Fear No Fear

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

So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!
2 Corinthians 5:17 (emphasis added)

The Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network (RAINN) defines grooming as ‘manipulative behaviors that an abuser uses to gain access to a potential victim, coerce them to agree to the abuse, and reduce the risk of being caught.’ This fits well with so much of what the devil does. So many ideologies and religions. So many world viewpoints. They all operate this way. The devil uses manipulative behaviours to get us to let him – or anyone who thinks like he does – in our doors whereupon he works at things so we agree to let him do his thing and keep from getting caught or kicked out. Once the devil is in he doesn’t want anyone to help us. Doesn’t want anyone to figure out what’s happening. And definitely doesn’t want us turning to Adonai and getting what we need from Him. He, and the world system he has been crafting for thousands of years, are groomers. They want to seize your mind and abuse it until you are completely spent, destroyed, and waiting to die. It may seem odd to frame it like that, but that is exactly what his mission is. We have all experienced it to one extent or another. We ALL need healing from the trauma of it.

Grooming thrives when there is a sense of good things about it. A benefit to us. Oh, that’s a great show. Oh, that’s a great book. Oh, that’s great food. Something that seems to be good, and enjoyable, and entertaining, and most importantly FEELS good. The viewpoint of this world is very geared toward FEELINGS. They have taken these sensory inputs and declared that THEY are valid, important, and vital to our mental landscape. They may be valid, but they aren’t important or vital – unlike emotions that are extremely important (but a choice). The most unexpected things can end up being revealed as tools of grooming – whether grooming for a philosophy, religion, mindset, lifestyle, or simply to confuse someone about what Adonai says about things so that we make ungodly choices. They are most effective when benign and desensitising. But they happen. We carry the scars. And we need renewal.

“You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). We have to lay aside all that we were so that we can accept all that we are going to be. Adonai has prepared everything that we are going to need (Ephesians 2:10). Adonai provides us with everything that we need (Philippians 4:19-20). In fact, He is the only supplier of good things that there is (James 1:17). He has provided us with the best and only effective tool to heal from past trauma and grooming by the world, its systems, and the devil and his angels. The Word. “Therefore I exhort you, brothers and sisters, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a sacrifice—alive, holy, and pleasing to God—which is your reasonable service. Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:1-2). Once we let Him start to go to word renewing us, we’re not to keep quiet about it. “Therefore, having laid aside falsehood, each one of you speak the truth with his neighbor because we are members of one another” (Ephesians 4:25). Grooming best happens in secrecy, so the more we talk to one another and the more we share our experiences, the harder it is for us to get caught up or into negative patterns of behaviour.

Halloween is a good example of grooming. We start out with innocent and playful costumes. Those turn into ever more realistic or ever more sexual costumes, until the experience is more about scaring others or sexual promiscuity – both within permissible arenas. Not quite where we thought we’d end up while being cowboys and princesses all those years ago. Cartoons with squishy ghosts and happy vampires will eventually morph into body horror and barely disguised bestiality movies in a few decades. Why accept the levels of debauchery and horror? Why choose to love being frightened or terrified by images you’d have run screaming from in the beginning? Because we slowly get desensitised to it. Small things beget bigger things beget bigger things until we are jaded to the truly disturbing content we’re willing to spend our mental time on. All while being acceptable because it’s ‘fake’ and ‘pretend’ and what’s the big idea, anyway? Make believe doesn’t matter so much to your thought processes. What you see is the message that goes into our hearts and minds. Fear is a real thing which deteriorates our minds. It shrinks our thinking.

According to Linda Mah (found on sciencedaily.com) ‘Pathological anxiety and chronic stress are associated with structural degeneration and impaired functioning of the hippocampus and the prefrontal cortex (PFC), which may account for the increased risk of developing neuropsychiatric disorders, including depression and dementia’. Fear has both those elements. Is Halloween ‘pathological anxiety and chronic stress’? No. But if they can get you playing with fear, they can move you along fear’s spectrum until they get you buying in or being tainted by something that CAN lead you to pathological conditions. Before you dismiss that as paranoid nonsense, consider that when you experience fear (from real situations or a form of entertainment), your body: increases your heart rate and blood pressure, accelerates your breathing, hyper focuses your attention, elicits sweating, slows your digestive system, and dilates your pupils? Those are all real physical reactions to a feeling of fear from a film made by people who pretend for a living. It should be easy to realise ‘fun’ fear is a gateway leading to ever more detrimental mental states and physical conditions. It is NOT a coincidence that many people who truly enjoy being frightened and celebrations like Halloween also deal with mental conditions and/or chronic conditions. It’s not everyone, but it is a statistically significant group.

Dating is another gateway. The world wants everyone to date everyone else. Check things out. Decide on your orientation and gender based on your feelings and how things feel. Ignore the fact the human mind is literally programmable (if science is to be believed anyway – see psychology and the malleability of the human cerebral cortex). And the biggest takeaway from the dating scene? If you don’t like who you have, change your partner. This is anti-faithfulness training. We already have sexualised our culture so much that intimacy and dating go hand in hand. What an error THAT is. Creating an intimate bind before the mental relationship develops is backwards. One reason marriage is so messed up today is that no one is founding true relationships before they get hitched. If the right groundwork is done before a relationship, you can cut drama, fights, and butting of heads by a HUGE margin. If we actually did it Adonai’s way, we might disagree but we wouldn’t necessarily fight – find anyone in the world that promotes that idea.

