Reason Number One (Fear of the Unknown)

The main reason why so many people become very afraid to step out in faith is the fear of the unknown. As human beings, we always like doing what is safe. We want to invest in the safest stocks. We want to buy the safest cars. We want to live in a safe environment. We always want to know that everything is going to be safe. Sadly, many people have missed and continue to miss their blessings because of always playing it safe. You may want to step out in faith but you are waiting for God to move miraculously before stepping out in faith. It doesn't always work that way. I heard a pastor once sharing his testimony during a Sunday worship service. "The Lord spoke to me and told me to quit my job and go into full time ministry. This was very hard for me because I had just started church and I had a new little girl. It was very hard to do that because hundreds of thoughts went ran through my mind about what would happen if I couldn't take care of my family. Nonetheless, I obeyed. Because our ministry had just started, we had less than one hundred people. Within weeks of me being obedient to the Lord voice, our church membership grew to three hundred members. And not only that but God met and supplied all of our needs and more."

What would you do if you weren't afraid? What is holding you back from making yourself completely available for God to use you? If you have a job and God has been dealing with you for a while about quitting so that He can send you to mission work in Africa, would you take that step of faith? I believe that because the second coming of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ is closer than it has ever been, God is raising up a jobless but godly generation. In other words, the moment you step out in faith and trust God, even if you have to quit your job, He will take care of every need that you have. Stop being afraid! I don't have any problems with people working (the bible says that if a man doesn't work he doesn't eat), however, too many people are using their job as a crutch. They don't want to loose their "benefits." They are concerned and worried about how their bills (car note, cell phone, rent/mortgage, insurance, light bill, water bill, etc) are going to get paid.

I've met so many people with a burning passion to preach the Gospel globally, but they are afraid to step out in faith because of their job. If you are passionate about winning souls for God's kingdom, stop worrying about how your bills will get paid; just use the three P's. Pray, Plan and Proceed. Pray for God's will and direction for your life. Plan when you want to make that step, especially with your finances since it's usually the area that most people struggle with. Third and finally, follow your passion; go wherever God leads you and do whatever He requires of you. When you make yourself available for God to use, you will be surprise what He will do in you, through, and with you.

Reason Number Two (People's opinions)

Another reason why so many people are so afraid to trust God is because other people's opinions. They have allowed so many people to dictate what should happen in their lives. If you want to maintain your sanity, you have to learn how to set boundaries with people. You have to let them know that this is your life and no one else's. That is why it is so important to be careful what you say to people and who you say it to. If you tell the wrong person your dreams, they will destroy it before it even gets the chance to blossom.

I've come to find out the main reason why people share such intricate part of their lives with people that they may not necessarily trust is because sometimes that is the only person that will listen to them. They may feel safe talking to that person. However, there are certain things that dreams that God has put inside of you that are not meant to tell anybody until they are on the verge of coming to fruition. You have to learn how to protect your dreams and goals. Just because someone is there to listen to you doesn't mean that they care or want you to succeed.

The people that talk the most are the ones who really don't have anything important to say. If God told you to start your own business, even if you don't see a way how you are going to get the money, don't give up but keep on believing. When people say things like, "If God told you to start your own business, how come you are struggling? Where are you going to get the money?" You have to learn how to respond to them with the word;

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," says the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain comes down, and the snow from heaven, And do not return there, But water the earth, And make it bring forth and bud, That it may give seed to the sower And bread to the eater, So shall My word be that goes forth from My mouth; It shall not return to Me void, but it shall accomplish what I please, and it shall prosper in the thing for which I sent it. "For you shall go out with joy, And be led out with peace; The mountains and the hills Shall break forth into singing before you, And all the trees of the field shall clap their hands" (Isaiah 55:8-12).

Many people have given up on their dreams because of they have tried to please everyone and it didn't work. They became so confused because their mom wanted them to become a lawyer, their dad wanted them to become a teacher, but God wanted to be an evangelist. It doesn't matter what your parents, mentor or best friend think you should be. When judgment day comes, God is going to hold you accountable for every person you let change His will for your life. You have that power to make a choice for yourself. Even if you make a mistake, don't get discourage about it, as long as you know that you are doing what God wants you to do, nothing else should matter.

