War Horses

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear in any form. It emphasizes the importance of faith and the power of God's love in overcoming fear. It encourages discipleship and spreading the good news of Jesus to all nations. The church is called to make a difference in the world by addressing societal issues and loving and discipling others. It highlights the need for discipleship training and the rewards of obedience to God's word. The importance of God's love and the value of each individual are emphasized. 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 Job 39.22 He mocks at fear and is not demeaned, neither does he turn back from the sword. The Lord is talking about a war horse in this passage, pointing out all the best features of the horse and asking what, if anything, Job had to do with getting that raw skill and ability into the horse, which is of course nothing. We can teach a horse to obey, but that's about it. We don't give it its strength, its fierceness, its nobility, or its abilities. We can teach it skills, and we can break it, but those are external things. We did nothing to give it its raw ability. The same goes for people. We had nothing to do with their inner selves. We didn't make their bodies, we didn't give them intelligence, but we can speak into them, that's Proverbs 18.21. We can teach them reasoning skills, manual skills, emotional skills. We can teach them talents and hobbies and games. We can build them up. We can accept them as they are, where they are. Why are we not nurturing and loving those around us? We can empathize with them and help them hone into the best them that they choose to be. God can take them even further if they know him. We can help with that too. We can match make. We can't make them swipe right, but we can help get his profile up there on their screen. Training. Discipleship. This is the work that we have been called to. Matthew 28.17-20, Mark 16.15-18, John 14.12. It's not easy, but it's simple. It's selfless, and it is also rewarding. It is the best thing we can do, and there are a thousand ways to do it, if not more. We have been given Holy Spirit to accomplish it. Only by him and the grace and faith of God can we accomplish it. This is not a phase of our life. It is meant to be our life. Discipleship is what our life is supposed to be about. There's no putting it down. There's no retirement from it. It isn't a job. It isn't a hobby. This is who we as believers are. It can be daunting and out of our comfort zone, but we have the tools that we need. Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. That's Galatians 5.22-23, which can translate to calm, delight, acts of kindness and generous gifts, the health and welfare of another, being merciful and uncomplaining, gently having moral character, being kindly in good-hearted compassion, and having confidence, trust, and fidelity. These are tools and gifts. We have access to them by grace and can pass them on as we use them. They are, and were meant to be, limitless and infectious. Holy Spirit spreads because the good news spreads. If we have dominion here on earth, and the word says we do, Genesis 1.26-28 and 9.1-2, then we have a huge responsibility. Only men can spread the gospel. Look at Acts 10.1-6. An angel came to Cornelius and told him to find Peter, who would tell him what he'd been praying about. If men weren't responsible for telling each other about Jesus, why didn't the angel just tell Cornelius about it? Angels can bring us messages and words from the Lord. The Bible's full of it. It continues to happen today. But only men can preach to men. What about Jesus, you say? He appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus. Later, he appeared and taught him about other things that happened when Jesus was walking on the earth. 1 Corinthians 11.23-26. The late Kenneth E. Hagen said that Jesus appeared to him and taught him on several occasions. Well, that's okay. Jesus isn't an angel. Jesus is a man. That's right. Yes, he is Lord and God and part of the Trinity and full of majesty and glory and power. But he's also a man. When Jesus died on the cross, he died fully man and fully God. He did not get raised into Godhood. He was raised again unto life. He is the living one. Revelation 1.18. He remains fully man, though in a glorified body, and fully God. Jesus can come and preach his good news. So why doesn't he? Why doesn't he just appear to us one by one? Why don't we get visitation after visitation? Angels pop in and out. Why not Jesus? Simple. Matthew 28.18-20. Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. And in Acts 1.8, he said, But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth. What do we see here? You. We are told to go and tell everyone about it. We're told to go and make disciples. We're told to go tell the whole earth. I was listening to Andrew Womack about discipleship, and he had some amazing statistics. Now, this is a direct quote from his article on discipleship evangelism, available on his website, awmi.net, and also in his audio teachings on this same subject, which are downloadable for free. Andrew says, Consider this. If you evangelized 1,000 people per year for 15 years, you would end up with 15,000 new believers, assuming they were all genuine conversions. If you led one person to the Lord every six months, and spent the next six months discipling that person so they could reproduce themselves, what do you think would happen? In one year, there would only be two disciples. However, after 16 and a half years, if each continued to reproduce themselves every six months, there would be no one left on earth to evangelize. Jesus' method of discipleship would produce nearly 7 billion disciples in less than 17 years. Now, isn't that crazy and humbling? We're told two firm things in the Bible about this. In Mark 16, 15-18, Jesus says, Go into all the world and preach the good news to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptized will be saved, but he who disbelieves will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe. In my name they will cast out demons, they will speak with new languages, they will take up serpents, and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them. They will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover. And in Matthew 24, 14, Jesus had told his disciples what would happen once the whole creation was told the good news. This good news of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come. That