I am naturally an outgoing and adventurous person, someone will try just about anything new, and was quite naturally the comedian in the crowd, confident in social situations and a go-getter. That's what people thought from the outside at least, but inside I was struggling constantly with myself, with an enemy that was daily taunting me. This enemy was—fear!

This fear would war at me without rest, and if I allowed it enough room would make me retreat and hide from the things I loved and were passionate about. It would grip my heart and tie imaginary cords around me holding me in submission to relentless waves of anxiety and foreboding that would run my life.

I was also plagued my whole life by what people thought of me and was always discerning and aware of what people were saying about me, then fearing if in fact they were right and I was everything they said. My fear began to morph and grow until it hatched eggs, and I was addicted to receiving affirmation, which is rooted in fear of man. I wouldn't move a step without someone affirming me. I was now addicted to the fear and it ruled my life!

I remember when Christy and I were first married. One night, we went out with new friends, and as everyone was ordering, I couldn't make my mind up, and hesitatingly said to the waitress "Um, I'll have what he is having," pointing to my friend. Christy looked at me in a funny way and later on, said something interesting. She said, "You know, you can make your own choices; no one is controlling you". I realized through that small thing that I was so run by fear that it even made me powerless to make the smallest decisions, and I was always conflicted and confused.

But Jesus began showing me how to deal with this assignment against me. You see, fear is the absence of the perfect love of God, and to be honest, I was still learning to accept that love and make it a major component of my life.

We won't be intimidated anymore! 

Lately, the Lord has been speaking to me about the giants that stand in between us and our destiny. The things that are in our way when God calls us, and very much like the story of David and Goliath, we need to defeat our fears and anything that intimidates and taunts us, and prevents access to our promise.

Examples of What Giants Can Do in Our Lives

• Giants intimidate us.
• They make us feel small and insignificant.
• They make you feel like you have no voice (powerless).
• Sometimes giants are our insecurities and fears.
• Giants make you fear launching out.
• They make you feel like God isn't behind you or supporting you.
• Giants can be past failures and fears arising.
• Giants prevent you walking in your destiny.
• Giants are blockages, delays, diversions and distractions.

Symptoms of Being Intimidated by Giants

• When you have never launched out in your dreams, passion or calling.
• Have never chased after your purpose. You feel like are just surviving life and going through the motions.
• You run and hide from anything with purpose.
• You have many unfinished projects and scattered ideas, but nothing completed.
• You have no vision, lack of vision or inconsistent direction and vision.
• Your dreams are affected. You used to dream and had high expectations but now you don't.
• You live constantly in fear, dread, foreboding and expecting the worst.

Have you identified with any of these life-inhibitors? Below are five simple yet effective ways to deal with and remove obstacles you face when walking out your destiny.

Perfect Love Has No Rival 

There is no competitor to the love of God, and when we want to tackle areas of insecurity, pain, trauma and the places we feel bound by fear, love is the antidote and has no rival.

1 John 4:18 says "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. Whoever fears is not perfect in love."

But how do we convert our fear into security and truly know God's love? By being intimate with him and being deeply acquainted with His thoughts that trump everything else that tries to invade our confidence in God in us.

Through whom we also have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and so we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also boast in tribulation, knowing that tribulation produces patience, patience produces character, and character produces hope. And hope does not disappoint, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who has been given to us (Rom. 5:2-5).

Face Your Fearlessness 

The enemy uses lies to bombard us and parade as truth, and in the moment, it feels like it is truth. Ask anyone having a panic attack, and they will say that it feels more real than anything else. The issue, however, is that somewhere along the way, we began to believe what fear was saying to us and even took it on. Fear lies and makes us "own" fear as our identity, which makes it harder to distinguish the lie and evict it from our lives.

Do you know the difference, or have you owned it? 

You actually aren't a product of fear or a child of fear; you are a child of God! You aren't a victim of fear; the truth is, you are fearless! 

Romans 8:15 says: "For you have not received the spirit of slavery again to fear. But you have received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, "Abba, Father."

Fear has no place in us anymore. And as we grow in knowing God and His love, all fear will disappear. He calls you His beloved today. The greatly loved, adored, affirmed and secure. No more will fear rob you! 

Clear the Road

Once you have discerned the difference between what God is saying over you and the lies of the enemy, it's time to speak to those obstacles that have been like boulders in your road. How do you do that? Use the Word.

For instance, if your boulders were worthlessness, always feeling second rate, and the lie you were believing was that God would never use you, you could find a Scripture like Jeremiah 29:11 to combat that lie. The more and more you speak to it, the more easily will crumble away every time it rears its head.

Using the word is like a stone in the spirit hurled at the forehead of our opponent. It is powerful and effective and dangerously lethal! 

God says, "'Build up, build up, prepare the way, take up every stumbling block out of the way of My people'" (Isa. 57:14).

New Sunglasses for a New Season 

When we have been hiding for a long time and God draws us out, there can be a sense of "Where to from here?" In the cave, you aren't thinking about your life-vision. You aren't dreaming and moving towards goals the way God created you to. So getting fresh vision is important to be able to adjust your once dim lens to the lens of heaven.

Even if you haven't been in hiding, we all need an overhaul of how we see from time to time. Our view or filter of life can be the difference between defeat or victory. We need fresh perspective.

"Then again He put His hands on his eyes and made him look up. And he was restored and saw everyone clearly" (Mark 8:25).

"Write the vision, and make it plain on tablets, that he who reads it may run" (Hab. 2:2).

Surround Yourself With Giant-Killers 

I have found that when you are going through something, it is so valuable to find people who have been through the same or a similar journey. In the same way, it's detrimental to be around people who live in the valley and have settled there. You need to find some giant-killers.

Giant-killers have a different perspective and will keep you accountable to the calling upon your life. Giant-killers carry victory that can be seen on their lives, and If you want to inherit the victories of others and learn how to overcome, find someone who has what you want, and honor and bless them. This powerful key has advanced me more times in my life than I can count.

Well, I hope this has blessed you and given you some practical keys to face what has been blocking you and holding you back. Now it's your turn. Go defeat the giants in your path and take the land!

Nate Johnston is a revivalist and worshipper who has a heart to see sons and daughters unleashed into passionate friendship with God and an effective supernatural lifestyle. Through his ministry, Everyday Revivalists, he teaches on intimacy and hearing God's voice, which was birthed from a hunger for authentic, real and powerful relationship with Jesus. Christy Johnston was born and raised in Australia. After living the majority of her life plagued with insecurity and fear, she came to learn the power of her identity in Christ. She now lives with the mandate to breathe fresh hope and life into God's son's and daughters through her passion of writing, uncovering the truths of living in grace and freedom through our identity in Christ. Nate and Christy have two daughters, Charlotte and Sophie, and currently live on the Gold Coast in Australia.

This article originally appeared at everydayrevivalists.com.