The Power of Right Believing: 7 Keys to Freedom from Fear, Guilt, and Addiction (8 page)

How Fear Enters

Derek had been innocently reading the morning newspaper, and just like that, fear struck like a preying python and exerted its grip on his heart.

It began with breathlessness, and then the poor man started to experience all kinds of evil imaginations. In his mind’s eye, Derek would see himself entering his warehouse alone to pick up some
inventory (something that he was used to doing), but he would have mental pictures of himself getting badly hurt in the process, with nobody ever knowing that he needed medical attention.

Day by day, Derek felt the constricting pressure of fear tightening its grip on his heart. He became obsessed with how he would get hurt and die until he was afraid to go anywhere alone.

Needless to say, he went into a downward spiral as his mental oppression worsened. Images of himself getting hurt played over and over again in his mind like a horror movie in perpetual slow motion, and he would suffer major bouts of debilitating anxiety attacks.

As his breathing difficulties increased, Derek checked himself into a hospital, convinced that he was severely ill. But after numerous tests, the doctor told him, “You don’t have a heart problem. You have an anxiety problem. Please give up your bed for someone with a real heart problem.” Once a strong and healthy individual, Derek had folded and collapsed under the pressure of the serpent’s constriction.

Turn on the Light of God’s Words

Thankfully, a volunteer who serves as an usher on Sundays in our church invited Derek to attend one of our care group gatherings. Derek shared with me that the leader of the care group encouraged him to get into God’s Word every morning and pray in the Spirit for thirty minutes every day as he drove to work.

“I would listen to your messages over and over again in my car,” Derek said as he related his testimony. “In one of your messages, you said to focus on the Word of God and not on my problems. And that was exactly what I did! I began turning away from those dark thoughts and allowing the light of Jesus’ words to come into my situation.”

My friend, do you believe that God’s thoughts are greater than the devil’s thoughts? Do you know that His light is greater than any darkness? Imagine walking into a room that is pitch-dark. When you flick on the light switch, does the darkness consume the light, or does the light drive away the darkness?

For this precious brother, his breakthrough began when he turned on the light of God’s Word and allowed it to shine upon him and his situation. He realized that he was afraid of being alone because of his irrational belief that for some reason he would get hurt and die. And he began to realize that it was a clear lie from the pit of hell. He shared that one of his favorite verses that gave him both courage and comfort during that dark season was the Lord saying to him, “I will never leave you nor forsake you” (Heb. 13:5). He would speak this verse whenever he was fearful and then tell himself, “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear” (Heb. 13:6).

Equipped with God’s Word, Derek began playing the right mental movies in his mind. Every time the anxiety attacks came and every time the evil imaginations began to replay in his mind, he would wield these Scriptures like a weapon against the onslaught of the serpent’s attack. Over and over, he would proclaim, “I will never leave you nor forsake you. The Lord is my helper; I will not fear.”

The more he said that, the more the grip of the serpent began to loosen and weaken. He found that he could breathe freely again and his heart no longer felt constricted. Strengthened by the Word, he began to see the Lord with him always. He began to see himself full of health and protected from harm as he went about his work. Derek was completely healed and released from all his fears as he began to replace the wrong mental movies that he had been playing in his mind with the right ones.

What mental movies are you playing in your head today? Are they thoughts of defeat and despair or thoughts of victory and favor? Faith is simply saying what God says about you and seeing what God sees in you and your situation.

Replace Negative Thoughts with God’s Thoughts

Remember what I shared earlier about how it takes a thought to heal a thought? Unlike the world, which teaches you to empty your mind to achieve peace, God’s way is to fill your mind with fresh, powerful, and redeeming thoughts.

The apostle Paul tells us, “Fix your thoughts on what is true, and honorable, and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Phil. 4:8
NLT
). So it’s not just trying to blot out bad thoughts with your
willpower. It takes a thought to replace a thought. It takes a right belief to replace a wrong belief. You need God’s truth to replace the enemy’s lies that have kept you in bondage.

My friend, if a wrong, bad, or negative thought is lodged in your mind today and you can’t seem to shake it, stop trying! Perhaps you’re lying in a hospital bed and can’t help but think of the worst-case scenario. You’re attempting to suppress it, but it’s not working. Well, stop! Stop trying to erase it from your mind. That just won’t work. What you need to do is replace that destructive thought with a thought that’s from God. That’s the only way to deal with a wrong thought and begin the healing process. Start to meditate on truths like, “Surely Jesus has borne my sicknesses and carried my pains. The chastisement for my wholeness fell upon Him, and by His stripes I am healed. With long life He will satisfy me” (see Isa. 53:4–5 and Ps. 91:16). Play mental movies of yourself getting well, being discharged from the hospital, having fun with your kids, or going on a nice holiday!

Keep Your Thoughts on Jesus

You need the truth of God’s Word to uproot any wrong belief. Get into His Word, and get into His thoughts. If you find your mind drifting into anxious thoughts over the smallest things, memorize and quote this verse: “You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You, because he trusts in You” (Isa. 26:3).

