Our righteousness is not earned or maintained by our own efforts; but by God's character having full play with in us and the love relationship we are having with God the Father; the same as Jesus had with God the Father. Second; a born again child of God must have a vision and truly have a witness from with in and not just head knowledge of the meaning of righteousness but; he must be participating in this process through the power of the Holy Ghost with in them. These four verses identify the spiritual arena that we all have to learn to live in and allow God to protect us if; we are going to mature and walk in victory.

A Christian must be able to have a higher wisdom then his own and agree with the fact that; the Christian experience goes threw the valley of the shadow of death and only by him dying to self and abandoning his entire being and depending on God; will make him able to walk through it with peace and safety. There must be no denial in God's children and them living like an ostrich with their head in the sand causing them to not acknowledge this type of walk. The recognition of this fact makes a person know how desperately they need the love of God if it is their intent is to live a victorious Christian life and be protected by Him.

There must be a sound minded witness within in you that; you know the heart of God as a true Sheppard and are able to make a free will choice whether you want to have Him lead you into green pastures, beside still waters and have your soul restored. Now remember; your soul represents your intellect, will and emotions, the real you. As I said earlier; we can choose to follow love which is righteousness, peace and joy with the Holy Ghost or fear, which produces agitating passion and moral conflicts through Satanic influence.

There is no middle road. It is either one or the other. When a born again child of God remains ignorant of the forces at work to destroy God's creation and not recognize the power they have to be strong in the Lord; they become God's sheep being lead to be slaughtered. Being ignorant of God's word is death to mankind. To those who have not become born again children of God their death is a eternity in hell and to the born again believer their death; is living as crippled co- dependent bruised children looking for love in all the wrong places.

A born again believer must be going to the school of the scriptures and having the Holy Ghost our Godly Professor and friend make our thoughts and ways straight and firm. It's only by us having a real loving relationship with Him; that will give our life true meaning.

This valley of the shadow of death is defined in the Hebrew translation as a spirit bringing the soul of a man into becoming an arrogant and self exalted attitude about one self. It is a deception that makes us believe that our self sufficiency is found in our self. In our desire to find happiness and our intension to be good in our ignorance of God's ways; we exalt our self and believe that our way of reasoning is God's way of reasoning.

This is in deed a subtle deception which causes us to live in distress and anguish at times. There is no Godly rest for those who become imprisoned by this shadow. This is why we must have an open and transparent relationship with the Holy Ghost and allow Him to search our heart and thoughts and warn us if; we have any wicked and self righteous thinking that is causing us to do harm to our self. In reality this is the spirit of fear which brings torment to God's creation and as a child of God; we need to recognize this spirit and let the love of God that is flowing through our being defeat and set us free from any encumbrances that is trying to stop us from our God ordained destiny for our life.

Proverbs 3:5-7 states. "Trust in the Lord with all of your heart and lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge him and He shall direct your path. Do not be wise in your eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil."

I personally take issue with so called leaders who declare that God's kids are deliberately planning to do evil. This shadow of death that we all have to deal with is the spirit of fear and evil that is dominating God's kids because; they do not truly know that they are God's children with His anointing given to them to over come this enemy. They have never been trained to do spiritual warfare in the heavenlies and fight the good fight of faith. A born again believer must truly know the rules of warfare in the heavenly realm and recognize the difference between the Holy Ghost and demonic religious influences that task a person to death.

These are two different spiritual mind sets between being motivated by fear that makes you believe that you are not in control of your surroundings and you live with strong spiritual illusions, that have no rational basis, causing you believe something is going to happen verses having a fear of the Lord; which represents having a reverence or high regard for the Lord with admiration and deep respect. When we allow the Lord to love on us; it gives you an appreciation for His personal attention and delivers us from these illusions.

Our soul prospers in this type relationship which again represents our intellect, will and emotions. The main attack of the devil is to put a doubt in God's children that; they are not truly loved by Him. Fear makes a person focus on self and working at protecting them self from danger. They can not abandon them self and cast all their care on God because; they don't truly trust Him. Intimacy with passion and total involvement with a living God is the norm for a child of God. God is not a commandment or a rule of law or some invisible force that does not want to share our fellow feelings of life. When we God as our first love; it produces loving relationship with one another.

