Heart Lift

Fear: Overcoming Fear

Three Angels Broadcasting Network

Program transcript

Participants: Jill Morikone

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Series Code: HLFT

Program Code: HLFT000007A


00:25 Hello, and welcome to Heart Lift.
00:27 I'm Jill Morikone, and I'm so glad that you
00:30 have joined us today.
00:31 We're on a journey toward hope, toward healing,
00:35 toward the transformation that the Lord Jesus wants to work
00:39 in your heart and mine as women, as daughters of God.
00:44 We're discussing fear. If you're just joining us,
00:46 If you're just joining us, our last program dealt with fear.
00:50 We identified six basic categories of fear that we
00:54 often face as women.
00:55 That would be: faith; fears about our faith, family, health,
01:01 finances, future, and relationships.
01:06 I don't know if you can identify with any of those fears.
01:09 I know I certainly can.
01:11 As women we fear loss of control, loss of life,
01:16 loss of loved ones.
01:18 We agonize over wearing the right thing,
01:21 saying the right thing, or doing the right thing.
01:25 We worry about our children's choices,
01:29 or our spouse's choices, or our own choices.
01:34 I think many times our fears are based in a lie from Satan.
01:41 Many times those fears come from something
01:44 that Satan has told us.
01:46 Today we're going to be discussing, looking at how the
01:51 Lord Jesus wants to break us free; how He can break us from
01:56 those fears that bind us.
01:58 Our Scripture today is Psalm 56:3, 4.
02:03 If you have your Bible, I invite you to open up, and to look,
02:08 and read, and follow along with us.
02:13 Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You.
02:17 In God I will praise His word, in God I have put my trust;
02:24 I will not fear what flesh can do to me.
02:27 Or we could say, What can man do to me?
02:31 Let's pray. Father we come before You right now
02:35 in the holy name of Jesus.
02:37 And we ask for Your anointing.
02:39 We pray for Your presence.
02:42 I thank You that You came to set us free from the
02:46 fears that bind us.
02:48 And we just pray today, as we discuss those keys of freedom
02:54 from fear, Lord that You will work that deep into
02:58 each one of our hearts.
02:59 And we thank You in the precious and holy name of Jesus, Amen.
03:04 I was hanging up clothes on the line.
03:08 We have the washer inside, and a lot of times I'll use the dryer.
03:12 But this particular day was sunny and beautiful,
03:15 and I thought, Why not hang the stuff up on the line?
03:19 I carried the clothes basket outside, and I deposited it
03:23 on the back porch, because the clothes line is very
03:25 close to the back porch.
03:27 Then I went into the garage.
03:28 I got my clothes pins, and I walked out to the clothes line.
03:32 I hung up, on the clothes line, my clothes pins.
03:35 And just as I turned to go walk to the porch to get the clothes
03:41 basket, I screamed.
03:44 There was, in the grass, a snake.
03:47 Now I do not like snakes.
03:51 I don't like snakes if I know they're there.
03:53 I don't like going in the reptile house.
03:56 I just don't like snakes.
03:57 But especially I do not like to be startled with a snake.
04:02 The snake was almost at my feet.
04:04 It was a black snake, and it was probably,...
04:07 I'm not good with the measurements.
04:08 I would say it was this long.
04:12 To me it was huge!
04:14 And I almost had stepped on it!
04:15 It went real fast underneath the porch.
04:19 And I calmed my heart and then I went through the business
04:25 of hanging up my clothes.
04:27 Now some fears are just like that.
04:29 They are not premeditated, right?
04:32 It's not like a worry.
04:34 It's something that instantly happens,
04:36 your adrenaline rushes, and then your heart
04:39 returns to normal.
04:40 That's not the type of fear that we're discussing
04:43 in our program today.
04:45 We're talking about chronic, debilitating fear,
04:51 or you could say worry.
04:53 In my own experience I have found five keys,
04:57 five steps to dealing with fear.
05:00 And we're going to unpackage those steps here today.
05:04 How do we handle chronic fears?
05:06 How do we deal with that?
05:08 I think the first point, the first key is to understand God.
05:14 Lightening flashed across the sky, followed by
05:18 a sudden clap of thunder.
05:20 Rain fell in sheets across the house.
05:24 All of a sudden my ears picked up a new sound: hail.
05:28 It had begun to hail.
05:29 This was a pretty serious storm.
05:32 The back door banged, and Greg walked in.
05:36 Jilly, he said, the tornado siren, which is in
05:39 Thompsonville. We live a little ways out of Thompsonville.
05:42 The tornado siren is going off.
05:44 That means only one thing.
05:46 It doesn't go off when there's a thunderstorm, or a few clouds.
