No More Fear | Hope Carpenter

Hello everybody. I am so excited that you have decided to join me tonight. Hope Carpenter I am just so excited about the word God's given me. We're going to attack the spirit of fear. I know none of you have ever dealt with fear. I'm being funny right now because we all have. We have all dealt with fear sometime or another in our life and but you know, there's just been, especially with COVID and all of the sickness and disease going on. I really feel like that this spirit of fear has surfaced and manifested in the church and we've got to attack it, We've got to deal with it. I am going to hit it right in the jaw tonight. So if you know somebody who deals with fear, anxiety, sleepless nights, call them right now. Share this broadcast whether you're on YouTube Live or Facebook Live, thank you for being here. Call your friends. It's going to bless your life tonight. And I believe that you're going to get some tools to help you get free of fear in the name of Jesus. Whether it's fears, phobias, nightmares, fear of death, sickness, heart attacks, fear of man, anxiety, stress, untrust, distress, doubt, all of the above, whatever it is that you're dealing with. 2nd Timothy Listen, write this down. 2nd Timothy 1:7 says, For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but what has God given us? Power and love and a sound mind. So how many Christians, how many people are struggling with fear? They do not have power over their thoughts. They do not have power over anxiety. Anxiety drags them down. Every time they get hit with a troubling thought or an email that strikes fear, a doctor's report, they go immediately into panic mode. God has not given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us power and love and a sound mind. So why are we trapped? Why are we paralyzed? The promises of God are yet, yes and amen. They are. So be it. The promises of God over your life are for your life. They're not some lofty pie in the sky thought. These are the things that Christ died for. These are the things that that God, I mean, paid a heavy price, sent his son, his only son, to die so that you and I could be free. And we struggle. We struggle. We struggle with fear, struggle with anxiety. How many Christians are paralyzed? The promises of God are yes and amen. What are the promises of God over your life? That you're an overcomer. That you're the head and not the tail. I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. But how many of us doubt it. How many of us, when we're faced with these horrible decisions or bad news, we just crumble. We do not operate in what God says that we're supposed to operate in. And there's a problem. The root of this is fear. Fear. What does fear do? It locks up all of God's potential. What is potential? It's what you can be. It's what you can do. It's what you can have. It's the life that you're supposed to live. It's that life out there that you read in God's word all the promises of God over your life. But fear comes and it paralyzes you and it keeps you from moving forward. It keeps you where you can't flow, where you can't move. There's good fear, there's bad fear, but I'm talking about the spirit of fear. There's good fear, there's positive fear. That's natural fear, right? That's the fear that keeps you from hurting yourself. That's the fear. When you hear that dog bark and you take off running. That's the fear. When you see the fire and you go toward it and you touch it and you're like, oh, I got burned. I'm not going to touch that anymore. Don't stick your hand in the fire. It'll burn you. You hear a growling dog, you don't go that way. But the negative fear is the spirit of fear. That's when spiritual vitality is affected in your life. That is. That is when you cannot get up and operate in the promises of God. That's when you cannot get up and operate in fear. Faith. And the Bible says without faith, it's impossible to please God. It chokes out faith. It chokes out your joy. It chokes out your peace. It chokes out the flow of love in your life. It binds you and it paralyzes you and it cripples you and it weakens you. It keeps you from operating without limitations in reality. Truthfully, we don't want to hear this, but living with that spirit, negative spirit of fear, what we're saying is that we really believe what the devil says more than what God says. Because if fear is not from God, where is it from? God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. So if we succumb to that spirit of fear, what we're really saying is that I'm putting my faith in what the enemy says, not in what God says over my life. We believe the negative Report. We believe the negative thought. We dwell on it more than what God says about the report. More than what God says about the thought, more than what God says about the situation. Matthew 8:26. Jesus asked his disciples, he said, why are you so fearful, O ye of little faith? He correlated that he correlated being fearful with having little faith, not believing in God. So when you're fearful, you have faith in the enemy's report. But when you have faith, you're believing God's report. So what were they afraid of? They were afraid of drowning. They were afraid of death. They did not fully understand that it was Jesus who had control of death. He has control of life. Why do we even fear death? Death is supposed to have lost its sting, right? If we're a believer first. John 4:18 says, There is no fear in love. When Adam and Eve had perfect love before they sinned there in Eden. Listen. There was no fear of the animals. There was no fear of the elements. There was even no fear of God. They walked with God. And when we are children of God, we should not permit the spirit of fear to run our life, to run our decisions, to run our feelings, to run our thoughts. Especially when you know that fear is not from God. Fear is not from God. Say it out loud. Fear is not from God. And say this. I'm putting you on notice tonight. I'm putting you fear on notice. You will not make me submit to you. Whoo. I felt that for somebody living a fear free life. Listen, what it really is, it's being free to live a life of faith. Faith. Faith involves risks. And people who are bound by