I recently heard a statistic that more cases of high blood pressure, high blood sugar, heart problems, and anxiety exist today than ever before. Even though some of the most sophisticated medical solutions now exist for people to access, these physical infirmities persist because of fear. Fear has a voice in this world, and it is a formidable voice that screams, “You’re not going to make it.” A woman I was once very close to confessed to me that the reason she had suffered a heart attack was because of the fear she carried. She admitted, “I know that this came because I was worrying and worrying and worrying and worrying.”

That fear opened the door for sickness to come into her body, but I want to tell you that torment is not what God intended for her or for anyone else. Second Timothy 1:7 tells us that God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and a sound mind. That is what I want to share with you today.

Exceedingly Great Power

According to this verse in Second Timothy, the first thing God has given us is a spirit of power, not fear. What does that word “power” mean? Ephesians 1 tells us that God’s power is “far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named,” and it is the same power that worked in Christ when God raised Him from the dead (Ephesians 1:20-21).

What is amazing news for us is that this power that I’m talking to you about is not out there in the atmosphere somewhere. In Ephesians 1:19, Paul says, “what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us.” In other words, that power is coming toward you right this minute, right this second! Friend, this is something to think about! God’s power — miracle-working, healing, raising-from-the-dead power over all principalities, powers, dominions, and every name that’s named — is the power that’s coming toward you right now.

I know from listening to my husband teach that the Greek word for “exceeding” means that this is a power beyond what you need, a power that completely encompasses your problem, and the word for “power” tells us that it is effective for the mission for which it is sent. The power coming to you has the ability to take dominion over anything that stands in its way.

To give you a picture of how powerful He is, I want you to look at Hebrews 1:3, which says that God, through His Word, is holding all things together. Every atom that exists in this world is held together by the Word of His power. The reason the atomic bomb works is because it causes the atoms inside to split, and that creates the explosion. Well who’s holding all the atoms in all the world together so they don’t do that? God is! By the Word of His power, He’s holding your body together, and He’s holding your clothes and your house together. He is holding together every atom in our bodies so that we don’t just explode into the atmosphere!

Friend, that very same power was given to you to overcome fear. God has not given you a spirit of fear, but of power, the same power that said, “Let there be light,” and there was the sun, 1,000,000.3 times bigger than the earth (Genesis 1:3)!

Jesus’ life gives us even more examples of His power. In Matthew 10:8, He says, “Heal the sick, cleanse the lepers, raise the dead, cast out demons.” Romans 8:11 says, “But if the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead dwells in you, He who raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through His Spirit who dwells in you.”

I’m talking to you about the power that is coming towards you right now! This is power that He has given you to pray for the sick, to pray for yourself. This is resurrection power! That’s the power I’m talking to you about, and that power absolutely overcomes fear. The best part is that God gave us this salvation and power for us to experience it here and now on the earth, not just in Heaven somewhere when we die.

You may ask, “Well where do I start?” God said to start right where you are. God didn’t just give you your hands to work or clean your house or hug people or work on a computer. In fact, the Bible says that your hands are holy, and if you lay them on the sick, the sick will recover. So start with yourself. Lay hands on your body and say to yourself, “I release the power of God to this part of my body.”

Jesus went through the suffering, ridicule, shame, and torment of the cross to get that power on the inside of you. He suffered it all for you and me to receive the power of God on the inside of us, so He wants us to activate it, use it, and lay our hands on the sick to see them recover by the power of God.

Perfect Love

The next thing we have been given according to Second Timothy 1 is love. John 17:26 tells us that the very love that God loved Jesus with is in us. The very love — not fifty percent, not ninety percent, but the very same love shared between the Father and the Son! When you were born, you didn’t have that love. You might have had a great personality or been a really kind person, but you didn’t have the love of God. But thanks to Jesus’ sacrifice, the love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts (Romans 5:5). When you are born again, it comes by the power of the Holy Spirit and is poured all over your heart.