05:51 It goes off when funnel cloud activity has been spotted.
05:54 He said, We need to go under the house now.
05:57 Now we have a crawl space.
05:59 And he jumped out the back sliding glass door,
06:02 and I wiggled my toes into my boots, put a little coat on,
06:06 and jumped out, too.
06:07 I immediately pulled the hood up over my head,
06:10 because I was trying to keep from being pelted
06:13 by the balls of ice.
06:14 It was really hailing, the siren's going.
06:17 We knelt down... We have a crawl space under our house.
06:21 ...and we crawled underneath the house.
06:24 I had neglected to bring a flashlight, and I scraped my
06:28 finger on some sort of, I don't know, nail, sharp piece of
06:31 metal; something underneath the house.
06:33 We went all the way to the concrete barrier, the pier
06:37 that holds up the house right in the middle.
06:40 And Greg said, This will probably be the best place.
06:42 So he scooted in beside me.
06:44 And we sat there and we watched the storm.
06:48 I was trying to think.
06:51 Normally we don't get worked up, even over tornados.
06:56 I can think of many times when Greg and I have stayed in our
07:00 house even though the tornado siren was going off.
07:04 I can think of many times when we did that.
07:07 But just a couple days before, a couple days before this
07:12 happened, a tornado had ripped through Harrisburg, Illinois.
07:17 Now this story occurred a few years ago.
07:20 And if you're familiar with the news, we had a tornado
07:23 in Harrisburg, Illinois.
07:24 Six people died in that storm.
07:27 We had glibly weathered storms before,
07:31 not even being concerned.
07:33 But now I thought, This got a little too close for comfort.
07:37 I wondered, were their lives right with Jesus?
07:42 Had they prayed and asked God for protection?
07:46 I searched my own heart.
07:48 Was it going to end like this? maybe.
07:51 But I wanted to make sure there was nothing between me and
07:54 Jesus; nothing in my own heart and life.
07:57 The storm passed. We crawled out.
08:01 We went back up into the living room.
08:02 And later I saw the most beautiful rainbow
08:05 I think I have ever seen.
08:06 Its very edges seemed to touch the field, and it shimmered.
08:11 It was beautiful! But I couldn't help wondering why were some
08:15 people's lives destroyed while ours were left untouched?
08:21 I don't have the answer to this question.
08:23 I can't even pretend to understand, but I do know that
08:28 every day we see the outworking of the great controversy.
08:33 On Satan's side stands death and destruction,
08:37 fear and foreboding, chaos and confusion.
08:42 On the side of Jesus stand life instead of death,
08:47 faith instead of fear, peace instead of confusion.
08:52 And most importantly, the ultimate victory.
08:55 Because of Him we will live forever.
08:59 I believe if we truly understand God, and who He is,
09:03 its going to alter how we look at life, how we look at trials,
09:09 how we look at suffering.
09:11 But you say, Jill, how do I understand God?
09:13 How do I even know Him?
09:16 Spend time in the word of God.
09:19 Get to know who He is, apart from the lies of the enemy.
09:25 First, we understand God.
09:28 Second, we trust God.
09:31 I think that trust in God, and understanding God
09:35 are closely related.
09:36 If I don't understand God, and know that He's a God of love,
09:41 and know who He is, how can I truly trust Him?
09:46 Oswald Chambers said,...
09:48 And I love this quote.
09:50 Have we come to the point where God can withdraw His blessing
09:55 and it does not effect our trust in Him?
10:00 Am I willing to trust the Lord Jesus
10:03 regardless of what happens?
10:06 Will we lose our job, or our car, or even our home? perhaps.
10:13 Will someone we love be hurt, or injured,
10:16 or even killed? maybe.
10:20 Is our life guaranteed? it's not.
10:25 At least on this temporary place; this planet we call home.
10:30 Does any of that really matter?
10:33 It really doesn't.
10:35 God could save any of that.
10:39 He could save us from any of that if He so choose.
10:44 After all in Jeremiah 32:27 what does He say?
10:48 I am the Lord, the God of all flesh.
10:53 Is there anything too hard for Me?
10:55 God could do that in an instant, in a moment. We know that.
10:59 I believe when we come down to it, all that really matters
11:03 is that I face whatever comes hand in hand with Jesus;
11:08 that I can still trust Him when everything
11:12 is crumbling around me; that I don't serve Him for what
11:17 I get, but for who He is.
11:20 Because I love Him, because I trust Him, because where would
11:26 I go if I didn't have God?
11:29 Do we serve God because He's Santa Claus,
11:32 giving us what we want, when we want it?
11:36 Or do we serve Him because we love Him?
11:38 Because life without Him is really unthinkable.
