Tag Archives: Fear

Fear Who?

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Christianity, Commitment, Covenant, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, Faithful, Hard Work, LifeGiving, Mandate, Mature, Maturing, Message

Fear who?

“But I will warn you whom to fear: fear the One who, after He has killed, has authority to cast into hell; yes, I tell you, fear Him.”

Jesus taught that His Father could kill people and then throw them into a hellish eternity. Do you believe Jesus? If you don’t, you should!

“The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, that one may avoid the snares of death.”

Do you really fear God?

Do you REALLY want to avoid the snares of death?

Do you fear WHO, the CDC, The NIH, the NIAID, COVID-19 or a zombie apocalypse? If you do, you should not!

According to the CDC:

79,400 Americans died in the 2017 – 2018 flu season

* CDC estimates 49 million illnesses, 959,000 hospitalizations

61,200 Americans died in the 2018 – 2019 flu season

* CDC estimates 43 million illnesses, 647,000 hospitalizations

Up to 60,000 Americans will die in the 2019 – 2020 flu season [non-COVID 19]

* CDC estimates up to 54 million [non_COVID 19] illnesses, up to 730,000 hospitalizations

Three-year flu totals 2017 – 2020:

Deaths: 200,600

Illnesses: 146 million

Hospitalizations: 1,377,959

For all of the “go beyond social distancing to self quarantining” for themselves and other believers, where was your concern and self quarantining passion for those who got the flu and for those who died, between 2017 and now?

For all of the “go beyond social distancing to self quarantining” for themselves and other believers, will you have the same concern and self quarantining passion next flu season when, if the last 3 flu seasons are a barometer, we could see deaths in the 60,000+ range, and over 40 million illnesses and between 600,000 and 1,000,000 hospitalizations? And I am not including COVID-19.

Are you planning to live the rest of your life in isolation because of what might happen that is bad, to you or through you? Dr. Tony Fauci is now saying COVID-19 could re-emerge in the 2020-2021 flu season, and beyond.

Have you ever read this verse, “He who separates [isolates, sequesters, or severs from others] himself seeks his own desire, [and] he quarrels against all sound wisdom.”

So, according to Scripture, the selfish ones are the isolationists, not the interventionists!

Fear God! Are you feeling it, yet?

We live in a feel-good society where any gesture that appears to be keeping people safe is rewarded like a participation trophy.

“Are you self-quarantining?” “Why yes I am!” “Yea, great job! Me too!”

On the other hand, “Are you self-quarantining?” “Why no I am not. I am believing God to protect me and to use me to bring peace and healing to those who are afraid and or are sick.”

“You are so self-centered! Don’t you know you could be infecting, or killing people?”

And who really is the selfish person? Who really fears God?

I totally get not everyone is on the same growth path. But it really seems those who have little to no faith want those who have more, or great faith, to show some respect and stop being so darn courageous.

People who have a history with God of being led into fiery trials are not at the mercy of those who have never been exposed to a fiery trial.

Success breeds success and makes one responsible for the standard of faith they have attained. “Let us keep living by that same standard to which we have attained.”

Fear breeds fear and faith and fear cannot coexist with each other. One of them will have to go, and will eventually go.

Socialism and Communism lower everyone’s [well, the common people’s] standard to the lowest common denominator. Uniformity is the prized possession of a socialist, communist worldview.

We are seeing these “social” core values rise and thrive in the midst of the saints. It is a sad season we have been in and are still, in Christianity.

Fear is a worse virus than the virus you are currently afraid of! And please do not insult my intelligence with the whole, “I’m not afraid, I’m being cautiously smart.”

Hmmm! Caution – care taken to avoid danger or mistakes.

If you are a Christian you are called by God into danger! “I send you out as sheep among wolves.” Does it get any more dangerous than that?

I am shocked at how many people, and supposedly Christian people, have fallen into the fear trap of, “What IF someone gives it to me or someone I care about?” Or, “What IF I give it to someone else?”

Read these verses slowly.

“The fear of man brings [permits, grants, produces, assigns] a snare [bait, lure, noose]. But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted [inaccessably high, safely set on high, to be secure].”

Dear one, do you realize what you are doing to yourself when you allow fear to dictate to you what you will or will not do?

