Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness,

Galatians 5:22

The fruit of a tree is on the branches of the tree. It’s on the branches of the bushes. The easiest and safest way to harvest a fruit tree is by hand, from the ground. Problem might be that the tree is really high and ladders make you nervous. You can use a telescoping pole fruit picker. You can stretch a tarp under the branch in question and gently shake the branch until the fruit falls. But again, that will be a problem if the branch is too high. Of course you can always climb the tree, get out on the branch, and carefully pick the fruit by hand. You’d need to leave the safety of the stable trunk. You’d need to get out on the branch that is moving and wiggling. You’d need to balance yourself. It might not be easy, but it sure is simple.

The Fruit that Ruach HaKodesh is also simple. He has it. He’s offered it to you. Not only that, but He’s picked it for you too. They are right there. In His hand. And He’s offering them to you. He’s doing that because Jesus said they were your right as a child of Elohim (Galatians 5:1; Romans 5:13). You have been set free from the cycle of negative emotions. The Spirit’s positive emotions are available to you. The freedom they bring is a right of your inheritance. All you need to do is take them – and the One who grew them also is full of the power you need to accept them. Everything is charged in your favour. There’s not even a need to climb the tree and shimmey along the branch. It’s all been done for you (Grace) because Adonai loves you (Mercy). So why do so few of us avail ourselves of the opportunity?

“And I came to you in weakness and in fear and with much trembling, and my speech and my preaching were not with the persuasiveness of wisdom, but with a demonstration of the Spirit and power, in order that your faith would not be in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God” (1 Corinthians 2:3-5). On our own we are weak, trembling, and fearful things. The flesh really is nothing. No power. No authority. We make up authority to compensate. The authority of an employer, a manager, a supervisor, an employee who has been there longer than us, a teacher, a counsellor, or an officer of one of the many branches of the law. All of it is scared jelly lording it over other scared jelly. Ruach HaKodesh knows this and has prepared for it. He comes with POWER. He comes with AUTHORITY. He has the WISDOM that we so sorely need. He is GOD and He has the same authority, power, and wisdom that GOD does. He is NOT trembling.

He has the authority to speak to us. He has the authority to offer us His Fruit. And He has the power to back it up. He has the power we can engage so that we take the Fruit He is offering and USE it. Properly. According to the Word and to the purpose of seeing His GLORY come to Earth (Matthew 6:10). It is available to us to change our thinking by agreeing to make the WAY He thinks be the way WE think. Not brainwashing. Not a subversion of your will. But to CRITICALLY THINK as HE critically thinks. We have access to the MIND OF MESSIAH (1 Corinthians 2:16). There is no reason that we can’t think about something EXACTLY what He thinks about something. We can have the SAME mind about it.

Ruach HaKodesh is saying to you, ‘YOU CAN TAKE THIS’. He’s saying it clearly. He says it quietly. He says it loudly. He says it to your face. He says it in your ear. He says it to you in your sleep. He says it to you first thing in the morning. He says it to you all day long. And it is the last thing he says to you at night. YOU CAN TAKE THIS. The fruit is there to USE. It is there to be TAKEN. Jesus is the VINE. WE are the branches. Ruach HaKodesh has the FRUIT for us. He is INSIDE the branches MAKING FRUIT. That’s what John 15:1-5 tells us. Believe it! We can HAVE the fruit! He has the AUTHORITY to offer it. We may think of Him as a floaty spirit blowing flowers and sunshine our way, but He has the AUTHORITY of the LIVING GOD backing Him up. If He says you can take the fruit, you can TAKE THE FRUIT! It TRANSFORMS you. Take it.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Philippians 2:5

“Have this mind among yourselves, which is yours in Christ Jesus,” If it is in the mind of Messiah Jesus, it can be in OUR minds too. Our ONLY limitation is the scope of Jesus’ mind. Don’t get me wrong. We need to let Adonai do some remodelling in our noggin. If the mind of Messiah came our way without some restructuring it would blow it into a million pieces. But when we get the Word into us – believing what we read and trusting in Adonai that it is true – it renews our thinking from broken (human) to restored (Romans 12:2). When we HEAR the Word spoken (read it aloud!) and preached with anointing, it strengthens and deepens our trust in Adonai Elohim (Romans 10:17). Those are the two things we need to mix with our belief in order to kick doubt to the curb and start seeing things the way ADONAI sees things. To start thinking the way JESUS thinks – and Jesus is ALWAYS occupied with the things of the Father! Imagine what you life could be like! Imagine the things you could experience. The cleansing and health of your spirit. The way your life would be FULL of blessing as the blessing of heaven start to creep into your physical life. The way you could impact your neighbours, coworkers, employees or employers, grocery clerks, and everyone that we come across! Think about that! We have the ability built into us to do these things. Because Adonai MADE us in HIS image, not this broken stinking image we’ve cooked up to make us think better about ourselves in the sludge of sin. He made it PART OF US to be like HIM. What a BLESSING! What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8