Overcome Your Fear: Stories that Build Faith

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Hey friends, I love a good story, especially when it's a God story.

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I love to hear how God takes ordinary women and does extraordinary things in, for, and

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through them.

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I'm your host, Jodie Chiricosta, ministry leader at Somebody Cares America International, author

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and traveler on this journey of faith, and I've got some stories that will equip, inspire,

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and encourage you in your walk with the Lord.

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So welcome.

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I am so glad you tuned in.

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Hey, have you heard of the Her God Story podcast clubs?

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It's an easy way to gather together a few friends, neighbors, or colleagues to talk

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and encourage each other in your journey of faith.

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It's very simple.

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Listen to the same episode, download our prepared episode questions from hergodstory.org, and

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then discuss over your favorite refreshments.

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And it's a great way to reach out to friends who don't know Christ yet, include them in

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the conversation and see what God will do.

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Reading to an episode takes much less time than reading most books, and we think you'll

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have a lot of takers.

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So gather some friends and try it out.

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When you do, email us at prayer at somebody cares.org to let us know so we can be praying

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for you.

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You know, Isaiah 41:10, the Lord tells his people through the prophet, so do not fear,

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for I am with you.

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Do not be dismayed, for I am your God.

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I will strengthen you and help you.

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I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

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And yet fear can be a real battle.

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It can hinder our ability to do things.

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It can sap our joy.

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It can sabotage relationships.

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It can paralyze us in so many ways.

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But God has given us spiritual weapons to overcome fear so we can live with confidence

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in God and walk by faith into all he has planned.

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Several of the women I've interviewed over the past year have faced down fear by standing

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on the word of God and relying on the power of the name of Jesus.

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In this episode, I'm going to share a few of those stories with you.

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So you're equipped to overcome any fear that plagues you or attacks you.

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My mother, Mary Nelson, dealt with fear that would almost paralyze her when her husband

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was away.

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It was especially difficult because she was the wife of a fighter pilot who was frequently

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called away for extended periods of time.

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That fear, as well as overwhelming anger, is what caused her to receive Jesus and accept

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his salvation.

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And not long after, she was set free.

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Here's a bit of her story from episode 45 entitled, There's Power in the Name of Jesus.

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Well, not long after I received Jesus as my savior, I really felt like I needed to write

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to my parents and my in-laws and ask them to forgive me for things I had said and done,

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attitudes I had, ways I treated them that were not very nice.

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And I sat down to write letters to each of them.

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And while I did it, my hands actually trembled.

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I don't know what it was, but I was so convicted of telling them what had happened to me and

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asking for forgiveness that I actually broke those letters and mailed them.

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And then one of the wonderful things that happened is that I had this terrible problem

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with fear, or actually fear, but also anger.

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And I prayed about anger.

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It just could not get the victory over it.

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I would be so upset at times that everybody in the household knew it.

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I made sure of that.

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Anyway, one day I went out to visit a friend that was a mature woman in the Lord, and I

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shared with her about my problem with anger.

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And she discerned that it was the spirit of anger and asked me if I wanted to pray with

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her.

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I said, yes.

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So she prayed with me, commanded that spirit of anger to leave me in the name of Jesus.

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And I felt something leave my chest, but I also sensed that that fear was gone and would

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not come back in Jesus' name.

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Anger.

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Anger?

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Yeah.

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It was gone.

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Then I realized that if anger was a spirit, fear could be a spirit as well, because I

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would be paralyzed with fear at night.

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Whenever your dad was gone and I would wake up hearing something, I would be paralyzed.

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I couldn't move, couldn't talk for a period of time.

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So I asked your dad if he would please pray with me about fear, which he did do.

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He commanded that spirit of fear to leave me in the name of Jesus.

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I didn't sense anything happen, but I just trusted that it had to leave in Jesus' name.

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Not long after that, he was gone again.

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I had been doing some landscaping and decided I would mulch around the flower beds around

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our house.

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So I purchased mulch in bags and brought them home and scattered it all around the foundation

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of our house.

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Anyway, that night during the night after I had done this landscaping, I heard something

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in the kitchen.

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And I mean, when I heard that, I wasn't paralyzed.

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Fear wasn't bothering me.

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So I got up out of bed, went to the kitchen, flipped the light on, and to my shock, I saw

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cockroaches running all over the kitchen counter in and out of the stove.

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It was a shock.

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Anyway.

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Yeah.

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And Florida cockroaches are not small.

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They are big, big things.

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So I got a can of bug spray, fogged the kitchen, closed the doors, and went back to bed and

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went to sleep.

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The next day I hired an exterminator to come every month.

