Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

“Do not let your hearts be distressed. You believe in God; believe also in me.
John 14:1 (emphasis added)

tarassó (tar-as’-so) means to stir up, to trouble, disturb, or agitate. That’s ‘don’t do the thing’ talk. But it’s more than that. The deeper meanings are to put in motion (to agitate back-and-forth, shake to-and-fro). To set in motion what needs to remain still. It means causing inner perplexity, emotional turmoil, and getting TOO stirred up inside. It means taking away the calmness of mind, a person disturbing the equanimity of their minds; to disquiet, to make restless. To render anxious or distressed, to perplex the mind of someone by suggesting scruples or doubts. To affect with great pain or sorrow. And even to strike one’s spirit with fear or dread. This is a personal thing AND a thing you can incite in someone else. This is NOT a ‘don’t do the thing’ thing. This is not anxiety avoidance. This is anxiety prevention. We CAN prevent ALL anxiety from happening on our mental plane.

Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance calls it trouble. Of uncertain affinity; to stir or agitate (roil water). Think of that picture. A container of water. Be it a cup or a bowl or a lake. It has depth and it has a natural state. Being distressed is the condition of that water being stirred or agitated or in some other way to disturb the surface. It doesn’t matter if you break the surface in some way, drop something into it to cause ripples, or moving/shaking/wiggling the container in order to make the water move. Someone else can jostle the container. You can jostle the container. The weather can jostle the container. An earthquake can jostle the container, or some other kind of natural disaster. A container – regardless of where you set it – can be jostled in innumerable ways.

How do you keep the container from spilling? Well, there are devices for purchase where you have your cup on a platform connected to a curved rod with a looped, fabric handle on the end. The handle prevents you from applying lateral force on the cup, which keeps the water from being spilt. You can put a covering on the container to keep the water from being touched. Together, very little agitation is possible on the fluid in the container. Exterior devices and forces can prevent the liquid from being disturbed. Mentally, it works the same way. The world’s solution is therapy – which teaches coping mechanisms – or medication, which affects the balance of chemicals in the brain which changes how we process stimuli and thereby controls the mental state. Religions and spirituality practitioners add meditation forms, physical forms (like yoga worship), and energy forms (like crystals and sound resonance). The world’s versions can work. The spiritual and religious can work – but slave you to things you’d best avoid. What is Adonai’s way?

Restoration and control. “For God did not give us a Spirit of fear but of power and love and self-control” (2 Timothy 1:7). This does NOT mean we have the self-control to just be happy or to not be depressed. It means we have been given a spirit of self-control so that we can choose to have our self do it Adonai’s way. We are NOT at the mercy of our feelings. We are NOT at the mercy of our thinking. We are NOT at the mercy of our environment. We have access to POWER, LOVE, and SELF-CONTROL. HIS power, HIS love, and HIS self-control. Which He has given us by Grace in His Mercy. Perfect Love (HIS) casts out all fear (1 John 4:18). We need His peace present to eliminate all the fear and terror that might upset the container and disturb the water.

“You keep completely safe the people who maintain their faith, for they trust in you. Trust in the Lord from this time forward, even in Yah, the Lord, an enduring protector!” (Isaiah 26:3-4). He keeps PERFECT PEACE in our minds when our minds are focused on the maintaining of our trust in Adonai. “Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you believe in him, so that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). Adonai fills us with ALL joy and ALL peace AS WE BELIEVE IN HIM. How can we believe if we don’t have trust. You don’t really believe in someone if you don’t trust them. You don’t really trust them if you don’t believe them. They are two VERY closely linked things. The more we keep our focus on our trust in Him (Romans 12:2), the more we have room to believe. When friends are there for us again and again and again and again, then when something new comes up it is that much easier to believe that they will be there for us because of our trust in them based on their track record with us. I’m telling you NOTHING and NO ONE has a better track record with us than Adonai (Deuteronomy 31:8).

