The fear that comes from PTSD and flashbacks can be overcome.
2 Timothy 1:7 For God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.
We can pray for you, if you have fear and the spirit of fear will go. However, when this spirit comes back to ‘check you out’, and you were never taught how to fight the fight of faith and resist the spirit of fear, oftentimes the fear will come back. This happens because you will think, “the prayer did not work, I must be doing something wrong. God did not answer my prayer, etc. etc.”
To prevent this, it is better for you to overcome oppression by relying on the Word of God and the Finished Work of Jesus for yourself. When you overcome, you will know that it was Jesus Who accomplished the victory for you. He is your intercessor and the finisher of your faith. Relying on Him and doing your part, resisting and fighting the good fight of faith James 4:7. Your relationship with Jesus will be on fire when you overcome the oppression, and you do not have to rely on another person to get you set free. Until you deal with a spirit of fear yourself, it’s difficult to get complete freedom from fear and it will try to come back. This applies also to any other issues you may be dealing with: bitterness, jealousy, unforgiveness, and a sense of abandonment or rejection.
Fear and torment: Fear can be real or imagined. The imagined kind of fear has spiritual roots.
As you understand that fear, PTSD, depression, suicidal thoughts, bi-polar conditions, not having peace and joy, are all spiritual issues, and you bring the Scriptures (individually and as a group) to bear on these spiritual forces arrayed against you, you ARE going to have success in your pursuit of wholeness.
We want you to begin understanding that there are usually two voices causing your thoughts, some people say three: God, yourself and the devil. The point here again, is that there is a force/source behind your thoughts: faith or fear, heaven or hell Ephesiians 6:12. Sometimes the enemy is so subtle in your thoughts, you have a tough time figuring out which is which.
First of all, discover they are lies by finding what God’s Word says about you and what Jesus made available through the Work He did on the Cross for you. Then use that Truth to ‘pull down the thoughts’ that do not line up with that Truth: Capture and pull down thoughts and lies. (2 Corinthians 10:4). “We use God’s mighty weapons, not worldly weapons to knock down the strongholds of human reasoning and to destroy false arguments.” Read this verse in some other translations.
You will see that this is very, very simple, however, the fight of faith can be difficult, but we are guaranteed victory through the finished work of Jesus. You just have to be careful of your thought life. You have to make sure that any thought that comes into your mind lines up with Scripture. This verse is very clear, that is we don’t pull down these thoughts that are contrary to the Truth, that they become a stronghold over our lives. As Christians, we usually know this Scripture and most of us can quote it, but for some reason we have difficulty applying it in our own lives!
Looking at these lying thoughts a little more, they can become absolute reality to you as you begin to believe them. You can think of them all the time and as you do you give them more and more credibility. This means any thought you have about yourself that brings bondage, fear, oppression, darkness, our past sins, guilt and shame, etc. This is very serious because it bring to light again the scripture that says, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” This can work to bring bondage as opposed to what God intended: freedom, peace and joy in your life.
Remind yourself about “capturing and pulling down” any lies and make sure your thought life, especially where it concerns any bondage you might be in, is lining up with the Word of God and the Finished Work of the Cross.
One helpful thing to do is make a “Freedom Statement.” Write out on a piece of paper a version of 2 Corinthians 10:4 that especially speaks to you and then make a statement out of it, such as:
“I pull down thoughts of _______________ that are contrary to the Truth of the Word that says I am/have ________________________. Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words that apply to your particular situation.
Heb 2:15 says “And deliver them who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.”
If you have a fear of death, you are subject to bondage. The Word says you’re subject to that bondage all your lifetime. So, we need to have the oppression flee from us, so we will not be subject to bondage.
The greatest fear is the fear of death. I deal with this in particular way, you may find another way to deal with this but this is what I have done and have had good results:
So you are having a panic attack? (Sometimes in a panic attack the heart starts pounding, it gets worse, fear comes on the person and they have to go to the hospital. A lot of people who are bi-polar suffer from panic attacks, or they can’t breathe and get short of breath. It’s all fear.)
I say: Do you want to beat that quickly?
Well, just think that you might die right now!
They say, “What!!!!”
(We take death way too seriously, for a Christian, this is a transition into a wonderful, eternal life with Jesus.) The worst thing that could happen to you right now is that you die. If you die where will you go? You are a Christian, you know Jesus Christ, where would you go? …Right here we find out very quickly if you are really a Christian. They may tell me they are, but this conversation really gets to the bottom of it! If they you are not a Christion, then click here to find out how to b ecome a real Christian.
Then I say: If you died right now, so what? You will miss your family but you will be with Jesus forever. Can you be thankful for that? Let’s just imagine that you are going to die right now.
You are going to have to face this down some time, anxiety comes from fear and the way to get rid of it quickly, is to say, “Thank you Jesus, that I’m not going to die right now, and I am never going to have fear of dying in my life again. I rebuke this fear, I come against it in Jesus’ Name, I will not have it. If I died right now, I have no problem. I would go to be with Jesus.”
When you can stare down the fear of death, you have victory. Every Christian should be able to stare death down: “Death where is your sting,” 1 Corinthians 15:55.
I ask if they remember what happened to Paul, he had his head cut off. I ask them if they could go right now, put their head down and think of someone cutting it off.
They say, “I don’t want to go there!”
I say: Yes you do, what is wrong with that! You can’t face that? That is quick and you are out of here, you are with Jesus. And by the way, you feel exactly as you do now, even though you may be seeing your head roll off. I have talked to people who came back from the dead. They tell me that even though they are in a different dimension, they see everything that is going on regarding their body, but they can’t communicate to people in the natural anymore.
I start joking with people about death and tell them: Now can you see yourself overcoming death?
If you can do this, your panic attacks will stop.
They say, “What about my heart beating real fast?”
When fear attacks you, this is what happens spiritually. Your attention is brought to your heart, and that is not a good thing. Is your attention brought to your heart while you are sleeping, or while you are running, etc? No it isn’t, it is not natural to pay attention to your heart. But in a panic attack, you are paying attention to your heart.
The Scripture says that “if you believe with your heart and speak with your mouth, you’ll have whatever you say.” Also, “as a man thinks in his heart so is he.” All of these truths are coming in to play here as this fear is coming upon you. Fear will definitely make your heart pound faster. If you get fearful enough it gets worse. If you then begin speaking in line with what the spirit of fear is doing to you, it will strengthen its grip.
But if you say, ‘No, in Jesus’ Name, heart stop that….if I die right now I don’t care!” that fear will leave and your heart will settle down to its normal rhythm.
People say this is an illogical way of dealing with these issues. Well, do you really want to get rid of this? We are giving you a remedy for getting rid of it and you will never deal with it again because the essence of all this physical manifestation is fear.
I know of only one way to getting rid of fear. There is one certain way. Crying to God to get rid of it for you doesn’t work, this is not faith, He has not given you a spirit of Fear 2 Tim 1:7. You have to face it down. As the Bible says, you have to Resist the fear that comes from the demonic spiritual realm James 4:7.
Published on: Jul 27, 2015