Sid: We want everyone everywhere to have a healthy fear of the Lord; we don’t hear about the fear of the Lord anymore. Jennifer LeClaire Jennifer is News Editor with Charisma; I’m interviewing her on her book “Faith Magnified.” In our society that is not a good thing to talk about, the fear of the Lord. In fact, most teaching today says “God’s my sugar Daddy.” We don’t hear about fear of the Lord.
Jennifer: Ah you are so right Sid that is the misconception; we need to have a reverential fear of the Lord and that means that we understand both the love of God and the holiness of God. You know He does not like sin, He doesn’t just…you can’t just go out sinning and then hop in big Poppa’s lap and just get a pat on the heard and think it’s okay it doesn’t work that way. We need to have a revelation of the love of the love of God but we also need to have a healthy reverential fear of the Lord. Not to be scared of Him, but to fear Him to honor Him to reverence Him. You know fear of God destroys demonic fear; the Holy Spirit put it to me this way He said “When you have a healthy fear of the Lord you become so consumed with pleasing Him you become so full of faith and His power and His character and who He is, that there’s just no more room for the devils fear tactics.” When you have your heart positions toward God and you fear Him and you honor Him and you submit yourself to Him there is just no way for fear to get in. There is just nowhere for doubt to get in there is nowhere for unbelief to get in it has to go. And this is a principal that has played out in my life time and time again and it’s really deciding to honor God and His word. To put His word first if He said it He believes it because it’s almost like a slap in His face when we doubt or when we don’t believe and it’s doubting His character; it’s doubting His word. He is who He says He is and He is not a man that He should lie and so we need to give Him the honor that He deserves. And when we do that fear has to go it cannot stay in a heart full of faith.
Sid: Jennifer how does this play out in your life; let’s take you the great miracle happens you get out of jail in 40 days you should have gotten 5 years. Now your back with your daughter you were making $3,000 a week but you lost your job and your now on food stamps, your faith is sky high but now you’re on food stamps; tell me about that.
Jennifer: Yeah, talk about a roller coaster you know I get out of jail vindicated you know ready to run, get out of jail understand all of a sudden the internet bubble burst, I was working for an internet company and everybody lost their job it wasn’t just me. And I go from making $3,000 a week and having all of my needs met to making zero and thinking “What am I going to do now?” And I had to make a choice, even though I was on food stamps, even though there’s natural wisdom if you’re going to starve you need to get some help. And so my neighbors talked me into going down and getting food stamps, had to swallow my pride, but I had to then turn to the word and I had to say “You know what God Your word says that You’ll provide all of our needs according to Your riches in glory. And even though fear was coming against my mind I was in a small town I had moved out of state away from everyone I knew I had no family, I had a couple of neighbors and I had a baby and I had no money. Fear was definitely coming against my mind, doubt, unbelief was coming against my mind, but the way that I overcame that was just by continuing to keep my eye on who Jesus is. Understanding that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, staying in the words, confessing the word; staying in church. I mean just soaking myself in the word. I listen to every message on prosperity I can find; I listen to every message you know on rebuilding your life, building your faith, just soaking myself in the word.
Sid: Okay the roller coasters on now it’s going down (Laughing) what happened?
Jennifer: Well, I still believed God and I knew that if He could deliver me from depression and if He could deliver me from anxiety and if He could deliver me from jail if He could do all that I knew that He could do this. But I didn’t know what was going on. because I was in the word, I was studying the word, I was going to church but people were…you know the little money I had I let people borrow it; they would steal it from me and one day I was down on my knees and I was praying and I said “God what is going on here” I said “Why are all these people robbing from me, this is not fair.” And I heard His voice speak to my heart and say “Well, you’re robbing from Me.” And I didn’t know anything about tithing; I didn’t know anything about giving the first off the part, I didn’t know I had not been taught that yet as a baby Christian. And so I looked in the Word and sure enough I found in Malachi you know “Will a man rob God.” And I was stunned I said “Wow” and I began to tithe and when I began to tithe and give offerings to the Lord that is when God began to prosper me and bring me back even further than where I had come from.
Sid: You know what the devil meant for evil God’s using for good because you’re learning how to operate in the Word of God rather than your experiences.
