Season of Peace

Finding hope from fear, depression, anxiety and panic attacks.

freedom

Freedom from Fear: Recognize the Lies

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Freedom from Fear: Recognizing the Lies

The Lord used a wayward prophet’s donkey to speak and get his attention. Recently, the Lord used some fictitious underwater sea creatures to get mine.

In the previous message, we laid some spiritual ground work to help you understand that deep rooted lies are the seed of the pain and fears we face. To recap, Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). If knowing the truth sets you free, then believing a lie will keep you from being free.

When presented with such “simple” truths, we may ask ourself: When did I agree with a lie? I would not have done that. Why would I agree with a lie? It sure seemed like the truth.

Our primary battle occurs in our thought life. What I believe to be true about God, others, and myself, shape my interpretation of life’s events, and the meaning I assign to them. My thought life is the battleground. Do my thoughts obey and represent Christ in me?

2 Corinthians 10:3-5 states it like this: “For though we walk in the flesh, we are not waging war according to the flesh. For the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh but have divine power to destroy strongholds. We destroy arguments and every lofty opinion raised against the knowledge of God, and take every thought captive to obey Christ”.

When I take a thought captive to obey, I must recognize the source from which it originated. Whom was it born from? Was it truth that originates with Jesus and what he is speaking to me through his Spirit, or is it a lie from the father of lies?

Thoughts are always drifting through our minds at any given moment. Thoughts that come from a bad experience are often used by the enemy to create lies in our minds.  Whether it’s a subtle word spoken in anger or maybe something more traumatic, truths and lies will swirl around in our thoughts seeking a place to land, giving me the opportunity to interpret God, others, myself and the meaning of that experience. It is at those times that I am most vulnerable to agree with the lies.

As I was learning to recognize the lies in my life, an example of the battle for my mind was discovered one day while watching cartoons with my children. Yes, a spiritual truth was shown to me by an “absorbent and yellow and porous” sea sponge named Spongebob Squarepants.

In this video clip, the “truths” that Spongebob and his friend Patrick are passing to each other through “bubbles” are meant for each other. Just as the Spirit speaks to me, telling me my Father’s purposes and plans for me as shown through Jesus, so these two friends were speaking to each other. But there is another voice. Squidward, intercepts the friendly messages and substitutes his “lies” to change Spongebob and Patrick’s perception of each other and even their friendship. I too have another voice and source of thoughts, which drift through my mind. He has lies to bind me into traps and painful ways of thinking about God, others, and myself. And, these lies always sound like my own voice.

I want to encourage you this week to start asking the Holy Spirit to reveal the sources of your thoughts. Jesus told us that the Spirit would guide us into all truth (John 16:13). Ask him to show you if there are any lies at work in your life that may be causing you fear or pain. Ask him to show you any ungodly agreements you may have made.

Prayer: “Holy Spirit, teach me to recognize the lies that present themselves as truth. Give me understanding of the source of the thoughts that drift through my mind. Give me strength in the battle for my mind to bring thoughts to obedience by agreeing with truth and not lies.”

Freedom from Fear: Finding the Cause

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Freedom from Fear: Finding the lieIf you’re experiencing something in your life that is causing pain or discomfort–fear, anxiety, depression, panic attacks, anger, emotional pain, or maybe some addiction–then somewhere in your life, there is a deep-rooted lie at work in your thoughts and choices.

That’s a pretty bold statement, but listen carefully to what Jesus said, “You shall know the truth, the truth will set you free” (John 8:32). If knowing the truth sets you free, then believing a lie will keep you from being free.

Before going deeper, let me lay some scriptural groundwork:

  • All truth comes from Christ. He is the Truth (John 14:6), and he speaks truth in our lives to set us free (John 8:32) so that we can live life more abundantly (John 10:10).
  • All lies come from the devil. He is the father of lies (John 8:44), and he uses them to “steal, kill and destroy” (John 10:10).

My theology is pretty simple. God is good, and the devil is bad. Anything in your life that is keeping you from living life more abundantly is based on a lie that you believed, and the enemy is the one who spoke it to you.

Getting to the root of a lie can be difficult, because we’ve probably spent years believing it to be true. We’ve convinced ourselves of something that is not true. Lies often work their way into our thoughts and decisions because of a wound or traumatic experience. First, something bad happens to us (typically through others who have been lied to as well), the enemy then whispers a subtle lie into our mind (disguising it as our own voice), and then we agree in our heart with the lie.  As soon as we agree, the deception takes root in our soul, and we start living our life like it’s true.

