What God Has Not Given

by Alan Martin


“For God has not given us the spirit of fear….” Paul writes to Timothy. 


The Greek here is not “phobia” but “deilia” – timidity, cowardice, or faintheartedness. This condition of heart is associated with unbelief as in Mark’s description of the disciples being tossed about in the storm. “Why are ye so fearful (deilia) How is it that ye have no faith?” Jesus’ instructions to His disciples forbade this heart condition, “Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid (deilia).” It is obvious we have a choice in the matter; moreover, that choice has eternal consequences. In the Revelation of Jesus Christ given to John on Patmos, the voice of the One on the throne declared “he that overcometh shall inherit all things, and I will be his God, and he shall be my son, But the fearful (deilia) and unbelieving, and abominable, and murderers….shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone which is the second death.”

Do we see timidity, and faintheartedness as the One on the Throne sees it? Why would this “human weakness” be classified with other abominable sins? May the Lord give us His Spirit of wisdom and revelation to consider the answer. Timidity was to be rooted out of the troops of Israel before they even entered battle. “And the officers shall speak further unto the people, and they shall say, What man is there that is fearful and fainthearted (deilia in the LXX)? Let him go and return unto his house lest his brethren’s heart faint (deilia in the LXX) as well as his heart.” Let’s call this the “Domino Dread Effect”, where one unbelieving cowardly heart falls knocking first one, then another, still another out of the will of God and abiding faith. Surely we can remember the report of the ten spies and its doubting domino effect upon the nation of Israel standing on the brink of entering God’s glorious promise to them. Their factually accurate, unbelieving report resulted in the people lifting their voices not in praise, rather in wailing despondency, accusing God of ill intentions and provoking Him to declare an oath in His wrath that none of that evil, unbelieving generation would ever see His promise to them. God struck down the ten spies with a plague and made everyone twenty years or older (except Joshua and Caleb) wander for forty years in a slow death march to nowhere.

Amen we say! Really? - then we acknowledge that such an effect on others is worthy of God’s judgment. What if we are guilty then of having the same effect on even a few? If we were able to keep our timid, fainting heart to ourselves, we should not be in such danger; however, misery loves company. None of us do well in carrying our burdens or cares alone, we all look for someone to share them with. When we are in faith we cast our cares upon the Lord remembering that He cares for us. When we are unbelieving and fearful, we will most often not cast our cares upon Him who is unseen, but rather our neighbor who we can see. If the one receiving our own factually accurate spiritually unbelieving report is not in the Spirit, they will likely become the first domino in the domino dread effect. For example, when we have been deeply hurt by the unkindness of another, and we do not find that place of faith where we cast our hurting care upon the God of all comfort, we are tempted to share our burden with a friend who will sympathize with us. Rarely do we stop to realize that “covering over an offense promotes love but repeating the matter separates chief friends.” The potential for negatively affecting someone’s heart towards others is far greater than we realize. Great fires are set ablaze by such small and brief private conversations where we allow our unbelieving fearful heart to spill out onto the wrong comforter – then we must understand the Spirit God has given us if we are to overcome what He has not!


Fear = Focus Entirely Absent of Righteousness. The Righteous shall live by their faith, thus a focus upon the problem or pain and not upon the Faithfulness of the Father will always produce an unbelieving fainthearted response to our boat being rocked. Fear results from having the wrong focus, and the more intensely we focus our thoughts upon the hurt, the injustice, the danger, or the difficulty, the more gripping the timidity becomes. God has not given us the Spirit of fear because – the Spirit will never focus upon those things – He will always focus upon the Father. Focusing upon the Father, even in the face of our own crucifixion, will enable us to say “nevertheless, not what I will, but Thy will be done.” Seeing the Father clearly breathes the enabling power of faith into our human frailty and we overcome through tribulation rather than being overwhelmed by it. The Holy Spirit will never speak on His own, but only that which the Father speaks; therefore, when our mind is controlled by the Spirit – it is a mind of life and peace. The Spirit takes from what is Jesus’ and makes that known to us – and all that the Father has was given to Jesus – that means the Spirit makes all of the Father available to us.


That’s how Jesus overcame, through the Father being with Him and at work in Him. When we are in step with His Spirit, and the Father is being made known to us, our own minds will be controlled by life and peace. This is what it means to live by the Spirit as a son of God, having been set free from a sinful unbelieving heart that turns away (during crisis) from the living God.



The result of this abiding in Christ through keeping in step with the Spirit is having all the promises of God become the living reality of yes and amen in Christ - in us. Promises like –“Thou wilt keep in perfect peace him whose mind is steadfast because he is stayed on Thee.” Perfect peace results from having our focus fixed upon the author and finisher of our faith; when we have clearly seen Jesus, we have seen the Father. It is worth noting that the Greek used in Hebrews 12 says “looking away – unto Jesus.” Looking away from what? The problem! 


Looking at the waves will take us under every time – exposing the fact that our fear is really greater than our faith. Thankfully our Lord is merciful and will lovingly reprove us by asking us “Where is your faith? Why did you doubt?” When by His grace our focus is fixed upon the glory of the Father as seen in the face of Christ, we are transformed from our likeness of Adam the first into an ever-increasing likeness to Adam the Last. There in that abiding rest of faith we will experience what the Lord declared through Isaiah, “The fruit of righteousness shall be peace the effect of righteousness quietness and confidence forever. My people shall live in secure dwelling places, in undisturbed places of rest.” This is the rest we must make certain that none of us have fallen short of – and it is a rest only entered by faith.


Those who come to Jesus and learn of Him find rest unto their souls. They find His yoke is easy and His burden is light. All who receive Him, to them He gives power to become the sons of God. The Spirit that Jesus sends from the Father is the Spirit of power - love – and – a sound mind. Power in the sense of we are enabled to do all things through Christ who gives us strength. Love in the sense that the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit, perfecting us in that childlike obedient faith. Perfect love will cast out fear, because knowing the love of Christ enables us to grow up into all the fullness of God, having a sound mind – the mind of Christ. We literally become like Christ in this world, giving us great confidence for judgment day. With our eyes fixed upon Jesus, seeing the glory of the Father through the face of Christ, we begin to trust the Father like Jesus trusted Him. We start loving our brothers like Jesus loves them. We begin to say to our own hearts “peace be still” when our boat is being rocked. Beholding Him we are transformed from timid, cowardly, carnal men, to mature, tested, experienced, spiritual men. When we see Jesus all is well – when we don’t, the words of the not so well known song by John Newton explain it best:

How tedious and tasteless the hours when Jesus no longer I see
Sweet prospects sweet birds and sweet flowers have all lost their sweetness to me
The mid summer sun shines but dim, the fields strive in vain to look gay
But when I am happy in Him – December’s as pleasant as May

Content with beholding His face my all to His pleasure resigned
No changing of season or place would make any change in my mind
While blessed with a sense of His love a palace a toy would appear
And prisons would palaces prove if Jesus would dwell with me there

Dear Lord if indeed I am Thine, if Thou art my sun and my song
Say why do I languish and pine and why are my winters so long
O drive these dark clouds from my sky Thy soul cheering presence restore
Or take me unto Thee on high where winter and clouds are no more


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