"A Place Called Separation" by Garris Elkins

Fear is not static or lifeless - it is a presence that wants to draw us into a process of death and separation.

The process of fear starts by creating suspicion. Suspicion leads to judgement, and once a judgment has been made, and allowed to create an alternative reality, we end up separating ourselves from the very people we once loved, but now have judged. The sad thing about this whole process is that many times our fears are unfounded. Because this kind of fear is vaporous in nature it is about "what could happen." This kind of fear is hard to grasp and deal with reasonably. When we let fear take residence, and grow without engaging God, some horrible things can happen. I have seen people walk away from marriages and churches over this kind of suspicion-laced and unfounded fear.

Can you imagine a marriage where fear is allowed to roam free and without confrontation? For example, a husband develops a fear that his wife will be unfaithful. She has never done anything to warrant such a fear, but the husband is afraid anyway. When the husband doesn't deal with his fear, and the fear takes residence in his mind, it begins to grow. Once fear is in place and living unchallenged the husband begins to look at everything the wife does through a lens of suspicion. The innocent glance in the direction of another man she doesn't even notice is taken as a flirt. The phone call she just hung up is surely a secret lover. The suspicion then leads to a judgment - "my wife is committing adultery - I just know it!" In the end a marriage does not survive in the destination of lost trust. We don't get to this place without help from hell. We also don't get to this place without our participation.

Fear spoke in Eden and said, "Did God really say.....?" That sentence from the Father of All Fears caused the will of God to be suspect and created another path that led to all humankind being separated from God. This is insidious. It was there in the beginning and it still roams the earth looking for lives and ministries to devour.

All our fears are looking to fulfill their ministry of darkness by separating us from each other. Separation is the ministry of darkness. Darkness calls out to fear to bring in a harvest.

Fear is something God calls us to move through - not live within. The greatest work God wants to do in our lives is on the other side of our greatest fears. On the other side of our unresolved fear lies unfulfilled destinies and unfulfilled callings. Our unfounded fears about each other have to be confronted and dealt with or they will carry us away to a place of sorrow called “separation.”