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Now while having no fear of cockroaches might seem like a small thing to some, it was proof

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that Mary had been set free from the spirit of fear that had been attacking and oppressing

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her.

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While it has tried to come back a few times, Mary has resisted the devil and he's had

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to flee.

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Laura Meno's battle with fear was a little different.

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She had been raised to be fearful.

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Fear had erected a stronghold in her mind that had to be dismantled and replaced with

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truth from God's Word.

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Hear her story.

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Even though I was confident and self-reliant, I also battled with, I would say, a stronghold

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of fear.

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And that kept me from really doing a lot of things that I would have liked to have done.

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And that was one of the first things that God began to deal with in my life.

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And as we started reading the Word of God, you know, you cannot read the Word of God

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and not start changing because it discerns the thoughts and the intentions of our heart.

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And in 2 Timothy, God hasn't given us a spirit of fear, but he's given us a spirit of power

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and love and a sound mind.

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So Jody, I started memorizing that verse and I started saying it every time I started getting

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fearful thoughts.

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And then also, it talks about, in 2 Corinthians, the 10th chapter, it talks about spiritual

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warfare.

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And it says that we're to take every thought captive into the obedience of Christ Jesus.

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So every time I had a fearful thought, I'd say, no, I'm taking that into the obedience.

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Jesus took this fear of my on the cross for me and he set me free from it.

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And so I intentionally started agreeing with God and battling against that spirit of fear

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in my life.

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And it wasn't long before I began to see little places where I was no longer reacting out

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of fear, but out of trust, trusting in the Lord.

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And so many of us know that scripture from Proverbs 3, trust in the Lord with all your

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heart.

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Don't lean on your own understanding.

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Don't go to that old pattern of, okay, I understand I need to be fearful here.

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No, you don't need to be fearful of circumstances.

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We need to walk in fear and reverence of the Lord.

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So I would say that that was my big battle that I had to get set free from.

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When you get set free from something that's a stronghold in your life, it bursts a dam

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that now begins to cultivate other qualities and characteristics in your life.

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And for me, it was trust.

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And well, okay, if I'm trusting God, then I'm going to put my hope in the Lord.

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And it just starts snowballing.

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And before you know it, you're beginning to understand the character of God and that God

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wants to cultivate that same character in you, the fruit of the spirit, love and joy,

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peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, humility, self-control.

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As Laura stood on the word of God applying it to her life, she also was set free from

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fear.

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To hear her full story, check out episodes 51 and 52.

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You know, the truth found in 2 Timothy 1, 7 spoke not only to Laura, but also had a

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profound effect in the life of Nadine Nesbitt, who encountered demonic oppression, but also

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had to tear down a stronghold of fear that was working in her.

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Even before Nadine became a Christian, she discovered there is power in the name of Jesus.

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When a young man invited me on a date to a place called Magic Islands, and it was an

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entertainment type venue where they had magic shows, illusionists.

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They also had a room where they had what I describe now as different occultic services

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that they offered.

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They had a tarot card reader.

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There was a Ouija board table that you could play.

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There is a place to get your palm read, all that type of stuff that was in there.

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My date had decided to get his palm read and he wanted me to do it with him, but quite

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frankly that dark atmosphere kind of creeped me out.

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And so I declined, you know, but he went ahead and did it.

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But later that night, after I came home, I turned the lights out in my room and was just

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settling into falling asleep when all of a sudden demonic creatures appeared in my room.

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I could see them physically with my eyes.

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I hadn't been drinking.

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I didn't do drugs.

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They were a reality.

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They were there.

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They were right in front of my face.

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So something followed me home that day and there were a lot of small creatures that were

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flying around the room, but there was one large head that appeared at the foot of my

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bed.

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And I can describe it now, years later, as the face that you would see on one of those

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orcs from Lord of the Rings.

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It was a very grotesque, very ugly and very scary.

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So that kind of freaked me out.

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And so what did your scientific mind think?

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I didn't know what to think.

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I just got up out of bed.

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I turned on the lights.

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I was scared, quite frankly.

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And so what I did was I had a Bible.

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It was one of those Bibles with the zipper around the edges.

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And I put it on the pillow next to me because I thought it would protect me.

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You know, I never opened it.

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It was still zippered up, but it was on my pillow next to me for protection.

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And then I decided to turn on the TV to Christian Channel.

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I just had that Christian Channel on.

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And I slept that way for close to a year.

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I had the Christian TV going on in the background and never really sat down to listen to it.

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It was there on because I thought that would offer me some protection.

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Yeah.

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So I mean, deep in your heart, you knew that there was a spiritual realm, but you didn't

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really want to go there.

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Right.

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Exactly.

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I didn't want to investigate.

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I didn't know how to investigate.

