Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

Lord, grant me relief from my suffering so that I may have some relief; rescue me from those who persecute me so that I may be rescued, for you give me reason to praise!
Jeremiah 17:14 (emphasis added)

Physical healing is very important. Who wants to spend their lives with something holding them back? No one. That does NOT mean that we can’t do amazing things while battling sickness or disease. It doesn’t mean that you can’t be disabled and be a victorious soldier in the Army of the Lord God Almighty. But given the choice, any human being on this planet would be whole, healed, and the way the Lord created them to be.

Spiritual healing is absolutely necessary. The most important thing that there is. We CANNOT survive with dead spirits. We CANNOT get close to Yahweh God without a Righteous Spirit. We need the transforming power of Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection from the dead to become all that we can be. In JESUS, we can be the righteousness of Christ (2 Corinthians 5:21). In JESUS we can be separated from sin and live in righteousness (1 Peter 2:24). We are saved, sealed, and solid in our salvation (Ephesians 1:13-14).

But what about our MENTAL state? What about all that anxiety that the world wants us to pick up? Anxiety disorders are the world’s most common mental disorders, affecting 301 million people in 2019. Approximately 1 in 4 people with anxiety disorders receive treatment for this condition. The rest do not. And women are statistically more likely to suffer from it than men or adolescents. That’s a LOT of people. It is SO prevalent that the workplace even makes room for it by allowing ‘mental health days’ where people who don’t feel they can face the day are able to get a day off work to manage themselves.

All the world has to offer is management of our problems. They double-down on managing because it is so serious. Statistically, anxiety disorders increase the risk for depression and substance use disorders as well as the risk of suicidal thoughts and behaviours. The world has NO solutions to offer because they believe anxiety disorders, along with other mental health conditions, result from a complex interaction of social, psychological and biological factors. With that many variables, how can they have a solution for it? It would vary so starkly from person to person.

What does the WORD say about anxiety? “Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6-7). It is the PEACE OF GOD that guards our mind. Guard and gird them against things like anxiety, depression, and other mental disorders. All of them are part of the curse – they did NOT exist before the Fall. If they are from the curse, then we are free of them if we choose to rely on the Lord. The Lord SEPARATES us from the curse (1 Peter 2:24). FREES us from the bondage of the curse (Romans 8:1-2). REDEEMS us from the curse (Galatians 3:13). If we believe it and we rely on HIM, HE will quiet our minds in ways we cannot truly understand – but can totally experience (Psalm 19:11).

“For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). We do NOT have a spirit that fears. It is NOT part of who we are. The Lord saves us from that. HE gave us His power, His love, and His Self-Control – ALL fruits of His Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). He enables us to IN JESUS be completely and totally redeemed from everything that is negative. Everything that’s part of the curse. We were freed from that when we were saved. We choose to accept Jesus’ sacrifice and His payment for our sin. We confessed that we were sinners and He washed us clean.

“But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:9). To be cleansed means to be purified. To be made clean, literally, ceremonially, and spiritually. Unrighteousness is ANYTHING that is not righteous from YAHWEH’S point of view (2 Chronicles 21:6). It is that which is the opposite of justice, a violation of God’s standards which brings divine disapproval, a violation of anything contrary to what He approves of. Like it says in Romans 14:23, anything not in faith is sin. How can we manage that? Only with JESUS.

“Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ” (1 Thessalonians 5:23). We are made holy by being sanctified. How does Jesus say that we are sanctified? “Set them apart in the truth; your word is truth” (John 17:17). It is through the WORD that we get sanctified. Through the WORD that we are transformed. Not just learned about what Yahweh SAYS to us. But our minds are renewed to His thinking. More than the WAY He thinks, but the thoughts that HE thinks about us.

Having issues on figuring out who you are? Get renewed to His thinking about you. Having issues about anxiety? Get renewed to His thinking about you and the world around you and your interactions with that world through and in Jesus. EVERYTHING about our minds can be re-mapped, renewed, restored, and re-adjusted not according to how WE do things, but according to how the LORD GOD does things.

We can take captive our thoughts, instead of letting them take US captive (2 Corinthians 10:5). We can use it to focus our minds on the Lord day and night, creating an atmosphere of happy and not one of depressing thoughts (Psalm 1:2). Instead of looking around at what the world says is going on with us, we can look at what the LORD sees going on in our lives (2 Corinthians 4:18). “Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Instead of managing conditions. Instead of learning to cope. The Word of God can instead completely and totally TRANSFORM our minds and hearts. The Lord is NOT afraid to have His word tested by our choosing to believe it. His Word is TRUTH and He CANNOT LIE.

It is worth it to trust and rest in the Lord. It is worth it to let Him renew and heal not just your life, not just your spirit, not just your soul, but also your mind. Your mindscape can be clear, clean, and restored to how Yahweh God has ALWAYS seen it and ALWAYS wanted you to experience it.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Genesis 49:10

“The scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until he comes to whom it belongs; the nations will obey him.” The Messiah will come again when the time of His coming has come. It worked that way the first time Jesus was born. It took an international census to get Mary to the city of Bethlehem to fulfil scripture. “Now in those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus to register all the empire for taxes. This was the first registration, taken when Quirinius was governor of Syria. Everyone went to his own town to be registered. So Joseph also went up from the town of Nazareth in Galilee to Judea, to the city of David called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and family line of David. He went to be registered with Mary, who was promised in marriage to him, and who was expecting a child. While they were there, the time came for her to deliver her child. And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in strips of cloth and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn” (Luke 2:1-7). It was when the time for the birth had come that the census went out. “But when the appropriate time had come, God sent out his Son, born of a woman, born under the law,” (Galatians 4:4). It was a unique set of circumstances. Only Jesus fulfilled them. Jesus will AGAIN come when His time comes and will fulfil it all. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b