Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

Absalom commanded his servants, saying, “Mark now, when Amnon’s heart is merry with wine; and when I tell you, ‘Strike Amnon’, then kill him. Don’t be afraid. Haven’t I commanded you? Be courageous, and be valiant!”
2 Samuel 13:8 (emphasis added)

Absalom was not a great guy. But he was the son of the king (David). Being the son of the king came with a lot of perks. One of those perks was that you could command people. Here he was going to use his authority to kill another son of the king (Amnon – also not a great guy). David was the king. He was only the second king of Israel. Ever. People were new to this idea. They were still finding their footing. But they got the authority stuff. They got the love stuff – David loved Amnon (Spoiled children, boy-o. Not a great idea). These servants were scared. But Absalom was also the son of the king. He had authority over them. He stood up, wielded it, and took responsibility for it too. Any consequences would be on his head as the son of the king and not on the servants.

This is the exact same principle we see in the kingdom of God. Jesus is the son of the king. He has been given authority. The name above all names (Philippians 2:9-11). Jesus wants to use it. And we’re the servants, but we are servants that have become friends (John 15:15). As friends, Jesus has called and anointed us (John 15:16-17). We’re anointed to do the work of the kingdom (1 Corinthians 15:58). And we’re given the Comforter to get it done (Luke 11:13, John 14:26). Best part? When we do exactly what He says when He says, He takes the responsibility on Himself. The buck stops at His empty tomb.

Does this mean we can do anything that we feel like? If we get an inkling that Jesus wants us to have a new vehicle, should we buy it? If we think that maybe that sick person over there is sick because they have a demon, should we go cast it out? If we feel the devil is gunning for us should we attack back, maybe binding something up? No. Though we are also sons and daughters of the Father (2 Corinthians 6:18), we are servants to Jesus in what we do. What we need is to know what He wants us to do. To establish a spiritual VPN. A virtual private network is a mechanism for creating a secure connection between a computing device and a computer network, or between two networks, using an insecure communication medium such as the public Internet. In our case, we need to establish a network between us and Jesus using the insecure medium of our flesh. Our minds and hearts living in this physical body. Our spirits are already one with Jesus (1 John 4:15).

How? How does this practically work? Get into the Word. Read the bible. Ask God to open your ears. Ask Him to show you something. To have it speak to you. And then read it more than once. Day after day. Think about it. Sow that seed into your life. It WILL bear fruit. 1 Peter 1:23 tells us that God’s word endures forever. Mark 11:22-24 tells us God puts a lot of importance on His kind of faith. Romans 10:17 says faith only comes from hearing the Word. The faith that we use to believe in Jesus’ death and resurrection isn’t OUR faith. It’s HIS faith that He lends to us. It was supernatural faith given to us by Grace so that we could believe and be saved.

That faith gift continues. God’s faith saved us. His faith does the work on earth too. By the power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of God, all things are done. The Father tells Jesus what He wants, Jesus speaks it into being, the Spirit carries it out using us as the tools here on the physical world where Jesus (as a man) had dominion authority. When Jesus was here, He did NOTHING on His own and only did things that the Father said and the Spirit carried out through Jesus (John 8:28,29). Now that He is with the Father, He has imparted that authority to us. He has redeemed our dominion — IN HIM. When we abide in Him, we have dominion as we should have had from the beginning. But it is dominion IN Jesus with HIS authority given to US according to the will of the FATHER, which is revealed in and through His WORD.

That’s a lot right there. But it IS our guiding light. We will know what we are meant to do, what the right thing to do is, because it will align with the Word. Not just a single verse taken out of context. Clearly outlined, backed up in multiple places, obviously Kingdom Principle stuff. Jesus did it all the time. Look how many times He references the Old Testament. He didn’t just fulfil prophesy, He based His teaching and His actions on the Word. On the principles of the Word. We are to do the same. And we have two helpers. The Holy Spirit within us, who both teaches us and corrects us — when we are actively listening to Him. And our faith — both our belief and our obedience — which gives us confidence in what we do because it is based in the Word that we have put inside our hearts.

