Fear No Fear

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

a time to love, and a time to hate; a time for war, and a time for peace.
Ecclesiastes 3:8 (emphasis added)

The Lord understands time in a way we do not. He created time. He knows how it works. He understands how it feels to us. He is a God of motion, a God of advancement, and a God of timeless timefulness. From His spot in eternity, His time is always the right time. Jesus was like that. Jesus came to preach and declare the acceptable time of the Lord. It’s NOW. It was NOW then, two thousand plus years ago. It’s NOW now. And it is going to be NOW into the future.

“The book of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. He opened the book, and found the place where it was written, “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to heal the broken hearted, to proclaim release to the captives, recovering of sight to the blind, to deliver those who are crushed, and to proclaim the acceptable year of the Lord”” (Luke 4:17–19). Jesus was quoting Isaiah 61:1–2: “The Lord Yahweh’s Spirit is on me, because Yahweh has anointed me to preach good news to the humble. He has sent me to bind up the broken hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives and release to those who are bound, to proclaim the year of Yahweh’s favor and the day of vengeance of our God, to comfort all who mourn.”

God is a God of NOW. He tells us to focus on today and not tomorrow (Matthew 6:34). Not to be anxious about what you cannot control (Philippians 4:6). To trust that He is laying your paths in a faithful manner (Proverbs 3:5–6). To trust that when things are occurring you don’t like, that the Lord does have plans to bring everything to His victory (Jeremiah 29:11). That is the great thing about dealing with the Lord. Everything is NOW. Thing is, it is HIS now and not ours.
For example, Jesus was slain from the foundation of the world (Revelation 13:8). Throughout the Old Testament, the Lord was able to use His faith in that slaying (which was spiritual, not yet physical) in order to perform healings, save people from toil, redeem their honour (removing shame), and all the other things the passion of Jesus accomplished in it’s physical manifestation. God used faith to call what was not into something that was. Then Jesus came and Jesus was slaughtered as a spotless lamb for our sake. When that happened, the faith that God used was released for all of us as Jesus physically underwent what He has spiritually undergone before the foundation of the world.

It is one way in which Jesus as the slain lamb was able to be in heaven while Jesus as the physical man to be slain was operating on earth. Fully man, fully God, and in two places at the same time while fully in both: “No one has ascended into heaven but he who descended out of heaven, the Son of Man, who is in heaven” (John 3:13). Confusing and a mystery to us, but not to Yahweh God who is not trapped in our timeline. He is above time, above space, and above all else.

This should be excellent news for us. Because when we are called to the Lord, we can respond ‘now’ just when He wanted us to (Ephesians 1:4). He extended Grace to us and has enabled us to be able to access it through Jesus at any and all times. “Working together, we entreat also that you do not receive the grace of God in vain. For he says, “At an acceptable time I listened to you. In a day of salvation I helped you.” Behold, now is the acceptable time. Behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:1–2). This is why faith is so important. Faith is what accesses the spirit. Our brain is hardwired to our body. To our physical experience. That is why we need the Word to transform our minds to be able to accept the things of the Lord (Romans 12:2). It is more than reading the Word. It is being INTENTFUL about the Word and about seeking the Lord’s face. “Therefore I urge you, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies a living sacrifice, holy, acceptable to God, which is your spiritual service” (Romans 12:1). “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2). “As it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations.” This is in the presence of him whom he believed: God, who gives life to the dead, and calls the things that are not, as though they were” (Romans 4:17). We need to accept that our spirit is not connected to the same system as our mind is. We need our mind to conform to the Word—even as we need our lives (thoughts, emotions, words, and deeds) to conform to what we find in the Word. When we get in line with the Lord’s thinking using the Lord’s faith (Mark 11:22), we are able to do what He does IN JESUS.

We declare what He declares. We say what He tells us to say. We do what He shows us to do. We humble ourselves and submit to Him. When we submit, the doors to the Kingdom open to us in ways that they are unable when we are bucking at submission. Paul got told that face to face by Jesus. “When we had all fallen to the earth, I heard a voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? It is hard for you to kick against the goads’” (Acts 26:14). Nothing good happens when we kick against the goads. It is an exercise in vanity, futility and pointlessness. It is ruinous resistance. That is all that awaits us when we refuse to submit to the Lord’s righteousness. I mean, what do we THINK is going to happen? We’re bucking against our Creator, our Saviour, our Lord, our Father, and our God. How do we think it will turn out? We will do what the Lord says to gain all the benefits of His Blessing or we’ll be in disobedience and remove ourselves from qualifying for His Blessings. It isn’t our WORKS that make us qualify for Blessing. It’s our HUMBLE OBEDIENCE. Works are a PROOF of faith, not the BASIS of faith.

