Seize Boldness

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and embrace faith in God. Fear is seen as a spiritual force that Satan uses to keep people down. The disciples' lack of faith is highlighted in the story of Jesus calming the storm. They were focused on the natural and lacked spiritual boldness. However, later, after receiving the Holy Spirit, they became bold and unafraid, even when facing opposition. The new covenant in Jesus allows believers to be transformed and sanctified by his sacrifice. Though our flesh may still lean towards sin, we can train it with the strength of our spirit in Jesus. 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 Mark 4.40 He said to them, Why are you so afraid? How is it that you have no faith? Why are you afraid? In the Greek, they use the word, diloi, I think that's how you pronounce it, which, when literally translated, is cowardly. A coward is defined as someone who shows disgraceful fear or timidity, that is, someone who loses favor by expecting danger or lacking boldness or determination. The disciples expected the worst. They expected to be in danger of their lives. They lacked boldness to counter the situation. They did not determine to believe God and stand in his favor. They chose to embrace fear instead of the strength that Jesus had been teaching them about. Proverbs 24.10 says, If you falter in the time of trouble, your strength is small. This is just where the disciples were spiritually. In the natural, they were experienced fishermen. This area of the Sea of Galilee is prone to sharp and sudden storms. Things can go from calm to nine-foot waves in a matter of moments. The physical location of the lake is what gives it that nature. It's located deep in the Jordan Great Rift Valley, which is caused by the African and Arabian tectonic plates separating. It is surrounded by valleys which can push large volumes of air at great strength down on the lake. Now, based on the wording in the Greek of the rebuke Jesus gave the storm, identical to the wording of rebuke he used when casting out the demonic, it seems that the demonic took advantage of a natural phenomenon to try and sink the boats that night. This is especially likely when you consider where Jesus was headed to eliminate the possession of two demoniacs who held a whole region of this area in a group of terror. Matthew 8.28-34 and Mark 5.1-20 But the disciples weren't operating in the spirit realm. They were focused entirely on the natural. And as experienced fishermen, they had a plan. Bail out the water, row the boat, move along at a certain path through the waves, make for a specific point, etc., etc. They'd done this before. But in the midst of their turmoil and fear, Jesus was sleeping. Perhaps they resented that, Jesus not doing his share to help their situation. They were lacking spiritual boldness. They had not been feeding their spirit in order to gain spiritual strength. This was the same day that Jesus had taught them about the sower sowing the word, Mark 4.1-20. He taught them about not putting their light under a basket, but shining like a city on a hill, Mark 4.21-25. The parable of the seed scattered on the ground, which then grew into a great harvest, Mark 4.26-29. The parable of the mustard seed, where a tiny seed grows into a mighty shelter for birds, Mark 4.30-33. The disciples had not fed into that teaching as they could have. They were not operating on the authority Jesus had given them. They were not embracing the faith they should have been strengthening. They were focused on the fact that Jesus was doing nothing. That he was sleeping. That he seemed to not care about the situation or them. They were acting like spiritual cowards. And Jesus asked them why. Jesus asked them to look into themselves and examine their motives. To figure out where they stepped wrong as they chose to embrace fear and not God. Now it's interesting that in Mark, it's the only account of this where Jesus rebukes the storm first and then talks to them. In all the other accounts, he talks to them first. The writer of Mark was pointing out how focused on the natural experience they were. And it's not like they didn't have examples. The Psalms that they had grown up listening to are full of individuals calling out to God for help and God answering powerfully. Maybe later they saw the connection because just as in the Psalms, the moment they cried out, Jesus woke and answered them. They came to him in the weakness of Proverbs 24.10 and Jesus responded with the strength of Proverbs 24.11. Which says, Rescue those who are being led away to death. Indeed, hold back those who were staggering to the slaughter. God never leaves us hanging, bailing water, or drowning. He always extends a hand with a smile to ask, Why are you afraid? The disciples could have looked to other scriptures that they had heard growing up. And anytime they went to the synagogue, the Torah is full of people boldly determined to get favor from the Lord and walk into victory. Abraham, Joseph, Joshua, Moses, Esther, and Ruth, for example. The disciples also had been around Jesus, watching him deal with situations, conversations, and supernatural manifestations. Boldly expecting to receive from his Father in heaven and receiving powerfully in response to his faith. But the disciples did not choose boldness or to trust. They chose fear. Now contrast that to how they were later when the Holy Spirit had come on them. In Acts 4.13, Peter and John had been taken before the authorities of the temple to be judged for their actions. Two of the, don't you care that we're dying, disciples. Mark 4.38. Here in Acts, Peter and John responded to all charges. How? Well in 4.13, it says that when the Pharisees saw the boldness of Peter and John, and had perceived that they were unlearned and ignorant men, they marveled. They recognized that they had been with Jesus. Peter and John weren't special. Weren't educated beyond the basics to function in life as laborers, as basic minimum wage, make something of yourself if you can, people. They were deemed ignorant, but they had supernatural words and boldness and determination. Even when the council demanded they stop teaching, Peter and John responded by saying, whether it is right in the sight of God to listen to you rather than to God, judge for yourselves. For we can't help telling the things which we saw and heard. They were still bold. The Holy Spirit was giving them everything they lacked. And as we saw in Mark, they had once lacked faith in the ability of God to save them. The old covenant was all about doing the required things in order to get the benefit of the Lord's blessing. Do