Fear No Fear

Yahweh himself is who goes before you. He will be with you. He will not fail you nor forsake you. Don’t be afraid. Don’t be discouraged.
Deuteronomy 31:8 (emphasis added)

Didn’t we do this one last time? Yes, we did. And no, we didn’t. Last time was two verses before this and it was Moses speaking to the people of Israel about what they were about to do. Now Moses is talking to Joshua about what HE needs to do to lead the people of Israel. And Joshua is told the same thing: to build personal confidence. With personal confidence, he could impart it to the rest of the people. To assure them that in fact and for true, God is the one who is going before you. He will be with you. So you have zero reason to fear because He isn’t going anywhere (and guess what? Hebrews 13:8 tells us Jesus is the same yesterday, today, and forever so WE get the same deal).

Why is so much of what God says to us in His Word a repetition or slight word change from other things He has said? Don’t be offended. Please. But I really do think it is because we, as human beings, are kinda slow on the uptake. We CAN be smart and brilliant and amazing and WOW. But also, we can get all bent out of shape when something happens to us. We freak out and don’t know what to do because Bob at the office is saying BLAH and it’s going to mess everything up so we scream our frustration into the void. When it’s pointed out that Henry or Jane or Hal 3000 said the same thing a few weeks ago and we dealt with it then, we often say ‘But this is totally different!’

We face the same kinds of things over and over. Why is that? “No temptation has taken you except what is common to man. God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted above what you are able, but will with the temptation also make the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it” (1 Corinthians 10:13). What works once will be used again. According to Isabel Myers and Katharine Briggs, developers of the MBTI® assessment (the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator), there are 16 personality types. This is the most personality types acknowledged. Some say there are only 4. Either way, when it comes to human beings there are only a small amount of differences.

The enemy has been dealing with mankind for THOUSANDS of years. It isn’t hard to see that although there are billions of us on this planet and billions upon billions over the eons, they need a very small checklist for us. Once they know our personality (which we daily demonstrate for them), they know the playbook by which they can push our buttons and help us to choose flesh over faith. They are expert psychologists. Not from intelligence but from the EXPERIENCE of dealing with us and observing how we speak and act. As such, they don’t see the out that the Lord provides us. They ONLY have experiential knowledge, not wisdom or smarts. They are DEAD spiritually.

Sadly, we often seem to be in the same boat. Sometimes, we just can’t see that they are in essence the same thing. The blue car and the red car are still just cars drifting over the centre line. Other times it is a harder sameness. We have to eat again and we have no money. Or our kids do. Bills are due. Again. In both types of repetition, we can forget what happened before. We moved out of the way of the car. We were gifted food. We found an extra $20 in our account we forgot was there. Someone we didn’t know bought us a coffee or donated to our Internet campaign to raise money. We don’t remember the outs God provided in the past, or see the one He is holding out to us or pointing to. And we give up. We give in. We do many things and all of them are flesh. We give into the experience occurring and forget that we are ABOVE that in Jesus. That feelings LIE. That flesh is NOT all that it is hyped up to be.

We are eternal spirit beings, but our flesh is finite. Because of that, we have a default to see only what is the NOW. We have a hard time focusing on the future. We often forget the past. If it isn’t NOW it isn’t. But the Kingdom of God doesn’t work like that. Because we are spiritual beings, we are called to think spiritually. To evaluate everything we hear and see through the lens of spirituality. Our spiritual righteousness is granted through Jesus. So we should see everything through Jesus’ eyes. We cannot do that without faith. By faith, the spirit is made alive. Without faith, the spirit is dead. This is reality. Adam had full use of his spirit, then he fell and it died. We as his descendants have the physical characteristics of HIS image. Without the Grace of God, it will stay dead for all of us. That’s how reproduction works. Like produces like. Oh sure, there are small differences over time, but in essence —if left alone — the child is at the core the same as the parent.

The Father sent His Son to pay the price of that betrayal, the cost of sin. Jesus took the price on Himself and died for it. Then the Father resurrected Jesus to life. That enabled Jesus to transform us into spiritual life. By Grace, through Faith, the Lord God gives us everything we need. Now we need to walk in it. By reproduction, we have become like Christ. Carbon copies. Exact duplicates in the spirit.

The process of sanctification is the lifelong process of God working with us through the Word to move Christ’s righteousness from our spirit to our soul to our bodies. He does the work and the renewing, we do the accepting, learning, seeking/investigating, and walking. Without our participation it goes nowhere. Without us abiding in Jesus and choosing the Lord over ourselves and our circumstances on a daily basis it goes nowhere. Because it is JESUS who does the work in us, not us. OUR efforts earn us squat. His earned us eternity like Him, in Him, and through Him.

We need Jesus to transform our minds with the Word of God (Romans 12:2). The Holy Spirit reminds us of what God has said to us (John 14:26). But to remind us of what He has said, we need to first HEAR it. We need to listen to teaching. We need to study the Word. We need to praise and pray and listen to His voice (John 10:27-30). When we walk this way, whenever something comes up, the Holy Spirit will remind us of what happened last time. Of what the Word says about our victory, authority, and the gifts He has given us to achieve them by Grace, through Faith. If we establish ourselves as pleasing sacrifices to the Lord (1 Corinthians 6:19-20), we are in a position to live out the perfect will of God (Romans 12:1-2).

God is with us. He will not leave. He has redeemed us once and forever. He has delivered us from circumstance before. He can deliver us again. He tells us that again and again. He tells us He loves us again and again. So that we will understand. So that we will take it in. So that we will start automatically saying ‘God has this’ when trouble comes calling – and then take it to Him and see what we’re going to do to be obedient to Him. So that we will listen to Him each and every time anything happens. So that we will live, eat, sleep, and breathe faith. He has a plan. Seek it. You’ll find it. It isn’t a secret. And He’ll repeat it. As many times as we need with a smile on His face and joy in His heart. He IS patience.

He loves us so much. Walk in His love. Walk in faith.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Luke 5:12-14

Sin sucks. Bad behaviour sucks. I can list probably a hundred things about myself that I don’t like and honestly detest. But I won’t. I try and speak life, not death. It helps with self-image. It helps with self-acceptance. Also with depression. But the Father isn’t bothered by all that stuff that we THINK we see. He doesn’t even NOTICE it. That’s the great thing about God. He sees us not as we are, but as He created us to be. As we ARE IN CHRIST. He doesn’t see the fallen us, but the saved, resurrected, and perfected us. Jesus came across a man with one of the worst skin diseases that has ever existed. He reached out and touched him. Smiling. “Immediately the leprosy left him.” Jesus will do the same today. He will reach out and touch us and INSTANTLY we will be in His eyes exactly as He always wanted us to be. First of all, what love to touch us in our filth. For our mess to not bother Him at all. Second, what love to see us perfect, whole, and righteous. To see that touch being what cleanses us. What grace to give us that gift. The Father is aware of who we are and what we are, but that isn’t what He ‘sees’. Jesus meets us where we are, but doesn’t leave us there. He enfolds us into Himself, renewing us. The Holy Spirit isn’t a divine nag track, but a constant pep talk. He moves us in positivity from who we THINK we are and what we THINK we should be doing to who the FATHER thinks we are and what the FATHER thinks we should be doing. EVER patient. EVER merciful. Guiding and leading. With a LIGHT yoke and a shepherd’s touch. That is love.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.