Fear Not - False Gods
Scripture Reading - Judges 6:10 KJV
And I said unto you, I am the LORD your God; fear not the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but ye have not obeyed my voice.
Greetings fellow believer in the Awesome Name of Jesus may God’s Grace smile upon you this day while he fills you with all Peace. Today we will continue in our “Fear Not” series. In a previous lesson we highlighted the fact that worry comes from fear. If we can remove the fear from the situation, event, circumstance, sickness, government, leadership, person, etc. . . we will also remove the worry associated with that fear. Thank God through Jesus Christ we can remove the fear. According 1 John 4:18, “There is no fear in love but perfect (mature, sincere, pure, untainted, developed) love casts out fear.” In another previous lesson we mentioned that we don’t need to fear protection primarily for two reasons: one - God is always with us and two - The Lord’s ministering spirits known as the angels of God are encamped round about us continuously. The key is knowing divine help is always available and acknowledging God in all our ways so He can direct our paths. In a previous lesson we looked at not fearing a lack of provision because you are a child of God. Yes, your Heavenly Father greatly delights in you because He loves you so much. His desire is to not only feed you naturally but His Will is that you are well fed both spiritually and physically having more than what you need for that specific meal. In another previous lesson we discussed not fearing the curse(s) of the Law because The Blessing(s) of God are promised to the children of God. Yes, in Christ Jesus we are redeemed from the curses of the Law. The Blessing is twofold: 1) - We inherited all The Blessings of the Law as children of God while at the same time 2) - We were (and are) promised complete deliverance from all the curses of the Law, so there is no need to fear. We also shared about not fearing relocation because God is with us and we can communicate with God anything and everything that concerns us. In these times of trouble and conflict we covered not fearing war. This means even the threat of war should not make us afraid because we have God with us individually before, during and after war. We then looked at not fearing your enemies which could be someone in your own family or someone at work on your job or maybe a neighbor who really doesn’t like you, etc . . . The key is knowing how to treat them and keeping a positive attitude so that they can’t steal your joy. We also spoke about not fearing your assignment (career, calling, ministry, occupation, project, etc. . .) which basically means pray about the task at hand looking for God’s guidance. Allow The Good Lord to help you by ordering your steps such that His Will is done then you can guarantee success because the work is pleasing to God which pleases your heart and gains you favor with both God and man. In today’s lesson we will highlight not fearing “False God’s”. Notice first that we said false gods (plural) because false gods are plenteous in the earth today. Some think they are all outside of America but that is not true. “No” false Gods are all over this nation just like they are plenteous in foreign lands also. We could never name the plethora of false gods and sharing all the information about them is not our intent. We want to obey the scripture found in Romans 16:19 KJV which states, “For your obedience is come abroad unto all men. I am glad therefore on your behalf: but yet I would have you wise unto that which is good, and simple concerning evil.” Our Loving Father and Good Lord Jesus would not have us to be mindful of all the evil going on in the earth today. No, The Lord would much rather that we are very knowledgeable about Him and the goodness of God in the land of the living. The Lord told the Children of Israel to not fear the gods (notice it is plural) of the Amorites not because they didn’t exist but rather that He, as their God, was greater in strength, might and knowledge than any gods on earth, inside of the earth and even any god outside the earth’s atmosphere. Yes, according to 1 John 4:3-4 KJV which states, “And every spirit that confesseth not that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh is not of God: and this is that spirit of antichrist, whereof ye have heard that it should come; and even now already is it in the world. Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world.” In some cases, following a false god doesn’t mean you bow down to an image everyday but rather if you are following/repeating/acting like or displaying the same fruit as them you are worshipping that specific god even though our Living Loving God is much greater. Yes, our Good God is greater than all the evil gods put together plus one (Satan). Since, our God lives in us that makes us greater than all the evilness and wickedness that tries to persuade us (influence us) to follow them by doing (practicing) the works of darkness which are evil. Some of the false gods go by names so don’t follow the religious acts that represents their doctrine (teaching) to worship them a certain way. This list would include examples like: Satan, Baal, demons, etc. Some false gods go by topic and/or pursuit so if that is the case don’t elevate the thing/action to a throne in your heart that is higher than God. This list would include topic such as the love of money (the god of greed), the lust of the flesh (the god of evil desires), sexual sins (adultery, fornication, etc…), seeking fame and fortune (lust of the world, the image of Hollywood and the many sins that go with it, seeking to control people and situations (seeking to be a leader in the world’s system). Remember Satan said, “I will arise . . .”, instead of being humble and content with the evaluated position God had already given him.-Refer to Isaiah 14:12-17 There is, of course, many other examples but you get our point. The key is not knowing them (the evil ones) but rather knowing Him (Our Loving Heavenly Father and our Savior Jesus Christ). The Lord sent us The Holy Spirit to teach us and guide us. Therefore, our part is to become familiar with His leadings and promptings so that we can follow Him closely. Also, we must study the scriptures to know God’s Word better because the Word of God and the Holy Spirit of God do agree. Many say they want to know God better or they want to know Jesus better and we (ihlcc) say, “Yes and Amen!” However, when we ask them how much time do you spend studying and reading the Holy Bible they suddenly become speechless. Thus, they will never know God intimately simply because they won’t spend the necessary time fellowshipping with God’s Word which is the knowledge of God which is God’s Will which is God all-in-all. We do love you precious child of God and you know your Heavenly Father and Jesus loves you much too. We (ihlcc) are simply stating know God well enough to know what is not God and avoid that at all cost. Yes, spend time daily reading and studying the Word of God, which is Jesus, to know Jesus better because doing that gives the Holy Spirit something to work with when it comes to leading you in the ways of God. If we both (you and us) do that faithfully we will be lead into all truth and that truth we learn will keep us free in Jesus Name. “Amen!”