If I ask you what the opposite of hot is, you would reply cold.  But actually, cold is just the lack of heat.  If I ask you the opposite of light, you would reply dark.  Yet dark is not opposite, it just lacks light. So if I ask what the opposite of faith is, what would you reply? Think about it.

Your reply then might be the lack of faith.  Ok, then what is the cause of lack of faith?  We know for every action there is an opposite and equal reaction, according to the laws of physics.  When we think about it in terms of cause and effect, we can see things more clearly.  When God told the Israelites He had given them the land of Canaan for their Promised Land, Moses appointed twelve spies to go into the land to check it out. Let’s read about it.

Num 13:17  And Moses sent them to spy out the land of Canaan, and said unto them, Get you up this way southward, and go up into the mountain:
Num 13:18  And see the land, what it is; and the people that dwelleth therein, whether they be strong or weak, few or many;
Num 13:19  And what the land is that they dwell in, whether it be good or bad; and what cities they be that they dwell in, whether in tents, or in strong holds;
Num 13:20  And what the land is, whether it be fat or lean, whether there be wood therein, or not. And be ye of good courage, and bring of the fruit of the land. Now the time was the time of the firstripe grapes.
Num 13:21  So they went up, and searched the land from the wilderness of Zin unto Rehob, as men come to Hamath.
Num 13:22  And they ascended by the south, and came unto Hebron; where Ahiman, Sheshai, and Talmai, the children of Anak, were. (Now Hebron was built seven years before Zoan in Egypt.)
Num 13:23  And they came unto the brook of Eshcol, and cut down from thence a branch with one cluster of grapes, and they bare it between two upon a staff; and they brought of the pomegranates, and of the figs.
Num 13:24  The place was called the brook Eshcol, because of the cluster of grapes which the children of Israel cut down from thence.
Num 13:25  And they returned from searching of the land after forty days.
Num 13:26  And they went and came to Moses, and to Aaron, and to all the congregation of the children of Israel, unto the wilderness of Paran, to Kadesh; and brought back word unto them, and unto all the congregation, and shewed them the fruit of the land.
Num 13:27  And they told him, and said, We came unto the land whither thou sentest us, and surely it floweth with milk and honey; and this is the fruit of it.
Num 13:28  Nevertheless the people be strong that dwell in the land, and the cities are walled, and very great: and moreover we saw the children of Anak there.
Num 13:29  The Amalekites dwell in the land of the south: and the Hittites, and the Jebusites, and the Amorites, dwell in the mountains: and the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and by the coast of Jordan.
Num 13:30  And Caleb stilled the people before Moses, and said, Let us go up at once, and possess it; for we are well able to overcome it.
Num 13:31  But the men that went up with him said, We be not able to go up against the people; for they are stronger than we.
Num 13:32  And they brought up an evil report of the land which they had searched unto the children of Israel, saying, The land, through which we have gone to search it, is a land that eateth up the inhabitants thereof; and all the people that we saw in it are men of a great stature.
Num 13:33  And there we saw the giants, the sons of Anak, which come of the giants: and we were in our own sight as grasshoppers, and so we were in their sight.

Now, God himself had told them to go take the land and that He would go before them to drive out the inhabitants, so what was the problem?  The answer is obvious: FEAR.  You see right there in verse 33, the giants didn’t keep Israel out of the Promised Land, but the grasshoppers did.  And they were the grasshoppers.
How often have we missed out on God’s best because of fear? Was it God’s will that the Israelites would fear to take the land?  No.  He would go before them in battle and help them. Well, you just know I have to write about healing here, don’t you? So I will touch on that.

God’s Word has a lot to say about healing, and the Lord Jesus healed all the sick which came unto Him, NEVER ONCE refusing to heal anyone.  So therefore, the sick came out to Him by multitudes.  Why?  Because they knew He would heal them.  And He did, all of them.  How many is “all”?  the total amount of them, each and every one of them.  So that means if you had been there and if you were sick, you would have been healed.  Cause and effect here?  Jesus showed up and sickness had to leave, period.

Of course, fear showed up even there where Jesus taught and healed.  Remember the leper who told Jesus, “If you will, you can make me clean?”
Mar 1:40  And there came a leper to him, beseeching him, and kneeling down to him, and saying unto him, If thou wilt, thou canst make me clean.
Mar 1:41  And Jesus, moved with compassion, put forth his hand, and touched him, and saith unto him, I will; be thou clean.
Mar 1:42  And as soon as he had spoken, immediately the leprosy departed from him, and he was cleansed.
The man knew Jesus COULD, but he didn’t know if He WOULD.  He feared that Jesus would not.  But Jesus cancelled his “IF” and said, I WILL, BE THOU CLEAN.  Fear was cancelled and leprosy left.

