Fear No Fear

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

so again I have thought in these days to do good to Jerusalem and to the house of Judah. Don’t be afraid. These are the things that you shall do: speak every man the truth with his neighbor. Execute the judgment of truth and peace in your gates, and let none of you devise evil in your hearts against his neighbor, and love no false oath; for all these are things that I hate,” says Yahweh.
Zechariah 8:15-17 (emphasis added)

The Lord is a God of fairness. He is not unreasonable. He is not contrary. I do not believe the Word contains any true contradictions. He is clear in what He says. He is consistent in His expectations. And He provides for us to achieve it. First imperfectly and then perfectly. First with animal sacrifice to show us that sacrifice is necessary and only blood can pay the price. Then Jesus laid down His life as a sacrifice, breaking His body and shedding His blood – to be resurrected again to life breaking the power of sin forever and freeing us under His blood from the curse. Providing us the Faith to accept the Grace of His salvation. In the old covenant, when His people sinned they had a price to pay. When they refused to offer sacrifice and obey the Law, they paid the price in captivity. But when the penalty was paid, the Lord led them back to His land. Back to where His Grace could protect and bless them – if they obeyed His words.

Sin has a terrible price. It keeps us from God. It’s like a lock on the gate leading to the door of heaven. If sin isn’t dealt with, you’re never ever EVER going to get to God. This isn’t God keeping you out. This isn’t a punishment for the way you are or are not acting. This is Truth. If you are in sin, you are not getting to Him. It’s the nature of humanity. It wasn’t, but Adam committed treason and knowingly listened to and obeyed the devil instead of God (1 Timothy 2:14). Adam knew there was a lie happening. This isn’t an undeveloped human brain. But he liked the idea of doing things himself. Of lifting himself up — which is what he was told the fruit would do (Genesis 3:4-6). He also knew that it was wrong because God said not to do it. This was sin. If you mate two pandas, you will get a panda cub. You don’t get an ostrich. Or an eel. You get a panda. Well, once Adam and Eve fell they had a sinful nature. They had a child and got a sinful nature child. And that child got a sinful nature child. And so on. Like begat like and we are all sinful in nature.

I’m not talking bad people. I’m not talking total jerks who are horrible to everyone — though those do exist. I am stating the simple fact that humans are NOT righteous and God IS righteous. We cannot meet face to face. Humans cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. That is bad because we are eternal spirit beings. That means that if the situation doesn’t change, we will be living our forever away from the righteousness of God. The only place in the whole of everything that is away from the righteousness of God is Hell. It was NOT made for humans. It was NOT meant for humans. It was made for the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41). Humans were meant to keep out — which is why WE were given dominion on earth since that protects us from the spirit world interfering with us (if we would have listened to God that is). Humans were meant to be with God, the devil by committing treason and convincing others to as well is meant to not be with God. Unrighteousness forever separate from righteousness. This isn’t fear to get you to obey. This isn’t doom and gloom to control you. This is TRUTH. Period. Black and white. No embellishment.

That means that God isn’t sending anyone to Hell. Sin is sending humans to Hell. Because as long as we have a sinful nature, we cannot get into the Kingdom of Heaven. This is a major problem for us. Who wants to spend their forever in the utter torment of sin? But it’s not so bad, you say. Better to rule in hell, huh? That is an idea popularised in our culture, but it is not a good one. Sin is everything bad. From disease to emotion to feelings and sensations. Every bad thing in those categories (and every other category that exists) is from and because of sin. While we are here in our body, our spirits can interact with our souls and deal with our flesh. If we ignore sin, we get to deal with the curse. Sickness. Depression. Anxiety. Fear. Loss of control. Pain. Nightmares. You name it. Everything bad. It’s why the world looks like a pile of garbage half the time. It’s polluted by sin and populated by sinful people. It’s our nature. Once we die, we lose something.

We lose the ability to choose. Once we are dead, our spirits will inhabit whatever nature we have. If that is sin, we go away from the presence of God. Since God is the source of every good thing (James 1:17), when we get to the away from God place there will be nothing good. Choice is a good thing. Self-control is a good thing. That means you will not be able to choose what you do, feel, think, or experience. Every bad thing will come upon you, rise up inside you, and rain down on you. You will not be able to control your body, spirit, or mind in any way, shape, or form. Not a coherent word. Not a coherent thought. You will not be in control. That is not ruling, partying, or dealing with things the way that it is portrayed in entertainment. The devil won’t be there punishing you, tormenting you, or in any way running or ruling things. Every being there will be in the same situation, experiencing the same horror. This is unrighteousness. This is the lack of the presence of God. That’s why there is good in the world. That’s why we have the ability to shine even in unbelief from time to time. That is why even the evil of this world gets to experience goodness. God is among us. His Spirit moves among us. His angels stand beside us. They minister to us. God has in no way abandoned us.

