[Editor's note: The following is a transcribed excerpt from Dr. Barbie Breathitt's ElijahForce interview, hosted by Julie Smith. Click the link below to watch the full episode, titled "Spiritual Deliverance 101: Be Free!"]
Julie: "The spirit of fear! We all deal with it. We've dealt with it in our lives—all types of things. So take us through this huge topic of fear that we need healing and deliverance from."
Barbie: "Well, fear is a spirit, and it seeks to paralyze us so that we don't make any movement. It distorts our perception, and it prevents us from being obedient to God's direction. It magnifies, it brings a threat to us, it tries to minimize our faith; and it creates hesitation, anxiety, instability...
You Should Never Give Territory to the Enemy
"Fear operates by projecting a negative outcome, and I call it 'horribilizing.' We begin to think the worst, when God has not given us a spirit of fear but of love, power, and a sound mind (2 Timothy 1:7). Fear causes us to retreat instead of advancing. And I say, you should never give territory to the enemy.
"A lot of times, even when people have dreams—they have a nightmare or a night terror—I tell them, 'Don't wake up out of the dream to escape. Confront it in the dream, because whatever you run from chases you.' But if you'll take the sword of the Spirit and you use God's wisdom, then you're going to be able to find the truth and stop delaying the action...
"Satan wants to block your purpose. Instead of walking in confidence and peace, you're under this fear that tries to control you, and it brings you into worry, uncertainty, avoidance... And God wants us to be able to walk with Him in confidence.
The Characteristics of Fear
"Some of the characteristics, if you're dealing with the spirit of fear, are...
• Anxiety or worry (It says in the Bible, "Can worry add one inch to you or apply anything?" [see Matthew 6:27; Luke 12:25]. There's no fruitfulness.),
• Overthinking or imagining the worst,
• "Horribilizing,"
• Physical tension,
• Restlessness,
• Uneasiness,
• Stress (Stress is a huge killer, and the root is fear.),
• Expectation of a negative outcome,
• Loss of peace,
• Emotional stability,
• Hyperawareness of danger.
"Job said, 'What I dreaded or what I feared happening, happened' (see Job 3:25). If we release our faith in a negative realm, we can draw negative things to us. So we don't need to doubt in God's protection and in His provision, but fear causes us to withdraw from opportunities that God is offering us to walk in.
The Cycles and Patterns of Fear
"There are cycles and patterns that we can see with fear. It breaks relationships.
"One, it'll put you into fear of being rejected, and then you will start this loop of going around, 'I'm afraid I'm going to be rejected.' And then your behaviors—delaying decisions—make you unstable. You avoid challenges, you avoid new opportunities. Your seeking constant reassurance, you're over preparing, and you're trying to control situations. (No one likes to be controlled, and fear makes you controlling.)
"Then, sometimes, you're choosing what you consider 'staying in a "safety area,"' rather than being obedient and operating in faith or taking a risk.
"There's also internal signs of fear: racing thoughts, mental overwhelm, feeling unsafe or unsettled. You can't relax or rest; you're always making your decisions based on fear rather than on faith, so you're always going to be anticipating a negative outcome. Fear causes us to have negative experiences, because we're expecting harm or we're expecting danger. (Photo via Piqsels)
"Psalm 34:4 says, 'I sought the Lord, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears' (NKJV). Fear causes uncertainty, and it causes us to lack in trusting in God. It causes us to develop negative thinking patterns, and we go into imagining worst-case scenarios.
"The Bible tells us to bring every thought captive, and so fear is a big one that we have to bring into captivity. The Bible says, '[He] will keep him in perfect peace...' (Isaiah 26:3 NKJV). Peace is the antidote to fear. So we don't want to be fearing. We reverentially fear the Lord, but nothing else.
"The core root of fear is trauma a lot of times, which brings uncertainty, which brings a lack of trust. And then we start thinking negatively. Then that worry, vain imaginations, and avoidance come in."
Fear Not, for I Am with You
Julie: "I think of in the Bible... how many times does the Lord say, 'Fear not,' or an angel appear to people and say, 'Fear not'? It's throughout the Bible—'Fear not'—over and over and over. Even the Lord knows it's a major one; that's why He tells us throughout Scripture, 'Fear not, for I am with you' (Isaiah 41:10). Do we really believe the Lord is with us?
"I know fear. I know people that have been absolutely paralyzed by fear. It paralyzes them from moving forward, from moving into their calling and their destiny... You know, you just talked about rejection, fear of failure.
Well, why should I even try? Because, I'm going to fail anyway... That's those negative tapes, those negative decrees that we make over ourselves.
"I've heard of people in the middle of the night—the enemy tries to come in and paralyze you and give you night terrors. And you're kind of half awake, half asleep, and you're trying to wake up. The moment that that happens to me, I just start rebuking that devil, and I tell him to get out, in Jesus' name!"
Barbie: "That's right."
