“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
It had only been a few days since God had spoken to me these words as a response to my cry for deliverance and for guidance: “What must one do to go to heaven?” Though God had informed me of the way out of legalism, becoming like a little child again, I was far from having arrived by the moment He asked this question. So maybe a couple of nights after that, a feeling of terror woke me up; and a weird, robotic, female voice spoke. It said, “I am afraid.”
That next morning, I pondered what had happened that night. Standing in the washroom, I exclaimed, “What was that?”
No sooner had I asked the question I heard the Lord say: “Go love on someone else and it will leave you.”
Surprised, I repeated the words. “Go love on someone else and it will leave you? I don’t understand, Lord. I don’t understand the connection.” I knew I would find the answer in Scripture, so I tried to recall Bible verses that would shine some light on the Lord’s statement. I quickly remembered these two Scriptures: “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind”[1] as well as “perfect love casts out fear.”[2] This was it! Oh my! Wow, Lord!
The Lord’s powerful statement revealed to me a couple things. First, there is indeed such a thing as a spirit of fear. When the Lord spoke, He said, “And it will leave you.” Second, I didn’t have feelings of love flooding my soul for anyone when God spoke to me; I was full of fear! This suggests that we do not need to wait for feelings to show up before we start loving others. Instead, loving others consists of actions born out of a decision that we make in obedience to the Lord.
That day, by faith, I called someone in need and ministered to her. I loved her in action as I ministered to her the best that could with a sincere heart. By the end of the day, the spirit of fear was gone. I would love to tell you that it never came back, but I have had to fight against that spirit numerous times. However, the Lord taught me that day a way of living, a new lifestyle whereby as we abide in it more and more, the spirit of fear will have less and less entrance into our life. That way of life is love. He also taught me that love is one of our greatest spiritual protections in this spiritual warfare.
It is wise to love, and without love, we will be miserable. But love will cost us something. It usually involves some sort of sacrifice, but from experience I know that not walking in love will cost us more. It will cost us our joy, our peace, and ultimately our victory. Have you lost your joy? It could be that you need a deeper love walk. One of the best ways in the kingdom of God to invest in ourselves wisely is to lose sight of ourselves and to take care of the needs (spiritual, emotional, physical, financial, etc.) of others. This way, we build treasures in heaven that no moth can destroy.[3] If you really want to take care of yourself, take care of others also. As we take care of others’ needs, God will take care of ours.
Love is a mighty spiritual weapon and is a powerful spiritual force. Consider the apostle Paul. He was filled with so much love for his own kinsmen that he wished he was cursed himself instead of them![4] Let us take ourselves off our minds by casting our cares on God, and let us go and love on someone else.
Jesus described a practical way to overcome anxiety in Matthew 6:31 KJV, where He says, “Therefore take no thought. . . .” Once we confess our sin to God, it is cleansed by the blood of Christ; and we can stop thinking about it from that moment on because it has been dealt with. The same is true about all of the cares we carry; once we give them to God, we then take no thought about them anymore because they are taken care of by our Father in heaven. When we get ourselves off of our own deficiencies, we get happy because we don’t have so many cares and anxieties to deal with anymore. Anxieties and fears are there when we have ourselves and our own well-being on our minds all the time. A triumphant life cannot really be ours unless we learn to love one another. And we find freedom when we begin to operate in the new lifestyle Jesus offers us: love.
—Kathleen Kaczmarek, The Law of Redemption, Chapter 7, Pages 223-226.
[1] See 2 Timothy 1:7 KJV.
[2] See 1 John 4:18 NKJV.
[3] See Matthew 6:19–21 KJV.
[4] See Romans 9:3.