“Job said, ‘The thing I greatly feared [revered, respected, was in awe of] has come [arrived because I agreed with it] upon me.'”

Remember the verse at the top that said, “The fear of the LORD is a fountain [wellspring, source, flow] of life, that one may avoid [be kept from] the snares of death.” Are all your fountains in Him? Or are your fountains in your being cautiously smart?

Dear one, there is debate as to whether all that happened to Job was the result of his fearing it all would come upon him, or not. It really does not matter because Job confessed he had great fear of calamity and that calamity found him and his family.

For him to say “greatly feared’ means he must also have struggled with some “minor fears.” Here is a great question, what if Job’s lack of success in conquering minor fears fed into the greater fear’s faith that it could attack him and prevail against him?

Do you claim Psalms 91?

If you do then why do sit in your home fearful of catching something that percentage-wise is minuscule, and are afraid to venture beyond your yard? Do you actually need God’s protection from this in your own home?

Do you quote, “God has not given us [me] the spirit of fear.”?

If you do why is fear controlling your life? What if you refuse to go and the one you were to go to dies because you did not go?

Take courage, I have some better what IF’s!

What IF God actually protects you and “yours?”

What IF God uses you to bring peace to someone who is afraid?

What IF God uses you, yes you, to bring healing to someone who is fearful and sick?

What about THOSE what IF’s?

Are you teleworshiping with your church family? It takes zero faith to sanctuary in your home all the while singing, “I am not a slave to fear.”

Are you telehealing with someone who is sick – with ANY sickness? Why teleworship and not teleheal?

Why is there no area in your life where you are exercising even a mustard seed size faith?

Jesus said, “If you have faith the size of a mustard seed you can say to this mountain, ‘Be removed and cast into the sea.’”

I hear Jesus saying with a thunderous voice [Like a lion He is roaring out of Zion], “HOW COME YOU HAVE NO FAITH?”

Jesus mentions 3 levels of faith. They are, 1] No faith, 2] Little faith, and, 3] Great faith.

We all operate at different times in different levels of faith. We should never be in ‘No faith’ because Jesus has given to every person the “measure of faith.” Is it really possible to reach and live in Great Faith. The Centurion reached that level and Jesus lived in that level. And He said, “The things that I do you shall do, and greater things than these shall you do. Because I am going to the Father.”

Do you believe Jesus?

There is so much negativity and most, if not all of it, is based on a premise that is false.

People are now wanting the head of the man who is head of WHO.

Why? Because he is corrupt and in bed with communist China, and he used the P-word, which triggered a lot of people’s greatest fear – which is the zombie apocalypse.

There is compassionate courage, and then there is sympathy that is not courageous!

Sympathy consoles and even joins in with the worry ward. Compassion intervenes!

Jesus was never moved with sympathy.

Jesus was always moved with compassion! That is why He was not afraid to touch the leprous man on the head. That is why Jesus stepped into danger and defeated it at its source.

If you are a Christian, and most especially a born again and Spirit-filled Christian and have not heard God say to you, “Hunker down in your house”, then to hunker in your bunker is sin. He said, “Go into all of the world.” He did not say “all of the safe spots.” And He did not say, “Get permission from you governmental leaders.” He said to you, “Go,” you have to go!

If you are having trouble ‘going’ you probably need to drink more of His joy from the wells of salvation. Or maybe you have not drunk enough from the water that He gives that keeps you filled so you can spill. Or maybe, just maybe, you are drinking too much worldly “wine” and not enough of His new wine.

Whatever you are partaking of that is keeping you bottled up inside of you and inside of your house, stop drinking it.

This should be God’s people’s finest hour, but instead, they are holed up in their house where they hope and pray the big bad wolf doesn’t come and blow their house down!

Receive and steward God’s passion, power, presence, priority, process, promises, protection, provision, pruning, purging, purity, and purpose!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
A radical spiritual revolutionary
Revolution Movement Co-Founder
http://www.revolutionmovement.org
kdrury@revolutionmovement.org

You say you want a revolution! Join our movement and turn your world upside down so God can turn His world right side up!

Afraid To Die Trying?

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Christianity, Commitment, Covenant, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, Faithful, LifeGiving, Mandate, Mature, Maturing, Message, Mission, Movement, Revolution, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training, Transformation

Afraid to die trying?

