Fear No Fear

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

He mocks at fear, and is not dismayed, neither does he turn back from the sword.
Job 39:22 (emphasis added)

The Lord is talking about a war horse in this passage. Pointing out all the best features of the horse and asking what – if anything – Job had to do with getting that raw skill and ability into the horse. Which is of course, nothing. We can teach a horse to obey, but that’s about it. We don’t give it its strength, its fierceness, its nobleness, or its abilities. We can teach it skills and we can break it, but those are external things. We did nothing to give it its raw ability. Same goes for people.

We had nothing to do with their inner selves. We didn’t make their bodies. We didn’t give them intelligence. But we can speak into them (Proverbs 18:21). We can teach them reasoning skills, manual skills, and emotional skills. We can teach them talents and hobbies and games. We can build them up. We can accept them as they are where they are. Why are we not nurturing and loving those around us? We can empathise with them and help to hone them into the best them that they choose to be. God can take them even further – if they know Him. We can help with that too. We can match-make. We can’t make them swipe right, but we can help get His profile up there on their screen.

Training. Discipleship. This is the work that we have been called to (Matthew 28:17-20, Mark 16:15-18, John 14:12). It is not easy. But it is simple. It is selfless and it is also rewarding. It is the best thing we can do and there are a thousand ways to do it – if not more. We have been given the Holy Spirit to accomplish it. Only by Him and the Grace and Faith of God can we accomplish it. This is not a phase of our life, it is meant to BE our life. Discipleship is what our life is supposed to be about. There’s no putting it down. There’s no retirement from it. It isn’t a job. It isn’t a hobby. This is who we as Believers are. It can be daunting and out of our comfort zone, but we have the tools we need: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control (Galatians 5:22-23) which can translate to: calm delight, acts of kindness and generous gifts, the health and welfare of another, being merciful and uncomplaining, gently having moral character, being kindly in good-hearted compassionateness, and having confidence trust and fidelity. These are tools and gifts. We have access to them by Grace and can pass them on as we use them. They are – and were meant to be – limitless and infectious.

Holy Spirit spreads. Because the Good News spreads. If we have dominion here on earth — and the Word says we do (Genesis 1:26-28 and 9:1-2) — then we have a huge responsibility. Only men can spread the Gospel. Look at Acts 10:1-6. An angel came to Cornelius and told him to find Peter who would tell him what he’d been praying about. If men weren’t responsible for telling each other about Jesus, why didn’t the angel just tell Cornelius about it? Angels can bring us messages and words from the Lord. The Bible is full of it. It continues to happen today. But only men can preach to men. What about Jesus, you say? He appeared to Saul on the road to Damascus. Later, He appeared and taught him about other things that happened when Jesus was walking the earth (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). Kenneth E. Hagin said that Jesus appeared to him and taught him on several occasions. Well, that’s okay. Jesus isn’t an angel. Jesus is a man. That’s right. Yes, He is Lord and God and part of the Trinity and full of majesty and glory and power. But He is also a man. When Jesus died on the cross, He died fully man and fully God. He did NOT get raised into godhood. He was raised again unto life. He is the Living One (Revelation 1:18). He remains fully man — though in a glorified body — and fully God. Jesus CAN come and preach His Good News. So why doesn’t he?

Why doesn’t He just appear to us, one by one. Why don’t we get visitation after visitation? Angels pop in and out. Why not Jesus? Simple. Matthew 28:18-20 “Jesus came to them and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”” And in Acts 1:8 He said “But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. You will be witnesses to me in Jerusalem, in all Judea and Samaria, and to the uttermost parts of the earth.”” What do we see here? YOU. We are told to go and tell everyone about it. We are told to go and make disciples. We are told to tell the whole earth. I was listening to Andrew Wommack about discipleship and he had some amazing statistics. This is a direct quote from his article on discipleship evangelism available on his website (awmi.net) and also in his audio teachings on the same subject which are downloadable for free. Andrew says: ‘Consider this—if you evangelised 1,000 people per year for fifteen years, you would end up with 15,000 new believers, assuming they were all genuine conversions. If you led 1 person to the Lord every six months and spent the next six months discipling that person so they could reproduce themselves, what do you think would happen? In one year, there would only be 2 disciples. However, after sixteen-and-a-half years, if each continued to reproduce themselves every six months, there would be no one left on earth to evangelise. Jesus’ method of discipleship would produce nearly 7 billion disciples in less than seventeen years.’

Isn’t that crazy? And humbling? We’re told two firm things in the bible. In Mark 16:15-18 Jesus says “Go into all the world and preach the Good News to the whole creation. He who believes and is baptised will be saved; but he who disbelieves will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: in my name they will cast out demons; they will speak with new languages; they will take up serpents; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover.” And in Matthew 24:14 Jesus had told His disciples what would happen once the whole creation was told the Good News: “This Good News of the Kingdom will be preached in the whole world for a testimony to all the nations, and then the end will come.” That wasn’t an IF or a MAYBE. WILL BE PREACHED in the whole world to ALL the nations and then the end comes. If we can get the Word out to everyone, Jesus comes back. Period. Black and white. We do our job, Jesus comes back. Are you tired of fighting temptation and all the horrors that the curse brings on and throughout the world? True discipleship evangelism is the answer. And we were told that 2,000+ years ago.

