Fear No Fear

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

because I feared the great multitude, and the contempt of families terrified me, so that I kept silence, and didn’t go out of the door—

Job 31:34 (emphasis added)

Job is answering the insinuation that he has lived a life of fear (he didn’t). Job is reminding them that everyone knew Job as a man of undaunted reputation and resolution. He boldly appeared, spoke, and acted in defence of God and of justice. He was never brow-beaten, but set his face and did his duty. Job was not deterred by the number of people who may have not agreed. Insults did not deter him. He did not let a righteous cause to be run down by high-handed people. He reverenced the Lord, he did not fear multitudes or being held in contempt by families. Job was bold in what he believed to be right. He based what he thought was right on what God said was right. Job spoke up. Job reached out. Job was not silent. Job did not hide the light. God honoured that (Job 1:1).

It’s so easy to keep our mouths shut. What is the cry on social media? Stay in your lane? Do you? It’s so easy to fall into that pattern. Because so often we don’t speak up, we belligerent up. We’re not standing up for what we believe, we’re accosting others with what we believe. It isn’t sharing the Good News to scream in people’s faces that they are going to hell. The Good News isn’t their journey to hell. We’re bringing news of freedom. We’re bringing news of renewal and restoration. We’re bringing news of a God who made a way, not a God looking for an excuse to punish. We’re bringing the news of a God of love and correction. A God of judgment, yes, but not a God of despotism. Jesus didn’t shy away from telling people when they were doing right (Matthew 8:10) or doing wrong (Matthew 12:34-35). Jesus never, ever, condoned sin. But Jesus not once got into anyone’s face screaming that they were going to hell. Not once did He start a conversation by listing everything they were doing wrong and why they were going to suffer for it. Jesus always started with love. He just didn’t stop there.

Jesus said I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6). He said He was the ONLY way to the Father. That you COULDN’T get to heaven without Jesus. Works wouldn’t do it. Niceness wouldn’t do it. Contrary belief wouldn’t do it. Being a good and moral person wouldn’t do it. Just following the Law with your actions (perfectly) wouldn’t do it. Jesus taught about total restoration (Matthew 6:33). Jesus taught about humbling yourself and yoking to Him in obedience under the guidance of the Father (Matthew 11:28-30). Jesus taught that you had to take up your cross and follow in Jesus footsteps (Luke 9:23). Jesus taught that there would be persecutors looking to knock you down when you were doing what God wanted (Matthew 5:11). Jesus didn’t shy away from saying the narrow way was not the easy way. It was the simple way, but it wasn’t the easy way (Matthew 7:13-14).

But when teaching or when asked, Jesus told people straight up that although God loved them that love did not excuse them from doing right. Jesus taught we were still to be righteous. We were to conform to the Father’s view of morality and behaviour. “He said, “That which proceeds out of the man, that defiles the man. For from within, out of the hearts of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, sexual sins, murders, thefts, covetings, wickedness, deceit, lustful desires, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, and foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile the man”” (Mark 7:20-23). In Matthew chapters 5-7 Jesus lays out the constitution of the Kingdom. It wasn’t new. It was almost commentary teaching on the Law of Moses. How to live out the Ten Commandments in our hearts. Jesus was all about obedience to righteousness. He spoke about it. Taught about it. Never shied away from it. But He didn’t shout them down, scream at them, or berate them. He never made them feel less than they were. He kept their dignity. He didn’t tear down their worth, but He was bold in speaking truth. We’re called to be the same.

“For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Saviour, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News” (1 Timothy 1:7-10). Jesus told us to go into all the world and make disciples of humanity (Mark 16:15-18). He didn’t tell us to go out and slap each other with the Word. In our peopleness, in our humanity, in our own selves we tend to be a little over-enthusiastic. We stop thinking about other people and we focus on what it is that we think is right. We see something that we don’t like and we are so quick to run over and tell them what we think. To shout out of vehicle windows. To comment online. We are so very quick to use our voices to fling around God’s morals. Jesus didn’t do that.

