Christian Elliot: Overcoming Fear - Embracing Power, Love, and Self-Discipline for a Life Free from Emotional Paralysis

Have you ever wondered how fear can affect us? In today's episode, I unravel this complex emotion by exploring its impact on our mental, emotional, physical, and spiritual well-being. Drawing on my experiences as a health coach and minister, I share how understanding fear's role in our lives can be transformative. I look at fear as a warning signal, much like a check engine light, and discuss how it can disrupt rational thinking, leading to potentially irrational actions. Drawing insights from the Bible we highlight how overcoming fear is crucial for empowering physical and emotional healing.

I point out that God does not give us the spirit of fear, emphasizing instead the spirit of power, love, and self-discipline mentioned in 2 Timothy 1:7. I explore how scripture guides us from suffering to hope, teaching us to trust even in discomfort. Discover how this divine empowerment enables us to challenge falsehoods and embrace truth, offering practical tools to rise above fear. Join me on this bonus episode to harness a life grounded in power and fearlessness, embracing a spirit not defined by fear.

Chapters

• 0:00 Overcoming the Spirit of Fear
• 6:53 Spirit of Power and Fearlessness

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:52

Hello everyone, welcome to episode number 40. I am working away preparing some exciting new interviews, but in the meantime I thought I'd give you what I guess you could call a bonus episode. This was my wife's idea, actually. This past Tuesday, nina Dr Gessling and I did another run of our free two-day detox workshop and, as many of you know, we set up Healing United to be a private membership association and a ministry to the whole human. And, for those of you who don't know, back in 2003, I earned a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Seminary in Pasadena, california.

Speaker 1: 1:26

Anyway, because of our background and shared faith here at Healing United, our work finds us at the crossroads of the mental, emotional, physical and spiritual aspects of health and our focus is on the physical body. So we help people detox from metals and molds and venoms and parasites and vax injuries and endocrine disruptors, et cetera. But we also help people detox from toxic thoughts and emotions which, truthfully, sometimes are a bigger source of body burden than any chemicals that find their way into our bodies. And because of that we've even built a relatively short cleanse program for the mind and body. It helps people shed some emotional weight and prime them for a physical detox. And you can find out about that on our website.

Speaker 1: 2:08

But one thing I've had to deal with a lot as a health coach over the last four years has been helping people overcome fear, and I've found that breaking people free from fear, that has often been the linchpin that empowers their physical body to heal. So has anyone had any anxious thoughts lately? I mean, who hasn't right? There seems to be a lot going on in the world and there is no shortage of things that might make one anxious. And so, because I have a pastor's heart behind the work I do, I decided to offer a bonus session at the end of our live workshops, and because I just wanted to speak to the palpable spirit of fear running through our culture. And so, as I wrapped up the event, I let the participants know I was going to offer a bonus teaching in case they wanted to stick around, and I told them the topic and mentioned my background and then gave them the caveat that if they decide to come to the bonus teaching, they just forfeit the option to be offended if I reference the Bible. So I give you that same disclaimer.

Speaker 1: 3:03

I've done this short little bonus session at all of our workshops, and while I've always started with the same Bible verse. I went back and listened to some of the previous versions and it struck me how different some of them were. I just asked God to help me find the words that those in attendance needed to hear, and I let it rip. So here is me, unscripted, just talking about what came to mind at the last workshop, and Nina thought it was so good that I should just publish it and see if it helps more of you find edification and hope too. So here are some of my thoughts about overcoming the spirit of fear, and I hope you find it helpful. Stay encouraged, my friends, and if you like this little bonus episode and you want me to do more things like this, just let me know.

Speaker 1: 3:42

Okay, here it is. You guys need a break. Are you good to go? Keep going, okay, okay, all right. So what?

Speaker 1: 3:50

What has been apparent? Or just, you guys probably all appreciate this, especially with election season coming up, right, there's, there's a palpable anxiousness, or I just call it fear running through. When covid started it was running through our client base. I'm like whoa, like this is just palpable. There's this energy people brought to the group calls or to our 101 calls, where they just you had to calm them down to even be able to talk to them. And what I've grown to appreciate more and look more deeply into is just this topic of fear and there's probably nothing. Maybe rest, but maybe, other than that, there's probably nothing in the scripture that is commanded more than do not be afraid. It's estimated about 365. So roughly once a day the scripture thinks we need to hear this repeated command, admonition, imploring to not be afraid.

Speaker 1: 4:48

And I realized part of the reason COVID was so effective was because it pushed the fear button so aggressively. And when we are fearful we are malleable. We are not able to think are literally our thinking circuits. I was. I read a book a few years ago called thinking fast and slow and it's pointed out how much fear short circuits, the rational brain that we have, and we just get into reaction mode and we're lather up with typically really unhealthy behaviors or coping mechanisms or words we would take back or, um, tension that creates legit body burden, and so I kind of started being force-fed. The need to understand and deal with fear more and it's really where our emotional mastery course came from is we've, we've got to have an ability to get above this.