Jennifer: That’s right step by step God would teach me through trials; God would teach me through victories He would show me in His word here’s the principal behind it that’s why this happened, this is why that happened. Here’s how you overcome this; He would show me step by step in His Word and I took note of it. And now I’m blessed to be able to teach other people.
Sid: Well, when you teach it’s kind of a play on twelve step programs but it’s not the twelve step program. When you teach the twelve steps to get rid of doubt and unbelief what kind of results do people get?
Jennifer: People tell me that they’re faith grows that they understand what was standing in their way. You know people talk a lot about “Well, I’m not getting prayers answered; well I’m not seeing prayers answered; it just seems like I lift up my prayer and their hitting the ceiling and falling back down; does God even hear me?” Well the Bible says “Without faith it’s impossible to please Him.” But with faith in God all things are possible, the Bible says “All things are possible to him who believes.” Jesus says, “Only believe.” So people tell me that once they get to the root of what’s blocking their faith, this doubt, this unbelief, this fear once they see it for what it is they can command it to go in the Name of Jesus.”
Sid: Now your faith is really amazing because it seems as though your faith operates to being vindicated from bad situations. For instance when you got out of jail in 40 days rather than spending 5 years in prison they actually deleted all of your records, how did that happen?
Jennifer: Yeah, I don’t know but there’s no… it’s just as if it never happened. I like to say that it’s just like when I got saved and Jesus washed away all my sin; when God vindicated me He washed away all the records, it’s as if it never happened.
Sid: Jennifer God has been teaching you that you can have breakthroughs if your obedient and you put in action to what God shows you; give me some examples.
Jennifer: That’s right because (Laughing) faith without works is dead right, I mean the Bible says “Faith without works is dead being alone.” But many times obedience trying to move in obedience it brings fear, it requires faith to follow God. There was a time where I was involved in working with a publishing organization and doing all great ministry projects it was really great. But the Lord told me one day to go, He said “Go.” And you know I did not want to go, He’d been trying to get me to go honestly Sid for 2 years but He finally made it extremely apparent “You need to go and you need to go now.” And I did I followed Him, I gave up everything, I was no longer involved or connected I walked away from all of those natural connections in publishing. Within 9 months this just continues to marvel me, within 9 months the period of time it takes to birth God supernaturally positioned me as the News Editor for Charisma magazine. And then within another year after that I had back to back book deals with a major Christian publisher. And that is all because I was willing to leave everything behind that I had known like Paul said “Leaving the past behind and pressing forward.” It requires faith to obey and we can build our faith to obey by reading the Heroes of faith, by meditating on God’s promises; if He said it He’ll do it
Sid: Speaking of “If He said it, He’ll do it” you’ve had high blood pressure since you were 19 years of age taking all sorts of medication. Tell me about what happened.
Jennifer: Yeah I was diagnosed at age 19 and I was young and healthy it didn’t make any sense, and I began to taking medication. It never really controlled the problem though it just sort of reined it in and my blood pressure was never normal. And I felt sort of like the woman with the issue of blood because no matter what I did the problem just grew worse I was spending money on doctors and I was just a kid. By the time I was about 34 – 35 all these years had this high blood pressure I ran out of my medication and instead of getting it filled as I looked out of the bottle I felt the Holy Spirit speak to my heart and said “You don’t need that anymore you’re healed.” And I wouldn’t recommend doing that, I wouldn’t recommend to people listening that they just stop taking their medication, but the Holy Spirit said it to me and I knew it was Him and I believed it. And so I decided to stand on that word that prophetic promise and the promises in the Bible for healing. And at first I mean it got so much worse, my head was pounding, my heart was pumping, I really wasn’t sure if I was going to fall, I mean the fear Sid that was coming against my mind, the doubt, the unbelief it was a battle in the mind it really was. My response was to continue confessing the Word, what the Holy Spirit said “I don’t need this anymore, I am healed.” It took about 5 days and it seemed like a long 5 days I’ll be honest with you, I’ll be real, it seemed like a long 5 days it really was fighting the good fight but within 5 days my blood pressure came back down normalized and has been normal ever since. I have taken every once in a while as a help checkups my blood pressure completely normal.
Sid: What about all that medicine that you were taking?
Jennifer: I don’t take any of it; I don’t take any I take vitamins and that’s about it
Tags: its supernatural, Sid Roth