Oh, fear. An old acquaintance. There is a lot I could say about fear, we used to spend a lot of time together, long nights, day dreams, quiet time. We were inseparable. Fear infiltrated my very being, it sought out and conquered every inch of me; choking me to the point of suffocation, only to allow me to gasp for air so I could continue to be a host. Fear also brought company... worry, anxiety, frustration, they partnered together so well, working as a unit, they thrived on consuming my every thought and dictated my every action. Fear made me useless to the Kingdom of God and not a factor against the kingdom of darkness, because I chose to walk in fear, I retreated and cowardly cast inward. My thoughts were of defeat. I had lost every battle before it began, all because fear makes an ant hill look like a mountain. Oh, fear. I'm so thankful you have lost.
Fear is an interesting opponent in life, isn't it? Powerless without permission and yet mighty with consent. It's not hard to find fear. When under religion, you begin to feel defeated because of a man made doctrine. The truth becomes mans truth, a powerless God (until the end), a redeeming Son (that didn't bring a Kingdom), a Sprit of conviction... But never power. Half truths that have infiltrated churches around the world, rendering Gods children powerless. Equipping its members to be sheep among wolves, but unlike Jesus' disciple, these sheep are unprepared and unarmed. There is no power that follows their gospel.
I think my favorite part of church growing up, would be the bible stories. The miraculous move of God through ordinary people who simply submitted to His will in their lives. I remember receiving these stories as whole truths, and leaving feeling the empowering of the Holy Spirit within me. I would dream of an opportunity in which God would make his presence know through me. That mighty God would choose to act, using someone as simple as me, to accomplish something where glory would be given to the Kingdom of God (I didn't know of the Kingdom yet, but I hungered for it). I remember longing to grow up, to be able to hop on a plane to Africa (I've always loved the thought of going to Africa, I don't know why, but I have) because God had called me to raise some people from the dead and deliver to them the good news. (What raise people from the dead??? That doesn't happen anymore... Right?) Or perhaps seeing a need... A person in need of healing, needing food, needing money and be able to allow the glory of God to be shown, the power of His Kingdom established.
But... When I grew up, you know what happened instead, I grew out of my faith. I started to rationalize stories like Jonah as simply figurative, Daniel and the Lions den as too far fetched, Jesus rasing someone from the dead as only to show His anointing, Paul healing people, only to establish the foundation of the early church. Or reasoning with myself that we are no longer in the presence of miracles. After all when you grow up and experience "life" the safety and power of the bible seems less and less real. The future kingdom mentality is easier to live with, then the responsibility of having a kingdom mind here and now. To realize that my faith is weak, my devotion is subpar, and the time spent buying into the cares of the world, is triple the time spent meditating on the things of God. It's so simple to allow the enemy to come in and deceive you, to put the power of God on hold until a later time, to be choked by the cares of the world and the message lost.
As a child its easy to believe the bible and its glory and power, because we take the word for truth. Wether we now rationalize in our own minds the stories of the bible or not, we must see that there are some unmistakably simple truths about God. Nothing is impossible for God. God is sovereign. God is constantly using the willing. And God is the same yesterday, today, and tomorrow.
So what is this cure for fear?
1 John 4:18 says, "There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love." That is one powerful statement! "He who fears has not been made perfect in love." How many of us have not been made perfect in love? John goes on to explain that this love was manifested towards us in the sending of His Son into the world, that we might live through Him. To have Him live through us, we must go and see what He says about what most of us fear about, our daily needs, which is in Matthew 6:25-33.
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
We see here that what so many of us have been missing all along is THE KINGDOM. We choose religion over the truth, we walk around without what Jesus said He would provide because we have lost sight of The Kingdom, "because when we make what Jesus said a religion we take away its power, we become slaves instead of allowing God to turn us into Kings".
25 “Therefore I say to you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink; nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food and the body more than clothing? 26 Look at the birds of the air, for they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? 27 Which of you by worrying can add one cubit to his stature?
28 “So why do you worry about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin; 29 and yet I say to you that even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 30 Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?
31 “Therefore do not worry, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 32 For after all these things the Gentiles seek. For your heavenly Father knows that you need all these things. 33 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you."
We see here that what so many of us have been missing all along is THE KINGDOM. We choose religion over the truth, we walk around without what Jesus said He would provide because we have lost sight of The Kingdom, "because when we make what Jesus said a religion we take away its power, we become slaves instead of allowing God to turn us into Kings".
A lot of this comes down to a choice. A choice to stand for truth despite backlash, to want to pursue and press forward, in the face of resistance. To be willing to run against the grain, and be rejected. In all of this, what a wonderful reminder that there are others growing as well, believing the truth, a fine harvest for the Lord. I have found that the more I grow in God, that everything in my life has changed. Friendships have ended, my mindset has changed, I no longer feel a need to fit into the world. I am willing to surrender all that I have unto the King, to become a part of His Kingdom. The cure for fear? To become a citizen in the Kingdom, to be transferred into the Kingdom of God (Col. 1:13).
There is no flesh in the Kingdom, when we are transferred into the Kingdom, all that we have and all that we are becomes the Kings. We are ruled and governed by The King, not by the world. There is true freedom when we understand that the message Jesus brought was one about a King and His Kingdom.
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