Fear No Fear

“Go back and tell Hezekiah, the leader of my people: ‘This is what the Lord God of your ancestor David has said: “I have heard your prayer; I have seen your tears. Look, I will heal you. The day after tomorrow you will go up to the Lord’s temple.
2 Kings 20:5 (emphasis added)

When God says He will do a thing, then that thing will be done. Period. It isn’t even black and white. This is not some kind of binary equation with two possible outcomes. There is only ONE possible outcome – though there are situations where we don’t understand that right off. The best example of that is Nineveh.

God sent Jonah to tell the Ninevites after a period of time, you’re going to be toast. Jonah didn’t want to go because he understood God is merciful and the people of Nineveh – the Assyrians who were dedicated enemies of Judah and Israel. Jonah didn’t want that. He wanted to eliminate the possibility that Nineveh would hurt his countrymen again, which would be accomplished if God took them out. Eventually, he obeyed and preached the warning in Nineveh. Nineveh repented. God did not destroy them.

But didn’t God say He would? Isn’t this His word failing? No. Because the Ninevites didn’t hold to it. They went back to their idolatrous ways. They did NOT remain faithful to the God they had sworn to be faithful to. And they were wiped out. They got a reprieve because of repentance, but since it was not true repentance the reprieve was temporary and they were wiped out.

Every time the Lord makes a proclamation, there are only two outcomes from our point of view and one from God’s. From our side of things, a word from the Lord is either a prophetic promise or a prophetic warning. From God’s side, it is a done deal. His word was listened to (fulfilling it) or His word was ignored (fulfilling it). “Then the Lord said, “You have observed correctly. This means I am watching to make sure my threats are carried out”” (Jeremiah 1:2). God does NOT watch His word PASSIVELY. “In the same way, the promise that I make does not return to me, having accomplished nothing. No, it is realized as I desire and is fulfilled as I intend” (Isaiah 55:11).

We have to realise that God operates on a level so far above us we cannot truly comprehend it (Isaiah 55:8). He sees the end from the beginning (Isaiah 46:9-10), but also meets us where we are for what we need to hear to do what is best for us from His point of view (1 John 4:10; Romans 5:8). What WE see is not what HE sees. It never is. It cannot be. HE is God. We are… well… dirt (Psalm 103:14). He took that dirt and made something GOOD with it, but how can that dirt look up at its creator and demand total understanding? “Where were you when I laid the foundation of the earth? Tell me, if you possess understanding. Who set its measurements—if you know—who stretched a measuring line across it? On what were its bases set, or who laid its cornerstone—when the morning stars sang in chorus, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7).

The Lord cannot lie (Numbers 23:19, Titus 1:2, Hebrews 6:18). The Lord is completely and TOTALLY RIGHTEOUS (Deuteronomy 32:4). The Lord is faithful in ALL He does (Psalm 33:4). If God speaks, we can TRUST what He speaks. And God tells us that the New Covenant He made IN JESUS is a better one than any that came before it. “But now Jesus has obtained a superior ministry, since the covenant that he mediates is also better and is enacted on better promises” (Hebrews 8:6). Since healing existed in the former Covenants, it would be foolish to assume that the perfected Covenant would not. After all, God told us that Jesus is the same always and ever (Hebrews 13:8). Healing then. Healing now. We know because we can TRUST the FAITHFULNESS of the MOST HOLY GOD.

Since we are promised deliverance of the curse (Galatians 3:13), we are ensured that we are delivered from sickness because sickness and sin are joined at the hip in the curse. Of course, this does NOT mean smooth sailing in life. The redemption of Jesus provides redemption from sickness, not redemption from persecution. Far from it. Jesus PROMISED we would suffer for being His followers (Matthew 5:11, 10:22; Romans 8:36). But we can be assured that we will suffer persecution in perfect health – if we’ll accept it from the Lord.

When we believe His promises, it is one of the ways we use the faith that we strengthen by hearing the Word and letting the Lord renew our minds through it (Romans 10:17; 12:2). When we use our faith in this way – believing His promises that He laid down in His Word – it is counted to us as righteousness. “Abram believed the Lord, and the Lord credited it as righteousness to him” (Genesis 15:6). All Abraham had to believe was the words of God. He didn’t have scriptures, commentaries, devotionals, or dissenting opinions. All Abraham had was his own mind and the words of the Lord. He pondered them and pondered them. Thinking through them from every angle that he possibly could. For years and years. And he decided to believe. That the promise – even though he couldn’t see it or even how it could come to pass – was a promise to be trusted. So he trusted. He believed. He choose to have faith. In the end, it was what he stood on. And God said that the choice to believe completely regardless of evidence was righteous. He was so convinced of it, that God called Abraham FRIEND (James 2:21-23).

We need to work on it the same way that Abraham did. Day by day, year by year, decade after decade. Thinking on God’s words and CHOOSING to believe. Letting the WORD be true, no matter what we SEE. No matter what is AROUND us. No matter what ANYONE else says. God says it, it IS. Period. No turning back (Galatians 5:7-9). Ever.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Genesis 12:3

“I will bless those who bless you, but the one who treats you lightly I must curse, so that all the families of the earth may receive blessing through you.” The blessing of Abraham included a mandate to bless others. Through Abraham, there would be born one who would bless all the families of the earth. The seed of Abraham would bless ALL peoples (Galatians 3:8). Abraham’s children couldn’t do it. His children’s children couldn’t do it. No one MAN could do it. Only JESUS could do it. The incarnation of God made flesh. One willing to be a sacrifice even though He had done NOTHING wrong. “You are the sons of the prophets and of the covenant that God made with your ancestors, saying to Abraham, ‘And in your descendants all the nations of the earth will be blessed.’ God raised up his servant and sent him first to you, to bless you by turning each one of you from your iniquities” (Acts 3:25-26). Jesus was the servant raised up (Ephesians 1:20). Jesus is the Messiah through whom ALL the families are BLESSED.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b