Isaiah 43:1-2
"But now thus saith the Lord that created thee, O Jacob, and he that formed thee, O Israel, Fear not: for I have redeemed thee, I have called thee by thy name; thou art mine. When thou passest through the waters, I will be with thee; and through the rivers, they shall not overflow thee: when thou walkest through the fire, though shalt not be burned; neither shall the flame kindle upon thee."
Every person alive today has had opportunity to fear in his or her lifetime. This portion of scripture gives us a clear cut command from the Lord to "not fear" no matter what comes our way. In spite of this, Christians are confronted with fear on a regular basis and the choice of giving in or going on in faith.
Fear always attacks the sensory realm, i.e., our mind. The devil does not have access to a born-again person's spirit man (see I Peter 1:23 and I John 3:9) so he attacks where he can. That arena of battle in every Christian is the mind, the arena of reason.
Man is a tri-partite being. He is a spirit, he has a soul and he lives in a body. (I Thess. 5:23) Each part of man has a voice that speaks in it's own language. You may be thinking, "What does that mean?" Let me explain. The voice of the spirit man is the conscience. The scriptures call it that "still small voice." The voice of the body is feeling. We react if we hit our finger with a hammer, right? Lastly, the voice of the mind is reason. All of us have reasoning in us and it is based in our thoughts.
We are going to center our attention on this area of reason. If we are not going to give in to fear we're going to have to stay out of the arena of reason. The Lord gave me an acronym for this: F.E.A.R. - Failure to Evacuate the Arena of Reason. Every time we try to deal with fear in our thoughts, we are defeated. Why is it this way? Simply put, it's because the mind is where the enemy attacks. This is his arena, or his home field where he's most effective. He has an advantage here because our mind is not where the power of God abides in the Christian. That place of power is in our spirit man, the place the Bible calls the temple of the Holy Ghost.
You're probably thinking, "I thought that verse said our bodies were the temple of the Holy Ghost!" (I Corinthians 6:19) Yes that's true, but the Holy Ghost isn't dwelling in your physical flesh somewhere. His dwelling place is in the spirit of man. (Romans 2:29; 8:16; Ephesians 3:17; Proverbs 20:27) When the Word speaks of us becoming temples of the living God, the word for "temple" has a Hebrew equivalent that means "the Holy of Holies of God." Literally, when you accept Christ, your spirit becomes the dwelling place of the Lord, and it's a holy place. After all, wherever God dwells has to be holy!
Our flesh, on the other hand, is not holy. It must be dealt with on a daily basis, sometimes a moment by moment basis. This is why it's so important to renew our minds with the Word of God and study to show ourselves approved. (Romans 12:2; II Timothy 2:15) We put God's Word into our thoughts, but yet our minds are also subject to a lot of other thoughts. Thoughts of failure, fear, sickness, disease and poverty. The battle is on to see who will control the thoughts of man - the Word of God or the devil.
I know that may sound sort of strange to some, but nevertheless it's the truth. Who's going to control your thoughts? The neat thing about the Lord is that He won't force Himself on anyone. His Word will renew your thinking and His thoughts can be in your thoughts. Isaiah 55:8 says that, His thoughts are not my thoughts. That's correct, in that God's thoughts originate with Him and our thoughts originate with us or with the enemy. Nothing says that you can't put God's thoughts into your thoughts!! The Bible also says that we have the mind of Christ! (I Corinthians 2:16)
The point of all of this is simple. When the devil attacks your mind, get out of the arena of trying to reason with him. Let the Word that dwells richly in you come up out of your inner most being and confront him with the scriptures. Jesus Christ Himself dealt with the temptations in the wilderness by saying, "It is written . . . " (Matthew 4:1-11) Christ proceeded to quote scripture from the book of Deuteronomy and the devil had to flee.
When thoughts hit you of failure or defeat, immediately begin to say what God has said about the subject. "I'm more than a conqueror in Christ Jesus, greater is He who lives in me than he who is in the world." (Romans 8:37; I John 4:4) Go to the Word and speak it! If that worked for the Lord Jesus, it will also work for His children!
Failure to Evacuate the Arena of Reason will always lead to compounded fears. You cannot defeat the devil by reasoning with him. You must take the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God and speak it to see him flee. (Ephesians 6:17; James 4:7) This must always be done in the name of Jesus, for it's His name that is above all others!
by Pastor Dan Yankunas