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And I never heard of anything like that before.

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So yeah, you're right.

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But one day, often did shift work, working in mission control because you work around

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the clock supporting shuttle missions.

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And I had one of my colleagues that lived in the same apartment complex and he noticed

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that my light was on all night.

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You know, every time he passed by my apartment after his shift was over, he would notice,

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I don't know why he would notice my light was on.

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So he actually stopped me one day at work and said, Nadine, are you afraid of the dark?

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Well, yes, but I couldn't tell him that.

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So I decided that I was being crazy.

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And I decided that night I was going to turn my light off and sleep like a normal person.

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And when I did, those demonic creatures reappeared in my room.

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But this time they were, I would say, more aggressive.

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They actually came to me as I laid in bed and I felt a shove.

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I felt and I actually, my body was moving.

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So they, there was some kind of real entity in my room shoving me, moving me.

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So even though all that time of having that Christian TV on the TV, I never sat and listened

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to it.

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I was hearing it.

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I was hearing what they were saying.

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And one of the things I remembered in that moment was someone had said on that Christian

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TV that there's power in the name of Jesus.

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So I called out, I shouted Jesus.

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And the instant I did, those creatures left my room.

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They were gone in an instant.

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It was very, very powerful display of the power of the name of Jesus.

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And you still didn't know him as your savior, but just the use of his name.

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Just the use of his name was so very powerful.

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When that happened, I jumped out of bed, of course, because now I was excited because

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I had learned the power of Jesus' name.

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And so I thought I need to know more about this Jesus.

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Bolted out of bed, turned on the TV, and there was Paul Crouch on TVN.

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And he was quoting from Isaiah 64.

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He's saying all our righteous acts are like filthy rags.

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And then he quoted from Romans 3.23, for all have sinned and fallen short of the glory

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of God.

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Well, I was arrogant enough to just have this thought come into my head that he couldn't

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be possibly talking about me.

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Well, I thought I didn't sin.

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I was a good girl.

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What is he talking about?

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When have I ever sinned?

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These are the questions that were going in my mind.

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And then it happened.

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I found myself in a white room with God sitting on his throne in front of me.

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I didn't actually see God.

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I just knew that it was God that was sitting in front of me.

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The Lord suddenly gave me a life review.

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It started with my childhood.

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It seemingly lasted for hours, but I had these flashbacks of every place that I had fallen

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short of the glory of God.

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And it just wrecked me.

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It just left me on the floor in a puddle weeping.

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I was having some carpet time at that time.

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And it really did seem like it went on for hours and hours as you can imagine a life

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review would.

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But then I started feeling a sense of despair.

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Like what can I do now?

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And so that's what I asked.

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I said, well, what can I do now?

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And what can I do to be saved?

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And just as I was thinking that, I heard Paul Crouch's voice and he said, you might be

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thinking right now, what can I do to be saved?

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And then he led in a prayer of repentance and of salvation.

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So that night I became a new creature in Christ when I prayed that prayer and asked the Lord

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to become my Lord.

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I knew him personally now.

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And after Nadine declared Jesus as Lord of her life, she still dealt with fear.

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It was a stronghold in her life that had been built up over many years, but God took care

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of it.

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Here's how.

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So Nadine, after you accepted the Lord, you were still dealing with fear.

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You haven't talked about how you dealt with fear in the past, but that's not something

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that went away immediately.

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You're right, Jody.

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I was struggling with fear.

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And I believe it was because it was really something that I had learned from a young

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age.

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You see, my mom was a chronic warrior.

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She was filled with a lot of fear.

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She was a helicopter mom to the maximum.

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She worried about everything and everything.

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And I just picked up on that.

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So I too, from a young age, started to have those feelings of fear and worry.

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And on top of that, when I started my career training astronauts, one of the ways that

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we would train astronauts is through simulations.

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And when I was in that training role, I would have to think of failure scenarios that the

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crewman would have to respond to.

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And I would have to think in terms of the next worst failure that could happen.

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So without realizing it, as I was training astronauts, I was really training myself to

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think of the next worst thing that could happen in my life.

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And so I was instead of breaking free from the fear, I was actually reinforcing it.

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And so when I first came to the Lord, the very first scripture that he spoke to me through

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where I knew it was personal for me that had his signature mark all over it was from second

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Timothy one seven.

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For God has not given you a spirit of fear, but a power of love and a sound mind.

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And he was wanting to retrain me.

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He was wanting to transform my mind.

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But going back to the second Timothy one seven, for God has not given you a spirit of fear,

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but a power of love and a sound mind.

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For years, I had just focused on that first part.

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God has not given you a spirit of fear.

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And I didn't really think about the second part, you know, but the Lord has been drawing

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me to that second half.

