Fear No Fear

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

Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.
Romans 15:13 (emphasis added)

I hear in some circles that the days of the power of the Holy Spirit are over. The logic is two-fold. First, they may say that the days ended when the Apostles passed away. Second, they may say that the days ended once the cannon of the New Testament (that is the specific books chosen) was sealed. I can understand what they are saying, but I highly disagree. My two reasons are simple. First, there was no end to Apostles, only to the Twelve (of which Paul — who wrote two-thirds of the New Testament — was not a member). Second, where in the Word does it SAY that it ends once the literature that explains how to access, wield, and walk in the power of the Holy Spirit is sealed?

Apostle is a term meaning ‘sent out’ or ‘sent forth’. It was an office of emissary. It was chosen by a church or body of believers who sent out missionaries to the rest of the region, country, or world. There were over thirty apostles in the New Testament. They were chosen to proselytise the world and spread the Good News. That kind of thing doesn’t end. We’re still sending out missionaries today. They are apostles. The office that was UNIQUE was the Twelve. The Twelve Disciples who became the Twelve Apostles. They were men who had been with Jesus’ ministry from the beginning and were witnesses of His resurrection. Peter put it this way: “Of the men therefore who have accompanied us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in and out among us, beginning from the baptism of John to the day that he was received up from us, of these one must become a witness with us of his resurrection” (Acts 1:21–22). Paul — later an apostle — didn’t qualify. He never attained to the Twelve. He was a great witness and a brilliant writer, listening keenly to the Holy Spirit when putting words to parchment, but He was not a witness of the ministry of Jesus.

When the Twelve died, the Holy Spirit didn’t stop manifesting. When the MANY other apostles died, more were chosen. The ministry of the Holy Spirit didn’t end. The Holy Spirit moves in a LARGE arena. In the Body of Christ we need people going out to spread the message. We need to teach those in the body who answer that call. We need to teach those who are deepening their relationship with the Lord. We need to prophesy both to the Body and to the world. To encourage and to warn. To affirm that God knows what is coming and takes care of His own. We need to serve the community. Taking care of widows and orphans. Helping each other. We need those who will spread the message locally and internationally. Moving with words as well as with signs and wonders. “He gave some to be apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, shepherds and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, to the work of serving, to the building up of the body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a full grown man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ, that we may no longer be children, tossed back and forth and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in craftiness, after the wiles of error; but speaking truth in love, we may grow up in all things into him who is the head, Christ, from whom all the body, being fitted and knit together through that which every joint supplies, according to the working in measure of each individual part, makes the body increase to the building up of itself in love” (Ephesians 4:11–16).

Jesus told us to go into all the world and spread the message of the Good News that God had provided reconciliation to humanity (Mark 16:15, Acts 5:20). Paul re-iterates this message in 2 Timothy 4:1–2 “I command you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom: preach the word; be urgent in season and out of season; reprove, rebuke, and exhort with all patience and teaching.” Nowhere in the Word — not in the New Testament and not even in Revelation — does it say that we should stop going. The command stands. If we are still sent out, then there will still be sent out ones or apostles. Though I will say that it isn’t a frivolous title. There are conditions and you have to be obedient. If you are willing to live like they did, submit like they did, God may send you. But if that isn’t your calling, it isn’t your calling.

Much like prophecy. There are still prophets because there is still a future. God uses His prophets to speak of the coming future. As long as time exists, prophecy exists. But don’t look for NEW revelation. There ARE no new revelations. What there is is teaching about the Word that we may have missed. Or deeper teaching building on what we were told previously. The Word is the ENTIRE revelation of the Lord, but it is many-layered. In truth, I think we will spend eternity learning new things about what has already been given to us. A prophet is there to encourage the church, warn the church of coming things, announce moves of the Lord, and to speak to our hearts. But they don’t judge like in the Old Testament, nor are they our channel to the Lord — that is what the Holy Spirit is for and He dwells inside us.

There is nothing that Jesus did that is done. Jesus said so. “Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father” (John 14:12). This is a promise. It hasn’t been revoked. If we operate like Jesus did, all things that He did are possible for us. Jesus did ONLY what the Father showed Him to do and spoke ONLY the words the Father gave Him to say. Are you living like that? If you do, you can do anything He did because you will do whatever the Father asks you to, the way the Father shows you to, saying only what the Father says for you to do. You won’t be promoting yourself. You won’t be doing it for show or for glory. You’ll simply do what He says, when He says it. From healing blindness to walking on water to multiplying food to raising the dead. It is all possible WITH GOD. Under the Father’s leading. ONLY under the Father’s leading. Remember, Jesus went to the Pool of Bethsaida (John 5:1–15). There were a LOT of sick people. Jesus healed ONE. That was the only thing the Father had for Him to do that day. Peter and John healed a crippled beggar at the temple (Acts 3:6–8) who had been there at the temple for a LONG time. It is obvious that Jesus would have passed him by because Jesus often went to the temple. Jesus never healed him. It wasn’t what the Father directed. Don’t limit God and the impossible is possible at ALL TIMES — but you’ll only do what the Father has for you to do. Without complaining, because we are to be humbly submitted for HIS glory (Ephesians 3:20–21).