Whatever happened to, “I will give my best even if I die trying!”

Where is the, “I’m going for ‘IT’! I may die, but I am dying right now sitting in sequestration while the Spirit of God is wondering why I am where I am.”

Four lepers found themselves in a similar predicament. Famine was ravaging the land and God’s people were between a rock and a hard place. You can find their story in 2 Samuel 7. I am not going to put all the text here for time and space. But here are the important verses I want to share with you.

““Why do we sit here until we die?”

“Let us go over to the camp of the Arameans. If they spare us, we will live; and if they kill us, we will but die.”

That is so awesome! “We will but die!”

“When they came to the outskirts of the camp of the Arameans, behold, there was no one there.”

“When these lepers came to the outskirts of the camp, they entered one tent and ate and drank, and carried from there silver and gold and clothes, and went and hid them; and they returned and entered another tent and carried from there also, and went and hid them.”

“We are not doing right. This day is a day of good news, but we are keeping silent.”

Many of God’s people are like those lepers. They sit outside the gate [the place of kingdom decision making] dying. They think they are living but they are actually the living dead.

They may be spiritually alive but they are not functioning fully in their priesthood responsibilities. A part of their call and commission is dead.

They live in fear that if they engage the enemy they might die but they know enough to know where they are right now is not living either. What will they decide to do? Will they sit in sequestration and die or will they risk it all to live differently?

Many have huge callings to walk in signs and wonders and they wonder why God is not using them. Huge calls require huge risks!

The futures of people are hanging in the balance, and many of God’s have been weighed on the balance and do not measure up.

The four lepers decided to risk it and God had moved miraculously on their behalf. They moved not realizing God was waiting for them to move so He could.

They were shocked they found no resistance and started enjoying the benefits of risk.

They realized they had good news and must share it with the rest of God’s people.

You say you have good news but who are you sharing it with?

You say you believe in Psalms 91 protection but you refuse to step into danger so God can protect you.

You say you believe in healing and miracles but you are afraid to be around those who are sick.

I did not include the text in the story about the royal officer of the king, who did not believe God would intervene, who died in the excitement of the miracles as per the word of the prophet of God.

Dear leader, God showed me in a vision last year some of His leaders were going to die, in their pulpit. He did not say when, or how. He just said it would happen. You may represent Jesus the King today but a day is coming where you may die in all the excitement of what God is doing.

Where are the believers who live by this creed: “They overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony. And they loved not their lives unto death.”?

What I see today are “believers” who love their life MORE THAN DEATH!

Look at what Jeremiah wrote, “If you have run with footmen and they have tired you out, Then how can you compete with horses? If you fall down in a land of peace, how will you do in the thicket of the Jordan?” [Jeremiah 12:5]

In other words, if you get weary when it is easy how will you make it when the going gets tough?

It appears that when “the going gets tough” the ’tough’ actually don’t get going. They wait until the storm passes.

COVID-19 is the veil of inconvenience that is separating the faith walkers from the faith talkers.

What is happening right now reminds me of the guys I played Minor League Baseball with who bragged like crazy in the locker room about their nightly conquests, only to find out later they spent the night in their Hotel room, alone!

Today, courage is being called “crazy!”

In Hebrews, Paul writes three times, “Today, if you hear His voice do not harden your heart.”

Jesus sent His disciples into storms to test their faith. “How come you have no faith?”

Today, we are being asked to suspend our belief that He still does that, or that He still stops storms.

Why?

Jesus fully expected His disciples to stop the storm that was sent to stop them from completing His mission, which was, “Get in the boat and let’s go to the other side!” The boat was the vehicle that took them into the storm. They could have walked around the lake. That would have taken longer but it would have been the “safer” route.

No ma’am or sir, you are only safe in Him and where He is! Where is He? He is not in man’s palatial houses of worship. He is in the marketplace where He is calling the sick, in soul and body, to Himself.

Jesus does not send His disciples on safe missions on safe routes!

We are now told to believe that He sends disciples into safe space sequestration waiting out the storm.

What if their real storm is their sequestration? “How come you have no faith?”