His Peace (2 Thessalonians 3:16) and His Joy (Roman 14:17) change our environment. It is the atmosphere of Heaven that we are to be continually calling down around us (Matthew 6:9-13). We tap into His peace with thanksgiving. “Rejoice in the Lord always. Again I say, rejoice! Let everyone see your gentleness. The Lord is near! Do not be anxious about anything. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:4-7). We rejoice and give thanks. No matter WHAT we FEEL. This is where the Book of Psalms can help. It is FULL of praise. You can praise those Psalms. Pray them. Thank Him with their language. Put the words to music – a tune you know or a made-up nonsense ditty. It doesn’t matter. But turn THEM into your praise when you don’t FEEL like it. Turn THEM into your thanksgiving when you don’t SEE it. These are the things that brings us closer to Him. When that happens, HE gets closer to US (James 4:8). Peace is part of His NATURE. When He is near us, Peace is near us.

If our focus on Him and our trust and belief in Him enables us to be steady internally, what is it that will keep us steady from EXTERNAL pressures? Adonai. Our trust and belief in His promises. Internally we have trust and belief in WHO HE IS – which is what prompts our thanksgiving and praise. Externally we have trust and belief in WHAT HE DOES – which also prompts our thanksgiving and praise, but from a slightly different angle. We can trust Him because He is trustworthy (1 Corinthians 1:9). He CANNOT lie (Hebrews 6:17-18). He is constant and consistent (Hebrews 13:8). We only need to find what the WORD says about WHAT HE DOES so that we know WHAT we are putting our trust into and WHAT we believe.

“The Lord is my high ridge, my stronghold, my deliverer. My God is my rocky summit where I take shelter, my shield, the horn that saves me, and my refuge” (Psalm 18:2). “No weapon forged to be used against you will succeed; you will refute everyone who tries to accuse you. This is what the Lord will do for his servants—I will vindicate them,” says the Lord” (Isaiah 54:17). “But the Lord is faithful, and he will strengthen you and protect you from the evil one” (2 Thessalonians 3:3). “Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you—yes, I help you—yes, I uphold you with my victorious right hand!” (Isaiah 41:10). “The Lord says, “Because he is devoted to me, I will deliver him; I will protect him because he is loyal to me. When he calls out to me, I will answer him. I will be with him when he is in trouble; I will rescue him and bring him honor. I will satisfy him with long life and will let him see my salvation.”” (Psalm 91:14-16).

Because WE are devoted to HIM. Because WE focus on our trust in HIM. Because WE focus on our belief in HIM. “As for you, the one who lives in the shelter of the Most High, and resides in the protective shadow of the Sovereign One—I say this about the Lord, my shelter and my stronghold, my God in whom I trust—” (Psalm 91:1-2). We live in the shelter of the MOST HIGH. Jesus told us to. Remain in ME is what He said (John 15:5). It tells us the key: I say this about Adonai. We SAY. “May my words and my thoughts be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my sheltering rock and my redeemer” (Psalm 19:14). Our WORDS should be words of PRAISE. Our WORDS should be words of THANKSGIVING. Our WORDS should be words that GLORIFY Adonai. How will we know WHAT to say? By focusing on what His Word says about us. Keeping it before our eyes – again, Psalms is great for this when we don’t have the words or the feelings to find the words.

Our WORDS matter (Proverbs 18:21). What we are saying. Are we speaking positively about Adonai and what He has done and is doing for us? That praise and thanksgiving is the language of Heaven. Are we speaking negatively about our circumstances and the things that are facing us? That’s the language of Hell. That’s right. Focusing on the negative is DEMONIC. It’s a demonic attitude. It’s strife. “For where there is jealousy and selfishness, there is disorder and every evil practice” (James 3:16). In the King James it is ‘envy and strife’. The Greek means selfish ambition, contention, strife, and intrigue, so it covers all of it. That attitude is based on PRIDE, which is not the way of the Kingdom of God (Proverbs 8:13). Pride leads to selfishness – positive OR negative selfishness. It’s either look at me or poor me, but they are both selfish and both based in pride which is deep consciousness of yourself.

