Fear No Fear

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

“When you hear of wars and rumors of wars, don’t be troubled. For those must happen, but the end is not yet.
Mark 13:7 (emphasis added)

The end is not yet. It can feel like it though. Economic pressures, loss of income, famine, floods, food shortages, and more. It can be hard to get out of bed every day. It seems like the entire system that we as humans have been constructing for a global marketplace is swirling in some cosmic toilet. The days are here when although we do have products from all over the world in our grocery stores, those things we have come to rely on are rising in price and lowering in quantity. ‘Transportation problems’ is a phrase I hear too often. But when we think things can’t get worse, and then they do, Jesus says not to be troubled. That the world isn’t over — even though it may seem to be when you’re standing at the gas pump.

Being troubled is the state of being in distress or anxiety. This is a child of fear. Shun it. Avoid it. The only way to do that is with God’s help. The world will mostly tell you one of two things: First, that it’s all in your head and not to worry about it. Just stop. Second, that it is a mental illness or chemical imbalance and science is going to help you as much as they can. You can learn to manage it and live with it. The important thing to remember is that it is not your fault.

That phrase ‘it’s not your fault’ comes up more times than you would think unless you were watching for it. Many of the things that we claim are part of the human condition are slapped with this label. The thinking is that if it is a quantifiable part of being human, then as long as you are human you have no choice in the matter. If a scientist (in a laboratory or a psychologist’s office) can determine in a measurable way that a thing is generically part of what they define as humanity, or if they can measure what they think is the quantity of something; then that thing must be. Ironically, we use our feelings to justify a whole host of behaviour from our sexuality to our gender to who knows what. But feelings are subjective and cannot be measured in a way that can be used to establish any kind of rule or system of thought. They change based on what comes at us. It doesn’t stop them from the process of expanding the human experience to include feelings as a force of nature.

Basic scientific principle: if you can measure it, if someone else can replicate the process by which you measured it and achieve the same result, that thing exists. This dogma will be used and already is used, to justify a great many things that are morally wrong. More than that, it is used to eliminate any sense of responsibility to the end of keeping people from exercising their God-given authority over these things.

I am not against the scientific method. In fact, I think you can apply it to the Word. The Word says that if you confess Jesus as Lord and believe in your heart that He was resurrected to life, you WILL be saved (Romans 10:9). Anyone can do that. Anyone. The most hardcore atheist, the average person, someone who was raised in the Church, or someone who was raised to hate the Church. Anyone. You have to audibly confess and you have to honestly believe. If you do, you’ll be saved. Of course, it will change you. But it IS true. If that is true, what else is? For one thing, that we have choices about what we feel (Mark 13:7). And if that feeling has anything to do with fear, we can reject it. By standing on the Word. By belief. By using our authority, we can make it go (2 Corinthians 10:3-6).

If you are saved, you have invited Jesus into yourself as Lord and Saviour. He did a wondrous work on the cross. He broke the curse and set us free. We now have the legal authority to use His name to enforce that freedom (John 16:23-24). Take healing. Healing isn’t God doing anything right now because He already did it through the cross. Healing is you through the name of Jesus demanding the demonic doesn’t do something. The healing presence of Jesus is inside you. You have the legal right to tell sickness to go (Matthew 10:8). To tell fear to go. To refuse to accept feelings of anxiety, stress, depression, or fear. John 14:10-14 tells us that. You’re not speaking to God, you’re speaking to your issue (your body, a disease, a sickness, a feeling, or any bad thing). God didn’t send your issue. God didn’t start that war. God didn’t cause that earthquake. God ONLY gives good things. These are the birth-pangs of the end of days. The enemy is the cause of it. The curse is the cause of it. This is the normal and inevitable process of victory, reclaiming what was twisted into what should have been. We do NOT have to accept the trouble, the anxiety, the fear. We do NOT have to accept the world’s diagnosis that it is all normal, natural, a chemical imbalance, or a mental illness. God enables us to send the bad packing through Jesus Christ who died to break these things (James 4:7).

The Name of Jesus is more powerful than every scientific doctorate on earth. Don’t ignore facts or doctor advice. DO stand on the Word and speak to the problem. Pray believing you receive it, and then stop worrying about it. Start believing it. Facts are always subject to truth. Facts don’t make truth, they conform to truth. Use scripture backed up by scripture and stand on what God says in His Word. This is not the power of positive thinking. This is choosing to believe in the promises of the Lord God Almighty. Nothing more, nothing less. This is not pie in the sky. This is scriptural truth. Right there on the page and right there in your heart. Holy Spirit will speak to you if you’ll hear Him. He’ll lead you and guide you. The Word will confirm it — God NEVER contradicts His Word. And you can claim and live in your freedom. The freedom Jesus gave to you and me and all of us through His death and resurrection. Don’t be troubled in this life. Choose to believe and receive His Peace (Philippians 4:6). And walk in freedom.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 2 Timothy 1:7

God the Father loves you. And He had a gift for you. Jesus gave it. Jesus gave us His spirit. Adam gave up the spirit God gifted him with. Jesus is giving it back. We don’t have to live with the spirit of fear the first Adam chose. We can choose Jesus and get a different spirit. The Last Adam has a spirit of power, love and self-control. That’s what Jesus wants for us. Not a fight-or-flight instinct. But an authority, a powerful loving compassion, and an ability to self-regulate. To keep from immoral things because they are objectively immoral. To choose righteousness not because of dogma or political leaning, but because at every time and in every place they are righteous acts. Morally correct no matter what anyone says. Because the Father in heaven says that they are Righteous. Choose Jesus and choose righteousness. Be the gift God wants you to be. Embrace the gift God has for you.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.