Job 3:25
“For the thing which I greatly feared is come upon me, and that which I was afraid of is come unto me.” KJV
One way or another, many of us are in a time of transition from the things we accomplished in the last season to the new season God has for us. However, for lack of understanding of when the Kingdom of heaven moves and how His Spirit leads us to move with it, transitioning in the natural and in the spirit may trigger a great number of people, believers or not, to approach it as they have in the past—with fear.
Embracing fear which paralyzes us, gets us stuck in situations we’re supposed to move on from, or causes us to run from situations, relationships, or places where we’re supposed to stay, leads us to anger and bitterness, pride and rebellion, or can cause us to want to control and manipulate situations and people so the outcome of those circumstances fuels the fear. But, without realizing it, our constant agreement with this spirit produces an entanglement, until we experience what we greatly feared which may look like a stormy harvest of judgment.
Why is this? Because fear keeps us from accessing the blessings, inheritance, and rewards God has for us because He loves us. Our lack of understanding of God's unconditional love (unlimited and not needing to work to earn it, receive it by faith), instead drives us to stay away from a relationship with Him and expect punishment for every wrongdoing big or small.
1 John 4:18
“There is no fear in love [dread does not exist]. But perfect (complete, full-grown) love drives out fear, because fear involves [the expectation of divine] punishment, so the one who is afraid [of God’s judgment] is not perfected in love [has not grown into a sufficient understanding of God’s love].” AMP
As we see in the initial passage, this happened to Job. The Bible says in chapter 1 verse 1 that Job “…was a very good man—his character spotless, his integrity unquestioned. In fact, he so believed in God that he sought to honor Him in all things. He deliberately avoided evil in all of his affairs.” Voice
With such a description and God’s approval of him, how could Job encounter a trial to such a degree that he lost so much, including his family, his health, and his vast possessions? The answer is that his character was not in question, but his hidden fear of God judging his children (7 sons and 3 daughters) for any secret sins or grudges they may have had against Him deep in their hearts.
This man who, according to Scripture was the most powerful and influential man of his time faulted in a way that heaven was not dismissing. He repeatedly demonstrated a lack of trust in God for his children’s lives and for their hearts. Job didn’t trust in God’s ability to turn them to Himself to be just as devoted to Him as their father. This is considered pride because if our knowledge and understanding of God is based only on past experiences, then we're limited in our knowledge of Him who can do exceedingly and abundantly above what we can ask, think, or imagine.
Trusting the God of our salvation and the leading of His Spirit with the outcomes He chooses for our situations when we obey His leading, helps us to see things from a different perspective, whether the outcome favors us or not. Our focus, then is not on self which is what fear does. This provokes negative feelings and our imagination to travel to a land of doubt, unbelief, conformity, comparison, and even accusation of others.
But as believers we walk by faith, that is, trusting in Him and His love, provision, and protection, and walk focused on Him and on those He wants us to bless however He leads us to do it. This does not negate that we have needs, but when we acknowledge Him first as our greatest necessity knowing that He already knows what we need even when that need is for love, feeling valued, and being cared for, and that He’s able to supply those needs, fear loses ground.
John 20:29
“Jesus said to him, ‘Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’” ESV
But going back to the issue of Job’s fear that led him to experience what he dreaded the most, we can then see what heaven saw and needed to be exposed to him. Job faced judgment by the accusations of his friends that in the end didn’t prove his lack of character or a lack of integrity. Instead, what exposed the culprit in his life was God’s confrontation which exposed him to his prideful lack of trust in Him for what he didn't know or acknowledge concerning the hearts of his children and how God could turn them to Himself or not.
Job 41:34
“‘He looks on everything that is high [without terror];
He is monarch over all the sons of pride. [And now, Job, who are you who does not dare to disturb the beast, yet who dares resist Me, the beast’s creator? Everything under the heavens is Mine; therefore, who can have a claim against God?]”
Job 41 describes to us very detailed aspects about Leviathan, a beast God created, that Scripture says no one can resist or confront. Yet, we know throughout Scripture that people who walk in pride are influenced by this demonic entity which twists information and is the spirit behind misunderstandings, strife, and false accusations. And because we learned that pride is also rooted in fear, Job needed to acknowledge and learn to deal with his circumstances with trust in God and in His ways.
Job 42:3-6
3 “‘[You said to me] ‘Who is this that darkens and obscures counsel [by words] without knowledge?’
Therefore [I now see] I have [rashly] uttered that which I did not understand,
Things too wonderful for me, which I did not know.
4 ‘’Hear, please, and I will speak;
I will ask You, and You instruct [and answer] me.’
5 “‘I had heard of You [only] by the hearing of the ear,
But now my [spiritual] eye sees You.
6 “‘Therefore I retract [my words and hate myself]
And I repent in dust and ashes.”
After coming to this understanding and ability to trust God with every detail of his life and His sovereignty, Job was restored double for his losses and the latter days of his life were better than the first.
That is why I exhort you to seek and allow the God who has good thoughts towards you and not of evil, to give you a good future and fill you with the hope that you will see His promises (Jeremiah 29:11) of life in abundance, to the fullest, and till it overflows (John 10:10), to guide you by His Spirit into what He has for you in the next season. For it is not by power, nor by might, but by the Spirit of the Lord (Zechariah 4:6) and not by allowing fear to keep you from trusting Him and what He can do, that you will reach your predestined destiny (Ephesians 2:10), and be transformed into your true identity in Him.
To God alone be all the glory.*
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