Doubts And Fears Don't Have To Stay

Brother Irwin Sesher

Keep Your Eyes on Truth

There are many strongholds today that need to be torn down. Christian friend, we are in a spiritual battle. Many people talk about a future battle called Armageddon, but we are in that battle right now. It is a battle of right versus wrong, or light against darkness. Many people believe that a future battle and kingdom are to come. Some say, "I just can't wait until that great battle." Well, the battle is raging now.

Sad to say, people who once stood against the false doctrine of a futuristic battle are going back and picking up that false teaching. Some people take certain teachings and manipulate them to the degree that people are confused in their thinking, and confusion leads to doubts and fears. So many people are confused. We are living in a confused nation. I thank the Lord that I am in the true Church of God where there is no confusion. We have One who leads us away from confusion.

Some false teachings may look good on the outside, but when you start analyzing them with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can clearly see that they are as false as they ever were. You may think, "I will never get caught up in false teachings." Some people who are caught up in them now probably thought that would never happen to them, but they were overtaken.

Dear one, you need to stay with Jesus Christ. Stay with the Truth and do not waver. You cannot go wrong when you obey Truth. You can stay in the center of God's will when you keep your eyes on Truth and allow God to direct your life. If you deviate from Truth, you will be left wide open to false teachings and the enemy's snares. If you are wide open to the enemy's snares, you will have nothing upon which to build your life, and you will not have any stability. You need something solid to hold to today.

Too many people are holding onto something, but it is not the right thing. Some people grasp anything, thinking it is the right way. If you are not holding onto Jesus Christ, that which you are holding onto is false; it will not stand when the trials come. Truth will not leave you on your own. If you stay in the center of God's will, Truth will lead you forward, and it will be right there with you all the way.

It is amazing to me in the day in which we live that some people do not want Truth. At one time they shouted and ran the aisles, rejoicing in Truth, and they testified openly to other people about it. What happened? The enemy put a "gag order" on them and shut them up. They cooled off in their Christian experience. Some of them would rather talk about anything but Truth. They talk about the weather, their favorite sports teams, or politics; but you cannot bring up Truth because it will ruffle their feathers, so to speak.

Truth is something that should never grow old to you. It should be fresh and new every day. It is something to rejoice about and tell others. You should not let the enemy silence you. When you start to doubt and fear, the enemy knows what he can use to silence you so that you do not tell anyone else about the goodness of God. As a Christian, you are to tell others about His goodness. If they do not hear it from you, who are they going to hear it from? They are not going to hear it from the world.

Keep Pressing Forward for God

Sad to say, many have become lukewarm. Lukewarmness means that one has cooled off when it comes to the things of God. Often the enemy places doubts in a person's mind about Truth and the goodness of God. When a person first gets saved, he cannot wait to tell others about it, because he knows personally that something has happened to him. He does not do sinful things anymore. However, if he is not careful, the enemy will put doubts and fears in his mind, and lukewarmness will slowly creep in.

Revelation 3:16 says, "So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." Lukewarmness makes God sick. It does not happen overnight. It occurs gradually, and it leads to other things such as becoming critical of others, possessing a faultfinding spirit, finger pointing, and backbiting. It does not lead to anything good or positive; it always leads to the negative.

Doubting can cause you to have a questioning spirit. You will always want to question things. When the pastor makes a decision, a doubter will often say, "I wonder why he did it that way?" Well, first of all, God did not call you to be the pastor. Doubting always puts you on the defense instead of the offense. A doubter never moves forward with the Lord.

To get anywhere in this Christian race, you must move forward spiritually. Also, you cannot wear your feelings on your sleeve, so to speak. Some people need to grow spiritually. If you are a Christian, people are going to say things about you and do things to you. Nevertheless, you need to grow in the things of God and move forward with God so that you can eliminate doubts and fears. When you stay in one place spiritually and become wrapped up in your own thoughts and feelings, doubts and fears will work on you. You are either moving up the spiritual ladder or not moving at all. When you keep moving up, the spiritual view keeps getting better, because you are moving to a higher plane of holiness. If you stay in one place for too long, you may start finding fault with other people.

What have you done for the Lord lately? Too many are waiting for the Lord to give them the most important job. They think, "I just know the Lord is going to let me do this, so I am not going to do anything else. I am going to wait until He has me do this one particular job that I want to do." So they wait and wait and wait some more. Then when the Lord does not call them to do anything, they wonder why they cannot move forward with God. Friend, if that is the case with you, you might as well forget doing the things that you want to do.

What does the Lord want you to do? Do not sit around and do nothing for the Lord. See what the Lord has in store for you. Doubting works when people stay in one place spiritually. Often it causes people to think, "The pastor doesn't care for me" or "The choir director doesn't want me to sing a special" or "The Sunday school teacher doesn't ask me to . . ." Friend, do not start to think along those lines. You need to think about the goodness of God and look where the Lord has brought you from. When you think on the good things, you will be refreshed. You should not start finding fault with others, doubting, or fearing. That is the devil working. You need to be wise to the enemy's snares. The devil will use the same tricks repeatedly to cause people to fail. Friend, you cannot see what the Lord has in store for you unless you move closer to Him. You will not be blessed of God if you do not move closer to Him.

