Fear No Fear

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

For all the fullness was pleased to dwell in him, and through him to reconcile all things to himself by him, whether things on the earth or things in the heavens, having made peace through the blood of his cross. You, being in past times alienated and enemies in your mind in your evil deeds, yet now he has reconciled in the body of his flesh through death, to present you holy and without defect and blameless before him
Colossians 1:19–22 (emphasis added)

Enemies in our minds. This doesn’t mean we were enemies only in our minds while the reality was something else. It means that in our minds was where we were enemies of the Lord God Almighty. This is an extension of what Jesus taught about keeping our focus on the Lord (Matthew 22:37). Jesus wasn’t about throwing the Law out the window, it was about getting our hearts in line with the principles of the Lord. Jesus fulfilled all the sacrifices. So we don’t have to give them. We DO have to have the right repentant attitude. We go before the Lord to repent, be corrected, and turn back to His ways. Jesus fulfils the sacrificial part. Instead of physical sacrifice, we accept a spiritual one — but only when our hearts are in the right place. This is the Grace and Favour of the cross. This is also one of the reasons that makes the mind so important.

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall not commit adultery;’ but I tell you that everyone who gazes at a woman to lust after her has committed adultery with her already in his heart” (Matthew 5:27–28). Adultery is a physical thing. It is a physical act. But the attitude behind it is mental. It isn’t passion getting the best of us, it is a series of choices to do what we ought not. We commit adultery mentally before we do it physically. We don’t always follow through with our mental activities, fantasies, and desires, but one of the points that Jesus makes is that what happens on the mental plane is as serious as what happens in the physical.

It all comes down to how we are made and how God operates. We’re based on God. “God said, “Let’s make man in our image, after our likeness” (Genesis 1:26a). How did God operate? He THOUGHT, He SPOKE, it HAPPENED. That’s it. That’s the whole process. “God said, “Let there be light,” and there was light” (Genesis 1:3). “God said, “Let the waters under the sky be gathered together to one place, and let the dry land appear;” and it was so” (Genesis 1:9). It goes on and on. Now, God is the source of all power in creation — or outside of it. No one else has it. We can speak all we want and we will create nothing. But if we speak according to God’s Word, then God creates and moves and interacts with us because we are speaking what GOD wants to do. What does this have to do with our minds?

Our minds will create our reality by either being obedient to the Lord and enabling Him to move and shape our lives — we have free will that He does not violate, remember? (Galatians 5:13; John 7:17); or by being disobedient to the Lord and enabling the curse of this world to overtake us. God gives GOOD things. “My soul, you have said to Yahweh, “You are my Lord. Apart from you I have no good thing”” (Psalm 16:2). The curse is full of NOTHING good. “The thief only comes to steal, kill, and destroy” (John 10:10a). The curse (Deuteronomy 27:15–26) is the source of all the bad in our lives. It IS the thorns and briars and lies that pollute us. We can think of our minds as a computer. A machine. What we put in is what it will operate on.

“Don’t be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may prove what is the good, well-pleasing, and perfect will of God” (Romans 12:2). If we think on the things of the world, we will be conformed to the world. If we think on the things of the Lord, we will be in a position that the Lord can conform us to His ways. “In nothing be anxious, but in everything, by prayer and petition with thanksgiving, let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your thoughts in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 4:6–7). This becomes more than a suggestion or pointing out a principle. This is instruction. This is a command. “Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth” (Colossians 3:2). It all hinges on our relationship with Jesus.

“If then you were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated on the right hand of God. Set your mind on the things that are above, not on the things that are on the earth. For you died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God. When Christ, our life, is revealed, then you will also be revealed with him in glory” (Colossians 3:1–4). This isn’t out of the blue. This is what Jesus prayed over us. “Not for these only do I pray, but for those also who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be one in us; that the world may believe that you sent me. The glory which you have given me, I have given to them, that they may be one, even as we are one, I in them, and you in me, that they may be perfected into one, that the world may know that you sent me and loved them, even as you loved me” (John 17:20–23). Jesus has a very simple description of eternal life: “This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God, and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ” (John 17:3). For Jesus, it is all housed in the mind because the mind informs everything else. The mind is the machine that takes what our spirits know and brings it to the flesh. Or our mind will be what takes the flesh and tries to pollute our spirit — thank the Lord He sealed us upon salvation (Ephesians 1:13).