Speaker 1: 5:33

So the scripture, out of all the ones that I could point to that resonate or just gave me so much clarity and peace over fear or an ability to get past it. There's many, but the one that jumped out was 2 Timothy 1.7. It says we have not been given a spirit of fear. So if you don't know that verse it's worth like it's became a theme of a program we ran here and a half two years ago. Not been given a spirit of fear, a theme of a program we ran year and a half two years ago. Not been given a spirit of fear.

Speaker 1: 6:03

So right there, before I even finish the rest of the verse, that part lets us know if we are operating from a place of fear. Something's off right. I've come to think of fear or anxiousness, or like unease, as the check engine light just came on in my body, like it's just telling me you're operating from a particular spirit that is not from the one that you've been given. That is not the spirit that through Jesus, through the Holy Spirit that we have been given. That is something else and that is not from God. So now I need to pay attention, my discernment needs to kick in, I need to get really curious, really fast, as to what's going on. It's not like I'm impervious to a negative thought or an anxious moment, but I've become much more difficult to rattle and appreciate how much fear shuts us down. And so the scripture. It starts by saying you haven't been given this spirit, so if it's there, that's not from me. I will not do that to you.

Speaker 1: 6:54

God is not in the business of making us afraid. He is in the business of refining us, teaching us to trust him, and sometimes that means making us uncomfortable. The scripture talks a lot about discipline, and discipline produces or suffering produces perseverance, like I'm still here and you're developing the muscle of perseverance. And perseverance leads to character, character leads to hope, and there's this progression in scripture of like, if we can face suffering and fear, it's taking us somewhere. But to recognize that spirit, a fearful spirit, is not ever from God, never. So that can't be something he would, a tool he would use. Is making me anxious and afraid. There's the healthy fear of God, which I think I take as reverence and awe and deep abiding respect that he is God and I am not. It is not my place to be the arbiter of final truth. It's my job to stay humble. That's a reverence and a fear. Let me be fearful of ever stepping into that realm and pretending I'm, I belong there. So I haven't been given that spirit. So what spirit have I been given?