Why is it not just okay, but expected, that doctors, nurses, EMT’s, police, firemen, and military personnel, many who do not know or serve God, stand between plagues and people, but not God’s people?

Are they the new priests on the planet?

What about the priesthood of all believers [in Christ as Lord]?

Where are God’s generals?

Where are God’s troops?

Where is God’s David’s who wrote and sang, “I can run through a troop, and I can leap over a wall!”?

Today it is more like, “I will run through my door and hide behind my walls!”

We are in a time of war and it appears God’s generals have told God’s warriors to stand down. “At this point what difference does it make?” Well, for those standing down they sure won’t make a difference.

Our President is the Commander in Chief of all our armed forces. He and every commanding officer in every branch of our military make tough choices every day that require them to send troops into harm’s way. Some call it, “serving downrange.”

They send troops downrange because there are people down there who are in grave danger.

Jesus, as Head of the church, is Commander in Chief of His kingdom’s “armed” forces. “Arm” in scripture can denote strength, power, and might. God is Almighty! God is all-powerful! We are to walk [live] in the power of His might! We are to do all things through His ability [power, strength, and might].

But God’s generals are not obeying His orders to send warriors to Go! Preach! Heal! Raise the dead! Cleanse lepers [those with communicable diseases]!

Instead of sending them downrange, they have sent them to their personal home on the range. Speaking of the home on the range. The USA is the land of the free and home of the brave, but right now we are more like the land of the fearful and home of the sequestered.

People “downrange” are under attack and dying but no supernatural help is coming. They are on their own!

Right now God is looking at His generals to see if He can find any. If He can’t then He will find some among those who are willing to risk everything to go downrange.

Hypocrisy is pretense. It is claiming to believe something, but when what you say you believe is needed the most you are not in the place it is needed but in your safe place.

COVID-19 is revealing some very unsettling things. Groupthink has turned into group meetings on video conferencing platforms from the platform of a comfortable seat in a personal safe space.

The internet and its various technologies are a great blessing, especially in times of trouble. But they are not a “cure” all for what the world needs now. The world does not need or want to hear over the internet what we say we believe. They need and want to see what we say we believe in action.

Has the church become backseat drivers afraid of taking the wheel and driving into danger zones where life is precarious? Where are God’s “special” forces?

James wrote this about those who said they had faith.

“14 What use is it, my brethren, if someone says he has faith but he has no works? Can that faith save him? 15 If a brother or sister is without clothing and in need of daily food, 16 and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, be warmed and be filled,” and yet you do not give them what is necessary for their body, what use is that?

17 Even so faith, if it has no works, is dead, being by itself. 18 But someone may well say, ‘You have faith and I have works; show me your faith without the works, and I will show you my faith by my works.’

19 You believe that God is one. You do well; the demons also believe, and shudder. [I love this verse because it reveals devils have more faith than deceived disciples]

20 But are you willing to recognize, you foolish fellow, that faith without works is useless?

21 Was not Abraham our father justified by works when he offered up Isaac his son on the altar?

22 You see that faith was working with his works, and as a result of the works, faith was perfected; 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.

24 You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone. 25 In the same way, was not Rahab the harlot also justified by works when she received the messengers and sent them out by another way? 26 For just as the body without the spirit is dead, so also faith without works is dead.” [James 2]

A body without its spirit is dead. So many members of Jesus’ Body operate out of their soul or flesh, and for all intents and God’s purposes are dead.

There has been a lot of blustering in the calm before the storm about faith, but the world is still sitting in sin and disease and disciples of Christ are sitting in the safety of their ease.

John Wimber said, “Faith is spelled RISK!” I don’t see risk right now, therefore I don’t see faith!

Jesus said He would send “another Comforter.” He did not say “another Comfortable.” The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of the Lord Jesus on the inside, and Jesus on the outside was not concerned with His disciple’s comfort. Read the New Testament – Jesus made people very uncomfortable.

One of the many things COVID-19 is exposing in the church is how Romans 13 has ascended above so many other verses, even commands, in the Bible. Believers are using Romans 13 to justify their fear, their lack of faith [trust in and fidelity to God and His commands].

For instance, our governments have said, “Stay at least 6 feet from each other.” Social distance practices have replaced Jesus’ command to lay hands on the sick,

Jesus did not say, “Lay hands of the safe sick.” He said, “Lay hands on the sick.”

