The following article was written by Pastor Jimmy Kibler. He Pastors a church in Melbourne, Florida and also travels to churches throughout the country as a Christian financial increase conference speaker. You can find him blogging at IncreaseNow.com.
Faith and fear are opposites but work the same way. God will do nothing without faith and the devil can do nothing without fear. These two work the same way.
Psalm 118:6 says, “The Lord is on my side I will not fear what can man do to me?” If God is on your side, if God is involved in your life and if God is helping you why would you ever be afraid?
Faith and fear both work the same way but are exact opposites of each other.
Firstly we need to understand is that God operates by faith and will do nothing for you without faith. This very difficult for people to understand because many people believe or want to believe that God is moved by needs which He is not. If God was moved by needs nobody would ever get sick and die, or starve to death, or die and go to hell. But these things do happen every day.
The Bible tells us in Romans 5:2 that we have access into the grace of God by faith. If this is true, which it is, then only Faith will bring us into the Grace of God. Everyone does not experience the grace of God; only people with faith have this access.
Faith gives God access to our life and allows him to work with us and to help us.
Fear gives the devil access to peoples lives and allows him to work against you.
The Bible tells us in Hebrews 2:15 that people are in bondage because of a fear of death. The fear of death is the root of fear and people who are not born again have a fear of death because they are not sure where they are going to go when they die. People who know where they’re going to go when they leave this earth have no fear of death.
Even Job said in Job 3:25 “The thing, which I greatly fear, is come upon me and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” What you are afraid of has access to you.
Much of fear is based in a fear of lack, the fear of not having enough. What we see on television every day right now is people talking about the economy and the fact that if our economy does not pick up people are not going to have enough.
The people in my church are not concerned about this because we know that God will provide for our needs according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus. This is called faith and this faith gives God access to our lives to provide for us, which He loves to do. The Bible tells us in Psalms 35:27 that God takes pleasure in our prosperity.
I tell people in my church and at financial increase conferences across the country that no matter what happens with our economy our covenant with God is still in effect.
Faith in God’s provision allows God to provide for you.
The fear of not having enough allows the devil to deprive you of what you need.
The Bible tells us in Romans 10:17 that “Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.” The only way to develop your faith is by hearing God’s Word and if you need provision in your life then you need to be hearing God’s word on provision or what we call prosperity.
Fear comes the same way, by hearing and hearing by the word of the world. What you hear on television every day about the economy and the lack of jobs will instill fear in you and allow the devil to deprive you of what you need.
trFaith in God and in his provision will provide for you.
Faith and fear are both very powerful and if you have any ideas or suggestions for our readers in this area please share in the comments.
photo by jamelah
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
I’m sorry, but I disagree with you. God is moved by needs. He looks at us as His children and He as our Father. What father is not moved by their child’s plight? Only a bad one would not be, and God is not that. He is the all-gracious, all-loving perfect Father.
I greatly appreciate this; I believe we as Christians have to make a daily decision to have faith in God and not faith in the worlds system. Faith in the worlds system will result in fear. Fear in finances and every other areas of your life your believing God to move in.
Thanks for your obedience in writing this and thanks Bob for allowing the glory of the Lord to shine on your site. May God continue to bless the two of you exceedingly and abundantly. God bless you in Jesus name.
It is amazing how the simplest principles can bring the greatest revelation!
“Firstly we need to understand is that God operates by faith and will do nothing for you without faith. This very difficult for people to understand because many people believe or want to believe that God is moved by needs which He is not. If God was moved by needs nobody would ever get sick and die, or starve to death, or die and go to hell. But these things do happen every day.”
And then I ask myself, how do I get more faith?? Romans 10:17
I can`t believe its just that simple! Thank you for this post. You have no idea how you just changed my life.
Yet another influential article. Thank you, it was very enlightening. Who knew that faith and fear, being opposites of each other, were brought together by God.
I do believe that God loves to bless us as children. I fear that this article plants a seed that if we are struggling financially, it is because of a lack of faith. There seems to be a spot for some dangerous circular reasoning here. Naturally people who are struggling experience fear – but the struggle causes the fear, not vice versa. If Christians focus on conquering the fear instead of meeting the challenges of life, when fear inevitably strikes they will blame the fear for their misfortune and see no way out. Fear is like doubt – a transient experience, not a failure of faith. For me, fear and doubt are an integral part of my faith.
To me the financial benefits of faith are less direct. Faith often leads us to action that can make our bottom line better. If we believe that are called to support each other in Christian community, then we will share our wealth and receive the blessings of others in turn when we are in need. If we believe we are asked to tithe to our church, that means we have to apply discipline in at least one area of our financial lives, making us much more likely to be disciplined in other areas. Faith can certainly give us the both the courage and the humility to make hard decisions like taking a job we don’t prefer, switching roles with a spouse, working longer hours, leaving a job we love to stay with our kids, giving up expensive pleasures or accepting help.
If God were moved by needs which He is not then all of the burden for our well being would be on Him which it is not. It is up to us to increase our faith to increase our blessings from God. Romans 10:17
Pastor Jimmy,
Matthew 5:45 (KJV) ….for he (God) maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good and sendeth rain on the just and the unjust”. God does meet our needs for sun, oxygen, food, etc. and I don’t think it’s a burden for Him; I also don’t believe that it is something that He has to do, He just chooses to. But, I also see Him providing for the unjust (the unsaved) in the verse above. I don’t know if God is “moved” by needs, but I can see from Matthew 5:45, that He provides for the needs of the just and unjust.
Fear is a fruit of the enemy. God has called us to be bold. Francis Chan comes to mind when we talk about being bold in Christ. Remember whatever you or I are facing at the time is nothing God can not defeat. Financial struggles are always tough and negatively affect our relationships. However, God turned water to wine and raised the dead. This is where faith steps in. The harder the circumstances the more faith will be needed. Could it be God is testing our faith by sending us through financial turmoil? I think so. Character is built through adversity. Remember that God’s limitless power is unmatched. Your problems are minor compared with the world’s. The good part is God is on your side. You will win.
God is not sending us through financial turmoil. The devil is but faith in God will bring us out. I do not believe that God will allow President Obama or anyone else to destroy our great country.
As I tell people across the country in my Financial Increase Conferences,
No matter what happens with the economy, our covenant with God is still in effect.
thank you for clearing my doubt based on faith and fear, from today fear will be my enemy and will have no room in my life in jesus name our savior.
I am really sad about the part of the article that says….if you are afraid to die you have not been saved. I have been saved and do believe I will go to heaven but I do live with a fear of death because my mom died when I was 8 years old and it was very painful to go through life without her. I now have kids and do not want to die and have them experience that same sadness along with other negative feelings. I feel sinful everyday that I feel this way because it is as if I dont trust God. I guess 37 years later I still have not worked hard enough to get over my moms death.
Agree your child is a piece of ur heart filled with love and being scared of them dying isnt about where they go if course in gods arms but the sadness and loss u will experience and piece of ur life and heart that wouldnt be there