John Bevere - Confront Fear and Rediscover Your True Potential
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Hey everybody! Welcome to lesson three. It’s so exciting; we’re talking about breaking intimidation. Now, to really set this message up, I need to spend a little time talking about gifts. God has gifted every single one of us supernaturally. It’s called charisma. If you look in the Greek, the word for grace is charis. If you put an «m» and an «a» on it, you get charisma. Charisma is the ability of God that He places on your life, allowing you to do things in extraordinary ways.
Some people are gifted; for example, when I look at a brain surgeon, I think, how can anybody have hands that meticulous and not make mistakes? I look at someone who paints and think, oh my gosh! I look at a teacher who teaches a fifth-grade class and think, you have an extraordinary way of captivating young minds. I think of a leader and marvel at their ability to get people to move in one direction. I mean, I could go on; consider an architect and how they can conceive such magnificent designs. God has placed gifts on every single one of us, and those gifts are what the spirit of intimidation targets. You will see this over the next couple of lessons.
So, let me ask you a couple of questions: Number one, are you operating in your supernatural gifts? I want you to do an honest assessment. Number two, do you feel like fear has held you back from obeying God in certain areas of your life? So, if we hold this place of authority that we talked about in lesson two, why are so many ineffective? This is what we want to address in this lesson.
In his first letter to his apprentice Timothy, Paul writes, «Do not neglect the gift of God that is in you.» Now, the word «gift» is charisma, so that endowment of God that gives him the ability to go beyond his natural ability is being neglected. Let’s look at the definitions of the word neglect: it means to disregard, to discount, to ignore, to underestimate, to overlook, to undervalue. These are really powerful words, and I want you to meditate on this. What Paul is saying is: do not disregard the gift that is in you. Do not discount, ignore, underestimate, or undervalue the gift that is in you.
Now, let me make an important statement, and I want you to listen carefully: Timothy was a very godly man. In fact, I don’t find anyone that Paul brags about more in the New Testament than Timothy. He wrote to the entire Philippian church (you can read it later, Philippians 2:20–22), saying, «I haven’t found anyone anywhere who has a heart for Jesus and for His people like this young man Timothy.» There’s a misconception that people have: they think that if they’re godly, the gift God has placed in their life will automatically function and operate. No, no, no! I was living very godly when I was in that church in the Midwest, but that gift went completely dormant. That gift to preach was dormant all those services, and then suddenly, for those two services, I couldn’t even keep a thought. I was the same man, in the same building, under the same anointing, yet it had gone dormant; it was inoperative. I couldn’t keep a thought because of intimidation.
Are you following me? Timothy was godly, but that doesn’t automatically stir up the gift. There are kind of two extremes that I see sometimes in the church: people pursuing power to the neglect of godly character, and then those who pursue godly character to the neglect of power. We need to have both. The Bible says that we are to pursue godly character and intensely desire spiritual gifts.
So, God wants us to have both. It’s not an either/or situation; it’s both. He wants us to live godly and function in our gifts, but intimidation—if Satan can’t get a guy by getting him to sin, like he did with Judas and Adam—will attack him with fear to stop that gift from being productive in his life. It’s really important that you understand this.
So, Paul writes that in his first letter, but then in the very second letter, right at the beginning, he does the introduction and goes straight to the point: «Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God.» He wrote to him in the first letter, saying, «Timothy, don’t neglect the gift; don’t underestimate it, undervalue it, or overlook it.» But then, right at the beginning of the second letter, he says, «You gotta remember, this is the last letter Paul wrote on Earth.» He said, «Timothy, I’m going to remind you again: stir up the gift of God which is in you.»
Now, that word «stir up» is a Greek word that means to rekindle a fire or to revive something. So, when you revive something, it means it’s dead. The gift of God in Timothy was not operating. I’m not saying it was dead; I’m saying it was completely inoperative, and Paul is saying: «Rekindle it, stir it up, agitate it, and get it moving.»
So again, I want to make this really important statement because you need to understand that the gift of God in your life doesn’t automatically work. Sometimes it has to be rekindled, agitated, or stirred up.
Okay, so we need to ask two questions: Question number one: What causes the gift of God to become inoperative in our lives? Question number two: How do we stir it up? How do we agitate it? How do we rekindle it?
All right, those two questions will be the focus of the remainder of our course, and it’s going to take a lot of in-depth probing and searching to answer those two questions. So, the first question we want to answer right now is: What causes the gift of God to go dormant? I’ve already mentioned it repeatedly, but here’s the scriptural evidence. Paul says, «Therefore, I remind you to stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands, for God has not given us a spirit of fear.» Did you hear that? A spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. In other words, what Paul is saying is: your gift is dormant because you’re allowing a spirit of fear to operate in you.
The Greek word for fear is deilia; that word is better defined by the word timidity. In fact, the NIV translates it as: «God hasn’t given you a spirit of timidity.» So, what Paul is saying to Timothy is the gift in you is not operating because you’re under a spirit of timidity, or can I say it like this, intimidation?
Now we’re connecting with the word. So, let me give you some definitions of intimidation: it means to discourage, to coerce, to suppress. The Oxford English Dictionary says it means to force or restrain someone from action. In this specific instance, Timothy was intimidated by probably the older people in the church because he was a young man. In those days, young people weren’t respected the way they are today. I think it was kind of like a hierarchy—if you were a certain age, you were «the man.» You understand what I’m saying? Here’s Timothy; he’s really young and he’s pastoring this church, which is why Paul had to write to him in that first letter and say, «Don’t let anyone put you down because you are young.» That is 1 Timothy 4.
