A Feast of Favour

This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture that reject fear and promote faith in God. It emphasizes that God's love casts out fear and that believers have authority and dominion on earth. It encourages following the Word and the Holy Spirit to do the work of Jesus. The Lord loves and protects his children, blessing them in various ways. The transcription also highlights the importance of God's rules and guidelines and reminds readers of their worth and value in God's eyes. Ultimately, it emphasizes God's love for humanity and the sacrifice of Jesus. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org Psalms 3.6. I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side. The Lord is a warm blanket on a cold day. He's comfort food that you've been craving all day. He's a cozy beverage at night curled up before a fire. He's love and comfort and blessing and joy. That is my child, my child's side. It's beautiful. He has another. If you imbibe in Him, you'll see it in play. Not necessarily with flashy lights and explosions. It can be seeing the world around you kind of move out of the way. Not like you're taking advantage, but like being a VIP in certain situations. That traffic jam melting away and getting you home sooner than expected, and blessing everyone traveling around you, not just you. That bad rainstorm that didn't seem to wreck your plants and crops. That power outage that stopped just short of your street. That feeling you needed to stock up on some non-perishables, and then a week or a month later, your town is shut down for ten days and you're doing fine. That's His my child side, and it's just as beautiful. This is a wonderful side of the Lord. It's talked about again and again in Scripture. Psalm 28, 91, 119, Pref. 1525, 2223, 2311, Acts 519, Acts 9-7, Romans 12-19. God is a protector, a shield, a redeemer, and vengeance is His. He keeps His flock safe from harm, no matter what is happening around them. Think about Jesus in the boat on the Sea of Galilee, Mark 4. Jesus abided in God, totally and completely. So here the storm was raging, the boat was almost swamped, death was screaming at them from the wind. Jesus was napping. He didn't notice the storm, because for Jesus, there was no storm. He wasn't denying that it existed, but Jesus was denying its authority to affect Him. Why? Because He was a man without sin, and He had authority. God gave authority to humans. Jesus was a human. He had that authority because being sinless and filled with the Holy Spirit, nothing was standing in the way of Him using it. And He wasn't frivolous with it. He didn't play with it. He used it only when the Father wanted Him to. John 5.19. When the disciples panicked, He woke up and calmed the storm. With three words, He knew that He was God's child. Why don't we? You may say that you know you're God's child, but do you act like it? If you know something in your heart, not just your thinking bits, you walk in it. Do you walk in your dominion, in your authority? You have it in Christ. Jesus was a sinless man. He died and then was resurrected to life again. He is still a sinless man. Jesus said in Matthew 28.18, All authority has been given to me in heaven and on earth. In Revelation 1.18, Jesus said, Don't be afraid. I am the first and the last and the living one. I was dead, and behold, I am alive forever and ever. Amen. I have the keys of death and of Hades. Jesus has all the authority that there is. It is part and parcel of who He is. 1 John 4.13 says, By this we know that we remain in Him and He in us, because He has given us of His Spirit. All that Jesus is, is inside of us. The name that is above all names, Philippians 2.9, lives in you. It is inside you now. The power and the glory that inhabits that name saturates you. It lives and breathes and touches every cell of your body. This isn't a single verse concept. 2 Corinthians 13.5, Romans 8.10, Galatians 2.20, Colossians 1.27, and Ephesians 13.17. They all tell us that Jesus is in us and we are in Him. Again, that means all that is in Him is in us. And we are authorized to use it. Psalm 82.6 tells us, You are gods, all of you are sons of the Most High. There is almost nothing that we cannot accomplish, because in Jesus we are like Adam again. Jesus is the last Adam. 1 Corinthians 15.45. We have everything that God promised Adam in the garden. Let's make man in our image, after our likeness. Let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the birds of the sky, and over the livestock, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the sky, and over every living thing that moves on the earth. Genesis 1.26-28. And in Genesis 9.1-2, Be fruitful, multiply, and replenish the earth. The fear of you and the dread of you will be on every animal of the earth, and on every bird of the sky. Everything that moves along the ground, and all the fish of the sea, are delivered into your hand. We have dominion. Dominion is authority, command, control, mastery, power, reign, sway, a hold, a grip, and is defined in law as supreme authority or sovereignty. That is what we have on earth. Sovereignty. We are as Jesus was, full of Jesus, Holy Spirit, and all that entails. For God didn't give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. 2 Timothy 1.7. That's huge. Think about what you can do. We're commanded to be productive, not aimlessly productive, but to succeed. Fruitful in all we put our hand to. We have supreme authority over the earth. We can still storms. We can command animals. We can bless and nurture and rule over every living thing. Not just animal, but man. But, since all males and females have the right to the same authority, there is no excuse to try and control another human. We are not to dominate one another, but to work together, to bless, nurture, support, care for, and in every way love one another. John 13.34 But none of this authority, power, and sovereignty is frivolous. We only have it in Jesus. What does that mean? It means that we can only use it as Jesus used it. Remember John 5.19? Read to 20 as well. Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise. For the Father has affection for the Son, and shows him all things that he himself does. He will show him greater works than these, that you may marvel. Jesus had and has all authority, but he didn't use it unless the Father showed him what to do. Jesus once everyone healed in whole. He never, not once, denied someone healing. Everyone who was fully persuaded he could heal got healed. Period. They didn't need to believe on him as Messiah. They just needed to have faith he could heal. Jesus heals. But when he went to the pool of Siloam, Jesus healed only one person. There were more there, but the Father only showed him the one. Compassionate Jesus only healed one at that place. I don't know why, but I can only assume from every other miracle that this man was the only one who had faith to be healed by Jesus, but that's a guess. Regardless of why, Jesus only did one healing. The Father said one. Jesus obeyed. If we want to use our dominion and authority, we need to do the same because we must do the same. It's how it works. So how do we do what Jesus did? How do we do only what the Father shows us and say only what the Father says? The Word and Holy Spirit, the unbeatable team. The Word reveals to us the heart of the Father and the will of the Father. We will never be able to do anything in Jesus that isn't in accordance with the Word. If it violates the Word, then it won't be in faith. If it isn't in faith, it won't be of Jesus. If it isn't of Jesus, then it won't be something the Father has shown you. Without faith, it is impossible to be well-pleasing to him. For he who comes to God must believe that he exists and that he is a rewarder of those who seek him. Hebrews 11 6 Throughout Scripture, God tells us to follow his commandments and obey his statutes. While we have been freed from the penalties of the law and the curse and the requirements to follow a series of rules, the spirit behind those rules still holds us. In fact, if you follow the two great commandments of Jesus, Matthew 22 36-40, you will keep all of the principles of the law. Jesus said so. If you want to use authority and dominion, do it in accordance with the Word. Why? Because you cannot do anything. Jesus in you and through you does the work. He is everything. Everything. In him we live and move and have our being. Acts 17 28 You can walk in this today. Holy Spirit was given to us to remind us of everything Jesus said, to correct our steps and to empower us, for he is the power in us. We are of Jesus and his Father. We are his children. The Lord loves us and wants the best for us. He is our shield and our rampart. He sends his angels to help those who abide in him. Psalm 91 When we walk in his yard, we are protected from everyone else outside his yard, because they are subject to the curse and he cannot help them as they serve another master. But for those in his yard, he has saved us from sickness, disease and poverty. Exodus 15 26 He blesses us like there is no tomorrow. He opens the doors of heaven to us. If we abide in him, then he will be in us and it will be everything to you. Read more of Psalm 3. Read it, believe it, receive it and walk in it. I laid myself down and slept. I awakened, for Yahweh sustains me. I will not be afraid of tens of thousands of people who have set themselves against me on every side. Arise, Yahweh, save me, my God, for you have struck all my enemies on the cheekbone. You have broken the teeth of the wicked. Salvation belongs to Yahweh. May your blessing be on your people. Amen. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Jeremiah 31 1-26 The Lord was very clear from the get-go, just the same as a proper parent. This is okay in my house. This is not okay in my house. Please follow the rules or the guidelines. We are all under them, both you and me. No cheat days. God did the same. He set up his rules and guidelines and everyone obeys them. Righteousness, good. Faithfulness, good. Love, good. The opposites are bad. God follows that. We do not always. But even when we go, God is working to help us back. He is opening doors, unlocking locks, and paying for the taxi. He does it all. The Israelites fell away. Even as he was welcoming them back under the law, he was telling them about Jesus and the coming Messiah, of the eternal solution, the ultimate sacrifice. The price paid. The problem solved once and for all. That's love. Making provision when you know those you're making provision for will fail you. Love is a choice. God chose us. How awesome is that? As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today, God loves that I... Now you fill in the blank. Was it the meal you made? The smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love, and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. Pick one. And remember, the Lord loves you, just because you're you. 1 John 4, 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us, that God has sent his only-born Son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love. Not that we love God, but that he loved us, and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin. And it casts out our fear, too. See verses 18 and 19. We love because he first loved us. He just loves us. Can't get enough of us. And that is wonderful. See you next time.