Immune to fear
Day 9: The Remedy!
Evangelist Reinhard Bonnke once shared a story about a man who told him that he also was a “spiritual counselor.” However, the man did not believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, nor that the Bible is the Word of God. Reinhard wondered how this “counselor” counseled anybody, so he asked, “Do they come to you, and then go away with broken hearts?” “Oh no,” the man assured him, “I just calm them down.” Reinhard looked him in the eye and said, “Mister, a man on a sinking ship needs more than a tranquilizer. Don’t calm him down. He is going down already! When Jesus comes to a man in a shipwreck, He doesn’t throw him a Valium pill and say, ‘Perish in peace.’ He reaches down His nail-scarred hand, grips him, lifts him, and says to him, ‘Because I live, you will live also!’” (John 14:19). This is the Gospel of Jesus Christ that must be preached! Jesus is the Savior of our world. He alone is the calm to all fears! His message is life, peace, hope, and health for the spirit, soul, and body! The Gospel is the remedy!
The book of Luke, chapter 4 describes the day that Jesus stood up in a synagogue full of people, to read from the book of Isaiah. He said, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon Me, because He anointed Me to preach the gospel to the poor. He has sent Me to proclaim release to the captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to set free those who are oppressed, to proclaim the favorable year of the Lord” (Luke 4:16-19). This is “the favorable year of the Lord.”
In every nation, the enslaved abound—slaves to every contemptible habit, slaves to fear, slaves to doubt, slaves to depression. The devil never lets anyone out on parole. Everywhere people are failure-prone, sin-prone, morally defective, and spiritually bound. But the Jubilee trumpet has already sounded! The price of their freedom has been paid. This is what we must preach, because people have forgotten it. They have forgotten that Christ has come, and what that actually means for us.
This is not the pre-Christian era. We are not waiting for Christ to come and conquer. The war is already over! Freedom is ours! Jesus opened the kingdom of liberty and blew the trumpet of emancipation when He cried on the cross, “It is finished!” People who should know better are calling this the “post-Christian” era. As if the work of Christ was only for a past age! That certainly is not true. Christ opened prison doors forever, not just for a certain period in the past. The work of Jesus cannot be exhausted or undone. It is the greatest redemptive force at work on the earth today. Never again can prison doors be bolted on human beings. When Jesus opens a door, no man can shut it. “If the Son makes you free, you shall be free indeed” (John 8:36). So why do millions needlessly languish in the devil’s concentration camp? Today is the day of pardon. The Conqueror has crashed through the gates; relief has arrived.
The most famous escape artist of all was Houdini, a show business notable. Police would lock him up in a cell, and as they walked away, he would follow them—already loose within seconds. Except once. Half an hour went by and Houdini still was fuming over the lock. Then a policeman came and simply pushed the door open. The door had never been locked! Houdini was fooled trying to unlock a door that had already been unlocked.
Christ has gone right through the castle of giant despair. He has the keys of death and hell, and He has opened the gates. So why are millions sweating, trying every trick to get out of their bondages? They join new cults or old heathen religions, hear new theories, and go to psychiatrists. But why? Jesus sets men free. He does it all the time. That is the Gospel! You do not preach about it or offer its contents for discussion. The Gospel is not a discussion point. It is a proclamation of deliverance. The Gospel is not open to modification. It is a mandatory, royal, and divine edict. Some systems and theories of deliverance are bondages in themselves, full of lifelong duties and demands. Only Jesus saves! We need to let the world know.
If you are depressed, the worst thing you could do is concentrate on your depression. If you are lonely, the worst thing you can do is focus on your loneliness. And if you are afraid, the worst thing you can do is focus on your fear. Instead of looking inward, begin to look outward to a world that needs a cure for their depression, loneliness and fear – and YOU have the answer! It is not a mere tranquilizer. The Gospel is God’s remedy for the problems the world is so acutely aware of in this moment. Don’t keep it to yourself! Now is the time to shine!
Source: (adapted from Evangelism by Fire pg. 98-101).
