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,“

Galatians 5:22

When you go to an orchard, you’re surrounded by fruit. You are not surrounded by feelings. But when you eat the fruit, when you consume it and experience it, then you get a LOT of things. You get a feeling of happiness. You get a feeling of satisfaction. You get a feeling of fullness. You gain energy. You gain nourishment. The fruit is a medium by which you get many things. It’s a varied experience. The Fruit of Ruach is also a varied experience. We get a LOT from them. Even more when we grow them in our own spirits. But they are NOT emotions. Joy isn’t an emotion. It’s our right. Just like love, which is our right to choose (Colossians 3:14). Or peace, which is our right to experience by getting close to Adonai (John 14:27; Philippians 4:6-7). Joy is a certainty that someone is in charge: Adonai. We can choose to engage it or choose to refuse it. It is Fruit, not a feeling.

What does that mean? It could mean a lot of different things, but to me the big difference is that feelings change according to our circumstances and Fruit does not. Take joy. Jesus had JOY going through the crucifixion. But it definitely wasn’t a feeling. His FEELINGS were not positive. He suffered GREATLY leading up to it, throughout it, and was anything but joyful in FEELING. But He had joy nonetheless. “fixing our eyes on Jesus, the originator and perfecter of faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding the shame, and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus had a spiritual certainty that He was aimed at and so He could have joy in His spirit, a certainty that led Him through His circumstances, a way to overcome His feelings. It was what let Him quote Psalm 22 on the cross. Horrible feeling, divine mission, terrible torment, ultimate victory. That is the message of the Psalm and that is exactly what He went through. The Fruit enabled Him to break through to victory in spite of His feelings.

Feelings are great markers for what we are experiencing. They are sensations. They are changing constantly. We can have MANY feelings on a journey and we adapt as we go along to ensure that we finish the journey. But the feelings don’t take us to or through the journey. We don’t base our journey on the feelings. We might walk twelve kilometers to work and along the way feel cheerful, cold, hot, dry, tired, bored, and wet. We don’t change everything we are about during the walk. But we might take a break, open an umbrella, put on or take off a coat, turn on or turn off some music, or even chat to a person we meet. The feelings are useful micropoints to ignore or make changes (depending on the situation, the feelings, and the strength of the feelings). But they don’t guide us or provide the reasons for what we do. For example, I can feel anxiety come upon me and choose to reject it because I am going to instead focus on the security I have that Adonai is in charge. I can rely on Adonai for my EMOTION, instead of picking up a FEELING – but I didn’t ignore the feeling, merely placed it aside in favour of a better base for my emotion.

At no point does Jesus ever promise us happy joy-joy feelings. Quite the opposite. He warns us that people will fight against us simply because we are following Jesus. People will oppose us because we are promoting Jesus. World systems will try to shut us down because they were founded by people who wanted to build something that stood against Jesus. Sadly, when we preach and teach what the Word preaches and teaches even other believers will sometimes stand against us. There is a LOT of turmoil and persecutions that come against a believer in Jesus – sometimes deadly persecution. How do we manage it? How do we walk through it? How do we end up un-crushed and demoralized by it all? By choosing FRUIT not FEELINGS. By being PROSPEROUS in spirit regardless of what we are facing, standing in, or living through (3 John 2).

The easiest way to engage the Fruit of Ruach is to find it in the Word. Take ANY Fruit and look up that word in a concordance. Start reading the scriptures that contain that word. Read the four Gospels and the book of Acts. Look for instances when people USED that Fruit. Study the parables that touch on that Fruit. Get all of this inside you and meditate on that Fruit. Ask Ruach HaKodesh about it. Pray about it. LISTEN about it. This isn’t a quick-fix fast food meal here. This is a harvest. This is crop gathering. This takes time. This must be done with care. It does not happen overnight. But when we do this, when we learn about it, then we can apply it. And by applying it through the Word, we plant seeds of it in our own spirits. Which enables us to grow it in our own spirits. We don’t need to have opportunities to show patience in order to grow patience. That’s backwards. We grow patience and then we are able to show patience in situations that require it. You can’t eat a meal and then prepare it. We have to prepare the meal first. And it isn’t something Adonai hands you ready-made. He has given us the components and Ruach HaKodesh to help us to study them, learn all about them, and apply them. He’s given us the recipe AND the ingredients AND a personal chef to cook them WITH us.

We need to learn the lesson to NOT rely on feelings. It’s a trap that leads us into depending on experiences. Experiences are great, but they don’t keep us fed. It’s like having whipped cream in a cup. Nice treat, but it isn’t real food. We aren’t going to learn patience by going from situation to situation where we have to grow patience. We get patience from the garden of Ruach HaKodesh and learn from the Word how to grow it in our own. Much the same way we have been given the ability to trust in Jesus (Mark 11:22), but we both deepen and strengthen that trust through the Word (Romans 10:17). We need to learn to work WITH Ruach HaKodesh to grow this fruit in ourselves. It’s great to reach out and use His fruit. It really is. But if we don’t take lessons from the Master Gardener to grow our own fruit, we’re never going to truly develop as believers.

Peter started being totally DEPENDENT on Jesus for everything, but developed into a man who RELIED on Jesus for everything. To be dependent on someone or something means we have no choices. We HAVE to take from them or what they have because we’re incapable of doing anything else. But to RELY on someone or something is to choose to use what they offer. You have participation in it. Babies are dependent on their parents. Adults and teenagers rely on their parents. If we go it alone, we fail. We depend on Jesus as we grow and learn. But in the end, if successful, we can be participants operating connected to Him as our source of all things (John 15:5). Ruach HaKodesh is who we rely on to move from dependence to reliance, from Fruit eaters to Fruit growers. Freeing us from our feelings and determining our emotions from the Word.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: 2 Corinthians 9:8

“And God is able to cause all grace to abound to you, so that in everything at all times, because you have enough of everything, you may overflow in every good work” When we need something and we are seeking Adonai’s face, He gives it to us. Our needs are provided by our Good Father. This has always been the case with Adonai. When the Earth needed light, but had no light source, He BECAME our light. He proved it was possible again in Egypt when He took the light from the Egyptians and gave it to the Israelites. He could do it again today. The houses of believers being lit up and fully supplied with electricity that is NOT coming from a power plant. In our normal day to day, it is HIGHLY unlikely because where would the glory to Adonai be? But in a disaster? In a cataclysm? What a glory-filled witness of Adonai’s power that could be! Will it happen? I don’t know, but why not? Why not rely on Him and go where He leads and do what He asks? Why not let Him choose where and when He is going to be more than enough in an impossible way? He ALWAYS provides our needs for what He calls us to be, the witness He wants! Be open to the impossible being possible from Him! He loves us all too much not to show His glory and give a witness to His power and majesty! Let Him use us. Let Him show what it means to serve such 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