We have a classic example of an individual in the Bible who put forth extra effort to see Jesus. He had to move up. Luke 19:3-4 says: "And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way." Zaccheus knew that he had to move up if he wanted to see Jesus. To see Jesus the way you need to see Him, you must move closer to Him. Sometimes individuals are so overtaken by the press or by people that they cannot see Jesus as they need to. Many things can get in the way and block one's view of Jesus.

Never Give Up on God

Dear one, you should not let people dictate to you concerning your soul's welfare. Many people today are saying, "Well, I would get saved if it were not for this person or that situation." Some use every excuse they can think of. The real problem is that they need Jesus Christ; they are lost. Friend, you must get beyond what people think and become more concerned about what Jesus thinks.

You need to move up to a higher plane to see Jesus. You can be so overcome by the world and its problems and worries that you lose the real meaning of why you were placed here in the first place. The devil will use doubts, and if he sees that tactic is working, he will reinforce these doubts with fears; then you will be unable to see the light. Dear one, that is a trick of the enemy. We are living in a discouraged age, but the Christian does not have to become discouraged. Sad to say, many are in that condition.

The enemy plants seeds of doubt. It took quite a few years for the people of a certain county in Alabama to understand why a little pest called the boll weevil invaded their cotton fields. Every time they planted crops of cotton, the boll weevil devoured them. After treating the ground, they planted more cotton, but the boll weevil again devoured their crops. Did they just give up? No, they did not do that. They grew peanuts instead. (Boll weevils do not like peanuts, but they love cotton.) Do you know what happened? Their incomes doubled.

The citizens of that county in Alabama were so excited about the profits they made that they erected a monument in honor of the boll weevil. They got away from thinking, "We can't do this" and decided to try something else, and it worked. That is what more people need to do today: they need to make a change and go God's way instead of their own way. That little county in Alabama could have sat back and withered away, but they saw the need to change, and they did.

Friend, do you see a need to change? Do you realize that the way you are living is not working? Think about it. If you do not have Jesus Christ, it will not work, no matter what other people say or do. It makes no difference if you get involved in this organization or that program. If it does not have God in it, you are going to lose.

Do not become discouraged if a door is closed when you try to witness for the Lord. Sometimes you can get discouraged, thinking, "No one wants to hear the Gospel or hear about the goodness of God." Dear one, there is more than one door out there. Many doors need to be knocked on to let people know about Jesus Christ. You might not have turned to Jesus the first time you heard Him knock. No doubt, the Lord talked to you or had someone come your way several times to tell you about Jesus Christ. Aren't you glad He did not give up on you? Perhaps at first you said, "I don't want anything to do with Jesus Christ," but someone else came your way and you listened, and the Spirit of God used that person to talk to you.

When one door is closed, often another one opens. Do not be discouraged when one door closes. Two or three other doors may open. That is the Lord working. He works through circumstances. So many people take the attitude, "There is no way that I am saved. I am not doing things the way God wants me to do them, therefore I am going to give up. There is no use living for God, because I have tried and failed." Friend, do not take that attitude. You need to press on for Jesus Christ.

In your mind, you may think, "God, why are You making things go this way?" One day He will make it plain to you. You may not know the answer, but God does. If you do not understand, you should still trust Him. Do not give up on God, because He has done so much for you. Romans 8:28 reads, "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to his purpose." Franklin D. Roosevelt once said, "The only thing we need to fear is fear itself."

Put Your Faith and Trust in God

Second Timothy 1:7-10 states: "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power [you can overcome the spirit of fear with the power of God], and of love, and of a sound mind. Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God; Who hath saved us, and called us with an holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given us in Christ Jesus before the world began, But is now made manifest by the appearing of our Saviour Jesus Christ, who hath abolished death, and hath brought life and immortality to light through the gospel."

Dear one, God has done too much for you to doubt Him. The enemy will place doubts in your mind, but you do not have to let those doubts stay. Sometimes the physical man fears the unknown, but with God you ought to put your faith and trust in Him. You should not let the spirit of fear and doubt overtake you. It will affect your spirituality.

You need to let the One who placed this world in motion take care of all your needs. He is the One who put this world and the universe in place, and He can take care of you. He will be there when you need Him, and you will never get a busy signal. There is no failure with God. Proverbs 29:25 says, "The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his trust in the Lord shall be safe." That is a wonderful promise!

To combat fear, you have to stand for what is right. Do not cower down. If someone comes at you with an accusation and you know it is not right, do not cower down. Stand for what is right. The world stands for what they think is right. As a Christian, you need to stand for the right. If the world starts to throw arrows at you, that is not the time to cower down. Stand up for Jesus.

Have others seen a difference in your life since you have gotten saved? Can they hear a different talk coming from you or do they hear the same worldly conversations coming from your mouth? Do you still go to the same sinful places that you went to before you were saved? If you are truly saved, you do not go to those places anymore and you do not talk as you once did. Why? Because you do not want to do anything that would hurt or displease the Lord.

