Gbile Akanni: AS MANY AS ARE LED BY FEAR!

From time to time, you get one of those mails warning you not to stop on the road to help people who seem to be in need because it can be a trap set by hoodlums and robbers. There are stories of women who stopped to pick up a baby car seat covered with a blanket on the roadside in what appears to be an "abandoned baby" situation, only to be molested, raped, beaten and left for dead. Someone else stopped to help what appears to be a victim of a hit-and-run driver only to become the victim himself.

I admit that these mails often also contain helpful information on how to recognize such traps, yet, I usually have real conflict in forwarding them around . . . . even though I sometimes eventually do.

For one, I am never interested in spreading anything that will spread FEAR!

Fear is the age-old principal equipment of enslaving people . . . . and God is demobilized in any man's life once he gives in to fear. No matter how much God planned to achieve through any man or for any man, He cannot, once that man gives in to fear. Fear robs us of courage and renders us impotent in the things of God. That is why the most frequent single instruction in the Bible that God gives His servants is "Fear not". And God struggles to remove fear from the man He plans to use. Dealing with the fear of death is another principal reason that Jesus went to the Cross. (Heb. 2: 14-15).

This kind of fear-instilled carefulness is probably what prevented the Priest and the Levite from helping the man that fell among thieves on the way down to Jericho (in the story of the "Good Samaritan" which we have learn from Sunday school). It will keep us today from reaching out to those genuinely in need.

However and truly, these are difficult times . . . . Perilous times and many children of disobedience will stop at nothing to fulfill the will of their master. The checkmate, however, is never still to be moved, motivated or ruled by fear but to be led, motivated, moved and ruled by the Spirit. As many as are led by the Spirit, not by stories they have heard . . . are the sons of God.

True disciples are never afraid of death or bodily harm. They are more interested in doing the will of their Master than saving themselves from harm. They are also well assured and rested about their own personal safety . . . leaving it all in the capable hands of the Lord! They know that HE that keepeth Israel neither slumbers or sleep.

Even if they make a mistake in their discernment of the leading of the Spirit, their Lord never leaves them into the hands of evil . . . . UNLESS THERE IS A LESSON OR DISCIPLING EXPERIENCE TO GAIN THEREBY. Even then, the LORD never fails to give boundaries to the devil when He allows him to afflict HIS children (as in the case of Job) . . . . because God is ever, ultimately planning Good and not Evil!

A brother was driving a lonely bush path that leads to a relative's house to visit when he saw a lady tied to a tree beaten and half naked. He hesitated, stopping because of the many stories he had heard, but the Spirit kept nudging and impressing that she was a victim, so he stopped. He ended up rescuing a fellow sister who was about to be raped by a false brother who she carelessly followed after breaking an engagement with him. It was the approaching car that made him temporarily go into hiding.

So, next time you see a scenario that looks like someone needs your help, check with the Holy Spirit and do as He instructs . . . lest we become guilty of seeing the Lord in need and turning a blind eye.

Mat 25:44 - 46 Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungered, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee? Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

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Yes, I do recommend that we apply all necessary checks to see that this is truly "an hungered" and this is truly "in need" but if we do not receive a check from the Lord, by all means do help.

Please pray deeply about this and may the Lord reveal His will to you.