As you continue pursue the things of God, you will be faced with many obstacles. Many of these obstacles will be allowed by God to see if you are more concerned about what people think you should be doing or what God say you should be doing. I have learned (and I still am) what to say to people. Because of your great destiny, there are some people that are so jealous of you that their life's goal is your failure in every area of your life. They are always in your business, wanting to know who you are it, what you did last week, and what you are doing now. I always encourage people to pray and ask God to send them a trustworthy friend or mentor, someone they can fully trust and be brutally honest with.

You also have to be conscious about your timing when telling people things. There are certain things that you shouldn't release to anyone until the Lord releases you to. In other words, when you feel God speaks to you let's say about doing mission work. You pray about it and you get the okay for God when to go and the place to go to, if you were to tell certain people that God is sending you to a remote village in Africa and you will be there for two years, many people will try to talk you out of it, especially those closest to you. They'll start asking how you are going to survive, where you are going stay, how this and how that. But what they don't know is that, "Eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love Him" (1 Corinthians 2:9).

Even though I can understand their concern, there are times that you don't need to hear their concerns because it will discourage you and causes you start question the voice of God you heard when no one else knew what was going on. What I do whenever people start to ask me too many questions about me doing something, I shut them out of that area of my life until I feel it appropriate to let them back in. Some people might find that rude or mean which is okay and fine with me. Do what you have to do to accomplish the things that God have spoken to you personally. Stop processing because of fear of what others will say. I've always lived by this one principle that my father told me and that is, obey God and leave all the consequences for Him.

It's time to make up your mind who you are going to listen to, God or man. If the Disciples of Christ and the apostles had chosen to listen to the opinions of others, we would not have Christianity or the Bible today. Those men and women dared to be different. They didn't care about other people's opinions about what they did. Many of them died made up their mind to serve God and let Him deal with the comments of people and He did. When you leave all the consequences to God, He will not put you to shame. You have to understand that, "God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should repent. Has He said, and will He not do? Or has He spoken, and will He not make it good?" (Numbers 23:19).

Reason Number Three (Demonic oppression)

Many people do not believe that demons are real. I remember watching the Montel Williams show when he had Sylvia Brown, a self-proclaim psychic. Every time he had her on his show, people in the audience get the opportunity to ask her questions. On lady stood up and told her that she felt demons at her house and she didn't know what to do. Ms. Brown told her that, "there are no such things as demons because they don't exist."

With this false believe, many people have been led astray by people like her, John Edwards, and many psychics who destroy the lives of people by telling them lies about the spirit realm. If you are not careful, demons will take control of your life and make it miserable. Satan always chooses the weakest moment and the weakest places.

To attempt a comprehensive explanation of all the possible way is far beyond the scope of this book. I will simple describe six examples of moment or places of weakness through which demons habitually gain access to human personalities:

A family background in the occult or false religion Pressures in early childhood Emotional shock or sustain emotional pressure Sinful acts or habits Laying on hands Idle Words Let us look at each of these areas of vulnerability.

1. A Family Background in the Occult or False Religion

In Exodus 20:3-5 the Lord warns of the evil consequences when people become involved in idolatry or false religion.

"You shall have no other gods before [or besides] me.

"You shall not make for yourself any carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them or serve them. For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me."

God warns against all forms of idolatry or other involvement with false "gods." The veil consequences of these particular sins can extend to four generations. Counting backward for four generations gives us four level of ancestors:

Parents: 2

Grandparents: 4

Great-grandparents: 8

Great-great-grandparents: 16

Total: 30

Any or all of these thirty persons could be a channel through whom we may have been

exposed to satanic influence. You can't be certain if any of your thirty immediate ancestors were never involved in any form of occult or false religion.