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He has given me a spirit of power.

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And the Greek word there for power is dunamis.

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It's the same word that Jesus uses in Acts one eight when he said, but you will receive

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power when the Holy Spirit comes upon you and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem,

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Judea and Samaria and to the ends of the earth.

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So I can witness without fear of persecution.

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I can move forward and tell people about Jesus.

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So that was really powerful for me to get that revelation that I don't have to be bullied

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by fear.

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I don't have to be intimidated at all because God has given me that power that I can witness.

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And then he's given me a spirit of love.

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I can love others freely without fear of rejection.

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And that's powerful because, you know, when you're a shy scaredy cat, you fear rejection.

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But coming into that place where you can love like he loves, where you're not expecting

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anything in return.

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And if somebody doesn't receive your love, it's okay.

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You're still loved by the father.

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So you just go on to the next assignment knowing that he's still at work and whoever it was

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that he had called you to share love with in the first place.

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And then the third part of that scripture, he's given me a sound mind.

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Some versions say he has given me self-discipline so I can make wise choices without fear of

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failure.

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So that was really powerful for me that, wow, the Lord is on my side.

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I can make, you know, and even if I do fail, he'll bring a course correction.

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So I don't have to have fear.

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Thomas Nadine started holding onto and declaring God's word in her life.

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She has been set free to step into all that God had for her.

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When you first went as a participant, you got a deeper revelation from the Lord.

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I did.

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I did.

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Even as a more mature believer.

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I did.

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I did.

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Not only did I give God a deeper revelation of his love and his desire to set me free

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from that fear.

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He also helped me through this ministry build my confidence and helped me overcome that

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struggle that I did have with fear.

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And so just this last fall, I was blessed to be able to be the director and the visionary

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for the weekend where I was responsible for management of that entire team.

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For this scaredy cat to move into that place of responsibility was quite freeing for me.

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And it really instilled in me just a new courage and new confidence.

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Hebrews 412 tells us, for the word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double

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edged sword.

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It penetrates even the dividing soul and spirit, meros and joints.

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It judges the thoughts and intentions of the heart.

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When we apply God's word to our lives, as Mary and Laura and Nadine did, we overcome

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the things in our lives that hinder us in our relationship with God and with others.

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Sandra Tracy is another woman who has overcome fear by applying God's word and prayer.

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In episode 60, we learned that Sandra's only child suffered from brain aneurysm.

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When that happened, it shook her to the core, as it would any of us.

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God saved his life, but it took months for him to recover, which were agonizing for her

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and set fear in her heart.

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Here is her story.

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With the career that I had, you know, at work I had the best space forward, you know, life

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is good, I'm doing well, all along internally really struggling.

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I was struggling with fear.

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I struggled with the fear of death.

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My son, who almost died, God was so good to us that, you know, he didn't die.

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But then I lived with this constant fear that what if that happened?

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I never thought of a five-year-old or even death for a young, you know, child or anything

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like that.

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So when our son seemed to be doing well, school was going well, I was working, but internally

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I was really struggling with a constant everyday fear.

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We had only had this one child and our plans were to have three, but after we went through

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what we did with them, I had a great fear of having a child in it dying.

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And so it was just a constant struggle, which created in me just an over, I don't want to

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call it a helicopter mom, but I was very protective, I was very fearful, and so that struggle of

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faith and fear became very real.

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And so with that, I started battling depression, not realizing that I had probably had some

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depression as a child, but did not really have a way of handling that or recognizing

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it as such.

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And so when this happened with our son, we were in the best place as a couple.

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We had built a new home.

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We had a very large surrounding community of friendship.

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My husband actually had a great job as an electrician.

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He had been a bi-vocational, so a great job working as an electrician.

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I had a great job.

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So on the outside, people looking in thought, man, this young couple probably really has

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it all together.

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We had built a new house.

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So, you know, tangibly looked great, but emotionally was so, I was so deep in a pit that had to

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still perform, still go to my job, still act like all was well, still put on that good

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face at church, make sure that, you know, I'm representing well.

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But in the whole scheme of things, I was very in a pit and to the place that almost at times,

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I didn't even know how I could even make it one day to the next.

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And it was the deep root was a spirit of fear.

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It's almost like when you say, this is the way we go to church, go to church, go to church.

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And we just do it out of rote or routine that it doesn't become, it becomes almost just

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the norm, not a freshness, not a relationship, but just a duty.

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And so with that, I realized I had a lot of performance personality traits.

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Although I loved the Lord and thought I was really on track, I had not really had that

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encounter with the Lord that would bring me out of that pit.

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So I just went to the word.

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I remember my mom had a scripture for everything.