“Jesus entered into the temple in Jerusalem. When he had looked around at everything, it being now evening, he went out to Bethany with the twelve” (Mark 11:11). Seems innocuous doesn’t it? Jesus looked around and left. No biggie. Sight seeing maybe. But the next day they returned from Bethany. “They came to Jerusalem, and Jesus entered into the temple and began to throw out those who sold and those who bought in the temple, and overthrew the money changers’ tables and the seats of those who sold the doves. He would not allow anyone to carry a container through the temple. He taught, saying to them, “Isn’t it written, ‘My house will be called a house of prayer for all the nations?’ But you have made it a den of robbers!”” (Mark 11:15-17). Nothing had changed in the intervening time. The scene He cleared out on day two was there on day one. Jesus felt the same righteous anger. Jesus felt the same sorrow. Jesus wanted to drive them all out. But He didn’t. Why? He wasn’t being led to. Remember, Jesus only did what the Father showed Him to do (John 5:19). Jesus was led by the Holy Spirit. Because He was, He never stepped wrong. We too are to be bold. But we too are to be led. Boldly led.

Boldness is mentioned several times in the New Testament. “Let’s therefore draw near with boldness to the throne of grace, that we may receive mercy and may find grace for help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:16). “Now, little children, remain in him, that when he appears, we may have boldness and not be ashamed before him at his coming” (1 John 2:28). “In him we have boldness and access in confidence through our faith in him” (Ephesians 2:12). Boldness is most often in reference to our relationship with the Lord. When we are right with Him, connected to Him, listening to Him, obeying Him, we will be stepping as Jesus stepped. We’ll do the right thing, say the right thing and say it the right way, at the right time, to the right people. It will be laser-guided, pinpoint accurate, strategic strikes and not scattershot attempts at crowd control. And we also need not fear the crowds. Yes, persecution for the Lord’s sake will come. But why fear? Why embrace it? The Lord has us. In persecutions and not in persecutions. We walk in the Joy of the Lord in all things—or at least we are empowered to and we will if we take it up and walk in it.

“What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things? Who could bring a charge against God’s chosen ones? It is God who justifies. Who is he who condemns? It is Christ who died, yes rather, who was raised from the dead, who is at the right hand of God, who also makes intercession for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Could oppression, or anguish, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Even as it is written, “For your sake we are killed all day long. We were accounted as sheep for the slaughter.” No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing will be able to separate us from God’s love which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:31-39). That is some promise. That is some way to walk. Why would we fear when we are able to abide in Jesus Himself? Jesus is our mediator. He is between us and the crowds, us and the enemy, us and everyone. No matter what comes our way we have no reason to embrace fear over it (Psalm 27:1).

The apostles preached the risen Jesus and were punished for it. Imprisoned and threatened. Told never to speak of these things again (Acts 4:1-18). Now the Jewish life centred around the temple. Around the things of the Lord. The apostles could have been excommunicated. Cast out. They would have been cut off from the vibrant community about them. They were faced with a huge choice. So they prayed it out. Not alone, but with other believers. With one heart and one mind they brought this major issue to the Lord and prayed about it, then praised about it. And in Acts 4:31 they got their answer. “When they had prayed, the place was shaken where they were gathered together. They were all filled with the Holy Spirit, and they spoke the word of God with boldness.” They obeyed. They did not stop preaching. They did not stop teaching. They did not stop discipling. They were beaten, executed, driven out, and frequently yelled at. They preached in the temple, they preached in synagogues. They spread the Good News throughout the known world. They didn’t stop. “Therefore let’s also, seeing we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, lay aside every weight and the sin which so easily entangles us, and let’s run with perseverance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising its shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:1-2). This injunction remains on us. We are to do the same.

We are to be bold, but we are to be led. In all that we do, in all that we say, led by the Spirit of the Lord. “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, these are children of God. For you didn’t receive the spirit of bondage again to fear, but you received the Spirit of adoption, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” The Spirit himself testifies with our spirit that we are children of God; and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with him, that we may also be glorified with him” (Romans 8:14-17). This is how we are to walk and how we are to be. Full of love and compassion, firm in our beliefs, connected to Jesus in all ways and things, following the leading of the Spirit, and ever calling out to our Father for guidance, correction, worship, and communion. It isn’t a bad way to live. It’s a bold way to live. It will take you out of your comfort zone. Carrying a cross isn’t comfortable. Getting out of a boat in a storm isn’t comfortable. But when we are led by the Lord it will be the right place. The right words. The right person. Our words and deeds will become a tremendous seed in the lives of those around us.

