No Call Waiting

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear. Fear is seen as a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. The focus is on championing faith and having a close relationship with God. The role of the Holy Spirit is emphasized, highlighting its presence throughout the Bible. The Holy Spirit is described as a counselor, comforter, teacher, and guide. It is through faith and praise that we can have a direct connection with God and access His love and mercy. The message encourages readers to embrace the love and forgiveness of God and to remember their worth and value in His eyes. The importance of Jesus' sacrifice and the power of His name are also emphasized. The overall message is one of hope and assurance in God's love and presence. 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 Matthew 1.20 But when he thought about these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, Joseph, son of David, don't be afraid to take to yourself Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit wasn't a New Testament idea. It is referenced in the Psalms. Don't throw me from your presence, and don't take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of your salvation. Uphold me with a willing spirit. Psalm 51.11-12 And in Isaiah, in Isaiah 63 alone, there are two references. The first discussing how the people of Israel grieved the Holy Spirit and turned away from Him. And the second, how the Holy Spirit was among them when they came out of Egypt. And right at the beginning, in Genesis, it says, the Holy Spirit was moving on the waters. Now the Hebrew word for spirit is R-U-C-H, Rukh, I think is how you pronounce it. And it appears about 378 times in about 348 verses. It can mean spirit, spirit of, in spirit, wind, wind of, and a few other derivations. It was often symbolic of a spirit, God's or ours. It was also used for the winds of the world, like the east wind or the wind from the north, as well as spirit winds. Now in the New Testament, the Greek word is pneuma, and it appears 348 times in about 304 verses. And it is almost always combined with hagio, which means holy. Pneuma means spirit or spirit of. And looking at the verses, it is rarely symbolic. It is almost always Holy Spirit, a personality interacting with humanity. So, the Holy Spirit wasn't a new covenant concept, but the new covenant was vastly superior to the old in our relationship with the Holy Spirit. As it says in Hebrews, in that He says a new covenant, He has made the first obsolete. Chapter 8, verse 13. The old covenant has passed away in that the new covenant is the fulfillment of the old, and the perfection of it. It is like having a long-distance relationship until the day you move in together and start a daily one, face to face. God and His righteousness is the same as ever, but our relationship with Him now is something amazing and in no way dependent on our actions or works. We are given the ability to be in Jesus, and in Jesus can fulfill the law, and we can be that moral person living in faith and not sinning that we are meant to be. We can't do it, but Jesus did it, and in Him we are sanctified. That ongoing process that starts at salvation and ends when we get to heaven. It was with this new ballgame approaching that Joseph and Mary needed to be faithful and obedient. It must have been so hard. Joseph was motivated by love when he was considering putting Mary aside. If she had been with a man before marriage, she would have been stoned. Her life was in danger. Having a virgin birth may have been an idea floating around in some ancient mythologies that the Hebrews as a people may or may not have been aware of, but in every one of those legends and stories, there's actual intercourse of some kind. This was a virgin impregnated, virgin during pregnancy, virgin after the birth, virginity, and this is impossible virginity. They would have seen the proof of that as they went forward in their relationship and had other children in the normal way, but at this point, a girl's word for something so impossible that it stretches credulity? Now, interestingly enough, nowhere in the word does it say that Joseph didn't believe her, but looking at his situation, looking at all the negatives that surrounded them, all the possible ways for this to go south and for Mary to be punished, he was consumed with worry. Now, who else was consumed with worry? Job was consumed with worry, and Job wouldn't let it go, and that enabled the enemy to move in his life and do things. He lost his first seven kids. Now, Joseph was consumed with worry, and it took an angel's visit to convince Joseph that all his worries didn't need to be worries. It took an angel saying, don't be afraid for Joseph to put aside his fears. How many times do we face worries and fears that seem world-shattering, at least our worlds? We're blessed enough to live in new covenant times. We don't need to rely on an angelic visitation. We have the Holy Spirit right here speaking to us 24-7. We have Jesus living in our hearts, never leaving, never forsaking. We have the opportunity to enter the courts of heaven with praise on our lips and joy in our hearts, to stand before the Father and worship Him, to cast all of our cares, worries, and concerns into His hands and leave them there. We can face impossible situations with the Holy Spirit telling us directly that it will be okay to let us know what to do, when, and how. We can talk with Jesus as a friend and confident. We can have it. Well, we do have it so easy compared to the way it worked in the old covenant. We have a direct line to the Lord, no call waiting, answered every time. Now let's look at the role of Holy Spirit. What is His main