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Overcoming Fear Through Trust in God

 

We are born anew in each experience of the truth. I’m talking about a living truth that is who we are. It is our life. When we make a commitment to that truth, I don’t measure it in any small way. I measure it in a supreme way. As a Soul, that is who we are. We are a true self. – John Morton

This article by John Morton was first published in the New Day Herald in March of 2011


There’s a truth in the Spirit that translates in our experience to awe. So when we come into that awareness, we could translate it to fear. Fear comes by itself honestly which means in some way we carry fear. But God is not a cause of fear. Neither are you. So fear is not your truth.

When you come into a negative field, which is where we are in this physical world, then fear comes with the field. We feel it. In the natural kingdom, often that’s how a predator preys. It preys upon the sensation of the fear. Part of overcoming fear is to understand where you can stand up to it. Whatever you experience as the predator in your life, you have something greater within you that can overcome it.

When you come into an understanding of this truth, there’s a respect. You understand the power, and you respect the power which we can call the negative power. There’s respect for the negative power, but it’s a healthy respect. So if you come into a presence of something that you find intimidating, you can choose to respect what that is. To be in a lesser form in relation to that fear, would be a disrespect. To live in fear would be a disrespect toward yourself.

In your knowing of who you are, you’re going to get over whatever intimidates you. You’re going to outgrow it. When a child has a nightmare or frightening experience, our understanding and compassion helps them. Our calm translates to their calm. You can do that also with what is awesome. You can respect it without being shut down in relation to it. You can face that awesome presence of the Spirit. That moment will be a moment of your growth so you are standing in your strength and becoming who you are in your fullness.

Overcoming our fears doesn’t necessarily translate into conquering anything. There may be nothing more necessary than that you stand in your strength. You don’t have to go wrestle with a bear or a crocodile. You don’t have to tango with your enemy. But you can still stand up in your strength in relation to whatever you fear.

Often the only way to resolve what’s next for you in your life, regardless of how intimidated you might feel, is to simply do what’s next. It’s important to trust yourself and choose from your wisdom. Your wisdom cannot disconnect from itself. Wisdom is continuous. If you stay in your wisdom, then you can make wise choices. But if you move away from your wisdom and make a choice out of your fear or unworthiness, your life is going to reflect that to you. If you’ve done that a lot, it builds up into a pattern. However, it’s a pattern you can change. Often when you’re sick and tired of the pattern, that’s when you’re ready to change.

In new situations when you may feel intimidated, you may second guess yourself. You may doubt yourself and focus on the fear. The reality is you haven’t been in that situation before at least that you remember. In effect, you haven’t had that experience regardless of what you remember. Go forward, placing your trust and faith in God with what’s next for you. Allow for the awe of the Spirit to come forward and be your strength and inspiration.

One of the things that we’re bringing forth in this Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness is knowing that our true fulfillment is always within us. It’s not dependent on anybody else. It’s not dependent on the circumstances that are around us. However, some people may condition their imagination and thinking to be fearful. They may think of themselves as incapable and needing support from outside themselves. The truth is the support comes from within.

You’re worthy of that divine support, so declare it. You don’t have to have a lesson to learn the support you need most is within you. You don’t need a lesson that might drag you through an unnecessary experience. You can realize, “Oh, I don’t need somebody else. I can provide for myself as God provides for me.”

Be careful how you think inside and act accordingly. Demonstrate that you trust yourself. Stay with your inner guidance, which isn’t always agreed upon in the world. If you go around seeking opinions, you’re probably going to get them. Often those opinions will confuse you, because you give them importance that starts doubting your own truth. If you know what to do, if you trust your inner wisdom, you don’t need someone else’s assurance.

In MSIA, our dedication is to go to God and to let go of whatever would keep us from that. If things are coming to you that shake you in your weaknesses, that’s good. The more you can embrace that process of facing and confronting whatever intimidates or haunts you, the better off you’re going to be.

There are parts of us that we may want to hide and keep hidden. What’s false within us often considers there’s something for us to feel shame, that if we were caught or found out, then something bad would happen. Instead, embrace your truth. Reveal it completely to yourself. It’s like being naked but much more powerful than being naked physically. It’s allowing yourself to be revealed from inside in every way.

The reality is only good can come from revealing yourself. It doesn’t mean that that happens right away. Sometimes it’s like a boil that’s beneath the skin. What’s going on in a boil is the poison’s coming out and it’s choosing a form of a cyst to precipitate that toxicity and bring it to the surface to release. Part of that process may involve pain, perhaps severe pain. Getting the toxicity out isn’t often something that feels good, but it’s still necessary. Love it and the perfection in your process of revelation.

Make yourself available to the cleansing and the purifying that is a divine process. That energy is a penetrating energy. It’s natural to who you are. It draws forth what’s deepest inside of you, which is clarity and the real power of who you are which is always loving. That energy is going to put pressure on the dark and the dense parts of you so they can surface and be released in the Light.

The efficiency of the Spirit is that it has this ability to do just what’s necessary. It gets at that essential element, what’s at the core of it, and clears it up. You can then clear all the rest. It doesn’t mean it will happen all at once, but you’ll set in motion your healing and clearing.

When you make a decision to overcome your fears, that becomes a commitment, which then becomes a dedication, a devotion, and a consecration. When you make the commitment to be true and honor your life, that consecration is a holy sacrament. It’s like saying, “I will give my life to be who I am, so that I would never betray myself. I would never go against myself. I would never deny myself. I will always be there for myself, not just partially, but completely.”

