Separation Anxiety

I was reading in the book of Romans yesterday and I read this passage in chapter 8:35-39, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love? Does it mean he no longer loves us if we have trouble or calamity, or are persecuted, or hungry, or destitute, or in danger, or threatened with death? (As the Scriptures say, “For your sake we are killed every day; we are being slaughtered like sheep.”) No, despite all these things, overwhelming victory is ours through Christ, who loved us. And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

As I read this, a word jumped out at me and it stuck in my mind. This word ties in very closely with part of what I have been speaking on, over the last couple of weeks.

38 And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love. Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. 39 No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.

The word in the passage that I just read to you, that stuck in my mind, is the word, “SEPARATE”.

And this word is closely related to that of the subject of “SANCTIFICATION” that I have dealing with over the last 2 weeks.

As the word SEPARATION permeated my feeble little mind, a phrase came to me. It is a fairly common phrase/term that I think many of us have heard of before.

It is the phrase, “SEPARATION ANXIETY”.

Have you guys heard of this phrase before? Let me give you the definition as understood by the world of psychology.

SEPARATION ANXIETY - Separation anxiety is the fear or distress that can happen to both children and adults when they think about separating from home or from the people they've become attached to. Separation anxiety refers to excessive fear or anxiety about separation from home or an attachment figure.

Now, from the passage that I just read to you from and the question that Paul asks of, “Can anything ever separate us from Christ’s love”, followed by the answer to his own question that he gives to us, “And I am convinced that nothing can ever separate us from God’s love”; we should easily see that the true believer in Jesus the Christ, should never, ever, suffer SEPARATION ANXIETY, because nothing can SEPARATE us from Him!

That is, the true believer in Jesus, will never have to walk in fear or distress caused by being separated from the LOVE OF THE FATHER!

And that is the greatest source of comfort and strength that has ever existed. Jesus and the unlimited AGAPE LOVE of He and His Father, Yahweh, will never be taken away from a true child of God!

“Not death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

So, having said this, I wanted to stress anther aspect of SEPARATION with you tonight and, as I said a minute ago, this other aspect of SEPARATION is closely linked to our development in the Christian walk, known as, SANCTIFICATION.

By definition, SANCTIFICATION, literally means, “to be sanctified or holy. Objects and animals are holy or sanctified when they are set apart for God’s purposes. God’s people are to progressively grow in holiness until the Day of the Lord, at which point all believers will be completely sanctified.”

A synonym for SANCTIFY, is the word, “CONSECRATE” and consecrate means , “The SEPARATION of a thing or person for Divine service.”

In Hebrew, CONSECRATE comes from the noun, “qodesh”, which means, “a holy thing”, or “holiness”.

“HOLINESS”, in the absolute sense of separateness and moral and ethical excellence, is the attribute of the Lord God alone. For people to be consecrated they must be “set aside” to God and “be holy”; that is, reflect God’s moral and ethical character.

And in both the Old Testament as well as the New Testament, we are commanded to be “consecrated” for God and to be holy.

,

Leviticus 11:44–45 NLT

44 For I am the Lord your God. You must consecrate yourselves and be holy, because I am holy. So do not defile yourselves with any of these small animals that scurry along the ground. 45 For I, the Lord, am the one who brought you up from the land of Egypt, that I might be your God. Therefore, you must be holy because I am holy.

Leviticus 20:7 ESV

7 Consecrate yourselves, therefore, and be holy, for I am the Lord your God.

,

1 Peter 1:16 ESV

16 since it is written, “You shall be holy, for I am holy.”

And here is my point about our being CONSECRATED, SANCTIFIED or SEPARATED for God.

It was and still is the will of God, for His children to be set aside for His use and for His glory.

This is a theme that we see time and time again, throughout the Bible.

When God came to Abram and spoke to him about what He was going to do for Abram, note that God didn’t say, “Stay here in Haran and I will bless you”.

No, the Bible says that this is what God commanded Abram to do, in ,

Genesis 12:1–4 NLT

1 The Lord had said to Abram, “Leave your native country, your relatives, and your father’s family, and go to the land that I will show you. 2 I will make you into a great nation. I will bless you and make you famous, and you will be a blessing to others. 3 I will bless those who bless you and curse those who treat you with contempt. All the families on earth will be blessed through you.” 4 So Abram departed as the Lord had instructed, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he left Haran.

What did God tell Abram to do, in order to receive the blessing?

Right, He commanded Abram to, “Go.......to leave what he once knew and become consecrated (set aside), so that God could bless him.”

This is the exact same theme that we see with the children of Israel and their inheritance of the promised land.

God could have told Moses to go back into Egypt and wait and at the right time, God would move in and annihilate the Egyptians and make them into the servants of Israel and give Israel all of the Egyptian’s riches.

But that is not what God had in store for His people. They had to become consecrated and sanctified (i.e SEPARATED) from what they were and what they knew, in order for God’s blessings and promises to become enacted in their lives.

