Light is Life

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and embrace faith in God. The power of fear is discussed, along with the importance of trusting in God's word and experiencing His perfect love. Jesus is highlighted as the Savior who defeated death and offers salvation. The importance of reading and understanding the Bible is emphasized, as well as the need to trust in Jesus and live in His word. The power of praise and the temporary nature of life are also mentioned. Overall, the message encourages trust in God, praise, and a focus on eternal life. 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 12.2 Behold, God is my salvation. I will trust, and I will not be afraid. For Yah, Yahweh, is my strength and song, and He has become my salvation. The grace of the Lord is a magnificent thing. The mercy of the Lord is wondrous, amazing, and beyond measure. The steadfast love of the Lord never fails to pour out upon us. These are the three things that echo in my spirit when I read and meditate on this verse. The entire Bible is God's love letter to us. From the beginning onward, we are told again and again that a Savior is coming. The Israelites turned from God, but God never turned from them, and even in the midst of the consequences of their actions, He proclaimed the ultimate victory of His love. To finish disobedience, to make an end of sins, to make reconciliation for iniquity, to bring in everlasting righteousness, to seal up vision and prophecy, and to anoint the most holy. Daniel 9.24 Then Jesus came and did just that. He finished the transgression. John 19.30 When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. Then He bowed His head and gave up His spirit. Jesus was resurrected and defeated death and hell. He put an end to sin and atoned for our iniquity, bringing everlasting righteousness. Romans 8.1-2 There is therefore now no condemnation to those who were in Christ Jesus, who don't walk according to the flesh, but according to the Spirit. For the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus made me free from the law of sin and of death. Jesus saves. Period. The one, the only, no other God, no other way, the living one. No mixing, no matching, no joining schools of thought. He is it. Jesus is the light that enlightens the human conscience and makes all mankind responsible before God. The only way to know God is through Jesus, because Jesus is the light that opens our eyes to that. God has made sure that in the world His light is out there. There's a lot of people who sit in darkness. The Bible tells us of great darkness. But Isaiah talks about arise and shine because your light has come. Isaiah 60.1-3 God has a light that He wants to shine in every heart. Our light needs to shine so bright that others see it and comment on it, asking why we glow so hard that they need sunglasses. There should be something in you that attracts people to you. We should be so operative in Holy Spirit that people are convicted just being in our presence but we should also practice being close to the Lord in love so that people are not scared of that conviction. Instead, they crave the lack of conviction that we walk in, wanting the love in us that they see is the source of the light. Now the word for salvation in Hebrew is Yeshua. That is what Mary and Joseph named their baby, Yeshua, or in the Greek, Jesus. Hebrew is a language with a lot of meaning packed into each word. What does Yeshua mean? Deliverance, aid, victory, prosperity, health and welfare, helping to save, and saving in relation to health. Every time in the Bible that we see the word salvation, we can say Jesus in its place. It makes for some interesting reading. It shows us that first, Jesus and the message of Jesus is saturated throughout the Bible, beginning to end. Second, it shows that Jesus embodies everything about life, spirit life, emotional life, and physical life. Nothing bad, everything good. And we're taught that is how it works. First, your spirit is renewed. Then, your mind is renewed. And then, everything else is renewed. Ephesians 4.23, Romans 12.2, 3 John 1.2, 1 Peter 2.24, and Matthew 6.33. Since this message of Jesus literally being salvation for mankind is the truth, how can we do anything else but decide to trust in him? 1 John 2.5-6. If you believe that he is the way, the truth, and the life, John 14.6, then your trust should be in him, 1 John 2.3. That should be the default setting. The word was given to us to show us the truth, John 17.17. Trust it. Decide to believe it, even if you don't understand it. Holy Spirit is in us to help us understand not just the word, but all things of God. 1 Corinthians 2.12-13, 1 John 2.27, and John 14.26. It is not a book, and it is dangerous to read it like that. It is the word of God, John 1.1-5. God creates by word, because everything was created by the word. Everything is sustained by the word. Everything that is has a natural environment of the word. That is the place in which it thrives. Apart from their natural environment, things deteriorate. They do not thrive. They have a lot of issues. But within that environment, they thrive, mature, and grow. The word is our environment. Apart from it, we can function, but we won't thrive. We can get pieces of freedom without experiencing true freedom. This is why we stay in the word, to feed ourselves. Read it like it's talking to you, because it is. Read it out loud. Read it to yourself. Read it in a funny voice. It doesn't matter as long as you read it with your mind trained on it. Asking the Lord to reveal himself. Asking to hear the voice of Jesus. It will speak to you. It will strengthen your faith. Romans 10.17. Which helps us to trust more. Which helps us to strengthen our faith more. Which