Not Mine

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear. Fear is a spiritual force used by Satan to keep people down. Instead, faith in God is championed. Fear is responsible for mental health issues and is a poison that gets into everything. The psalm in today's verse is a prayer against fear and a celebration of God's victory over it. It is important to stay in Jesus and rely on His strength and guidance. Fear attacks our faith, so it is important to focus on the Word of God and reject worldly programming. We have the power to choose not to fear and to exercise self-control. Through Jesus, we have victory over sickness, disease, and fear. We need the Word to transform our minds and receive revelation. Remember that God loves us just because we are us. His perfect 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 Psalm 64, 1-4 Hear my voice, God, in my complaint. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. Hide me from the conspiracy of the wicked, from the noisy crowd of the ones doing evil, who sharpen their tongue like a sword, and aim their arrows, deadly words, to shoot innocent men from ambushes. They shooted him suddenly and fearlessly. What's that quote? The only thing to fear is fear itself? That was David's big problem that he is recording here. It wasn't his enemies. It wasn't all the attacks against him, physical and verbal. It wasn't people being turned against him. It wasn't any of that. He was in turmoil. He was under attack. He was under the kind of slandering attacks you can't physically block, and he was pushed from every direction. He was less concerned about those than he was about being afraid of those things. David did not want fear to enter his life. He knew the dangers of it, and he prayed deeply against it. Nothing has changed. Fear is still insidious. It is still the thing that kills more people than anything else on the planet. It is responsible for all of the ills of the mental landscape. Anxiety, depression, stress, and worry are all babies of fear. Fear is behind everything negative, in the same way that faith is behind everything good. It is a poison that gets into everything. It is a terrible, terrible thing, and the world treats it like an amusement park ride. There's an entire industry dedicated to it. Movies, rides, toys, games, activities, all designed to help people experience fear in a fun way, to desensitize them to what fear really is, and what it really does. Let it in, and it brings friends with it. This psalm that today's verse is from is a prayer against fear, and a celebration of God's victory over it. It is a declaration that the Lord can be a refuge, not only from the attacks of the world, but also from fear. The righteous shall be glad in Yahweh, and shall take refuge in Him. All the upright in heart shall praise Him. Psalm 6410 What a great close. What a great statement. You see it echoed in many other psalms, like Psalm 27, Psalm 91. It weaves throughout the Bible. In spite of fear, God has brought the victory. It hasn't manifested yet, but it is on the way. We can have expectant hope about it. It's coming. For the believer, in Jesus, we already can experience that victory. We can walk in it as long as we stay in Him. I have told you these things, that in Me you may have peace. In the world you have trouble. But cheer up. I have overcome the world. John 16, 33 Our task is not to defeat the world. It is already defeated. Our task is to abide in Jesus. John 15, and to stay in Him. Staying is the issue because we are movers. As the Spirit moved over the water in Genesis 1-2, so too do we move over the earth. That doesn't always mean moving from place to place. It can also be us moving around where we are. Moving our attention. Moving what we do. Swapping hobbies. Television shows. Churches. Where we shop. Who we hang out with. Who our partners are. Our favorite snacks and beverages. And every other thing. We're like children who tell you about their favorite thing. Their 14 favorite things. That list never seems to end. This is my favorite. I thought that was your favorite. Oh, that's my favorite too. We move. We say variety is the spice of life. And we move around. So much of what the Lord says to us is about not moving. Picking a thing and standing on it. Not moving. Staying in that place despite bad weather, attacks, persecutions, and everything else. To stand. The Lord doesn't leave us naked and exposed though. He wants us to stand. But He wants us to stand in Him. With His tools. His way. On His principles. Finally, be strong in the Lord and in the strength of His might. Put on the whole armor of God that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. Ephesians 6, 10-11. His strength. His might. His armor. All of it is the Lord. The Lord does the thing. Not us. We wear it. We speak what He tells us to speak. We do what He tells us to do. We stand where He tells us to stand. But He does the doing. We are not defenseless. We are empowered and enabled to operate under His guidance. When we let Him do the thing, we cannot lose. Verse 13 of Ephesians 6 goes on to say, Therefore put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Our job is to stand in Jesus. Everything we are, we are in Him. Apart from Him, we can do nothing. John 15, 5. He is our all. He is everything to us. Jesus paid for sin. He died and was resurrected to life. He is the living one. He is the righteous