Do not fear!

By
Isaiah 54:14 AMPC
...you shall be far from even the thought of oppression or destruction, for you shall not fear....

According to Bill Johnson of Bethel Church, the right interpretation of this scripture is this: "It is not being far from oppression that helps you not to fear, rather it is not being afraid that helps you to be far from oppression". And I couldn't agree more. Fear is a precursor to oppression or destruction. In short, it creates a negative forcefield that attracts oppression and all kinds of negative occurrences. So, when you are afraid, you will inevitably attract oppression and the likes. No wonder the Bible encourages us time and time again with the words "Do not fear". You are never far from oppression or destruction when you are afraid. On the other hand, faith, courage, boldness creates a huge divide between you and destruction such that it becomes difficult to experience it. 

Futhermore, the words "do not fear!" is the often most repeated command in the Bible. Bible scholars have it that there are as many "fear nots" in the Bible, as the number of days in a year. This implies that you can be free from destruction every single day of your life. This is God's desire for us. If you respond to the instruction to be fearless, you can enjoy a life free from oppression or destruction. And the beautiful thing is, we have been equipped by God to live a fearless life, for God has not given us the spirit of fear but of power, of love and a sound mind (2 Tim 1:7). 

Moreover, recall the antics of many a dog; it barks so as to scare or drive fear into a person, and then when it senses that the person is afraid, it attacks. Research into animal behaviour has shown that this is the same strategy an old lion employs. According to Lili (2015), "when lions get old and lose teeth, they are no longer able to hunt and attack, so they become the guards of the pride. Their entire purpose is to roar and scare any approaching prey towards the younger lions, so they can attack. The young lions do not waste their time roaring, they only attack". (infamousmorris.weebly.com). Friends, remember that the devil is like a roaring lion (1 Pet 5:8). Of course we all know he is old, he's been around long before the creation of the world. We, however, also need to know that he is a defeated foe, the fact that he roars is because he has been disarmed (Col 2:15), he has lost his teeth, as it were. So, he 'roars' relentlessly and vigorously to drive fear into you. When you succumb to fear, he can attack or destroy you. Be mindful of the fact that he roars by telling you lies (about your life and occurrences in your life), remember he is a liar and the father of all lies (John 8:44). If you give in to his antics, he will surely attack you. But if you resist his lies and deceptive words, refuse to be saturated by destructive and depressing thoughts and outrightly reject a defeatist mentality, he will not be able to attack you, rather he will flee from you (James 4:7). 

Friends, do not fear! You have the Spirit of God which is the Spirit of faith, courage, boldness and a sound mind. So, daily manifest these attributes because you've got it in spades, and then you will be far from oppression or destruction. God bless you

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular Posts

See what happens when your enemies gather

By
Image
Psa 23:5 (NKJV) You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; My cup runs over. Have you ever wondered how the gathering of your enemies pan out? In your quest to out-think or outsmart them as it were in prayers, you may have tried to imagine what happens in their gatherings; what they do or would be doing when they come together to plot against you. Well, if you have, wonder no more because our reference scripture clearly presents what eventually happens. The Psalmist reveals that God prepares a "table" for us in the presence of our enemies. That means, their gatherings eventually end up as your table-preparation gathering. A "table" is symbolic of a meal or a feast . So, King David reveals that God Himself takes His time to cook us a meal in the company of our enemies. Now, if God prepares a meal, you can imagine what kind of meal it will be! Someone is probably salivating already. You can bet it's goin...
Keep reading

Crossing over to take over (1)

By
Image
Deuteronomy 9:1‭-‬3 (NKJV) “Hear, O Israel: You are to cross over the Jordan today, and go in to dispossess nations greater and mightier than yourself, cities great and fortified up to heaven, a people great and tall, the descendants of the Anakim, whom you know, and of whom you heard it said, ‘Who can stand before the descendants of Anak?’ Therefore understand today that the Lord your God is He who goes over before you as a consuming fire. He will destroy them and bring them down before you; so you shall drive them out and destroy them quickly, as the Lord has said to you. In a previous post  God is the reason , the reference scripture was considered from a reflective or retrospective perspective. In this post, I will like to examine the context of the scripture and present the futuristic dimension. In the passage, the Israelites were about to cross the Jordan river and God needed to give them a pep-talk or charge to prepare them for the victories He had already secured them on th...
Keep reading

Crossover to take over (2)

By
Image
Deuteronomy 9:4‭-‬6 (NKJV) “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. In a previous post  Crossover to take over (1) , we were given the assurance of a victorious 2022 because God has already conquered 2022 and delivered victory to us. And that though we may face of with intimidating and overwh...
Keep reading

Rejoice, it's your season of abundance for overflow

By
Image
Joel 2:23-24 (NKJV) Be glad then, you children of Zion, and rejoice in the Lord your God;  For He has given you the former rain faithfully, and He will cause the rain to come down for you — The former rain, and the latter rain in the first month. The threshing floors shall be full of wheat, And the vats shall overflow with new wine and oil. Prophet Joel begins by telling us to be glad and rejoice in the Lord our God; and of a truth we have all been called to live a life brimming with  joy and gladness  because amongst other reasons,  it is for our safety . Moreover, Joel presents a reason for us to rejoice and be glad in our reference scripture. He tells us that God has been faithful in giving us "the former rain". "Rain" speaks of blessings. Indeed, God has been faithful in blessing us. We all are products and benefactors of His faithfulness. He has and He keeps showing us how wonderful, gracious, merciful and loving He is. I am sure you can attest ...
Keep reading

Give your bread and fish to Jesus!

