 How to overcome anxiety? Anxiety is the number one health issue in the United States. Estimated one-third of the adults living in the North America battle with the issue of anxiety. Before we touch the issue and how to overcome it, I want to welcome you to this channel. If it's your first time, my name is Vlad. Go ahead and subscribe to this channel, click on the bell so that you can be reminded when we upload new videos and we stream every Thursday at seven o'clock Pacific time. And if you're regular, don't forget to like this video, drop a comment below and stay engaged. I believe anxiety comes from three main sources. The first one is from Satan. We see that in the story of King Saul. He was suffering with stress. He was suffering with intense stress and turmoil when demons came upon him. I know we don't like to talk about it a lot of times, but a lot of what people face today with anxiety is actually demonically induced. A huge emphasis on mental health that ignores the aspect of deliverance will prove futile if we don't deal with the root of the problem. There is such a thing as spirit of fear. There is such a thing as spirit of heaviness. And there is such a thing as spirit of depression. They can come upon people. The second source of anxiety is sin. So not only Satan, but sin. For example, we see that Samson lost his power when Holy Spirit left him and when he continued to live in sin. A lot of what people experience with anxiety, not all of it, but a lot what is experienced today are by people who don't have a relationship with Jesus Christ. They're not connected to God. They're spiritually dead and this brings a source of anxiety. Jesus says to people, come to me all of you who are heavy leaden and who are heavy, who are tired. He says, and I will give you rest. There is that rest and there is that freedom that exists when you come to Jesus. A lot of times when people get saved they say something lifted. I felt peace. I felt this thing, freedom from anxiety. So many testimonies we see in our church. The moment people got saved their sins are washed. They have peace with God and anxiety became the thing of the past. Now the third cause of anxiety or the third thing that anxiety can come from is through service or through living your life. You know, being in school, serving your family, serving in ministry, demands of service. The Bible says when the woman touched Jesus, Jesus felt power leave him. Sometimes you can feel just like strength leave you, feel tired, exhausted and just these thoughts of fear, dread, uneasiness, feeling of restlessness and even tense. Your heart begins to rapidly, rapidly increase and you're just full of stress. Not because of what you're doing, bad, but because of service. You must say, nah, that's not possible. Yeah, it's possible because Jesus even says in the same verse, in the same place, he says, come to me, all of you who are anxious, tired, I'll give you rest. And then he says, take my yoke upon me, upon yourself and learn from me and then you will find rest. That means it's there's a rest we get from stress by coming to Jesus, but there is a rest we get from stress by staying with Jesus, learning from Jesus and growing in Jesus. Christian life is a constant growth in Jesus and different layers of stress, fear, insecurity, comparison are being peeled out as we become more and more like Jesus Christ. Now practically let's look at seven practical things we can do as Christians to live stress free life. Now you may have moments of stress and that's okay. What I'm talking about today, overcoming this anxious mind, we may have moments of anxiety, moments of overwhelmed, but if it's a constant state of your life you need to seek deliverance, you need to get saved. And if you have sought deliverance, if you are saved let me share with you practical seven steps. Number one, anchor your identity in Jesus Christ. The Bible says, foolish men built this house on the rock, built this house on the sand and the wise men built this house on the rock. The storm came and the house that was built on the rock it withstood the storm. There are many times are emotional and mental fall is a direct result of basing our identity on our work, on our ministry, on our appearance, accomplishments, and people's opinions of us. If you want to beat anxiety do not let your identity come from your title, people's opinion of you, your success or your failure. Otherwise your emotional well-being will collapse on you if your identity is built on something else than Jesus Christ. You know the Bible says that my presence will go with you and I shall give you rest in Exodus 33 verse 14. Anchor your identity on the solid rock of Jesus Christ. You will withstand the storms, you will withstand the flood of anxiety, depression and stress. The second practical tip on how to overcome anxiety is keep your consciousness clear. You may say, what does my consciousness have to do with anything? I'm just stressed, I'm just overwhelmed. In 1 Timothy chapter 1 verse 19 it says, having faith in a good consciousness some have having rejected concerning the faith suffered the shipwreck. See when you reject your consciousness, when you live a compromised life, you destroy your faith. When your faith is shipwrecked, guess what's going to happen to your inner world? What happens when the Titanic got shipwrecked? The water from the outside got inside and what happened there? The Titanic started to sink. Instead of reaching its destination it reached