one. We love God and we want to see the Father. Moses wanted to see the Father too. Asked for it. And this is the guy who talks to the Lord face to face as a friend. Exodus 33, 11. But he wanted to see Him. So he asked, and he got told no. He said, You cannot see my face, for man may not see me and live. Exodus 33, 20. Man is unrighteous. We gave in to sin. We cannot survive an encounter with Yahweh God Most High. He is righteous and we will cease to exist if we are faced with Him. Jesus warned us about that. For I tell you that unless your righteousness exceeds that of the scribes and Pharisees, there is no way you will enter into the kingdom of heaven. Matthew 5, 20. The only way that we get to the Father is through Jesus. Jesus is the only righteous one that there is apart from the Father. Jesus became man. Jesus was resurrected to life. 100% God and 100% man. He is the last Adam. He is the one who was the source for our salvation. If we accept Him as Lord over our life, and we believe in what He did for us and what happened to Him, we are saved. When we are baptized into Him, we symbolically die to our old selves and get resurrected into Him, given new life, new creations, given Jesus' eternal righteous spirit so that in the Father's eyes we are the same as Jesus. 2 Corinthians 3.18. Jesus is our key into heaven, the only one, the only way. Without Him we can't be there. It is imperative that we stay in Him. Faith is the lifeblood of the kingdom. It is the air that we breathe. It is the way we plug into everything. It is the antithesis of fear. It is what we are about. It is what helps us to believe in what Jesus told us. It is what helps us to believe that we can stand. It is what we hang on to. It is more than eager expectation. It is the manifestation of obedience. Jesus asked us to do that in John 14.15, to obey His commandments as the manifestation of our love for Him. John talked about it in 1 John 5.1-5. Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ has been born of God. Whoever loves the Father also loves the child who was born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God. When we love God and keep His commandments. For this is loving God, that we keep His commandments. His commandments are not grievous. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world. This is the victory that has overcome the world, your faith. Who is he who overcomes the world but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God. Fear attacks our faith. It is merciless. It takes your mind off the Lord. It takes your eyes off the Word. Are you struggling with something? Fighting it? What are you doing binge-watching television shows that celebrate the world and worldly morals? I don't mean that you need to be doing the Word 24-7, although it certainly wouldn't hurt us. But why are you quote-unquote relaxing when you're not settled about the thing? What I mean is, is that we are to take our cares to the Lord. Once He has them, we aren't supposed to keep on with them. If He has it, let Him have it. Praise Him for the outcome. Go at it and go at it and don't give up until the praising of the Lord for what He is going to do and already has done gets so far into you that peace reigns on your insides. Philippians 4, 6-7 Don't take your eyes off Jesus until things are settled in your spirit. Peter took his eyes off Jesus before he had reached Jesus. Matthew 14, 30 It wasn't settled. He hadn't arrived. That was a mistake. It wasn't noticing the storm. It was watching the storm and not Jesus. Until we are there, until we are settled, until we are secure, we need to not take our eyes off Jesus. That is what kills fear, our total and absolute security in Jesus. Whatever you put in front of your eyes will retrain your mind. It is that simple. Propaganda works because it gets into our eyes. Programming works because it gets into our eyes. The world has been working at programming us forever. In modern times, they started when the media really kicked into gear. Television, feature films, short films, after school specials, news broadcasts, all of it. When we see a message again and again, when it starts small and works itself up to obviousness, we hardly notice. We get programmed to believe that the thing is right and good. This is how the world changes the morals of the world. Things that are considered human rights today were not considered that way a hundred years ago. And I'm not talking about slavery. I'm not talking about abuse. I'm not talking about real things. I'm talking about feelings. There are things that are feelings, just feelings. And the world is trying to get them cemented into law. Why are people behind it? Because we've been programmed by media over the last 60 years plus. As believers, we need to be very alert about what is put before our eyes. The Lord tells us to put the Word first and foremost before our eyes. Proverbs 4, 20-22. We are to think on good things because good things are from the Lord. We are to think about what the Lord says is good. Philippians 4, 8. He doesn't mean good as in quality. He means good as in morality. His morality. He is God. He is the only one who can say what is right and wrong because we are all from Him. He is the source of all life. He is the source of all creation. He is the source of all things. Period. When we put His Word before us, we begin to be retrained into thinking as He thinks, thinking about