FEAR is such a powerful tool of the enemy as he has designed its CONTAINERS to eventually self-destruct.
FEAR is nothing more than a divided mind – a mind of chaos filled with habitual unrest and complex divisions.
FEAR (torturous complexities of the mind) really has to do with punishment.
“There is no fear in love. On the contrary, love that has achieved its goal gets rid of fear, because fear has to do with punishment; the person who keeps fearing has not been brought to maturity in regard to love.” ~ 1 John 4:18
Teach me your way, O Lord, that I may walk in your truth; unite my heart to fear Your Name. ~ Psalm 86:11
On the other hand, a growing LOVE and REVERENTIAL FEAR OF ADONAI is the only annihilator of the worldly fears in our lives…the fears that accompany our SIN choices.
I have heard it said that ‘Fear paralyzes. LOVE mobilizes!‘
A true love relationship is the tenderest of all things, isn’t it? Even the strongest of love relationships, however, can suffer when one takes for granted the LOVE of the other.
Do you suppose that might be the problem in our waning LOVE relationship with our Father? Don’t we often take for granted HIS FAITHFUL LOVE for and to us as we lazily shrink back into our apathetic tendencies?
Isn’t that also the problem in all our LOVE RELATIONSHIPS (husbands, children, friends, family members and those in the household of faith)?
Seems overwhelming to correct, doesn’t it?
What would happen if we started on the BIGGEST relationship first?
Let’s begin there. Today. Tomorrow.
Do you suppose there might be a RADICAL change in our hearts towards this Lover of our Souls? Towards others, perhaps?
Our mind is the GATEWAY to our emotions. What we THINK ON eventually shows up in our FEELINGS…which eventually shows up in our ACTIONS.
When we feed our minds with God’s Word through reading, contemplating and memorizing, He begins to bring forth a harvest of maturity and stability to our emotions that if left to themselves, are the basis for our decisions toward sinful behaviors.
We CRAVE what we snack on – whether Kingdom or worldly.
May we choose our snacks well.
But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death. ~ James 1:14,15
At certain times in our lives, our EMOTIONS may not FEEL His Presence, so our MINDS begin to THINK He’s not available…followed by the quick thought that IF HE’s NOT REALLY here with me…then this SIN will not hurt…’just this one time‘.
How foolish of us to believe the OLDEST TRICK (revealed) in The BOOK.
“So let there not be among you a man, woman, family or tribe whose heart turns away today from ADONAI our God to go and serve the gods of those nations. Let there not be among you a root bearing such bitter poison and wormwood. If there is such a person, when he hears the words of this curse, he will bless himself secretly, saying to himself, ‘I will be all right, even though I will stubbornly keep doing whatever I feel like doing; so that I, although “dry,” [sinful,] will be added to the “watered” [righteous].’
~ D’varim (WORDS!) 29:18-19
In all of our unsanctified emotion, our unrenewed minds begins to think – and therefore BELIEVE – that GOD’S ETERNAL LAW OF SOWING AND REAPING does not apply to us.
We forget that THIS UNIVERSAL LAW is inescapable to both Believer and Non-believer alike.
Our FAITH is nothing less than ACTIVELY TRUSTING. And ACTIVE TRUST begets good works (the sowing of Good Seed).
And if an ACTIVE TRUST (FAITH) begets good works, then ADONAI, INCREASE our GOOD WORKS! For James tells us that Faith without Works is DEAD.
Did you see that sin leads to death just as sure as FAITH without WORKS is DEAD as well? An impending death pursues both sin and a works-challenged faith!
Peter reminds the BELIEVER to DO SOMETHING:
God’s power has given us everything we need for life and godliness, through our knowing the One who called us to his own glory and goodness. By these he has given us valuable and superlatively great promises, so that through them you might come to share in God’s nature and escape the corruption which evil desires have brought into the world. For this very reason, try your hardest to furnish your faith with goodness, goodness with knowledge, knowledge with self-control, self-control with perseverance, perseverance with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. For if you have these qualities in abundance, they keep you from being barren and unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Yeshua the Messiah. Indeed, whoever lacks them is blind, so shortsighted that he forgets that his past sins have been washed away.
~ 2 Peter 1:3-9
Each day, as we FURNISH OUR FAITH WITH 7 THINGS, we circumvent the blinding worldliness that causes us to ultimately forget that we have been cleansed from our past sins.
Believers, if we do not intentionally FURNISH OUR FAITH, we cannot
‘escape the corruption which evil desires have brought into the world.’
(2 Peter 1:4)
We don’t need a daily dose of God’s Word simply because it’s the RIGHT THING any honorable person with their legalistic check-lists ought to do. We need God’s Word because it is within us to commit horrible atrocities and hurt those we love most (apart from the tender Mercies, Grace and gentle Guidance of His Presence).
‘Prone to wander, LORD I feel it…prone to leave the God I love…here’s my heart, LORD, take and seal it…seal it for Thy courts above.’
Those who apostatize are familiar with this winding, lonely, fruitless and wholly obscure road. They, too, latched onto an unsanctified emotion that they rode to the outer depths of great darkness.
‘Forget His Mitzvot (commands). Who cares!’ is the state of their poor, sad minds because their love has grown so utterly cold. They never even mourned the death of their First Love.
Furnishing their Faith was not their forte.
The Spirit expressly states that in the acharit-hayamim some people will apostatize from the faith by paying attention to deceiving spirits and things taught by demons. Such teachings come from the hypocrisy of liars whose own consciences have been burned, as if with a red-hot branding iron. ~ 1 Timothy 4:1-2
APOSTATES are very much in touch with their feelings. That is, after the world’s HOT branding iron has seared their consciences!
You see, that’s the dangerous and SIMPLE TRUTH of a BELIEVER living in this WORLD (olam hazeh) WITHOUT THE DAILY COMMUNION OF GOD AND HIS WORD!
Our actions are either feeding our FAITH or feeding our FEAR. The surest way to kill something is to stop feeding it.
Faith is not a noun, as much as it is a verb. Under the reign of a New Kingdom comes a new set of instructions for our active living. If we do not abide by His Kingdom Instruction which have been ordained to BRING LIFE TO OUR FAITH, then our faith dies…it’s simple.
If you are one of the ones who has made or is contemplating making a bad decision, it doesn’t mean you are a failure. It doesn’t mean you are a BAD PERSON.
It means you took a wrong turn. Just turn back. That is what REPENT means, after all.
Our everyday actions decide what lives and what dies.
I have a choice. So do you. May we both choose equally well this day.
Feelings Aside, I, Truth, Honor!
February 2, 2009 @ 8:30 pm
Girlfriend….there are few places I go and read and then RE~READ, but here not only do I re~read…I print them out….
Wow…what a fabulously revealing posting Carmen….wow…I’m going to re~read to the THIRD power tonight when I do my devotional time…it’s just THAT good….
Thank you for always, always bringing to the table such wisdom and words worth diving into!!
love ya!
lori
February 3, 2009 @ 3:24 pm
our everyday actions… yup, you summed it up so well there!
February 4, 2009 @ 5:41 pm
Wow, this was incredible Carmen. a keeper for sure.
Thanks so much, I could use this and will continue to need this as a reminder.
Blessings♥