Faith doesn’t work like a battery. Here is a truth: we have all the faith we’re ever going to need. The Kingdom operates by faith. It’s a great combination. The raising Jesus from the dead faith is inside us (Ephesians 2:4-10). We just have to use it. How? That’s the other truth: the Word. We get our faith from the Word. It isn’t that the amount we get rises and falls, it is that the preparation for using it occurs or doesn’t. Like food in your fridge. You’ll starve if you never take it out and eat it, no matter how much you have in there. We have to use our faith by preparing our faith by reading the Word to receive our faith. It also operates like weights. It does no good to simply own weights. If we never pick them up, we will never strengthen our muscles. Faith is a muscle and the Word is the weight. We need to apply the Word to our hearts and minds to strengthen it, deepen it, and increase the depth at which we understand what the Father wants us to access.

Think about this: the Father did it all when Jesus died on the cross. Healing power got released, Blessing got released, redemption was released, everything got released. It all was done then. We are not asking for new action. The Father is not doing a new thing. He has already done the thing. All the things. Faith ONLY appropriates what God has ALREADY provided by Grace – God did it because He loves us, not because we deserved it and in fact we also could not do it ourselves at all. So He did. And just in case we might miss out, the Merciful Good God gives us His faith to appropriate it (Romans 6:10-11 and 8:11). But we need to get into the Word to make it all happen (Romans 12:2). Because He will not allow us to appropriate Kingdom things for selfish purposes (James 4:3) — that’s akin to witchcraft. We need to learn what the Father wants us to say, and what the Father wants us to do. Like Jesus, we need to hear what the Father wants done in any given situation at any given time and then allow Him to do it. We are simply the tool He has in place to do His will. His will, not ours. Like the servants of Absalom, we’re to do what our Lord desires and not what we would do in His place.

Jesus is the one and only begotten Son of the King of the Universe. He is perfectly and completely aligned with His Father. The Holy Spirit is perfectly and completely aligned with Jesus. Jesus ONLY does what the Father wills. Do what He tells you. He’s given you the tools, the ability to use them, the authority to wield them, and brought you into the family as co-heirs and children of God (Romans 8:16-17 and 1 John 3:1-3). The Word is the revealed Will and heart of the Father. Everything Jesus asks of you will perfectly align with the Word. The Lord will NEVER contradict His Word. Listen to the voice of the Spirit. The more time we spend in worship, prayer, and the Word, the easier it is to hear it.

When we do things according to the will of the Lord, they always will turn out fine. Things will be more than fine, in fact. They will be glorious. Because it will be Him doing it, not us. We’ll be doing, saying, and thinking the Will of the Father by Grace, through Faith. By Jesus, in Jesus, through Jesus, and for Jesus. Now is that a great deal or what?

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Psalm 150

God is good. God is great. God deserves to be praised. In every way. Why? He loved us before we deserved it, before we could love at all ourselves, and He is eternally merciful to us. That deserves some praise. He LOVES us. But it isn’t a Get Out of Jail Free card. It isn’t a license to sin. It isn’t permission to watch whatever we want, say whatever we want, and do whatever we want. The love of God is more than gooey feelings. It is corrective. It is instructive. It is teaching. It is renewing. It is who He is. Psalm 150 helps to remind us of who that is. He has acts of power. He has a sanctuary holy unto Him far above us. He is deserving of every word, tune, and action of praise that we can give. Everything we have should be about praise. We are called to be children of faith in all we do. Is the action we are about to do going to bring the Lord glory? Will it reflect well on Him? Maybe we should re-think it. Are you doing laundry as a service to your family, or in resentment of the task? Are you buying toilet paper with honesty, or are you trying to scam the system and get something you don’t deserve? Are you driving according to the law of the land, honouring the legal rules, or are you going as fast as you want and letting anger flow from you to those around you? Everything we do should honour the Lord. Everything we do can be a form of praise to Him. Everything we do can be motivated by our love for Him which we get because He loved us first. He loves us no matter what we do. We need to take up our cross and do everything for our love of Him. God deserves to be praised.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.