What does fear do to you?  It stops you from continuing whatever it was that you started out to do.  For example, let’s say you need a job and you hear of an excellent job opening. You pray and ask God if you can have that job, and He says, There’s your job, go take it. But someone tells you there’s no way YOU will get that job because the qualifications are just too high, and there are many who are better than you who are applying.  So you don’t even bother to apply.  And sure enough, you don’t get the job and someone else does. What happened?  You FEARED.  You even question if you really heard from God in the first place.  Doubt will make you do without, every time.  Now, about your healing.
You read the Word, God clearly says it is His will you be healed. You can read in Isaiah 53:5, 1 Peter 2:24, Psalm 103:2-3, Matthew 10:8 and many others how God has provided in His Word for your healing.  And it doesn’t say to run to the doctor, either. And yet, when God’s own children, who supposedly know and TRUST in Him, get sick, where do they run?  To God, or to the doctor?  Uh-huh, preach it Brother Jerry!   Why do they run to the doctor?  Because they FEAR God will not keep His Word.  Where did they learn this fear?

Did you know that if you raise a child to not be afraid of the dark, they won’t be afraid to sleep alone in the dark.  But if you raise a child, telling them as you turn the lights off, The Boogie Man is going to get you and he’s hiding under your bed!, then that child will be terrorized when you turn out the lights.  Fear has conditioned him and will likely stay with him his whole life, unless he is re-programmed to confront fear and overcome it.  What is fear?  I’ve heard it defined as “False Evidence Appearing Real”.  That’s a good way to put it.  Do you know that most all of the stuff you’ve feared all your life has never come to pass? Maybe you got sick and ran to the doctor and he told you that you’re going to die.  You were sick before you went, but how do you feel now that you’ve heard the doctor’s report?  All cheered up, right?  What did fear do?  It destroyed your faith in God’s Word, that’s exactly what it did. And that’s exactly what the devil set out to do.  You see, everything the devil does is centered on just one thing; and that is to make you doubt the integrity of God’s Word.  Fear is real good at doing that.

I realize there are some things we SHOULDN’T do.  We should not step out in front of a speeding car. We shouldn’t jump off a cliff.  We shouldn’t pick up a red hot piece of steel. We shouldn’t get in the way of a woman trying to grab something that is on sale. That’s just common sense, but to have fear of anything the devil says, that is not good.  FEAR NOT is written 62 times in the Bible, maybe because we didn’t get it the first time, or the second time either, for that matter.

Earlier we were talking about “TRUST”.  It’s my observation that people trust FEAR more than they trust GOD. They put more trust in the devil’s ability to destroy them than they do in God’s ability to deliver them and take care of them.  And yet in all eternity, God has never lied.  How many things that YOU have feared have actually come to pass?  Not all of them?  Then fear LIED to you, didn’t it?  If you believe fear, it will cripple your life, it will keep you in poverty, it will destroy your family, and fear will keep you out of God’s blessings.  Fear will keep you running to the doctor even though God’s Word says you are healed.  Fear will keep you believing what your body tells you in spite of what God’s Word tells you.  Fear will keep you in debt because you will doubt God’s provision and you will run out and buy stuff on credit because you fear God will not bring you the money you need to pay cash for the items. Fear will keep you out of the good job God has arranged for you.  Fear will run your life if you let it.  Fear will run your life if even if you TRY to resist it.  But fear will not run your life IF you resist it.  I didn’t say to TRY to resist fear, but this: it is written in James 4:7-8:
Jas 4:7  Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.
Jas 4:8  Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

Give fear the boot and serve it no more. Haven’t you wasted enough of your life already serving fear? Satan is the originator and author of fear.  Let’s look at what Jesus said in John 10:10: The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.  Did you catch the “life more abundantly” part? Fear is not part of God’s plan for you. I hope I’ve identified your worst enemy for you, it’s FEAR.  God isn’t going to drop you on your little pumpkin head, He is good for His Word, and in closing let me remind you of Psalm 23, which most of us learned as a child, The LORD is my Shepherd, I SHALL NOT WANT…. That means you won’t live in lack of any good thing.  That is, unless you FEAR, which is calling God a liar to His face.   Uhhhh, not wise…don’t do it.

What you fear will rule your life.  If you fear poverty, it will rule you.  If you fear sickness, it will rule you. Why not let God’s Word be the ruler of your life?  If you do that, fear will never rule you again and you will become as bold as a lion. And the devil will be afraid of you, rather than you being afraid of him.  And that’s the way God intended it to be in the first place. Tell yourself every day, NO FEAR LIVES HERE! And give God the glory!