To prove my point of how easy it is for people to live in fear is to recap how the vast majority of people in America have lived from March of 2020 until May of 2021. I do not want to come across as a Super-Christian, but to state reality, my wife and I have not changed our daily routines one iota since the fear of Covid-19 has entered our society. This allowed me to observe firsthand of how desolate the roadways, the stores, restaurants. businesses, people walking the streets and every other aspect of life became. Then when May 2021 came about and it seemed everything was relatively safe again, people came out of the woodwork. Everything from businesses to roadways became crowded again. This tells me one simple thing, that the vast majority of people around me lived in a crippling fear.
Now fear has shifted from the present to the future. As I look at the people around me, there is a very real and present fear of the unknown concerning what lies ahead.
Let’s turn our attention to a situation that happened in the Bible. Numbers chapters 13 and 14 give the greatest example of fear versus faith in the Bible. The Israelites reached the edge of the Promised Land at Kadesh Barnea and 12 men were sent in to spy out the Promised Land. After 40 days they returned. Two men (Caleb and Joshua) gave a report of faith while the other 10 gave a report of fear. All the 10 could see was the giants of the land while Caleb and Joshua looked past the giants and saw this in faith:
“Do not fear the people of the land, for they are bread for us. Their protection is removed from them, and the Lord is with us; do not fear them.” (Numbers 14:9 ESV)
Because the fear of the 10 poisoned the whole congregation of Israelites with fear, the Lord turned the 10 over to their fear:
And the men whom Moses sent to spy out the land, who returned and made all the congregation grumble against Him by bringing up a bad report about the land— the men who brought up a bad report of the land—died by plague before the Lord. Of those men who went to spy out the land, only Joshua the son of Nun and Caleb the son of Jephunneh remained alive. (Numbers 14:36-38 ESV)
This is what happened to the congregation who ignored faith and were gripped with fear by the poison of the 10:
“But as for you, your dead bodies shall fall in this wilderness. And your children shall be shepherds in the wilderness forty years and shall suffer for your faithlessness, until the last of your dead bodies lies in the wilderness. According to the number of the days in which you spied out the land, forty days, a year for each day, you shall bear your iniquity forty years, and you shall know my displeasure. I, the Lord, have spoken. Surely this will I do to all this wicked congregation who are gathered together against me: in this wilderness they shall come to a full end, and there they shall die.” (Numbers 14:32-35 ESV)
My point is very simple in this article. Do not allow the news reports to affect your faith so that you live in fear, whether it be the present or the future:
And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for whoever would draw near to God must believe that He exists and that He rewards those who seek Him. (Hebrews 11:6 ESV)
Not even death are we to fear:
“And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear Him who can destroy both soul and body in hell.” (Matthew 10:28 ESV)
Annointing 