Tuesday, September 22, 2015

JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons: Fear of This World is Not of God

JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons: Fear of This World is Not of God: New King James Version   (NKJV) Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. ...

Fear of This World is Not of God

Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Fear not, for I am with you; Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you, Yes, I will help you, I will uphold you with My righteous right hand.’
And the Lord, He is the One who goes before you. He will be with you, He will not leave you nor forsake you; donot fear nor be dismayed.”
In whose eyes a vile person is despised, But he honors those who fear the Lord; He who swears to his own hurt and does not change;
Though an army may encamp against me, My heart shallnot fear; Though war may rise against me, In this I will be confident.
Therefore we will not fear, Even though the earth be removed, And though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea;
In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me?
Because they hated knowledge And did not choose thefear of the Lord,
Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the Lord and depart from evil.
For I, the Lord your God, will hold your right hand, Saying to you, ‘Fear not, I will help you.’
Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing That you have forsaken the Lord your God, And the fear of Me is not in you,” Says the Lord God of hosts.
And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
[ Jesus Teaches the Fear of God ] “And I say to you, My friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body, and after that have no more that they can do.
For you did not receive the spirit of bondage again tofear, but you received the Spirit of adoption by whom we cry out, “Abba, Father.”
For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.
By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
So we may boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will notfear. What can man do to me?”
There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears hasnot been made perfect in love.
Do not fear any of those things which you are about to suffer. Indeed, the devil is about to throw some of you into prison, that you may be tested, and you will have tribulation ten days. Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.
Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.”
But He turned and said to Peter, “Get behind Me, Satan! You are an offense to Me, for you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
And Jesus answered and said to him, “Get behind Me, Satan! For it is written, ‘You shall worship the Lord your God, and Him only you shall serve.’ ”
But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, “Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men.”
My Comments: There is nothing to fear of this world and if we have given our lives over to the Lord Jesus Christ and are His then we have Heaven to look forward to so it does not matter what happens to us here. We only need look at the life of Jesus to understand that. He looked to His Father and ours and endured much hardship and pain yet did it because He loves the Father and He loves us. We only have fear of the Lord because without Him we have nothing.
Have you ever had something you valued more than life itself? Or someone? You would do anything to protect that person or thing, right? Well, being Abba Father’s makes us more precious than anything we could imagine and He will do all He can to keep us which means nothing can take us away from Him. Our only fear should be being separated from Him. We should be doing all in our power and calling on the Lord to help us so we will not be separated from Abba Father.
Noah, Moses, Abraham, Ruth and Ester all learned that man cannot do anything to us that matters. Only God the Father matters and our relationship with Him. He is the Creator of the Universes and all that is in them. He sustains them and us. It is by His strength that we are and continue to be. He sent His Son Jesus to save us not from others but from our own sin natures, from separation from Him. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of man shows we do not trust Him to do all that is necessary to bring us to Him. Fear not!
Those are two of the most used words in the Scripture and if we are His we must not fear as the spirit of fear is not of God the Father. Rather it comes from His adversary. When we accept the free gift of Salvation that Jesus obtained for each of us by dieing on the Cross and rising on the third day, then we give up fear of the evil one. Put your eyes on Him as fear of this world is not of God so fear not!
Abba Father, forgive us when we are weak and give into fear of things, situations, people or even the times we live in. Help us to keep our eyes and our hearts on you and strengthen our faith and trust that we will not be swayed in times of tribulation. Help us to learn the lessons each time of trial contains and to become stronger with each trial that we may show forth Your glory and bring praise to Your Name. Thank You for Your Son showing us the way to You and for His example of how to suffer and bring glory to You in the suffering. Help us to find the joy in our hard times as well as when times are going easy. Thank You for sending the Holy Spirit to teach, strengthen, console and fill us with Your understanding and knowledge. Fill us with the true understanding of the fear of the Lord and I pray all who read Your word will accept Your gift of Salvation and peace. In Jesus name in union with the Holy Spirit I pray. Amen.

Rebishka

Tuesday, September 15, 2015

Sunday, September 6, 2015

JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons: Walk and live in the fruit of the Spirit

JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons: Walk and live in the fruit of the Spirit: 1 Corinthians 1:18-25,  New King James Version  (NKJV)  Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson...

Tuesday, September 1, 2015

JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons: Trust in the Lord

JoAnn's Spiritual Lessons: Trust in the Lord: Proverbs 3:5-6   [Full Chapter] Trust   in   the   Lord   with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;   In   all your wa...