Don’t be afraid of the scorn of others. Don’t be afraid of multitudes or that one person you meet every day at the bus stop. Don’t be afraid to let your light shine. Don’t be afraid to leave your house. Stretch out and obey God without caring about what anyone else thinks. It isn’t important what they think. It is important what your Heavenly Father thinks. Being obedient is the most important thing. No wait times. No delay. Just obey. He will be with you (Hebrews 13:5). He will give you the words you need (Luke 12:12). He has commanded us to make disciples. We have been empowered to make disciples. To spread the Good News. To shine our light. Never forget. Never stop. Never give up. Don’t keep your silence. Be bold. Be led. Be all He has for you to be.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Galatians 6:9

This verse is in the middle of a piece about sowing and reaping. A do unto others part of the bible. Sow to corruption, reap corruption. Sow to the Spirit, reap the Spirit. Do what is good to all mankind, especially if you’re a believer. The Golden Rule, essentially. But it is also a great principle for us to apply to ourselves. Remember that life and death is in the power of the tongue (Proverbs 18:21). Also remember that we do not speak to what we see but to what we see in the Lord (Hebrews 11:1 and Romans 4:17). The Lord has been working with us on this. A lot. And I see it everywhere in my life. How often am I speaking death? My leg hurts. I have a headache. I cut my finger. Now all those things are true in the natural. I can see it and feel it. God doesn’t want us to deny that, because that would be silly. But why am I speaking to it? Why am I telling people I can’t do this or can’t do that? I cut my finger the other day while doing some chore. I apologised to it. Felt like an idiot when the words came out too. But it was automatic. I’m sorry I wasn’t paying attention. I should have taken more care. I put a band-aid on it and some antibacterial cream. That was good stewardship. Then I told my finger it wasn’t cut. Not anymore. Because I have the Name of Jesus inside me. The Name above all other names. ‘Cut’ is a name. It has to bow to Jesus. When the Father resurrected Jesus to life, He broke the altar of decay. I don’t have to decay. When Jesus was whipped and beaten, His cuts and bruises healed me. He broke sickness, disease, and wounds. I was baptised into Jesus (1 Corinthians 12:13). I died and was resurrected into Him (Galatians 2:20). I am a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17). His blood mixes with mine (Leviticus 17:11 and Hebrews 2:14). Giving me what I was missing: righteousness. So the cells of the blood of Jesus are in my blood. Reaching every cell of my body and providing restoration. Not removing my responsibilities of stewardship, but renewing me. Healing everything about me. Restoring me to a body that works as originally designed pre-Fall. Sanctifying me every moment of every day. I am not sick. I am not wounded. I am healed and I am whole and I have nothing broken and I have nothing missing and I will not accept anything else or anything less because these are mine by right. I am a new creation. So what next? I remind myself that wounds are not my portion. I am healed. I am not cursed. I am blessed. I told my finger it was healed. It was restored and being restored and that was that. If I felt pain or if it tried to stop me from doing something, I told it that it was fully functional because the Spirit Life of Jesus lived within me and I was healed by Jesus’ stripes (1 Peter 2:24). That I was redeemed of the curse (Galatians 3:13). And that I was restored into new things (2 Corinthians 5:17). I stood on those three verses for every twinge, pressure, or crimp. By that evening the bandage was an annoyance, not a benefit. When I removed it, there was an almost imperceptible line. And I fully expect that to disappear. We have a choice. We can give voice to our weaknesses, or we can stand on His Word about our strengths which are in Him. Instead of accepting these negatives, we can stand against them. Not deny them. Not ignore them. Come against them. And do it with the Word. As the Spirit leads. Until they are gone. Why can we? Because the curse and everything bad is of the enemy. Resist the enemy in submission to the Father and the devil will flee (James 4:7). Don’t let the foolishness of the flesh stop you. Speak life at all times, seeding the Word into everything you do. It seems silly, but a life of LIFE is better than a life of weeds.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.