Don't Block the River

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith in God. The speaker emphasizes the importance of staying connected to Jesus and abiding in Him through reading and understanding the Word. They discuss the power of praying the Word and aligning with it. Communion is highlighted as a way to renew the covenant between God and humanity. The overall message is to keep Jesus at the center and allow His love and Spirit to guide and transform us. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of his word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to his perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Psalm 18, verse 6 In my distress I called on the Lord and cried to my God. He heard my voice out of his temple. My cry before him came into his ears. Do you remember calling out to your parent in the middle of the night? Because of whatever, we see now, ridiculous things that were plaguing us. How often their voice, their presence, and their loving touch dispelled those boogalies. Fears faded into nothing. How like an earthly parent God is. But that isn't a surprise. Our Father in heaven is he from whom all fatherhood in heaven and on earth is named. Ephesians 3.14-15 David, when writing the Psalms, often put in names of God. Some of his favorites were Strength, Rock, Fortress, Deliverer, God, Source, Shield, Horn, and Stronghold. He frequently called to God using the names and praised the Lord the same way. From the temple he called to his all, confident that the Lord would hear him. Now the physical temple hadn't been built. David didn't control Jerusalem yet at the time this psalm was written. In fact, at the time this psalm was believed to have been written was the immediate aftermath of Saul's death and leading up to David's coronation, which was 1 Samuel 31 to 2 Samuel 5. This psalm, Psalm 18, is almost identical to David's last recorded words in 2 Samuel 22. These were important words to David. He did know the tabernacle and understood that it was modeled on a temple that exists in heaven. When David called from the temple, he was prophetically and symbolically calling out from within the heavenly temple and the physical temple his son Solomon built. It is from the temple that we worship the Lord. It is from the temple that we lay ourselves down. Which is good news for us. Or don't you know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God? You are not your own, for you were bought with a price. Therefore glorify God in your body and in your spirit, which are God's. 1 Corinthians 6, 19-20 We are the temple of the Holy Ghost. It is from this temple that we are heard by God as we cry out. And yes, He is there to wipe our fears away. His presence does that. But the Lord has done more than set up a system where we call out and He comes to save. Now that's a fine system. That's the system that we see in play in the Old Testament. But we have a better covenant than that. Hebrews 8, 7-12 We have a restored covenant. We have a covenant of overcoming. Not of ourselves, but in Christ. John 16, 33 We have a covenant of authority. Matthew 28, 18-19 But we have to be in Christ. We have to choose it. We have to choose it every day. Moment by moment, we are a temple. But what inhabits the holiest place that is in our temple? I write to you, little children, because your sins are forgiven you for His name's sake. I write to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I write to you, young men, because you have overcome the evil one. I write to you, little children, because you know the Father. I have written to you, fathers, because you know Him who is from the beginning. I have written to you, young men, because you are strong and the Word of God remains in you, and you have overcome the evil one. Don't love the world or the things that are in the world. If anyone loves the world, the Father's love isn't in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, isn't the Father's. But it is the world's. The world is passing away with its lusts. But he who does God's will remains forever. 1 John 2, 12-17 What are we allowing to pass away, and what are we allowing to stay alive within us? It isn't enough to call out to God. What we have in our innermost heart determines whether or not He hears us. But He always hears us, you say. No. He always hears the righteous. Proverbs 15, 29 We are not righteous on our own. Romans 3, 9-18 We need Jesus. It is in Jesus that we are righteous. But now, apart from the law, a righteousness of God has been revealed, being testified by the law and the prophets, even the righteousness of God through faith in Christ Jesus, to all and on all those who believe. For there is no distinction for all who have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, being justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus, whom God sent to be an atoning sacrifice through faith in His blood, for a demonstration of His righteousness through the passing over of prior sins in God's forbearance to demonstrate His righteousness at this present time, that He might Himself be just and the justifier of him who has faith in Jesus. Romans 3, 21-26 In Jesus we are made the righteousness of God. 2 Corinthians 5, 21 We abide in Him and He abides in us. 1 John 4, 13 How do we ensure that we are abiding in Jesus? We stay connected. It's that simple. Remember, we haven't been given the grace and faith to call out to God after we've been saved. After we've been saved, it's righteous communication. It's conversation. It's fellowship. But we need to abide in Jesus to have that communication open. By grace, through faith that He gives us, God enables the sinner to call out to Him in repentance. He hears that. But after that, after you're saved, you have to abide in Jesus, or nothing works. Now, He is merciful beyond anything we can imagine. And I don't know every little thing, and I would never want to say that I do, but I do know what the Word says. The Word says we are to stay connected. And it is as simple as that. We are supposed to have a river of life