God give us the ability to comprehend fear.. Our emotional makeup as human beings is the ability to experience distressing emotions aroused by the anticipation harm, or loss. Like anger, grief or pain, fear is a gift to us, it is useful for specific purposes, but God never intended it to be the permanent setting of our lives. However, If we’re afraid of anything in an ongoing way, that fear isn’t from God. The Bible however, acknowledges our human frailties. It says that the overwhelming emotion of fear almost a thousand times. So 2 Timothy 1:7 identifies a common human condition when it gives us these words to live by: “God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control.” (2 Timothy 1:7) The word spirit in that verse can be misunderstood. Many times in the Bible, the word refers to the Holy Spirit. But the Holy Spirit isn’t the only spirit mentioned in Scripture. In the New Testament the context determines when the word spirit refers to our spirit (our mind and emotions, our pattern of thinking) and when it refers to the Holy Spirit. In 2 Timothy 1:7 Paul was talking about our human spirit. If you have a fearful pattern of thinking, Paul was saying it’s not from God. What characterizes the spirit of fear that Paul had in mind? It’s an attitude or a pattern of thinking that dismisses God from having any impact on the cause of our fear. The Old Testament provides an amazing account of an entire generation that was infected with a spirit of fear. From Numbers 13-14, we can identify three characteristics of the spirit of fear that may be at work in your own life: 1: A Spirit of Fear Embraces the Negative. It’s apparent from this passage how quickly the Israelite nation reacted in abject fear to the news from the ten spies. The people insisted the cause was lost before the fight began. The ten had reported that the land God had promised flowed with milk and honey. But when they mentioned the downside, the people suddenly forgot the appealing features of the land. Caleb didn’t waste any time; he went right for the locker-room charge: “Let us go up at once and occupy it, for we are well able to overcome it” (Num. 13:30). But the ten spies contradicted him, setting the tone for embracing the negative. 2. A Spirit of Fear Enlarges the Enemy. Suddenly the promised land was crawling with giants who lived in impregnable cities. The spies mentioned the inhabitants’ names to highlight their fierce reputations, whereas they didn’t mention God once in their report. And the larger they saw the enemies, the smaller they saw themselves, until “we seemed to ourselves like grasshoppers, and so we seemed to them” (Num. 13:33). They belittled themselves so much that they believed they were insignificant. A spirit of fear looks at obstacles with a magnifying glass that makes the obstacle or hurdle insurmountable and the opposition unconquerable. What a moment for God’s Word to interrupt such thinking with the truth: “We are more than conquerors through him who loved us.” (Rom. 8:37) 3. A Spirit of Fear Engages Your Worst Fears. Not only is the threat magnified, but the outcome is also seen in the worst possible light. A pattern of fearful thinking kicks into . The people loudly declared that all hope for their future and their children’s future was lost. God has endowed our spirit with three traits—power, love, and self-control— that are His chosen antidotes for our spirit of fear, our negative disposition, and our defeatist way of thinking