The world is hurting. We have areas of every part of the world from the poorest nations to the richest where people cannot get food. Where children starve. Where death is more of a reality than life. It is inexcusable. Where is the Church? Where are the communities that we are supposed to be setting up? Where are the helpers feeding the widows? Supporting the orphans? Feeding the hungry? Healing the sick? You know that big fight over abortion rights that is going on right now? Every argument I hear from people who are pro-abortion come down to two categories. First and tiniest group: they want to have sex any time they want with no repercussions on their physical bodies unless they want them. Second and largest: things the Church can handle.

Life threatening pregnancy? God is the God who heals (Exodus 15:26) and the Church is meant to be the tap they come to for it. “Is any among you suffering? Let him pray. Is any cheerful? Let him sing praises. Is any among you sick? Let him call for the elders of the assembly, and let them pray over him, anointing him with oil in the name of the Lord; and the prayer of faith will heal him who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. If he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The insistent prayer of a righteous person is powerfully effective” (James 5:13-16). Don’t want a child? Why aren’t we adopting? You can’t afford it? Why aren’t we helping with housing, food, child care? There are rapists? Why aren’t we flooding the world teaching boys and men not to rape? Why aren’t we fighting harder to remove the sensualisation of sexuality? Why aren’t we getting it through to people that sex isn’t one of the four corners of the human psyche? We aren’t animals. We don’t have to give in to moments of passionate feeling. It’s funny. People say they have ‘needs’. But if we didn’t have every couple having sex in every TV show and movie. If we didn’t use sex to sell everything from socks to jets. If we didn’t promote it as a natural step to every relationship — even just dating to see if you ‘click’ with the person. If we didn’t TELL people that it is a normal, natural, and needed impulse; WOULD we have needs the way the world says it?

Sex is a great part of the human cycle. It promotes intimacy. But it is something we don’t NEED. It is something we get to enjoy. So much human misery comes from the simple doctrine that sex is a MUST, not an extra. I’m not knocking it, but I am saying that when you feel that you HAVE to have it, that you aren’t complete without it, that you don’t have a real relationship if you’re not doing it, that you NEED release to get through your week, that if no one will give it you’ll take it, then you are looking at it wrong, doing it wrong, and missing out on what honest, true sex can offer.

Every argument that everyone has on the misery of humanity, the Church can answer. NOT by shoving our way in and demanding that people do what we tell them to. NOT by wagging fingers and telling them they’re wrong. But by loving them. By discipling them. By fostering true community. Going outside our front doors, looking around for what needs we see, and then asking God what the solution is FOR US in THAT SITUATION. God knows what He wants us to do. Where He wants us to do it. How, When, and everything else. Holy Spirit will tell us. Holy Spirit is ALWAYS talking to us about what is around us. How we function in life and how we should be interacting with it. We have dominion here. The Lord isn’t going to do for us what He told us to do.

The Lord is sovereign and the World and Everything in it belongs to Him. But dominion means He restricts Himself. We are His agents on earth. The Lord can and will move in any and every area that falls outside our dominion. Signs and wonders and miracles and amazing things that will blow our socks off, change nations and landscapes, alter the universe around us, and shake the foundations of the world. But when it comes to humanity and the world in which we walk (plants, animals, and all the society that we’ve created), He uses us as the point-man. He chose that at the beginning and He hasn’t changed His mind. We were told to tend, subdue, and fill it. We were told to disciple each other. We were told to tell the whole of creation, every nation, and every person. We NEED discipleship training to be the main thrust of the Church today. In every way, in every sphere, and in every household.

What do we get with discipleship training? Spiritual/Emotional War Horses! The war horse isn’t vulnerable, it’s well-trained and prepared. The horse isn’t ‘woe me’ it’s proud in what it is. The horse isn’t ‘but they don’t like me’ The horse is professional – it isn’t personal. The horse isn’t fearful, the horse is ready and knows what it needs to do. Training prepares us emotionally and physically. Without fear, without being dismayed, going forward into the work even though the work could kill and cut. It isn’t about us. It’s about obedience to our training.

So be careful what you train into yourself and those around you. Stand on the Word. Do nothing that isn’t based on the Word. Be prepared. And be ready. Laugh when fear tries to grip you. You’re a war horse!

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Psalm 45

Fathers used to give away their daughters. They paid for the whole shebang. And they tried to do a good job because they loved their daughter and wanted people to see it/know it. Psalm 45 uses the setting of a wedding to show to God’s love for us and our love for God. It’s a beautiful Psalm. The Father is looking forward to presenting us as a bride to His Son. He is looking forward to giving us away. Perfect. Whole. Righteous. Just the right bride for His Son. If we let Him sanctify us (John 17:17), we will be ready and able to fulfil our purpose. It’s a journey, and we need to have intent in all that we do. But it is a reward in and of itself and the best journey ever: abundant life everlasting. Amen.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.