Text: Judges 7:1-3
Memory text:
““The officers shall speak further to the people and say, ‘What man is there who is fearful and fainthearted? Let him go and return to his house, lest the heart of his brethren faint like his heart.’”
‭‭Deuteronomy‬ ‭20‬:‭8‬ ‭NKJV‬‬

John Wesley once said, “Give me a hundred men who fear nothing but sin and love nothing but God, and I will shake the gates of hell!” Fear is a virtue which is abominable in God’s army. This is because fear has a way of spreading and damaging the courage of the army, according to our memory text. One timid soldier can do more damage than a whole company of enemy soldiers. It is either that fear will conquer faith, and we’ll quit, or faith will conquer fear, and we’ll triumph.
According to our text, God didn’t want Israel to take glory for their victory in the battle against the Midianites, so He decided to trim down the size of the volunteers for the battle. God, therefore, used fearfulness as the first condition for disqualification. “…‘Whoever is fearful and afraid, let him turn and depart at once from Mount Gilead…”(Judg‬ ‭7‬:‭3‬).
The response was astonishing. Almost two-thirds of the Israelites were afraid! These fearful and amateur soldiers would have fled at the sight of the larger and more experienced enemy, which would have been a catastrophe, and they would have been a laughingstock!
God will also exclude the fearful from experiencing His move and from spiritual privileges. Jesus did this at the healing of Jarius’ daughter.
“And they ridiculed Him. But when He had put them all outside, He took the father and the mother of the child, and those who were with Him, and entered where the child was lying.”
‭‭(Mark‬ ‭5‬:‭40‬).
He excluded the crowd, the professional mourners, and the other disciples. He had earlier dropped the other disciples, probably because they had not grown in faith enough for the spiritual experience (Mark 5:37). He went in with only the child’s parents and three disciples, Peter, James, and John. It is the atmosphere of faith that births miracles and not fear or unbelief (Mark 6:5).
The presence of some people in a spiritual meeting can ruin the atmosphere. That’s why some ministers don’t just allow anyone to sit at the front row in a miracle meeting. People who are not aligned in the spirit and people with frowned, unexciting, fearful, and unbelieving faces can dampen the atmosphere and hinder miracles.
Friends, the fearful, the unbelieving, the doubters, the scorners will be disqualified from God’s army, God’s use, and from divine blessing, both here and eternity.

Prayer points
1. Father, deliver me from fear and timidity and everything preventing me from being useful in Your house, in Jesus’ name.
2. Father, I refuse to be an agent of satan to damage the faith of the brethren and to dampen the spiritual atmosphere through my negative attitude, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. I won’t allow fearfulness to disqualify me from God’s use and to exclude me from His blessing now and eternity.
2. I will always be excited, cheerful, full of faith, believing, and responsive lest I dampen the atmosphere of miracles and also lose my blessings.

Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng