Fear No Fear

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

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self control. Against such things there is no law.”

Galatians 5:22-23

Feelings are emotional currents that rise up around and outside of ourselves to inform us about the environment we are in. They work the same way as our senses do. Cold comes on us, it is reported to our nerves. Sadness comes on us, it is reported to our minds. It does not matter WHAT signals are coming in. What matters is what we DO with the signals we receive. It is about the choice of what we plant in the ground of our mind and our heart. Sometimes it is a RAPID harvest (like with the tongue). Sometimes it is a variable harvest – thinking of something vs dwelling on something. Sometimes the harvest is a long haul harvest. Like when you plant into your heart and decades later find you’ve grown into someone you really don’t like. We always have time between being HANDED our seed (the feeling) and when we PLANT our seed (accepting or replacing the feeling). What choice we make in that time can change the course of our lives.

When FEELINGS become our seed, they are the foundation of an emotional and relational poverty that shows up everywhere. If we let ourselves be at the mercy of our feelings, which change constantly – as environmental data should – we have no chance to grow anything lasting. If we centre our feelings on a single aspect of our entire psychological persona, we’re trying to grow an oak tree in an aquarium. It won’t be able to handle the load and will come crashing down. When we try and operate on these feelings, we will doom ourselves to perceiving that we are not being serviced properly by those we are in a relationship with because there is no stability in our mindscape. We are accepting LACK in every area when we use feelings – no matter WHAT it feels and looks like in the short-term. In the long-term we lose.

Ruach HaKodesh is the ULTIMATE farmer. He grows something He IS, so there is always enough – there is NO END to Adonai. The ENTIRE purpose of making known to us that He DOES grow Fruit is to make sure WE know that WE are ALLOWED and ENCOURAGED to eat it. The Fruit is for us. Take what you need. Eat what you want. Fill yourself up. That is the message of Ruach HaKodesh. No penalties. Jesus already paid for it. We don’t have to work for it. We can just take and eat. It is a decision to recognise the feeling coming on us and choosing to replace it with what we have growing in us. It is the same principle as feeling a few drops of rain and CHOOSING to raise your umbrella. We replace rain-filled air with protected air and remain dry. We can CHOOSE to raise the fruit and consume what HE grew so that WE can stay ‘dry’.

“Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love her will eat of her fruit” (Proverbs 18:21). We can speak from what comes on us (feelings and situations) or we can speak from what comes from Adonai (the Word). We can speak from what human thinking brings us or what the Mind of Messiah brings us. Whichever we CHOOSE to dwell on, ingest, and speak is what is going into our hearts. Whatever is in our hearts is what forms our character. That’s why Adonai is so clear as to what HE gives us, what HE makes available to us, and what HE has released over us. So that we KNOW what is available. So that we make the WISE choice, not the self-serving one. A life in Jesus will not feel comfortable because we need to submit and obey. Our flesh HATES that. It goes against everything that the flesh stands for. Everything the flesh originally chose. It does against the rebellious DNA that we all started with. We have been renewed by Jesus, but we need to CHOOSE to continue in HIS thinking so that we don’t make grooves in the mud of our minds just like the ones the devil helped us make.

We can CHOOSE to use HIS Fruit to make our emotions. We don’t have to be slaves to our feelings. We can take the ten seconds that are recommended you take before you speak, not to regulate a FEELING, but to take a hold of a Fruit and ask Ruach HaKodesh to help you eat it. Ruach HaKodesh has farmed the Fruit, grown the Fruit, picked the Fruit, and is offering you the Fruit. Let Him guide you in how to eat it. How to process it. How to build an emotion from it. He IS our teacher. Let Him teach. Let Him take the reins a little. He won’t steer you wrong. He will ALWAYS steer you RIGHT. When we choose to rely on Adonai, He will help us be our best selves. A blessing to others. A proper, fully functioning person. Everything He has always known we could be. The very BEST you in Jesus.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Luke 6:45

“The good person out of the good treasury of his heart brings forth good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.” Jesus spoke these words to us. He did it for several reasons. I think one of them is to give us a way to discover our food. It is not always easy to realise what we are doing when we are doing it, because the devil works best when we’re blinded (2 Corinthians 4:4). But if we pay attention to what is coming OUT of us, we’ll figure out what we’ve been putting INTO ourselves. We do NOT have to struggle with this. We can ASK for wisdom (James 1:5). We can work WITH Ruach HaKodesh in prayer and meditation. We can get the Word into us so that we can renew our minds to HIS point of view (Romans 12:2), instead of relying on what WE think is right. We’ve been given a HELPER, so let Him help. We’ve been given tools, so use them. He helps us find out what quality and type of food we have been consuming. He helps us see what we can put in or stop putting in to GREATLY improve the harvest of our words. No fuss. Some replacement strategy. And BAM an improvement that directly leads to a better quality of our lives. Isn’t that great? 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