The Terrorist, The Bully, & The Abuser
The person who refuses fear makes room in the heart for freedom, a brighter tomorrow filled with dreams and hope. The Lord’s people who live this way are distinctive—casting out any semblance of fear and living life right down the middle, right now! “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.”
The terrorist is different. Terror is fear-based. All terrorism develops in a sick heart. Terror demands a mind-soul connection that has been tampered with, resulting in human-contrived brutality, a spiritual force based in perverted body chemistry, mental imbalance, and an enlarged capacity for hate. The terrorist is myopic with a value system of lawlessness. All terrorism operates in hiding, positioned to attack suddenly. Terror’s fear-base is its platform to spread intimidating fear that paralyzes freedom. Terror is a Satan-inspired spirit.
Akin to the terrorist is the bully, a person or group tormenting others to gain control and feel the rush of power that comes with dominance over another human being. For the bully, control supplies momentary comfort to offset their deeply entrenched fear of never achieving anything legitimately.
Another terrorist is the abuser, desperate to recover something lost. The abuser is dominated by past experiences of loss, fearing a future of more loss. Terrified to risk vulnerability of any kind, the abuser cannot be objective, and so is unable to break a life-long cycle of mental torment. The abuser is an abuse victim, living out the earlier experience of abuse and loss.
All three—terrorist, bully, and abuser—have in common the fear of fear, a literal “root” of fear driving the contests they crave. Their attacks on others are refined by misguided discernment—basically the difference between right and wrong. Using spiritual forces of intimidation and control, these perpetrators of fear are driven to find—or create—a victim.
God is opposite to fear—God is love. He calls us to demonstrate terror’s opposite, the presence of Almighty God, His Son, and His Spirit! His love delivers us and those we minister to from fear’s cycle of torment. We are called to strengthen as many as possible with peace (shalom) and to do as much as we can, as often as we can, to shine His light on fear’s darkness… for the terrorist, the bully, and the abuser.
The opposite of fear is love.
Amen.
Psalm 23:4 | Psalm 23 | 1 Peter 4:8-11 | Proverbs 11:25 | Proverbs 22:9 | Verses@Once