It is important to recognize this, because the next thing we will realize is that God’s perfect love casts out fear (1 John 4:18). I studied the phrase “cast out,” and I found that it means to kick out. To give you a picture, imagine that your dog or cat did something really bad. Maybe they hurt you, so you yelled at them, “Get away from me! Get out!” That is the same word used to describe the way God’s love casts out fear. You are the one with the power, not your fear. You can say, “You get out, fear!” You have been given that authority from God.

You have casting-out-fear love of God in you, but you’ve got to recognize it. You may say, “But you don’t know what’s going on in my life.” That’s true. I really don’t, but I know that God has given you something that’s more powerful. When fear comes, you can’t just keep listening to it. You have to say, “Fear, you get out of here. You go. You are not from God.”

The best thing we can do to cast out fear is meditate on what God has given us. I just want to speak to you very practically: You can’t watch the news for eight hours a day and expect to have great love and peace bubbling up in your heart, because there’s enough to see in the news that will bring fear. Instead you have to do what Joshua 1:8 says and meditate day and night on the Word of God. If you do that, it says you will have good success.

Once you discover this love on the inside, you need to do something with it because, while love is a noun, it is also action. Jesus’ love was not passive at all. His love was so active that He came and He gave up everything for you and me without us even asking for it. His love was an action. I know I’ve seen this truth in my life: when you recognize the love of God on the inside of you and then give it away to others, you will start to be healed as well.

A Sound Mind

The last thing Second Timothy 1:7 mentions that God has given us in place of fear is a sound mind. This one is really practical because it means you have saved brains! Ephesians 6 tells us about the armor of God, and it says that the helmet of salvation goes on our heads, because when you are born again, you receive power for your brain to work for you. God’s power is here for us to think right, and when we think right, we overcome fear.

I don’t know about you, but there have been times when thoughts have come against my mind that I didn’t want to stay there, and they had to come down. You need to ask yourself — who has the authority and power to bring those thoughts down? Not your husband or wife, not your child, not your preacher or pastor, not your best friend. No, you are the one who needs to bring them down.

Remember that you have a weapon. The enemy is trying to tell you what you will think, what you will believe, what you will be or not be, but you have a spear by the power of the Holy Spirit, and you’re poking that spear right in the back of that enemy and saying to him, “Nope, you’re not telling me what to do. You’re not keeping me from my dream. I’m not bowing to you.” When the enemy comes in with some foreign agent like fear, anxiety, or confusion, we must bring it down!

You might be in a place where you’ve listened to those thoughts so much that it’s almost habitual. You’ve developed a habit so that your mind just thinks about all the bad that is happening in the world or about all your problems at home or at work. If you’re stuck in that place, then you really need to start pulling those thoughts down one by one and replacing them with something else. You have authority over your thoughts.

You might be saying, “Oh, I just can’t control my thoughts,” but that is a lie. You can overcome your thoughts one by one, you can pull them down, and you can choose another thought. You can replace your fearful thoughts the way the apostle Paul tells us in Philippians 4:8, by thinking on whatever is true, like the story of Jesus’ birth and death for us; whatever is noble, like the sacrifices of others that have put you where you are today; whatever is just, like God putting all the sin and sickness on Jesus, and Him bearing the cost of it; whatever is pure, like a little baby, or lovely, like a sunset or a flower. When we do that, we’re casting our thoughts upward. By our own choice, we are casting down thoughts that are trying to attack us and choosing to fix our eyes on God instead.

The Bible goes on to say that if there’s any praise about it, think on these things (See Philippians 4:8). This habit is going to bring down those other thoughts that are causing you fear. If you say you can’t do it, then you will allow yourself to stay in that place. But if you say, “No, I can,” then you will become responsible for your thoughts, and you will be able to do something about them. That’s when you will become free. That’s the power that you have — to use your saved brain.

We are living in a day and time where there are so many things going on. There is so much confusion, so much fear, and we don’t always have the sermons and verses memorized that we need for every single situation, but we do have the power of God inside of us, and we’ve got to use it. God has given us so much equipment so that we don’t have to be overcome by fear, but we can overcome it and be victorious with a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.