job? Because we don't think of Him, we don't hear a lot about Him, except as a concept. Now, He's not a spirit in the sense that He's not some energy force floating around. He's an actual person, an actual personality. John 15-26 calls Him, counselor. It's mentioned three times in the New Testament, actually. Also, the Spirit of truth, which appears five times. Matthew 3-11 says Holy Spirit baptizes us, sanctifying us. There are at least 69 different verses referring to the baptism of the Holy Spirit in the New Testament. In John 3-5, Jesus explains that we need to be born again through Holy Spirit to receive salvation and enter the kingdom of God. That's repeated in about 32 other verses in the New Testament. In John 14-26, Holy Spirit is our comforter, appearing nine times in that office. Holy Spirit is the source of the fruit of the Spirit. Galatians 5, 22-23, and then again in about eight other places. Holy Spirit is called our teacher six times, like He is in 1 John 2-27. Romans 8-14 tells us Holy Spirit guides us, and it's referenced as that in over 20 other places as well. This is a wide scope of ministry and function. Luke 12-12 and five other places, Holy Spirit is our teacher. That covers everything we need as people. A source of truth, comfort, salvation, sanctification, guidance, instruction, counsel, and the source of our fruit, those works that are born out of our faith that we can't help but produce. James 2, 14-26. Everything that made up the ministry of Jesus on earth, but now in us. That's a powerful connection. That's world-changing, yours as well as the world around you. So use your direct line today. Talk to Him. Praise Him. Praise is the key to prayer, the key to requests, and the key to all interactions with the kingdom. Praise is the language of faith. Romans 14-23. And faith pleases the Lord. Hebrews 11-6. It lines up our hearts with heaven. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old things have passed away. Behold, all things have become new. But all things are of God, who reconciled us to Himself through Jesus Christ, and gave to us the ministry of reconciliation. Namely, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world to Himself, not reckoning to them their trespasses, and having committed to us the word of reconciliation. 2 Corinthians 5, 17-19. Now that again shows us the idea, the principle, that God is not holding sin against us. It's been paid for. It's not a factor for God. Praise gets us close to God, and faith puts us under His wings. Psalm 91-4. It puts our hearts into concert with His heart. 1 John 3, 18-20. And then we pray and interact in accordance to His will. 1 John 3, 21-24. When we have faith, believe, and ask for the things He wants to do for us, there isn't any reason not to have a yes. Mark 11, 22-26. And Hebrews 4, 16. Praise Him today. Read the word. Renew your mind into His thinking. Use your direct line. When we draw near to God, God draws near to us. When we are broken before Him, humble in our justified praise of His holy name, the Lord exalts us to be before Him. James 4, 5-10. God is our good Father and the sustainer of all we have, our source. Jesus is our Lord, our Savior, and the name above all names, the authority and power of dominion. The Holy Spirit? He is our companion, friend, and righteous spirit. How then can we be afraid? How can we look at what is in our lives or coming at us and fear it? Look who is with us. Look who is in us. Look at what a path-illuminating presence that we have working in us, on us, and around us. Fellowship with Holy Spirit today. He is speaking to you. In fact, He never stops. He is always there. What a comfort! What a promise! Holy Spirit isn't a tool in our toolbox. He is our toolbox. He is the way in which we remain in Jesus. He is the way in which we hear from the Word. He is the voice speaking to us in our spiritual desert. He is the one calling us home into the kingdom of God. He is the framework on which we hang our faith. He is our constant companion, closer than a brother, sharper than a sword, our fellowship and guide. 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, 366 when we are leaping, all access, all the time. We are never ghosted by the ghost. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 John 2, 12-17. Jesus is merciful. God is merciful. And His mercy endures forever. Amen. We don't deserve it. We've done nothing to merit it. But Jesus gives it to us anyway. God extends it to all of us. That's amazing if you really think about it. We were all in this state of corruption, enemies to the cross and to God. But He overlooked that and died for us anyway. While we were still sinners. Before we could do anything but despise Him. That's amazing to me. What mercy. What love. Hallelujah. And now we know Him. We have through Him conquered the devil and all his works. Because that is exactly what Jesus did. And He turned around and handed it to us. When we are broken before Him, when we subject ourselves to God and put ourselves under Jesus' yoke, we can resist the devil. Actively resist the devil. And the devil must flee. Because when faced with the Word, he can't take it. He can't stand it. He's got nothing he can do against it. He's weak and useless in the face of Jesus and His name and the Word of God. And so, when we stand on that and in that, he must flee. Our sins are forgiven on account of Jesus' name. Young, old, everyone. Whether you believe or whether you don't, your sins are not accounted to you. Unless you refuse to let Him pay that price. This is the greatest gift. This is the good news. Receive it today. 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? 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.