Aura Of Fear

THE AURA OF FEAR

By Wade Martin Hughes, Sr.

Kyfingers@aol.com

TEXT:

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of POWER, and of LOVE, and of a SOUND MIND.

2 Timothy 2:20 If any man therefore PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE, he shall be a vessel unto honor, sanctified, and meet for THE MASTER’S USE, and prepared unto every good work.

Numbers 13, 10 spies in fear, see giants, and become grasshoppers in our own sight.

Today, I ponder the Aura of Fear, being whipped.

In 1974, I began teaching school in Lee County, Virginia.

My first year I had 44 kids, all day long, without a break.

There was a smart blond boy in my seventh grade class.

He would never look me in the eyes.

He was always down and withdrawn.

I noticed his little sister on the play ground.

She never looked up.

They were very timid, never made a sound. I made home visits.

I went to their house, I noted before I got out of my Mustang, their dog had his tail tucked between his legs and the dog would not look up, like I was going to whip him. I petted the little dog, and went in the house.

The Mom would not look me in the eyes, her head hung very low.

They had a beautiful house, nice car, ... then I met the dad, I understood.

The dad was very loud and controlling, and no one was allowed to speak, unless they were spoken to.

I then started calling this my ’WHIPPED DOG SYNDROME."

This little family walked never looking up, never smiling, never happy, ---

they appeared to have a whipped attitude.

Before they started, they were whipped, no confidence, no trust, negative driven, pushed, jerked, punished, criticized but never praised.

Listen, I have seen this "WHIPPED" attitude often in the church.

I have often heard we can’t...,

I am afraid to try...,

What will someone think...,

I dread tomorrow...,

Do I have to...,

I am a failure...,

We’ve never done it that way before..,

Everybody disappointments me ---

Let’s sing the anthem ... Gloom, despair, agony on end, deep dark depression, excessive misery, if it weren’t for bad luck, I would have no luck at all.

This is not right. You are not whipped unless you don’t try.

You are not whipped unless you quit.

Where is persistence? Where is faith and purpose?

Let’s address AURA.

Aura is a subtle, subjective sense; a distinctive atmosphere surrounding someone; energy field that is held to emanate from a living being.

To illustrate this point, it is said, a dog can sense --- smell fear.

If a dog attacks, to turn and run can make the dog even more aggressive.

Once last year, I was walking and a neighbor’s mean dog decided he was coming after me. I started to run, then thought, fat chance of me getting away. I turned and looked the dog eye to eye. The dog stopped. I would turn away and he came at me. So, I faced the dog and walked backward, and I "got away."

I think the aura of fear can go deeper than attitude, it can become possessive, exaggerated, overstated, and magnified in our daily walks.

This fear -- whipping the saints is a type of unbelief, doubt, distrust.

Stop here and define fear.

For the lazy’s,... Fear is an emotion, a feeling of panic, fright, to be afraid, expect harm, to expect the worst, alarm, DREAD, anxiety.

WHIPPING FEAR IS TO REPRESENT A PROBLEM AS GREATER THAN IT IS, AND GREATER THAN GOD AND HIS WORD.

We must purge, clear, remove the undesirable, and set us free from the traps of the aura of fear.

2 Timothy 2:20 If any man therefore PURGE HIMSELF FROM THESE, he shall be a vessel unto honour, sanctified, and meet for THE MASTER’S USE, and prepared unto every good work.

Most know, I live in the country.

We had 100 Rhode Island Reds (chickens). I would be gone away preaching and Linda had to feed the chickens.

Of the day, we would allow the chickens to run lose.

Linda watched Hitchcock’s "THE BIRDS" as a little girl.

Linda hates birds, chickens included, except in dumplings.

She started toward the chickens’ house to feed them. They saw her and ran toward her, they wanted food. Linda started running as fast as she could to get away from them. The chickens ran after her, not to get her, ... they wanted food.

She thought they were "OUT TO GET HER." The faster she ran, the faster they ran. She drops the bucket of feed, the chickens stopped to eat. But it was her running away, that drew the chickens.

Does our enemy ever use FEAR to get us to run, runaway, to run an avoid?