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It didn't matter what we were going through.

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She had a scripture.

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So again, I had to come to my own come to Jesus moment meeting.

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And so with that, I just went before the Lord and I said, God, something's wrong.

398
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I have everything in the world to be happy about.

399
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I'm blessed.

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I have a good husband, a good, my son's well, life is going well, but something's deeply

401
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broken in me emotionally.

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And so with that, I had a career.

403
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I mean, honestly, I had the career.

404
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I was the colonel of the Arkansas State Police.

405
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I was his assistant.

406
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I had a very wonderful job.

407
00:26:00,240 --> 00:26:06,200
I mean, at all accounts, everything should be fine, you know, and but it wasn't, I was

408
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broken.

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So with that, I remember just a season that I told my husband, I said, look, I've got

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to find out what's wrong.

411
00:26:14,480 --> 00:26:18,880
And so I'd been to the doctor and the doctor is like, well, you know, we can give you a

412
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pill.

413
00:26:19,880 --> 00:26:23,320
And I wasn't opposed to taking something to help me for depression.

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But I knew that it was deeper than that.

415
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I'm like, okay, I thank you for that.

416
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And if I need it, I'll certainly take it.

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But I really want to find out what is wrong with me.

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So I just on a quest to seek God for answers.

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So I knew that God didn't give me a spirit of fear.

420
00:26:41,560 --> 00:26:46,960
I knew that second Timothy one and seven had good we have that scripture to stand on for

421
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God has not given us a spirit of fear, but a power love and sound mind.

422
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So I'm like, if God didn't give me the spirit of fear, then where did it come from?

423
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So how did you get rid of it?

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How did you get through it?

425
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So I had to recognize there was a point in my life that I had to come to the realization

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of what I learned on Sunday and my living it on Monday.

427
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And so that's the big thing.

428
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I think a lot of us go to church, we hear a good sermon.

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We read our Bibles or devotional and we've done our, if we want to call it our duty or

430
00:27:17,000 --> 00:27:18,440
task or whatever.

431
00:27:18,440 --> 00:27:21,560
But is there a real relationship with the Lord?

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Has his word become real and alive to to us?

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And so that was the moment that even though things were well, that I had a I say, come

434
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to Jesus meeting, you know, so I thought, okay, I really need to just have a meeting

435
00:27:36,560 --> 00:27:37,800
with me and the Lord.

436
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And I did, I actually scheduled it.

437
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I told my husband, I said, hey, I'm going to spend some time with the Lord.

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And he knew I needed that.

439
00:27:46,880 --> 00:27:53,840
And so I spent one evening with the Lord, it was about six hours that I just had a come

440
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to Jesus meeting and work through a lot of things in my life.

441
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You know, in Psalms 139, it says that he knew us before we were ever in our mother's womb.

442
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And so I in that meeting I had my come to Jesus meeting with him, I began to realize

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that God didn't give me that spirit of fear, but it gave me power, love and a sound mind.

444
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Also the word tells us that perfect love cast out fear.

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So I knew I was being tormented by fear.

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I knew that I was just there was so many things that had happened in my life.

447
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And I can certainly point those landmarks of something happening in my life and planning

448
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a seed of fear.

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And so with that, when I realized perfect love would cast out the fear, I'm like, okay,

450
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I need I need a whole truckload of perfect love.

451
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How do I get that?

452
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Do you buy that?

453
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How do you get that perfect love?

454
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And so when I realized that it's that maturing love, and recognizing that I have a heavenly

455
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father, and I had a wonderful biological father, my earthly father was a very good man.

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He was a moral man, though he wasn't a Christian, he was a good man.

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00:29:03,000 --> 00:29:09,160
And so when I went to the word and recognize that perfect love cast out fear, and I thought,

458
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okay, where do I get this perfect love?

459
00:29:11,000 --> 00:29:16,320
So I just started doing research on love, what it means to love, you know, love is patient,

460
00:29:16,320 --> 00:29:17,320
love is kind.

461
00:29:17,320 --> 00:29:23,280
I went through all of the scripture in the first Corinthians there, chapter 10.

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And so then, just trying to apply that in my life, love keeps no record of wrong.

463
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So I was doing all of those things.

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And then I started recognizing Psalms 139, when he said, he knew us before we were in

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our mother's womb, that I had an Aba father, you know, because I became to a realization,

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Lord, what am I here on earth for?

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00:29:46,920 --> 00:29:47,920
What am I here for?

468
00:29:47,920 --> 00:29:53,360
And I recognize that I didn't ask to be born now didn't want I don't want that sound prideful

469
00:29:53,360 --> 00:29:58,200
in any way, that I recognize that I'm, you put me here.