Jesus did not say, “Lay hands on the sick when the government clears you to get close enough to the sick to be able to touch them with your hands.” He said, “Lay [your] hands on the sick.”

Have you considered that we are choosing to disconnect God from the people who need Him the most right now?

“What on earth do you mean, Kevin?”

Malachi 4:2 KJV says, “But unto you that fear My name shall the Sun of righteousness arise with healing in His wings;”

  • This is a promise to those who fear God more than man
  • Sun [Son] of righteousness [what God says is right]
  • Arise [not stay hidden in the darkness] and shine [not sequester]
  • Healing [health, the cure, soundness of mind, deliverance, wholeness, restoration of personal and national distress]
  • Wings [extremities, farthest reach [hands]]

Habakkuk 3:4 says this, “His radiance is like the sunlight; He has rays [flashes of light, strength] flashing from His hand, and there is the hiding of His power.” It appears there is a dichotomy of truth in this verse. How can rays flash out of His hand and be hiding at the same time? The hiding speaks of being covered until it is needed. In other words, Jesus did not walk around with lightning bolts constantly firing from His hands. But when His hands were laid on people, fire flowed like a river into those He touched.

What has an abundance of caution and for the greater good accomplished? It eliminated Jesus getting His hands [us] on sick people. The secret of His power has been sequestered away in the safe spaces of those who have surrendered to Romans 13.

It is sad, so very sad! I believe heaven just weeps.

“Kevin, we have live stream where we can reach people.” Great! What will you do when the government cuts that off? You don’t think that will happen? You were not prepared for the order to shut down your ministry and go home! But that is exactly what you did. You heeled and now God cannot use you to heal!

The church is becoming more and more dependant on technology companies and secular government and health agencies. Most of whom are planning on eliminating all the freedoms we enjoy now.

So, do you confess your allegiance to Jesus but have suspended it until COVID-19 passes?

You do realize there were doctors practicing medicine in Jesus’ day? I hear you saying, “Not like they do today!” Correct but it was considered modern medicine in that day. And there is not one verse in the Gospels where Jesus instructed people to go to the doctor. NOT ONE!

Luke was a doctor who followed Paul around.

A woman with an issue of blood making her unclean to her community had spent all she had without seeing success.

And in stepped Jesus! You may refuse to believe it but He wants to step in today too!

There will be another virus and probably another Pandemic in our future. What have you forfeited this time that may have you running out of time – to represent King Jesus?

Receive and steward God’s passion, power, presence, priority, process, promises, protection, provision, pruning, purging, purity, and purpose!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
A radical spiritual revolutionary
Revolution Movement Co-Founder
http://www.revolutionmovement.org
kdrury@revolutionmovement.org

You say you want a revolution! Join our movement and turn your world upside down so God can turn His world right side up!

 

 

 

 

Authenticity!

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, Faithful, LifeGiving, Mandate, Mature, Maturing, Message, Mission, Movement, Revolution, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Teamwork, Training, Transformation

This Blog is the first of three in the series I am calling authenticity, authority and anointing.

These three attributes, or characteristics, are core values that I look for when looking for relationships generally in my life, specifically in the kingdom of God, and especially in those to whom I choose to submit my spiritual well-being.

A lot is being said and written again about women in ministry. I wrote a Blog called Women Ministers on October 26 of this year where I did not delve deeply into the contrived controversy. Instead, I asked a series of logical [to me] questions that I hope will create a hunger to know the truth about this issue.

While this series is not specifically about women, or women ministers, it does involve that vital subject. I would rather sit under the ministry of a woman who is authentic, under God’s authority, and anointed by the Holy Spirit than any man who is not authentic, under God’s authority, and or not anointed by the Holy Spirit.

In fact, a man could be under authority and anointed but if he was not authentic I would never submit my life to him!

Authenticity is such an important virtue! Unfortunately it is becoming more rare, even in the body of Christ. When ministers refuse to preach and teach what they say they believe because of how the people they lead or the people they lead with would respond, they are not being authentic.

According to the Dictionary app on my MacBook Pro, the first definition of authentic is “of undisputed origin.” I love that that is the initial view into the meaning of the word.

