full textual sermon "How Do I Beat This Fear?" - Joyce Meyer
Joyce Meyer: don't you miss one thing that God has for you because of fear. Don't fear it, face it.
Ginger: as we walk through each new day, we all have questions. They're just part of life, but did you know there are answers for you? God says when we look, we'll find him. He's not trying to hide anything. So, together, we are discovering life's everyday answers.
Ginger: I have a question for you, what is your greatest fear? Now, I know we're jumping right in with one of those questions that you maybe don't want to talk about, but let me tell you, you'll be glad you were here today because fear is an emotion that we all deal with and it absolutely impacts you, probably in ways that you don't even realize. Recently, we asked you on twitter, have you overcome your greatest fear? So, here are those poll results. Fifty-one percent of you say, "yes, I have." Congratulations. Thirty-eight percent say, "I can't. It's just too hard." And 11% say, "I don't think I need to." Well, that's interesting because today you're going to discover the benefits of facing and conquering your fears, even if maybe you don't think it's that important or that you don't need to. Joyce Meyer answers the question today, "how do I beat this fear?"
Joyce Meyer: I think it's amazing how much fear steals from people and how it brings torment in people's lives. I believe that fear is the master spirit that satan uses to try to keep people from making forward progress. I don't have a message to tell you how to never feel fear, but I can teach you how to confront fear and not let it control you. The more you confront it, the less the devil will bother you with it. Faith is the only thing that conquers fear. If we have faith, we receive from God. If we have fear, we receive from the enemy. Freedom from fear simply means that we don't let fear control us. We may feel the physical or emotional symptom of fear but we can refuse to obey its intimidating threats. We learn to obey God, believe that he's with us at all times, we press forward in the presence of fear. Courage means to keep making forward progress while you still feel afraid. We learn how to do it afraid. A girl said to me one time, a friend of mine, she was in her early 40s and she'd gotten pregnant for the first time. And she was really afraid of giving birth. And she said, "I'm just so afraid that it's gonna hurt." I said, "I can solve that for you."
Joyce Meyer: "you can?" I said, "you don't have to be afraid of it. It will hurt." "But millions of women have done it and they're still alive." We can't let ourselves start to fear something that is sure to happen anyway because if we fear it, it's only going to make the pain of it all that much worse. What you need to say is, "God is gonna give me the grace when the time comes, and I can do whatever I need to do through christ who strengthens me."
Joyce Meyer: life is not easy. We all know that. But God has equipped us with the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit to do difficult things with a smile on our face and joy in our heart. "we are anointed by the Holy Spirit for hard." Amen? Did you hear me? "we are anointed by the Holy Spirit for hard." We don't have to have everything easy. We are not wimpy. We are full of the holy ghost, warriors. We have the power of God in our lives to enable us to do great things. So, I just want to encourage you tonight, you don't have to be afraid. You may feel afraid, but you don't have to be afraid. There is a big difference in feeling afraid and being afraid.
Joyce Meyer: you can keep going forward with your knees shakin', and your mouth dry, and your heart pounding and you can just say, "God is with me. He will never leave me nor forsake me, and I am gonna do everything that I need to do. I will not fear. What can man do unto me?" Is anybody ready for that in your life?
Ginger: well, we will get back to Joyce Meyer's teaching in just a minute, but throughout this show, we want to take a few minutes to get really practical so we're gonna meet someone, a lovely lady, who has dealt with the fear that many of you will be able to relate to. It's the fear of water. Carolyn Coley suffered with this fear since childhood. Carolyn, tell me a little bit about how this all started. Why a fear of water for you?
Carolyn: well, as far back as I can remember, I think back to maybe like 7, 8, 9 years old. I had this best friend. It was a boy. We used to play together every single day. I'd come out looking for him. He'd come out looking for me. We were just best friends. I think even in my child's mind, I thought we'd grow up and get married. We were just that close. We were destined. But ray had a fear of swimming and all his family could swim. He had three sisters, I believe, and they all were avid swimmers, just really good swimmers, but he just did not want to swim. So, one summer, his uncle took he and two of his sisters on a camping trip. They went for a weekend and ray drowned that weekend.
Ginger: it's still hard to talk about, isn't it?
Carolyn: it really is. I still can remember when they came home and told his mother about it. What happened was they were in a boat. They were fishing or whatever and somehow the boat tipped and ray fell out of the boat. Well, his uncle, another great swimmer, jumped in to save him and ray got his uncle, you know, grabbed his uncle and so he couldn't get loose and they both drowned. And like I said, this was back in the summer back in the day when we didn't have air-conditioning. So, it was like 2 or 3 o'clock in the morning and I can still remember our windows were opened, and this scream that came from his mother after they told her.
Ginger: how old were you at this time?
