Fear No Fear

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

‘And it will be in the last days,’ God says, ‘I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters will prophesy, and your young men will see visions, and your old men will dream dreams.

Acts 2:17

I have an ongoing struggle with my garden hose. I lay it out and drag it around in order to water all the various corners of the garden, front and back and sides. Frequently, the rate of flow will lessen or stop completely. It will be because the hose has kinked. It has twisted or bent because of how I was dragging it around. It isn’t the hose’s fault. It’s a really good hose. But because of how I am engaged with it, the flow is restricted or cut off and I have issues getting the water to the plants. It can be a REALLY frustrating experience. I have to remind myself it is MY fault and MY actions and MY lack of proper preparation that caused it so that I don’t choose to get mad.

The first days were the days when things worked as Adonai had designed them. The time of Adam and Eve in the Garden. The middle days were after their betrayal and Fall. Those days lasted until a Way was made for us to return to the way Adonai designed them to be: Jesus’ sacrifice and resurrection to life. The last days started then. The last days are the days when the Way needs to be presented to every single human being on this Earth. That’s where the Church lives and breathes. They are the days of the engagement of the Bride. They will last until the final days – Jesus back and judging the devil and anyone who disdained Adonai. Here in the last days, Adonai’s Ruach has been poured out on humanity. The rate of flow is regulated by the Father at the tap – it’s HIS power, after all (Matthew 11:27). Through Jesus, who was given the power, we have access to it. In Him is where we connect and have Ruach HaKodesh flow. So why don’t we see it in our lives all the time? We kink the hose.

It takes worship to keep our minds and hearts aligned with our spirits – which are perfected, sealed, and connected to the Throne 24/7 (Ephesians 1:13). It’s like drinking a frozen drink through a straw. No matter how big the diameter of the straw is, sooner or later frozen chunks will stick in the tube and we’ll need to clear them in order to continue drinking. No matter how hard I yank on my garden hose, if I don’t go over and manually un-kink the hose, the flow of water will remain stagnant. Worship is our declaration of Adonai’s rightful place in our lives. Worship is our physical act – through song, word, and deed – of humble submission to Adonai. It is the clearing of our ears so that we can hear. It is the closing of our mouths so that we can listen. It is the pause and giving of our attention to Adonai. It is the untwisting of the hose so that the water can flow. It is the clearing of the straw so that we can drink. It is OUR part of the TWO-PART process of communication.

Obedience is worship. Study of the Word is worship. Living life according to His principles is worship. Submitting to His moral standards is worship. Serving others is worship. Being devoted, godly parents, spouses, teachers, employees, and employers is worship. But the singing of praises is among the most effective personal ways that we can align ourselves with the heart of Adonai. It includes effort, breath, words, intent, emotions, and thinking (our minds). We fool ourselves when we think of it as a purely emotional experience. It isn’t. You can be singing your heart out about what you are believing, feel nothing, and be worshipping effectively. Feelings that we turn into emotions are a part of our lives, but not the BASIS of ANY part of our lives. Worship is about alignment to receive. Alignment to submit. It is not a ‘feeling’.

We do so much based on how it makes us feel. If you really think about it, feelings are simply information. Like a sound, a scent, a sensation, or a taste. It is what we DO with that information that matters. If you try and base your relationship with Adonai or your worship on your feelings, you will miss out. Worship is an action. Human beings do actions and feelings follow. Smile with intent and you’ll FEEL happier. Laugh with intent and you’ll FEEL joyful. Worship with intent and you’ll FEEL worshipful. We DO and the feelings FOLLOW so that we can build emotions from them. If you EVER catch yourself basing a decision or an action on how it makes you FEEL and you need to re-evaluate. There are a LOT of things that FEEL good, but will injure, harm, or kill you – spiritually as well as physically. There are edible things that are delicious and they’ll kill you dead if you consume them. We need to have wisdom and we need to know the truth about things. Not truth from a particular point of view (subjective truth), but truth about things regardless of human points of view, opinions, laws, or culture (objective truth).

We are BLESSED that we have Adonai. He is so GOOD to us that He FREELY gives wisdom to those who ask (James 1:5-7). He also FREELY GAVE us Ruach HaKodesh, THE Ruach of Truth. Objective truth. Truth outside of the human mental/emotional/physical experience. Truth that is TRUE no matter WHAT we think. The TWO things we need to effectively worship, He GIVES us. And BOTH of them are wrapped up in Ruach HaKodesh! What a GOOD God we serve! He truly HAS Blessed us with ALL BLESSINGS (Ephesians 1:3-14). We need to engage with Ruach HaKodesh to make sure that we are worshipping Adonai CONSISTENTLY. We can worship through obedience and living His moral code constantly, but the verb form of worshipping in order to praise needs to be consistent. If the only worship we do is obedience, our straw is going to get plugged. Our ears are going to be occluded. Our hoses will be kinked. We need to consistently use the spiritual draino of praise and worship to our Sovereign Lord and Saviour to keep ourselves aligned with His flow.

Let Ruach HaKodesh guide you. Listen to His speaking. Keep praising. Keep worshipping. Keep the flow flowing. Let it be an artesian well constantly flowing out, not a bucket and rope affair that you laboriously use. Adonai set things up so that ALL the heavy lifting is on HIS side. Engage what He has provided. Receive what He has provided. Let His Living Water flow through you. Let His Ruach flow through you. Don’t block the flow. He is pouring it out on ALL humanity (male AND female). Why miss out? Don’t block His flow. Receive it.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Psalm 145:1

“I will exalt you, my God, O king, and I will bless your name forever and ever.” We lift Adonai up in order to keep Him where He belongs: in front and above us. We can’t follow if He isn’t in front of us. We won’t see Him through all the twists and turns if He isn’t above us. Then Adonai does HIS part. He makes sure we can see Him by day AND by night. A pillar of roiling clouds by day. A pillar of raging flames inside the clouds making them glow and throb with light by night. Hard to miss. Visible for hundreds of kilometres. Oh, how He takes what we do and magnifies it to full purpose. We lift Him up. We keep our eyes on Him. He transforms to something that CANNOT be lifted, CANNOT be contained, and CANNOT be missed. He asks us for SO LITTLE and He turns that into SO MUCH. It is how Jesus got a couple of fish and loaves into stuffed to the gills food for more than five thousand people. It is how Elijah, a boy, and a widow ate for YEARS in the midst of a drought and famine. It is how a few praise songs broke open a physical building that had been created in toughness and impregnability. Our little becomes His MORE THAN ENOUGH. The power of cooperation with Adonai should NEVER be underestimated (Matthew 19:26). He makes cooperation into conquering victory over all impossibilities and obstacles. In and through JESUS, ALL THINGS are possible when we cooperate. 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