Slavery Sucks

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear in any form. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. Instead, faith in God is championed, as it casts out fear. Rejecting God's word leads to an unprincipled mind and bondage to fear. Poverty is described as a constant drain on one's well-being. Fear is compared to slavery, with its terrible effects on the mind. Turning to Jesus and seeking deliverance from fear and its effects is encouraged. In Jesus, one becomes a new creation and can be free from trauma, anxiety, and other afflictions. The process of renewal and sanctification is necessary to experience freedom. The importance of praising God and acknowledging His love is emphasized. God is always present, eager to hear and speak to 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 Romans 8.15 For you didn't receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the spirit of adoption by whom we cry, Abba, Father. A spirit of bondage, the real slavery of fear. Slaves don't get to walk away when they want to. Slaves don't get a choice about what they want. When you refuse to have God in your knowledge, when you've heard the word and you've heard the message, but you refuse to let it in, God will give you up to an unprincipled mind. Zephaniah 3.4 and Romans 1.28-32 It's your choice. Your choice. Now, He won't reject you or abandon you. He will be right there striving for your soul. He promises never to leave you. But just like when a child is throwing a tantrum, He as the parent will stand back and let you wail. That wail is a reprobate mind full of the fruits of things which are not fitting to participate in. Unrighteousness, sexual immorality, wickedness, covetousness, malice, envy, murder, strife, deceit, evil habits, secret slanderer, backbiting, insolence, arrogance, boastfulness, disobedience, breaking of covenants, unforgiveness, unmercifulness, and they all come with shackles of fear. Again, Romans 1.28-32 Once you're shackled, you're a slave to fear. And that this is not, we as Christians read this in a book and you all need to listen to us and conform to what we think. No, no, no, no, no, no, no. This is God. Outside of mankind, outside of anything in creation, is. I am that I am. That's what Yahweh says about himself. And in that am-ness, he is righteousness. Now the fact is that regardless of what we think or read or prove to each other or choose, that righteousness is. It is not subject to us. It is. It doesn't change based on what we think. It is. And anything that is not righteous is not fitting to participate in. Anything that is not righteous, that is not good, that is not from Yahweh, well that's of a curse. That's of sin. And it shackles you to fear. Because fear is the heir of the kingdom of darkness. Just as faith is the heir of the kingdom of God. You know what really sucks about slavery? The pay. You get done. You toil, you strive until you're broken and weary. Frequently you get beaten for the privilege. What have you earned? Nothing. Fear works the same way. You know what the opposite of prosperity is? Poverty. If prosperity is improvement of circumstances, what does that make poverty? The reduction of circumstances. A constant low-key drain. On your finances? No. On your possessions? No. On you. Now it can take the form of loss of money and possessions, but it's about you. How often have you heard or said something like this? It's always something. I never get a break. Or I never seem to get ahead. Or I was having a great week so I was just waiting for this. Something always happens. Poverty isn't only the state of being at rock bottom, broken, homeless, addicted, starving, and sick. It's also the process that gets you there. The slow, steady, inevitable, and accepted slide into the gutter. You might say, but I'm not, and then insert into the blank anything you like. You're not addicted. You're not broken. You're not starving. You're not homeless. You don't accept anything, but you do. And when you accept a downward spiral as the inevitable, you will be. You will be one of those things. Maybe all of those things. Go on social media and you see people say, I knew I was going to get sick. Oh, this always happens to me. Oh, teachers go on holiday and they get sick. Oh yeah, look at me. See, I'm a teacher. I got sick. It's true. It's an acceptance of a mental attitude of these things are normal. Only when we stop accepting poverty and turn to the one who can help us can we break the cycle. Because the spirit of poverty won't stop until you're dead because it is spiritual. We're to prosper as our soul prospers. Third John 2. Prosperity is spiritual, first and foremost. Poverty, it's spiritual leprosy. Its nature is to devour, and if it isn't treated with Jesus, the inevitable occurs. You know what else sucks about slavery? The hours. You don't get to choose when to work and when not to. You don't get to take holidays, rest, stop toiling. It's every day, all the time, whenever and whatever your master wants. It is horrible. Fear doesn't let you pick when to experience it. It chooses. It brings on the