Encouragement

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CHOOSE NOT TO FEAR:
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1 Peter 5:7 says, “Casting (throw) all your care (worry, anxiety, fear) upon Him; for He cares for you.” Let me stop here a moment and say this. If you’re worried in your mind about a certain situation, whether it’s in your family, your health, your finances, your church, your business, your ministry, etc., the next thing you’re going to do is speak those worries, anxieties and fears out of your mouth, either to yourself or to someone else. And speaking these kinds of words is to speak death and cursing to your own spirit. As well as to any good seed you have sown.

What did Proverbs 18:21 say? It said that “the POWER of LIFE and DEATH are in the TONGUE.” And the thoughts of your mind are words unexpressed. When you speak those thoughts out loud, those thoughts become words expressed. And taking this one step further, when a person speaks to us, we hear in “word pictures." Can you see what I’m saying to you? When someone talks about colors and you hear the ‘word’ blue, you automatically SEE the color blue in your mind’s eye. Or if I were to change that and say, red, you’re SEE the color red now.

Romans 10:17 says, “So then, FAITH COMES by hearing (Logos) and HEARING by the (Rhema) Word of God.” Something is going to come by your hearing according to this Scripture. Isn’t this true? And there are only two forces at work in the world, God’s and Satan’s. The force of faith, and the force of fear. The force of fear is the counterfeit of faith. The moment sin entered into the spiritual system of Adam and Eve and they died spiritually, their faith immediately became twisted into fear. Remember that Adam answered God and said, “I hid myself because I was AFRAID?”

He didn’t lose his faith; it was still there just as God had put it in his spirit in the beginning. But now it was twisted and had become fear. In order to become accustomed to using and operating in faith again, man would have to renew His mind back to the Word of God (Roman 12:2). I think it would be safe to say that Adam knew sooner or later, he was going to have to face God when He came through the garden again. He was going to have to give an account of his actions unto God.

We are ALL held accountable unto God for our thoughts, our speech and our actions, which stem from the right or wrong choices we make. Am I just going to keep saying that over and over, again and again? YES, until we get it rooted down in our spirit-man and act on it as naturally as breathing. Why? Because it brings us God’s blessings instead of cursing into our lives. Amen.

I also think it would be safe to say that Adam had worry about facing God after what had happened. Isn’t this same thing true for us when we KNOW we’ve done or said something wrong that we shouldn’t have? Oh yes, it is. But here’s Adam, instead of standing strong in faith and having a clear conscience before God---he’s worried, he has anxiety, and he has fear. In the fourth chapter of Mark, verse 19, it says, “And the CARES (there's that word again) of this world (no cares in heaven), and the deceitfulness of riches, and the lusts of other things entering in, CHOKE THE WORD, and it becomes unfruitful.” Worry and faith doesn’t mix together. It’s like oil and water.

Now, lets go back to Romans 10:17, “So then, faith comes by hearing...” According to what we’ve already discovered, if we’re carrying worry, anxiety, fear, etc., and we’re speaking this out loud for us to HEAR, is faith going to come to your spirit and give you spiritual strength? Are you going to experience a SUPERcharge running through your whole spiritual system to where you feel like a rocket on a launching pad about ready for take off? No. You’re going to feel like a drooping lily sitting on a dried out lily pad. If faith can come by hearing and hearing by your words of life and blessing as you speak God’s Word out loud---then so can fear, worry, anxiety, etc. come by you speaking out loud death and cursing to your spirit. Or to other’s close to you.

Jesus said, “Cast ALL your care---All your worry. ALL your anxiety---ALL your fear, etc., over onto Him. Jesus came to set the captives free, remember, Luke 4:18? When we truly catch the revelation that we CAN be free from worry, anxiety, fear and all the rest, that we certainly can be care-FREE, we’ll wonder why it took us so long to see it? But one more thing I want to bring out here in going before God and telling Him what we think is or is not fair.

Yes, God said in His Word, “Come and let us reason together.” He’ll let you get by with just so much, but when you go to over-stepping those boundaries and you get into dishonoring the blood of Jesus, that's when you’re going to be pulled up short. And rightly so. Why? Because we’re being disobedient, disrespectful and rebellious children to a loving Father Who would move heaven and earth if that's what it took to get to one of His children to answer their cry for help.

But we must be careful when we come to reason together with God---no, He’s not going to club us over the head for saying a wrong word. He may correct you, but He’s not an abusive Father. He’s not a child-beater. He’s a most gracious, kind, loving and tender-hearted Father, who wants only to bless His children and have them near Him in loving communion. He delights and takes pleasure in His children. It’s His good pleasure to give us the keys to the Kingdom of God---and all it’s good gifts and treasures contained therein. Praise the Lord! And our Father has said that we can come and ‘reason’ with Him, but that doesn’t give us a license to call Him into account and say by our wrong choice of words and attitude that he’s a liar! That's right! You heard me right.