Our mind will take our body wherever it wants. What it WANTS will be what it feeds. What it looks at. What it thinks about. What it dwells on. What it says. What it does. It all starts with the mind. Our MIND is the battlefield for our bodies. Give the Lord your mind and you will never regret it. Fight the world and the devil on our mindscape by feeding it with the Word. “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world’s rulers of the darkness of this age, and against the spiritual forces of wickedness in the heavenly places” (Ephesians 6:11–12). These things aren’t going to show up in our living room. They’re going to change the narrative of our entertainment. They’re going to change the landscape of our schools. They’re going to influence our social circles. They are going to buffet you with ideas, images, sounds, words, and everything else our brains process. This is the mental battlefield.

Jesus spiritually died for us at the same time that He physically died for us. He redeemed us. When we accept Him, we join Him in His resurrection to life by the Father through the Holy Spirit. “For if we have become united with him in the likeness of his death, we will also be part of his resurrection; knowing this, that our old man was crucified with him, that the body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be in bondage to sin. For he who has died has been freed from sin. But if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him, knowing that Christ, being raised from the dead, dies no more. Death no longer has dominion over him! For the death that he died, he died to sin one time; but the life that he lives, he lives to God. Thus consider yourselves also to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:5–11). We have been redeemed AND renewed AND reconciled with and to God. That is the wonder of the Grace of salvation. We did nothing to deserve this. We don’t do anything to keep it. But He gives it to us anyway. He made it available to us and watches over it to make sure that it happens (Jeremiah 1:12).

He’s folded us into Himself like egg whites into a pie or cake. Our nature was left behind in the shell. WE are folded into, connected, and a part of Jesus. We have HIS nature. We can have HIS mind. ““For who has known the mind of the Lord that he should instruct him?” But we have Christ’s mind” (1 Corinthians 2:16). Christ’s mind was stayed on the Lord. It was focused on the Word. Jesus was fellowshipping with the Father ALL the time. Sometimes Jesus rested. Sometimes Jesus acted. Sometimes He spoke and sometimes He didn’t. Jesus was so focused on the Father He NEVER did ANYTHING or said ANYTHING that the Father didn’t lead Him to (John 5:19). We have the same possibility within us because we HAVE the mind of Christ. Not GOING TO HAVE, but HAVE. It is ours. We can choose to operate in it or we can choose not to. We can dandle fear before our eyes or we can watch the Word. It’s our CHOICE.

We were bathed in the blood of Jesus (Hebrews 9:22; 1 John 1:7). We have been anointed with FIRE (Acts 2:4) and WATER (Acts 2:38). We are empowered to operate in and with the mind of Christ. We are covenanted with God Almighty in our minds as well as in our hearts and spirits. This is the place where we stand against the devil (James 4:7). Keep fear far from you by rejecting it and all that it has birthed. Live for God, dwell in His peace, and refuse to pollute your eyes or ears with the things that are contrary to the Word of God. It seems on the outside that you’re missing out, but that’s the flesh talking. Once you are committed to the Lord, there will be nothing as free and freeing as walking in the Lord’s teaching. To be humble, submitted, and obedient to the Lord. Full of love. Full of peace. Perfecting our walk until we’re at the throne itself in all the glory of God (Philippians 1:9–11).

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Philippians 2:1–4

Any. It can be a lot. It can be middling. It can be teensy tiny teenie weenie. Any means ANYTHING at all from microscopic to universal. If there is ANYTHING of Jesus in us, we can have the SAME SPIRIT of love toward those we come across. It is a gift. A tremendous gift. The ability to see the world, process the world, and interact with the world through the mind of Jesus and not our own. Talk about GRACE! We don’t need to dislike that person because they’re __. We can look at them like Jesus. We can talk to them like Jesus. We can treat them like Jesus would. Bye-bye prejudice. Bye-bye rudeness. Bye-bye disgust. Bye-bye superior attitudes. We can start introducing Jesus to them by being the first sign of Jesus they see. We can be that light. We can be that love. Not on our own, but by the guidance of the Holy Spirit. Not by our skills or learning, but by utilising the mind of Christ. Not us, HIM. By Jesus, through Jesus, in Jesus, and for Jesus we can BE Jesus to them. Showing the love we were shown. Being the love He wants to be at that moment to that person. By Grace, through faith, in love.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.