I don’t believe that, you may say. How could a loving God do that to us? The answer is simple. He isn’t. He isn’t making the choice. He isn’t sending us there. He doesn’t want it for us. Never wanted it for us. He doesn’t and hasn’t held it over our heads. He isn’t trying to scare us into Heaven. He isn’t trying to keep us out. From before the creation was created, God made a plan. A plan to save us. A plan to provide for us. A plan to keep us out of Hell. A plan to get us into His Kingdom. A plan to keep us in righteousness. It was a simple plan. Sin is unrighteousness. It needed to be taken care of. There is a cost to disobedience (ask any judge, lawyer, parent, teacher, or child). We all accept that. It is a universal truth. We may weasel out of it, avoid it, or have to pay it; but we all know it is there. And we’re cool with that. You have rules in your house and if people want to come in they have to respect that. When they don’t, you make them leave. And don’t ask them back. When criminals go against the rules of society, society punishes them. When an employee violates company policy, there are repercussions including the possibility of being fired. We are all on board with this. When it comes to eternal things, nothing changes. There is righteous behaviour and there is unrighteous behaviour. Unrighteous behaviour is punished. Simple. We should recognise it as the truth and accept it — we do in our society and lives, so why not when dealing with God?

Jesus volunteered to pay the price of sin. The price of sin is death (Romans 6:23). God was clear right from the beginning: “Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die”” (Genesis 2:16-17). Simple. Obedience is life. Disobedience is death. We disobeyed. We had to die. We have the sentence of death over us because our nature is sinful and sin carries the price of death. An ending of that which is horrifically wrong. This is also a principle we accept in the natural, isn’t it? Food gets burnt, we don’t eat it. Vehicles fail safety checks, they get recalled or not produced in the first place. We try things out and we don’t continue to do those that don’t work out. We discontinue products, we scrap production of things, and we close down failures in the business world. We should recognise this as a principle of universal law and accept it — we do in our society and lives, so why not when dealing with God?

Jesus came and paid the price for sin. The Father resurrected Him to life because He had paid the price and no longer was under the curse of sin which He took on Himself even though He didn’t deserve it (Galatians 3:13). Jesus volunteered because the price couldn’t be paid by someone without currency. If we don’t have money, we can’t buy things. If we don’t meet the requirements, we don’t get the position. If we fail to provide the proper documents, we don’t get access. Sin had a price to be paid. Those that incurred the debt were no longer in a position to pay it away. They couldn’t just pay it. Only someone outside the situation could intervene. If you owe money, you can’t pay it off unless you have money. We accept that. It is no different with sin. We owed, Jesus paid it. He was righteous, so He had currency. He was totally pure and became our sin. He took it on Himself. He entered the place without God. He experienced it. He did the time. He paid the debt of humanity. And when He was released, He was in a unique place. Now He could point to that bill of sale and say He paid it. Now, no one needs to be separate from God. Now no one needs to worry about sin. It is paid for. God isn’t mad about it. God isn’t looking at it. It isn’t a factor for God at all. It’s been paid. It’s done. Gone. Finished.

The Old Covenant was a series of Laws to show the framework of what righteous behaviour is. Not eternal righteous behaviour, but righteous behaviour within the human system on this planet. It was put in place to show that we don’t have it. We aren’t righteous and we do not have the qualifications or the currency to deal with it. We aren’t even able to follow the rules, because as soon as we know what a rule is about we want to break it. We might not, but we get tempted. It wouldn’t be a temptation if we didn’t want to do it. Sacrifice was put in place to show us how the price was going to be paid. To get us enthusiastic about the coming Saviour. To get us expectant of receiving the blessing of someone paying our debt. That is the Good News: sin is dealt with. We don’t have to sin, we don’t have to be separate, we don’t have to have the negative forever.

If we want to, we can accept His payment. Like if you were in a restaurant and someone wanted to pay your bill. You could refuse. You could leave money on the table and walk away having paid for it with your own currency. You have a choice. Same thing here, except we have no currency. We either let Jesus pay the price or we refuse to let Jesus pay the price. You aren’t going to be forced. You aren’t going to be pressured. You aren’t going to be guilted. The Lord God Almighty is going to do everything in His power to get the message to you that you don’t have to go away. That you have a way in. There’s only one because only one person had the currency to pay the debt. He’s asking you to accept the freely given gift and come in. We don’t have rules, we have a relationship. That relationship means we will choose not to do things that hurt Him. We will choose to model ourselves after Jesus. The same standard of righteous behaviour exists. It has existed since before the creation of the universe. The difference is that with Jesus wiping away sin, He enables us to achieve it.