Dictionary.com defines authentic thus:

  • Not false or copied; genuine; real
  • Having an origin supported by unquestionable evidence; authenticated; verified
  • Representing one’s true nature or beliefs; true to oneself or to the person identified
  • Entitled to acceptance or belief because of agreement with known facts or experience; reliable; trustworthy

Confusion is not from the Father so if a person is unwilling to authentically represent Him in their life and or ministry then they are causing the origin [Author] of their life, and or ministry to be disputed. Additionally, it is absolutely acceptable to call into question that person and their stated beliefs.

God does not call people to represent Him and then to deny the very things He has revealed to them, in them and through them. PERIOD!

Galatians 3 – “1 You foolish Galatians, who has bewitched you, before whose eyes Jesus Christ was publicly portrayed as crucified? 2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 3 Are you so foolish? Having begun by the Spirit, are you now being perfected by the flesh? 4 Did you suffer so many things in vain—if indeed it was in vain? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?”

Apparently the Galatians had fallen prey to preachers who brought another gospel, one that according to Paul was not the authentic gospel. In part, part of the deception was the denial of the supernatural ministry of the Spirit of God.

“2 This is the only thing I want to find out from you: did you receive the Spirit by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith? 5 So then, does He who provides you with the Spirit and works miracles among you, do it by the works of the Law, or by hearing with faith?” Working miracles is one of the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit.

Do you realize you can admit [not deny] the existence of God and daily deny Him in your life? Jesus said, “Deny me before men, and I will deny you before My Father.”

Are you denying God in your life and or ministry?

How are you denying God in your life?

What has God revealed to you that you have accepted as His truth?

Are you wholeheartedly revealing those things to the people God has called you to lead, or to lead with? This begins in the home by the way!

What is going on in your heart if you are fearful of being authentic with the people you are in community with?

I am not talking about the typical recognized sinful behavior [denying Christ is a sin]. I am talking about authentic encounters with the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ, whether directly or in His Word.

Where are you going? Who are you leading? Where are you leading them?

Are you going into Authenti-City [authentic community]?

Or, are you leading people into confusion, compromise, chaos, and dispute – because that is where you currently reside in your compromise?

Donna and I founded and led a vibrant church for 16 years. We lost count of the times members of other churches would seek our counsel [ministry] because they could not trust the leaders they were in community with. We would ask, “Why are you submitting your soul to someone you do not trust?” Their answer, almost to a person, had to do with non Kingdom matters. We knew that what they received would not be received where they attended church – and that they would remain in the community where compromise was a core-value. Sad!

Authenti City – a rare commodity and community – for sure!

Receive and steward God’s passion, power, presence, priority, process, promises, protection, provision, pruning, purging, purity and purpose!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
A radical spiritual revolutionary
Revolution Movement Co-Founder
http://www.revolutionmovement.org
kdrury@revolutionmovement.org

Trouble? No Trouble!

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Christianity, Disciple, Discipleship, Excellence, Faithful, LifeGiving, Mandate, Mature, Maturing, Message, Mission, Movement, Revolution, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training, Transformation

Months ago I felt in my spirit the Holy Spirit say to me, “Impossibilities are just illusions.” Impossibilities are simply mirages on the road to God’s reality!

When I heard that in my spirit I also heard, “Nothing is impossible with God”, and “All things are possible to them who believe”, and “Only believe” which is what Jesus said to Jairus when he went to raise his daughter from the dead.

People said to Jairus, “Your daughter has died; why trouble the Teacher anymore?” [Mark 5:35]

That is when Jesus said, “Do not be afraid any longer, only believe.” [V36]

I have continued to ponder and process all of this, and I would say now that faith, doubt, and unbelief are always present like low hanging fruit, and we have the option or the opportunity to pick whichever fruit we want to pick and eat.

Doubt and unbelief are both faith, but faith in the wrong person and in the wrong thing.

Doubt and unbelief are rooted in fear, or the lack of believing [trusting in] God, His Word, will and ways!

Doubt and unbelief are simply misplaced and misguided faith.

Faith’s Father is God! Doubt and unbelief’s father is the devil.

So, do not fear any longer. Only believe! Because you are never trouble to the Lord!

Receive and steward God’s passion, power, presence, priority, process, promises, protection, provision, pruning, purging, purity and purpose!

