In order to learn how to overcome the (satanic spirit of the) fear of death and how to stay free of idols, we first learn from Hebrews 2:1-9, salvation, which Luke 2:25-32 says is Jesus, the resurrected Christ, for as yet people have not experienced God’s promise that through Adam and Eve God placed everything under our control; therefore, God commands humanity to first receive Christ Jesus, our Salvation, and then, through being baptized into the Holy Spirit, experience His gifts, so He can guide us, through Jesus, the Christ, who through death, overcome for us the fear of death, which Hebrews 2:1-18 clearly explains.
Therefore, since Hebrews 2:14-15 reveal what Jesus, the Christ, has already done to deliver us from the satanic fear of death, 14 “Inasmuch then as the children have partaken of flesh and blood, He Himself likewise shared in the same, that through death He might destroy him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and release those who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage”. Thus, He expects Christians, members of His body, the church, to remain free of the satanic fear of death, which is possible only through knowing God’s word, believing God’s word, and obeying God’s word, so we by the Holy Spirit, experience God’s word.
John the Baptist (baptizer) promises in Matthew 3:11-12, Jesus, the resurrected Christ will baptize believing Christians with (into) the Holy Spirit and fire, as we learn from 1 Corinthians 12:12-14; that will, as we allow Him, remove the selfish trash from us, and replace it with Jesus, the Christ, who Galatians 2:20-21 says, will then live through us, as Head of His body, the church worldwide.
We know from John 16:5-12, the Holy Spirit convicts (convinces) us of sin, which is refusing to believe in Jesus, the Christ; of righteousness, because Christ Jesus, of whom 1 Corinthians 1:30-31, says is Righteousness, has gone back to the Father, who by faith becomes our Righteousness, and of judgment, because Satan, the devil, the world ruler, knows He is already judged to eternal punishment in the lake of fire; thus, we learn from 1 John 3:4-9 how Jesus, the Christ, was manifested (revealed) to destroy sin, which is the works of Satan, the devil, so Jesus, the resurrected Christ, the Seed of God, is within every Christian, to enable us to stop sinning, and enable us to destroy the works (sin) of the devil, by removing from us the desire to sin, in the exact same way the Lord, in James 1:12-18, removes from us temptation’s desire.
Carefully read 2 Peter 1:2-4, so we fully understand God has already given us every promise in His Bible, yet we know, by experience, God’s promises are simply ink on paper, until we personally experience these promises; only then can we fully know God’s promises.
But how do we through personal experience receive God’s promises? The answer is a simple three-letter acronym, where the three letters “ask” become in Matthew 7:7-12, the acronym of “ask, seek, knock”, telling us to ask Jesus Christ to come into us and become our Salvation, Lord, and Master, evidenced by the Holy Spirit’s witness in Romans 8:12-17; therefore, we must ask and keep asking and believing until we receive the Holy Spirit’s witness; however, in Luke 11:9-13, “ask” is the acronym for “ask, seek, knock” for Jesus Christ to baptize us into the Holy Spirit, evidenced by speaking in tongues (unlearned languages), as written in Acts 2:36-39, and the gifts of the Holy Spirit, evidenced in 1 Corinthians 12:1-11.
Now we need to understand and keep ourselves from the idols we just read about in 1 Corinthians 12:2; idols that we allow to control us and separate us from what we have in Jesus Christ our Salvation and the Holy Spirit, 2 “You know that you were Gentiles, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led”, for the commandment to do this is found in 1 John 5:18-21.
There are only two kinds of idols: man-made physical idols people feel, see, and worship; the other kind of idol is mental; what we allow our mind to dwell on the most, controls us, and if our mind is not obedient to Isaiah 26:3-4, then we will not experience the “perfect peace” Ephesians 2:13-14 says Christ is
Whenever we think, speak, or do anything that is not from faith in the Godhead, Romans 14:23 says, is sin; therefore, to change our faith that only works through love, as Galatians 5:6 and 1 Corinthians 13:1-2 says, and focus our thinking on something doubtful and full of anger is an idol, separating us from Christ Jesus, and becomes a “doggy door”, so the satanic spirits can bring into us their anger, addictions, criticism, doubt, depression, jealously, pain, suffering, diseases, infections, sickness, the fear of death, and anything else we allow.
Everything listed in Ephesians 4:25-32 are idols if we allow them to be part of our character, and we know America has become a nation of anger, absent of faith working through love.
Whatever we allow to control our thinking, is sin and will control our speech and actions, but when we allow the Holy Spirit to control our thinking, focusing our mind on Jesus, the resurrected Christ, who is our perfect peace, because we trust Him. But this does not mean we trust what the Bible says He has done or will do, nor is our trust in what we want or think we need Him to do, but our full trust is in the God whose word we believe and obey, to do according to His plan, purpose, and timing in every detail of life, regardless of the outcome, for our God always does what is best for everyone; not just for us.
If we will choose to obey Proverbs 3:5-8, we will experience God’s glory and grace.
But before we can “trust in the Lord with all our heart and lean not on our understanding” is when we ask the Lord Jesus to remove from us the fear of death and replace it with the fear of God, which is the wisdom God is, and then we can keep ourselves from idols, so the satanic forces cannot touch us; however, this takes total surrender to God, through Jesus Christ, by the Holy Spirit on a daily basis, and God longs for His children to mature to this place of high calling in Him, so keep believing and obeying God’s word, and keep asking Him to remove all self-desires from you and replace them with whatever He created you to become in Him.
“ASK” and keep Asking, Seeking, and Knocking with bold faith working through love until you experience the promises you need from God and His word.
Jim, Kim, and Tim Nabors