So, intimidated believers lose their authority in the spirit by default; consequently, their gift—the ability of God in them—lies asleep and inoperative. If you look at Elijah, he was a man of great power. I mean, if you read the miracles that God did through him, it was mind-blowing. In 1 Kings chapter 18, he boldly confronts King Ahab, the nation, and 850 false prophets. God answers him by fire; the whole nation sees, «Oh my, this guy is of God!» Then do you know what happens? He has the entire nation execute those 850 prophets. After that, he prays. Remember, there hasn’t been rain for three and a half years. He prays, and here comes rain so heavy that it almost floods everything. Then the hand of God comes on Elijah, and he outruns the king’s chariot. All of this happens in 24 hours! I would call that a really good day of ministry.
But before the day is even done, King Ahab tells Queen Jezebel what Elijah has done. She sends him a message saying, «So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I don’t make your life like the lives of one of those prophets by this time tomorrow.» In other words, she’s saying, «I’m going to kill you in the next 24 hours.»
Now, when she says this, you have to understand that spirits—remember, intimidation is a spirit—are like surfers. I want you to get an image: surfers need waves; they can’t do anything without them. Demons need waves too, and you know what that wave is? It’s called words. So, when that woman, who has a massive spirit of intimidation, releases her words, do you know what Elijah does? He runs for his life. He runs down the entire nation, through all of Israel and Judah, to the very southernmost city of Israel called Beersheba. He leaves a servant there, goes a day’s journey into the wilderness, sits under a tree, and wants to die.
Here’s a guy who, just the day before, had confronted the nation, the king, and the false prophets, and now he’s running for his life. He’s lying under this tree, and an angel appears to him, giving him food, saying, «You better eat this because you have a really long journey ahead.» So, Elijah eats the food, runs for 40 days and 40 nights to Horeb, the mountain of God (which is Mount Sinai). When he gets there, God speaks to him and says, «What are you doing here, Elijah?»
Now, I want you to stop and think about this. Elijah hasn’t heard the voice of God in over 40 days, and the first thing God says is, «What are you doing here?» I mean, God, are you schizophrenic? You sent an angel, gave him two protein bars (manna) for 40 days and nights, and then you ask him what he’s doing there? God is not schizophrenic. So what’s going on?
God saw that Elijah gave up; he quit, and that’s why he lay under the tree wanting to die. When God sees that you’ve given up and said, «I quit,» He will send you to a place to minister to you. So God says to him, «What are you doing here?» and Elijah gives this big sob story. I mean, it’s quite funny. He says, «Oh God, I am the last one left. The people have forsaken Your covenant; they’ve torn down Your altar; they’ve persecuted Your prophets, and I’m the only one left.»
God completely ignores his sob story and says, «Go out and stand on the ledge.» So, here comes the wind, the earthquake, and the fire. Then, the Lord speaks again for the second time, saying, «What are you doing here, Elijah?»
And you know what Elijah does? He gives the sob story again! He says, «God, I’m the only one!» And God completely ignores that sob story for the second time, telling him, «Go, return your way on the Wilderness of Damascus, and when you arrive, anoint Hazael as king over Syria. Also, you shall anoint Jehu, the son of Nimshi, as king over Israel, and Elisha, the son of Shaphat, of Abel Meholah, you shall anoint as prophet in your place.»
In other words, «I’m replacing you. Remember that place of authority? You shall anoint Elisha as prophet in your place. You gave up your place of authority, Elijah. I’m going to put somebody in there who won’t.»
If you don’t believe me, listen to it from the NLT: «You shall anoint Elisha son of Shaphat from Abel Meholah to replace you as my prophet.» If you continue to read, you will find that Elijah spends the next four years training up this young man, Elisha. Elijah’s real focus now is to train his replacement, the person who’s going to finish the job.
See, what God was saying to Elijah is: «Why did you run from her? You confronted the king; you confronted the false prophets; you confronted the nation. She’s the ringleader! I mean, she’s really the one with the spirit that’s running this whole mess. Those prophets were on her payroll. They ate at her table, but you didn’t go at the root of what was causing the whole problem for My nation of Israel. So I’m going to get somebody in there that is going to take care of her.»
And you know what God says? He says, «It shall be that whoever escapes the sword of Hazael, Jehu will kill; and whoever escapes the sword of Jehu, Elisha will kill.» If you go into 2 Kings, you’ll find out that this guy Elisha is bold; he doesn’t back down to anyone. I remember one time in 2 Kings, the king sent a messenger to say, «Elisha, you’re going to die!» And when the footsteps got to the door, Elisha said, «Oh, there’s the messenger. Tomorrow night, he’ll be dead and won’t be able to eat.» Do you know that guy was trampled? I mean, nobody intimidated Elisha.
If you read 2 Kings carefully, you’ll find out that Jehu, who by the way, Elijah never anointed, but Elisha did it for him, were the ones who destroyed Jezebel, Ahab, and their Kingdom, their Dynasty, and the spirit that was behind it.
Let me tell you something: God has called you to a place of authority, and that place is very significant. I don’t care if you’re in full-time ministry, if you’re in the marketplace, education, or healthcare. God has called you to build a kingdom in that place, and He’s given you authority there. Don’t give it up to intimidation. We’ll continue in the next lesson, and let me say this in closing: you can lose your place of authority. Again, that’s the goal of intimidation. If we are to overcome it, it needs to be dealt with in the realm of the spirit; that’s what we’re going to talk about in the very next lesson.