the thing, get the thing. Stay in the yard of the Lord or walk in the valley of death where you're going to suffer. In the New Testament, in the new covenant, Jesus did the thing. When we accept that and get born again, we get the benefit of Jesus doing the thing. But getting that gift means that we are new creatures, new creations, completely transformed from what we were to what we are in Jesus. Hebrews 10, 7-14 says, Previously saying, sacrifices and offerings and whole burnt offerings and sacrifices for sin you didn't desire, neither had pleasure in them, those which are offered according to the law. Then he has said, being sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all. Every priest indeed stands day by day serving and offering, often the same sacrifices which can never take away sins. But he, when he had offered one sacrifice for sins forever, sat down at the right hand of God from that time, waiting until his enemies are made the footstool of his feet, for by one offering he has perfected forever those who are being sanctified. We have been forever sanctified from a creature seeking its own selfish ends but willing to comply so that it doesn't get hurt, motivation from fear, to one who seeks to please God with our faith out of love, not fear, to do the things that please him, not because we have to, for we are free from the rule of the law, Romans 8, 1-2. We do it because we want to, 1 John 5, 1-5, because righteous living pleases God, and we are being sanctified in Jesus. Spiritually, in our spirit, we are sanctified, period, through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ. But the flesh is being sanctified in Jesus. We aren't bound by a fear to obey. We're being sanctified. But we have a great freedom to run to God and call him Father, Romans 8, 15, to jump into his lap, curl up, and love on him as he loves on us. It's my favorite place to be. Why would we want to disobey a perfect Father who loves us, is just, is fair, and goes out of his way to help us to live righteously? Why wouldn't we do all we could to follow him, 2 Timothy 2, 22-26? Why wouldn't we want to try and repay what cannot be repaid? He provided a way for us to avoid this sentence that was us in sin, a way to receive life in Jesus. What love, what grace, what mercy. It endures forever, all praise and glory to the Lord God Almighty. But we are new spiritual creatures who inhabit old flesh, even though the old flesh is being sanctified. That flesh has habits, appetites. It naturally leans toward sin because it was born from sin. We may grow up, get educated, and sometimes move far from home, but we always have a soft spot for those foods, habits, and pleasures of our youth, don't we? Flesh works the same way. We must train the flesh with the strength that we have in our spirit, in Jesus, using his strength, which is freely given to us by grace. Amen. We must use our souls, the mental, emotional, us, to draw from our spirit into our flesh, to inform our flesh and our feelings, instead of being informed by our feelings and our flesh. We do it by getting into the Word. It is the only way to do it. Why? Why? Because all our righteousness, strength, and authority are in Jesus, not ourselves. The Word has power, not us. Jesus is the Word. When we get into the Word, we get into the will and the heart of the Father. When we get into the Word, we forge relationship with Jesus by reading it, thinking about it, asking the Father about it, believing it, as written, verbatim, literally, and applying it to our lives. As Holy Spirit leads, our world will change. It is health. It is rest. It is peace. It is joy. It is wisdom. It is guidance. It is correction. It is the future, the past, and the present. It is ever new and ever same. It is always up to date and applicable to what we go through. We do this studying because God's Word is truth, and he will sanctify us with it. John 17, 17. It is the process by which we achieve sanctification in the flesh. It is ongoing. It is a lifelong thing. You don't need to know Greek and Hebrew and Arabic. You just read the Word, think on the Word, ask Holy Spirit to show you Jesus in the Word, to give you revelation of it. You dwell on it. You go over and over until it moves from your head to your heart. We should know and believe that every Scripture is God-breathed and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for instruction in righteousness, that each person who belongs to God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3, 16-17. We do not need to be spiritual or natural cowards. We can be equipped for everything the Lord wants from us and for us. When spiritual storms break, we can be strong and at peace in Jesus. When natural storms rise up, we can counter flesh fear by turning to Jesus in whom we are strong and at peace. We can, on every level, reject fear and cast it away from us by embracing the love that the Lord has and the victory that love gives us. We can be strong and courageous by living right, believing right, doing right, in Jesus, through and according to the principles of the Word, not basing things on what we see or feel, but in and on the Word of God, which is the truth, full and complete. It is a process. But we can do that because the Lord gives us His Spirit. Romans 5-5. We can do that because the Word of God retrains our mind. Romans 12-2. It renews our spirit. Ephesians 4-23. It makes us over into the new creation in Jesus that He always saw us as. 2 Corinthians 5-17-19. It gives us boldness. 1 Corinthians 16-13. It gives us determination. Romans 12-10-13. Don't sell yourself short. In Jesus, you have everything. Don't deny yourself access to the freedoms and blessings of the Lord. He is merciful, and His mercy endures forever. Claim it. Begin to renew yourself today. Seize boldness, and with His help, never let it go. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 Timothy 6-11-19. We are in a fight, and the Lord gives us the weapons to fight it. We are called to stand fast in Him. He would not command us to fight and stand if He didn't have our best interests at heart, if He wasn't able and willing to protect us, to follow through with what He said. Abraham believed God, and it was counted as righteousness. Romans 4-3. What did Abraham believe? That God was able to do what God said He could. That's it. What loving God would lie? What loving God would tell you to count on something you couldn't count on? Not ours. Not Yahweh. Not the living God. Not the one who provides, protects, sustains, and loves us. Our God is truth. As we close, remember that you have worth. 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.