11:44 Point 1. We understand God.
11:49 We understand He's a God of love.
11:51 We understand who He is in relation to those lies
11:55 that Satan wants to feed us.
11:57 2. We learn day by day, as we spend time in His Word,
12:02 finding out who He really is; we learn to trust Him.
12:07 3. We surrender to God.
12:11 I believe trust is essential to surrender.
12:15 I can't surrender to God unless I trust Him,
12:18 and I don't trust Him unless I know Him.
12:22 Do you see how they're all tied together?
12:24 Surrender the person or the fear.
12:27 I don't know what your fear is today, what you're struggling
12:30 with today, but surrender that person, or that fear,
12:35 to the Lord Jesus.
12:36 Go to God and say, God, I surrender my control over my
12:41 husband's choices.
12:42 I surrender my control over the choices my children
12:46 are making right now.
12:48 I surrender my control over my salvation,
12:51 or the salvation of the people I love.
12:54 I surrender my control over what other people say about me,
12:58 or think about me, or how they act.
13:02 I surrender my control over my finances, and my future.
13:06 When we surrender we say, God, I surrender my control.
13:10 Then we say, I give You my fear about...
13:13 And list what ever the fear is.
13:15 I give You my fear about their salvation.
13:17 I give You my fear about other people,
13:19 and what they think of me.
13:20 I give you my fear about my spouse, or about my kids.
13:25 Greg and I, every Sabbath night, when we have our sundown worship
13:31 Sabbath night, we do many different things when we
13:33 have Sundown worship, but one of the things we do:
13:36 we kneel down together by our little couch, and Greg will pray
13:39 many different things, but one part of his prayer
13:43 is always the same.
13:44 He says, God, we don't know what we will face this coming week,
13:49 but we trust You with our lives, and we want to face it with You.
13:56 That's a prayer of surrender.
13:58 That's a prayer of saying, God, I don't know
14:01 what the future holds.
14:02 I don't know what's coming, but I trust You.
14:05 I choose to trust You with that future.
14:10 We understand God, we trust Him, we surrender to Him.
14:17 And next, we claim promises from the Word of God.
14:22 Just like when we discussed forgiveness and bitterness
14:26 a few programs back, we talked about sometimes our feelings
14:30 don't match up with what God's Word says.
14:32 Have you ever experienced that?
14:34 That happens to me all the time.
14:35 Our feelings though are not reliable, and God says,
14:39 Put your faith, put your trust in what the Word of God says.
14:43 Bring your mind into line with what God's Word says.
14:48 Many times Greg will call me when he's coming home from work,
14:54 and he'll say, Jilly, I'm just getting ready
14:56 to leave work soon.
14:57 Now this happened when I was teaching music lessons,
14:59 and I was already home.
15:00 Now we usually leave 3ABN together at the same time.
15:04 But a few years ago I would be home.
15:07 I'd be fixing dinner.
15:09 And he would call and he'd say, Jilly, I'm on the way home.
15:12 And so I would hurry to finish.
15:14 Well, we live probably 3, 4 miles from 3ABN.
15:19 So now long does that take him to get home? max 10 minutes.
15:25 You could maybe make it in 5 or 6 if you were really moving.
15:28 So after ten minutes passes I think, That's strange.
15:32 Why isn't he home yet?
15:34 Fifteen minutes passes and I think, That's really strange.
15:40 Why isn't he home?
15:42 Twenty minutes, and I start to panic.
15:47 I'll think, How would I live if he was in a car accident?
15:52 What if something happened to him?
15:55 What if he got hurt, or what if he's dead?
15:59 And my thoughts start to spiral down a negative path.
16:04 And I'm ashamed to tell you, but I could even begin
16:08 to plan his funeral.
16:10 Like who would I like to speak, and all of that.
16:14 And then in the midst of my panic, God reminds me of a
16:19 verse from His Word.
16:21 It's found in Philippians 4, Philippians 4:8.
16:27 It says, Finally, whatsoever things are true, just, honest,
16:31 of good report;...
16:32 It goes through several different things.
16:34 But the first one, God says, Jill, Think on what is true.
16:39 In this situation what is true?
16:42 I don't know he's been in an accident.
16:44 I don't know that he is hurt.
16:46 All I know is he called and said he's coming home.
16:50 What is true? He's coming home, until I hear something else.
16:55 So I would choose to bring my mind into line with
16:59 what God's Word said. That's the key.
17:01 Our feelings are fickle; our feelings change.
17:04 And instead of dwelling on our feelings, or our fears,
17:09 choose to bring your thoughts into line with what
17:13 the Word of God says.
17:15 In this case I thought about what is true.
