None Other

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 16.20 And the God of peace will quickly crush Satan under your feet. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you. We do not serve a God of fear. We do not serve the wielder of fear. We do not serve a God who is unable to defeat fear. We do not serve an inferior God. We do not serve a God who cannot stand tall amongst the chaff of worship that occurs on this earth. We serve an overcomer. We serve a Lord who is the living one. We serve a God who is more than enough. We serve a God who was, is, and will be. We serve a God of peace, of love, and of mercy. We serve the one true God. When world powers rise up and say, look how great we are, there is confidence in the believer that our God is real, true, and able to show it. Since everything in the Old Covenant pointed to the New Covenant, where do we see this modeled? Egypt. And that is why the world has always tried so desperately to disprove the Israelite presence in Egypt. It is why they try so hard to point to things about the Jewish worship of Yahweh and say that they got that from Egyptian concepts. This world is desperate to cover up that they cannot stand against the one true God. The world likes to say that Israel got its ideas of deity from Egypt for two reasons. One, they assume that the Egyptians formed their ideas before the Israelites. But the Israelites got their heritage from Abraham. Now he lived during the Middle Kingdom period of Egypt, but spent most of his time outside of Egypt, although he would have been aware of the nation. It is also important to remember that all cultures started with the knowledge of Yahweh and then moved away into idol and spirit worship. They have similarities because they had the same start point, the truth, and then they all deviated. Also, the enemy has a strategy of seeding shadows of truth in false beliefs so that this very thing can rise as an issue in the world. The second reason is that Egypt had a presence in Canaan, and so these gods were many of the idols that the Israelites faced. Partly this is a non-issue at the beginning because the Israelites mainly settled in the highlands and the Egyptian presence was in the lowlands and they didn't interact much. Eventually, of course, the Israelites spread out, but this is why the Lord got them out of Egypt the way that he did. Each plague was a direct attack on Egyptian deity. Several times Pharaoh had Moses lift the curse the day after they spoke. Why wait a day? Because he was still desperately hoping his gods would rise to the challenge. But they did not, and it cost him everything, including his life since he was attached to the deity model himself. Him being the first man to hold the throne name of Amenhotep II and dying before the first campaign of victory of the second Amenhotep II in 1445 BC. That man, the second one, was a man who had a deep hatred for Semites and magicians and also, for some strange reason, brought in a large force of slave labor into the country all of a sudden at around that time. That since the Israelites would be in a region in which these gods were worshipped, Yahweh showed them that they were nothing before him. The first plague, or judgment, was against the deity of the Nile, a water-bearer. The second was against the frog-headed deity of fertility, water, and renewal. The third was against their deity of the dust of the earth. The fourth against a fly-headed deity of creation, movement of the sun, and rebirth. The fifth against a cow-headed deity of love and protection. The sixth against the deity of medicine and peace. The seventh against the deity of the sky. The eighth against the deity of storms and disorder. The ninth against the sun god. The tenth against Pharaoh himself, worshipped as a deity and the ultimate power of Egypt. It was also a challenge to their deity of the underworld, considered a source of bringing new life up on the land, rebirth here, not resurrection, a deity of fertility and the embodiment of death. This deity was intimately connected to Pharaoh. When the Israelites traveled into Canaan, whether the highlands or later spreading into the lowlands, they would encounter these gods and could scorn them with ease. They knew that their god had conquered each and every one of them, showing them to be powerless, while Yahweh was able to start and end plagues at a word. They had Egyptians who joined their exodus, converting to the Jewish faith because their own gods were useless, Exodus 12, 38. They too would have added their stories to the mix, cementing in the minds of the Israelites the powerlessness of the Egyptian gods. In fact, if you read the books of Judges, Kings and Chronicles, you will find that the gods that snared the Israelites were never the Egyptian one. Egypt was one of the most powerful and influential cultures that has ever walked this earth, but Yahweh broke their hold on the Israelites, a hold that they never