Julie: "Probably one of the biggest ways the enemy tried to bring fear on me was when I went to Pattaya, Thailand. It's the number one sex industry of the world, the capital of it. I was staying there in the middle of the city, where all the action was—praying, decreeing, prophesying—and I stayed in a hotel.
"One night, when I was making these decrees and declarations for the city to be blessed—to know the Lord and all that—I had this dream, and it was an encounter. (You've shared this before: You think it's a dream, but it's really a spiritual encounter.) So all of a sudden, I was at my hotel door, and somebody knocked at it, and I opened the door, and three guys that were wearing muscle shirts—like they were muscle guys—came in, and carried me, and lifted me outside and took me out. And then I woke up.
"I knew immediately (and my heart was beating)—I knew it was the enemy, the strong man. There were three strong men, muscle men, yes—strong muscle men—wearing those muscle T-shirts, trying to scare me, and they were telling me to get out of their city. They were the strong men telling me to get out, and I just rebuked them. But it was wild. They didn't want me there."
Barbie: "Wow. Well, you know you made an impact, because they came to talk to you, to address you."
Julie: "Yeah. Yeah, it's wild. But anyway, that was probably one of the biggest times the enemy tried to bring fear on me. 'We're going to take you out' is basically what he said to me."
Barbie: "Well, you're still here, so they lied."
Julie: "I'm still here!
"Well, you know after that trip, I had a friend—I hadn't shared it with them. They knew I went to Thailand, but they said, 'I don't know what you did in Thailand, but I'm telling you, right now, if you weren't called, the enemy would have taken you out. You are called there, and you have authority there.' They told me that. (Photo via Pexels)
"And I said, 'Oh yeah, he tried to take me out—big time.'
"They go, 'Yeah, they tried.' And then I shared that story with them, and they were like, "Wow."
"Anyway, so God gives us our authority, power, where we're called, where He places us. We're not to fear our calling. If He called you to it, He's given you the power and authority to walk in it. This was so good.
How Do We Remove the Spirit of Fear?
"You've talked about some of the root causes, and how it manifests, so tell us how we remove this spirit of fear. For all of you, it's time to remove the spirit of fear. We'll have Barbie go through the slides she put together here."
Slide Show Presentation: How Do We Remove the Spirit of Fear?
1. Repent: "Lord, I repent for partnering with fear instead of trusting You."
2. Renounce: "I renounce fear and every lie that I am unsafe."
3. Break Authority: "Fear has no authority over my mind or body.
4. Replace with Truth: "I walk in power, love, and a sound mind."
Restoration Declaration: "I am bold, secure, and confident in God's presence."
Barbie: "I think that one thing [is to] identify the area of fear that's operating in your life. Once you recognize that fear and don't allow it to influence your thoughts or your actions, repent for partnering with any type of fear that you have, and then renounce fear and its lies.
"Just say, 'I renounce fear and every lie,' whether it's 'I'm unsafe,' 'I'm unlovable,' 'I'm... whatever,' 'I'm lacking,' then break the authority of fear. Fear has no authority over your mind or over your body, because all power and all authority was given to Jesus (Matthew 28:18). And you have received a measure of that authority, so you can move in that authority.
"Then replace the fear with truth (God's truth). Strengthen truth in God, trust, displace [fear with truth]. Proverbs 3:5: 'Trust in the Lord.'
"Take action, and that will make you displace the fear that's trying to come against you. Courage is action in the presence of fear. You know, [the Lord] told Joshua, be strong and courageous.
"Renewing our mind daily fights fear. Be transformed by the renewing of your mind, the water and washing of the Word (Romans 12:2; Ephesians 5:26).
"Receive God's peace. Peace is an antidote. "My peace I give you not as the world gives unto you"—peace that passes all understanding—(see John 14:27; Philippians 4:7).
"Then walk in boldness, walk in confidence. We live with the identity of Christ in us, and we don't cast away our confidence (Hebrews 10:35).
Julie: "That's so good: 'I'm bold, secure, and confident in God's presence.' And you know who's being in fear right now? The enemy. He's fearful that you're discovering who you are and your authority, and you're breaking fear and all the lies off of your life. The enemy is in fear of who you're becoming, in Jesus' name."
Barbie: "That's right."
Julie: "Woo! Awesome! This is amazing. I love this!"
(To watch the entire interview, click here.)
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Dr. Barbie L. Breathitt
President, Breath of the Spirit Ministries
Email:Â Barbie@BreathOfTheSpiritMinistries.com
Website:Â www.DreamsDecoder.com
Barbie Breathitt is the author of Dream Encounters: Seeing Your Destiny From God's Perspective, and Gateway to the Seer Realm: Look Again to See Beyond the Natural. She is an ordained minister, dedicated educator, and respected teacher of the supernatural manifestations of God. Barbie's dynamic teaching skills, intelligence, and quick wit keep her a favorite with audiences everywhere. Barbie has become a recognized leader in dream interpretation, traveling to more than forty nations. Her prophetic gifting and deep spiritual insight have helped thousands of people understand the supernatural ways God speaks to us today.
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