Fear Not

Fear not! Why is this the most common instruction given to humans when divine beings show up? This has made me curious for years as I have pondered the significance of it. I believe it reveals something very important about God and understanding reality.

“Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.” Heb. 2:14,15.

I believe that at its root fear is always of death to some degree or in some form. Everything we are really afraid of are things we were not created to experience to begin with. We are afraid of pain, of shame, of separation from love and nurture, of evil beings and evil events. Because of the pervasive lies about God that have filled our minds and hearts we have been tricked into believing that God is the source of some or all of these things that we are afraid of.

So what is it that people are really afraid of when an angel from God shows up? They are afraid of death, of shameful exposure of themselves in the light of reality, of pain from not being in full harmony with God. Actually they are afraid because they believe lies about God. And while it is true that they could experience any or all of these things because of God's presence it is not because God is the source of the problem. God is never the author of death. God never desires pain or shame for the objects of His love and care.

The problem always lies on our side and in the lies still resident in our hearts. What we believe becomes our reality and reacts upon ourselves as if it were really true even though it is still a lie in the realm of reality. This puts us out of harmony with reality, out of synchronization with what really is. For God's presence to be with us and not precipitate negative consequences because of our negative beliefs about Him, He has to first address the offending lies that threaten to create destructive reactions in us. The very fact that we are afraid in God's presence indicates the presence of residual lies as yet undealt with.

Trying to deny that we are afraid or force ourselves to not be afraid is useless. This only applies another layer of deception on top of the lies already in place. Or trying to rationalize and twist the real truth about God to a point where He will no longer present a threat to us without dealing with our own lies and unbelief is equally pointless. The only real solution is to synchronize our hearts and beliefs with what is really true and then we can experience being fully alive.

Satan is the author and instigator of fear. Fear is his primary weapon. He designs that everyone live in fear and torment, and the results are easily seen all around us and in us. He also wants us to believe his lie that this is God's plan and originates from God's character. We have all bought into this lie to some extent, to the extent that we are afraid or suspicious of God.

Satan also purports to be a source of life, both positively and negatively. That's why he named his tree in the Garden of Eden the Tree of Good and Evil instead of its real name the Tree of Death. He purports to be able to satisfy our needs for satisfaction with selfish pleasure. And he threatens evil, pain and death on us if we do not make him and his agents the focus of our fear and attention.

Fear always makes a god out of the object of its focus. Fear empowers the one we are afraid of, giving them control of our emotions and lives. Satan's greatest desire is to replace God, and he uses fear and seduction and deception to manipulate intelligent beings to give him their focus. When we are afraid we are really believing that the focus of our fear is more powerful than God is. And that belief becomes self-fulfilling in our lives. This is the essence of unbelief. It is refusing to believe that God is greater than anything that tries to make us afraid, refusing to trust that God can satisfy us better than any selfish desire that promises to make us happy.

God is the only source of life. He is not the author of death and pain and shame. All of those things are simply natural consequences of sin which itself is simply harboring reservations and lies about God. The more lies we dispose of the more freedom and life we experience and the less fear we have about anything. Salvation is the process of deposing us of all fear and fully synchronizing us with the true Source of life.

Righteousness

I've been thinking for several days about the word and the concept of “righteousness”. It is one of those very baffling and confusing religious words that a lot of people have a great deal to say about but very few seem to have much idea of what it really means. Most people usually equate it closely to acting nice, being good or ultimately behaving “perfectly”, which is another word that is largely misunderstood.

Righteousness also usually carries something with it called “merit” that is another concept largely misunderstood and misapplied in religious circles. In fact, I have come to realize over the years that nearly every religious word is more often perceived through it's counterfeit understanding based on our false views of what God is like than on what God says and reveals about Himself as reality and in the Bible.

Righteousness is one of the holdouts that has continued to evade my understanding. Many other words have come alive for me as God has shown me their true meaning through various means. But I have been still waiting for a better explanation of this word that is more satisfying and sensible than most of the ramblings and forceful expositions I have heard.

While I do not have a complete and conclusive understanding yet, I am starting to perceive something that has the earmarks of truth in the real reality arena. It starts with the following verses as a basis for the real definition:

Rom. 4:3 For what does the Scripture say? "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS CREDITED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS."

Gal. 3:6 Even so Abraham BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS.

James 2:23 and the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "AND ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS RECKONED TO HIM AS RIGHTEOUSNESS," and he was called the friend of God.

