Three Principles of Fear

2 Three Principles of Fear

In the next two chapters, I want us to look at a number of principles about the nature of fear in order to better understand it. In warfare, we cannot defeat our enemy until we understand who he is and how he operates. The same is true in our spiritual and emotional battle against fear. We cannot defeat it in our lives until we understand its nature and how it attacks us. So, let’s look at some principles of fear.

Principle #1: Fear is a feeling or emotion that is primarily mind-driven.

First of all, we must understand that fear is initially more of a matter of the head than the heart. As such, fear is born in the mind, not in the emotions. Until we take time to objectively examine our fears, they seem to have a rational origin and basis. But fear seldom originates in true facts that overflow into feelings. Instead, fear is most often based on false facts that appear to be real. And when we accept those false facts in our minds, our emotions soon become captivated by unrealistic fears.

To emphasize this point, here is the way I spell FEAR:

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F — False E — Evidence A — Appearing R — Real

Why do I say false evidence? I say that because studies clearly prove that the vast majority of things that we are afraid of are in reality just that—false fears. That means they are not really based in objective facts. The evidence provoking our fear only has the appearance of reality.

Years ago, the University of Michigan did a study about our fears. They wanted to distinguish between our rational fears and our irrational fears. This is what their study revealed about our fears:

• 60% are totally unwarranted • 20% are based on past experiences that we have absolutely no control over • 10% are so petty they made no real difference • 5% are real and justified, but we cannot do anything about them • 5% are real and we can do something about them

Looking at this list, does it surprise you that the vast majority of our fears are not grounded in objective facts? As the study showed, only 5% of our fears are real and justified. But even though we can’t do anything much about them, we still worry about them with fearful anxiety.

It is only the remaining 5% of our fears that we can do something about if we choose. That means just 10% of our

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fears have some objective basis and should be taken seriously with appropriate action whenever possible. Sadly, that small 10% dictates the other 90% of our lives!

Most of us, then, spend our lives running from fearful shadows that can never really hurt us.

Principle #2: Fear must have an object.

Another principle to remember is that fear is always focused on something or someone. That means fear almost always evokes the image of something tangible or a specific person in your mind’s eye. Fear is almost never vague, nebulous, ethereal, or abstract. As we will see, fear most often has someone’s name and face connected to it. Therefore, if the fear is not specific, tangible, and objective, then it is anxiety rather than fear.

Fear Object (specific and tangible)

Anxiety No Object (free-floating, nebulous, vague)

Also, for fear to be legitimate (based in reality), it must have at least two components: presence and power.

If there is no presence related to the fear, then it cannot harm you. You need not fear something that is far away. But when it is next door or at an arm’s length, there is real presence and, therefore, real fear. When the object of your fear is staring you in the face, it has a potent presence that can

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cripple you!

However, if the object of fear does not have real power, then it also cannot harm you. As Ecclesiastes 9:4 says, “Even a live dog is better off than a dead lion!” In other words, even though a lion is a fearsome beast, a “dead lion” does not invoke fear because he is dead. While it has presence, it has no power. It is a dead carcass, an empty shell of a once-powerful predator. It cannot roar. Its claws and teeth have no ability to tear you apart and eat you up. Since the lion is lifeless, it evokes no fear and so you do not run away from it.

But a “live dog,” whether large or small, can provoke fear because it is alive. It has both presence and power. It has the power to back up its bark. Its snarling, growling presence has teeth in it! Therefore, it has the potential to invoke real fear, depending on whether it is known or unknown, wild or domesticated, large or small, chained or loose, or bristling in the attack mode or running away with its tail between its legs. So both presence and power are necessary for fear to be potentially real rather than false.

As we will see in more detail, only God is the perfect personification of both qualities. That is why we speak of His power as omnipotence and His presence as omnipresence. No other human or being in the universe—including the devil—has those eternal qualities but God. Only God is eternally present and eternally powerful. Therefore, He alone is to be feared, but with a reverential fear as we will see later.

Since all authentic fears have an object, there are almost as many objects of fear as there are people. That’s because growing up, we humans have been victimized by fears that were personalized through people—usually people close to

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us. As a result, all of us grow up with fears. These can include fears of insecurity, insignificance, relationships, failure, disease, sickness, suffering, pain, and death. And sadly, those fears often become our closest companions through life.

Tragically, many people become so fixated on their fears that they fear them into existence. Over time, a particular fear increasingly takes control of their lives and, knowingly or unknowingly, they give in to that fear to the degree that it possesses them. It begins to dictate their every decision and colors how they view life. They fear it into existence and it becomes a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Job reflected this attitude when he lamented, “What I feared has come upon me; what I dreaded has happened to me” (Job 3:25). Apparently long before the tragedies recorded in the Bible assaulted his life, family, health, and business, Job greatly feared their possible attack. Most parents can relate to Job’s fearful struggles here, especially related to his family. Normal parents tend to have an abnormal fear about the welfare of their children.

While we know from the Scriptures that there was an objectively malevolent power called Satan who caused Job’s afflictions, he still feared them before they ever happened. When he was emotionally assaulted by the evil one, it caused him to second-guess himself and wonder if he had feared them into existence. It was hard enough for Job to suffer so many afflictions, losses, injustices, and accusations by friend and foe alike, but these assaults were all intensified by fear. However, as we know, Job was ultimately able to faith down his fears through his unshakable love and reverence for God, even when he did not fully understand the reason why. You

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and I must also learn this principle of willfully choosing faith over fear.

Principle #3: Fear is spiritual by nature.

The Apostle Paul clearly identified the spiritual nature of fear: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind” (2 Timothy 1:7 nkjv). In writing this exhortation to a fearful young pastor named Timothy, Paul spoke of a “spirit of fear.” Therefore, fear is more than a thought or a feeling, it’s a spirit. And any spirit can torment or possess us. That’s why Paul warned young Timothy that this spirit of fear he was battling was not from God. That meant it must have had its origin somewhere else, something we will see later as we look at the many faces of fear.

Even though we touched on it briefly in chapter 1, I want us to remind ourselves again exactly when this spirit of fear invaded human history. We read about it in Genesis:

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?” He answered, “I heard you in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid” (Genesis 3:8–10).

We are all familiar with this biblical story of Adam and Eve. As we read through the first two chapters of Genesis, we clearly see that originally there was no spirit of fear in God’s

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creation. There was nothing but love, trust, transparency, peace, and harmony. There was perfect fellowship between Adam and Eve and God and between each other. But once sin entered the man and woman through the suggestive negative thought from Satan, a fearful spirit came upon them, which mankind has lived with ever since.

We can also see in this story an example of how the basic spirit of fear produces either the response of fight or of flight. Adam obviously took flight and Eve fled with him. Because of Adam’s false fear of God, he went into hiding, and mankind has been hiding from God ever since.

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