Fear Itself

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and champion faith. Fear is a spiritual force inherited from Adam and used by Satan to keep people down. The key is to reject fear and embrace faith in God. The measure of faith given to us is as big as Jesus' faith. We can overcome trauma and fear through the power of the Word and the Holy Spirit. The Lord loves us unconditionally and wants to fulfill our needs. We should ask according to His will and trust that He will provide. We are precious and valuable in God's eyes, and His love casts out fear. 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 2 Corinthians 5.20-6.2 We are therefore ambassadors on behalf of Christ, as though God were entreating us. We beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For him who knew no sin, he made to be sin on our behalf, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God. Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, At an acceptable time I listened to you, in a day of salvation I helped you. Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation. Reference Isaiah 49.8 Yahweh says, I have answered you in an acceptable time. I have helped you in a day of salvation. I will preserve you and give you for a covenant of the people, to raise up the land, to make them inherit the desolate heritage. Fear is a useless thing. It is a weight that will bring you down if you let it. Depression, worry, anxiety, and all their ilk are children of fear and also to be rejected, completely, totally, and utterly, leaving not a scrap of anything behind. Rip them out, root and branch. Don't tell me they are symptoms of mental illness, because then you should doubly reject them. Illness is sickness. Sickness is part of the curse, and we are redeemed from the curse. Galatians 3, 13-14 Why would you want it, any of it? We don't have to have it. The Word contains the promises that can set us free, James 3, 1-3 What's great about the Word? It strengthens our faith. Why is that important? Matthew 9, 22 But Jesus, turning around and seeing her, said, Daughter, cheer up, your faith has made you well. And the woman was made well from that hour. Matthew 9, 29 Then he touched their eyes, saying, According to your faith, be it done to you. Matthew 15, 28 Then Jesus answered her, Woman, great is your faith. Be it done to you, even as you desire. And her daughter was healed from that hour. Mark 10, 52 Jesus said to him, Go your way, your faith has made you well. Immediately he received his sight and followed Jesus on the way. Luke 7, 50 He said to the woman, Your faith has saved you, go in peace. Luke 17, 19 Then he said to him, Get up and go your way, your faith has healed you. What is it that you expect? What is it you believe will happen? What is it you see happening in your mind's eye as you pray? That is the level of your faith. Not the faith available to you, just the faith you're choosing to use. Not what your faith is able to move, just what you have chosen to believe you are able to move with your faith. I'll say that again. Not what your faith is able to move, what you have chosen to believe you are able to move with your faith. You can put a straw barely into a bucket of water and drink. If you don't move the straw, the water will cease after a bit. Or you can put the straw to the bottom of the bucket, drink, and keep on drinking until the bucket is dry. You can try to pick up a 450-pound dumbbell. Or you can build up your muscles until you can pick up a 450-pound dumbbell. Romans 12.3 tells us that God has given everyone the measure of faith. How big is that measure? Well, let's look at other measures God gives us, remembering the Lord is a God of giving, increase, blessing, and growth. Ephesians 4.7, but to each one of us, the grace was given according to the measure of the gift of Christ. Ephesians 4.11-16, He gave some to be apostles, and some prophets, and some evangelists, and some shepherds, or pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full-grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error, but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things, into Him who is the Head, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together, through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love. That's a hefty measure. Jesus' grace, Jesus' full stature, that's a big measure. I cannot conceive that the measure of faith He gives us is anything less than Jesus' faith. Why? Because 2 Chronicles 19, 7 and 1 Peter 1, 17 tell us the Lord has no respect of persons, meaning that He doesn't see any difference between people. What was good for Moses was good for Elijah, was good for Peter, was good for Zacchaeus, is good for you. And guess what? Jesus is a person. He was a man. He is a man. What was and is good for Jesus was and is good for you and me. Period. God doesn't lie. What's this all about? We have been given Jesus' measure of faith through Jesus' measure of grace so that we can grow up into the full stature of Jesus. Ephesians 2, 8-10 and 1 Timothy 1, 13-14. Well, what is that stature? His righteousness. We can, in Christ Jesus, stand in the same right relationship with Father God. Colossians 2, 8-15. When can we do this? Whenever we want. Ask the Lord for it. Be reconciled to God. Submit to God. Restore your relationship, your friendship with the Lord. Be broken before Him through the Word. The measure of the Word that is within us is the measure of the faith that is available to us. If we study the Word, the Lord will respond. Why? Because it says, when we called, He answered. Among many others, Psalm 118-21, Psalm 138-3, and 1 John 5, 14-15. He answers us. Today, the acceptable day of the Lord. It is now. It is always now. Now, now, now, now, now, now, now. The Lord will help us. And the Lord is love. And peace. Patience. Faith. Joy. Kindness. Goodness. Gentleness. Self-control. Mercy. Grace. Does any of this sound like fear? Or depression? Anxiety? Worry? Or