Fear has been known as an emotional, physiological response to a perceived threat or danger. Some claim it is a natural survival mechanism of protection – often known as “fight or flight.” However, there is a more basic Biblical explanation for what we call “fear.”
Stephen Phinney | IM Author Contributor
Imagine a large balloon popping behind you. The sudden sound sends a chilling reaction through your mortal body. Is it a gun going off? Or is it something far less threatening? The irony is we don’t know until the sound is connected to sight.
Humanity calls this phenomenon “fear.” God’s creation views it a bit differently. The five senses can trigger the release of hormones such as adrenaline and cortisol, which can cause an increase in heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration. These physiological responses are created in us to connect the body to memory pockets in the brain associated with one or more of the five senses, which ultimately master our response, for example. If we had a traumatic experience stamped into our minds related to a gun firing, the sensory input reactivates these memories.
On the other hand, the masses have added a specialized aspect to the physiology of humanity – emotions. In reality, there is no such compartment to the brain. Hormones, which we call emotions, exist; they are part of the endocrine system that activates beliefs or preprogrammed memories. Hormones are chemical “messengers” which are produced by the endocrine glands that regulate most of the body’s functions, including preprogrammed “fight or flight” reactions, metabolism, reproduction, and release of “beliefs” to active the cortex (choice system) within the brain. To simplify, hormones are secreted into the bloodstream and carried to target cells or organs, such as the brain, where they bind to specific receptors and elicit a belief that results in a response.
People prone to fear having an imbalance in hormone levels typically have issues with diabetes, thyroid disorder, and overactive obsessions in the brain. These obsessions are nothing short of identified “beliefs.”
There is not one single verse in the Bible that talks about the renewal of “emotions.” There is a good reason for this – they don’t exist. So what about anger, grief, sadness, or any other response noted in the Word? They are all “fight or flight” reactions based on the cortex – the thin layer of tissue covering the top & frontal parts of the brain. The cortex cannot be renewed or reprogrammed. However, the data center, the mind, can be renewed or add additional data to its database. The more significant the data impact, the more dominant this new data is for the cortex, and the less the previously recorded memories rule Cortexual reactions.
And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what the will of God is, that which is good and acceptable and perfect. (Romans 12:2)
Transformation occurs in the mind, not in the morbid interests of “emotions.” Without such renovation, it is impossible to prove God's will (cortex). By holding to the misnomer of “emotions,” God’s version of good, acceptable, and perfect is diminished and often overlooked. The cortex is what responds to the spirit within the human. If indwelt by Christ’s Spirit, the Holy Spirit, new information is transferred from Jesus’s mind to the mind of the “believer.” This new information is filed in the brain due to plasticity, which is the ability to change the brain's ability to respond to new experiences and beliefs.
For I joyfully concur with the Law of God in the inner man, but I see a different law in the members of my body, waging war against the Law of my mind and making me a prisoner of the Law of sin, which is in my members. (Romans 7:22-23)
Before science made its way to the forefront of humanity, Paul was inspired by the Holy Spirit to make things clear. The Law of God is in the inner man through creation; it is called a conscience. It is brought to life through receiving the Holy Spirit upon salvation. However, it demands renewal of the mind. Since humanity is born with the Law of sin and death, it is what the Bible calls the flesh, sarx (carnal nature), the physiological elements, members of my body, which include the five senses for hormone distribution. These members wag war against the creational Laws of God in the inner man. If left unattended, it imprisons us to the fallen nature of sarx – the flesh.
For the mind set on the flesh is death, but the mind set on the Spirit is life and peace, because the mind set on the flesh is hostile toward God; for it does not subject itself to the Law of God, for it is not even able to do so, and those who are in the flesh cannot please God. (Romans 8:6-8)
Here we have the Biblical formula. Even IF the individual has the mind of Christ within them, if they set their MIND on the programmed memories the carnal nature left behind, death is its result. However, if that individual sets their mind on the mind of Christ from within, life and peace will result, which happens to be the absence of demonic fear.
For WHO HAS KNOWN THE MIND OF THE LORD, THAT HE WILL INSTRUCT HIM? But we have the mind of Christ. (1 Corinthians 2:16)
Anyone who has become born-again in Christ houses the mind of Christ from within. It is not only an immovable doctrine; it is the reason we need the Life and Mind of Christ to live a redemptive life. Due to the fall of humanity in the Garden, being separated from the Spirit of Christ, we need to be reunited with Him through the believer’s co-crucifixion in Jesus’s death. We must be put to death and made into a new creation in Christ Jesus. In this, we discover why we are to keep our fear reactions in the Lord and not in sudden reactionary elements on the earth.
Set your mind on the things above, not on the things that are on earth. (Colossians 3:2)
As for our study regarding the foolish Galatians, we discover their fear was switched back to the fears contained within the flesh – those of the Law of sin and death. Paul, wise in the Spirit, blames false teachers who refocused their minds on the external laws of productivity. These teachers bewitched the Galatians, manipulating their frail minds to be obsessed over rules that guide the flesh versus the laws of the Spirit of Life that supposedly existed within them. In this, we see that their fears shifted from being IN the Lord to the external trappings of the creational laws of the earth.
Paul asks a question that I ask fear-bound “believers.” Do you or do you not have the Holy Spirit living from within? Were these foolish Galatians simply “following” Jesus externally, or were they able to be guided by the Law of the Spirit of Life from within?
This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? (Galatians 3:2)
Did the Galatians become so foolish that they switched from the Law of the Spirit to the fears of humanity? I believe that is an affirmative, yes.
I believe that “fear” is the ultimate enemy of humanity, not just “believers.” Secondly, I believe the reconstruction of fear being an “emotion” was/is Satan's greatest trick upon humans. Satan knows how God created human flesh; he was there when God formed us. He also knows that fear is a physiological hormone stimulation response that cannot harm us unless we allow it to do so. Finally, his objective is to block the authentic believer from connecting the dots of faith and fear – both belief issues.
Fear, as an emotion, disregards God’s ordained plans. Seen as an emotion - distorts God’s perspective of the required reverence of Him. When that happens, Satan knows it will discourage authentic believers, resulting in disconnecting from God’s promises as a lifestyle. In short, fear as an emotion causes believers to disobey Christ from within.
We need to call fear what it is, a belief. We all need to confront these beliefs straight on. Confess these beliefs as sins before the living God, release Christ’s beliefs from within, and take action from these new beliefs. As Paul encouraged the Galatians, we need to get back to the real Gospel of Jesus and fear God alone. When we do, His promises will manifest in our daily lives. We don’t need more of Jesus; we already have all of Him. You and I can’t get any closer to Him. If we are authentically ONE with Him, is there more to behold? No - we need to release the fullness of Jesus through our mortal brains. It is impossible to have this unless we surrender to the mind of Christ.
Fear as an emotion is slavery at its best.
As we know, we are committed to that which influences us the most. Can we live a victorious life as a practical way of living? No - unless we release the One, Jesus, from within to do what He does best – live victoriously. As long as we view the deception of “emotions” as a reality, we will remain bound to the fears that come with flesh and blood. If we live according to God’s physiological creational design, fear will become a helpful tool of belief to honor God as the Supreme Commander OF creation.
Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives. (Hebrews 2:14-15)
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