What about your worldly friends? Dear one, when you get saved, you cannot keep company with them, listen to their foul language, and go bar hopping with them and expect to stay saved. Many of those so-called friends will only be there as long as your money is there. When your money runs out, so will they.

Sometimes the enemy puts doubts and fear in your mind by saying, "What about your friends?" You will get new Christian friends who see things the way you see things. Worldly friends do not see the things that you see now. The Lord will give you new friends, because He has given you a new family. Your new friends will have the same interests that you have. They will talk the way you talk, think the things you think, and go to the places you go. So many people today think they can still hold onto their worldly friends and God too, but it does not work that way. You may think, "Well, I will win them to Christ." That is not usually the case. You cannot get them to come up to Jesus Christ by going back down to that pit.

The enemy often gives Christian young people the thought, "If I can't do this or that, go here or there, or say this or that, I am missing all the fun." Well, it only lasts a season; then the reaping comes, and it is not much fun. I look at it this way: you will not have the scars of sin if you go God's way.

As the Lord looks down in your heart, what does He see? Does He see a heart full of envy? Do you have hatred in your heart against your brother or sister? Do you have bitterness toward your pastor? Those things will bar you from entering the gates of Heaven. Sad to say, many people are walking around today with these spiritual diseases in their hearts, but the enemy has deceived them into thinking that they are getting along fine. Some will tell you one thing to your face and knife you in the back, so to speak, when you are gone. That spirit is not of God.

Finding one who admits to being an out-and-out sinner is difficult today. Almost everyone says he or she is ready to meet God. Some people claim to be saints of God, yet they possess a spirit that wants to tear down a brother or a sister rather than build them up. Dear one, that type of spirit is not of God. The Spirit of God wants to draw the saints together, not divide.

Dear one, you may have doubts and fears, but they do not have to stay. They can be driven from your life. Too many people want to dwell on negative thoughts and harbor ill will. That is not of God. The Lord has good things in store for His people.

Refuse to Be Discouraged

Romans 5:1-5 reads: "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: [Isn't that glorious? His peace goes beyond all understanding.] By whom also we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that tribulation worketh patience; And patience, experience; and experience, hope: And hope maketh not ashamed; because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given unto us."

I am so glad that I have found the wonderful peace given by God. When the world looks bleak, the Christian can have peace every day of the year. When you are living in sin, you cannot have peace. You may think you do, but when you lay your head on your pillow at night, you do not. You toss and turn because you do not have that deep, settled peace. The peace that God gives goes further than you could ever realize. When the boss gets upset and expects greater performance of you, you can have peace. You do not have to utter things under your breath. When the guy in your rear view mirror cuts you off or gives you an angry look, you can have peace. You should have, if you claim to be a child of God. There is too much road rage today. The Christian should never be involved in road rage, no matter how poorly other people might drive.

We read in John 16:33, "These things I have spoken unto you, that in me ye might have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world." Saint, you need to make up your mind that no matter what comes your way, you refuse to be discouraged. I want to read this poem:

Discouragement leads to doubts and fears. Your doubts and fears can affect others. Do not let others get you down. Let others see a difference in your life. It is amazing what God can do if we let Him take control. Too many people in this old world are dragging around with their heads down, claiming to be saints of God. You cannot see where you are going and run the race successfully with your head down, and you cannot be an encouragement to others.

Take the Shield of Faith

First Peter 3:13-17 states: "And who is he that will harm you, if ye be followers of that which is good? But and if ye suffer for righteousness' sake, happy are ye: and be not afraid of their terror, neither be troubled; But sanctify the Lord God in your hearts: and be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear [you have a hope that lives within you when you have Jesus Christ in your heart]: Having a good conscience; that, whereas they speak evil of you, as of evildoers, they may be ashamed that falsely accuse your good conversation in Christ. For it is better, if the will of God be so, that ye suffer for well doing, than for evil doing."

Too many people today want their own way instead of God's will. We are living in such a selfish, self-centered world. Some people cannot understand why they are not blessed of God in their everyday lives. The reason is that too much self gets in the way. They are always thinking, "How is this going to benefit me?" or "What am I going to get out of it?" They need to ask, "What is God going to get out of it?"

Are you discouraged? Are you full of fear? If so, you do not have to go on in that condition. The Lord has something more for you in this Christian life. Your faith in the Lord Jesus Christ needs to rise far above doubts and fears. Doubt sees the obstacles, but faith sees the way. Doubt sees the darkest night, but faith sees the day. Doubt dreads to take a step, but faith soars on high. Doubt questions "Who believes?" but faith answers "I." Faith will drive away doubts and fears.

Ephesians 6:16 states, "Above all, taking the shield of faith, wherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the wicked." Are you ready to tear down the walls of doubt and fear? The Lord can help you. Do not try to tackle them by yourself. You need the Lord's strength each day. If you do not have God within, you live without hope, and you do not have anything secure.

You can live successfully for Jesus Christ. Do not let anyone tell you that you cannot. Jesus Christ can take you all the way. Never doubt the power of God. He will be there each time you call Him. If you have a need in your life, won't you take it to the Lord in prayer?

(Cassette C-4560A)

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