470
00:29:58,200 --> 00:30:02,200
I've gone through a lot, you put me here, but you have a purpose for my life.

471
00:30:02,200 --> 00:30:05,320
I'm here on assignment, you know, you've got me here.

472
00:30:05,320 --> 00:30:11,320
And so with that, if that is to raise a son, to be a pastor's wife, to be a career woman,

473
00:30:11,320 --> 00:30:17,320
to serve my community or serve the state of Arkansas, or, or to love people in church,

474
00:30:17,320 --> 00:30:24,320
God, I want to do that 100% that I know through this brokenness, that I had to have some things

475
00:30:24,320 --> 00:30:25,400
healed in my life.

476
00:30:25,400 --> 00:30:29,240
And so with that, I just went on a search with the word, you know, the word is really

477
00:30:29,240 --> 00:30:30,240
simple.

478
00:30:30,240 --> 00:30:34,280
I have a six year old granddaughter and I talked to her all the time about the Lord

479
00:30:34,280 --> 00:30:37,480
and I tell her I said, our Bible is our instruction book.

480
00:30:37,480 --> 00:30:39,920
It's just like a cookbook for recipes.

481
00:30:39,920 --> 00:30:43,280
We need that cookbook so that we'll know how to cook a meal.

482
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:48,800
But this is the instruction book is our way to live our life.

483
00:30:48,800 --> 00:30:53,780
And so when I started just going in to the scripture and like, okay, my mom had a scripture

484
00:30:53,780 --> 00:30:58,160
for everything, then certainly this is what she based her life on.

485
00:30:58,160 --> 00:31:03,280
Then certainly I needed to search and find it for myself.

486
00:31:03,280 --> 00:31:05,560
And so that's been my quest.

487
00:31:05,560 --> 00:31:11,280
I know the Bible, you know, tells us the fruit of the Spirit, you know, the, that gentleness,

488
00:31:11,280 --> 00:31:15,560
goodness, all of the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, you

489
00:31:15,560 --> 00:31:17,120
know, goodness, gentleness.

490
00:31:17,120 --> 00:31:22,380
And I remember the Lord showed me one day, you know, I had shut the door at my house

491
00:31:22,380 --> 00:31:24,280
and I'd rattled the door.

492
00:31:24,280 --> 00:31:28,120
My husband said something to me about it and I thought, okay, next time I go out, I'll

493
00:31:28,120 --> 00:31:29,120
be gentle.

494
00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:31,480
I will not shut that door so hard.

495
00:31:31,480 --> 00:31:34,120
Well, I did it several times after that.

496
00:31:34,120 --> 00:31:39,560
And one particular day I'm walking out and I get into my Jeep and I had just shut that

497
00:31:39,560 --> 00:31:44,820
door and the Holy Spirit said to me, Sandra, go back and shut that door gently.

498
00:31:44,820 --> 00:31:47,520
And I thought, okay, I'm in a hurry.

499
00:31:47,520 --> 00:31:48,880
You know, I've got things to do.

500
00:31:48,880 --> 00:31:51,360
But I know my husband's not home.

501
00:31:51,360 --> 00:31:53,440
Nobody heard it but me, you know?

502
00:31:53,440 --> 00:31:57,800
And so it was like the Holy Spirit said, no, go back and shut that door gently.

503
00:31:57,800 --> 00:32:04,240
And so anyway, I'm like, okay, so I get out and I go back and I shut, open the door, shut

504
00:32:04,240 --> 00:32:05,240
it gently.

505
00:32:05,240 --> 00:32:07,840
And it was like such a calmness come over me.

506
00:32:07,840 --> 00:32:12,640
And I felt like the Holy Spirit said, now, that's how you walk it out.

507
00:32:12,640 --> 00:32:19,880
Just do my word, be a doer of the word and don't just do it and read your word and then

508
00:32:19,880 --> 00:32:23,560
forget what you read and then move on.

509
00:32:23,560 --> 00:32:26,320
I want you to apply this just that simple.

510
00:32:26,320 --> 00:32:29,560
And so God showed me that day, my word is simple.

511
00:32:29,560 --> 00:32:31,560
It is the plan for your life.

512
00:32:31,560 --> 00:32:33,120
Gentleness is a fruit of the Spirit.

513
00:32:33,120 --> 00:32:39,280
And I knew that I had His Spirit living in me and I should be producing the fruit, a

514
00:32:39,280 --> 00:32:40,840
good fruit at that.

515
00:32:40,840 --> 00:32:46,140
And so that day was such a pivotal time for me to just say, okay, settle down and walk

516
00:32:46,140 --> 00:32:52,040
out in the word, not just be a hearer of the word, but let's be a doer of the word.