In words someone recently used that explained this more clearly, it says that Abraham believed God could do what He said He could do and that act or choice in itself was considered, in the real reality, righteousness. The same applies to everyone, not just Abraham. If I believe that God can and wants to do what He says, particularly in my life where my permission allows Him to act the most, then I will have righteousness, the right kind of righteousness. It is not any behavior or action on my part or even a worked up feeling labeled faith. I may not even be saved in heaven because of it as was demonstrated in the life of Ahab. Because righteousness alone does not save me, contrary to much religious propaganda.

Then it occurred to me the other day that if the essence of real righteousness is believing God can do what He says He can do (which we very seldom really believe), then counterfeit righteousness is when I believe in myself, that I can do what I say I can do to be good. When I trust in my own ability in the slightest degree even if that is based on help from God, then I have introduced corruption into the equation and it is no longer pure righteousness. That is why the saints in Revelation are repeatedly singing and shouting that only God is worthy and He alone is holy and righteous.

I have observed that most of the teaching I have heard on righteousness is a very subtle mix of the two concepts. This has lead to a great deal of confusion and discouragement on the part of millions including myself. Many Christians in reaction to this have concluded either that they have to indeed help God make them be righteous or they are to believe in Jesus as a substitute and expect little or no effect to be seen in their own lives. This is rooted in a misunderstanding of what is cause and what is effect.

One of Satan's most successful deceptions has been to get people to invert cause and effect in our thinking. Most of my life great emphasis was put on the descriptions of the effects of righteousness that should be seen in one's life with the implication that if we could somehow produce the effect effectively enough then the cause would somehow fall into place. We seldom use that thinking in the natural world so why should it work in the spirit world?

The opposite argument has been that since we really can't produce the effect of righteousness in our lives (which is absolutely true), then we should be content to just live in a continuous cycle of sin, confession, repentance, forgiveness, sin, confession, repentance, etc. This is what is viewed in sanctuary symbology as the outer court experience. I believe Rev. 11:2 is referring to people who are stuck in this way of thinking.

Much more can be looked at along these lines and is in many discussions. But I find it helpful to condense down to its simplest form the meaning of the words used to communicate spiritual concepts that are always bigger than the words used to convey them. For now, for me, this is a beginning or maybe a deepening of my struggle to understand what is and what is not behind this word. It fits much better with the other emerging revelations I have been discovering lately about the real truth about God and about humans. My view of this is very different than it was 30 years ago and is still open for growth.

A few months ago I ran across a “position paper” of sorts in some of my old stuff that tried to explain why certain teachings on righteousness by faith were really heresies. I was appalled and sickened at the legalistic logic involved and wondered who might have written such an attack. Slowly I began to realize that it was most likely written by myself when I was around 18 or 19. Usually I like to hang on to old papers from my past partly to see how I have changed. However, I was do sickened by the logic and the heaviness I experienced while reading this old document I simple had to throw it away lest anyone else read it and become attracted to the legalism and bondage that I was suffering under when I wrote it. I was ashamed that I had ever written such a tirade but also grateful at how God has lead me to much greater freedom while protecting me from losing all interest in Him at the same time.

God is very good and is worth of all praise and honor. I am glad that I can honestly feel that way and not say it simply to sound religious. I remind myself, or He reminds me, that He is good irregardless of what happens to me or what appearances seem to implicate about Him. I want to mature more in grace so that my praise and testimony about Him is more consistently truthful to His reality.

Elijah Message

Present truth for today is the Elijah message. “How long will you falter between two choices? How long will you be double-minded and live in confusion? If you really know God is the real God, the true and only source of all life and satisfaction, then serve and obey Him fully. If your other gods are your choice for receiving life and protection and pleasure, then serve them fully and quit pretending to serve God.”

It is a message designed to polarize. It is a message designed to unite or divide. It is the message to come out of Babylon, the condition of confusion, and let God be God. It is the call for radical godliness to allow the glory of God to fill the whole earth. It is a choice to live from the heart and bond deeply together as families or live just from our head and trust in human goodness and solutions.

Today every religion is practicing some mix of humanism and faith in God. It is woven so finely together and worded so subtly that it often cannot be noticed at first. Radical godliness based on total dependence on Christ's merits alone is extremely rare though often talked about. One of the biggest problems in realizing God's full power in our lives is our present distortions about God's true character. We are becoming like the God/gods we believe in, but we allow very little latitude in our minds for radical change in our understanding of who the Real God really is. We are devoted more to our beliefs about God than we are to God Himself. This is typical of head-religion.