And even after they left Egypt and spent 40 years wandering in the wilderness under Moses’ leadership, they were given the specific command of SEPARATION, under the new leadership of Joshua, as we read of in ,

Joshua 1:1–9 NLT

1 After the death of Moses the Lord’s servant, the Lord spoke to Joshua son of Nun, Moses’ assistant. He said, 2 “Moses my servant is dead. Therefore, the time has come for you to lead these people, the Israelites, across the Jordan River into the land I am giving them. 3 I promise you what I promised Moses: ‘Wherever you set foot, you will be on land I have given you—4 from the Negev wilderness in the south to the Lebanon mountains in the north, from the Euphrates River in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west, including all the land of the Hittites.’ 5 No one will be able to stand against you as long as you live. For I will be with you as I was with Moses. I will not fail you or abandon you. 6 “Be strong and courageous, for you are the one who will lead these people to possess all the land I swore to their ancestors I would give them. 7 Be strong and very courageous. Be careful to obey all the instructions Moses gave you. Do not deviate from them, turning either to the right or to the left. Then you will be successful in everything you do. 8 Study this Book of Instruction continually. Meditate on it day and night so you will be sure to obey everything written in it. Only then will you prosper and succeed in all you do. 9 This is my command—be strong and courageous! Do not be afraid or discouraged. For the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.”

Did you see what God was saying to Joshua in this passage?

God basically said, “Moses is dead and all of the great mighty things that I did through him and for Israel are done and over. You can’t live any longer on those miracles and within those moments, because that is not where your promise lies and that is not where I am going to be.”

God was saying to Joshua and to the nation of Israel as a whole, “You must CROSS OVER the river to the other side and SEPARATE yourselves from this past life and the miracles that I did for you then, under Moses, because Moses is gone and I am moving in this direction. SEPARATE from your past and move forward!”

In fact, right after they crossed the Jordan and right before they sack Jericho, what does God command? God told Joshua to have all of the men circumcised.

Here all of Israel had departed Egypt and been gone for 40 years, but now, as God was moving them into a new place and a new point in His plan, He had them symbolically reaffirm the covenant of Abraham and also, SEPARATE themselves from who and what they were before, as God, Himself said to Joshua, “Today I have rolled away the reproach of Egypt from you.”

In every way, Israel had to SEPARATE themselves from the past of who they were and embrace the covenant of who they were called to be and who they were being called to represent to the nations around them.

God said of Israel in ,

Isaiah 43:10–12 NLT

10 “But you are my witnesses, O Israel!” says the Lord. “You are my servant. You have been chosen to know me, believe in me, and understand that I alone am God. There is no other God— there never has been, and there never will be. 11 I, yes I, am the Lord, and there is no other Savior. 12 First I predicted your rescue, then I saved you and proclaimed it to the world. No foreign god has ever done this. You are witnesses that I am the only God,” says the Lord.

In order for Israel to embrace their inheritance and their role of being God’s witnesses to the world, they had to first SEPARATE from the world and their past and move forward to where God wanted them go and to where He was going to be at! (Which was not in the past history and the past miracles that had taken place.)

As believers, we are the ones who call the works of God MIRACLES, SIGNS and WONDERS. To God, these are just a normal day in the life! Miracles are for mankind, not God. He doesn’t need them, because they ARE HIM!

The call for SEPARATION from Egypt and their past time in the desert, even came with dietary separation, which had a spiritual connotation.

Pastor Jentezen Franklin, commented on this process in a sermon that he did and he made mention of the fact that there were three different diets that the children of Israel ate during the time of their enslavement, through their time in the wilderness and then when they crossed over.

TALK ABOUT THE THREE DIETARY PERIODS OF ISRAEL

Fish, leeks, onions and garlic

Manna from heaven

Fruit of the promised land

Like when a woman is pregnant, her diet will change, until she finally gives birth. (There is a spiritual aspect to this as well.)

The things of the past are old, stale and rotten and they will not sustain you for growth for the present and into the future. We must feed on the fresh food with the nutrients that are required for our bodies where we are today.

We need that “new manna”, the living bread from heaven and the eternal water that satisfies and sustains us, in order to grow spiritually.

We must SEPARATE from what we knew and where at some point and go after where God is and where He wants us to be in the kingdom!

As Christians, that is, followers of Jesus the Christ, we must move forward to where He wants us to be, to where He is calling us to.

We must cross over the River Jordan in our lives and move into the new land. We must SEPARATE ourselves, CONSECRATE ourselves, unto God and become more and more holy, because He is holy and where He is going and wanting to take us, is holy.

It may be painful and difficult in the natural, but thank God, the natural is not where He is and it is not where we are spending eternity!

Friends, the Biblical promise to us is that we will not suffer SEPARATION ANXIETY from our Lord, because nothing can SEPARATE us from His love.

However, we must SEPARATE ourselves more and more from the cares and desires of this world, in order to move closer and closer to Him and His will for our lives!

tells us this,

2 Corinthians 6:14–18 NLT

14 Don’t team up with those who are unbelievers. How can righteousness be a partner with wickedness? How can light live with darkness? 15 What harmony can there be between Christ and the devil? How can a believer be a partner with an unbeliever? 16 And what union can there be between God’s temple and idols? For we are the temple of the living God. As God said: “I will live in them and walk among them. I will be their God, and they will be my people. 17 Therefore, come out from among unbelievers, and separate yourselves from them, says the Lord. Don’t touch their filthy things, and I will welcome you. 18 And I will be your Father, and you will be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty.”

Mention of how I had to SEPARATE from who I was and the life that I lived while in Chattanooga. Also, mention of many people turned to God after 9/11 and then when things got comfortable again, they went back and re-associated again with what they new and were before! (They came to river bank, but they would not cross over and leave what was behind them and enter into the presence of the one that they were looking for!)