John Bevere - Overcoming the Fear of Man
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All right, we’re in the final lesson. I’m so proud of all you guys for staying with this course. Let me just mention that I’m going to cover a lot of material; I will skim it briefly—about three chapters' worth of material. I highly advise that you get the book «Breaking Intimidation,» but it’s not required.
Okay, so let’s start out with our scripture: 2 Timothy 1:7. «For God has not given us a spirit of intimidation, but a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind.» Now we’re going to talk about a sound mind in this final lesson. A sound mind is one that possesses the knowledge and wisdom of God in any given situation. Write that down: a sound mind is when you know what God wants in any situation. All right, this produces great confidence and boldness. Nothing is more intimidating than being ignorant, not knowing what to do.
This is why Paul says don’t be ignorant of the will of God. It’s so important; knowledge is so valuable. The knowledge of God’s will is incredibly valuable. We read in Proverbs, «A wise man is strong.» See, wisdom gives you strength; knowledge gives you strength. Yes, a man of knowledge increases strength. Through knowledge, the righteous will be delivered, and God says, «My people are destroyed for a lack of knowledge.» Wisdom is extremely valuable. We read in Proverbs Chapter 4, «Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do. Whatever else you get, get insight. Love wisdom, and she will make you great.» See, God has no problem with you being great when He makes you great, and His wisdom will.
So, knowledge and wisdom produce confidence. How do we get knowledge? How do we get wisdom? And I’m not talking about just ordinary knowledge; I’m not talking about ordinary wisdom—I’m talking about the knowledge of God and the wisdom of God. How do we get it? It’s very simple: the fear of the Lord. Psalm 111:10 says, «The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments.» Proverbs 1:7 says, «The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.» I’ll never forget a very successful businessman—well, actually he has a commercial construction company, one of the best in California—and he spent a lot of time in the Word of God. He said it was amazing. When I went on the job site, I just knew what to do. I said, «Do this, do that, do this.» He said I was almost in awe of how I knew the right thing to do. He has the fear of the Lord. There are two types of fear: the fear of the Lord and the fear of man. Of course, the fear of man is intimidation. The only way to walk totally free from intimidation is to walk in the fear of God.
So what is the fear of God? It is when we esteem Him, we reverence Him, we highly value what He values, we love what He loves, we hate what He hates. We don’t just dislike what He hates; we hate what He hates. Okay, now let me make this clear: God loves people, so if somebody hates people, they don’t fear God because they hate what He loves. God hates sin that unmakes people. See, the fear of God hates the sin that unmakes people, but the fear of the Lord loves people. We love what He loves, we hate what He hates, and we hold what is important to Him as important to us. What is not so important to Him is not so important to us. We obey His word instantly; we obey His word when it doesn’t make sense. Sometimes we obey His word to completion, and the Bible says in Proverbs 14:26, «In the fear of the Lord, there is strong confidence.» So there’s where that holy fear, which produces the knowledge of God, produces a sound mind. Here comes your boldness; here comes your confidence.
What is the fear of man? To fear man is to stand in alarm, anxiety, awe, dread, and suspicion, cowering before mortal men. When entrapped by this fear, we will live on the run, hiding from harm and reproach, and constantly avoiding rejection and confrontation, afraid of what man can do to us. We will not give God what He deserves. The fear of man, Proverbs says—listen carefully—the fear of man brings a snare. A snare is a trap. What is the trap? The trap is you give up your God-given authority. We read in Isaiah 51:7-13, «Listen to me, you who know righteousness, you people whose heart is My law; do not fear the reproach of men, nor be afraid of their insults.» «Who are you?» I love this. «Who are you that you should be afraid of man who will die and the son of man who will be made like grass and forget the Lord your maker?»
Wow, what a statement! Paul made this statement in Galatians 1:10, «For if I still please men, I would not be the bondservant of Christ.» If you look at King David and King Saul—and I talk about this extensively in the book—there is a picture of a man who fears God and a man who doesn’t. King Saul was told by the Word of the Lord not to offer the sacrifice for seven days until Samuel offered it, but he was fighting the Philistines. They had thousands of foot soldiers and thousands of chariots, and his men were so afraid they were going AWOL. Every day, Saul’s army got smaller and smaller; the Philistines' army got more powerful and larger. What did King Saul do? He offered the sacrifice. He disobeyed the Word of God because he didn’t want to lose any more soldiers; he didn’t want them defecting. Samuel came after he did it and said, «You have done something so foolish. You have honored what you feared more than you have honored God’s Word,» and he lost his kingdom as a result.
This fear of man was evident when God told him to utterly destroy the Amalekites, but he spared the king. Why did he spare the king? Because the king would be a living trophy in his palace; it would always remind Saul of his conquest of the Amalekite nation. He spared the best sheep and the best animals when God said to kill them all because the people wanted those best sheep. So even though it was a religious thing, he disobeyed the Word of the Lord, and as a result, he lost his kingdom.