Last week, my son and I went to see Inception, the new blockbuster movie that’s out right now. (Spoiler ahead, so don’t read the rest of this paragraph if you want to see the movie.) The premise of the movie is about a small band of “dream thieves” that travel into a people’s dreams to steal ideas while the person is sleeping. The main character is challenged to go into this man’s dream not to steal information, but to plant an idea at deep, sub-conscious level, because if the man believes that thought to be true, he’ll change the way he lives and start making choices based on that idea.

This is exactly how the enemy works. If he can subtly get us to agree that something is true when it’s not, then we’ll make choices and form thought patterns based on that lie. The result is pain, both emotional and physical. But, thankfully, pain is God’s way of telling you that something’s amiss, something needs fixing. Pain is often God’s way of letting you know there’s a lie at work in your life.

Romans 10:17 says, “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” To start getting to the root of the lie, we must start “hearing” the truth. We must replace that lie with God’s truth, but we can only know that the lie is a lie when we understand more of God’s truth. Through prayer, Bible reading, Godly counsel, learning and just “listening” to God, you can start tearing down the lies. Sometimes, it can happen quickly. Other times, it takes time to retrain your mind.

This week, I encourage each of you to pray a very simple prayer and then “listen” carefully for the Holy Spirit to speak to you:

“Holy Spirit, please reveal to me any lie at work in my life that is keeping me from knowing the Truth that will set me free.”

Freedom from Fear: The Right Source

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Freedom from Fear: The SourceWhen the phone rang, the young, 16-year old boy answered. It was his aunt. Her car had a flat tire, and she couldn’t change it herself. She needed his help.

The young boy hopped into his small, American car and headed her way. When he arrived, he was eager and ready to change her tire, but she didn’t have a lug wrench for her German-made car. No problem. The young boy grabbed the lug wrench out of his American car, not realizing that the US-made lug wrench used inches and the German-made wrench used millimeters. That’s okay, he thought. It still fits.

He used the jack to lift the car up, and then placed the wrench on the first lug nut. Felt snug. So, with all his strength, he twisted the lug wrench. He felt it moving, but it slipped a few times. That’s okay, he was strong. He continued to push the wrench round and round, not realizing he was stripping the lug nuts.  Not sure what was happening, he tried the next lug nut.  Same thing. Then, the next one and the next one.  When he was done, all but one of the lug nuts were ground down to a finely polished surface. Nothing would grab them now. He thought he was fixing the problem, but now the problem was worse.

I tell this story to illustrate a profound truth in my experience with panic attacks. There are lots of “tools” out there today that promise freedom. In fact, I tried almost all of them. But, now that I am free, I have realized that most of these tools actually do more damage than good. Like this lug wrench story, the wrong tool even in the right hands can create more problems than it solves.

So then, what is the right tool for freedom?

Humanity has two key problems:

  1. We are born into this world disconnected from the Source of true life.
  2. Because of that, we have connected with ourselves as our own source.

Think about it, when struggling with crippling fear, anxiety, depression and panic attacks, do you find yourself with these thoughts:

  • If I just had enough courage, I could beat this thing.
  • If I could find the right book or tape or doctor, then I can get free.
  • If I could just find the right medication, then I would have peace.
  • If I just prayed the right prayer, then God would answer.
  • If I just had more willpower, I can overcome this.
  • If I fight hard enough, I can win this battle.

The problem with these kinds of thoughts is that we think we are the source of our freedom, but we’re not.  We can’t fix ourselves.  It’s like trying to arm wrestle with yourself–even if you win, you lose.

Have you heard this phrase: “God helps those who help themselves.” Guess what? It’s not in the Bible. It’s not scriptural. It should say, “God helps those who cannot help themselves.” Or, let me say it this way:

  • “When we were utterly helpless, Christ came at just the right time and died for us sinners” (Romans 5:6).
  • “Trust in the LORD with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding” (Proverbs 3:5).
  • “Whoever clings to this life will lose it, and whoever loses this life will save it” (Luke 17:33).

The harder you work at fixing your own problems, the harder you turn that wrongly-sized lug wrench, doing more damage than good.

I encourage you today to stop using the wrong tool. Set it down. Give it to God, and “cast your cares upon the Lord, for he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7). Connect with your True Source of freedom. Let him whisper his love over you, because he wants you free more than you do. So, let him take you there.

