Reply To: Purpose and Identity 2024/2025 Discussion Board 1

[Ben]

Fear is a terrible thing. Many people live in a constant state of fear, and it can take so much out of their life. It stands as one of the hindrances to discovering and walking in purpose. Fear goes beyond a feeling, it’s a spirit and it is not of God, 2 Timothy 1:7.
Fear is one thing that is unavoidable and must be confronted by all. Fear comes knocking at the door and looks for every available opportunity to gain access into the lives of believers, especially those endeavoring to walk in purpose. Timothy had such a spirit of fear come against him at one time that the apostle Paul was compelled to write a letter encouraging Timothy to push beyond his fears and fulfill his God-ordained purpose.

With a spirit of fear upon an individual left unchecked, one would simply not be able to walk and fulfill purpose. Fear will stop you in your tracks and hinder the work that God has given you to accomplish.

In Second Timothy chapter 1, Paul used the word “spirit” to describe fear. Letting us know that fear is indeed a spirit. You can feel it when it comes into the room, and it brings with it panic and dread. But in verse 7, Paul wrote that God has not given us a “spirit of fear.”

Ways Fear Can Pose a Threat to Discovering and Fulfilling Purpose:

1. Fear weakens and puts one in a state of inactiveness. The word “fear” is from the Greek word deilia, and it describes something that causes you to retreat and to feel the need to protect yourself. If fear is in your life, you are no longer advancing spiritually or in the path of purpose which most times, is like venturing into the unknown. Instead, you are in a position of complete and total retreat because fear carries with it the picture of one cowering and going into hiding. Having a spirit of fear is so dangerous and detrimental to the believer because it paralyzes him in such a way that eventually he can no longer function normally in life or go on to discover and fulfill purpose.

2. Fear devastates one’s spiritual life. It robs one of the ability to have a sound or a clear mind. When a spirit of fear is operating in you, you are incapable of thinking soundly. Your imagination runs wild with thoughts of every terrible thing that could possibly happen to you while on that purpose of God for you, and then you suddenly begin to picture them like reality in your mind until, finally, you’re seized by that spirit and left completely and utterly incapacitated as a result.

3. Fear opposes one’s faith. Fear is the opposite of faith and where there’s fear, there is no faith in operation. Where there is no faith in operation, there is no victory. Both are as a result of what one hears. Faith comes by hearing the word (Romans 10:17), but fear comes by hearing a negative report. And the Bible says without faith it is impossible to please God (Hebrews 11:6). A life of purpose is a life pleasing to God. Therefore, it takes faith in God to discover and to walk in purpose. So where faith is not present but fear, purpose cannot be fulfilled.