any mental illness? Or any physical illness? No, no, no, and again, no. The Lord God, Almighty God, in three persons, Father, Son, Holy Spirit. They have nothing bad in them. They are righteousness incarnate. Nothing but good upon good upon good upon good upon good. They don't send us any bad thing. Ever. Not to test. Not to teach. Not to build muscles. Never, ever, ever. Now, they can use anything we decide to hang on to. And they can turn it into something good when we submit to them. But they do not send it. From it, they save us. If they aren't the ones sending the mail to you, why would you choose to receive it? Reject it. Send it back. Return to sender. In big, bold, bright, red letters written in the blood of the Lord Jesus, the Anointed One, the Christ, by whom and in whom we have both the authority and the victory and the release from the curse in each and every form in which it appears or occurs. This is biblical. The Bible doesn't lie. The Bible is the Word. The Word is Jesus. Jesus is God. The Word is God. God doesn't lie because no lie can be found in God. God is truth. Unvarnished, untainted, uncompromised, just truth. Eternal, complete, and everlasting. Praise the Lord. And thank you, Jesus, for your sacrifice which enables the whole shebang. Now the world, with much ado, pomp, wisdom, and solemnity, says, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. They also say that fear is the animal response which is right and good and hardwired into the human brain for our survival. I say, fwee on that. 2 Corinthians 5.17 says, Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. We are new, whole, healed, complete. And we do not need to conform to the patterns, the thoughts, the beliefs, or the wisdom of this world. I do not deny their research, their studies, their diagnosis, their education, or their psychological meanderings. But I deny, 100%, the right of any of that to affect or effect me in any way. Why? Because they're of the world. Of the curse. Of the natural. I'm not. I'm in the world, but not of the world. I'm redeemed from the curse. I am a new creation and not natural. Praise Jesus and thank the merciful heavenly Father. So, you can go to therapy. And you can learn how to process your trauma, how to deal with your trauma, how to function with your trauma, and how to move forward past your trauma. That's good. And people need that. But you can also go to God and he can heal you of your trauma, so that it will be as if it never happened. You might have a memory of it, but that memory is not affecting you on an emotional or mental level. Doesn't that sound better? It's as simple and as basic as this. The Word says it. We can believe it. Stand on it through the power and ministry of the Holy Spirit. Use Jesus' faith and believe it. Repeat it. Say it and it only. Do not agree with the negative. Don't deny that it's there, but deny its ability to have more reality than the Word. Deny its ability to have more authority than the Word. Here's the deal. The devil, the enemy, does not have the Holy Spirit. He cannot discern anything. He goes completely and 100% by what you say. He does not have access to your inner man, to your inner spirit. You can proclaim the impossible. You can say what is different from what you're experiencing based on the Word. You can say that and it will do nothing but confuse him and weaken his ability to affect you, because he can only go by what you say. Now, if you dwell on the positive through the Word, that makes it possible to be positive, because all things are in Jesus, Colossians 117. Jesus is in the Father, John 14, 9-11. And the Father gives all good things, James 117. Based on the Word, dwelling in Jesus, God does all the heavy lifting. This isn't positive thinking. This is Word thinking. This is Word standing. This is standing and standing and standing some more. I call heaven and earth to witness against you today that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore, choose life that you may live. You and your descendants to love Yahweh your God, to obey his voice and to cling to him, for he is your life and the length of your days, that you may dwell in the land which Yahweh swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give them. Deuteronomy 30, 19-20. Choose Lord. Choose life. Choose the Word, and do not let it go. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is John 13, 1-20. Jesus loves us. The Father loves us. The Holy Spirit loves us. They are ready to serve our needs because they love to fulfill our needs. We cannot command them, but we can ask them. If we ask in accordance with the Word of God, we're asking the Lord. The Word is the will of the Lord. We're requesting something. We're expressing a want or a need, although he knows our needs and has already promised to supply them. But it's not greedy, selfish, or about pleasures. It's godly desire, Word desire. If we ask out of our own desires, thoughts, and plans, we're talking at the Lord. We're mentioning something. We aren't really asking. The Lord always grants us what we ask for. The Lord always says yes to our requests. Never no and never wait. It's always yes, and as soon as we can handle it, we get it. Why? Because we ask according to the Word. We ask him for what he wanted to give us in the first place because he loves us and wants to give us every blessing we can handle, and then a few more. Amen. Praise God. He'll also discuss our thoughts, desires, and plans, and whatever else we mention to him because he loves us and loves talking to us and talking us through things into deeper revelation out of his Word. He loves us, all of us. It's great, isn't it? As we close, remember that you have birth. 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? Go to bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no and to God's love and no and 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. He can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.