returned to. They learned their lesson. We need to learn the same one. I will put hostility between you and the woman and between your offspring and her offspring. He will bruise your head and you will bruise his heel, Genesis 3.15. This was among the first promises that we had from the Lord. First, that he would send a Messiah to save us. Second, that the offspring of the woman would bruise the head of our adversary. In Jesus we have that victory. Yahweh did the work in Egypt, but it was Moses who bruised the ego of Egypt, bruised it to the point that the Pharaoh's successor warned other nations against magicians and Semites, which is how he perceived Moses. Jesus does the work. In him we have our victory, 1 Corinthians 15.57. We submit to the Lord and the devil flees from our position on the rock, James 4.7. He sets our feet in a firm place, Psalm 40.2. And that place is the neck of our enemy. This is where we are empowered to walk, on the neck of the enemy. Remember, we have dominion here on earth, Genesis 1.26. Nothing that is spirit can do a work here without our permission. We can keep the enemy constantly hampered here. At least until we go, 2 Thessalonians 2.7. Because our rightful place is in Jesus, 2 Timothy 1.9. And in Jesus we are overcomers by the simple fact that Jesus has overcome the world, John 16.33. God ends conflict. It is what he does. If people have been at war or in a state of enmity, peace is the pact that brings an end to it. That is what God does. He ends our enmity with himself by having paid the sin price for us. He frees us from the tyranny of disquieting and oppressive thoughts and feelings. He brings us peace in our relations with one another. He brings harmony to our finances. He brings harmony to our health. He brings peace. Peace that we don't even understand. Peace that defies human reasoning. Peace that comes from outside of creation and so is not subject to the rules of creation. Lasting peace. A peace founded on something more than ideas. A peace founded on truth. Not our opinion of truth, or perception of truth, or viewpoint of truth, but the actual true truth. Jesus is the foundational stone of our peace, Isaiah 28.16. Which is why it is in him that we move, live, and have our being, Acts 17.28. God is a God of growth, prosperity, and multiplying. He is the God of more than enough. So it is no surprise that in 1 Peter 1, verses 1-2, we're told that peace can be multiplied. Like the faith we are given, the Lord wants us to strengthen our peace. To see it grow into all of our life. Depart from evil and do good. Seek peace and pursue it. Psalm 34.14. This is the grace we have in Jesus. The authority and command to pursue peace. To seek him before all else. He is the God of peace, so his peace is among that which we are to seek. Peace is something you get given in order to stop fighting, or to stop striving, or to stop whatever it is we are doing that is robbing us of peace. Robbing us of our place in Jesus by convincing us to step out of him. We have to maintain our place in Jesus. Our God is a God of movement, and we are created in his image. We too move. We need to move where he moves. We need to stand where he stands and keep up. It sounds hard, but we have the tools to make that happen for us in Jesus. In Jesus we are strong, and we have the strength of his might around us. Psalm 28.7-8. He prepares our minds through the word for all we encounter, enabling us to set our eager expectation of victory on him. 1 Peter 1.13. We are equipped with faith, love, and judgment. 1 Thessalonians 5.8 and Exodus 28.15. We can be ruled by peace. Colossians 3.15. We are free from the love of money, keeping covetousness far from our hearts. Hebrews 13.5. Born into Jesus, we are born to be overcomers in him. 1 John 5.4. We are enabled to love our enemies. Matthew 5.44. Our weaknesses are helped through the intercession of the Holy Spirit. Romans 8.26. We've been granted boldness to stand and endure in Jesus. Hebrews 10.35-36. We've been given a spirit of power, love, and self-control. 2 Timothy 1.7. We're worked on by God to fulfill his good pleasure. Philippians 2.13. We have all of that in the grace of Jesus. He is also our good shepherd. John 10.11. Leading us to cool water and good pasture. He is our bread which gives life. John 6.35. He sustains us. If we'll feed on the word like we feed on sugar and fat, our spirits will always be healthy. He is the light that guides us through the word. John 8.12. He gives us knowledge and banishes our ignorance. He gives us light to see things that are true, not just what we'd like to see or what we in ourselves understand. He is the resurrection and the life. John 11.35. Enabling those who believe in him to receive the eternal righteous spirit that he grants us so that we can live forever. He is the door through which we walk to the Father. John 10.9. The entrance into the abundance of living life to its fullest, not bound by worldly