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin
A radical spiritual revolutionary

http://www.revolutionmovement.org

#RevolutionMovement #RM

FACING YOUR GREATEST FEAR

Posted on by under Bible, Christian, Excellence, LifeGiving, Righteousness, School Of The Spirit, Training

When the children of Israel reached the Jordan River they were faced with a supreme challenge from their Supreme Commander.

I am not saying there were not major challenges in the wilderness, nor am I discounting the anxiety that may have been present in those challenges.

I just imagine them standing at the river bank waiting on God to split the waters so they could cross into their place of purpose. Knowing human nature the way I do I can see them staring at the river waiting, waiting, waiting for God to speak to Joshua as He spoke to Moses. “Why are you complaining. What do you have in your hand? Stretch out your “staff”! Stand still and watch Me perform a miracle for you.”

Those instructions never came!

If you are going to place yourself in your place of divine purpose you should not expect God to say what He once said, nor do what He once did. Instead they heard [my paraphrase], “You will have to step into the raging river if you want to enter your promised land.”

Those called to carry the Ark of the Covenant had to step in first. That is the real test of leadership. Can you lead when what you expected to happen is not happening the way you expected?

Will you believe the God you say you believe in? “Be the first to step into the flooded river.”

God said the priests must step into the river!

God said the priests must stand in the river!

God said the priests must stay in the river!

Can you imagine standing still, holding the Ark of the Presence of God on your shoulders, for however long it took anywhere between 1.5 to 5 million people to cross the Jordan River? Only when all of God’s people crossed over were the priests allowed to leave the River.

This is what God actually said, “It shall come about when the soles of the feet of the priests who carry the ark of the Lord, the Lord of all the earth, rest in the waters of the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan will be cut off, and the waters which are flowing down from above will stand in one heap. . . . . 10 For the priests who carried the ark were standing in the middle of the Jordan until everything was completed that the Lord had commanded Joshua to speak to the people, according to all that Moses had commanded Joshua. And the people hurried and crossed; 11 and when all the people had finished crossing, the ark of the Lord and the priests crossed before the people.” [Joshua 3:13; 4:10,11]

Until we learn to rest in God will we will never discover the rest of God. We will also never rest in the ever changing and unsettling world we live in and are called to settle.

Did you notice how God identified Himself? He did not call Himself the Lord God of Israel. He called Himself the Lord of all the earth. This is a huge pronouncement that many have missed.

God identifies Himself, or is identified, as the God of Israel over 200 times. All but 2 of those are in the Old Testament. Yet here in Joshua 3 He identifies Himself by a different name, The Lord of all the earth, 2 times. The first time is in verse 11, “Behold, the ark of the covenant of the Lord of all the earth is crossing over ahead of you into the Jordan.”

The is the first time in Scripture God identifies Himself by this name!

The Presence of God, carried on the shoulders of certain priests of God, preceded the people of God into that which was flooded, moving swiftly, and was very unstable!

The Jordan River begins at the foot of Mount Hermon to the north and empties into the Dead Sea to the south. The Jordan descends approximately 3100 feet from its headwaters to the Dead Sea where it ends its journey. At the time of Jesus the Jordan could reach almost 5000 feet wide. Today it is no where near that width.

Jordan means to descend, to decline, to be brought down, among other things. It ends in the Dead Sea. The metaphor is representative of a person whose life is in decline and heading toward death.

This is what happened to the water once the priests settled in their place of rest in the middle of the River. “The waters which were flowing  down from above stood and rose up in one heap, a great distance away at Adam.” [Joshua 3:16]

Adam is the man of sin whose sin brought death into the human race! By rolling the water all the way back to Adam God was saying everything Adam passed on to man was being rolled back, off of and away from those entering their place of promise.

Why would God do that? Why would God do that at this moment in history? Why would God identify Himself as the Lord of all the earth right there, right then?

I am convinced that God identifies Himself this way to the children of Israel as the Lord of all the earth because the promise of a promise land was made to Abram, before he became Abraham, the converted covenant man of faith.

We find that promise promised the first time in Acts 7 when Stephen is testifying before the Sanhedrin. “2 The God of glory appeared to our father Abraham when he was in Mesopotamia, before he lived in Haran, 3 and said to him, ‘Leave your country and your relatives, and come into the land that I will show you.'”

