A disciple of Jesus Christ must not take decisions based on the fear of men or of circumstances.

I have a large verse hanging in the front room of my house that reads, "If you fear God, you need fear nothing else". That's the Living Bible paraphrase of Isaiah 8:12 &13. That verse has been of tremendous help to me in the last 25 years.

Let me share with you some of the truths that I've learnt from the Lord on this matter of fear.

First of all, I've learnt that fear is one of the main weapons in Satan's armory.

Secondly, I've learnt that I don't need to feel condemned if feelings of fear come to me at times - because I'm still in the flesh. We must be realistic and honest about this. The apostle Paul was quite honest and admitted that he had "fears within" him, at certain times (2 Corinthians 7:5).

The third thing I've learnt (and this is the most important) is that even if I do have fears, I must never take a decision based on fear . My decisions must always be based on faith in God - the very opposite of fear. And that's how I've sought to live for many years now. And God has helped me and encouraged me tremendously.

I now understand why Jesus so frequently said:

Fear not, fear not, fear not.

This is as important as the other emphasis in the New Testament:

Sin not, sin not, sin not.

Jesus was always against sin and He was always against fear . He told us to fear only God and no-one else (Matthew 10:28). This is a very important lesson for us to learn, because a spiritual leader must never take any decision based on fear.

Another verse that I've had hanging in my sitting room for many years is Galatians 1:10 :

If I seek to please men, I cannot be the servant of Christ.

If you seek to please men, you can never be a servant of the Lord. And I'll tell you it's not easy to break free from seeking to please men.

If you've a fear in your heart that someone will harm you in some way if you displease him, then you'll always try to please him. Then you can never be a servant of God. If ever you act on the basis of fear, you can be sure that it is the devil who is guiding you, and not God.

If we look back over our lives, we'll find that we've taken many decisions in the past on the basis of fear. In all those decisions, we were not led by God. The consequences of some of those decisions may not have been serious. But we missed God's best. We should act differently in future.

It's natural for us to feel fear - because we're human. For example, if you suddenly saw a cobra in front of you where you're sitting right now, you'd naturally get a shock and jump up - and adrenalin would rush into your blood stream. That's natural. But you don't live in fear of finding a cobra under every chair - everywhere you go!

We must not live in fear of anyone either.

We must never take a decision based on the fear of men or Satan. Every decision we take must be based on the fear of God and in total faith in our heavenly Father. Only then can we be sure that we're being led by the Holy Spirit.

Hebrews 13:6 is a very important verse for all of us who serve the Lord. It says there:

We boldly say that the Lord is our Helper and we will not be afraid. What can any man do to us?

If we believe this, it will bring such tremendous authority into our lives. A lot of our spiritual authority is taken away from us by Satan, because we fear men, or seek to please them or impress them, or justify ourselves before them. We must get rid of these attitudes totally.