deepens our spiritual capacity, and on and on. Our God is a God of growth. Growth attracts God. The power of God does not follow individuals. Do you see mighty men and women of God in the world? Do you see anointed people speaking words of revelation and power? There is nothing special about them in and of themselves. God isn't attracted to them more than he's attracted to you. Romans 2.11. The power of God follows the word. Look at the very beginning of the world. Genesis 1.1-4. The Father intentioned. The word authorized. The spirit actualized. The spirit followed the word and turned words into power that created. The same is true today. The power of God follows the word. If you want to see the manifestation of the power of God in your life, then turn your life into a place where the word dwells. Now, if we trust in this, if we can trust in everything and the word being true, then how can we be afraid? How can we do anything but praise and thank him always, no matter what happens? Let's say you're diagnosed with a horrific cancer and told it's going to kill you. That is an excellent reason to praise him every day with all the energy you have while smiling and crying tears of joy. Why? Because you have all these doctors and professionals telling you you're going to die. You have friends and family sorry for you and hoping you get better. Ignore the positive thinking comments. Ignore the diagnosis of death. Focus on the word and what it says. When you get healed, what a testimony that you did nothing and God did it all. That the best that humans could offer was lacking, and God's healing power, which was released on the cross, transformed you into a whole, healthy, non-cancerous person. Oh, but what if you don't believe that? Well, in that case, you're probably going to die. Praise God! Love, laugh, smile, jump around if you can, in excitement and jubilation. Why? You're about to see Jesus. You're about to start on eternity from the side with the new body, the new earth, and never, ever, ever needing to be parted from a loved one or our living, breathing Savior ever again. That is an awesome reason to praise God. You see, we can't lose. We win no matter what. And life is so temporary anyway. A thousand years from now, ten thousand, a million, when you're alive and you're shining in heaven, what is it going to matter if you were sick for a few weeks or months or years or had some pain? It's all temporary. I mean, God healed us all on the cross and through the empty tomb. And if we're fully, totally, absolutely persuaded of that, we'll be in a body that can't get sick before we decide to die. John 19, 30. If we fail to believe that, we'll be in heaven, whole and healthy in Jesus' arms, before the casket is in the ground. So who's going to fear? We get more life or eternal life. Does it really matter which one you get? We're eternal spirits anyway, and we need to start thinking eternally. God's best is whole, healthy, delivered, prosperous in spirit and then in mind, and then in body, aided, victorious, and completely saved. That's what His name means. But the Lord will meet us where we are. He will meet us with what we are willing to believe. Our faith makes us whole. Look at the miracles of Jesus. He says it again and again and again. What we get is determined by our level of persuasion. But ultimately, because we're saved by grace through faith, we're going to get it all anyway. It's just a question of which side of the line we get it on. The Lord is our strength and our song. Psalm 118.14 and Exodus 15.2. Sing a song to Him today, all day, over and over. Give thanks and praise from your whole heart. The fear will flee. The anxiety will go. The depression will lift. And any time those symptoms of death show up, kick them out with more praise. We're free of them. We're free of that. We don't have to put up with that. We don't need to work through anything. Give it to Jesus to nail to the cross. Nail it up there yourself, and then get close to God. All day, every day, in moment by moment as you go. Don't worry if you don't get it right every time. Every moment is a new opportunity for Jesus to be your success. Every time there's a negative thought or feeling, bring out the praise. Memorize songs, even kids' songs, because they're short and catchy. Given from an honest and open heart, praise is a life-changing thing. He is our strength. He is our song. Sing to Him to celebrate. Let Him become your salvation in every way. From each and every thing that is wrong, it will change your life. I promise. The Word promises. Our daily affirmation of God's love is John 14, 1-14. Do not let your hearts be troubled. Those are Jesus' words the night before He was going to be tortured and brutally murdered. He knew their hearts were going to drop into their shoes and then run for Damascus. He knew that we were going to be stressed about kids, bills, war, money, fascism, sexual identity, gender identity, the wage gap, disease, nuclear fallout, convoys, trans fats, and a lack of pockets in women's clothes. His instructions stand. Do not let your hearts be troubled. We have a choice. A choice. Don't let the world tell you different. It's lying. They're blind anyway. We can choose how our heart is. Feelings don't rule us. We have authority over our feelings. Holy Spirit lives in us. We have access to the fruits of the Spirit and the armor of God, Galatians and Ephesians. Those are the tools we need to have victory over feelings. They are the tools with which we can make a choice. It isn't easy, but it's simple. He's there to help, to lead, to guide. He's the way. He is the truth. He is our living Savior, and He loves us so very much. Worship and praise Him today. 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.