FEAR... DREAD... APPREHENSION…TREPIDATION…INTIMIDATION…Did your body begin to tense as you read these words? Did butterflies begin to swarm in your stomach regions? How about your shoulders? Did they begin to draw up in tension and fear? Mine did—and I was simply typing the words! Reality is there are things we should fear, and things we should not fear. The key is knowing the difference.

We may also find ourselves challenged to walk through perceived danger. Our souls cry out “it’s unsafe, it’s unsafe. Don’t make me go there!”, while the Holy Spirit is urging us upward and onward. There is a part of us that wants to stay within the comfort zones of the known and predictable. But God is saying it’s time to grow and come into new levels. Our soul needs to learn to overcome limitations which we may have learned as a child or through circumstances. We need to know that as we seek to cross over into our potential zone, we will often run into the spirit of intimidation and his buddies.

When God begins to encourage us to step outside our comfort zones we can be assured that we will be facing built in ‘false security devices’. Our souls react with a sense of danger and warnings. Our emotions tell us that to stay safe that we need the familiar. The fear of the unknown will loom large in our faces and we must choose to whom we will submit. Will we allow the spirit of intimidation (here after referred to as S.O.I) to dictate our boundaries to us? Or will we stand strong in the knowledge of who we are in Christ, who He has called us to be and go forward? The S.O.I. will magnify the danger. Satan does not want us to move ahead to any new levels in our life. Why does he use fear and intimidation? Because it works!

Satan's tool: Intimidation

The word intimidation means to frighten into submission through the use of inducing fear or a sense of inferiority into another. Satan will try to cow us into stopping by reducing us to a state where our spirit is broken and all courage is lost. Or he will attempt to bulldoze us by overcoming our resistance through urging or demanding us to prove that we are really called to do what we are attempting to do. He tries to bully us through threats, insults or aggressive behavior. These come in the form of thoughts that attack our faith, our trust in God or our ability to trust others.

Although the spirit of intimidation can attack at any time we can guarantee that it will attempt to raise its ugly head when we are asked to do something new. The S.O.I. begins by seeking out areas in our soul where we are insecure. It tries many openings (such as our looks, our education level, our financial situation, or our past failures etc). When the S.O.I. finds a place of agreement with our soul, it zeroes in for the kill, bulldozing or bullying us into quitting. Satan’s goal is to get us to run away from the situation with utter dismay; shocked that we even thought we could try to attempt such a thing. Taunting thoughts of “you can’t do it”, or “what would people think?”, or “everyone else can do it better” reverberate around and around in the mind. Your choice? To agree with the lie, and stay small or take control over those thoughts and command them to submit to the Word of the Lord and replace them with the Truth.

Satan’s tool: The Comparison Trap

Proverbs 29:25 declares: The fear of man brings a snare, But whoever trusts in the LORD shall be safe. A snare is something that allures a person from their real purpose and then destroys them. If we allow the fear of man to dominate us then our actions will be controlled or confined by the person who is dreaded. This means we are not free to trust the Lord.

One of the most common tools the S.O.I. uses is what I call the “comparison trap”. This trap causes us to focus our thoughts on how we measure up to one another or to some unobtainable perfection. The Women’s Devotional Bible states “the compelling need to be more than what you are capable of ever becoming is the driving motivation behind perfectionism. It stems from deep insecurity, a gnawing fear that being the woman God made you to be is somehow not good enough”. It is this soul condition where the S.O.I. comes in and begins the tormenting process of “you are not good enough”. There are many women who have not yet experienced God’s grace in this area and struggle against the fear that the “truth” will be discovered—they don’t measure up. This is a fundamental lie, for as we grow in the Grace of God we learn how to accept the fact that it is only because of His loving forgiveness that any of us are “good enough”. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love, having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. Ephesians 1:3-6 As this truth begins to replace the lie that we aren’t “good enough” to be accepted, the S.O.I. cannot find a foothold in this area any more.

Here are some steps to help you overcome the allure and temptation to fall into the entrapment of the comparison factor.

1. Be honest and confess that there is a problem in this area. Recognize that there are times when you fall into this snare.

2. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you what or who intimidates you (when you feel insecure, inept, or less confident)

3. As you begin to identify these situations, ask the Lord to show you the specific areas in your souls that trigger these negative responses.

4. Begin to replace the lies of your feelings with the Truth of the Word Example: I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Philippians 4:13 This will cause your mind to be renewed and your thinking changed. Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will. Romans 12:2

5. Prepare ahead of time. When you know you are going to be encountering situations in which you have in the past felt intimidated, take action. Pray, read those parts of the Word that will build you up. Take time to realize God is bigger than the situation you are facing. Hide yourself in Him.

6. Use your spiritual armor. Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the ??wiles of the devil Ephesians 6:10-18

7. Ask for prayer from others. Confessing our needs to one another often breaks the hold of the intimidator, because it is now out in the light.

8. Finally we must build into the foundation of our souls the truth that who whoever trusts in the Lord shall be safe. Proverbs 29:25

Father, I thank you for alerting us when either the tools of intimidation or the comparison trap tries to entangles us. We shall be free!

Written by: Martha Rodman