Fear No Fear

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

“Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he had visited and redeemed his people; and has raised up a horn of salvation for us in the house of his servant David (as he spoke by the mouth of his holy prophets who have been from old), salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us; to show mercy toward our fathers, to remember his holy covenant, the oath which he swore to Abraham our father, to grant to us that we, being delivered out of the hand of our enemies, should serve him without fear, in holiness and righteousness before him all the days of our life.
Luke 1:68-75 (emphasis added)

To serve the Lord God without fear. That’s the command. But every time an angel shows up it proclaims ‘Don’t be afraid!’. Something in us is reacting to what is in them. It is the sin nature reacting to the reflected Glory of the Lord in whose presence they stand (Luke 1:19). It happens almost every time an angel appears to someone in the Old Covenant.

But only four times in the New Covenant does a heavenly being say ‘Don’t be afraid’ to a saint — to a believer in the Risen Christ. One is the Lord telling Paul not to fear speaking out (Acts 18:9), one is an angel exhorting Paul not to be afraid of dying in the storm because he had other work to do (Acts 27:24), one is when John saw Jesus in all His Glory in a vision and fell down as if dead (Revelation 1:17), and the last is in one of the letters Jesus dictated to a church exhorting them not to fear what they were about to suffer (Revelation 2:10). That’s it. Notice something? In the New Covenant there is no fear of a heavenly being because in the New Covenant we have been reborn new creatures. We have the nature of Jesus in our Spirit, so other heavenly spirits don’t make our sinful nature recoil. We no longer HAVE a sinful nature. Why does John fall as if dead? Jesus is the Lord of Lords, the Name Above All Names, the Alpha-Omega, the Great I AM. His Glory – and the Glory of the Father and the Holy Spirit – is the Glory of GOD Almighty. Nothing can stand before that without dropping in reverence, worship, and total obeisance. We may no longer have a sinful nature, but we still have unrighteous flesh.
We CAN serve the Lord without fear. He is inside u

s. He has given us His nature. There is nothing that we cannot do when we are acting in line with the will of the Father (Mark 9:23, Luke 17:6-10). When we abide in the Lord, we are covered in His wings (Psalm 34 & 91). Shelter from all storms. Healing. Prosperity (the whole thing: spiritual, emotional, mental, physical, financial). We can have our heavenly experience start now on a spiritual level. We are spiritual beings, not physical (Romans 8:1). The physical is the shell we interact with this world in. All the true self, the core of you, is spirit. And we can worship the Lord in spirit and in truth (John 4:23-24). Eternity has already begun. We will not experience death. We will take off this body like an overcoat and step from this realm to Heaven, but ‘death’ isn’t part of that. It will be an instant translation. Whether it happens because we leave our body (the flesh then perishing) or because Jesus has returned, death is not something believers experience (1 Corinthians 15:53-56).

Read the book of Acts. What do you see? The heavenly and the earthly moving in concert through the Blood of Jesus. Believers again and again giving permission for the Lord to work in their lives and through their lives. It is through what Jesus did on the cross, dying for our sins, and being resurrected again to life that this is possible. It is the Gift of Salvation. God’s Salvation that we were promised in many places like at the end of Psalm 91 (vs 16). If we acknowledge His name. If we confess with our mouths that Jesus is Lord and believe with our hearts that He died for our sins and was raised again to new life, there is nothing that the Lord doesn’t desire and won’t do for us. He tells us that again and again. This process of belief and confession will change your life. Every negative aspect of life can flee. Some because of a change of viewpoint — that’s internal negativity. Some because they will physically have to flee from Jesus’ name — that’s fear. Fear is an external force. Like Faith is external. God gives us Faith through Grace. The enemy gives us fear through desperation. Desperation to get our authority, desperation to destroy others the way he has destroyed himself. Desperation from fear which is his own nature. It is a gift we do NOT have to accept. We have a choice. We can accept Faith or reject it.

God sets His face against those who do evil (1 Peter 3:12). But He sets His eyes on the righteous (Psalm 34:15). He listens to us. We do NOT have to fear. Peace is ours. Love is ours. Our tongues should speak no evil, no negativity (Titus 3:1-4). We should never lie any kind of a lie (Colossians 3:9-11). We should walk away from evil things (1 Thessalonians 5:22). We should seek to do good things (2 Thessalonians 3:13). We need to seek peace, figure out what it is, and pursue it (Titus 3:9-11). Grab hold of it and never stop dwelling in it (John 16:33). The Word is a great place to start. Read it in one simple way: believe it is the truth. Verbatim. Exactly as it is written. If you hit something that you don’t understand or you can’t see that it could happen that way? Stop for a moment and say, ‘Lord, I believe this is true. I don’t understand it, but I choose to believe it.’ and keep reading. Don’t pick up the prejudices of the world. Don’t assume that attitudes are in the Word that in fact, are not (such as God sending people to Hell or women being unequal). John 17:17 says the Word of the Lord is truth. And that we are sanctified – set aside as holy – in His truth. Allow yourself to walk in the process of sanctification as you feed on the Word. It is life (John 6:63).

Read it with intention. Asking Holy Spirit to show you Jesus. Asking God to speak to you out of the Living Word. The Word will change you, renew you, restore you, and heal you. The Word will help you. The Word is a therapy deeper, more restorative, and transformative than anything you can find in the world. Jesus is the Word and His perfect love casts out fear (John 4:18). We can enjoy the revelation of heaven’s mysteries. We can see the glories of the Lord. Without fear. With reverence, respect, and worship. Angels can walk among us. Visions can appear to us. In Jesus, there is no fear. Abiding in Him brings us peace (John 14:27). Believe it. Receive it. Walk in it every day. You won’t regret it.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Psalm 34

The Lord answers us when we call. He promised never to leave or forsake us and He doesn’t. He is right there. It takes less than a step to get into the loving embrace of our God. Jesus encamps around those who reverence and adore Him. Who worship Him and follow His precepts. It isn’t hard because He gives us the tools to accomplish it and the Holy Spirit to teach us all things (John 14:26). We’re delivered from all fear. We’re kept from shame. We are protected. We’re given a refuge. We have no lack of any good thing. We have the opportunity to learn reverence. We can speak truth. We can pursue peace. He always listens to our cries. He is near to us. In our broken hearts, He heals. In our crushed spirits, He renews and restores. We have no condemnation. None. All of that, He does for us. All of that, He makes available to us. That’s love. Such great love. For you. Accept it today. Embrace and enjoy it. He loves you so much.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.