By
Image
God is still in the business of multiplying loaves of bread and fishes. But like that little boy did, you have to give it to Him and watch Him multiply i t.  God wants to feed the world with your loaves of bread and fishes. Look around you and you will find that many are hungry and are in need of bread and fishes, and I don't mean this literally only. The world right now is full of gloom and doom, but the solution is with you, in your hands . Give it to Jesus, let Him reach out to people. He will sustain you with it and the world as well. Friend, you may not know, but there are a million and one people who are worse off than you, and their condition has worsened in the light of the Coronavirus pandemic. But you can be an instrument in the hand of God to ameliorate their sufferings or altogether change their lives forever .  And yes, you may have just 5 loaves of bread and 2 fishes like the little boy had, it's Ok, give it to Jesus. It may even be less than 5 loa...
Keep reading

God is the reason.

By
Image
Deuteronomy 9:4‭-‬6 (NKJV) “Do not think in your heart, after the Lord your God has cast them out before you, saying, ‘Because of my righteousness the Lord has brought me in to possess this land’; but it is because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord is driving them out from before you. It is not because of your righteousness or the uprightness of your heart that you go in to possess their land, but because of the wickedness of these nations that the Lord your God drives them out from before you, and that He may fulfill the word which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore understand that the Lord your God is not giving you this good land to possess because of your righteousness, for you are a stiff-necked people. Beloved, in a previous post  God is gracious , we were told that " it was not the righteousness of the Israelites (adherence to the law of Moses) that made God give them "a land flowing with milk and honey", No, not...
Keep reading

Jesus loves you

By
Image
On this side of eternity, we sing " Jesus, You're all that matters " and rightly so, He's indeed all that matters and I don't want to get into that right now. We should sing it, again and again and again "He's all that matters".  However, on the other side of eternity, Jesus is singing "you're all that matters to me". And while you don't need to be a scholar in rocket science or a brain surgeon to understand why He's all that matters or why He is all that should matter, many still can't wrap their heads around the fact that we're all that matters to Him ! But think about it, why else did He die on the cross?! What was His motivation if not your inestimable worth!  Friends, if you think about what He gave up to come live here on earth and His ultimate crucifixion, you can't but get some comprehension of the fact that you're indeed all that matters to Him . Jesus is greatly in love with you! I...
Keep reading

The world is failing but God will never fail

By
Image
Mark 13:31   Heaven and earth shall pass away: but my words shall not pass away . Friends, recent happenings in the world emphasizes the need to hold on to God and His Word more than ever before. It is time to really study the Word, and then hold on to it with all you've got and as if your life depended on it because friends, it actually does.  As our scriptural reference reveals, heaven and earth will pass away, but God's words will NEVER pass away. The world and the systems of the world as we know it, are already passing away, and at an astonishing pace I must add. The coronavirus pandemic has proved that the sophistication and technological advancements of the most developed nations of the world are imperfect and at best fleeting. Who would have thought! Some of them thought they were several miles ahead of the rest and adequately prepared for the vagaries of the world (and in truth, maybe they were), but suddenly their confidence in themselves has been ab...
Keep reading

JESUS came to reveal God's likeness

By
Image
Colossians 1:15 (NKJV) He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn over all creation . God created man in His image and likeness. However, when man sinned, he still had the "image" of God, but lost the "likeness". In other words, he still looked like God but he lost the capacity to display his likeness or similitude to God . Consequently, what became the norm were behaviors that were completely atypical of God. Man took turns to misrepresent God from their distorted perspective of the likeness of God or their inability to replicate how God was really like. Cain killing Abel was a case in point among many others. Recall, man was supposed to learn and perfect his knowledge of God and the capacity to flawlessly exhibit the likeness of God from the time God set aside to spend with man in the Garden of Eden. The Bible says God came down everyday, in the cool of the day . Why did He do that? He wanted fellowship with man with the intent that man would get to know...
Keep reading

Annals of the Cross (8)

By
Image
In previous posts, we were told that the Cross was an eternal and irrevocable statement of  love  and  judgment  by God to man and the devil respectively. We have also been told that the  Cross  has a plethora of associated dividends which are legitimately ours to enjoy now and forever. In addition, we were also told that because of the sacrifice of Christ on the   Cross , God doesn't really have a choice anymore, as it were, He has to bless us. The moment He accepted 'payment' (Jesus' death), He committed Himself to deliver 'the goods'. Moreover, the  Cross  is the eternal receipt, as it were, that reminds God of the payment Jesus made for everything we desire. Because of said payment, God justly, duly and extravagantly dishes out our divine emoluments. Also, the  Cross  was also an eternal and irrevocable statement of God's willingness to help mankind as well as  an eternal and irrevocable statement of God's commitme...
Keep reading