flowing up from inside us. John 7, 38 Don't block the river. That's the deal right there. Don't block the river. Above all these things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. Colossians 3, 14-16 Jesus taught that is how we stay connected to Him. In John 15, verses 1-7 He is the vine, and we are the branches. Connected to Him, we succeed. Apart from Him, we are nothing. Dead weight. If we remain in Him, we're good. A proof that we are remaining in Him is that His words remain in us. If we are Word-focused, we think the Word, we speak the Word, and we pray the Word. And when you pray the Word, all your requests are answered. How can they not be? You're literally praying the Word that the Lord has declared. Essentially, you're agreeing with what the Lord said. Now, that's powerful stuff. But it only works if you're in the Word. It doesn't work opening the Bible and randomly picking out verses that suit you. You need to understand context. You need to understand what's going on. And you do that by getting in the Word. We get into the Word, and we align with it by spending time in it. Focusing on it. Reading it every day. Not like a novel, but reading it to see Jesus. Reading it to hear new things from the Holy Spirit. Reading it to renew your mind, renew your thinking, and renew your love. We have to remain in His love, and we have to keep it in our minds so that it can soak into our hearts. Romans 5.5 tells us God's love gets poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit. It's all of a piece. We stay plugged into the Word. The Spirit stays plugged into us. Now, the Spirit is always with us. Never leaves. Always speaks. But if we're not wording, we're not hearing. We need to be receptive in order to hear. It's how we stay active listeners. By making sure that we are putting into us the material that makes our soil rich. The Holy Spirit is always working with us. But for us, it is easier if we have rich, well-tilled soil. The same work from Him. But if our soil is dry and untilled, we aren't getting all that we could and should. The Word is where it all starts, because Jesus is the Word, and it's all about Jesus. He provides our salvation. He points us to the Father from whom everything comes. He gives us His Spirit to guide, teach, correct, and comfort us. His body, our food. His blood, our spiritual hydration. Communion is more than something you do once in a while. Don't let it be a ritual. Don't let it be a mindless thing. It is worship. Our worship of Jesus. Our worship of the Father. Our worship of the Holy Spirit. It is us aligning with the blood. Us aligning with Jesus' Spirit. Us getting to where we can fellowship with the Father. His body broken to break the altars of the curse. His blood shed to wash us clean and provide us the mercy the Father loves to give. Renewal. Rebirth. Through communion, affirming our part in the renewed covenant between God and humanity. Between God and us. We are covenanted with Him. He is covenanted with us. It is a beautiful exchange. Do it every day. Align your mind with His Spirit. Read the Word every day. Let Him renew your mind. Feed your spirit. Keep your river flowing free. Be the temple He calls you to be. Keep Him in the innermost place. Make Him the focus. Keep His Word before your eyes. Pray. Talk to Him. Don't whine at Him. Talk to Him. Listen to Him. Interact with Him. Make Him your first stop in all things. Praise Him. Worship Him. Sing to Him. Speak to Him. Let Him know how you feel about Him. If you abide in Jesus, you'll share in all that Jesus offers. You'll share in His righteous Spirit. And you'll have confidence in that. You won't fear that you aren't being heard. You won't give in to all that. You'll be thankful, secure, and confident that when you cry out and watch you cry out, He hears. He hears His children. He comes to drive the shadows away. Put Him first, and the peace of God will be your companion. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Psalm 46, 10-11. Why do we need to be still before we can know that He is God? Have you ever looked at your schedule? What consumes your thoughts? Is it that light you need to replace? The groceries you need to buy? The chores you need to do? The appointments you need to make or keep? Yes, we can talk at God and all that. Sometimes we even listen to Him. But it's all this world-centric stuff. It's focusing on us. It's selfish, not selfless. A servant doesn't worry about that. They do what they're told. Selfless, but mindless. Now, a good servant anticipates. Selfish, but mindful. What about a child? Well, it trusts. It... Well, it worries about none of that. It expects food to appear and clothes to be in the drawers. It doesn't do what it's told. It does what it wants. Selfish. How about a good child? An obedient child? It does what pleases us as it finds its place and independence in the world. Selfless and mindful. But it doesn't know us. It interacts with us, anticipates us, avoids us or ignores us. But it doesn't know us. Not unless it stops to listen. To hear about us from us. We are God's children. We're in this world and it's noisy. It's too easy to interact with that noise and not interact with the Lord. To be still and listen. To hear about who He is from Him. He'll be our refuge if we do that. If we pause in all our us-ness to be mindful of Him and who He is. Take a moment or two to breathe, pause and listen. To focus on Him. To be still and know that He is God. As we close, remember that you have Earth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I... Now you fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love. And no end to the things about you that He loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you. Just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us. That God has sent His only born Son into the world. That we might live through Him. And this is love. Not that we loved God. But that He loved us. And sent His Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because He first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.