Speaker 1: 8:02

Beautifully, that verse, second timothy 1, 7, goes on to explain the spirit we have been given and it's a trifecta, it's this beautiful checks and balances baked into what spirit we have been given. So the first thing we've been given is a spirit of power, fantastic. So the spirit of power there's in 2 Corinthians I think it's 10, it says we've been given divine power to demolish strongholds and arguments and pretensions. It gets even better, not just the stronghold, but part of that is these stupid arguments Like there's more than two genders or whatever word we want to change, and ways we can kind of bend reality. We can demolish ridiculous arguments and pretensions that set themselves up against the knowledge of God. So we've been given a spirit of power that I think we underestimate sometimes. The authority we do have. The spirit we've been given, a spirit of power that I think we underestimate sometimes. The authority we do have, the spirit we've been given is power over fear. It's power over arguments and pretensions and strongholds that might be in our own lives or our habits or any number of things. So we've been given a spirit of power. But power unchecked by the other two things can just lead to self-aggrandizing behavior. It can lead to cocky arrogance, pretentious, icky ew behavior. It can lead you to being Bill Gates or Klaus Schwab or Anthony Fauci or any number of power-hungry gross people who are just drunk on it and yeah, I have all the money I want, but I don't have. I can always have more power, I can always control more things. Power unchecked could lead to all sorts of destruction. That's not all the spirit we've been given. We've been given power fantastic but we've also been given the spirit of love is the next thing you begin, a spirit of power and love. Love makes your power not all about you anymore. Love is about it needs an object of its affection, like there has to go somewhere. We use, we throw it around, like I love pizza or I love pick the thing, but love there's greek has four words for it it's more fun. Love has an object and it has some place to take it and it's a service to other people. It is you. You live out. You know love when you see it, because you can feel it coming back to you. And love is part of what keeps power in check from getting too full of itself. It keeps you from the pompous look at me, I'm so good, I have all these blessings because I'm so powerful. Love is you go through first corinthians 13. It's patient and and kind, and it doesn't seek its own fulfillment. It's about other people and it doesn't keep a ledger of wrongdoings. It's not what love is about. And then the third thing so we've got power, we've got love. And then the third thing is we've got a sound mind Fantastic. So another translation says self-discipline. The spirit we've been given is that set of checks and balances, power undergirded with love, that has self-discipline, that says I'm actually put here to do things I'm put here to like. The Proverbs are full of talking about the value of hard work and discipline and reaping what we sow, and reaping what we sow, and we. It's odd to me that the creator of the universe decided that the way that we're going to reach humanity is with humanity that we are going to. You know what, though? Here's the plan I'm going to come back and then we're going to, I'm going to put my spirit on all these people. We're super messy, but that was plan a and there isn't a plan b for the great commission. We are it and he chooses to work through us messy vessels, and the way that we are effective is when we have self-discipline. It's not just wait for God to zap me and tell me what to do. There's a forging of our faith. There's a working out of your salvation with fear and trembling is what the scripture talks about. It doesn't mean anxiousness, it means reverence and there's stakes in this game. We are, we are part of the gigantic divine rescue mission hatched by the creator of the world to come rescue his beloved whoa, that's. We're gonna need some discipline to work this out and play the long game, just like I'm gonna need discipline to work this out and stay healthy long enough to reap the harvest I was put here to reap. So we've been given a spirit that has power and love and self-discipline wrapped into it. It says in 1 Peter that to study to show yourself a proof, to always have a reasoned defense for the hope that is in you, we have to study to be able to have a reasoned defense for the hope that is in you. We have to study to be able to have a reasoned defense for the hope that we have. And to do that we need discipline. We need a spirit of power, love and sound mind. It's hard to have a sound mind if your body's pooped. It's hard to have a sound mind if you're toxic. It's hard to have a sound mind if you're not grounded in truth and you don't think you're adequate. And you don't think you're adequate and you don't think you're worthy and you don't think there's any point to your effort. It's not a sound mind. That's a defeated, broken will. And the spirit we've been given doesn't ever allow the thought that you're not worth the effort. It doesn't allow the thought that you're not worthy. It doesn't let you get on your high horse and think I'm amazing and of course I'm worthy for that. No, you're not. You're not worth God. Our best works are filthy rags. They are. Nothing we could ever do could equal the value, the debt we owe God. Yet by his decree alone and we don't need anyone else's word we are worth the effort because he said we are. That is where our worth is found and our adequacy isn't in how many skills we can learn instruments we can play in music or languages we can learn, and whatever our value is in that. He said we're valuable and our adequacy comes from the fact that he put us here to try. And he said I'm a creator, you're made of my image. You go make stuff too, and we're going to do this journey together. To me, that's my undergirding of purpose, that's my undergirding of hope, and I've been given a spirit of power, love and sound mind. Well, where's the place for fear in that the? A place for fear in that? That was his perfect love. One of the things in the spirit we've been given drives out fear. There's no new place. So fantastic that. So to me that if there's anything I can leave you with, what I hope this program has done, or what this experience, this trailhead we've come together on for these few hours here, has been able to do, is help you reorient to reality. On many levels. I am worth the effort because God says I'm worth it. I'm adequate to try. Who am I to not try? If he's going to hatch a rescue mission, why would I sit on the sidelines and believe my own inadequacy? He still got me here, Apparently. I get another day. Let's see what I can make of it and when that starts to sink into who we are and how we operate, then our health habits take on significance. Going through the grind of a detox is worth it because we get to extend our runway and be part of reaping the harvest that we were put here to reap. That's what lights my fire. I got six kids. I'm trying to pass this on to. Hopefully, whatever Nina and I build outlasts us and they do greater things with it, but we have a generational outlook with what we do. There's a purpose behind it and it fills our sails with plenty of purpose and motivation. We're not searching for it. It doesn't go missing because we've grounded it in something real and fear has no place here. We're still human and we still have our anxious thoughts, but it doesn't abide in us and we know it when we feel it and we're like ugh. Who of us can, by worrying, can, add an hour to your life? Not me. So help me with this one, lord. This is a lot, and we can be real with him because he can handle it. So, anyway, that's my long-winded soapbox there, but I wanted to leave you with a reminder that you're worth the effort you have, what it takes. The God of the universe says that not just me. And you've been given a spirit of power, love and sound mind if you are in Jesus. And wow, what a promise. So, with him at our back, like, bring it on Fauci or whoever, I got the armies of heaven back here, and what have you got? Bring it on Fauci or whoever, I got the armies of heaven back here, and what have you got? Nothing. So you've got a reckoning. You're not going to enjoy coming up and we have more than conquerors, because if God's for us, who's against us? So anyway, hopefully you found that edifying and that you took some great gems from this workshop to not just think about how do I get heavy metal out of my body? Yes, we can do that, but why? Who cares? There's an answer for that. It's a really good one. So rejoice in um the fact that you're fearfully and wonderfully made in a body that can heal, that knows how to do it. Your job is just to unburden it and get out of its way and stop poisoning it with your thoughts and find your mission. So all right. So what I'd like to do, if you guys don't mind, is just pray over you and bless you, and we'll call it a night. So you guys, good with that? Yeah, okay, all right. Well, let's go before the throne room of heaven. So, lord jesus, thank you so much for this day. Thank you for um. Thank you, god, that you are on your throne in heaven, that you invite us to come boldly into your presence and um and, and that we are allowed to be there. No, we don't come in a cocky way. We come knowing that you are god and that we are not, and that you are the author and perfecter of our faith. Thank you so much for the way that you have have wired these bodies of ours to be able to heal. We ache for the day when we don't age anymore, but we trust that you are perfect timing in what is ahead of us. We ask you to help just guide us to the solutions and the answers that you want. Guide us to deeper and deeper senses of purpose. Help us to abide in the spirit you have given us of power and love and sound mind, and may we never forget that. Thank you so much for the opportunity to be with these precious people that you love so much. I ask that you just bless them. Bring to mind the things that we've talked about. That will edify them and encourage them in the days ahead and bless them in Jesus' name, amen.