517
00:32:52,040 --> 00:32:57,720
And since then, I do my best every day to say, okay, God, what is it I need to do today?

518
00:32:57,720 --> 00:32:59,480
How do I handle situation?

519
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:01,440
And certainly church hasn't been easy.

520
00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:02,960
Pastoring hasn't been easy.

521
00:33:02,960 --> 00:33:08,680
I mean, I took the Holy Spirit, you know, when you tell me perfect love cast out fear,

522
00:33:08,680 --> 00:33:11,720
I was like, okay, so I want that perfect love.

523
00:33:11,720 --> 00:33:16,640
But also I needed to live out love towards people around me.

524
00:33:16,640 --> 00:33:20,520
And I remember praying in the altar one day and the Holy Spirit telling me, just love

525
00:33:20,520 --> 00:33:21,520
people.

526
00:33:21,520 --> 00:33:26,320
And I remember telling the Holy Spirit back talking and saying, yeah, but you know, people

527
00:33:26,320 --> 00:33:28,880
aren't always easy to love.

528
00:33:28,880 --> 00:33:34,740
And it was the Holy Spirit reminded me that that was not my assignment to worry so much

529
00:33:34,740 --> 00:33:36,240
about that, just to love them.

530
00:33:36,240 --> 00:33:42,160
And so through the healing of what I've walked out, God showed me that there's a

531
00:33:42,160 --> 00:33:43,240
bigger picture here.

532
00:33:43,240 --> 00:33:46,640
You can hear Sandra's full story in episode 60.

533
00:33:46,640 --> 00:33:52,000
And as we close, I think of two women in the Bible, one who let fear separate her from

534
00:33:52,000 --> 00:33:59,200
God, another who was fearless in the face of great danger and received a great reward.

535
00:33:59,200 --> 00:34:01,080
Eve is the first.

536
00:34:01,080 --> 00:34:05,280
After creation, God would walk with Adam and Eve, talking with them and enjoying their

537
00:34:05,280 --> 00:34:06,280
company.

538
00:34:06,280 --> 00:34:11,240
But after eating of the forbidden fruit in the garden, they hid from God.

539
00:34:11,240 --> 00:34:15,080
Adam tells why in Genesis 3:10.

540
00:34:15,080 --> 00:34:20,240
He says to God, I heard you in the garden and I was afraid because I was naked.

541
00:34:20,240 --> 00:34:22,680
So I hid.

542
00:34:22,680 --> 00:34:27,000
Fear kept Adam and Eve from intimacy with God.

543
00:34:27,000 --> 00:34:31,760
Is fear keeping you at a distance from your loving Heavenly Father too?

544
00:34:31,760 --> 00:34:34,360
It's time to deal with that fear.

545
00:34:34,360 --> 00:34:37,720
The other woman who comes to mind is Abigail.

546
00:34:37,720 --> 00:34:42,120
Married to an angry, bitter man, she must have experienced much verbal abuse and possibly

547
00:34:42,120 --> 00:34:46,200
other abuse in her life, but she trusted in the Lord.

548
00:34:46,200 --> 00:34:51,360
When her wicked husband offended David and his fighting men, Abigail did not abandon

549
00:34:51,360 --> 00:34:53,000
ship in fear.

550
00:34:53,000 --> 00:34:59,900
Instead, with great courage, she let perfect love for those in her household override any

551
00:34:59,900 --> 00:35:05,680
trepidation she might have felt as she approached David and his battle-ready army to defuse

552
00:35:05,680 --> 00:35:12,640
the situation, save her husband's life and the lives of everyone else in her household.

553
00:35:12,640 --> 00:35:18,480
God used her to keep David's hands clean and rescue the lives of everyone at home.

554
00:35:18,480 --> 00:35:23,120
God also protected her from her husband's anger and quickly released her to become the

555
00:35:23,120 --> 00:35:25,960
wife of the future king.

556
00:35:25,960 --> 00:35:29,160
Fear has no place in our hearts or lives.

557
00:35:29,160 --> 00:35:35,360
You've heard several women today in this episode mention 2 Timothy 2, 7, which the New Living

558
00:35:35,360 --> 00:35:43,080
Translation says, for God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power,

559
00:35:43,080 --> 00:35:45,580
love and self-discipline.

560
00:35:45,580 --> 00:35:52,080
If you struggle with fear, take those thoughts captive, memorize and declare 2 Timothy 1,

561
00:35:52,080 --> 00:35:59,080
2 to yourself as many times a day as you need to, and that truth will sink into your spirit.

562
00:35:59,080 --> 00:36:04,300
With faith, your mind will be renewed as well, and you will find faith rising up to replace

563
00:36:04,300 --> 00:36:06,160
that fear.