17:18 And pretty soon the lights of his pickup would swing across
17:21 the yard, and he'd come in and say, Jilly, I'm so sorry,
17:24 so and so stopped to talk just as I was leaving work,
17:28 and that's the reason I was late.
17:30 There's other Scriptures you can claim; many Scriptures we can
17:34 claim to combat the fear that's going on in our lives.
17:37 I love John 14:27.
17:39 Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you:
17:43 not as the world gives, give I unto you.
17:45 Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.
17:50 What about this one?
17:54 God has not given us the spirit of fear; but of power,
17:58 and love, and of a sound mind.
18:02 The New International Version says, self discipline.
18:06 That's bringing our mind, bringing our thoughts
18:09 into line with what the Word of God says.
18:12 What about Romans 8, Romans 8: 37-39?
18:17 I just want to turn there.
18:18 I really like this.
18:20 Who shall separate us from the love of God?
18:23 shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine,
18:27 or nakedness, or peril, or sword?
18:29 Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors
18:34 through Him who loved us, and who gave Himself for us.
18:39 What does God say?
18:41 He doesn't say trial won't come, problems won't come,
18:45 issues won't come, but that we can trust Him
18:49 in the midst of that. I love that.
18:57 Isaiah 43, we have another couple Scriptures here.
19:00 Isaiah 43. Now thus says the Lord who created you, O Jacob.
19:07 I like to put my own name in there.
19:09 What ever your name is, put it in there.
19:11 Now, thus says God who created me.
19:14 Put your name in the verse.
19:15 And He who formed you, O Israel.
19:19 Fear not: for I have redeemed you, I have called you
19:25 by My name; you are mine.
19:27 And then my favorite part about the Scripture is this:
19:30 When you pass through the water, God is going to be with you;
19:34 and through the rivers, they're not going to overflow.
19:39 When you walk through the fire you will not be burned,
19:43 neither shall the flame kindle upon you.
19:47 What does God say?
19:49 He says, I love you.
19:51 I will be with you through anything.
19:56 Isaiah 41:10, Fear not; for I am with you: be not dismayed;
20:03 for I am your God: I will strengthen you;
20:06 yes, I will help you; yes, I will uphold you with the right
20:11 arm of My righteousness.
20:14 And finally Isaiah 26:3, Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace
20:19 whose mind is stayed on God: because he trusts in God.
20:24 That's pivotal; to keep our mind stayed on God.
20:28 Claim promises from the Word of God.
20:32 Don't go by how you feel.
20:34 Go by what the Word of God says.
20:37 And finally, 5., Key 5. to breaking free from the bondage
20:43 of fear is to praise Him.
20:45 Now you might say, That seems weird.
20:47 When I'm afraid, why do I want to praise?
20:50 Remember our opening Scripture; that was Psalm 56:3, 4.
20:55 It says, When I am afraid, I will trust in You.
20:59 In God I will praise...
21:01 Isn't that interesting?
21:03 When we're afraid, David the Psalmist
21:05 combines fear with praise.
21:07 When you don't see a way out, thank Him.
21:11 When you're lost and alone, praise Him.
21:15 When you're facing your fear, rejoice in Him.
21:19 I know that praise is a hard thing.
21:21 And many times it's hard for us to experience praise,
21:26 when we don't feel like it; when we're facing fear.
21:29 However, we know that God inhabits
21:32 the praises of His people.
21:34 That's Psalm 22:3.
21:37 So if we want more of the presence of God,
21:41 if we need more of His presence in our life, praise Him,
21:45 and God will draw near to you; He will draw close to you.
21:50 Nehemiah 8:10, The joy of the Lord is your strength.
21:57 Do you need strength today?
21:59 Do you need power?
22:01 Do you need victory?
22:03 Go to God, ask for His joy, and choose to praise Him.
22:10 Praise changes our perspective.
22:12 It changes our thoughts.
22:13 And as we bring our mind in line with what the Word of God says,
22:18 it will eventually change even our feelings. I love that!
22:23 My friend, Christine, used to battle with fear.
22:26 And she's honest about her battle.
22:28 But she said, God gave her deliverance,
22:31 and He sat her free.
22:33 And one of the Scriptures He used is Psalm 34:4.
22:37 I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me
22:41 from all my fears.
22:43 I know the Lord Jesus Christ wants to set you free.
22:47 I know He wants to bring deliverance to your heart.
22:52 We're going to be back in just a moment.
22:54 We have to take a break now, but we'll be back in just a
22:56 moment to discuss some practical application;
22:59 something you can do this week.


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Revised 2016-05-25