In Genesis 12 God told Abram the 2nd time, when he was in Haran, to leave his father’s house and go to the land that He would show him and eventually give to him.

In Genesis 12:3 God preached the gospel to Abram when He said to him, “And in you all the nations of the earth will be blessed.” Paul tells us in Galatians 3:8 this was the gospel being preached to Abraham.

Paul writes in Romans 4:13, “For the promise to Abraham or to his descendants that he would be heir of the world was not through the Law, but through the righteousness of faith [believing God and staying faithful to God].”

Are you aware that just like the descendants of faithful Abraham, you will have to step into your greatest challenge to reach your promised purpose. When you do you position yourself to change the entire world, or at the least your entire world.

In the Old Testament there were a select few of the priests chosen by God to carry the Ark of His Presence. In the New Testament every born again believer is a priest called to carry God’s presence.

Will you risk it all in front of all those following you?

If not, you disqualify yourself from being God’s leader! Why? If you are waiting on someone else to take the risk you are called to take you automatically become a follower!

On the surface the flooded River the children of Israel stood before looked scary, inconvenient and very risky. They did not realize under the turbulent surface was a place of rest!

Below the surface stood dry ground and stones of remembrance that were to remind them what deliverance is all about, as well as their part in participating in their deliverance.

Leaders must learn to rest in what God is saying so they can rest in where God says to take a stand.

Leaders take the maximum risk so that the rest of God’s people’s transition will be much less stressful. Welcome to the school of the Spirit in leadership training!

I can imagine the fear they had to face when the reality set in that the God who had delivered them from Egyptian bondage with a strong right hand of power and authority, and had kept them in their 40 year wilderness wanderings with that same power and authority, now was telling them they have to take a huge step of faith into their place of divine purpose, trusting they would not perish in the process of going from wandering and wondering in a wilderness to accepting full responsibility for possessing all the promises God had made to them while they were in bondage.

They were told manna would no longer fall from heaven! In the place of their purpose they would have to work the land that had unlimited resources. The land had full provision but they would have to labor in the land to extract it and benefit from it.

Provision would not fall from heaven. It would come from the land [promises] they were to live in and possess!

In the land of promise they would have to confront their enemies and dispossess them from what God had promised to them.

Making a decision to be proactive in uprooting everything in our lives that stands in opposition to and in the way of God’s perfect plan for us is a prerequisite to our possessing our possessions.

In the New Testament we learn we do not battle against flesh and blood. This is true! Our enemies are not other people.

Our primary enemy is ourselves! The devil is not our primary enemy. Our primary enemy is our own flesh [carnal, sinful, immature and irresponsible ways]! Paul says in Romans that our flesh is at enmity with our new true identity in Christ and that it wars against the Spirit of God, and the Spirit wars against it.

The devil is already dispossessed and he only has access to our possessions when we invite him to feed at our table of timidity and carnality.

Another way to look at God telling His leaders to step into and stand in the midst of the river is ‘rivers’ stand for moves of the Holy Spirit and the various anointing’s that are  resident in the Holy Spirit, in you.

“Out of your belly shall flow rivers of living water. This Jesus spoke of the Holy Spirit who they had not yet received.”

Stepping into, standing in and resting in the moving of God’s Spirit and His anointing on your life is vital to functioning as one of His leaders. If we are not moving with God we become the clog that creates hinderances to where He is moving. The world we are called to transform will only be transformed after we are transformed by His Presence and anointing.

What is your greatest challenge in the context of and in conflict with what God has promised you?

What appears on the surface to be so unstable because it is constantly shifting that you stand shaking on the shoreline opposite your divine purpose?

What is sitting under all that appears shifting and unstable just waiting for you to step into the very substance that creates consternation, waiting for you to stand there, and to find a rest that you never thought you would find?

What world is waiting on you to transform as you tremble in fear facing what appears to be traumatically terrifying?

God delivered you from where you were in order to deliver you into your place of purpose where He has always seen you successfully possessing your possessions [promises]!

Will you face your greatest fear and fearlessly and faithfully move forward?

Dr. Kevin M. Drury, DMin

A Hisstorymaker