The fact is that only the Father knows what is when and when is here (Matthew 24:36, Mark 13:32). His instructions are never early. They’re never late. Never in a hurry. Always at the right time. He is patient. He sees our future right from before our beginning and He gives us the hope to faith for the future He has waiting for us. IF we are obedient we can participate in what He is GOING to do. He doesn’t need us: “I call a ravenous bird from the east, the man of my counsel from a far country. Yes, I have spoken. I will also bring it to pass. I have planned. I will also do it” (Isaiah 46:11). But we desperately need HIM: “Listen to me, you stubborn-hearted, who are far from righteousness! I bring my righteousness near. It is not far off, and my salvation will not wait. I will grant salvation to Zion, my glory to Israel” (Isaiah 46:12–13). The Lord WILL fulfil His purpose (Isaiah 49:10). He WANTS to fulfil OUR purpose alongside His (Psalm 138:8), but will you let Him? Will you be obedient? Will you humbly submit to Him? His yoke is light (Matthew 11:28–30), but it is HIS yoke, not ours.

Nowhere in scripture will you find an instruction to fear. You will NEVER be told to fear by the Lord. The Lord stands against fear. He gave us HIS Spirit. Not a spirit of fear. If you are feeling fear, you are NOT being visited by the Lord. The Lord is PEACE. The Lord gave us a spirit of power, love, and self-control (2 Timothy 1:7). There is a time for everything. The Lord God Almighty knows what they all are. Jesus came to tell us. The things of the Lord are NOW. Redemption? Now. Blessing? Now. Healing? Now. Salvation? Now. It is always NOW when we are IN JESUS. “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 Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News” (2 Timothy 1:8–10).

We are meant to embrace the Lord’s thinking, not keep relying on ours. We are meant to spread the news of God’s NOW everywhere we go. The Lord won’t keep His mind from us if He knows He can trust us. If we’ll be obedient and not go off half-cocked. Full of enthusiasm and no wisdom. That is why sometimes tests are allowed. He NEVER tempts us, but He tests us to prove that we are fit for what He has for us. He never tests us when He knows we will fail. He is not into disappointment. Not for us. Not for Him. Not for anyone. “Now the God of perseverance and of encouragement grant you to be of the same mind with one another according to Christ Jesus, that with one accord you may with one mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Romans 15:5–6).
Walk in faith. Reject fear. Be subject to the Lord in even the small things (Luke 16:10), and we prove that we can be trusted in big things. Remember, it is the Lord working in you, not you working an angle with God (Philippians 2:13). Rely on the Lord’s sense of timing. It’s perfect. If you rely on it, you will always walk in peace because you know HE has the situation and He has you too.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Jeremiah 4:22

I am so grateful the Lord knows I’m stupid. That I am but dirt. That I at times spectacularly miss it. That while I am reading the bible and trying hard to internalise the things of the Lord that I am coming across, I blow it and spew my temper all over the place. Or I do what I KNOW I shouldn’t do because I decide that I want the feeling of it more than the righteous avoidance. I’m grateful also that He has built into my new spirit (Hebrews 8:10) a love of His ways. That it is only a matter of a short time reading the Word with intent and seeking His face that I see more and more things as not worth doing, saying, or thinking. It’s so easy to fall into patterns of colloquialisms and not intentful speech. Saying thing like ‘That’s too hard for me’ or ‘I’ll have a hard time with that’ or ‘I always do that’ etc etc etc Calling the negative into our lives, like a moth attracted to a flame, instead of attracting our lives to the Word and His ways like we should. I’ll grant you it’s easier to do things the way the world does. It’s a comforting habit. But it’s stupid. When we have the living, life-transforming, joy-inducing Word to guide us, it is plain ‘ol stupid to do any of the things we used to. Better to change our thinking to what He says than to try gymnastics in a dark closet blindfolded. That’s one reason He gave us the Holy Spirit. So we can be corrected toward proper, intentful speech and godly actions. Then we will be wise because we will be keeping our faces toward His.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.