No Longer a Slave to Fear
Pastor Pete and Suzan spent three days in a hospital room at UCLA this week. Suzan was experiencing double vision so they scheduled an appointment with a highly recommended oncologist at UCLA. The doctors immediately admitted her to perform tests to see if they could determine the cause of her double vision. They found fluid in her brain and ran tests to see if the pressure was increasing. They found no indications of increasing pressure or any new cancer. The specialists concluded that her double vision may be a side effect of her gamma knife surgery following the surgery to remove the tumor in her brain.
Pete and Suzan are thankful for their prayer Warriors who are carrying her through this ordeal.
Romans 8 reminds us what’s really important through the trials of life this side of heaven. Our greatest fight is to get to the point that we are convinced that “I’m no longer a slave to fear, I am a child of God.” Either you’re fearful or faithful. The enemy will give you innumerable reasons to be filled with fear. However, thou will keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusts in thee. God always makes his Sovereign decisions with the best interest of his children in mind. He has prepared the way before us…for we are his workmanship created in Christ Jesus unto good works which he as foreordained that we should walk in it. Ministry is a choice. We get to change our attitude according to His will, not according to circumstances and situation. Our responsibility is to choose an attitude of awe and gratitude. It’s not about us, it’s about him…for his glory and not ours. God continues to bless us despite the trails and through the storms of life.
When Jehoshaphat went into the battle, he put the praise and worship band on the front lines. The praise of God will go before us and will surround us when the battle belongs to the Lord.
The end of Romans 7 concludes with Paul’s lament…”What I want to do, I don’t do, but what I don’t want to do, I do. O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this dead body?” How shall we respond to this question? When the crisis comes and courage is required God expects his men to have such confidence in him, that we will be the reliable ones. God shakes us to get rid of the extraneous things of life. What remains is that which is true and faithful. The decisions that we make through the crises of life build our character and our faithfulness.
The answer to Paul’s lament in Romans 7 is the theme of Romans 8:1-11. “There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus…. For the (New Testament) law of the spirit of life in Christ has made me free from the (Old Testament) law of sin and death. For what the old law could not do in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own son in the likeness of sinful flesh and for sin condemned sin in the flesh that the righteousness of the law might be fulfilled in us who walk not after the flesh but after the spirit.
For they that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh; but they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit.
For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace.
Because the carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be.
So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.
But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his.
And if Christ be in you, the body is dead because of sin; but the Spirit is life because of righteousness.
But if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in you, he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you.”
Are our minds set on the things of the flesh and of the world or are our minds set on the things of the spirit of God in Christ in us? God works behind the scenes and we don’t see or understand what he’s working in us and through us. In this life we are unaware of the things that God is orchestrating behind the scenes. We are being carried along according to his grace and mercy. He carries us as we put our faith and trust in him. He will not let us sink if he says “come walk on the water with me.” He will lift us up and sustain us as long as our eyes and our focus are on Him in the midst of the storm. God is still faithful to his word…he said “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” These are the lessons that we learn through the storms of life.
The options are to be men of fear or men of faith. The choice is ours. The battle rages on for the flesh lusts against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh. God has given us the spiritual armor to protect through the spiritual battle. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood but against spiritual wickedness from on high.
We are on His mission, not our own. Our challenge is to make His mission our mission. We will fail some of the tests in this life. However, there is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus. Who is he that condemns? Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? Nay, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loved us.
God allows the unsaved to rebuke us when we are not walking in fellowship with our Lord. Through the trials of this life, God says, “I’ve got this.” He will carry us through the storms of life and through the fiery trials and tribulations.
Next week Pete and Suzan are going back to MD Anderson in Houston to follow up on Suzan’s gamma knife treatment. They have learned to appreciate the environment where the people are upbeat and committed to serving their patients in this state of the art cancer facility. Pete and Suzan are resolved that no matter the “news” from the follow up at MD Anderson, there is neither good news nor bad news. Their purpose in this life is the true good news, the gospel of Jesus Christ. As Paul said, whether I live or die, my purpose is “the furtherance of the Gospel.” May our lives be a true witness and a testimony of the grace and mercy of our living Lord. “For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, Nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
May God richly bless you!
Your brother in Christ,
Michael