This occult influence can begin while we are still in the womb. After all, what is weaker or more helpless than an unborn baby? It is entirely dependent on its parents for protection. Righteous, God-fearing parents provide that protection, but parents with an occult background expose their babies to the same spiritual influences that are at work in their own lives. Such babies are often demonized before they emerge from the womb. This is particularly true of people with backgrounds in Eastern religions such as Hinduism or Buddhism, or other false religions such as Mormonism.

2. Pressures in Early Childhood

In James 3:16 we are warned, "Where envy and self-seeking exist, confusion and every veil thing are there."

Broken, strife-torn homes, in which parents are in bitter conflict with each other and/or have little time for their children provide an atmosphere that invites the presence and activity of demons. Most young children lack the necessary emotional and spiritual defense to withstand such demonic pressure.

In families in which the father has been an alcoholic, or cruel and dominating, or violent and abusive, girls often develop an intense hatred of men, which opens the door for the demon of hate, and homosexuality. This is particularly true if a father has abused his daughter sexually.

Other demons that commonly exploit such children are rejection, anger, fear, rebellion, misery, loneliness, depression and sometimes suicide. There has been an alarming number of teenage suicides in our culture. In the U.S. from 1952 to 1992, the incident of suicide among adolescents and young adults nearly tripled. In 1992 more teenagers and young adults died from suicide than from cancer, heart disease, AIDS, birth defects, strokes, pneumonia, influenza and chronic lung disease combined. In almost all these cases, according to my diagnosis, the demon of rejection opened the way for the demons of suicide.

3. Emotional Shock or Sustained Emotional Pressure

In 1 Peter 3:16 the apostle explains that Christian women may qualify as daughters of Sarah "if you do good and are not afraid with any terror." The Greek word translated "terror" has a wide range of meaning. One dictionary describes it as "any vehement emotion; passionate excitement." Another renders it either actively as "intimidation" or passively as "terror."

Today the vast coverage of the media means that millions around the world are exposed to sudden, shocking incidents. A brutal murder or a bus blown up or a building exploding may leave an indelible impression not only on the victims who survive, but on all the men, women and children who view the horror again and again on television.

Men as well as women are subject to many other forms of emotional pressure. But men and women are subject, for example, to the passionate excitement of sexual desire. Sudden, unpredictable yielding to such desire can often open the door to a spirit of lust. Including fantasies or watching pornography can have the same effect.

It sometimes happens, too, that a child or a young person subject to sexual who pursues their sexual desires are opening up to the demon of lust. The demon has no respect for "innocence," but simple uses this moment of weakness to force its way in. From that moment on, the child or young person is subjected to pressures of lust that are not expression of anything in his or her character.

But it is not always a sudden surge of emotion that opens the way to a demon. It may be some persistent, unrelenting pressure. A man who through no fault of his own spend several months because of unemployment may feel the inability to provide for his family. Discouragement may affect him in several ways. If anyone in his household say anything negative or discouraging to him, he may react in a way that normally wouldn't act because of the anger he feels inside of not having a job. This will open a way for the demon of anger to slip in. Or a continual pressure of not being able to find a job may force him into depression or hopelessness. The same thing can happen to a woman whose husband always belittle. A spirit of depression and hopelessness will come on them.

Obviously there are many kinds of emotional shock or pressure to which people may be subjected. But these few examples may alert you to this form of demonic attack and help you build up your defense against it.

4. Sinful Acts or Habits

Sometimes a single decisive act may open the way to a demon. The decision of Judas Iscariot to betray Jesus exemplifies the act. When he went out from the last Supper with this intention, Luke records, "then Stan entered Judas" (Luke 22:3). Judas himself opened the door that he could not afterward close. Action much less heinous than that of Judas may open the way for a demon.

A man was once praying for a woman who needed deliverance from a spirit of lust. When Don commanded the demon to come out of her, it answered, "She invited me in!"

"When did she do that?" He asked.

"When she went to that dirty sex movie," the demon replied.

The woman had to repent and ask forgiveness for her sin before the demon could be compelled to leave her.

We need to remember that Satan is a legal expert. When some sinful acts opened the way for a demon, it will not leave until the sinful act has been confessed and canceled by God's forgiveness.