Text: Numbers 13:31-33; 14:1-10
Memory text:
“For the thing I greatly feared has come upon me, And what I dreaded has happened to me.”
Job 3:25 NKJV

I once read a story about a suspected food poisoning at a stadium. Once, during a football game, a doctor treated five people for what he suspected might be food poisoning. He deduced that the cause was a certain soft drink from a dispensing machine at the stadium because all of his patients had purchased some prior to becoming ill. It was immediately announced that no one should patronize the dispensing machine, saying some people had become ill and describing the symptoms.
Pandemonium immediately broke out at the stadium as people tried to vomit and fainted in droves. Even a few people who had not even gone near the machine became ill! More than two hundred people were affected. Ambulances from local hospitals drove back and forth to the stadium, transporting multitudes of affected fans. However, when it was discovered that the dispensing machine was not the cause but that the original five victims had actually eaten contaminated potato salad from a restaurant on their way to the stadium, people immediately and “miraculously” recovered!
Our beliefs can affect our physical bodies and make us sick or healthy in a moment. Beliefs have been documented to affect our immune systems and to determine the effectiveness of drugs. According to Dr. Beecher, a drug’s usefulness, “is a direct result of not only the chemical properties of the drug but also the patient’s belief in its usefulness and effectiveness.”
Beliefs will determine your expectations, and your expectations will either cause fear or faith in you. That’s why the acronym of FEAR is False Expectations Appearing Real. This is what our memory verse says. What you fear will come true. Fear is the gateway into a person’s life for all forms of evil, while faith is the gateway for all forms of good. The devil can’t gain entrance unless you permit fear.
Fear has a compound effect, that is, it spreads fast like wild fire. That’s what happened at the stadium and in our text. Through the ten spies, the entire nation of Israel was paralyzed with fear, cried, and became violent (Num 14:1, 9-10). Their fears eventually came true (Num 26:65).
Friends, to deal with fear, you need to first check your beliefs. Are your beliefs based on what the word of God says or what people or your friends say; on what you feel or think; or on what you hear or read about?

Prayer points
1. Father, please visit my belief system and purge me of all negative thoughts, beliefs, and expectations in Jesus’ name.
2. I shut down the door of fear in my life, and I demolish its stronghold now, in Jesus’ name.

Today’s declarations
1. I refuse to fear what they fear and to be moved by what they say, what I feel, or what I hear.
2. I have faith and not fear because I believe what the word of God says, and I have good expectations from my God.

Contact: pastor@thf.org.ng