564
00:36:06,160 --> 00:36:12,880
If you're tormented by fear, Scripture says in James 4:7, humble yourself before God,

565
00:36:12,880 --> 00:36:16,480
resist the devil, and he will flee from you.

566
00:36:16,480 --> 00:36:22,520
Humbling ourselves before God, repenting for anything he convicts us of, is the first step.

567
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:29,040
Now remember, there's no condemnation in Christ Jesus, but God does convict us of things

568
00:36:29,040 --> 00:36:31,960
that we've done that will separate us from him.

569
00:36:31,960 --> 00:36:36,120
When we repent, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us of all

570
00:36:36,120 --> 00:36:37,840
unrighteousness.

571
00:36:37,840 --> 00:36:42,320
Once you've done that, you can resist the devil in Jesus' name and command fear to

572
00:36:42,320 --> 00:36:44,320
leave you for good.

573
00:36:44,320 --> 00:36:45,460
Stand firm.

574
00:36:45,460 --> 00:36:47,200
He has to go.

575
00:36:47,200 --> 00:36:53,360
Like Mary, you may want to ask a mature Christian friend to agree with you in prayer.

576
00:36:53,360 --> 00:36:59,540
If fear attempts to come back, quote 2 Timothy 1, 7, or any other Scripture God gives you.

577
00:36:59,540 --> 00:37:07,880
When Jesus was tempted by Satan, he quoted Scripture, which is God's Word and has power.

578
00:37:07,880 --> 00:37:10,340
You'll be set free.

579
00:37:10,340 --> 00:37:11,480
Let me pray for you.

580
00:37:11,480 --> 00:37:17,200
Father, I thank you for your perfect love for me and every one of my listening friends.

581
00:37:17,200 --> 00:37:22,080
I ask, Lord, that you reveal your love to each of us in a deeper way.

582
00:37:22,080 --> 00:37:27,660
I also thank you for the good gifts that you give us, power, love, a sound mind.

583
00:37:27,660 --> 00:37:30,600
We receive those good gifts from you even now.

584
00:37:30,600 --> 00:37:35,800
Lord, I ask you to teach us to apply these gifts in our lives, to be free from fear and

585
00:37:35,800 --> 00:37:38,320
to walk in faith.

586
00:37:38,320 --> 00:37:41,600
You tell us that faith comes by hearing and hearing by the Word of God.

587
00:37:41,600 --> 00:37:46,360
So I once again declare, 2 Timothy 1, 7, over all who are listening, for God has not given

588
00:37:46,360 --> 00:37:50,880
us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

589
00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:56,960
Thank you for the work you have begun in each of us and thank you that you will complete

590
00:37:56,960 --> 00:37:57,960
it.

591
00:37:57,960 --> 00:38:00,920
In Jesus' mighty, powerful name.

592
00:38:00,920 --> 00:38:02,760
Amen.

593
00:38:02,760 --> 00:38:04,360
Thank you for tuning in.

594
00:38:04,360 --> 00:38:09,040
Check out our show notes at hergodstory.org for scriptures, links, and other information

595
00:38:09,040 --> 00:38:13,960
and sign up there for our emails and to get a free six-week downloadable devotion on Women

596
00:38:13,960 --> 00:38:20,160
of the Bible or purchase a 12-week devotional on Women of the Bible for just $12, knowing

597
00:38:20,160 --> 00:38:23,640
that all the proceeds will go to our widow and orphan fund.

598
00:38:23,640 --> 00:38:27,840
You can also give a gift to support widows and orphans as part of our growing company

599
00:38:27,840 --> 00:38:32,220
of women because together we can do so much more.

600
00:38:32,220 --> 00:38:37,560
If God spoke to you through this episode, think about starting a podcast club.

601
00:38:37,560 --> 00:38:41,120
You can have friends, neighbors, or colleagues listen to it too and then gather around your

602
00:38:41,120 --> 00:38:46,600
favorite refreshments to discuss what God is saying to each of you.

603
00:38:46,600 --> 00:38:53,460
We have suggested questions online at hergodstory.org under our podcast club section to help you.

604
00:38:53,460 --> 00:38:57,840
And now dear friends, I bless you from Isaiah 41 10.

605
00:38:57,840 --> 00:39:02,960
May God, who is your Lord, strengthen you and help you.

606
00:39:02,960 --> 00:39:07,880
May He uphold you with His righteous right hand.

607
00:39:07,880 --> 00:39:11,880
Her God Story is a ministry of Somebody Cares America and international.

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00:39:11,880 --> 00:39:28,480
To find out more about or support the ministry, go to somebodycares.org.