Prayer: Father, I’ve been working so hard for so long with the wrong tool. I give up. I’m tired to doing more damage than good. I lay down my tools, my efforts, even my strength, and I put all of my trust in you, for you alone are my true Source of peace and freedom.

Freedom from Fear: Focus

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Freedom From Fear: FocusWhen struggling with an issue in our life, it’s hard not to focus on the problem. In fact, the most common response is to “try harder” or “learn more” or “fight, fight, fight!” So, we pour energy, time and resources into overcoming the problem. We believe that focusing on the problem will help us overcome it.

  • If I could just stopping eating so much, I could finally lose some weight.
  • I hate it when I yell at my kids. I wish I wasn’t so angry all the time.
  • I will not be like my mom. I will not!

Here’s the problem with that thinking: What you focus on organizes your life.

If you focus on fear, then fear organizes your life. If you focus on overcoming anger, then anger organizes your life. Whatever your focus on will organize your decisions, your thinking patterns, and your way of life.

Do you remember the Chinese Finger Trap toy? As a kid, I played with these all the time. You put your finger in one side and someone puts their finger in the other side. As you each try to pull your finger out, the “trap” tightens making it harder to escape. Your strength makes the problem worse.

The same is true about focusing on our problems–the more we focus on them, the tighter the grip and the harder it is to escape.

So, what’s the answer? Change your focus.

In Matthew 6, Jesus talks quite a bit about the struggles we face here on earth and encourages us not to worry. His solution was not to focus on the problems. His solution was to “…seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness” (Matthew 6:33).

Jesus encourages us not to focus on our problems, but to focus on God because when we focus on the Kingdom of God, then the Kingdom of God organizes our lives.

So, how do I focus on the Kingdom of God?  Here’s what Paul told the Philippians: “Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (v4:8).

As it says in Romans 12:2, we must change the way we think and renew our mind. For freedom to happen, we must change our focus and seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness.  When we do, then freedom will organize our life!

Prayer: Father, give me a Kingdom focus. Help me to cast all my cares upon you for you care for me (1 Peter 5:7).

Note: Thanks to Bob Hamp for teaching these incredible principles.  Check out his new book, Think Differently, Live Differently.

Freedom from Fear: The Foundation

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Finding freedom, foundationThis week, I’m starting a new series on Freedom. With this inaugural message, I want to lay some groundwork for Freedom—what it is and what it isn’t.

There are times we get caught up in something that binds us, hinders us and keeps us from walking the abundant life. So, we pray and plead with God to take away, but freedom seems so elusive sometimes. We pray harder, we fast, we start bargaining with God; yet, the fear is still there. The panic still hits.

When I was at this place in my life, I just assumed that God wanted me to go through this “wilderness of fear” to help me grow in him. I rationalized that panic attacks were from God to make me a better a Christian.  Or, maybe it was that I needed more faith, more righteousness.  If I could just do good enough or strive harder to be better, then surely, God would set me free. But, I realize now that that kind of thinking is not Biblical.

Let me start with God’s heart towards you. In John 10:10, Jesus tells us very clearly what the devil’s motivations are and what God’s motivations are. “The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly” (John 10:10).

My theology has become pretty simple. “God is good. The devil is bad.” I believe with all of my heart that God has great plans for you (Jeremiah 29:11-14), that God is for you, not against you (Romans 8:31). Jesus made it clear that he has come to give us not just life, but abundant life. And, he makes it very clear that the devil comes to steal, kill and destroy. Think about fear, panic and anxiety—does it steal, kill and destroy, or does it sound like the abundant life?

I believe Freedom is available for each and every one of you. Whatever is holding you back—fear, panic, anxiety, depression, whatever—God has made a way for you to experience abundant life through Christ.

As we get ready to kick off this Freedom series, it’s very important for you to understand God’s heart towards you. He is on your side. He wants you to walk in peace, not in bondage. He has great plans for you, plans to give you an abundant life in Christ. And, “if the Son sets you free, you are free indeed” (John 8:36).

Over the next few weeks, we’re going to dig into some of God’s truths about Freedom. I hope to tear down some of the lies that are keeping us in bondage. Truth will set you free. I can promise you that though Christ, because he himself said, “You shall know the Truth, and the Truth will set you free.”

Are you ready for Freedom?

Prayer: Father, prepare my heart to receive your Truth. I want to know your freedom-empowering Truth. Make to clear to me that your heart towards me is good, and that you’re on my side.