Last week we talked about dealing with the Spirit of Fear. This week we are talking about dealing with fearful people – when people are really very afraid, afraid for their lives.

When people are afraid of death and they feel threatened that they might die, they become desperate. Desperation motivates people to do desperate things, usually ugly things – things you would not normally do. Things you would not expect – even dangerous things.

I asked the Lord what to do – how do you deal with people who feel this way?

Desperation can give people a sense of power to act boldly, however the fear driving it means that logic or reasoning doesn’t work. Their thinking is skewed. You can’t “talk them down” from their desperation – they are usually too far gone for that. Sometimes their fear triggers an inner child – meaning that they start thinking and reasoning like a three year old. Have you ever tried to reason with a scared three year old? It doesn’t work very well, especially if they are terrified.

What the Lord showed me was this: Fearful people use fear to control others. They may try to threaten you with bodily harm or public humiliation. They may try to threaten your life or your livelihood. They will try to find your weakness and exploit it – to try and get you to do what they want. Remember whenever they tried to get Superman, they often used Lois Lane as bait – if her life was in danger, they could manipulate him to come to that location in order to try and capture him. They knew he cared for her and would be afraid of something happening to her.

However when you show no fear, they have no control over you! When you stand up to them, it makes THEM fearful – it crumbles the illusion of power they thought they had. As a result, they often crumble and flee or give up their threats and simply leave you alone.

They also can be affected by the Peace and Love you carry – it disarms them. They are so desperate it makes them vulnerable, like children. They long for safety and security, which Peace and Love offer by their very existence. So sometimes they will crumble in the face of that Love and Peace. Or they will run away because it doesn’t make sense to them and they fear it. Either way – you are no longer being threatened by them.

I wanted to share this with you to prepare you. World events are starting to create desperation in a lot of people. If you are faced with a desperate person, don’t show fear. Don’t let them manipulate you. Offer Peace and Love in exchange for their threats. Be kind and patient. You will see them crumble and leave you alone. Maybe you can help them – maybe you can’t, but at least they will not be a threat to you any more.

What do you think? How do you deal with the desperate?