Psalms 23 states that; it is God's rod and staff that comforts us. Let's define from the Hebrew Concordance what God's rod and staff represents and how we can be grounded in God and let Him comfort us.

The word rod in the Hebrew Concordance is shebet: It means; 1.) A group of people who are all members of a particular family. 2.) A child or descendant of a family, especially a rich, famous, or important family. 3.) Part of a plant for grafting: a living shoot or twig of a plant used for grafting to a stock. There must come awareness with in the born again believer how this applies and relates to them as God's children. This must be a living relationship with God which is a permanent umbilical cord connection of passionate and daily awareness of a living God who longs to have a continual conversation with His children.

In 1Peter 2:9 tells us. " God's children are a chosen generation a royal priest hood, a dedicated people; God's own purchased special people that have been set forth to do wonderful deeds and display the virtues and perfections of Him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light."

Mankind with all their wisdom and effort to walk uprightly in their attempt to please God has nothing to do with the rod of God. Our born again experience was God's ordained plan and miracle working power that took our old unregenerate nature that we were born with and by our interacting and being spiritually baptized in the blood of Jesus that He shed at the cross; took the scales off of our spiritual understanding and engrafted us into His nature by God's sperm and we became His children. This happened not by good works but by His mercy and love. No office or special intellectual mind or priestly robes can add to God's love and kindness to His creation.

We were adopted into God's family separated and protected from the wisdom of the world into His Heavenly Kingdom as His children and no power above the earth, in the earth or under the earth can ever break this umbilical cord connection between God and his kids. A child of God who wants to grow and have a loving relationship with their Heavenly Father must really believe and walk in this understanding with power if; they intend to over come this spirit of fear. As God's love is a living entity of influence on our soul so is the living entity of fear an influence on our soul.

God's children must have a vision of the high place they hold in Christ and believe that; this is their God given inheritance. This vision must be firmly written on the fleshy tables of their heart before they will be able to ask God to give them the knowledge of how to enjoy and function in it. The kingdom of God came into us the day we became born again and we have all of God's characteristics planted into us by God's sperm; which gave us our born again experience and it is permanently residing in our life. Most Christian that I have talked to do not believe or have never heard of this concept and they are waiting to go to heaven to be living in God's kingdom. Scripture tells us that; we can walk in heavenly places with Christ Jesus right now while in our physical bodies.
There is no way God can protect His children as they walk in the valley of the shadow of death if; they have never been grounded in to knowing and experiencing what a privilege and pleasure it is to walk into God's courts and be welcomed with open arms and get hugs from God their Heavenly Father. A Christian must be experiencing and tasting God's love daily if; they are going to walk in obedience and be able to cast all their care on Him because; they really know that; God truly cares for them. **

The word staff in the Hebrew Concordance its mishy & shaah: meaning, to be inspected and supplied, to gaze upon and have a whirl wind relationship.

Before I continue in defining these terms; I hope and pray that you who are reading this have become aware of the fact that; we are talking about with words having a living relationship with the God of the universe that wants to make a home in you and your body has become the temple that God lives in. Only a love relationship with God will convince you of this being true.

A child in a family setting must be brought up in a loving atmosphere in the admonition of the Lord in a physical setting. It imprints on the child's mind and soul a pattern for trusting their entire life to Father God who they can not see with their physical eye. This is why the devil is being absolutely relentless in destroying the values and fatherly role models to the children of the world today. It is God's love that makes us aware of the devil's devices and counterfeit spirits that comes to delude and mesmerize the children of God so that they can not walk with their Heavenly Father naked and open before him and unafraid in any way.

