"For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.  Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me His prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God" (II Tim. 1:7-8).

Some are gripped by fear at various levels in their walk with the Lord.  Paul declares that God has not given us a spirit of fear.  Fear actually is a spirit in its ultimate source.  The enemy has sent it our way to slow us down or stop us.  However God has given us a clear answer to fear with power, love, and a sound mind.  The basic problem with fear involves a problem in the mind.  An unsound mind is a mind that operates strictly out of the knowledge of good and evil and is focused upon self as the center.  This is the deception that caused Adam's fall in the very beginning.  Satan sought to focus Adam on himself, and how God was depriving him of some special knowledge that God was withholding from him.  Satan in his deception was tricking Adam into living a self-for-self life out of obedience to God and His will.  This was Satan's own sin and life.

We need to clearly stay with Paul's determination "not to know anything among you except Jesus Christ and Him crucified" (I Cor. 2:2).  Paul knew that Christ was the power of God and the message of the cross is the power of God (I Cor. 1:24,18).  This is the power of God in Christ and Him crucified that is given us to overcome fear. When our mind is renewed to see that Christ is our focus and life in us as us, and that His 100% finished work on the cross is sufficient for all things we face, then we will have a sound mind filled with Christ-life power and strength.

Christ lives in us as a self-for-others Spirit, and operates in us out of a Spirit-transformed mind that flows from the divine knowledge of Christ and Him crucified.  Christ's love flowing in and through us is the final eliminator of any spirit of fear in us.  John said, "There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment.  But he who fears has not been made perfect in love" (I John 4:18).  When we have a fear problem, it is NOT really a lack of faith problem that we have.  We have an unsound mind problem not knowing the love and the power of Christ who indwells us. When we have Christ revealed in us as us and our focus becomes His Spirit of love-for-others in a completed, mature, and perfected flow – then, the problem of fear will be pushed out and gone!  V