Fear No Fear

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

“Yahweh spoke to Moses in the plains of Moab by the Jordan at Jericho, saying, Speak to the children of Israel, and tell them, “When you pass over the Jordan into the land of Canaan, then you shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from before you, destroy all their stone idols, destroy all their molten images, and demolish all their high places. You shall take possession of the land, and dwell therein; for I have given the land to you to possess it. You shall inherit the land by lot according to your families; to the larger groups you shall give a larger inheritance, and to the smaller you shall give a smaller inheritance. Wherever the lot falls to any man, that shall be his. You shall inherit according to the tribes of your fathers. “But if you do not drive out the inhabitants of the land from before you, then those you let remain of them will be like pricks in your eyes and thorns in your sides. They will harass you in the land in which you dwell. It shall happen that as I thought to do to them, so I will do to you.””
(Numbers 33:50-56)

““I am the true vine, and my Father is the farmer. Every branch in me that doesn’t bear fruit, he takes away. Every branch that bears fruit, he prunes, that it may bear more fruit. You are already pruned clean because of the word which I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I in you. As the branch can’t bear fruit by itself unless it remains in the vine, so neither can you, unless you remain in me. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing. If a man doesn’t remain in me, he is thrown out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them, throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you remain in me, and my words remain in you, you will ask whatever you desire, and it will be done for you. “In this my Father is glorified, that you bear much fruit; and so you will be my disciples. Even as the Father has loved me, I also have loved you. Remain in my love. If you keep my commandments, you will remain in my love, even as I have kept my Father’s commandments and remain in his love. I have spoken these things to you, that my joy may remain in you, and that your joy may be made full.“
(John 15:1-11)

God was not leading them willy-nilly through the wilderness. God had specific spots picked out for them. Good spots and spots where He could show them His Glory. Show them that HE was their source AND their shield – not just their deliverer. They had forty years to learn that He had them. He saw them. He knew where their every footfall went. He was showing them that they could rely on Him so that when they entered the Land, they would know that His every instruction or command was for their benefit and not in ANY way a negative.

Jesus points us to the Father as our Source. He walked it out before us. Every step. He gave up who He was in order to be who we are. So that He could model it for us. So that we would know that we can pick up HIS strength and in HIS Spirit, do it the same way. In HIM we succeed. In HIM we do the impossible. In HIM the Father works through us with signs, wonders, and miracles just as He always has done. If we rest in Jesus, there is NOTHING we won’t be able to accomplish because it will be the Father doing it through us EXACTLY like He did it through Jesus. He knows where we are. He knows where we are going. He knows what we need. And in HIM all things are given even as all things are possible.

Summary

We need to cultivate our connection with Jesus. We need to make sure we are leaning into Him and both LISTENING and OBEYING what we hear. He is our example, but He is also our strength because He connects us to the Father and we can take JOY in that at ANY time. His JOY is OUR strength (Nehemiah 8:10). When we choose to rely on Jesus, we have all we need. When we choose not to, we’re stuck with whatever we can put out – which isn’t a whole lot when you think about it. He loved us so much, He made a Way for us to succeed: He finished it FOR us. If we rest in what He did, no matter WHERE we find ourselves, we will have all we need. In HIM we are everything He is (2 Corinthians 5:21).