the bottom of the ocean. See your ship is your consciousness. It's your integrity. When you allow cracks in it, when you begin to do things that your Holy Spirit tells you don't do it and you keep on doing it, you allow cracks in your ship, then the problems of the world will get inside of you. And it's not that the problems were never there, it's just you were so sealed in God by walking in purity that they never got inside. But now that you allow cracks in your purity, in your integrity, in your consciousness, and how you run your mouth, run your money, run your thought life, the outside world comes inside and it becomes overwhelming and we drown. Ships don't sink because there's so much water in the ocean. Ships sink because water gets inside of the ship. Do you know how it gets inside of us? Through our compromise. If you want to live stress-free life, live a life with a clear conscience. Clear conscience is like a soft pillow. It gives you rest. Avoid harboring bitterness, living in secret sins, cutting corners, living in compromise, trying to come as close as sin as possible without going into hell. Sin will wear you out. It's a heavy burden. It will also hurt you emotionally and mentally more than you imagine. Number three, how to overcome anxiety? Avoid the comparison trap. We live in the day of social media where people post their best versions of themselves. Everyone is happy. Everyone's life is perfect. However, social media is a lie. No one posts their struggles. No one uploads their challenges. No one shares their weaknesses. When you compare your reality with someone else's best highlights, you will certainly be discouraged and despise your life. One of the commandments of God is, thou shall not covet. It's the last commandment in Exodus 20, verse 17. Instead of coveting, we are called to count our blessings. Instead of looking at the neighbor's grass, which sometimes looks greener than our own, we are called to water our own lawn. Be still before the Lord and wait patiently for him. Do not fret when people succeed in their ways. Psalm 37, verse 7. Don't let someone's success bring you stress. Let me say that again. Don't let someone's success bring you stress. Be still before God. Wait for his timing. Mind your own business and celebrate your own progress. Number four, honor the Sabbath. What I mean by that is it's the fourth commandment. God worked for six days and on the seventh day he rested. Exodus 20, verse 8, 9, 10 and 11. This commandment is not to make our life more religious or rigid, but to give us balance and rest. Jesus said the Sabbath was made for a man, not the man for the Sabbath. Taking a day off is for our benefit, not God's. I heard one time Pastor Robert Morris mentioned about how Chick-fil-A takes Sunday off. Most fast food restaurants make most of their money on Sunday. Sunday is the busiest time for fast food business and the average fast food restaurant makes one million dollars per year. So one franchise, one million a year. Chick-fil-A makes five million a year in their average franchise. Five times more. Now interestingly they close their doors on the busiest day of the week, Sunday. You know there's this principle that if you stop and you rest, I know we like to grind and hustle and you know pull an all nighter, no sleep, hashtag no sleep and everything and this may be cool and God bless Gary V and so many other cool hustlers out there who you know don't stop. You know I saw Elon Musk one time posted that he works you know 12 to 16 hours a day every single day but your example is not Elon Musk or Gary V, your example is Jesus and he says Sabbath was made for you, for your rest. Some of us because we don't rest from fatigue we get arrested by fatigue and we live in continuous anxiety. We no longer can hear the birds, we can no longer enjoy the nature, we can no longer enjoy a free day without medicating ourselves with interdinent on numbing ourselves with abuse of alcohol or some other very self-destructive habits. Number five, how to overcome anxiety? Regularly exercise. I want to speak to people who are battling with anxiety. Are you taking day off? Is your consciousness clear? Who are you comparing yourself to? Is your identity anchored in your accolades, your position or in God? But honest question, are you exercising? Are you doing cardio? Are you lifting weights? You may say well Vlad this is so not spiritual. Well different studies found out that patients who do equivalent of 35 minutes of walking six days a week experienced reduction in their level of depression. Listen to this. By 47% you can reduce depression by 47% by merely walking 35 minutes a day. This study concluded at the Cooper Research Institute in Dallas, Texas that shows as little as three hours of regular exercise a week reduces the symptoms of mild to moderate depression as effectively as Prozac and other antidepressants. In addition, the proven benefits of exercise in treating and preventing depression extend to even moderate physical activity such as gardening, walking the dog or cleaning your house. I want to encourage you begin to exercise. Start running. Start biking. Go for walks every day. Start hiking. Start doing something that could get your blood flowing. I myself experience this regularly. You know when I go to morning prayer and after I go to the gym for 20 minutes I listen to some kind of a podcast. I come back home. I'm so energized. I'm so motivated. I'm so goal-oriented like I get this energy because