Trust in the Lord

Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths.
As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
Offer the sacrifices of righteousness, And put your trust in the Lord.
[ Prayer and Praise for Deliverance from Enemies ] [ A Meditation of David, which he sang to the Lord concerning the words of Cush, a Benjamite. ] O Lord my God, in You I put my trust; Save me from all those who persecute me; And deliver me,
And those who know Your name will put their trust in You; For You, Lord, have not forsaken those who seek You.
[Faith in the Lord’s Righteousness] [To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.] In the Lord I put my trust; How can you say to my soul, “Flee as a bird to your mountain”?
The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
As for God, His way is perfect; The word of the Lord is proven; He is a shield to all who trust in Him.
The Lord is my strength and my shield; My heart trusted in Him, and I am helped; Therefore my heart greatly rejoices, And with my song I will praise Him.
[The Lord a Fortress in Adversity] [To the Chief Musician. A Psalm of David.] In You, O Lord, I put my trust; Let me never be ashamed; Deliver me in Your righteousness.
I will say of the Lord, “He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust.”
He will not be afraid of evil tidings; His heart is steadfast, trusting in the Lord.
You who fear the Lord, trust in the Lord; He is their help and their shield.
It is better to trust in the Lord Than to put confidence in man.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart, And lean not on your own understanding;
He who heeds the word wisely will find good, And whoever trusts in the Lord, happy is he.
Thus says the Lord: “Cursed is the man who trusts in man And makes flesh his strength, Whose heart departs from the Lord.
“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord, And whose hope is the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 4:13-17New King James Version (NKJV)

The Comfort of Christ’s Coming

13 But I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren, concerning those who have fallen asleep, lest you sorrow as others who have no hope. 14 For if we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so God will bring with Him those who sleep in Jesus.
15 For this we say to you by the word of the Lord, that we who are alive and remain until the coming of the Lord will by no means precede those who are asleep. 16 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel, and with the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 Then we who are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And thus we shall always be with the Lord.

The Day of the Lord

But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, “Peace and safety!” then sudden destruction comes upon them, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief. You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor of darkness. Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober. For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. But let us who are of the day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love, and as a helmet the hope of salvation. For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, 10 who died for us, that whether we wake or sleep, we should live together with Him.
11 Therefore comfort each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing.

Various Exhortations

12 And we urge you, brethren, to recognize those who labor among you, and are over you in the Lord and admonish you, 13 and to esteem them very highly in love for their work’s sake. Be at peace among yourselves.
14 Now we exhort you, brethren, warn those who are unruly, comfort the fainthearted, uphold the weak, be patient with all. 15 See that no one renders evil for evil to anyone, but always pursue what is good both for yourselves and for all.
16 Rejoice always, 17 pray without ceasing, 18 in everything give thanks; for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus for you.
19 Do not quench the Spirit. 20 Do not despise prophecies. 21 Test all things; hold fast what is good. 22 Abstain from every form of evil.
Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
My Comments: Many are running hither and yon looking for comfort and safety, guidance and truth. Many are fearful and anxious and do not know who to trust. Many place their trust and faith in things, people and circumstances and even jobs and money or ideologies. Yet there is only one who can save. There is only one who has made a way for them and He will come again for those who are His.
Jesus the Messiah said He would come again. Those who follow Him know Him to be trustworthy and true. His word tells of Him from the first Book of the Bible to the End. Those who place their trust in Him will not find Him wanting. Does that mean life will be perfectly calm and without situations? No! It does mean He will be there in the storms as well as the joys of life as He has gone before us through them all. And no matter what happens He will not forsake us and will be there to welcome us home when our time is over here. Or He will come before that time. Either way it will not matter because we will be with Him. This is the assurance of salvation to those who place their trust in the Lord.
There were so many Scriptures that spoke to trusting in the Lord and knowing His word is true and He will do all He has said He will do. Yet I felt constrained by the Spirit to share these ones with you and pray they will strengthen you in the days to come.
Our Lord will come again and we do not know the day or the night. He will come and we must be ready. He will handle everything in our lives if we trust it to Him and go on in His name doing all He asks of us. We are His because we trusted in Him and accepted His Sacrifice and the Redemption He gave to us.
If you have not accepted Him then I encourage you to do so today. Talk to Him. Confess your sin. Believe in His Gospel (Jesus was born of a virgin, died for our sins on a cross, rose again on the third day as He said He would, and ascended into Heaven all so we might live with Him and be the Children of God.) Give your life to Him and He will come into you and your eternity will be assured. He died that all may live. Yet to live one must be Born Again by accepting His sacrifice as a gift freely given because He first loved us. Trust in the Lord and He will guide you through His Holy Spirit.
Abba Father I pray to You through Your Son Jesus our Messiah, Redeemer and Friend, Brother and Savior, may we all trust the Lord with all our hearts and souls and proclaim His Holy name before the world so many more will come to know You and serve You. Thank You for our Savior. Thank You for Your love that sent Him here to die in our place. Thank You for choosing us as Your children. We place our trust in the Lord. In Jesus name in union with the Holy Spirit we pray. Amen.

Rebishka