Carolyn: again, it had to be about 8 or 9 years old. I don't remember for sure, but it was somewhere in that neighborhood. You know, I just remember from then on water did that. Water took my friend from me. And then a few years later, my sister had a classmate to drown. They were in a swimming class and I don't know what happened exactly, but her classmate drowned. And I remember us going to the young girl's funeral and the coach, the teacher, gym teacher, was there. And he was so broken because he took it personally. He took it as if it was his fault, you know, that she had drowned. And I just remember the look on his face and I remember water did that. Water took that girl. Water made him, you know, look that way. And I just think after that I just never had this--even going across a bridge in a car I'm thinking if something happened and I had to go into that water, it would take my breath away just thinking about it.
Ginger: so, this isn't just, "I don't like water." I mean, this is very understandable that you would have this kind of terror, exactly. Because one of the questions is, why deal with this fear of water? I mean, you could go without swimming. You could stay away from the water. But you saw it as a bigger issue than that?
Carolyn: well, I know I felt like God put that in my heart, that it was time to get over this fear. And at the time, it felt like it was about more than just the fear of water, that this was, you know, the opening to me getting through any other fear that I had. And I wrestled with it for a little while. I was like, "God, I'm almost 60 years old, you know? Why? You know, why now?" But that's what he put on my heart that it wasn't just about the swimming, but if you do this, then you're gonna get through any other fear that you have.
Ginger: well, I'm gonna stop you right there because I want to leave people hanging just a little bit because later Carolyn is gonna share how conquering that fear has affected her life in ways that she didn't even expect. So, don't go away. And right now, Joyce Meyer is going to explain why we don't have to fear trouble possibly coming into our lives.
Joyce Meyer: so, you don't have to be afraid of trouble. You don't have to be afraid trouble's gonna come, it will come. You say, "well, that's not very encouraging." Well, it's true. I'm not gonna help you by lying to you. It will be foolish for me to stand here and tell you, well, you know if you exercise faith, you can just keep the devil off your back and he can never bring any problems into your life. That's silly. I think people backslide because of teaching like that. They get saved, "well, you know now Jesus is just gonna fix everything in your life." Well, he may, but it may take him a lot longer than you'd like him to take. He wants us to learn how to do hard things with him, not have to avoid everything hard to be happy. Mark 4:35, Jesus got in the boat with the disciples and he said, "let us go over to the other side." Now, when Jesus says, "let's go to the other side," you can guarantee you're gonna end up on the other side. It's just that simple. Well, let's look at the next thing that happened. "and leaving the throng, they took him with them, [just] as he was, in the boat [in which he was sitting]. And other boats were with him also. And a furious storm of wind [of hurricane proportions] arose, and the waves kept beating into the boat, so that it was already becoming filled." Jesus said, "let's go to the other side," the next thing that happened was a storm. "but he [himself] was in the stern [of the boat], asleep--" asleep. Do you ever feel like Jesus is asleep in your life? "and they woke him up and said, master, don't you care that we are perishing? And he got up and rebuked the wind and said to the sea, hush now! Be still! And the wind ceased (sank to rest as if exhausted by its beating) and there was [immediately] a great calm and (a perfect peacefulness]" "he said to them, why are you timid and fearful? How is it that you have no faith (no firm relying trust)?" Some translations say that he rebuked them for their fear. We need to make sure that in the storm, we remain the same as we are when there is no storm. In the storm, we need to remain the same as if there is no storm. What does it mean to be more than a conqueror? I really believe it means that you already know you've got the victory before you ever get the problem. Therefore, when you hear of a problem, you don't have to get all upset about it. You just say, "well, I know that I'm gonna win. I may have to go through this, but God will be with me. I don't like it. I ain't crazy about it, but I can do it. I can do whatever I need to do. I'm not gonna let it steal my joy. I'm not gonna let it steal my peace. I'm not gonna let it ruin my day. I'm just gonna do whatever I need to do in Jesus' name." Amen.
Joyce Meyer: so, I got a little phrase that I want to get into your heart tonight that I wrote all over my notes and it's simply, "face it, don't fear it. Face it, don't fear it." 1 corinthians 16:9 paul said, "a wide door of opportunity opened unto me and with it many adversaries." With opportunity comes opposition. I say new level always means new devil. You have to make a choice in life that you're gonna keep your eyes on the positive things and the good things, and you're gonna let all the people that have nothing to do other than complain, just complain all they want to and you're not gonna let 'em upset you. Otherwise, you lose your focus and you can't do what you're supposed to be doing in life. You gotta know God. You gotta know who you are in him. You gotta know that he loves you. Know that he has a plan for your deliverance. Before you ever get a problem, God has already got your deliverance planned.
