God wants to deliver you from this bondage. He wants to deliver you from the fear of death.
Fear is the faith of the devil. Just like God needs faith in order to bring stuff to pass, Satan needs fear in order to bring things to pass. If you don't have fear in your life, Satan can't bring that thing to pass without fear. If you don't have faith operating in your life, God can't bring certain things to pass without faith. Fear is the faith of the devil, and the whole world is falling subject to the faith of the devil, which is called fear, and as Christian people we walk by faith in Jesus Christ.
We don't walk by the fear of the devil, we walk by, you must not fear. You must fight it with everything on the inside of you. You must stand up as bold as possible and say, "I ain't scared of you, devil. I'm not scared of you, corona. I'm not scared of you, poverty. I'm not scared of you, divorce. I will not fear". Say that out loud. "I will not fear". Say this out loud: "For if God be for me, who can be against me? No fear here". And it's everything that the enemy can do, what he can get you to see and hear and say to produce this progress towards fear. And there are so many people who are so fearful in this day and time they don't even know how fearful they are. You can be smart and you can be cautious, but there's one thing to be fearful. "I trust God".
And fear is an enemy to that trust. You don't do foolish things, but neither do you allow fear to overwhelm you so much that you're being controlled by it. Doesn't mean you do stupid things. I'm not going to climb on top of the Empire State Building and stand on my hands to prove to you that I ain't scared 'cause I ain't got that good of balance. You know, God will give you some smarts. I'm not going to do like they did years ago. They brought a bunch of snakes in the church and said, "All right, prove that you ain't scared". Well, I ain't got to prove I ain't scared, I just want to... I don't know that snake and that snake don't know me. I don't understand snakes that much to be going around them.
You see what I'm saying? You can mix faith with foolishness and get confused about what you're doing. Faith is according to the Word. I'm doing what's according to the Word. Fear is being afraid to do what the Word says. So keep your life based in God's Word. I have faith in God's Word. Don't get caught up into what these other people are trying to do to, talking about you ain't got no faith if you don't stand on one leg outside of a building. Fool, get out of my way. What? No, no, no, no. Faith is the guy that's subject to God's Word. Do you understand that?
So the first thing that we know is that fear wants to contaminate our faith and fear wants to get us in a bondage of fear. I know some people who are afraid of everything. They're so fearful, so afraid of everything. "I ain't doing nothing 'cause I'm afraid". I won't allow myself to be in fear, and fear is dominating the earth in these last days. "Yeah, but, Pastor Dollar, what about wisdom"? We're going to talk about it in a minute. Wisdom is the Word. And people are just, I can't go anywhere without experiencing somebody's fright and somebody's fear. I thought, "Wow, this is big". And if you're not careful, it will rub off on you. You look at the 5 o'clock news, the 6 o'clock news, the 6:30 news, the 7 o'clock news.
By the time "Entertainment Tonight" come on at 7:30, you too scared to look at "Entertainment Tonight". And it's got to be addressed. I'm not telling you not to wear your mask. You wear your mask. You do whatever you need to do for your comfort level, but make sure it's not being motivated by fear. Does everybody understand what I'm saying? "Fear not for I am with you". And somebody wants to make an excuse for that and before you know it, if they can make an excuse for that Scripture, they'll start making excuses for all of the Scriptures and you ain't going to have nothing to stand on after a while.
Number two, how do I know when I'm being controlled by fear? Number two, when fear steals your focus. How do I know when I'm being controlled by fear? When fear steals your focus. You see, whatever we focus on is what we give strength to. Whatever we focus on is what we give strength to. What are you focused on? Whatever we focus on is what we give strength to. Some of us are focusing more on the troubles of the world and little to none on the Word of God. And so, you know, check it out. You spending more time focused on everything else and 2 minutes focused on God's Word. So obviously what has more strength in your life is the area that you're giving more focus to, and yet God doesn't get that time. You're focused on it, I mean, I thought about this one day. I'm like, "Dear God, I'm spending, what, the majority of the time focused on fear".
I remember when the doctor diagnosed me with cancer, and I knew I had to get this right. You don't have too many shots when you get diagnosed with an aggressive form of cancer. You got to get this right. And so the first thing I did is I got to get this right. First thing I need to do is turn off all entrances into my house that can produce fear or steal my attention 'cause the Bible says attend to the Word, and I needed to make sure I wasn't giving attention to something else more than I was giving attention to the Word. And I set me a schedule up. We're talking about life and death. I ain't got time to be playing. I ain't got time to be looking at, you know, "The Pyramid" or "Entertainment Tonight". I ain't got time looking at none of that. The devil is trying to kill me. I'm in the fight for my life.
So I set a schedule up. "You know, from this time to this time, I'm going to walk up and down the hall and declare the Word outside loud". Outside with my mouth. Not outside but outside of myself, saying it with my mouth. "And then from this time to this time, I'm just going to sit there and meditate on all these Scriptures. This time to this time, I'm going to listen to healing Scriptures. This time to this time, I'm going to walk down the thing and I'm going to declare the Word of God on healing. This time to this time, just going to sit there and meditate on God and hear what God's got to say". And I just set my thing up and I'm like, "Oh no, I'm not losing this fight. I'm going to fight to live".
And many have died of what I had and I'm like, "If God be God, if he don't heal me and he healed anybody else, then he wouldn't be right. You got to heal me. Oh my God, I am your son". Glory be to God. "I have faith in you". Glory be to God. And every devil in hell attacked me. "You going to die". And I didn't sit there and listen to them. Every time I heard the voice of the devil, he had to hear my voice twice as long declaring the Scripture. If he talked to me at 3 o'clock in the morning, I get up and get my confessions out and I say, "All right, you want to fight? You want to dance"? And I go after him. See, some people don't understand it. You shouldn't let the devil defeat you. "I'm not going to be defeated. I believe that greater is he that is in me than he that is in the world".
I believe that when I declare the word of life it overcomes death. I'm not going to sit there and just die. I'm not going to sit there and just become a spiritual sissy and just get scared and die and listen to what he tell me. Every time he talk to me, I talk right back to him. "You know you're going to die". "Oh, you don't understand the devil. You don't understand this, devil. Greater is he that is in me than he that is in the Word of God. You don't understand that the Word of God declares that I am healed. You don't understand that I am whole. You don't understand the power of God that's working in me right now. You don't understand that Jesus through his blood has given me access to his healing".
I got to preach unto myself. I know you hear that being preached, but I actually did it. I had to preach to myself in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, and here I am right now alive and well. You can't be controlled by your fear. Fear tries to steal your focus, and whatever we focus on is what we give strength to. I'm not going to sit there focused on, "I'm going to die. I got cancer. I'm going to die. I got cancer. I'm going to die. I got cancer. O Lord Jesus, why? Why? Why"? I ain't got time to do that. This is a fight. That cancer was fighting 24 hours a day to try to kill me. I had to make sure I matched him. "Well, what about when you slept"? I took a tape recorder and matched healing Scriptures so while I was asleep it would still be going on. Glory be to God. You don't understand the fight. You understand what I'm saying? The Bible says fight the good fight of faith. I'm not gonna let him win. I believe God.