Don't Fear Their Fear

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that rejects fear and promotes faith in God. Fear is described as a spiritual force that Satan uses to keep people down. Believers are encouraged to embrace faith and trust in God's word, which is seen as unvarnished truth. It is emphasized that fear is a perversion of faith and proof of being born into sin. Controlling the mind and filling it with the word of God is presented as the way to overcome fear. The importance of renewing the mind and speaking words of faith is highlighted. Believers are reminded that they have a new nature in Jesus and do not have to choose fear. The power of God's love in casting out fear is emphasized. The transcript also encourages believers to avoid spreading fear and to focus on the promises and love of God. The importance of reading and living out the word of God is emphasized. The transcript concludes with a reminder of God's love for each individual and the assurance 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 Isaiah 8.12 Don't call a conspiracy all that this people call a conspiracy. Don't fear their threats or be terrorized. Is this a verse for our times, or is it a verse for our times? Trick question. It's a verse for every time. It doesn't matter if it's about who shot the sheriff, the president, or Dad's new paint job. It doesn't matter if it's about who stole from the payroll, the election, or the cheese in the fridge. It doesn't matter if it's about the moon landing, aliens building pyramids, or which of the relics is the real sliver of the cross. It doesn't matter if the things are true, or have truth in them, or if the things are ridiculously false or have falseness in them. Why? Because people love to talk, and we seem to love to propagate fear. We hide it as gossip, as information, as a newscast, as entertainment, and as scientific discovery. But we love to grasp any and all fear within those conspiracies and run with it, like very sharp scissors pointed at our hearts. Fear is a perversion of faith. Genesis 2.15-3.24 Adam, male and female, had great faith. They walked with God, talked with God, and then they decided to pervert the Word, adding to it, and gave the spirit possessing the snake the authority God had invested in Adam. They did it by believing Satan more than they believed God. By looking to Satan as their source, immediately their faith twisted to fear. They knew shame, fear of humiliation, and impropriety. When God came for the usual evening walk, they hid fear of disgrace and disrepute, because they knew they had done something that was going to bring censure and reproach, and that they regretted all shame, and could not undo. Every single time you feel fear, it is proof that you were born into sin. As a believer, it is not proof that you are sinful in nature, but that you were sinful in nature. Believers have a new nature, and it is Jesus' righteousness. But Satan is always looking to hook you back in, and the body we inhabit is hardwired to experience it. Think about that. You have a new nature, one that is of faith. That means you never, ever, ever, ever, ever need to feel fear of any kind, of any duration, for any reason, ever. Every time we feel fear, we are choosing it. That's right. You cannot do something without conceiving of it first. That is how sin works. We conceive it in our minds, and then we do it. That is why renewing our minds, Romans 12, 2, is so important. We have all sinned, Romans 3, 23-26. We all can sin. But do we have to? No. We know that whoever is born of God doesn't sin. But he who is born of God keeps himself, and the evil one doesn't touch him. 1 John 5, 18. That's good news. But the things which proceed out of the mouth come out of the heart, and they defile the man. For out of the heart come evil thoughts, murders, adulteries, sexual sins, thefts, false testimony, and blasphemies. Matthew 15, 18-19. That's good. If we're born of God, we don't sin. But that which is in our hearts comes out of our mouths. That sounds like a contradiction, but it's not. In other words, what you think you will do in the right circumstances. That means that if we can control our minds, we can control our actions, because whatever we fill ourselves with, we will do and say and experience. Our minds think. Heart. Each day we process more than 70,000 thoughts. The human brain is made up of more than 10 billion nerve cells and over 50 billion other cells. It is capable of creating more ideas equivalent to that of the atoms of the universe. It is a powerful tool. How do we control something like that? How do we break the cycle? Break feeling fear and break spreading fear. Choice and word. Or rather, the word. When fear comes calling, we kick it away with the word of God. With, by, and in Jesus. Period. It's the only way you're going to do it. We are given a spirit of self-control, 2 Timothy 1-7. And we have, by grace, through faith, the ability to dwell inside Jesus. Above all things, walk in love, which is the bond of perfection, and let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body, and be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, in all wisdom, teaching, and admonishing one another with psalms, hymns, and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your heart to the Lord. Whatever you do, in word or in deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. Colossians 3, 14-17. Note that it's said to sing with grace. Talent is not a requirement. Praise God. My son, attend to my words. Turn your ear to my sayings. Let them not depart from your eyes. Keep them in the center of your heart, for they are life to those who find them, and health to their whole body. Keep your heart with all diligence, for out of it is the wellspring of life. Put away from yourself a perverse mouth. Put corrupt lips far from you. Proverbs 4, 20-24. These words which I command you today shall be on your heart, and you shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise up. You shall bind them for a sign on your hand, and they shall be for front lists between your eyes, and you shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates. Deuteronomy 6, 6-9, and 11, 18-21. If we are reading the word every day, praying for revelation, knowledge, and listening to what God has to say about every single thing we read, fear is going to have nothing to grasp. Sin will have no room in our 70,000 thoughts and 60 billion cells, because there are hundreds of verses we can point to about not fearing, hundreds about the love of God, 8,000 promises by God to us. God is present all over the scripture. God is love, and perfect love casts out all fear, 1 John 4, 18. We can bask in that love, getting close to God, which we do by strengthening our faith and building our spiritual capacity, which we do by reading the word and living it out. We live it out by what we think on. We live it out with our word choices, what we choose to say about things. We hear blah, blah, blah on the news, and immediately say something like, I don't need to worry. Jesus has me covered. Or, I was just reading in blank the other day that blank, praise Jesus. It doesn't always make the storm dissipate, although that does happen, read Mark 4. But it brings supernatural peace through the storm. Read Psalm 91. We are not promised sunshine, puppies, ice cream, and dappled meadows with nuns singing as they dance. We are promised peace, that you won't be able to understand why there's peace while you have it and enjoy it and rest in it, Philippians 4, 6. You're going to hear all kinds of things from all kinds of people, from neighbors to Internet posters to world leaders to bus drivers. Do not fear what they fear. Do not dread what they dread. Do not spread the words, the fear or the dread. Proverbs 15, 2 and 4, 16 verse 1, 18 verse 21. We are not in the situation these people are. They are in the world and also of the world. We are in the world, but we are of the kingdom of God, and we do not experience life as they do, 2 Corinthians 5, 17 to 19. They have the curse and natural law. We have Jesus' righteous nature and supernatural favor, Ephesians 4, 22 to 24. They are currently on the losing side. We are on the side that never loses, that cannot lose, that is full from one end to the other, bottom to top with winners, winners, winners, John 16, 33. When God is for you, nothing and no one can stand against you, Romans 8, 31. And the great thing? By our example, by our walk of faith, by our light, they can choose to come over to our side, to join the kingdom of God, where we act in harmony toward a common end, the Lord God Almighty's. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Ephesians 4, 25 to 31. God loves us. God is truth. God is love. God is righteousness. God is holiness. By grace, through faith, we have the righteous nature of Jesus. God in Christ has forgiven us. He has loved us. He has marked us as His for all of eternity. That is a beautiful gift. 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.