Elizabeth Shreve inspires Christians to be bold in the Holy Spirit…

We have all heard 2 Timothy 1:7 so many times … but for the sake of this article I will repeat it to you again: ‘God has not given us a spirit of fear but of power, and love and a sound mind.’

God really wants you to use that power! It doesn’t take courage to do what you already know you can do. True courage is displayed when you’re afraid to do something, but you go ahead and do it anyway.

Understanding true courage
Being fearless is not being 100% ‘not fearful.’ It might mean being terrified, but jumping in anyway. Or going forward when you would rather turn and run. Or holding on when you would rather let go.

So many people are so afraid of making a mistake that they don’t do anything. Instead, they sit around saying, ‘What if I mess up? What if no one likes me? What if I fail?’

Well, we’re human. We’re going to make mistakes and look silly from time to time.
• Failure should be our teacher, not our undertaker.
• Failure is delay, not defeat.
• Failure is a small detour, not a dead end.

A common mistake we all make is thinking we must be perfect all the time. You should say this out loud – ‘I am human, I will make mistakes. I may fall seven times, but I will stand up eight.’

We can be so afraid of being judged, criticised or getting laughed at that we become completely paralysed spiritually. The main thing fear does in our lives is stop our progress. Everything you want is on the other side of fear.

Breaking down the wall
Fear appears like a big, dark wall, but when you walk through it, you find out it was just a dark curtain. We must learn to stand before the people we fear and speak our minds, even if our voices shake. This is called overcoming.

God knows we aren’t perfect, and so he gives us grace as we journey toward perfection. The problem is, the devil and his demons know it too, and they do their best to remind us of our imperfections every step of the way!

We can be going along, serving God, doing good, stepping out in faith, then all of a sudden, without there being any justification for it, we’ll have a day or week when a ‘fear attack’ hits our minds. That’s when we need to echo what God’s word tells us:
‘For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds; Casting down imaginations, and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the obedience of Christ’ (2 Corinthians 10:4-5).

Declaring it boldly!
If there ever was a scripture that promotes fearlessness, it’s this one. If we are truly going to be fearless, we must realise we have weapons that are strong. God has not left us on the battlefield with nothing to protect ourselves.

We must take control of our minds. That’s where victory begins. What you give power to has power over you. Take control of your thoughts. Tell yourself – ‘I am powerful! I am full of faith! I can’t be stopped! I am fearless!’

All of these truths convey why I believe God laid it on my heart to call our church’s September women’s conference – Fearless! (Link: www.shreveministries.org)

Becoming fearless is  a great truth for every Christian – men, women and children. I believe we can all pick up our weapons! We can all walk through the dark wall! We can all conquer our fears!

Elizabeth Shreve and her husband Mike (see Mike’s Opinion this month) travel worldwide impacting many lives and churches. Their passion is to see authentic New Testament Christianity revealed, another great awakening in the church and an overflow of heaven-sent revival into all nations. Elizabeth’s fearless expectation: That the Holy Spirit will manifest supernaturally, confirming the Word with signs following.