Joyce Meyer: I mean, he's already got your deliverance planned, and we need to learn how to say what the bible says. "I don't need to fight in this battle. The battle's not mine, it's God's. I'm gonna stay in peace and joy and if he tells me to do something, I'll do it, but I'm gonna enter his rest and wait for him to make my enemies a footstool for my feet."
Joyce Meyer: I want you to make a decision tonight even if you have one day left on this earth, you're gonna enjoy it. Don't let the devil torment you with fear.
Ginger: it is really comforting to know that God already has a plan for our deliverance even before the trouble begins in our lives. So, it's not something that we have to dwell in fear. We're back with our friend Carolyn to find out how facing her fear has changed her life. And in Carolyn's case, it was an extreme, and very understandable because of the circumstances in your life, fear of water. Now, you said when you were almost 60 years old, which is hard to believe that you're even that now. You're so beautiful. But God said it's time to deal with this. So, how did you finally say, "okay, what do you want?"
Carolyn: I remember I think the day that I knew that I had to do this was I was talking to some coworkers and it just came up out of me. "you guys, I'm gonna learn how to swim." And I think saying it and telling somebody, you know, they even prayed for me, you know, that I'd get through this and I'd do it, and I'd be victorious. I think just telling them, you know, put me in a place where I knew that I had to go on and do it. And so, I signed up for some classes at the y and I took several swimming classes. And the funny thing is, I really knew how to swim, I just was afraid to do it. I had taken swimming in high school. And it's so funny because as long as we were in the shallow water, I made a's. And we moved to the middle, I made a's and b's. When we got to the deep water, I flunked completely out. I just could not--i could not fathom the idea of being on solid ground but not being able to breathe at the same time.
Ginger: doesn't that say so much about life, you know? We want our feet on solid ground. Instead of what you had to do was have that faith that even though you didn't feel it, that God was there holding you up.
Carolyn: exactly.
Ginger: so, this was a bit of a process for you. It wasn't something you just conquered your fear and it was over. You had to get accustomed to that feeling of the trust, and I can breathe, and everything's gonna be okay.
Carolyn: right.
Ginger: how did that process kind of happen?
Carolyn: well, I think it was in the treading water phase as I was learning to do that. I struggled with it at first, you know, because I just did not trust not being able to have something solid under my feet and breathe at the same time. But as I got more used to it and got a little more adjusted and actually learned how to tread water, I got more comfortable and it became fun. It was actually fun to do. It's something that I still need to practice. I can't say I've perfected it yet and I won't say I'm a swimmer until I have perfected it, but I'm well on the way to that. And the thing that has happened for me is that conquering this fear, and I can say that I've conquered it. I'm not afraid to go swimming now. I want to go swimming.
Ginger: that says a lot.
Carolyn: but I found that other things that happened. I'm not afraid. I can--i feel like anything that comes at me, I can, you know, kind of sit back and wait and know that God's gonna be there with me, in me, and he's gonna give me the answer that I need. He's gonna give me the strength, or the wisdom, or whatever it is I need for that particular issue. I know he's there because he was there with me when I was swimming. So, it's been great.
Ginger: what's the one word of encouragement that you would give to someone who's facing an overwhelming fear like you did? Because it has to be so difficult taking that first step. What would you say to someone to encourage them? Go try it.
Carolyn: I think the first step is the biggest deal. Once you take that step, and like I said, for me, it was actually my first step was telling my coworkers that I was gonna do it. Then I knew I had to do it.
Ginger: then you had accountability.
Carolyn: exactly, exactly. But that would be my word of encouragement. Take that step. Take it afraid. Joyce Meyer says do it afraid. I did it afraid. Do it afraid and once you take that step, you're gonna feel the power of the Holy Spirit just all over you to do what it is you need to do. It's not the easiest thing to conquer any fear. I wouldn't say it's simple, but I know you can do it 'cause I did.
Ginger: that's awesome. Great encouragement, Carolyn. Thank you very much.
Carolyn: my pleasure, my pleasure.
Ginger: 'cause like we say, it's all about the brass tacks. You know, it's about doing it that the fact that God's word works, that what Carolyn has seen in her life, what I've seen in my life is that God is faithful to what he promises. And it says in his word that he does not give you a spirit of fear. So, you can hold on to that and know it. Carolyn said that prayer was a big part of her conquering this fear. We also have a resource that will be very helpful. This is Joyce Meyer's teaching. It's called, "overcoming fear with faith." It's 4 hours of teaching. And I love what it says. It's steps to combat fear and boldly pursue God's amazing plan for your life. We'll tell you more about this later but we want you to know that that's available. Right now, here is the conclusion to Joyce Meyer's answer to the question, "how do I beat this fear?"