the spirit of fear are people who do not take risk. Believing in something that you cannot see, in something that you cannot touch, in something that you cannot grasp. That's risky, right? Fearful people don't take risk. But without faith, it's impossible to please God. Therefore, living in fear is not pleasing God. Our oldest son, when he was just like 18 months old. I remember it was a snowy day in South Carolina. And so we had everybody bundled up. Chase was bundled up, and he was in his car seat, and we were going down the road, and immediately he started having a seizure out of the blue, wasn't even sick. And immediately. What does a mama do? She's afraid. Oh, my gosh. I start ripping him out of the car seat, pull him up into my lap. But faith kicked in. Faith kicked in. I began to pray over that child. I began to pray in the spirit. We walked into the emergency room, praying out loud in the spirit. And I had my faith fixed. I had my faith focused. I would not allow fear. Listen, it takes determination to live like this. And truthfully, most of us are lazy. Most of us don't want to fight. Faith is a fight. Fight the good fight of faith. So you can either get up and fight the good fight of faith, or you can be succumbed with fear. It's what you're focusing on, really. I'm focusing on the word of God over my child. I start speaking over him. I say, with long life he will live. I knew that he was a gift from God, and I'd gotten words. I began to just speak those over his life. I would not succumb to fear. I fought the good fight of faith. Fear is going to come. There's going to be instances every day where fear will try to grip you, but it's how you respond. It's what you do in that situation. There's a supernatural gift of faith. That's 1 Corinthians 12, 9. It says the seven same spirit gives great faith to another and to someone else. To one spirit gives the gift of healing. So that is a gift. That's a supernatural. Do you know those people who always have faith? That's what that scripture's talking about. That's that supernatural gift of faith. There's always those people who see the glass half full. That's always those people who have a word for you when you're going through, who's always smiling, who's always cheering you on. That's a supernatural gift of faith. Now there's. It rises beyond belief, right? I mean, it's like, wow, she's always so happy. She's always got a word for somebody. That's Hebrews 11. 1. Now, faith is confident in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see. That's the problem. We focus on what we see. You cannot focus on what you see. That's not faith. Faith is focusing on what you can't see, not what you do see. See, we see our bank account, right? We see our children going crazy and strung out on drugs or on alcohol or all the crazy things kids do. We see those things. But faith does not focus on what we see. Listen, the gift of faith looks at the impossibilities as if they're nothing. It's like seeing that dog growling and barking, and you just like, oh, it's good. I got this. That's nothing. You get a doctor's report. You're like, I choose to believe the report of the Lord. That's faith. That's the gift of faith. Listen, David should have been terrified of Goliath, but he was not. He had a word from God. He knew he had an assignment. All the odds were stacked against him. All the odds were. I mean, this dude is huge. He's older, he's well trained. And then there's little David who's been serving cheese to his brothers and tending the sheep and singing songs. But he gets those stones in a rag. And he was confident. He should have been petrified. This 12 year old boy's attitude was, this is nothing. God said, do it. I'm going to do. Required supernatural faith. Fear is not normal for Christians. Say it out loud. Fear is not normal for me. It's normal for people without hope. But we have a hope. We have a blessed assurance. Let's talk about open doors a minute. Uh oh, open doors. Why are you watching scary movies? And then you wonder why you struggle with fear. Come on. Why do you listen to negativity? Why are you in the, in the seat, in the room with gossipers? Listen, it's either good or it's evil. It's either coming from God or it's coming from the enemy. Luke 11:11 says this. It says, if a son shall ask for bread with his father, give him a stone. Don't you want to be free? If you really want to be free, God's going to give you the tools to be free. How do you combat this fear? Okay, Hope, I got it. I got it, I got it. Fear is not from God. I got it. But how do I combat this fear? Number one, don't open the doors. Whatever you fill yourself with is whatever your life's going to produce. Don't open doors of fear. Number two, you've got to fill your heart and your mind with the word of God. It is your weapon. It is your sword. When those things happen, when fear seeks to come knocking at your door, when you get that email, when you get that doctor's report, if you don't have something to fight with, you're going to lose. God's word is sharp. It's a weapon. But if you don't know the word of God, you won't be able to use it. Number three, constantly press yourself to walk in faith. What does that mean? You got to constantly press yourself to take risks. Risks that helps you to overcome fear. If you've got a fear of water, if you've got a fear of getting in a swimming pool, put your life jacket on and get in the water. Get some Swimming lessons. You've got to take risks to overcome the fear. Why? Because God wants you to live in rest. He wants you to live in rest. He wants you to operate out of the promises of God in His Word. Listen, Rest, as a Christian should be our posture. When you are sitting in your chair, when you are laying on your couch, when you're in your bed, that is a posture of rest. You're not up with anxiety, ready to fight. Rest should be your posture. Listen, in the Old Testament, the priest had to go into the temple certain times a year to make sacrifices for people's sins. And there were no seats. There were no chairs there in the temple. They would go in, they would come out, they would go in, they would come out. It was all based on works. There was no rest. They knew that they constantly had to work