We have no right to judge whether God is being fair and just in this or that situation in other people’s lives as well as our’s. He’s the Potter, and we are the clay. We need to commit, sell-out to Jesus and place ourselves in the capable and loving hands of the Potter Who KNOWS exactly what He is doing. Amen? Amen. Now, lets go back to 1 Peter 5:7 and pick up where we left off. In fact, lets read the whole thing again, “Casting ALL your care (worry, anxiety, fear) upon Him; for He cares for you.”

Once you toss all the worry and fear over into the lap of Jesus, don’t be trying to snatch some little something back out of the pile again. He meant here, ‘when you throw it ALL into My lap, you don’t have to worry about those things anymore---unless you choose to.’ And listen, if you do choose to go back and pick every one of those cares up again out of Jesus’ lap, He will honor your free will of choice and let you take them back unto yourself.

Then later, when things have gone from bad to worse because you thought you could handle it better yourself, there's no use in you crying over it then and going to God and moaning and groaning. “God, I thought you loved me? I thought you were going to help me out of this mess? How could you let this happen to me? God, why won’t you DO something!” And what is God’s response to this?

He says, “I can’t do anything about it. You threw those cares in My lap just as I told you to in My Word, but you didn’t leave them there. I never had the chance to turn those cares into blessings.” “But why, God? You can do anything.” “Not when My children block Me by their unbelief. It was the same way in My home town of Nazareth, I was blocked there by the people’s unbelief in Me, and I couldn’t do any mighty miracles. I wanted to heal everybody but I could only heal a few sick folk” (Mark 6).

The people there in Nazareth made a choice not to believe that Jesus was anointed of God to do the things He claimed. They chose not to believe that He was the Son of God. I mean, after all, Who did He think He was going around town saying He was the Son of God? Why, He was Mary and Joseph’s son, who only lived right down the street.

Within this choice of unbelief was the choice to also hang onto the things that plagued them in their daily lives as well as remaining sick in body. It’s the same thing we do when we grab back some of those cares from out of Jesus’ lap, thinking that, “I’d better handle (worry about) this one.” It grieves the very heart of God when we choose to lean to our own understanding and depend upon ourselves instead of Him to see to our needs.

He desires to take care of our “cares” more than any of us can imagine. But if we choose to take back one little bitty bit of ‘care’ from Jesus after we‘ve given it to Him, He will honor our free will of choice and let us have it back. He’d rather us leave it with Him and go on and be care-FREE to enjoy the abundant life He came to give us. Amen. It’s the truth. If we will, He will take care of our needs, that He knows of before we ever ask.

But 1 Peter 5:8-9 tells us why it’s important to heed verse 7 and be obedient to it. “Be sober (serious), be vigilant (on guard); because YOUR adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour: 9-Whom RESIST steadfast (standing firm) in the faith,
(what are we resisting? the pressure Satan brings) knowing that the same afflictions (troubles, problems, pressures) are accomplished in your brethren that are in the world.”

In other words, move over in that little boat of self-pity, you’re not the only one who’s going through some tough times. We ALL do. Did you notice that God said here, “because YOUR adversary...?” That kind of makes it personal, don’t you think? The devil’s not a myth and he’s out to steal, kill and to destroy (John 10:10). Adversary means, enemy, and an enemy means to do you serious harm. This enemy, the devil goes around seeing who has a weak link in their armor, or if you even have any armor on.

What is Satan’s power? He has the power to deceive people. His calling card is deception. He deceives you by God’s truth that has been twisted and perverted until now it brings death to the hearer instead of life. God’s Word in it’s pure form brings life and and health to all your flesh. (Prov.4:20-23). The devil comes seeking those who are weak in faith---”Whom resist , stand firm, in the faith.” You can sense a strength in those words.

If you’re not standing firm in the faith, then you don’t have the spiritual strength to resist the devil. James 4:7 says, Submit yourselves therefore unto God, RESIST the devil, and he will flee from you.” How do we resist the devil? By choosing to apply the pressure of God’s Word back against the pressure (affliction) he’s applying to us in whatever area of your life it may be. We do this with the sword of the Spirit that cuts Satan to pieces. Let us be most careful about making the right choices in our daily Christian walk with Jesus. May we listen attentively to the voice of the Holy Spirit, as He leads us into all truth on this pathway of holiness to the everlasting glory of God. Amen.

Plain As Day Ministries

Shirley Williams

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