Joyce Meyer: Paul said, "If I would have been desiring to be popular with people, I wouldn't now be an apostle of the Lord Jesus christ." You don't have to be afraid that people won't like you, some of them just won't. That's all there is to it. No matter where you go or what you do, statistics tell us that 10% of the people won't like you. So, why don't you just say, "everybody's not gonna like me"? Oh, well.
Joyce Meyer: we're afraid of what they think, afraid of what they say, afraid of their rejection, afraid they're not gonna want us. And you need to have a different attitude. "well, if you don't want to have anything to do with me, then you're the one missing out 'cause I'm a pretty cool person."
Joyce Meyer: did it ever occur to you when somebody rejects you that maybe God's doing you a favor? Maybe God's doing you a favor. When I answered the call of God on my life, I got asked to leave my church. It was one of the most painful times in my life. Oh, I had a choice, shut up or leave. Well, shutting up wasn't an option for me then.
Joyce Meyer: I hadn't had that lesson yet. And it was very painful because dave's whole family grew up in this one denomination. I mean, it was just, it was hard. And here I was saying God had called me to preach and women just didn't do that, and especially not in the circle that I was in. And everybody thought I was crazy, and a lunatic. I mean, I didn't have any education to do it and I'm just, you know, going, this is God.
Joyce Meyer: and it was a hard time for me. But, you know, I shudder to think where I should be today if I would have cowered to those people. Oh my gosh, how many people miss their God-ordained destiny to keep somebody happy that don't even care about you anyway?
Joyce Meyer: I could have done what they wanted me to do to keep them happy and I wouldn't even know where any of them were at today, but I wouldn't be where I'm at. If people have to control you and manipulate you for you to have their friendship, then you don't need them. If you really love somebody, you set them free to be who they are. You don't try to make them be what you are.
Joyce Meyer: "I will not fear. What can man do unto me? If God be for me, who can be against me? If God is on my side, whom shall I fear?" Amen. Well, we see many people in the bible that had fears, jeremiah, timothy, peter, esther, 10 out of the 12 spies that went into the promised land, 22,000 of the 32,000 people that were with gideon. Some of them confronted their fears and went on to do great things. Some of them, you never hear about again. I don't want to be the kind of person that you never hear about again because I cowered down to fear and wouldn't go on with the plan of God for my life. Don't you miss anything that God has for you, not a friendship, not one thing. Don't you miss one thing that God has for you because of fear. Don't fear it, face it, amen?
Ginger: just studying what God's word says is a great way to be equipped 'cause you can't face a fear just with your own willpower. You need to do it with a Holy Spirit and the word of God. So, this teaching from Joyce Meyer called, "overcoming fear with faith," is really a key. There are 4 hours of teaching on this. You can get it as a digital download or you can get it as a hard copy just like this. We'll send it to you. And this is really one of those key teachings from Joyce Meyer. Carolyn mentioned that Joyce Meyer talks about do it afraid. Don't wait until the fear is gone. Let God help you through that. And this teaching will help you take those steps and really teach you a lot about what God's word says and how it applies to your life, 'cause that's really what matters. You know, recently online on our social media channels, we asked you to share about how God is freeing you from an addiction. And talk about an area of fear, that fear of, "can I break free from this? How will my life change? What if I can't handle it?" So, here are a few of your very encouraging responses. This is angela from virginia. She says, "It wasn't just the drugs that I was addicted to. It was the lifestyle as well. I praise God and thank Jesus many times throughout every single day for the way my precious living father God has turned my life around." I love what she says. It is her father God who turned her life around. It's not in her own strength, even though we have to do what he asks us to do, but we can all face those challenges with God's help. Danielle from arizona says, "I was addicted to the sex industry. I loved being a dancer and the attention I received. God healed my mind and my heart. I learned my worth and value in him, and I no longer have the desire to be involved in that industry anymore." We want to hear from you. When you read these encouraging things on facebook, don't forget that if God can do it in their life, he can do it in yours, and I know that he has in many of yours. So today, we're asking you to share with us how God is using you to help other people. God always takes those experiences that we have, just like he did Carolyn's today and so many others, Joyce Meyer's, and uses them to help other people. So, let us know how that is happening for you. Do it on facebook and be here next time on "everyday answers" because you'll see this.
Joyce Meyer: your sin has already been paid for. You don't have to beg God to forgive you, all you need to do is say, "I'm sorry for my sin, and I want to enter on a better course of life. I want to turn around and go in another direction."
Ginger: if you have any questions at all, that is what this show is all about. We're here for you. So, on twitter, use #askJoyce Meyer with your question. Always use #ea for "everyday answers" so that we can find what everyone's saying to one another. And as we close today, just have a great day. And if you end up in a fearful situation, which happens to all of us, remember the creator of the universe will help you. He's there for you. We'll see you next time.