for forgiveness. Well, Jesus came and he finished all the work on the cross. He said, it is finished, period. Everything. No more work, no more striving, no more performance. It's all been provided. And it is the same way with your peace. Jesus sat down beside the Father in a posture of rest, and he said, it is finished. Paul said in Ephesians, we are seated with Christ in heavenly places. So there is a seat of rest that belongs to you. There is a seat of peace. There is a seat of rest with your name on it. Say that out loud. Say, there is a seat of rest with my name on it. Yes. And all this anxiety, this striving, this fear, the sleepless nights, this is not the promises for you as an heir and a joint heir with Jesus. Listen, the Christian life is not being worried all the time. The Christian life is not where you're supposed to be, full of anxiety and worried about money and trying to make your kids do right. And if your husband's going to be faithful or if you'll get that job. I am here tonight to tell you to take a seat. Take your rightful seat, your seat of rest in the seat of faith, in the seat of believing that God's going to do what he said he's going to do. The promises of God are not just for the other people. The promises of God are for you. But you cannot obtain these precious promises when you are plagued with fear, when you put your faith in the negative, when you put your faith in what the enemy is telling you is going to be going to happen in your life and in your finances and in your children and in your marriage. No, that's a seed of anxiety. That's the seed of fear. And it's rooted in the enemy. God did not give you the spirit of fear. The spirit of fear has to go. And you have to trade that for power and love and a sound mind in knowing that God is going to bring to pass what he's saying said he's going to bring to pass. Listen, David said this. I love this scripture. David said, though I am surrounded by trouble, my heart will know no fear for the Lord will bring me safely through. Whoa. Come on, somebody. Psalm 138. 7. Say it again. Hope for the people in the back. Though I am surrounded by trouble, my heart will know no fear for the Lord will bring me safely through. Whoa. That's not to say that you're not going to go through things. Yeah, we're going to go through things. You don't get a trouble free life. No. He said, though surrounded, surrounded by trouble. Some of you listening to me tonight saying, oh, that sounds so good, Pastor Hope. That's pie in the sky. But you don't know what I live in. You don't know what I'm going through. You don't know what my health report says. You don't know what my bank account says. David said, though I'm surrounded by trouble, my heart is will know no fear. Whoo. Come on, somebody. You can be standing in the worst situation and you can go through it in peace. You can be situated in the worst circumstance, and you can still have peace. Anxiety and fear does not have to dominate your mind. You can have a sound mind, but you got to close those doors. You got to slam them shut and lock them and never open them again. There's some places you can't go. There's some people you can't hang around. There's some things you cannot watch on tv. Though I'm surrounded by trouble. Whoo. My heart will know no fear. You got to close those doors. You got to be willing to take risk. You got to put that life jacket on and you got to jump in that water, right? You got to be willing to pack it all up and move across the country. If that's what God said for you to do. You've got to live a life of faith. You got to get up. Because if you don't fight, then you don't win. Some of you are sitting there listening to me tonight just terrified, afraid that is not God's best for you. God's got a seat of peace. God's got a seat of joy. God's got a seat of faith with your name on it. But you got to Sit down and rest. How do you rest? You can rest if you know you've closed every door, you've done everything you know to do, and you know the battle is not yours, but the battle is the Lord's. Whoa. It's a word for somebody. Tonight, the battle is not yours, the battle is the Lord's. But you do have to cooperate with God. You do have to do your part. I want to pray for you tonight. I want to pray for those who battle fear. That is not for you. That is not why Christ died, so that you could be locked up in anxiety, you could be locked up in fear. So, God, tonight I just thank you that you had every person here listening tonight all over the world who you wanted to be here tonight. God, I thank you for your word, that you. That it is sharp, that it's powerful, that when it's tucked away in our heart, God, we can pull it out at the time of battle and we can use it to slice and dice and to cut and to divide. God, I thank you that to have a sane mind, Lord, we have to know where to put our focus. God, we're shutting the doors tonight. Tonight, we're shutting the doors. Speak to the people listening tonight of the things they need to shut, the things they need to cut out of their life and show us, God, how to take risks so that we can operate and we can occupy that seat that is already ours with our name on it, that seat of rest. And we give you all the glory. We give you all the praise. You deserve it all, God. You've already paid the price and it's ours for the taking. Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, Jesus. Come on, give God some praise right where you are. You may be sitting in your car, you may be in your home. You could be in a hospital. You might be in a jail cell. I don't know where you are tonight, but you need to get up where you are and give God some praise that he has given you some answers tonight about how to occupy that mind, how to get that saying mind back, that you are not going to live in fear another day. Thank you for joining us tonight. Go to my YouTube page. Got lots of messages on there. Follow subscribe. Go to my social media. It'll be right here on the screen for you. Follow me. Hope carpenter.com. i've just written a book called the Most Beautiful Disaster. It'll help you overcome. Go to Amazon, anywhere books are sold. Get your copy. Buy one for a friend. I love you. Until next week. God bless you.