That is the real blessing to us. The Lord God gives us the tools to achieve righteous behaviour through Jesus. We have become His righteousness in the spirit (2 Corinthians 5:21). No sinful nature anymore (Romans 6:18). Instead, Jesus’ nature (Galatians 3:26). We exercise our new spirit of Jesus’ righteousness through the gifts and baptism of the Holy Spirit. Without Jesus nothing could be done. Jesus does nothing without the Father. God provides for all. Everything we need to do is everything He asks of us. It’s a wondrous circle of God’s loving kindness and blessing to all humans. Because of Jesus’ sacrifice and the Father’s resurrection of Jesus back to life, we never have to fear God’s wrath. We get to live under His perfect love toward His creation – because we are perfected in Jesus and can stand before a perfect Father with smiles and open arms to worship Him. Our decision to accept His Grace by Faith opens the lock to the yard, Jesus is the door of the Kingdom waiting on the other side, and through Him we enter the Righteousness of God and get to stay with Him forever. Simple. Basic. Black and white. True.

We don’t always feel this way. There are times we feel attacked and surrounded. We know we aren’t doing what we are supposed to and we feel like God is mad at us. That we’re going to be struck and struck hard. Or worse, something bad is happening (be it depression or sickness or lack) and we think God has either brought it on us or allowed it to happen to teach us a lesson or because we have sinned. None of this is true. All of it is a lie Satan desperately wants the church to believe. God sends nothing bad to us. God doesn’t use the curse to teach us lessons. He doesn’t condemn us or get mad at us. He ‘allows’ nothing. We choose. We bind Him by our disobedience or we release Him to act by our obedience. This isn’t religious debate or religious doctrine or religious thinking or religious anything. This is truth. Clearly presented throughout the Word.

The Word contains everything that we need to learn about our now as well as our forever. The authority we have in the name of Jesus, that we have been given that authority to use (by Faith through Grace by the sacrifice of Jesus and being reborn into Him). That it is Jesus’ authority that can remove sickness, depression, and every other symptom of the curse. Do you feel lack? The principle of sowing and reaping provides for us (Luke 6:38). Do you feel sick? There is healing in His wings (Malachi 4:2) and His Word IS healing (Proverbs 4:20-22). Do you feel anxious or depressed? Peace that passes understanding is waiting for you (Philippians 4:6-7).

The Lord can be our source. He can sustain us. It’s one of His names: He Who Sustains. We can trust in Him and He will provide all of our needs. We can ask for our wants – as long as our wants aren’t selfish and full of worldly take-us-away-from-God pleasures (James 4:3). And let’s face it: there are a LOT more things we want that are good and can be a blessing than things we want that are bad and a drain to our spiritual well-being. God doesn’t want that for you. God wants the best for you. He will strengthen you, help you, and uphold you when you have chosen to accept Him (Psalm 91). The decision is ours. He will back your decision. Whether you are deciding for His gift of life, or whether you’re deciding against it. He won’t send you anywhere. He’ll let you choose where you want to walk. Where you want to go. And where you will stay. Sadly, there are no take-backsies on this.

The Lord wants to do good to you. The Lord wants good things for you. Don’t be afraid of where you find yourself. Don’t be afraid of the problems arrayed against you. Focus on the Lord. Choose to make Him your source. Choose to trust Him and believe His Word. Choose to praise Him no matter how you feel. Do it. Consistently. Daily. Praise the Lord, read the Word. Praise the Lord, think about the Word. Keep on doing it. Do what is good. Trust in Him. He wants to do good in your life. Desperately wants good things for you. Your favourite food. Fun activities. The whole package. He LOVES you. So much. Love Him back. Decide to do good to God. It’s worth it. Enter the place of His righteousness today and for forever. Trust in His Love. It’s perfect. And it’s for you.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Philippians 2:1-11

Jesus wasn’t proud. He was God and equal to God, but He wasn’t proud. He didn’t use His position as the Only Son to His advantage. He wasn’t spoiled. Instead, He was humble and full of love. Love for us. He put off His Glory and became flesh. And He sacrificed Himself. And was raised again to Glory, upheld and lifted above all other names. Jesus did something truly incomprehensible to a human mind. He put away His Only Begotten and became the First Begotten. He enables US to be sons and daughters of the Kingdom. His brothers. His sisters. His Bride. But He still did it. He did it for you. He did it for me. He did it for all of us. He loves you so much. He truly does. Please. Never lose sight of that. That is the source of our victory: Jesus the Overcomer. If you are obedient and submitted to the Will of the Father – revealed in His Word plainly and clearly – then you WILL walk in victory. It only takes faith. NOT hope. NOT maybe one day. NOT if only He moves. FAITH. Believed and received victory based on FAITH founded on the WORD and ours through GRACE. Victory over sickness, poverty, evil spirits, depression, anxiety, immorality, identity crisis, fear, and the enemy himself. Because WE yoke to JESUS and abide in HIM standing on the WORD. Our FAITH in JESUS and in what HE accomplished and FINISHED on Calvary, releasing it to all of us. THAT is our victory. The victory of Christ that we enter into in HIM. With THAT on you, nothing can be against you because the enemy flees from the Word and nothing can stand against the Word. Jesus in you ensuring the peace of the Father is yours. In EVERY circumstance EVERY time. THAT is the love the Father has toward us. To see us free and in His Son.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.