Good Morning Sisters and Brothers in Christ,
Every day we face news and decisions that can induce fear into us. As we’ve discussed in previous messages, there are two kinds of faith: the “fear” of satan’s system or the “faith” of God’s Kingdom. We can either have faith in satan’s fear or faith in God’s promises. We will exercise one, or both, of the kinds of faith every single day, every single moment of the day. We cannot escape it. Knowing we can’t escape making “faith” or “fear” filled decisions every day, why do we struggle to make “faith” filled decisions all the time? Simply put, we “feel” we can better control the physical than we can the Spiritual. This really is the crux of the decision making. We are more comfortable with emotional (taste, touch, see, hear, smell; the physical, tangible evidence) vice faith-made (the Hebrews 11:1 kind of faith) decisions. But we have to remember that when we take control, God steps back. We either turn it all over to God or nothing at all (remember Jesus’ discussion about being hot or cold and not lukewarm).
We have to ask ourselves a very pointed question. Does satan want to help you or kill you? Jesus makes satan’s intentions toward us very clear in John 10:10:
John 10:10
The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly.
The thief, satan, comes to steal, kill, and destroy us and everything associated with us. Jesus is come to help us lead a wonderful and good life, full of abundant living. Now, which do you choose? It’s a no brainer until we have to make a decision, or we receive news contrary to The Word of God. When pressure is on us, what do we do? Do we stand on God’s Truth, or do we fold in fear to what we feel we can physically and mentally control? Do we go by our past experiences, which may be contrary to God’s Word? Who works to convince us our past experiences and our ability to physically and mentally control something will yield better outcomes? Why, satan of course. He wants to steal The Word from us, kill the faith in us, and destroy us through the curse. So, what is the antidote?
Psalm 34:4
I sought The LORD, and He heard me, and delivered me from all my fears.
Psalm 34:4 is the antidote. What does it mean “to seek The Lord?” We seek The Lord through His Word. John 1:1 tells us “the Word is God.” Hebrews 11:6 tells us “God is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him.” This means you must diligently seek The Word. What did Jesus tell us diligently seeking The Word would lead to in our lives? He made it clear in John 8:31-32.
John 8:31-32
31 Then said Jesus to those Jews which believed on Him, If ye continue in My Word, then are ye My disciples indeed;
32 And ye shall know The Truth, and The Truth shall make you free.
Notice what Jesus said, “if ye continue in My Word.” Jesus is simply telling us exactly what The Holy Spirit had Paul tell us in II Timothy 2:15. “Study The Word of God so we will rightly divide it and be approved by God.” If we do this, “we shall know The Truth and the Truth shall make us free.” Free from what? From satan’s bondage, his lies, his fear, the curse. Remember we learned “The Truth” is The Word revealed to our hearts. Anyone can have The Word, but only when The Word is revealed to us in our hearts does it become “The Truth.” The Greek word used for “know” in John 8:32 means “intimacy” like a husband and wife have because they intimately and physically know each other. This is the same relationship God calls us to have with His Word. When this happens, The Word becomes The Truth to us in our hearts.
Going back to Psalm 34:4, it says, “and He heard me.” God can ONLY hear you when you come to Him in Truth. Psalm 145:18 makes this perfectly and plainly clear.
Psalm 145:18
The LORD is nigh unto all them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in Truth.
This is one verse that absolutely floors Believers when they hear or read it. God will NOT hear your prayers, your petitions, your supplications if they are not based on exactly what His Word has to say. God is not interested in hearing about the significance of your problem. God is interested in hearing about His Truth that destroys your problem. Study the story Jesus told of The Prodigal Son. Notice the father pays absolutely no attention to what the son has to say when he returns. Why? Because the son is speaking words of fear and of the world’s wisdom and not of faith. The father ignores the son’s words and treats His son the way He sees him. How does God see us? The same way He sees Jesus.
Another set of verses that make it perfectly clear God will only hear you when you come to Him in Truth is I John 5:14-15.
