Hebrews 2:14-15 Therefore since the children share in flesh and blood He himself likewise also partook of the same that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death that is the devil and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all of their lives this is the most powerful scripture it says that when we have a fear of death that’s the root of all bondages that’s the root of slavery the things that we’re enslaved to all the days of our lives is the fear of death when I first read that I didn’t understand that I said God I don’t think I have a fear of death I don’t think the fear of death is something that keeps me in slavery all the days of my life and the Lord said it’s not just a fear of physical death I said Lord I know I’m a believer I’ve received the covenant by the blood of Yeshua when I die I’m going to spend eternity with you I’m not afraid of death and the Lord said it’s not just physical death, emotional death financial death many kinds of death intellectual death people who are who want to control their own thoughts and their own mind they’re unwilling to give up their life to the Lord because they want to control everything in their life that’s a fear of death rejection is a fear of emotional death why do people cheat on their taxes or steal that’s a fear of financial death so what this scripture says it’s the fear of death that keeps us in bondage all the days of our lives here’s what’s interesting the first part of verse 14 says that Yeshua when He died rendered the devil powerless that he has no power of death what that means is the devil threatens you and uses the fear of death I’m going to destroy your marriage but he has no power to do it I’m going to bankrupt you and destroy your business but he has no power to do it I’m going to kill you physically but he has no power to do it I’m going to destroy all your relationships but he has no power to do it it’s a threat it’s the fear of death that creates the problems and we self destruct because of the fear of death first time God showed that to me so clearly it was back before the days of cell phones I had told Jan I would be home at a particular time I was doing some volunteer counseling at a church and I told her I would be home at about 8:30 my last appointment was at 7:00 should end at 8:00 half hour to drive home I got out of my appointment about 5 after 8:00 there was another counselor there a woman who had been doing some counseling in the foyer of the church and I got to talking with her about a particular scripture and then she said hey did you see this one and then she told me something I got interested in that and we were having a little bible study there in the foyer of the church 8:30 came and went 9:00 came and went 9:30 came and went finally I said I got to go home and I got in the car I was driving home so excited about the revelation I had just received from the word of God and the Holy Spirit stopped me and said what are you thinking and my mind was actually making up a lie I was going to tell Jan for why I was going to be almost 2 hours late because I thought well if I just tell her I was sitting in the foyer of the church talking with another woman about deep spiritual things Jan and I weren’t talking about deep spiritual things at that time our relationship was a little bit distant we hadn’t understood about relational communication yet we still had some emotional wounding and emotional distance between us and I thought that will hurt her so I don’t want to tell her that so I was going to tell her something like ohhh I got out of the appointment late and there was a ministry situation I had to pray for people and there were people who were born again and we cast out 29 demons and 7 raised from the dead you know I’m joking but that sort of thing sounded way better than I just sat there and chose to talk to somebody instead of honoring my word and coming home when I said I would and I wrestled with the Lord on the way home and the Lord said why don’t you just tell her the truth and I thought I don’t want to because she’s going to hurt me and she’s going to make me feel bad and I already feel guilty and she’s going to be angry with me for coming home late and the dinner is going to be cold and I didn’t call her I just don’t want to tell her the truth the Holy Spirit said you know what short term solutions to your problem to the problems that arise are always the seed or the root of long term destruction you already have a problem in your marriage of distrust why is it that you would want to lie to your wife and I thought you know what that’s really true so I finally gave in I said I’ll tell her the truth but on the way home as I was wrestling the Holy Spirit said what is this powerful compulsion that causes you to want to lie I said I don’t know he said that is the fear of death it’s not the fear of physical death it’s the fear that you’re going to experience rejection you’re going to experience an emotional death and your own flesh has risen up with a plan to save yourself and that’s exactly what you’re doing and that is the power of the fear of death that keeps you in bondage to lying to things that you know are wrong and I had never seen that and that’s what this scripture is talking about when I got home I told Jan the truth she wasn’t angry with me she forgave me and she said something I’ve never forgotten she said you know what as your wife I think I could handle almost anything that you do wrong what I couldn’t handle is if you lied to me about it that hurts me more than anything you could do because it cuts me out of your life it makes a mockery of our relationship thank you for telling me the truth I have never forgotten that and never lied to her again even in small things because I realize that’s just something that I realized it’s motivated by the fear of death and we’ll talk about it in another one of these Daily Spirit and Truth times of what is it that motivates the fear of death and how do I overcome it we’ll talk about that another time but to realize today the devil has no power to bring death in your relationship in your marriage in your finances in any area he only uses the fear of death and once you recognize that you can overcome that fear of death and the enemy has no ability to retain you in bondage so Father I pray for each one of us today God would you just expose the root of areas of bondage in our hearts the fear of death that’s operative deliver us from that fear of death in the mighty name of Yeshua Amen