What's The Difference?

It seems like I just can’t get away from Joshua 1:9 and what I consider to be its New Testament counterpart found in II Timothy 1:7.  If you’ll recall some of our earlier posts, you will remember the comments that I had made about the different way that God interacted with His children in the two Biblical testaments.  In the Old Testament the children of God were not born again.  Therefore God had to deal with them on a strictly physical basis.  Without the love nature inside them, they could only react to God through their senses.  Therefore when He spoke to Joshua, He “commanded” him to be strong, confident and courageous.  Joshua responded to God’s instructions out of honor, love and respect, but also with a contingency of fear.  It was this fear of God that partially drove Him to successfully complete the calling on His life. 

In the New Testament, through the finished work of Christ, God’s children have been given a new heart filled with the love nature of their Heavenly Father.  Now God, through His Holy Spirit in us, can communicate directly with each of us individually, without us having or receiving any sense of guilt, inferiority or fear.  Our sins have been totally forgiven and we can NOW stand pure, holy and confidently before Him.  (see Hebrews 9:11-28)

In II Timothy 1:7 we see the difference between the two covenants.  While He “commanded” Joshua in the OT, He instead, encourages us through Paul to the young Pastor Timothy in the New Testament: “For God did not give a spirit of cowardice to us, but of power and of love and of a self control.”  (Literal Translation of the Holy Bible)  The point being that today, God cannot deal with us through an attachment of fear because our newly created spirit (the real you) cannot respond to it anymore.  Our spirits do not know what fear is, because there is NO fear in the real you anymore!  We do not need to be “commanded” to have strength, confidence and courage.  Its counterparts of power, love and self control have NOW been freely given to us as part of what Jesus has done for us!

Fear should be as a stranger, a foreigner and as an alien apparition to Believers. Our new man or women is able to face the difficulties of life with the boldness and confidence that Jesus demonstrated during His earth walk.  Why?  Because He is the head and we are now part of His body.  And as the head does, so does the rest of the body.

Chew on that for awhile.  Is that the way you face your day?  I had to fight through that reality this morning.  But, I came to a quick conclusion though.  I realized that since I have made Him the “strong and sure anchor” of my life” and that “God cannot lie,” (Hebrews 6:18-19) I therefore had no right or ability to hang on to inhibition and fear.  I chose instead to take Him at His word and “command” my feelings and my thoughts to line up with who He says I am.  I do not walk in fear, but in His power, in His love nature and with His self control.  What decision will you come to today?

Stay tuned and keep asking yourself… “What decisions of Power, Love and Self Control am I expecting to make today?”