I John 5:14-15
14 And this is the confidence that we have in Him [God], that, if we ask any thing according to His will, He heareth us:
15 And if we know that He hear us, whatsoever we ask, we know that we have the petitions that we desired of Him.
Amazing. “If we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us.” This means if we ask anything not according to His will, He does NOT hear us. I John 5:14 is the first cousin to Psalm 145:18. Folks, this bothers a lot of Believers when this is taught. Especially those raised on, or still based in, religion. “No Larry, a good God hears my prayers, no matter what!” Well, I don’t know what version of The Scriptures you are reading, but mine, and every other version I read, tells me this is not The Truth. If your prayer scoreboard has all, or a lot of, zeroes on it, you might want to reevaluate how you approach God in prayer. Start by introspectively asking yourself if you are coming to God in Truth and not in your opinion, experiences, or worldly wisdom. Remember, God’s will is His Word. If you want to know God’s will, read His Word.
Returning to Psalm 34:4, we read, “and delivered me from all my fears.” There we go!! If we don’t want to operate in satan’s system or economy of fear, we have to be delivered by God. The only way to be delivered by God is to decree God’s Word, His Truth, to Him – boldly – over the mountain that is challenging or facing us.
Hebrews 4:16
Let us therefore come boldly unto The Throne of Grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.
Notice, we are to approach God’s Throne of Grace [unmerited, unearned, undeserved, unlimited favor] BOLDLY. This is another aspect that really bothers a lot of Believers who don’t understand The Truth. Religion and denominations have taught us to come fearfully to the Throne, bowed down, crawling, timid, saying we’re not worthy, just waiting for God to boom His voice and deliver some frightful edict to us. What a crock, and what a lie. The Truth tells us to come BOLDLY and EXPECTANTLY to The Throne of Grace. It’s a Throne of Grace, not of judgment. The judgment was done to and finished by Jesus Christ. This is another reason the prayer scoreboards of many Believers have a lot of zeroes. Crawl to His Throne and see if He hears you. If His Word is The Truth, He doesn’t hear you. You’re wasting your breath. Come to God’s Throne of Grace with Jesus Christ, boldly, expectantly, and faithfully decree God’s Word to Him over, and about, your situation. Then praise and thank God every day your prayer is answered. God has sworn in His Word He must see that your prayer physically manifests if you stand in faith on what His Word, your decree, has to say.
Romans 8:15 tells us we are not to fear if we have made Jesus Christ Lord and King of our lives. When we accepted Christ Jesus, we were immediately adopted into the Family of God through God’s blood covenant with Jesus Christ. God became our Father, and Jesus became our elder Brother and King. We were freed from the spirit of bondage of fear that satan used to control us.
Romans 8:15
For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear; but ye have received the Spirit of adoption, whereby we cry, Abba, Father.
Fear is bondage because it ties us to satan, to death, and to curses. Faith ties us to God, to life, and to blessings. God is a good Father that always wants to see us reigning under a shower of blessings, every moment of every day, so we can fulfill His commandment in Genesis 12:1-3 to be a blessing to others and to the world. I hear religious Believers say, “I have plenty and don’t really need anymore. I don’t want to be tempted by riches.” What a cop out to God’s commandment in Genesis 12:1-3. If you have plenty, that is wonderful. Praise God! Now, start fulfilling the commandment to bless others. Let’s us get off our religious high horses, ask God to bless us and make our name great as He has commanded, so we can then bless the widows, the orphans, the poor, the many ministries that are preaching, teaching, and blessing others with the inerrant Word of God, and to help our Brothers and Sisters in Christ who may be struggling. If we are worried about being tempted to err by riches, give it away. This is a very simple way to avoid the temptation.
Wednesday evening of this week during Bible Study at our church, I was reminded by The Holy Spirit of something God taught me a few years back. God said to me, “you cannot add anything to infinity, but infinity can add everything to you.” You see, God is infinity. He, and He alone, is the only infinite one in all of creation. However, by The Word of His power, as we’re taught in Hebrews 1:3, God makes all of life and blessing infinite. When we choose through salvation to enter into life and blessing, we are made infinite. We have Christ in us, and we have The Mind of Christ. In other words, “Infinity,” which is Christ,” made us infinite by giving us everything. And everything Jesus has is everything His Father, and our Father, has as Jesus tells us in John 16:15: “all that The Father has is mine.”
In closing, quit trying to add to Infinity by trying to control your situations in the natural. You can’t add anything to Infinity. It already has everything. Instead, allow Infinity to give everything to you through your bold, declarations of The Truth to whatever mountain stands in your way (Zechariah 4:7).
Blessings in The Lord Jesus,
Larry