This is all language and common sense. I can weave a web of human reasoning to convince you of my view. Someone who believes the office of the apostle is passed can do the same. Neither view is worth a lot. One is open to the moves of the Lord whatever they are, the other is restricted to what they believe the moves of the Lord are. But both are human understanding. It’s good quality dirt, but it’s still dirt (Psalm 103:14). That is the wonder and the beauty of today’s verse. “may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing.” Let us all pray that we will humbly submit to Yahweh God. HE can do all things (Job 42:2), is above all things (John 3:31), and He inhabits the praises of His people (Psalm 22:3). WITH GOD we can do all things that can be done here on earth (Philippians 4:13; Matthew 19:26). But with God means we go hand in hand WITH HIM. We aren’t leading the charge. We’re yoked to Jesus and the Father is driving the plough (Matthew 11:28–30).

Whether we are dealing with a task to be done, a Word to be given, a miracle to be performed, a blessing in your life, or a level of living/working; it is NOT OUR desires. It is ALWAYS His. You like the message of prosperity? Good. So does God. Any prosperity preacher worth their salt will say again and again that it relies on three things: the will of the Lord, the Word, and faith. It never starts with what WE want. It starts seeking the Lord. I know that there are people who really dislike the big names of the prosperity message, but I have never known Kenneth Copeland, Jesse Duplantis, Bill Winston, Andrew Wommack, or Leroy Thompson base their message on anything but the Word, the will of the Lord, and your faith in those two things. All of them embody John’s cry to the church: “Beloved, I pray that you may prosper in all things and be healthy, even as your soul prospers” (3 John 1:2). Jesus had the same message: “But seek first God’s Kingdom and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well” (Matthew 6:33). If you seek the Lord God first and foremost, submitting yourself to His will, you can have anything you ask in accordance to His will because it will NOT take you away from Him, you won’t hoard it, you will bless those around you with generosity, and everything you have will be available for use for the Kingdom as the Lord wills. THAT is prosperity. God number one, everything else number two and at the total disposal of the Lord in any way, shape, or form.

How do we get to that point? With the Spirit filling us with all joy and peace in our believing. When our faith becomes so strong from hearing the Word of the Lord that we do not contemplate ‘reality’ or ‘facts’ or anything we see. We simply believe the Word of the Lord without denying what we see or feel. We simply believe the Word of the Lord without neglecting common sense or wisdom in our good stewardship of what the Lord has given us. It means we don’t avoid the doctor when we need a doctor, but the doctor isn’t our first stop. The WORD is our first stop. The LORD is our first stop. We look to what HE says, not what the world says. We look at the unseen and submit to the truth that it is more real than the seen (Hebrews 11:3). Which gives God the final say in ALL THINGS (Proverbs 16:1–9).

When we let the Lord have the last say, we are affirming our TRUST in the Lord. Everything we do is about trust. Do we trust the Lord? Do we trust that He knows what He’s doing? Do we trust that He can make all things work for ALL His children? Do we trust that He can see things that we cannot? Do we trust what He says? It is our belief that gives power to our trust. Trust without belief to back it up is nothing. Belief without trust in whom and what we believe is nothing. They are two sides to the same coin with the Holy Spirit running around the rim. Trust and belief are what let us hope. Hope for the believer is eager expectation. We are not wishing for something, we are expecting the things that the Lord says are possible. We are expecting what the Lord has prophesied. We are eager in our hope. We are not saying ‘I hope the Lord does something’. We are saying ‘any day now the Lord WILL’. Whether it happens now this minute or a day from now or a week from now makes NO DIFFERENCE. We KNOW it is happening. We KNOW it was established before the foundation of creation because God knows the beginning from the ending (Isaiah 46:9–10). When we are abounding in hope, we ALSO know the ending because God revealed it in His Word.

A believer who is reading the Word with intent, abiding in Jesus, staying humble and submitted to what the Lord says, and is eagerly expecting everything that the Lord says will be living an abundant life. Abounding in hope, abounding in the Fruit of the Spirit as we let the Spirit guide everything we do, say, and think. Abounding in the work of the Lord because we are letting the Lord do the Work, the Lord choose the Work, the Lord empower the Work, and the Lord accomplish the Work. “In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation — in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory” (Ephesians 1:11). We’re sealed as the pledge of our inheritance in Heaven. Until then, we abound in the eager expectation of the power of the Holy Spirit actively working in our lives and the lives of those around us so that we shine with the strength of His glory as He lights up the world through Jesus who is in us. May it be a witness to the world and like moths drawn to the flame, the instrument by which they come to the Kingdom that they see actively at work in our lives. Amen.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Philippians 4:12

Greed is a terrible thing. It is an addiction. It is gluttony. It is of the curse and it is NOT something a believer should covenant with. Yet we do. Every day. We want what we don’t have. We want better than what we have. We’re not CONTENT. Yet, when we do, we unlock a MAJOR advantage over the world around us. When we are CONTENT, it means that we are not willing to step out for those things we don’t have. It means we’re free to be responsible. We’re free to want things without the pull to MUST HAVE. It means that we are willing to let the Lord go at His own pace. To give us what we can handle when we can handle it. To help us get deeper into our faith, until are are renewed enough to understand what it is that He really has for us. What is possible when He moves in our lives. And to remain humble because we acknowledge who He is and who WE are IN HIM. That because we are saved, renewed, redeemed, restored, and abiding in Jesus we can do ALL THINGS we are called to, endure ALL THINGS that come our way, and overcome ALL THINGS because of who and what is in and on us (Philippians 4:13). When we put our hand in the hand of the Lord God Almighty, there is NOTHING that cannot be done, NOTHING that cannot be manifested by the Lord in our lives, and NOTHING that is beyond our reach — because Jesus’ reach IS our reach. In HIM we have everything that we need (Philippians 4:19). And we always will!

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.