what He thinks about. It isn't easy because our training from the world kicks up. It tries to tell us that there are problems in the Word. There are no problems in the Word. There are no contradictions in the Word. There is only what we do not understand. There is only what we haven't connected. But we have eager expectation that we will be renewed by the Word. Romans 12, 12. That understanding will come to us by the Spirit. John 13, 7. And 2 Timothy 2, 7. What can stop us from understanding? From putting the Word in front of us and drinking it in? Fear. We get fearful about things and we worry them. We think on them. We dwell on them. We forget to go to the Word. Or we're so busy trying to get a solution and to find an answer that we don't pick up the book that will help. We don't refocus to the Lord and let Him tell us what to do. We don't seek His guidance. We're too busy listening to friends, family and professionals. And it isn't that all those people will have bad advice. Some of them will be able to give us very good advice. But it will be worldly advice. The Lord has true guidance. Now people can confirm it. People can point you toward it. But only you and the Lord can get at it together. We need to go to the Word, pray on it, praise it out and listen to what the Holy Spirit is telling us. When we do, revelation comes. Answers form in our spirit given by His. We get rest on the issue. We feel confident because our confidence is based on Him, not on ourselves. On what He can do and not on what we can do. As we seek Him, as we get into the Word, we need to pray this same prayer that King David did. Preserve my life from fear of the enemy. That's verse 1. Don't let us fear them, Lord. These problems, these people coming against me, don't let me fear them. Don't let me pick that up. It's an easy prayer. Easy to say and easy to grasp the answer. For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love and self-control. 2 Timothy 1.7 We have self-control given by Yahweh God. We can choose not to fear. We can choose to reject it. We can choose not to pick it up. The Holy Spirit is in us. We can rely on Him. Jesus is in us and we are in Him. We can rely on Him. The Father loves us and is a fortress for us. We can rely on Him. If we are doing wrong, the Lord will correct us. If our self tries to kick up, we can crucify it. We abide in Jesus. We have authority in Him. We have victory in Him. God is for us. Who can be against us? What can they do to us? Why should I fear? How can I fear? God is for me. Don't ignore what is around you, but don't put your eyes on it. Put your eyes on Jesus and keep your eyes on Jesus. You'll walk on the water and not sink. You'll rejoice in your faith and please God. You'll obey. You won't fear. You'll be asleep in the boat with Jesus, not awake and wailing at the wind. The Lord will preserve your life. You will not fear the enemies in this world. You will reverence God, obey His words, and all else will fade away into the background. Let Him be your focus today and every day after. Our daily affirmation of God's love is 1 Corinthians 2.12. We do not have to fear. We weren't given the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. 1 Timothy 1.7. We can choose what we do, what we say, and what we think. We have God-given self-control. Why don't we exercise it? Why do we keep saying we're at the mercy of circumstances? Oh, I can't do this or do that because of this and because of that. We keep letting our circumstances or our conditions dictate to us what we can and can't do. That's a worldly spirit. That wasn't the one we were given. Don't pick it up. Leave it alone. God gave us a lot more than we can humanly understand. We need retraining in the Word just to get a grasp on the corner of what He has given us. But one of the things we know we got was the ability to pick things up and put them down. And we can put down sickness. We can put down disease. We can put down infirmity of mind or body. Galatians 3.13 says that we are redeemed from the curse in Christ. It is a now thing. Now you are redeemed. The curse is not in you or on you. You are not being taught a lesson. You do not have to endure. You do not have to suffer. In Jesus we have control over ourselves. Sickness, disease, lack and fear are not persecutions. They are the curse. Check out Deuteronomy, especially chapter 28. The curse is long and laborious. We do not need to have it. We are saved from it through Jesus. He was our sacrifice. Look at Leviticus and see all the things that they could only be redeemed from by a sacrifice. Well, Jesus was our sacrifice. We have been redeemed of all of that, freely given by grace through faith, which He also gave us. In Jesus, by Jesus and through Jesus we have victory over all things. We have been redeemed. We need the Word to transform our minds, get into our hearts and receive revelation from it. We have to get the Word before our eyes until we get it, until we understand, until it is so real that we get up from our chairs, we throw away our pills, and the doctors tell us we are completely free from what was on and in us, until we are a witness to the world of the power of Jesus shining out from us, until we are walking in Jesus every step we take. We have received the Spirit, which is from God. Why settle for anything less? As we close, remember that you have earth. 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.