BY JIM KASEMAN
I John 4:18
“there is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear.. and he who hears has not been made perfect in love.”
That is a strong statement!
If we are not walking in love, we don’t know God. Christianity is godly, love-relationships with one another and with God. We can keep real busy doing all sorts of things … praying for the sick, prophesying, casting out devils. But the bottom line is, how is your walk with God? How is it at home? How is it with your spouse? With your children? Are you practicing the life at home? All the other good things, divine healing, financial prosperity, authority in Jesus’ Name, will help us set other people free. But God is checking our
hearts.
I John 4:18 says that “there is no fear in love, for perfect love casts out fear…and he who fears has not been made perfect in love.” Now remember that God IS love. When there is fear, it means that we don’t know love or we don’t know God in that area of our lives yet. If you are fearful concerning your health, it is because you have not been perfected in your walk with God in the area of divine healing.
Because of a lack of knowledge of God in an area, the enemy is able to bring fear into our lives. Isaiah 5:13 says that we are brought into captivity for lack of knowledge. When we are in fear, that gives the devil permission to work in our lives, and God cannot.
It is imperative that we learn to walk in love because faith works by love. If we’re not in love, we’re not in God and faith will not work. We can only be in love or in fear; there is no middle ground.
Another way to describe walking in love is found in Galatians 5:16, “But I say, then, walk in the Spirit and you shall not fulfill the lusts of the flesh. ” We walk in the flesh automatically if we’re not in the Spirit. We’re either in the light or in darkness, either in love or in fear. The only way we cannot fulfill the lust of the flesh is to walk in the Spirit and take control of the flesh.
How do we know if we’re walking in the Spirit, or in the Word, or in Christ, or in God, or in Love, so that fear has no torment in our lives? Well, Galatians 5:22 and 23 is one way to check. Is there love in my life? Is there joy? Peace? Patience?
In this list of fruit, we do not find that we can tell we are walking in the Spirit because we prophesy Or because we pray in tongues four hours a day Or because we drive a new car or pray for the sick or cast
out devils. We could do all those things and be very Unspiritual. It can be all flesh, all pride. Check your life for the fruit; that’s how we tell if we’re spiritual or not.
How do we get into love, in the Spirit? What if we see an area where we fall short? In II Chronicles 20 there is a great example of a man who found himself in fear.
King Jehoshaphat, in the first two verses, received a bad report designed to put fear into his heart. The enemy was coming against him from three different directions. Doesn’t that sound familiar? How many of us have had the enemy come at us from all directions? Everything going wrong at once? Well, King Jehoshaphat was outnumbered 10,000 to one! And the enemy was not just thinking about coming; they
we’re on the way!
When he got the report, verse 3 says, “and Jehoshaphat feared.” Exactly what he was not supposed to do! But it goes on to say, “and set himself to seek the Lord.” He feared, but he knew immediately that was
wrong and he set himself to seek the Lord to get out of fear. At least he was moving in the right direction. He knew that God was the answer!
It is the same with us today Perfect love casts out all fear. We are commanded to walk in the Spirit, to walk in that love, but when fear hits, how do we make sure that we stay in the Spirit? Or if we do give in to fear, how do we get back in the Spirit? The very first thing we do in a practical way is, as Jehoshaphat did, seek the Lord! Set our eyes toward God.
REVERENCE GOD
Jehoshaphat goes on in verse 6 and gets his eyes off the enemy, off the circumstances, off of fear and as an act of his will, he is looking to God. How? He is talking! He is magnifying God in his life. By reverencing God and acknowledging who He is and what He has done, God is becoming bigger and bigger in Jehoshaphat’s life and the fear is becoming smaller and smaller. “Who cares if I am outnumbered 1 0, 000
to one? I serve the God who created the whole universe! What’s a few enemies?”
So we see that worshipping God is a good way to get back in the Spirit, back in love. Now isn’t that something practical that you and I can do no matter where we are or what we are facing? Even with the enemy on the way, we can do as Jehoshaphat did and take time to reverence God, Set your will that you are not going to get into fear, you’re going to worship God!
RECALL FAST ANSWERS TO PRAYER
Next, we see in verse 7 that Jehoshaphat is recalling past answers to prayer. “Art not thou our God who didst drive out the inhabitants of the land?” Remember the times He has delivered us before. That will
get us back into the Spirit, back into love real fast. He has always given us the victory, and He will not fail us now.
RELEASE YOUR FAITH
Jehoshaphat goes on to declare in verse 9 what he knows God will do before he even prays about the specific situation with the enemy. He says that no matter what comes against Israel, whether the sword, or
judgment, or pestilence, or famine, Israel will stand before Gods temple (and we are His temple today) and in His presence, and God will hear AND SAVE. He is releasing his faith.
We can do that same thing. No matter what our need, we know one thing for sure: God is really alive. When we pray, He hears us and He answers us. Can you see how this gets us back into the Spirit? Jehoshaphat started in fear and now after reverencing God and recalling past answers to prayer, he is confident! He sounds like a man who knows God!
REMEMBER YOUR INHERITANCE
King Jehoshaphat finally points out to God the enemy that is coming “to cast us out of thy possession, which thou hast given us to inherit” (verses 10 and 11). Doesn’t that sound familiar? Colossians 1: 1 2
says that “He has made us able to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light.” So we can do as Jehoshaphat. We’ve reverenced God and magnified Him in our lives. We’ve recalled past answers to
prayer and said that when we pray God hears us. And we further declare, “By the way, devil, what right do YOU have, to come to steal, kill and destroy what I have inherited?”
RELY ON GOD’S STRENGTH
To keep things in the right perspective, I appreciate what Jehoshaphat says in verse 12, “O our God, wilt thou not judge them? For we have no might against this great company that cometh against us; neither know we what to do: but our eyes are upon thee.” In other words we go back to Philippians 4:13 which says that we “can do all things through Christ which strengthens us.” That means that we cannot do anything
UNLESS Christ strengthens us. We are helpless without Jesus. We are to be bold soldiers and exercise our authority But in the middle of all that, let us always remind ourselves that unless it be for Jesus Christ we could do nothing.
The result of King Jehoshaphat’s new heart attitude was that he got into love, got into the Spirit, and the prophet spoke. It was God that spoke. We will have a better opportunity to accurately hear from God
when we are in the Spirit and not in the flesh.
Well, we know what happened to Jehoshaphat. The Lord spoke and told him where the enemy was and what to do to meet them and the enemy was destroyed. He started in fear, out of the Spirit, out of love and he got back in. And against all the odds, they won a tremendous victory!
Let’s determine that no matter what we are confronted with, our attitude will be that it is just another attack…no big deal. We’re going to come through this one, too. And every time we come through, we are always better off than we were before. The devil means to destroy us, but we always end up stronger. Praise God, when we know Jesus Christ, we can stay in the Spirit, we can stay in the Word, we can stay in love and no matter what the attack, we will win!!!
THE ABOVE MATERIAL IS PUBLISHED BY JIM KASEMAN MINISTRIES, OCTOBER, 1996, PAGES 1-3. THIS MATERIAL IS COPYRIGHTED AND MAY BE USED FOR STUDY & RESEARCH PURPOSES ONLY.