I think if we all took a little inventory right now we might say, “I don’t think I’ve ever done that. I have always been holding something back.” There’s been some kind of fear, some doubt, some part of you that resisted and was unwilling to really give yourself over completely to anything. Even when things were great, there was still some part of you that was doubting, hesitating and wondering when the fear or darkness would show up or whatever that is that doesn’t quite let go and trust. That fear has no power. But when we feed the enemy inside with our fear, our doubt, our judgment, our reaction, our avoidance, our numbing, then it has a life. When we start loving it, it dissolves and transforms into our friend and ally.

When you take on overcoming your fear as an intention that you will be true to yourself, it becomes an ongoing lifetime commitment that takes great courage simply because we also take on the test. The test is, “Let’s find out how true you are, how committed you are, how dedicated you are.” These tests will measure you right up to whatever you would allow to turn away from your truth and fulfillment, where you would give over to your weakness or fears. It’s not a punishment. It’s not God’s way of making you wrong or proving how inferior you are in comparison to His presence, like an intimidation game or something you can’t handle. We have attached ourselves to things that are false. When the truth comes along, it moves us because the position we have put ourselves in, in relation to the truth, feels hurtful and needs to be released and let go.

When we start waking up to how things work, we know that the truth is never compromised and it will prevail. When we’re experiencing the fear or the fight, we’ve lost track somehow. When we cooperate with the truth, it sets us free and it becomes a fountain that is life affirming. We are born anew in each experience of the truth.

I’m talking about a living truth that is who we are. It is our life. When we make a commitment to that truth, I don’t measure it in any small way. I measure it in a supreme way. As a Soul, that is who we are. We are a true self. Not a sometimes true self, or occasionally true self, or when we’re in a good mood true self. We are an ongoing, eternal true self that is never false to itself.

The false self is just a pretense. Is a pretense real? I don’t find it to be so. If anything I find it to be something discouraging and frustrating. I’m not talking about having fun or where we fantasize and act out things that we pretend to be. Sometimes what we’re pretending to be and fantasizing about is the truth because we’re getting a hold of that truth from a place that has not yet manifested. There’s a greater truth to who we are that has yet to become manifest because of the limitations we have put in place.

I look at life being what it is that it’s going to take us up to our limit. The only way that we can go past that is when we find our deeper spiritual nature. You can call it courage, truth, willingness, humbleness, honesty, love, kindness, or forgiveness. The truth of who we are will call upon and challenge our limitations and fears.

Let’s just consider whatever it is you’re learning, wherever you need help or assistance, wherever you know you’re off, you’re not practicing what is really the best and truthful for you. Everybody has something that would be a weakness, a place where they’re not so good at doing what we know would be best. However, what we see and then what we do may be two different things. There is a way to work with that.

It’s fairly common for people to be their own worst enemy. What does that mean? We fight with ourselves. We have self hatred, disrespect, and dishonoring. It shows up in destructive ways and it projects out. That self-destruction can look like an attack on other people or situations.

However, when somebody is at their worst, they’re really putting out a message of help. That’s what they need in that moment. They don’t need rejection or judgment. They may need confrontation of the highest order such that they are willing to confront themselves and their so-called demons or fears.

What do demons look like? Well, usually not so pretty. But the parts of you that are not so pretty are still lovable. Would you be willing to confront that about yourself? The awesome power of love can stop anything. It can conquer all so that which was your enemy is transformed.

Some years ago during a trip to Africa, a group of us went on a canoe trip across a lake. We had small dugout canoes where the rim sits about four inches above the surface of the water. There were three canoes with about six people in each boat, and each boat had a local guide who didn’t speak much English.

We started to go up a small stream filled with thick grass. As soon as we entered the stream, I started sensing, “There’s something here.” I wasn’t aware of what it was until somebody said, “Look!” and there were two little bumps above the water’s surface. Those bumps just happened to be crocodile eyes. Then someone said, “Look there!” Pretty soon it was “There! There! There!” I counted about eighteen crocodiles surrounding us, all staring at us. I remember thinking, “This is not my idea of fun.” No one had explained to me that we were going in those tiny boats to where the crocodiles lived. Then I discovered there is much learning present when we realize our courage.

Something happened with our particular boat where the weeds that were under the water got entangled with the boat. Our guide got out, and stood in the waist deep water. I thought, “Whew, he’s a braver man than I am.” Then he communicated to us in his broken English, “I need some help.”

Now, I happened to be in the boat with J-R, and I realized, “No, I don’t want J-R getting out.” It wasn’t instantaneous for me to get out and help either. Somebody else got out, and as I sat there I realized, “I’m just going to have to do this.” I said to myself, “Okay, Lord, if this is when you want to take me, and you want to take me in a way that would be one of the least ways I prefer because I don’t like the idea that a crocodile’s going to do it, then so be it.” And I just got out.

The really amazing part of it was it was one of the most liberating experiences of my life. It really called upon me to put aside a very intense level of fear and to do what in the situation I found I was called upon to do. For me, it became a moment where I realized that personally I didn’t want to do that. There was no way on a personal level I wanted to get out of that boat. But on another level, I wanted to trust. I wanted to overcome the fear and intimidation of that experience so I could get out and untangle the boat, which we did.

I’m thankful for being brought to the edge of my trust and making that choice in trust in God. I experienced a revelation about my courage and the awesome power of love. That’s how I view myself getting out of that boat. I overcame my fear by claiming, “I trust you God.”

Baruch Bashan

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