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Consolation Ministries

Scott Ritsema

Abraham and the Ancient Blood Path

We're picking up the story of Abraham in Genesis 15 right after, well not right after, but after a few chapters of Abraham being called by God.

You know when God called Abraham he said, I'm going to make a great nation out of you so that you can be blessed and enjoy yourself.

It's so that you will be a blessing, right?

We enjoy fellowship with God and the blessings of salvation and the hope of eternal life, But ultimately our calling is that we might be a blessing.

This land you will inherit and you will have descendants here and all nations of the earth will be blessed through you.

Now right before Genesis 15, he goes to battle.

He's now fighting, remember the 5 kings against 4 with Chedder, Laomer and his allies, and Lot had gotten now Abraham into this mess.

He's thinking, I'm supposed to be a blessing to all nations and now I'm fighting with these nations and we haven't conquered and when will this inheritance be realized?

So It says in the spirit of prophecy at this point in his life, it says Abraham's mind was disturbed with harassing thoughts.

And he's wondering at this point, Am I going to be the special object of the vengeance of these kings who were defeated in the battle that Abraham was victorious in?

Does that sound like a place you have been at some point?

How do we correct thoughts that intrude upon our minds, that are harassing, that are dark, that are depressing, that are stressful and anxious and fearful?

Let's begin in Genesis 15 and right in verse 1 it says, After these things the word of the Lord came unto Abraham in a vision, saying, Fear, what's the next word?

He goes on to say, I am your shield and your very great reward.

We'll come back to that, but keep your finger in Genesis 15 and turn over to 2 Timothy 1 verse 7 also.

This is a powerful text about fear and the opposites of fear.

I didn't say the opposite of fear, I said the opposites.

We're going to see 3 opposites of fear in 2nd Timothy chapter 1 verse 7.

It says, For God hath not given us a spirit of what?

So what has he given us to replace the fear?

Apparently having a sound mind is 1 of the opposites of fear.

The fear that paralyzes us, where we feel like we're a victim to the harassing thoughts that intrude and dominate and we're like we're not even choosing our own thoughts.

Well we can have a sound mind replace the fear.

Do you know about the frontal lobe of the brain?

The fear is happening in the limbic system, particularly the amygdala of the brain.

The fear circuits that fire off and predominate and give us that anxious feeling, but the logical, rational capacity, the spiritual claiming of promise and grasping on by faith to the hopeful hand of Jesus Christ happens in the frontal lobe.

And when you do that, when you have the frontal lobe engaged, what the Bible says about be anxious for nothing starts to transpire and the amygdala are calmed.

The 2 are opposites, amygdala or limbic system and the frontal lobe.

That's a beautiful promise that God says, come now, let us reason together and we can have a sound mind prayerfully and powerfully by following his program and plan for us.

Now, did you know that if we hang out in that place of fear and anxiety.

Did you see this study that came out just a couple of weeks ago.

The strongest risk factor for death from COVID is of course obesity.

My friends, I'm going to hurt your feelings to save your life.

I'm not saying that as somebody who's got it all together either.

We all struggle with appetite and the lust of the flesh.

But we've got to win that battle because that's the number 1 risk factor.

And that's somebody who's in the hospital and they're panicking and they're fearful and they're anxious.

That's the second leading risk factor for death from COVID.

And I was really happy to see Liberty and Health Alliance, which I am privileged to be a part of, have a guest host or a guest on on the program on the live stream just a couple weeks ago, Dr.

Dana, did anybody catch this, by the way, some of you saw this.

Dana talking about mental health conditions during COVID, and how to gain victory over them.

Because this isn't a whole talk on mental health this morning.

I've got to plug this so you guys can go there for the source of victory in a program from a professional psychologist, Dr.

It's called Scott Ritzem and Belt of Truth.

And you'll find that video as 1 of the most recent releases.

Now back in 2 Timothy 1 verse 7, God hath not given us a spirit of fear, but what else has he given us?

Like it's the very core of the great controversy.

God is love at the beginning of the conflict of the ages series.

God is love at the end of the conflict of the ages series.

First John 4 verse 8, the very definition of God is his character of love.

If God is love, then fear is of the devil.

And I don't mean fear God and give glory to him.

That is a healthy respect and admiration and awe of the living God.

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Abraham and the Ancient Blood Path

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