Whether we want to keep the water of our mental state from being rocked from the outside, dabbled with from the outside, unspilt from the inside, and untroubled from the inside, we are to praise and give thanksgiving to Him based on the Word which both shows us our proper place toward His proper place and gives us the words and promises He gives us about us from His point of view. In other words, the more we think on what He thinks about us and about what we can do, the more we will be untroubled and able to keep from being dismayed. It isn’t saying to ourselves ‘stop being depressed’. It is telling ourselves what Adonai says about things. It is REPLACING the focus on negative thinking, comments, words, situations, and memories with a focus on His point of view, His words, His positive thinking, and His promises of what we WILL have, DO have, and ALWAYS have.

Everything that comes into our minds or comes out of our minds needs to be tested against the Word to prove what is right and prove what is wrong. Not prove like a test, but prove as in to determine its veracity. To see how true it really is. The Word is truth and we are sanctified by our truth (John 17:17). We should ONLY think on or take in what HE says is true. The negative still comes up, but we can use HIS self-control that He gave us to pause the thought long enough to hold it up against His Word. If it doesn’t line up with His opinions, His promises, and His thoughts, we can come against it WITH that Word. We don’t even need to expend effort. When we are submitted to Him in humbleness, we are refusing selfishness. From that place of obedience in Him (Matthew 11:28-30), we stand on that Word He gives us and the devil flees (James 4:7). WE don’t do ANYTHING. JESUS does it. The devil has NO POWER. He CANNOT stand against the Word. He throws all he can at us, but if we hold up the Word to what He throws, it will come to nothing.

We have trust in His knowledge, the Mind of Messiah that gives us wisdom and understanding in everything we face. We have trust in the Word which cuts through the devil’s lies and makes him flee. We trust in the peace that His presence brings and that we take with us everywhere. We have trust in the shield He IS, which makes flaming weapons so many toothpicks. We have trust in His righteousness that He brings us into and holds us close by His heart. We have trust in the TRUTH which we recognise and use to keep everything in the proper perspective of the Kingdom. These are our ‘weapons’ of trust. The armour we are girded with. TRUST and belief in what HE SAYS is how we put it on and keep it on and keep IT what is the first thing anyone and anything sees when they throw negativity at us (Galatians 5:22-23).

We CHOOSE to live in His love by entering into thanksgiving and praise ACTIVELY using HIS self-control that we need to keep our flesh down and our eyes up on Him. HE lifts our heads (Psalm 3:3). We only need to look. He lifts us because He loves us. He delivers us because He delights in us. Regardless of our thoughts and feelings, we can love Him back by actively choosing to praise, pray, be thankful, speak His positive words about us, and test everything according to His Word that we constantly refer to, read, consider, and rely on for something we can believe is TRUE in this world of malleable information. We CAN do this. Not with a wave of a hand or positive thinking. But with JESUS thinking, WORD thinking, and agreement with our Father, our Source of everything including our deep and honest thoughts.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 49:6

“he says, “Is it too insignificant a task for you to be my servant, to reestablish the tribes of Jacob, and restore the remnant of Israel? I will make you a light to the nations, so you can bring my deliverance to the remote regions of the earth.”” Messiah would BE the light of the Gentiles. And He knows we NEED it. Messiah gives us light to see the truth. Messiah is the light we are attracted to, calling to us to fly from the darkness and enter its warm glow. To bring us to the salvation that we would otherwise never know. “For this is what the Lord has commanded us: ‘I have appointed you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the ends of the earth.’”” (Acts 13:47). Jesus was the Light of the Word (John 1:1-5). Jesus TOLD us He was the Light (John 8:12). The Gentiles were drawn to Him (Matthew 8:5-13, 15:21-28; John 12:20-23). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b