From the archives of Oral Roberts
Years ago I rode on a plane beside a man who, for the first fifteen minutes of the flight, had a queasy stomach…not because we were in turbulent weather, but because he felt the turbulence of fear in his inner being.
“I can’t talk,” he said. “I can’t collect my thoughts because the first fifteen minutes I’m in a plane, my stomach just turns, and I get sick.”
We may all feel fear differently, but we all feel it at times. That’s why Paul reminds us in 2 Timothy 6:7 that “God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.”
One time when the Lord revealed a new direction for my ministry, it was so beyond what I thought I could do that I asked God to “uncall” me. “God, I can’t do this,” I said.“I’ve done what You called me to do so far, but this one I can’t do.”
All of us have times when we don’t know what to do, and the burdens get heavy. We let down our faith in God, and we feel fear. Fear is the absence of the spirit of power, love, and a sound mind that God promises us.
Why are we sometimes afraid of doing what God tells us to do?
Sometimes we’re operating in our own spirit instead of God’s. Our own spirit is never equal to the occasion. But, oh, what mighty things we can do when we move into God’s Spirit! When we let God’s Spirit work in and through us, we can face anything! There’s no way we can be afraid! We can look at what we’re called to do and boldly say, “Let’s go, Lord! Let’s start yesterday!”