panic attacks, the anxiety bumble, the cloud of depression, the heart palpitations, the inability to talk on the phone, go out in public, or even get out of bed. Some days getting socks on is a victory to call home about. If you could bring yourself to dial the phone and have a conversation you haven't rehearsed two dozen times to try and make sure you've covered all the bases. Fear has a lot of babies, and they are all terrible afflictions on the mind of humankind. They color our entire experience. They don't respect age, circumstance, sex, gender expression, orientation, lifestyle, employment, clothing, or favorite colors. They come when they want, how they want, and last as long as they want. Therapy and drugs be damned. Of course, if they can slave you to a therapist or a cocktail of chemicals, they'll be just as happy. And no, I am not saying it's wrong to go to therapy. But I do wonder at the wisdom of going to a different therapist than the Holy Spirit. Why talk about your problems to figure things out with a fellow human who, respecting their education and the effort they've put into it, who doesn't really know more than you do about being human? When you could go to someone who can tell you what happened, how to fix it, how to avoid it in the future, how to fix your thinking, and how to have peace, joy, and love while you do it? Because they made human? God knows more than us, more about us, and everything about what is around us. Why not use his services first? And, you know, if you like therapy, if it helps you, please, go to a born-again therapist. Go to somebody who's got Holy Spirit actively in their lives, communicating back and forth. I mean, really, if you're going to go, go to someone who's plugged into God. There's nothing wrong with therapy. Fear shackles us, binds us, and throws away the key. That's what's really wrong. Fear. Fear and its babies never want to let you go. But they don't mind changing up who has you in hand at any given time. If you want to escape, to run away and live in freedom, then you need He who can help. Jesus died on the cross to end fear, to eliminate fear's baby's ability to hang on to you. He died to wash us clean. Sin left a crimson stain, but Jesus washes us clean again. It's better than a drug. It's better than quality, helpful therapy. It isn't learning to manage it. It isn't learning to live in spite of it. It is deliverance from it. Period. Full-on loss of bad, full-on gain of love, peace, joy, and any and everything else that the Lord can think of. Jesus sets us free. He has a heart for freedom. The Word is medicine to all our flesh. Proverbs 4, 20-24. You see, once you're in Jesus, you're a new creation. 2 Corinthians 5-17. You don't have to play by the rules of the flesh anymore. You're a spirit being with no sin in you. You're not a sinner saved, you're a Jesus clone. You were a sinner, you are saved. That's what makes you a Jesus clone. You're a co-heir, Romans 8-17. And a child of the Father, 1 John 3, 1-3. We don't have to accept anything of the curse or the flesh. We don't have to live with trauma, learn how to deal with it, learn how to manage it. No. We can be in the process of sanctification. The process of renewing our mind to think as God does, not as we used to as humans, Romans 12-2. That means you can be free of your trauma. Trauma, gone. All that stuff, gone. Anxiety, gone. Depression, gone. Sickness, gone. It's a process, though, and it takes mindful participation. But in the end, you will be free of all that made fallen humanity fallen. You'll be walking in Jesus, in the will of the Father, and according to his word. Here's a road map to how to get it. Praise Yahweh, my soul. All that is within me, praise his holy name. Praise Yahweh, my soul. And don't forget his benefits, who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from destruction, who crowns you with loving kindness and tender mercies, who satisfies your desire with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's. Psalm 103, 1-5. Start today. Start now. Let him deliver you and break the slavery of fear. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Job 7, 17-18. God does not care about your morning breath. It's true. You can have the most vile, draconian, world-ending vapors coming out of your mouth, and he will still be there, nose to nose. Every morning, when you open your eyes, he is there to greet you, eager to hear your voice, and even more eager for you to hear his. And every moment of every day, he is there to hold your hand, whisper in your ear, and speak to you about his love for you. He is a courter. He loves to court us, old-fashioned style, with words, deeds, gifts, and avalanches of adoration. He loves us. He's got a lot to do, but he can't stay away. He is devoted to us, steadfast in the way that defined steadfastness, merciful in the way that defined love, that inhabits love, that makes love what we think love is. Love is pregnant with his love, and it is pouring over you all day long. Enjoy it. Worship him for it. And maybe say good morning back. 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.