position, wealth, language, stature, or ability. He is the way, the truth, and the life. John 14.6. He is the way in which we know the Father, the truth of the one true living God revealed to us day by day, and the life that we live in freedom from sin. The life righteousness grants us. He is the vine and the father, the farmer. John 15.1. In Jesus we produce the fruit of grace that we are meant to, providing through our spirits that which the world around us needs, the uplifting of our brothers and sisters and mercy to the lost. This fruit of the spirit is only possible in Jesus. This is the God who guards us. This is the God who redeems us. This is the God who loves us. What confidence we can have. What joy and freedom is ours. This is the God who crushes the enemy for us, leaving him with his neck out waiting to be stepped on by us. The enemy's ultimate defeat is waiting. Revelation 20.10. Set aside in perfect justice for the crimes against the kingdom of God. But us? In Jesus we are victors. In Jesus we are overcomers. In Jesus we are bearers of fruit. In Jesus we are ministers to the poor. In Jesus we are disciplers, making more disciples all the time. In Jesus we are kind, forgiving, and loving. In Jesus we are joyful. In Jesus we are worshipful. In Jesus we are the embodiment of his all. In Jesus we can be all things to all men. In Jesus we can be all that he meant us to be from the foundation of the world. May the grace of the Lord Jesus be with us all as we abide in him, grounded in the word, humble and broken before the Father, and eagerly obedient for our next assignment from the throne. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 John 2.12-17. Jesus loves us too much not to bring us up to his level. He wants us to achieve. He got back the authority and dominion we lost so that in him we can stand and overcome the world as he has overcome it. Whenever we are given authority, we are given a jurisdiction in which to wield it. When you defy the law of jurisdiction, your authority becomes an abuse. Authority is only effective when it is wielded within the jurisdiction allotted to that authority. No matter what the Holy Spirit has to say, the word needs to pass through the constituted authority to find revelance. When we are passionate about the execution of authority but ignore the jurisdiction that authority is designated to, we have strife and not peace. Authority comes with responsibility and jurisdiction. Whoever holds the authority has the responsibility and vice versa and only within the jurisdiction of that authority. Interestingly, a definition of the word obedience is a sphere of jurisdiction, especially an ecclesiastical or secular dominion. We have dominion but only in the jurisdiction of Genesis 1.26. We were given it so it isn't absolute. It is only applicable to those things and only as long as we align with the parameters of that dominion's jurisdiction. It was given, not earned. The realm of the Spirit did not respond to the woman eating. It only responded when Adam ate. Satan could not talk to Adam, so he talked to the woman. He used the woman to get Adam to violate his dominion. Whenever you transfer your blame, you transfer your authority. Adam transferred blame. God didn't talk to the woman until Adam refused and passed the buck. The woman, now holding dominion and responsibility, passed the blame to Satan, who was using the serpent anointing. Satan, now holding the dominion and responsibility of Genesis 1.26, stays silent and does not transfer the blame. He became the god of this world because that is where and how he got the dominion. When Jesus was accused, he stayed silent so as not to transfer what he had been given. He stayed silent in order to remain eligible to take it back. This is how he became an overcomer. This is how we can overcome in him. He did it. We have been given authority in him. We have dominion in him. Nothing we do can be contrary to the word and the will of the Father if we want to stay in authority and dominion. We haven't been given his authority or dominion. We've been given permission to use that which Jesus got back. Peace can guard our hearts from letting wrong motivations take root. Motivations that could take root and affect our legal standing. If we try and use what we have been lent in an inappropriate way, nothing happens. It will not be abused. When we want to be overcomers, we need to stay in Jesus. Get the word into you on a daily basis. Read it like it is the food on which you survive because spiritually it is. If you are not alive and full of the word, you are likely to act out of alignment with it. Don't expose yourself to that. Believe to the word and let the peace of God guard your heart and power your motivation to be obedient to the will of the Father. 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 are 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 are 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.