Whenever I feel stressed or worried about something, I pull away from life’s hustle and bustle and simply meditate on God’s promises. Sometimes I like to drive to a quiet park, and as gentle anointed music plays in my car, I feed on and speak His Word, allowing it to permeate my spirit: “God’s Word declares, ‘You will keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on You.’ ” And I tell the Lord, “Yes, Lord, it is You who will keep me in perfect peace. Perfect peace comes from You. I just need to rest in Your grace and keep my mind on You. I don’t need to think about what to do about this challenge. As I trust in You and keep my mind stayed on You, You will lead me and guide me. My trust is not in my own strength, but in You and You alone, Jesus.”

What am I doing here? Instead of allowing stress and worry to get to me, I’m training my heart to see how God sees my challenges. The bigger God becomes in my heart, the smaller my challenges become. In fact, many times when I just relax and keep my mind on the Lord, His peace and wisdom begin to flow in me, and the challenge that I was previously so worried about becomes minute and inconsequential in the presence of Almighty God.

Are you faced with an insurmountable circumstance today? See what God sees, and let His peace drive out your anxiety. Let His wisdom direct your thoughts.

Which Ground Is Your Heart?

The key to seeing what God sees is to base your beliefs on His sure and unshakable Word. Unfortunately, not everybody believes in
what God’s Word says about them. Jesus shares this in the parable of the seed and the sower (see Matt. 13:3–9, 18–23).

In this parable, a sower sows seeds that fall on four types of ground. The sower here is a picture of someone sharing God’s Word. The ground is a picture of how the hearer receives the Word. You’ll notice in this parable that the sower doesn’t control the type of ground the seeds of God’s truth fall onto. You and I have to decide for ourselves how our hearts receive the Word of God. Do we want to see what God sees, or do we choose to see things our way?

The parable starts with the seeds of God’s Word falling by the wayside. This means that even before the Word can go deep into the hearer’s heart, it is stolen by the enemy through his own doubt and unbelief. For example, you may be reading this book right now and thinking, “God can never love me. I have made so many shameful mistakes. I will never be able to break out of my addictions. This is my life, and nothing can change that.” If that is you, I just want to encourage you to be open and receptive to God’s superabounding grace as you pore over what is written in this book. Open your heart, and let His love fill and heal you. Let it restore your faith. God will never hurt you. He will never force His way. You have a choice to either let His words of life come into your heart, take root, and establish you in His grace, or to allow His words to fall by the wayside.

Keep Hearing about God’s Goodness

The parable then goes on to talk about the stony ground. This speaks of hearers who hear God’s Word and receive it excitedly, thinking, “Wow, God forgives me and accepts me for who I am. That’s cool!” However, they don’t have the grace foundation to hold the Word in their hearts. The moment their conscience condemns them with guilt, they forget everything they have learned about God’s unconditional love for them and spiral rapidly back into defeat and condemnation.

That’s why it is so vital to keep on listening to messages that are full of what Jesus has done for you at the cross and to fill your heart with His new covenant truths. “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom, teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord” (Col. 3:16).

When you allow Jesus’ words to dwell abundantly in you in all wisdom, the seeds of His truth, His love, and His forgiveness will germinate and take root in your heart. When adversity comes, your belief in God will not easily be uprooted and stolen by the enemy. When the voice of condemnation comes, your heart is fortified with God’s truth, garrisoned by His grace, and armed with the everlasting blood of Jesus. You’ll be a believer against whom “no weapon formed… shall prosper, and every tongue which rises against you in judgment you shall condemn” (Isa. 54:17). Guilt and condemnation will not be able to penetrate your heart when you are cognizant of your righteous identity in Christ. Once the
enemy’s lies about you are exposed in the light of God’s truth, they are rendered obsolete and can no longer torment your mind.

Prioritize the Word over Material Pursuits

The next ground, thorny ground, speaks of people who hear God’s Word, but instead of believing it, their hearts are consumed with the cares of this world. To them, God’s truths are not practical. It’s just spiritual mumbo jumbo, and they are more interested in how to make more money and in other transient material pursuits. As a result, they lead extremely stressful lifestyles, fretting over money and never seeing good fruits manifesting in their lives.

Do you know that there are a lot of people in the world who have plenty of money, but in reality are poor when it comes to possessing what really matters? I like to say it this way: there are a lot of “poor” people with plenty of money. You can buy sleeping pills with money, but you cannot buy sweet sleep. You cannot buy peace for your mind, forgiveness for your heart, and health for your body. Don’t make the pleasures of this world and making more money your only goals in life and end up living in constant stress, fear, and anxiety. The Bible asks, “For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world, and loses his own soul?” (Mark 8:36). Jesus loves you, and He can remove every thorn of anxiety in your heart if you let
Him. Rest in Jesus your provider. He is the shepherd of your soul, and in Him there is no lack (see Ps. 23:1).

Choose to Be Good Ground

The final ground in the parable is what this book is all about. This ground speaks of people who believe in the power of right believing, people whose hearts are open, receptive, and ready to receive all that God has for them. It speaks of people who are ready to allow His Word to take root in their lives.

As you read this book, I want to encourage you to see yourself as good, fertile ground. Don’t let the precious Word of God fall by the wayside because of unbelief. Don’t be the stony ground that is easily shaken the moment opposition shows up. Also, don’t allow His promises over your life to be choked by the cares of this world. Be good ground—a receptive heart that is anchored in God’s grace. As you nourish yourself in His Word and see what He sees, you will surely see your thirtyfold, sixtyfold, and hundredfold breakthroughs in every area of your life!