Overcoming Fear So We Can Yield to the Call of God
From Betty Miller Blog – January 15, 2015
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. 2 Timothy 1:7
Jesus knew we would live in a time where we would be exposed to multiplied fears all around us; yet the Bible tells us in many places that God does not want us to be fearful. He also explained that fear does not come from God, but rather God wants us to walk in His power, His love and to have a sound mind.
People who yield to the spirit of fear can, at some point, become emotionally unstable or end up in bondage that keeps them from functioning normally. I have known a number of people that allowed fear to rule them to such a degree that they no longer fly on an airplane because of fear of it crashing, or they refuse to drive on freeways for the same reason. No longer can they make decisions based on the will of God, but rather fear keeps them from doing the things the Lord wants them to do. Fear has torment and it can even affect our bodies by the stress it causes. Actually fear is at the root of stress and anxiety. Years ago, I personally suffered with this tormenting emotion until the Lord set me free. I was one of those people who was tempted never to fly again after a long stressful flight years ago. However, I was determined not to allow the enemy to keep me from doing anything the Lord wanted me to do.
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casteth out fear: because fear hath torment. He that feareth is no made perfect in love. 1 John 4:18
A Vision from the Lord
How did I get free of fear? First I turned my life over to the Lord and completely surrendered to His will for my life and agreed to go anywhere, give up anything and do anything He asked of me. Once I yielded wholly to the Lord, I then began to hear His voice and to my amazement, He set me free from all torment and called me to serve Him. After work one day, while I was alone in the lab (I was a lab technician at the time); I saw a vision of me standing before large crowds of all kinds of people with different racial backgrounds. I was preaching and teaching the Word of God to them. I was shocked because I had been raised in my church to understand that only men could preach and teach to other men and yet there were men in the vision who were listening and responding to the gospel I was sharing. My church allowed women to teach other men on the mission field, but not in churches here in the USA. I then thought perhaps I was being tricked by the devil. But the Lord took me through a series of experiences and showed me scriptures in His Word that verified that indeed, I was called to serve Him and He could use women in ministry, as well as men. It was a number of years before the Lord opened the doors for that vision to come to reality. When the doors started opening, the biggest thing I had to fight was fear. I had a fear of witnessing, a fear of speaking, a fear of failing God, a fear of hearing God wrongly, a fear of missing God, etc.
Now these fears may seem small in the light of what some of our brothers and sisters are experiencing in many countries of the world where terrorism and war are the order of the day; however fear is fear and it brings torment. The way I overcame was asking God to fill me with His Holy Spirit and fill my mouth with the things He wanted me to share. I prayed a lot. I cried out to God a lot. I read the Bible every day. I went to Bible studies, read Christian books, went to church, went to Christian meetings and soon the Word of God became such a part of my life that I began automatically praying the Word of God over situations and seeing amazing results. I easily led people to accept the Lord as their savior.
How the Healing and Miracle Ministry Began
Since I was a lab and x-ray technician at the time, I saw sick people every day and God began to transform my heart with His compassion for them and I would ask them if they wanted me to pray for them to be healed. Amazingly, they were healed. I remember I x-rayed a young man who broke his arm and you could see clearly the break in the x-ray. Since he was a Christian I asked him if he believed in prayer for healing. He said yes. I prayed for God to heal the break and take the pain away. When the pain left immediately, he said he felt it was healed; so I took another x-ray and sure enough the break was no longer there. When the doctor came to look at the films, I told him what I did. The doctor (who was a Christian) was amazed and he verified that indeed it must be a miracle. I then invited this man to our Bible study. He came and gave his testimony and then others who had infirmities asked for prayer to be healed as well.
This same man came back to the lab a week later and told me that he was a war veteran and in his other arm was some shrapnel that had been there for years, as the doctors had elected not to remove it, as it might cause some paralysis of his hand. He asked if the Lord would remove it. My reply was that the Lord could do anything. I started to pray for him immediately, but he asked if I would x-ray it first, which I did and sure enough there was the shrapnel. We then prayed for God to remove it and x-rayed it once more. Sure enough, in the next x-ray, no shrapnel.
Praise be to God! Everywhere I went people were drawn to me and would begin sharing their life problems with me and I would reach out and pray for them and great changes would occur. At first, I did not fully realize it was the power of the Holy Spirit in my life that was drawing them to me and it was the Holy Spirit that was ministering to them through me. Later I understood that God was just looking for yielded vessels to work through. I have a plaque on my office wall that sums up my calling. It says, “God never asks us about our ability or our inability, but about our availability.” I was simply available to do anything the Lord asked of me.
Do You Have a Call on Your Life?
Many of you reading this, have a call on your life, but you are fearful of surrendering to the will of God, as you are afraid God might asked you to do something that you do not want to do, or ask you to give up something you do not want to give up. Let me assure you that if He does, He will change your heart and give you the ability and desire and love to do whatever He has planned for you. He knows what will make you happy and fulfilled better than you do. Someone asked me one time what I had to give up to serve God. My reply was I only gave up the things that were already killing me like resentment, fear, smoking, gossip, etc. Praise God that He took those things out of my life and in exchange gave me love, joy, peace, faith and the gift of His Holy Spirit. What a great exchange!
My Surrender to God!
I too, was afraid to surrender and let God take charge of my life and tell me what to do as one of my fears was “What if God asks me to go to the foreign field and serve Him and live in a mud hut.” I did not want to live in the foreign field. Another fear I had at the time was, “What if He called me to live alone for the rest of my days.” I really wanted a husband. I finally, in my heart said this to the Lord, “Alright Lord, if you want me to live in a mud hut and if you want me to live alone, I am willing, but I cannot do either without your grace to empower me to be able to do it, but I am willing.” I will never forget what happened in that moment when I surrendered, I immediately felt the power of God go through my body from the top of my head to my toes and I was filled with such love, power and glory and suddenly I understood an eternal truth. It does not matter if you live in a mud hut, or a mansion; it does not matter if you live alone or with someone; what matters is this, “Is the Holy Spirit there with you?” If He is with you, then you will be happy alone or married. If He is with you, you will be happy in the mud hut or the mansion. However, without His presence you will be unfulfilled and never know the true love of God. You will not be happy in the mansion as money cannot buy peace of mind.
I pray you can fully surrender and understand this revelation as well, as you will never regret it. May you give Him your heart and life right now, if you have not done so. And if you have done so, then may you stay surrendered every day of your life. I have to daily surrender my will and choose to do His will. This is not a hard choice for me today, as I love the Lord so much and nothing in this world compares to being in right standing with Him and walking in His will. I am looking forward to heaven, but right now, Bud and I must complete the call of God on our lives here on the earth. Because there are many who do not know the Lord and His ways, our call is to share the things He has given us with you and others so that your knowledge of the Lord might increase and you in turn will finish your race and calling. This is one of the purposes of this blog. God bless you.
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Topic: Overcoming Fear So We Can Yield to the Call of God
Related Topics: What the Bible Says about Becoming Born Again; Scripture Prayer for Fear and Anxiety; Stress; Pressure; Evil in the World; Faith; Confessions – Creating our Future; Scriptural Prayer for Healing; Scriptural Prayer for Protection
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