Many believers are sitting around waiting for God's power to strike them like a bolt of lightning so they can be free of fear. Others are waiting for some "mystical" force to rise up inside them. All the time, God is waiting for them to take the first step - the step of choosing.

You get into fear by an act of your will, whether you realize it or not, and you will only get out the same way. Receiving fear and getting rid of fear both require your cooperation and your will.

You choose to accept or reject fear the moment you are attacked by it.

If you are riding on an airplane, and the ride gets extremely turbulent, the enemy will come in and whisper, "This plane is going to crash." The instant that thought comes, you must raise up your shield of faith (Eph. 6:16) and say, "No! I will not fear."

You must, by an act of your sovereign will, choose faith over fear. Then reinforce that by reminding yourself and the enemy of what God's Word says about your protection and safety.

Remember the Psalm 91 and tell the devil you live in the secret place of the Most High. Tell him that a thousand may fall at your right hand and ten thousand at your left hand, but no calamity will befall you. (Ps. 91:7.) God has given His angels charge over you to keep you in all your ways, lest you fall and dash your foot against a stone (Ps. 91:12). Glory to God! Hallelujah!

Do that, and you will move from the edge of fear into having a faith-filled, "Holy-Ghost fit" right there in the aisle of the plane.

Fear does not have the right to usurp authority over a human being who has made the decision to live above fear. Once you have made the decision to live with fear no longer, it cannot reenter your life without an act of your will authorizing it to do so.

How do you authorize fear? You give it authority in your life by listening to and pondering on devilish words of doubt and unbelief, as we saw in chapter four.

I have begun to condition myself to immediately shut out words or images which the devil might use to attempt to produce fear in me. I have chosen to rid my life of fear, and I have chosen to stay free. It is important for you to understand that freedom begins with an act of your will.

Try to remember a situation to which you responded with fear. Now ask yourself a question: If you truly believed God was on your side, would you have handled that situation the way you did? Would you have gotten into fear? No way! When you believe God is on your side, you are calm, confident, and relaxed.

Perhaps you are one of those who wonder if God really is on your side. If you are in covenant with Him through the blood of Jesus, then the answer is a resounding yes! As Paul said in Romans 8:31, 32: "If God be for us, who can be against us?"

He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things?

Your heavenly Father is on your side, child of God. Start acting like it.

Source: Uprooting the Spirit of Fear by Creflo A. Dollar, Jr.
Excerpt permission granted by Harrison House Publishers