All these ideas and behaviours we’ve accepted over the years as the devil and the world groom us into positions where we can really be abused are damaging. Believers carry these scars and wounds too. But WE don’t have to. WE can be renewed. Totally renewed. An alcoholic can be reborn and immediately be healed from ANY desire to have alcohol at all, ever. Physical and/or sexual abuse can dissolve into faded memories without pain, trauma, or triggers. Body parts can re-grow. Brains can come back to life. Feeling can stop shackling us. Behaviour can change – from the inside by free choice, not from anyone conditioning you. How about drug addicts free without withdrawal? Cancer addicts without radiation therapy? Cripples walking. Blind seeing. Mute talking. Spines regrowing or reconnecting. There is NOTHING that cannot be restored in and through Jesus. His name means Creator Sets Free. What do YOU have that you need to be freed from? “Jesus looked at them and replied, “This is impossible for mere humans, but for God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26). When we partner with Him, all things are possible. We bring belief in His ability to do them and our trust in His Word (so we can’t pick things that are inconsistent with His Word, try to twist His Word, or things that go against His nature). He brings His willingness to perform His Word and power. His power. Our trust. And then we can have it (Mark 11:24).

We are creatures of habit. We were created to keep HIS habits (Genesis 1:26). We chose to go our own way. Unable to decide on our own, we were convinced to pick the devil’s. He’s been working that play since the beginning. Every time we let him convince us to hurt ourselves, we get scars. Mental. Emotional. Habitual. It takes Adonai to scrub that from us. To detach the feelings and the hooks from the images, memories, and imaginings that we have let into our mindscape. To uncouple what we coupled with. It says in the Word we shouldn’t try to separate what Adonai brought together (Mark 10:9). Thankfully, the opposite is true and Adonai can separate what WE brought together. It is so useful to realise that. It can save time because if we know it, we don’t have to learn it. We can simply benefit from it. Adonai can de-traumatise us. He can release us from ANYTHING that keeps us bound (Isaiah 61:1-3). We need to submit to Him (James 4:7). We need to yoke to Jesus (Matthew 11:28-30). We need to listen to the ‘reins’ – the voice of Ruach HaKodesh (John 14:26). We need to let the Father drive us where He knows we need to go to glorify Him (Proverbs 3:5-6). Healing might help us physically, mentally, and emotionally, but it brings HIM glory because nothing and no one else can accomplish it like HE can. The more impossible and deadly, the greater likelihood it will physically arrive when we put our trust in Him and believe His Word. One impossible thing brings Him more glory than a lifetime of being faithful in spite of a debilitating condition. One impossible miracle shines brighter than a thousand enduring believers waiting for their time in Heaven. I’m not mocking anyone. I am stating TRUTH.

We have let the world blind us, convince us of lies, and limit our thinking. We need to be healed from that. We need to step away from how they have groomed us to be less than. We need to refuse the lie that being permissible and compromising with our values is a good thing. We need to realise that full freedom and joyful release from all sickness, lack, poverty, and unproductiveness lie in His total and absolute Righteousness. If we get onto HIS game plan and see things from HIS point of view and decide to obey and behave how HE wants us to, there is NOTHING that can’t happen. There are no limits to possibility in His Kingdom. We can have what He says. We can be healed of our trauma. We can be loosed from our brainwashing. We can be redeemed from our state. We can be completely, totally, and utterly RENEWED in Messiah Jesus. Amen. Don’t wait. Get into the Word today. Let Jesus wash you free of conditioning to this world. Let Jesus wash you free of accepting compromise. Let Jesus make you what you were meant to be: just like Him.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 63:8-9

“He said, “Certainly they will be my people, children who are not disloyal.” He became their deliverer. Through all that they suffered, he suffered too. The messenger sent from his very presence delivered them. In his love and mercy he protected them; he lifted them up and carried them throughout ancient times.” Messiah would be afflicted with the afflicted. Messiah would be innocent, but He would be afflicted with the afflictions of humanity. He would be so infested, so afflicted, so bent under the weight of all that sickness, disease, and sin, that He would not even be recognisable as human. He would share in our suffering. Share in our hunger. Share in our thirst. Able to sympathise with us, because He would be there alongside us. But how would WE respond when He was? “Then the king will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I was naked and you gave me clothing, I was sick and you took care of me, I was in prison and you visited me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or naked and clothe you? When did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?’ And the king will answer them, ‘I tell you the truth, just as you did it for one of the least of these brothers or sisters of mine, you did it for me.’” (Matthew 25:34-40). Jesus suffered for us horribly (Isaiah 53). He shares in our sorrows. He shares in our suffering. He calls us to help our fellow humans in His Name. But do we? He was afflicted with the afflicted in order to free them. Are we cooperating? I hope we are, because we WILL stand in front of the King of the Universe and answer for how well we saw Him in them and how we treated Him through them. Jesus was afflicted with our afflictions. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b