Fear No Fear

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

Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love, and for the amazing things he has done for people.
Psalm 107:8 (emphasis added)

Feelings aren’t real, but they sure do like to push their weight around. You ‘feel’ angry, but you’re not really angry. You ‘feel’ stressed, but you’re not really stressed. You ‘feel’ anxious or depressed, but you’re not really anxious OR depressed. I mean, when I get really cold I’m not ACTUALLY freezing to death. On those very hot summer days I’m not REALLY baking. They’re just feelings. They are INPUT, not reality. If an online troll says something horrible, I might ‘feel’ hurt, angry, disgusted, or whatever. But I don’t need to choose to emote that. I can choose to emote something else. You CAN be taught to do it with training, coping strategies, and practice. There is a much easier way. We can choose to emote and WHAT to emote as easily as flicking a light switch.

“But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. Against such things there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23). There it is. Nine emotions. You might think I’m crazy. You might remember your school studies that said there were 6 types of emotions. You may have read a more recent study that found 27. But almost all of those are FEELINGS, not emotions. Love, joy, surprise, anger, and sadness are considered primary emotions. But surprise is a feeling and so is sadness. They are input that we then make decisions about. Anger is a feeling as well, unless you’re not going to admit self-control is an emotion. Anger is a feeling that we choose to engage with righteously or negatively. Any primary emotion can be broken down into smaller emotions like love could be split into affection and longing. But those two are just feelings. The feelings we use to evaluate a person and decide whether we are going to choose to love them or not. You can fall into passion, but love is a decided thing like ALL emotions.

Take your feelings, apply your belief to them with your mind, and pow they’ll blossom into feelings that have a control of you. Feelings almost change with the weather. They’re all over the place. If we choose to base our lives on those, we’re going to be a confused mass of walking trigger warnings. Which explains what happens out there in the world. The fact is that we were never meant to have negative feelings coming at us. There was nothing negative in creation before we chose to rebel. We were meant to process POSITIVE feelings and match them to the Fruit of the Spirit we were going to choose to engage and emote. Once we fell, negativity entered through sin. And the devil has worked overtime to get us to accept they are normal, in some cases helpful, and nothing to seek to change or fix. In addition, he has worked to get us to aggrandise feelings and demote emotions so that whether we are choosing positivity or negativity, we’re doing it backwards. One of his favourite tricks. There is real power in emoting. Divine power, if you do it right.

Ruach HaKodesh has the Fruit. We have the mental and emotional faculties to equip and use them. Often we look at these verses and find ourselves wondering HOW. How do you do it? There isn’t a fruit basket in the sky, is there? Do we just walk around with big smiles chanting, ‘Boy am I joyful today!’? No amount of chanting is going to work. There isn’t a mantra. There isn’t a formula. There isn’t some magical doodad that’s going to hook you up to the universe and have all your answers fall into your lap fully formed. There isn’t something that’s going to happen if you just work hard enough. Ruach HaKodesh isn’t the one who relates to us. Jesus is (Hebrews 4:15). Ruach HaKodesh responds to the WORD. The power of Elohim comes from the Father. Ruach HaKodesh IS that power flowing. The Word is the conduit He flows down. The Trinity is interconnected. They’re ONE.

There are people for whom this did NOT work. They tried the principles the Word taught, but it did NOT happen. It wasn’t because it had passed away – it was during the height of the Apostolic Age. It wasn’t because the Word didn’t work in and of itself, because the Word ALWAYS works on Adonai’s side of things (Isaiah 55:11). So what happened? Simple. They left something out. “For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith” (Hebrews 4:2). They did not hear it with their TRUST. If you’re not trusting Adonai, there’s nothing to believe. You can simply see how things are. But the Kingdom isn’t visible. It’s not something we reach out and touch. It’s something we trust Jesus about, believe in Him, and the Kingdom touches us.

You get the Word in you by reading it, listening to it, thinking about it, watching/reading/listening to anointed teaching about it, imagining it, declaring it, and singing it. You can choose to believe what the Word says when a feeling or a situation arises that seems to contradict it (sickness, depression, negativity, etc.). You can choose to believe the reality that Adonai says can be – and then listen to Him. It is all about obedience. Obedient in processing the Word consistently. Obedient in trusting Him. Obedient in listening. Obedient in believing. It’s how we access that fruit so we can engage it. It’s how we receive healing. You may FEEL sick, but you can choose to stand on the verses Adonai has given us explaining to us. You can choose to believe with all your heart. It takes trust to make Him happy (Hebrews 11:6). Every day is a new opportunity to trust. A new opportunity to believe. A new opportunity to put a smile on our Father’s face. Another way to be like Jesus.

That choice to believe is the switch. Apply your trust to your belief in the Word like you apply your fingers to a switch to get a light on. If you will mix the Word with your Trust, Ruach HaKodesh will respond. Yes, we make sure we’re applying the Word the way the Father meant it to be applied, but Ruach HaKodesh helps us with that. Jesus helps us with that. The Word doesn’t contradict itself. We’re never guided in a way that conflicts with scripture. We can believe and trust that. When we do, that is when the light turns on. That is when it all starts to shine. That’s when we start seeing results. Don’t get caught up in ‘it’s not here yet’. Like a package in the mail, it WILL be delivered. We have Ruach HaKodesh as our tracking number. It will physically arrive. Stand on that flick you did. Stand on the Word. And wait and see just how GOOD Adonai is.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 65:17-25

“For look, I am ready to create new heavens and a new earth! The former ones will not be remembered; no one will think about them anymore. But be happy and rejoice forevermore over what I am about to create! For look, I am ready to create Jerusalem to be a source of joy, and her people to be a source of happiness. Jerusalem will bring me joy, and my people will bring me happiness. The sound of weeping or cries of sorrow will never be heard in her again. Never again will one of her infants live just a few days or an old man die before his time. Indeed, no one will die before the age of one hundred; anyone who fails to reach the age of one hundred will be considered cursed. They will build houses and live in them; they will plant vineyards and eat their fruit. No longer will they build a house only to have another live in it, or plant a vineyard only to have another eat its fruit, for my people will live as long as trees, and my chosen ones will enjoy to the fullest what they have produced. They will not work in vain, or give birth to children that will experience disaster. For the Lord will bless their children and their descendants. Before they even call out, I will respond; while they are still speaking, I will hear. A wolf and a lamb will graze together; a lion, like an ox, will eat straw, and a snake’s food will be dirt. They will no longer injure or destroy on my entire royal mountain,” says the Lord.” Messiah would bring about a New Heaven and a New Earth. “But, according to his promise, we are waiting for new heavens and a new earth, in which righteousness truly resides” (2 Peter 3:13). “Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth, for the first heaven and earth had ceased to exist, and the sea existed no more” (Revelation 21:1). Jesus made promises. His disciples confirmed them. Jesus cannot lie (Titus 1:2). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b