Fear is a Liar

What do you believe in?

Who do you listen to?

What you believe and who you listen to will determine how you live.

The people of Israel were at the edge of the promise land. Moses had sent twelve men over into the promise land to scout it out.

In Numbers 13:27-28 the report from the men who had gone to the promised land is recorded.

They say, “We went into the land to which you sent us, and it does flow with milk and honey! Here is its fruit. But the people who live there are powerful and the cities are fortified and very large. We even saw descendants of Anak there.”

The Israelites were instructed by God to take a land that already had people living on it. It would be a huge challenge.

The men who scouted it out said two things about the land:

It was as God told them it would be - flowing with milk and honey.

It was inhabited by people who were bigger and stronger than them.

It was covered by strong, fortified cities.

They were saying, “The land is awesome but the people are too strong and the cities too fortified for us to be able to take it.”

They were afraid of what they saw. They felt it was beyond their ability to obey what God commanded, to take the land.

They listened to the ten men who believed what they saw and said they could not take the land.

They believed what they could see and listened to their own fear.

As a result, the people of Israel refused to cross over and take the land. They wandered for the next forty years and the generation that were adults never entered land that God had promised for their home.

In verse 30, two of the twelve men voiced a different opinion. They said, “We should go up and take possession of the land, for we can certainly do it.”

These two men had seen the same circumstances in the land that the other ten men had seen. What was the difference?

Caleb and Joshua believed God when He told them to go and take the land.  They listen to God’s voice, not the voice of fear that the others had listened to.

They were the only two people of that generation that entered the promised land.

When you look at Jesus, few would have anticipated His victory. Few things about Jesus’ life communicated that Jesus would be the victorious King of all creation. The truth is, it appeared to be just the opposite.

Jesus was born in a barn, to very ordinary parents, in obscurity. He ministered as an untrained, itinerant rabbi. He died the death of a common criminal.

Yet God the Father used Jesus, His life, death, and resurrection, to defeat all the enemies we as humans have no chance against: Satan, sin, and death.

We as followers of Jesus also find ourselves, as the Israelites did, facing what looks to us like overwhelming conditions.

How do we not believe the conditions and listen to the fear?

1 John 4:4

You dear children, are from God and have overcome them, because the one who is in you is greater than the one who is in the world.

First thing is that we believe that He who is in us, the Holy Spirit, is greater than he who is in the world, Satan.

One of the areas I have had the most fear about in my adult years is money. I used to get very fearful if our bank account felled below a certain level. I was trusting the level of our bank account more than I was trusting God. I had to come to believe that no matter what the bank account said, God was bigger. I had to trust that God would take care of us and provide for us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is believing Jesus, not circumstances.

1 John 4:18

There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.

The second thing is that we believe and rely on the perfect agape love of Jesus.

We as followers of Jesus don’t have to wake up every day wondering if we have done something to tick God off and He will then bring punishment on us. God’s love should cast out our fear because His love is unconditional and has no limits. That doesn’t mean God doesn’t punish sin. But God is not just not waiting around to pour out punishment on us. His grace means that He wants more than anything to bless us through His love for us.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is trusting God’s love and letting it get rid of fear.

Matthew 6:33

But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well.

The third thing is to focus on Jesus and His kingdom.

When I focus on my needs, it leads to worry.

When I focus on Jesus and His provision, it leads to hope and peace.

When God’s people seek Him and His kingdom, He will provide what we need.

Raise the Roof and Remove the Walls is seeking God’s kingdom above all else with no rivals and trusting God to provide all that we need.

Zack Williams has a song called Fear is a Liar. In the song he sings about all the lies that fear tries to convince us of.

We need to believe God, not the lies of the enemy.

Believing Jesus, and Raising the Roof and Removing the Walls,

Joe