Fear No Fear

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

“Peace I leave with you; my peace I give to you—not as the world gives, I give to you. Do not let your hearts be troubled, and do not let them be afraid.”

John 14:27

Adonai HATES oppression. When the Israelites chose to reject His covenant with them and despise His mercy, they were sold into slavery. But those who had charge of them OPPRESSED them – instead of just working them. That caused them to get judged themselves. When Israel went down to Egypt and a dynasty change happened, the new Pharaoh didn’t just put them to work as slaves. He OPPRESSED them and his offspring did as well. They were judged for it. Work is acceptable. Effort is allowed to be expended. But oppression strikes at the soul of a person and weighs them down in more than physical ways. Oppression is a DARK place that BREEDS lack.

Jesus is anti-stress. Jesus is anti-anxiety. Jesus is anti-depression. Jesus is anti-fear. The fight-or-flight response was birthed in the Fall. It is not a positive, it is evidence that we are operating in a deteriorating system. Se are supposed to be operating with a faith-or-fear response – that’s TRUST or REVERENCE. We either trust in what Adonai has said and take authority over what is in our dominion, or we turn it over to Adonai and praise Him for taking care of it. Anything not in our purview is in His. Anything we are not called and equipped to deal with is His to deal with. We either place it under our feet (Genesis 4:7; Luke 9:1, 10:19), or stand where He has it under His (James 4:7; Romans 16:20; Matthew 22:44). Nothing is EVER left to run loose or rampant.

Jesus’ PEACE can be the natural and AUTOMATIC response when ANY and ALL changes or challenges occur. We can have a trust-stimulus response. It doesn’t work in a way we truly understand, because it comes from and operates on a SPIRITUAL level. It works in the realm we only see by our trust in Adonai. “And the peace of God that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:7). The world gives us coping mechanisms so that we can ride out the anxiety attacks. So that we can keep from drowning in our depression. The world gives us pharmaceuticals to regulate the chemicals floating around in our head to keep the unwanted things away from the forefront of our consciousness. Jesus doesn’t do that. Jesus isn’t into us COPING. Jesus is into us OVERCOMING (John 16:33).

Oppression wears us down. The goal of oppression is to break us. It is an unjust and cruelly excessive abuse of authority and power. It is beyond persecution. It is meant to crush. It is meant to separate us from our rights. It steals from us. It kills us. It destroys us. Oppression is a child of the devil (John 10:10). It was his bright idea and the systems of the world were designed to give it a place to survive and thrive. Jesus came to remove us from under oppression and to bring us into a place where there is NO oppression (Colossians 1:13). We don’t HAVE to live with all the mental shenanigans that the enemy has set up and feeds from every direction that he can either think of or hijack. We as humans look at it and call it NORMAL, but it is NOT. Stress, anxiety, and depression are NOT NORMAL. They are SATANIC. We do NOT need to experience them.

That isn’t to say that life is going to be gentle and kind with nary a bump or rattle. No. This world is tumultuous. But our RESPONSE to it can be different. Feelings are stimuli. They are information coming from outside of us. We can take hold of them and turn them into emotions, or we can reject them and take hold of something else. Something better. We can take hold of His Fruit (Galatians 5:22-23). We are being given a choice. We are not being asked to avoid one thing and go without. No, we are given two things to choose between. We can build our emotions, thinking, and mindscape from one set of building blocks OR we can build them from another. We can CHOOSE to take the world at face value and buy into what they say is normal. Or we can CHOOSE to take the Word at face value and buy into what Adonai says is normal. It takes a change of thinking (Romans 12:2), but Ruach HaKodesh is dedicated to helping us make the switch.

Freedom can be scary to the captive. Some people refuse to be freed. They WANT the comfort of what they have always known. They WANT it to stay the same – and yearn for it when they are separated from it (Numbers 11:5). But we don’t have to be like that. Ruach HaKodesh is our COMFORTER to help us as we change kingdoms. He is there to help us acclimatize to freedom. To choose Adonai’s Way and walk it with success. He doesn’t stop cheering us on. He constantly talks to us about how we can trust in Jesus, rest in Jesus, and let Jesus take the things we can’t handle on our own – or at all. We can be free from oppression. We will still have to work, and that isn’t a problem. But we WON’T be oppressed or abused. Our efforts won’t break us. They won’t bow us over. We will stand tall and SOAR in and through Jesus. We will be FREE from it. Mourning becomes Joy. Stress becomes Peace. We might be inside a storm, but we’ll be safe in a boat, snoozing in Jesus’ arms. We will never have to be among the waves EVER again.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Matthew 11:28

“Come to me, all of you who labor and are burdened, and I will give you rest.” Simple promise. That’s what I love about Jesus. He makes it clear and clean. If we bring it to HIM, HE will take care of it AND He will give us something better: REST. It isn’t hard for us. It isn’t complicated for us. We CAN do it. Jesus NEVER asks us to do anything that He hasn’t ALREADY given us the tools to accomplish. He trains us, then He calls us. He equips us, then He sends us. He KNOWS that life is full of burdens. He KNOWS the damage that negative thinking can do. He knows that we feel helpless, as if there is nothing that we can do to get rid of it. He knows that we are likely to settle for ANYTHING that makes it even a LITTLE better. So Jesus made a Way to REMOVE it. To pull it out by the roots and leave us FREE, CLEAR, and WHOLE. No gaping wounds. No band-aids. No coping mechanisms. FREEDOM. Pure and unadulterated FREEDOM. He does it because He wants us to have ABUNDANT life, not life on anxiety’s terms. He does it because He wants you to feel how light it is to not have burdens. He wants you to experience being able to breathe deeply without choking. He wants you to have a good day EVERY day, because you live through HIM and not through your own strength. Jesus wants us to have a beautiful spring day EVERY day year round. He loves us too much to keep us where frowns are born. He loves us so much He shows us again and again how to pick up His Joy and run with it – skipping and singing as we go. 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