The Elijah message is a radical appeal to our hearts to rise up in resonance with the great Heart that originally created us and take radical action to change our mode of living. To accept the Elijah message means to subordinate left-brain dominated religion to its proper sphere as supportive role in a right-brain heart-dominated life filled and led by the Holy Spirit. This is the only choice that will allow us to be brought into harmony with God's heart and the hearts of all His children everywhere.

Inhibited Witness

My Utmost exposes a deep fault in my thinking. Many times, I now realize, I have thought that I must wait until AI better understand how spirituality works before I can say anything to my family members. They usually resent nearly everything I say about personal spiritual issues and I assume that I don't yet have the insight, maturity and a sweet enough spirit to effectively say anything. So I keep most of my thoughts and concerns to myself so as not to offend them.

However, this clearly looks like a catch 22 situation. I feel it is wrong to not warn them as I see them indulging in sinful desires and slipping deeper into habits of thinking and living that will ruin their soul and body over time. At the same time I am inhibited by their repeated reminders of my faults and my own strong awareness of my unloving and legalistic overtones that come from my years of conditioning. I know how reactive I felt most of my life when my Dad and others around me tried to address and correct issues and attitudes in me that they were concerned about. That single trigger is the easily is the easily accessed defense my children use to shut me off and keep me from saying anything that causes them discomfort.

Of course, looking at this situation this bluntly exposes the opposite danger but does not offer an obvious solution that is truly effective. Just blurting out warnings that tend to only create feelings of condemnation is not a Christ-like way attracting my family to Jesus. The insight in today's Utmost gives me a very good principle to apply to this problem.

I have been waiting for a clearer knowledge of salvation instead of having confidence in the power of the gospel. “If in preaching the Gospel you substitute your clear knowledge of the way of salvation for confidence in the power of the Gospel, you hinder people getting to Reality. You have to see that while you proclaim your knowledge of the way of salvation, you yourself are rooted and grounded in faith in God. Never rely on the clearness of your exposition, but as you give your exposition see that you are relying on the Holy Spirit. Rely on the certainty of God's redemptive power, and He will create His own life in souls.” (Dec 3) I need to shift my faith away from my ability to explain and away from my own experience that is still very much in process and imperfect, and focus much more on the power and Reality of Redemption.

I really don't know what that would look or sound like, but it certainly has the ring of truth. I await further revelation and empowerment from God to cause me to walk in His ways in this area of my life and relationships.

Stunted Fruit

One of the reasons I do not bear “much fruit” as Jesus designed for me to is because I indulge in too many “growth inhibitors”. While analyzing my life for what these might be can easily devolve into old familiar legalism, ignoring them can also be legalism. As Morris Vendon says, “the only difference between liberals and conservatives is the contents of their checklists. Conservative legalists are proud of all the things they don't do and liberals are proud of all the things they are not avoiding. But both are stuck on their lists.”

I have grown enough now to be much more aware of the importance of my dynamic relationship with God more than any list, positive or negative. Since I have started becoming more and more aware of my heart I also am noticing more how events and decisions influence and affect my heart relationships and my heart's ability to synchronize with God. And while presently during this period of probation many things may not break my relationship with God, they certainly inhibit my spiritual growth and stunt the natural fruit that God wants to produce in me.

This stunted fruit production in turn reflects poorly back on God's reputation since He is the one responsible for me. It is His reputation that is profaned before my world even more than mine. I'm sure glad He has a plan to resolve this problem that He has laid out in Ezekiel 36 and 37. I choose to continue to hold Him to His word and ask Him to give me a spirit of cooperation with Him in removing these lusts for the inhibitors in my life. I look to God again to continue to the finish the salvage work He has begun in me for His name's sake.

"For My thoughts are not your thoughts, Nor are your ways My ways," declares the LORD. "For as the heavens are higher than the earth, So are My ways higher than your ways And My thoughts than your thoughts. "For as the rain and the snow come down from heaven, And do not return there without watering the earth And making it bear and sprout, And furnishing seed to the sower and bread to the eater; So will My word be which goes forth from My mouth; It will not return to Me empty, Without accomplishing what I desire, And without succeeding in the matter for which I sent it. "For you will go out with joy And be led forth with peace; The mountains and the hills will break forth into shouts of joy before you, And all the trees of the field will clap their hands. (Isaiah 55:8-12)