Fear No Fear

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

“For God who said, “Light will shine out of darkness,” is the one who has shined in our hearts for the enlightenment of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Christ.“

2 Corinthians 4:6

Even though we only use about a tenth of it, our brains are really cool things. They weigh only three pounds but they interpret our senses, initiate body movement, and moderate our behaviour. They are made up of nerve cells in interconnected patterns that run everything. They’re connected to about forty THOUSAND sensory neurites in our hearts that regulate memory transfer. You can manipulate your BRAIN (through therapy, sensory input, and learning), but we cannot consciously manipulate our HEART. However, if we experience things frequently enough or with intensity, they will be stored in our hearts – and then come up in the daily transfer of memory from our hearts to our minds (which is why we need consistent therapy or we cannot seem to rid ourselves of things in our past). It takes something GREATER than our BRAINS to change what is in our HEARTS. It takes PATIENT and CONSISTENT sowing of PARTICULAR content for us to change what is growing in our HEARTS. Our brains are phenomenal organs capable of incredible things. But our brains run on the fuel brought up from our hearts, which are the real seat of our consciousness. What we are in our hearts, we are in every other way. Our hearts are our foundation.

Adonai designed us this way. He seems to have done it for at least this reason: it is the heart that He inhabits (John 14:23; 1 Corinthians 3:16; Revelation 3:20; Ephesians 3:17). The heart is the soil of who we are. What we put inside our hearts is what we see in all the other areas of our consciousness. “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these defile the person” (Matthew 15:18). It is the classic line garbage in, garbage out. “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” (Luke 6:45). Learning is not a bad thing. It is important because it helps us to categorize and test all the things that come upon us (1 Thessalonians 5:21). But our ‘learning’ is not what matters. It is what is in our HEARTS that matters. It is our hearts that need to shine with the enlightenment of the knowledge of Adonai, not our brains.

The brain, however, controls what comes into us. Our brains determine what we look at. What we listen to. What we watch. What we read. Who we hear. The messages that come at us are filtered by our brains. Our MINDS are the battlefield (2 Corinthians 10:4). One of the main reasons that our brains are the battlefield is because the devil has only words as his weapons. He has no power. He can’t MAKE you do anything. He can’t FORCE you to do anything. If you don’t give him permission, he can’t affect you. He can throw things at you. He can convince you to accept things. He can get you to believe a lie. THAT is his strength. Lies. They get into our hearts and pollute everything there. That is the real fight. To keep the flow into our hearts from Adonai. This is why we have been given such a great comfort and ally as Ruach HaKodesh.

The reality is that with Ruach HaKodesh within us, there is NO EXCUSE for anything negative to exist in us because we are FULL of Him. We don’t like opening doors, though. We don’t like cleaning windows. We prefer to compartmentalize things. Sometimes we’re not even doing it on purpose. Sometimes we’re not aware we accepted a lie. We’re not aware of a door blocking the way. We think that Adonai does what He wants and we don’t always know what that might be. Yet the truth spelled out in the Word says differently. Unless we see the truth in the Word, unless we are willing to see what it says without bias, we won’t ever realize there is a door there we need to open. A lie we need to kill with the Light of the Love of Jesus. If we don’t see the dirt, we might assume the window is a mirror. We need to truly SEE the truth if we want to get it into every part of us. The answer to everything is to get more of the light of the love of Jesus onto it (Ephesians 3:14-19).

Ruach HaKodesh has been established in our hearts (2 Corinthians 1:21-22). He is a LIGHTHOUSE that ALWAYS shines. That light goes around and around. And around and around some more. Always shining. Always projecting the love that Jesus has for us. It is up to us to pay attention to it. We can ignore it. We can keep the doors closed. We can keep the windows dirty. We’re allowed to. But nothing good comes of that. It is NOT comfortable, but we need to pay attention. To focus on Ruach HaKodesh. To get into the Word. To align ourselves with Jesus. To submit to the Father. To watch where the light shines and what it reveals. To take the opportunities He gives us to recognize the doors and the windows. To follow His leading and open the doors. Clean the windows. One by one as He leads us. To never stop until He has finished the work He began in us. To submit to the light, the truth, our Saviour Jesus.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: 2 Corinthians 13:13 (LEB, 13:14 in other translations)

“The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ and the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit be with all of you.” Our hearts were NOT the best real estate when Adonai first encountered us. They were barely livable, only acceptable to squatters who had no other choice. But Adonai saw our potential. He saw what we could truly be. So the Son, the Father, and the Ruach came together in perfect agreement and created a Way for us to be renovated. To be restored. To be turned from trash to triumph. The Three who are One did not care what anyone else said. They allowed us to choose. The squatters were kicked out. The structure taken down to the studs and then rebuilt with the best materials available. Now we are HOT PROPERTY. Worth MILLIONS and sought after by EVERYONE. Because of His GRACE and MERCY. Because of His LOVE. And WE can give it all back to Him, inviting Him to live in the place He made to be His dream home. Us. Beloved children. Obedient children. Loving children. Because of His love. Because of His mercy. Because of His unending faithfulness. 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