A Distinctive Spirit Gifted to Us

UV 1256/10,000 A Distinctive Spirit Gifted and Transplanted
For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

2 Timothy 1 v 7


The perfect love of God made manifest in Christ Jesus casts out the spirit of fear in every human being. Adam and Eve were created free but once they sinned the spirit of fear, doubt, guilt, deception and shame entered their hearts. They hid themselves from God or at least they thought they could. We are by nature from birth afraid of the unknown, fearful of misfortune, calamities, evil, curses and ultimately afraid of facing life as well as death. We are fearful of success as well as failure. Our fears and phobias manifest in a variety of ways. Most of the fears and worries are real and imaginary, unlikely to happen. Some are real threats and dangers. The spirit of fear is one of weakness, hatred of oneself and others and of mental and emotional imbalances. But once we believe in Jesus and receive Him into our hearts the spirit of having been disowned by the Creator God, the spirit of being unworthy is replaced by the spirit of adoption. We have all heard of heart or liver transplant but this is a transplant of our spirit with the spirit of God. The Holy Spirit is given or gifted to us as a deposit or an advance on the promises of God. The Holy Spirit enables us to discern that God is our Creator, Redeemer and Father by faith. God has adopted us as His children on account of our faith in His first and only born Son Jesus. We need not approach Him with fear any longer as wrongdoers and transgressors but we can approach His throne of grace with freedom and confidence. We can be honest with God about our failings and our shortcomings. We are no longer weak and vulnerable as we once were but we are clothed with the power of God El Shaddai.

We now have the spirit of courage and confidence, courage that we can like David face not only our imaginary fears but even real threats, dangers and challenges like the mighty Goliath with just stones and sticks since God is always mightier than our opposition, whoever or whatever it is. We have the confidence that our Father God hears us when we call out to Him , “Abba”, that He will not turn away from our cry just as even the most heartless of us would not turn away from our child who cries out to us for help or need. We are more powerful than the mightiest on earth. It is this spirit of courage and confidence that enabled Moses to confront the mighty Pharaoh, at the time the mightiest man on earth, to call plagues on him to soften his heart to “ let the people go.”

But we are not to be defined by our trust in the might of God alone but by the spirit of power, love and self control. Power, compassion and self control are to be held in balance. The word used “ a sound mind” implies the full use of human reasoning, our faculties,abilities and good sense. We are to use our intellect fully and effectively. We should not take leave of our senses at any time but to be always prudent and wise. Our thoughts, emotions and decisions should always reflect the power and love of God. The Holy Spirit will help us take captive every negative thought, every imaginary fear and imbue us with faith, courage and confidence to face the real threats. We can command every fear to depart from our lives. The qualities of agape or God-like love will be more and more manifest in our lives.


Prateep V Philip