wasn't an if or a maybe. Will be preached in the whole world to all nations. And then the end comes. If we can get the word out to everyone, Jesus comes back. Period. Black and white. We do our job, Jesus comes back. Are you tired of fighting temptation and all the horrors the curse brings on and throughout the world? True discipleship evangelism is the answer. And we were told that 2,000 plus years ago. The world is hurting. We have areas of every part of the world, from the poorest nations to the richest, where people cannot get food, where children starve, where death is more of a reality than life. It is inexcusable. Where is the church? Where are the communities that we're supposed to be setting up? Where are the helpers feeding the widows, supporting the orphans, and the hungry healing the sick? You know that big fight over abortion rights that's going on right now? Every argument I hear from people who are pro-abortion come down to two categories. First, and the tiniest group. They want to have sex anytime they want, with no repercussions on their physical bodies, unless they want them. The second and largest group, these are all things the church can handle. Life-threatening pregnancy? The God who heals, Exodus 15, 26. And the church is meant to be the tap they come to for it. Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he's committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective. That's James 5, 13-16. Don't want a child? Why isn't the church adopting? You can't afford one? Why aren't we helping with housing, food care, child care? Oh, there's rapists? Why aren't we flooding the world, teaching boys and men, and women, not to rape? Why aren't we fighting harder to remove the sensualization of sexuality? Why aren't we getting it through to people that sex is not one of the four corners of the human psyche? We aren't animals. We don't have to give in to moments of passionate feeling. You know, it's funny. People say they have needs. But if we didn't have every couple having sex in every TV show and movie, if we didn't use sex to sell everything from socks to jets, if we didn't promote it as a natural step to every relationship, even if you're just dating to see if you click with the person, if we didn't tell people that it is a normal, natural, and needed impulse, if we didn't put it in front of them every way, everywhere, would we have needs the way the world says it? Now, sex is a great part of the human cycle. It promotes intimacy. But it isn't something that we need. It's something we get to enjoy. If you went from birth to death and never had it, and it wasn't in your face everywhere, you wouldn't even know you were missing it. So much human misery comes from the simple, worldly doctrine that sex is a must, not an extra. And I'm not knocking it, but I am saying that when you feel you have to have it, that you aren't complete without it, that you don't have a real relationship if you're not doing it, that you need to release to get through your week, that if no one will give it, you'll take it, then you're looking at it wrong. You're doing it wrong, and you're missing out on what honest, true sex can offer. Basically, every argument that everyone has on the misery of humanity, the church can answer. Not by shoving our way in and demanding that people do what we want them to. Not by wagging figures and telling them that they're wrong. But by loving them, by discipling them, by fostering true community, going outside our front doors, looking around for what needs we see, and then asking God what the solution is for us in that situation. God knows what he wants us to do, where he wants us to do it, how, when, and everything else. Holy Spirit will tell us. Holy Spirit is always talking to us about what is around us, how we should function in life, and how we should be interacting with it. And yes, it is very important to vote and to pay attention to your society and how you interact with it as a citizen. We have dominion here in every frame of life. The Lord isn't going to do for us what he told us to do. The Lord is sovereign in the world, and everything in it belongs to him. Dominion means he has chosen to restrict himself. We are his agents on earth. The Lord can and will move in any and every area that falls outside our dominion. Signs, wonders, miracles, and amazing things will blow your socks off, change nations and landscapes, alter the universe around us, and shake the foundations of the world. But when it comes to humanity and the world in which we walk, plants, animals, and the society that we've created, he uses us as the point men. He chose that at the beginning, and he hasn't changed his mind. We were told to tend, subdue, and fillet. We were told to disciple each other. We were told to tell the whole of creation, every nation, and every person. We need discipleship training to be the main thrust of the church today in every way, in every sphere, and in every household. What do we get with discipleship training? Spiritual and emotional war horses. The war horse isn't vulnerable. It's well trained and prepared. The horse isn't, oh me, it's proud in what it is. The horse isn't, but they don't like me. The horse is professional. It isn't personal. The horse isn't fearful. The horse is ready and knows what it needs to do. Training prepares us emotionally and physically, without fear, without being dismayed, going forward into the work, even though the work could kill and cut. It isn't about us. It's about obedience to our training. It's about what the Lord wants and where he wants to do it. We might get persecuted because we're spreading Jesus' message, but God said that's okay. He will be with us in that situation and we will get rewards in heaven. So be careful what you train into yourself and those around you. Be careful what you put your eyes on. Stand on the word. Do nothing that isn't based on the word. Be prepared and be ready. Laugh when fear tries to grip you. You're a war horse. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Psalm 45. Fathers used to give away their daughters. They paid for the whole shebang and they tried to do a good job because they loved their daughter and they wanted people to see it and know it. Psalm 45 uses the setting of a wedding to show God's love for us and our love for God. It's a beautiful psalm. It's a beautiful thing. God is a good father. As we close, remember that you have birth. 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.