it's the love sowing and reaping. As you give energy during exercise you get energy back during exercise and so I just want to encourage you if you're battling with this begin to exercise. Do something to get your body moving. Number six seek community. See after creating this world God said that everything is perfect everything is good except one thing being alone is not good. God created us for community. Many people could fix their depression by taking two vital actions. First action is to overcome isolation and second action is to get rid of toxic people that surround them. Isolation makes you feel like people are the problem. But see when you live in isolation and loneliness your world dies before you do. But toxic people make you feel like you are the problem and you need to get rid of both of them. I'm talking about toxic people in just a moment. You must understand that remaining in isolation makes you an easy target for the enemy. In warfare isolation often precedes defeat. Isolation develops awkwardness in your gestures and impersonal skills and it leads to more isolation. No hunter can fix his aim on a swift moving target or a herd of animals. The enemy wants to isolate you from the herd of believers. He doesn't want you to be moving forward. He wants you to be alone because you become an easy target. Isolation creates more isolation. You become awkward around people. You see everyone is a problem nobody loves you. Everybody's thinking bad about you and the enemy uses that to increase your anxiety and your depression. You were never created to live alone. If you had some friends who betrayed you who didn't want you find new friends. If you went to the church maybe and you got thrown out find a different church but please don't do life alone. You were meant to live in the community. When snowflakes come together they stop traffic. They flip highway they flip semi trucks on the highway. They shut down schools but a snowflake by itself is weak. Together with other snowflakes they are a force to be reckoned with. Jesus says where two or three are gathered in my name. Not just you and your phone but two or three get out of your house. Go hang out with your friends. Go to the group that they invited you. Go to that church that you've been avoiding. Go be with your family. Go grab a coffee with a friend. Stay in the community. And the last practical tip on overcoming anxiety and I've mentioned this in in a step six in a step seven is cut off toxic people. If you are an emotional storm you might have a Jonah living in your life. If you are in an emotional storm you might have Jonah in your boat. Now perhaps you need to throw some people off your boat. I don't mean physically by the way. Toxic people are those who are always negative. Always break you down. Corrupt your values. They suffocate you emotionally. I call them emotional vampires. You always feel like you're walking on an eggshell around them. They want to manipulate and control you. If you got these folks in your boat right now it's time for them to be shown and exit. You gotta tell them you gotta go Jonah. Oh but I don't want to do that lad. They don't have any friends. Listen God will find them a fish. God will figure them out. Even Jesus removed negative people in the room before he healed the girl that was dead. Toxic people are emotional vampires. They suck life out of others. Bad company corrupts good habits. Let's not forget it was a friend who betrayed Jesus and set him up to be crucified. Don't let toxic people stay in your life. They will crucify your emotional well-being. If you're watching this video and you're battling with chronic anxiety. Seek deliverance. Seek hope in God. Seek professional counseling. Seek a therapist or somebody who is who knows and understands the soul the spirit and also life and can guide you, can help you to figure yourself out and get you in a balanced way of living so that you can overcome. But as a pastor I want to welcome you to come to Jesus. Come all you who are weary and heavy-laden, tired, exhausted, anxious, afraid and he promises I will give you rest. If you already have come to Jesus but you're still so restless. He said take my yoke upon you and learn from me. Meaning get still, get quiet, read my word and learn from me. And Jesus says I am meek. I am gentle in my heart. Meaning I'm not proud. I'm not arrogant. I don't compare to others. He says once you learn my heart you will find rest for your soul. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light. May I pray for you Lord Jesus I thank you that you are my rest. I pray for every person battling with anxiety, chronic anxiety. I rebuke any spirit behind that anxiety right now. I speak life. I speak peace to the storm. I pray for those who are taking the medicine who have been to the consulate but today they need to come to you and lay their anxiety at your feet and learn to rest. Learn to say no to certain things in life so they can say yes to you and learn to let go of toxic relationships. Learn to avoid isolation. Anchor their identity in you Lord. Avoid comparison trap and live a life that honors you. I pray for that person right now in Jesus mighty name. Amen. Thank you for watching this video. Drop in the comment below what's one thing that you learned from this video. One thing that you're taking home with you and please share this on your social media. I truly believe this will help somebody to come out of the rut that the enemy has the men. Until next time.