Have you ever had a temper tantrum because of things not going your way? You are doing all you can do to walk in obedience to God's leadings but you have just gotten so frustrated that; you chewed God out and it felt good to vent your feelings. Well God your Father knew this would happen and His love gives us the freedom to do this with out judgment. Why have I heard over the years more condemning of God's kids when they are going through their growing pains of life rather than a patient love, acceptance and empathy for their difficult times?

The God I know gives me the freedom to approach His presence with boldness even when I find my self in a state of confusion and anger. A child of God who is being guarded by God's staff is always ready and willing to have the Holy Ghost check out their hearts condition and warn and encourage them if they have been caught up in a life style that is causing them harm and in turn; they are harming others. It reminds me when I was in the army and had to walk guard mount and the inspecting general had me read my general orders and inspect my double starched fatigues to see if my attitude and readiness was at its peak for service.

This gazing upon is God giving us His evaluation of our hearts condition not us making our own evaluation of it. If God says that; we have become the righteousness of Christ and He sees us with out spot and wrinkle, blameless, free from evil and set apart from the world with his anointing to save mankind, we had better be persuaded that his way of thinking is higher and clearer than our way of thinking. Jesus Christ's sacrifice made us taste God's kingdom; however; His love that we must be interacting with him is what persuades us to come out of our inferior condition that we feel we are to God and step up and become a co-ruler at his side as a king and priest in His service. Now I have said this in many of my other articles on the web site.

When Adam and Eve walked with God in the noon of the day in the Garden of Eden; He would weave his spirit as a wind or breath in to their physical body, spirit and soul and they had an instant revelation of the love and thoughts of God. When Satan showed up and made them believe that God made them incomplete and made them feel that; they had to do some thing more to have a relationship with God; this fear entity entered into the equation of their life.

This is why Christ had to enter into the time zones of mankind to deliver his creation from this fear entity by having Jesus die on the cross and when we made him our savior by asking Him to take over our life; this miracle encounter we had with him drove this fear entity out of our soul and we can now have the same whirl wind relationship with God that Adam and eve had before Satan mesmerized them. Most Christians don't understand the ramifications of this process. It is our love contact relationship with God that keeps at bay this fear entity that is still trying to take control of our life and wants to stop us from experiencing His love. God‘s love; washes out any stinking non righteous thinking we pick up daily from demonic forces at work to hinder God's kids from reaching their potential in the earth.

Gal. 3:27 tells us that, "for those of us who have been baptized into Christ; have put on Christ." We are talking about born again people here who have been set free to worship God with a freedom to explore a relationship with the Holy Ghost with out judgment or condemnation.

The word put on in the Greek is enduo: It means to sink into a garment. This garment represents where all power and motion and thought originally comes from. A born again believer must become rested in their mind with the true understanding that; this is a permanent garment that can never be removed as far as God is concerned. I have said this before; every time a person becomes born again; God takes on human flesh. This spirit of fear that the devil uses to harass our mind is doing all he can to not make us realize that; once we became born again; we are forever born again and no devil or doctrine can pluck us out of God's hand. Once we allow the fear entity to question our eternal security in Christ; all hell breaks loose and a born again believer will try to run for cover and look for a satisfaction for love in all malevolent places.

1 John 4:19 tells us. WE NOW HAVE THE ABILITY TO LOVE BECAUSE; WE KNOW THAT HE FIRST LOVED US."

Don't let the spirit of fear make you believe that in any way you are a second rate citizen in God's kingdom. Ask the Holy Ghost to continually help you to keep your spiritual ears open, alert and remind you that you are always loved and accepted by God. Get this verse secured and deep rooted in your heart and mind. It is only by experiencing God's love and walking in it at all times that makes God's kid's prosper and live totally secure in their kingdom walk with their Heavenly Father. All truth and wisdom only comes from a Father, son and daughter love relationship of respect and openness with out judgment.

In closing Paul the Apostle states. "We have faith, hope and love. Faith meaning, a conviction and belief respecting man‘s relationship to God and divine things. We have hope meaning, a joy and confident expectation of our eternal salvation. We have love meaning, having a true affection for God and man that grows out of God's love for us. We have these three, but the greatest is love."