If you look at David, David went through a much harder situation than Saul did. Saul’s men were going AWOL, but the few that were left with him were still supporting him. But David had 600 men that were left on the earth that truly believed in him, and he had been in the wilderness, in the deserts, and in the land of the Philistines for 12 years. He decided to go to battle with the Philistines, but the Philistine leaders rejected him. They went back to Ziklag, where David and his 600 men had their wives and families, and the Amalekites had come in and raided that town of Ziklag, taking all the men’s wives, all the children as hostages. They kidnapped them and took all their valuables. David’s men were so upset that they wanted to stone him. But you know, David doesn’t say, «Guys, guys, guys, we’ll go after them.» David first inquires of the Lord. This is something you will see about David all throughout 1 Samuel; he inquires of the Lord. He always wanted to know what the will of God was because that gave him a sound mind.
Let me say this in closing: seven times God says to Joshua before he goes in and takes the Promised Land, «Be strong and of good courage.» What is the opposite of courage? A lot of people say it’s fear. No, put a «dis» in front of it: discourage. Let me tell you why God said to Joshua seven times to be strong and of good courage. Forty years earlier, 12 leaders went into the Promised Land, and 12 leaders came back; 10 of them had a bad report. They saw how big the giants were in the Promised Land and what they saw was the size of the giants and the fortified cities and the weapons that they had. They didn’t see the size of the God they served, and so they brought back a bad and evil report. They said, «We are not able to go in and conquer this Promised Land.» Because of it, they turned the hearts of millions of people to not obey God. I’ll never forget when a pastor said to me one day, «John, would you rather speak to 10 leaders or to three million people?» I said, «Three million people.» He said, «You chose wrong.» He said, «Because 10 leaders turned the hearts of three million people.» I went, «Wow.» I realized how important leadership was.
So here’s a leader getting ready to bring the next generation into that Promised Land, and God says seven times, either through Moses, through the elders, or directly to Joshua, «Be strong and of good courage.» Why? «That you may observe to do according to all the law which Moses, My servant, commanded you to do and not turn from it to the right hand or to the left, so that you may prosper wherever you go.» You know what’s interesting? God doesn’t command Joshua to be strong and courageous to have great wars and to make great conquests; He says, «Be strong and courageous to keep the Word of God.» I think sometimes it’s harder to obey the Word of God than it is the pressures that come on us, like those that came on King Saul, or the pressures that the 10 spies felt—the pressures to not obey the Word of God and go for what would protect and self-preservation.
Courage, and I love this and it’s out of Webster’s Dictionary, is the attitude or response of facing and dealing with anything recognized as difficult, dangerous, or painful instead of withdrawing from it. You know, there may be times that God’s Word to you may cause you to go into a very difficult situation, maybe even a painful situation. The question is: are you going to obey God? Are you going to allow self-preservation to pull you back? When you have the knowledge of God and you have the love of God fueling it, and you realize you have the power of God to overcome in any situation, you will never be intimidated. This is the way to walk totally free from intimidation.
So in closing, I want to say this: I want to pray for you. I want to pray that the spirit of intimidation is broken off of your life. God hasn’t given you a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. I want you to begin to operate in what God has placed in your heart. So if you say, «Hey, John, I have lived under the spirit of intimidation,» let you and I break that together right now. I’m going to stretch my hand toward you. I want you, as a point of contact on your computer or your phone, wherever you’re watching me, to put your hand right on my hand, and let’s agree together that this spirit is broken. Remember, it is a spirit, and you have to address it in the realm of the spirit.
So in the name of Jesus, I’m going to lead you in a prayer of repentance to God, and then we’re going to break that spirit. I want you to say this: «In the name of Jesus, Father, forgive me for tolerating what Jesus paid such a high price for to deliver me from. You, spirit of intimidation, I give you no more place in my life, but I command you in the name of Jesus to go from my life, from my home, from my family, from my ministry, from my job. I give you no place any longer, but I command you in the name of Jesus to be gone. And Father, I am asking You now to fill me with a spirit of power, a spirit of love, and a spirit of a sound mind.» There it is—in Jesus' name. You have broken it.
And let me say this to you: don’t succumb to it any longer. God spoke this to me when I really understood intimidation. He said, «Son, why do you walk right back into your lifestyle what you prayed to be free from?» I realized that you have to live in that high calling; you abide in that high calling. Don’t allow intimidation to come anymore. You can recognize it by the symptoms of discouragement, depression, and fear of man. When you sense that coming around you, ask the Holy Spirit if it is an intimidating spirit that you need to address.
There were many, many times I had to address it after I got free, but then the day came when I guess that spirit realized I recognized it too quickly, and I took the sword of the Spirit, just like you and I just did, and I bound it. That’s what you need to continue to do. Like I said, I would get the book and go through it over and over again. Why? To develop your faith to break that spirit. When we’re not on camera and we’re not praying together, you break it. You take authority over it, and you ask for a fresh infilling of the Spirit of God—the spirit of power, the spirit of love, and the spirit of a sound mind.
I am so honored that we’ve been able to take this journey together, and I’m so excited about what’s going to happen with you from this time forward. You are going to be more fruitful in the workplace, in the marketplace, in the educational field, in healthcare—wherever God has you, whether you are a single mom at home or whether your parents are raising a family. You are going to have the blessings of God overflowing in your life, in your family, and in your business because you broke that ugly spirit. I am so proud of you, and I love you very much. God bless you!