Living Hope Fellowship Church

FEAR STOPS FAITH

Training Material

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

FEAR STOPS FAITH

Preface

(be not afraid, only believe)

          Jesus told a man in Mark 5:36, “. . .  Be not afraid, only believe.”  Fear comes from doubting God.  If you do not have faith, you cannot please God.  It is not by your ability, but by your faith, that you please God.

          When the enemy is put under your feet, you have no reason to fear him.  The more you yield over to the Lord and believe Him, your fear will be removed.  The key is to trust the Lord. 

          Many people don’t come to Jesus because they are afraid they cannot live it, but they CAN live it.  All we have to do is believe and obey God.  As we believe, we will act in faith.  Then the Lord will honor our requests, and He will answer prayer.  Only believe; don’t be afraid.

FEAR STOPS FAITH

by Pastor Kevin Badgley

          Mark 5:36 says, “As soon as Jesus heard the word that was spoken, he saith unto the ruler of the synagogue, Be not afraid, only believe.”

Fear comes from doubting God.  Fear comes from trusting in yourself and realizing along the way that you have a potential to fail.  We are not supposed to fear.  If you will think a moment, the only time fear comes is when you don’t have enough faith.

When you cease to believe God, or don’t know the promises of God, you begin to fear.  Maybe you grew up in fear.  Perhaps it was put on you by your parents or friends.  They were not trying to make you fearful, but without knowing it always, they transferred their fear and unbelief to you.  This is not God’s plan. 

The Bible says, the righteous are as bold as a lion.  The boldness comes because they don’t have fear.  When you don’t have fear, and you operate in faith toward God, you can have peace of heart, peace of mind, joy, and boldness, a strength that this fearful world needs to see. 

Jesus said the only way to get rid of fear is to believe, but there is something hidden here that we must bring out.  ONLY believe.  If you only believe, that is a greater faith than just believing.  If you only believe, you have pushed everything else out of the way that would hinder or stop you from a miracle.

Fear keeps people from getting saved.  Fear keeps people from coming back to God. Fear keeps people from fasting and praying.  One of the Christian’s biggest enemies is fear. 

In this passage in the Bible Jesus was going to a man’s house.  This man’s daughter was dying.  At the time He said these words, “Only believe,” the daughter had died.  When she died, it was like most everyone would think today.  Never mind.  Don’t pray any more.  She’s dead.  They had a fear of failure.  Fear of failure can stop a Christian. 

The Bible says that God cannot fail, so a Christian should not fail, but some Christians fear failure.  They have more reasons to not believe than to have faith in God.  This is a strange thing.  Jesus is the author and the finisher of our faith.  If He began a work in you, He promises us that He will perform and finish the work, so we should not fear. 

If God be for us, who shall be against us?  The only way the devil can attack then is to try to deceive you.  He attacks you and tries to make you afraid.   

The Bible even goes so far as to say that the fearful and the unbelieving shall not go to heaven.  Revelation 21:8 says, “But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.”

Without faith it is impossible to please God.  Hebrews 11:6 says, “But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

 If you do not have faith, and you are unbelieving, you cannot please God.  It is not by your ability, but by your faith that you please God.  Nothing makes God more pleased than to have His children walk in faith.  When the enemy is put under our feet, we have no reason to fear him. 

There are thousands of promises in the Bible for you and me.  They were given to us by the Lord.  As we meet the conditions for them, Jesus said we will have them. 

To fear means to doubt God.  So we see that being afraid and unbelieving are together.  The Lord would have us to grow up.  As we go on for God, we should fear less and less and less.

When we read in the Bible of men and women of God who gave their lives for the Lord, we know that they could not have had fear.  The wicked king was about to put the three Hebrew children in the furnace of fire.  Daniel 3:16-18 says, “Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, answered and said to the king, O Nebuchadnezzar, we are not careful to answer thee in this matter.  If it be so, our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the burning fiery furnace, and he will deliver us out of thine hand, O king.  But if not, be it known unto thee, O king, that we will not serve thy gods, nor worship the golden image which thou hast set up.”

They did not enter the fire afraid.  Were they normal every day people?  Yes.  They were just like anyone else.  Imagine if you will, living without one shred of fear in your life anywhere.  The devil himself could stand in front of you, threaten your life, and that of your family, and you could look him in the eyes and command him to GO in the name of Jesus.  You would fear nothing. 

We see a key here.  The more you will yield over to the Lord and believe Him, your fear will be removed.  The key is to trust the Lord.  Hebrews 13:8 says, “Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.”

You do not have to fear what men can do to you.  Rather, the time is coming that some of them shall begin to fear concerning touching God’s people.  God gave the devil and his people a strict warning.  He commanded and warned them in 1 Chronicles 16:22, “Saying, Touch not mine anointed, and do my prophets no harm.”  The command still holds.

Deuteronomy 11:25 says, “There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the LORD your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.” 

You cannot believe God for more than He can bring forth.  Philippians 4:19 says, “But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.” 

Mark 16:17-18 says, “And these signs shall follow them that believe; In my name shall they cast out devils; they shall speak with new tongues; They shall take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it shall not hurt them; they shall lay hands on the sick, and they shall recover.

The Bible says these signs shall follow them that believe.  The miracles of God do not follow the fearful!  They follow them that believe.  There is a price to pay for believing though.  You will go out on a limb many times and do things that you have no support for.  You may do some things that no one else will agree with you about, but if it is in God’s Word, and you meet God’s conditions for it, it shall come to pass, no matter how impossible.

Fear also comes from past failures of your own and that of others, but God is still the same; He cannot fail.  People sometimes are fearful that God will not do miracles again.  Is it possible that maybe God has called you to be the first to believe for these great things in the Bible in your household or church?

  Even when others have failed, the Bible is still true.  God still does the work.  The key is to Only Believe.  When you only believe, there is no room for anything else.  Some day you may be called to only believe.  That would include whole days of fasting and prayer when that was all you did that day, was believe. 

Acting on the Bible, God’s Word, is the moving of believing.  When you do this, you can have confidence toward God, and you will not fear failure. 

Many people today will not come to Jesus, because they are afraid they cannot live it.  You CAN live it.  Be not afraid, only believe.  Many Christians will not press on into the deep things of God, because they have more fear of failure than they have commitment of faith.  God is not pleased with that.  He wants us to only believe.  

Faith raised the girl from the dead.  Faith will bring you out of a backslidden condition.  If you believe God, He will save your soul and fill you with the Holy Ghost.  God will save your family.  Faith will bring revival to the church. 

All we have to do is believe and obey God.  As we believe, we will act in faith.  Then the Lord will honor our requests, and He will answer prayer.  Only believe; don’t be afraid.

CONTACT INFORMATION:

PASTOR KEVIN BADGLEY

LIVING HOPE FELLOWSHIP, P. O. BOX 111, GRAND CHAIN, IL  62941

CHURCH / FAX (618) 634-2541

E-mail 

livinghopefellowship@lazernetwireless.net

These condensed Bible studies have been published to help new Christians in their new walk with the Lord.  Kevin Badgley, the author, is the pastor of Living Hope Fellowship Church.

This is a Living Hope Fellowship publication.