Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the NET, netbible.org, all rights reserved)

I have seen their behavior, but I will heal them. I will lead them, and I will provide comfort to them and those who mourn with them.
Isaiah 57:18 (emphasis added)

Yahweh is NOT BLIND. “For the ways of a person are in front of the Lord’s eyes, and the Lord weighs all that person’s paths” (Proverbs 5:21). A person. Everyone on this planet is A PERSON. The Lord does not just look on the good people. He also sees the not good people. Believers and unbelievers. The found and the lost. EVERYONE. He is not dull to our foibles and faults. What did Moses say about the Israelites? “And when he sent you from Kadesh Barnea and told you, “Go up and possess the land I have given you,” you rebelled against the Lord your God and would neither believe nor obey him. You have been rebelling against him from the very first day I knew you!” (Deuteronomy 9:23-24). The Lord isn’t fooled by ANY of us.

The good news is that the Lord doesn’t care that we are what we are. He LOVES us. The Lord wants what HE wants. He doesn’t want what WE want. That is BETTER news. “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). He isn’t WAITING for US. He is waiting in order to SAVE US. Save us from our thinking. Save us from our ignorance. Save us from our behaviour. He will heal a sinner. There are people who do NOT believe in the Lord who get brought to meetings and they end up healed. He didn’t let who they WERE prevent Him from what He can do. Guess what? Regardless of whether they believe Jesus is their Saviour, in that meeting they invested in the faith that God heals. Why is it so easy for them and so hard for us?

The answer of course is that we have decided to add to the Word of God. It’s that simple. Healing is very, VERY simple. God says I WILL HEAL THEM and we say THANK YOU. There you go. That’s healing in a nutshell. He says He can do it and we believe that He can do what He says He can do. Is that hard? Too hard? It is THAT simple. Jesus said so. “For this reason I tell you, whatever you pray and ask for, believe that you have received it, and it will be yours” (Mark 11:24).

The Lord knows we are stubborn (check out the book of Exodus). He knows He made us from dirt (Psalm 103:14). He ALSO knows we are wonderfully made (Psalm 139:13-14). He knows that He created us and that we were VERY GOOD (Genesis 1:30). We are meant to be walking in His BLESSING (Psalm 1:1-3). We can believe that or reject it by disbelieving it. Healing is available. For you. For me. Symptoms or not. Because of what JESUS did, we ARE healed.

Look at the Centurion’s servant (Matthew 8:5-13, Luke 7:1-10). The Centurion cared so much about this treasured servant that even though he was a Gentile, he sought out Jesus for healing. The Centurion was one officer in charge of roughly a hundred men (more typically 80). There were about 60 centurions (over about 6,000 soldiers) in a legion and one legion in Israel at the time of Jesus’ ministry (possibly the 10th Legion). This ONE centurion impressed Jesus more than ALL the Jews and Samaritans Jesus had dealt with. Not because he was better. Not because he was a Gentile. Because he BELIEVED. Before you decide that isn’t a big deal, remember that in Luke 18:8 Jesus asked whether He would find ANY faith on the earth when He came again.

The belief of this centurion stood out so much because it wasn’t based on actions. It wasn’t based on evidence. It wasn’t based on teaching. It wasn’t even based on the scriptures. It was based on an understanding of authority. Any soldier can tell you about authority. They cannot function as a unit unless they do. They need to understand it, submit to it, operate in it, and remain obedient to the idea of it. Having heard of the miracles of Jesus, this centurion decided that in order to perform miraculous signs and wonders, Jesus MUST have the authority to perform them.

If you have authority to do something, then you are able to do that thing. Period. Circumstances don’t matter. Distance doesn’t matter. Feeling doesn’t matter. If you can do it, you can do it. It was an absolute certainty in this centurion’s mind. THAT was the belief at which Jesus wondered. THAT was the belief that got people healed in Jesus’ time. THAT belief is what gets people healed today. It is the same mechanism. It doesn’t care if you’re a believer. It doesn’t care if your lifestyle is less than desirous. It doesn’t CONDONE anything bad, but the bad or good isn’t the issue. Instead, it cares if you BELIEVE. You need to believe He CAN heal. You need to believe He DID heal. You need to believe He STILL heals. That’s it.

If you believe that Jesus had and still has the authority to heal. If you believe that He is still willing to heal everyone who comes to him. If you will use that belief and the faith the Lord gives us all and reach out and TAKE your healing from His outstretched hand, you WILL be healed. The Word points to this again and again. The FAITH of the people is what got them healed – Mark 5:34 and Luke 18:42 for example.

Don’t stay in darkness. Don’t remain in ignorance. Instead, look to Jesus. Read the Gospels and see that Jesus healed EVERYONE who came to Him for healing. Everyone. He rejected not ONE PERSON. He gives us His Faith and His Grace to believe it. Take what He is offering and believe it. The Kingdom is a Kingdom of LIGHT and KNOWLEDGE. Why be anything less? He GIVES wisdom to all who ask (James 1:5-8).

Your behaviour will not hold you back because the Lord will LEAD you. His Holy Spirit is here to correct us. To guide us and lead us. We will NOT be left in the desert. IF we will submit to Him and be obedient, our behaviour will change because as we come to a greater realisation of His love, we love Him more. When we love Him more, we want to obey Him more. The more we want to obey, the more our behaviour will change. It is inevitable. It is a promise. “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and do not rely on your own understanding. Acknowledge him in all your ways, and he will make your paths straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).

We are not focused on what is here in front of us. Anything that is SEEN is malleable. “because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). What we see is the sickness or the issue or the problem. What ISN’T seen is the promise. They aren’t UNSPOKEN, only UNSEEN at present. But if we believe, THEN we will receive. Do we believe? Are we holding to the promises that WILL NOT PASS AWAY in order to receive what has been promised? Time? No difference (2 Peter 3:8). Distance? No difference (Romans 8:31-39). Nothing matters except OUR belief in what HE promised. Do we or do we not believe?

We may have missed it, but we can repent. We may have strayed, but we can come back. We can submit to His commandments. We can choose to believe. We can choose to receive. His hands are open. We can take from Him what HE says is there to take. Get into the Word with intent and discover for yourself all the richness that the Lord has for you.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Genesis 26:2-5

“The Lord appeared to Isaac and said, “Do not go down to Egypt; settle down in the land that I will point out to you. Stay in this land. Then I will be with you and will bless you, for I will give all these lands to you and to your descendants, and I will fulfill the solemn promise I made to your father Abraham. I will multiply your descendants so they will be as numerous as the stars in the sky, and I will give them all these lands. All the nations of the earth will pronounce blessings on one another using the name of your descendants. All this will come to pass because Abraham obeyed me and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.” The seed of Isaac is promised as the Redeemer. Well, according to Deuteronomy 27:26, Jesus IS that redeemer. “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law by becoming a curse for us (because it is written, “Cursed is everyone who hangs on a tree”)” (Galatians 3:13). “God had told him, “Through Isaac descendants will carry on your name,”” (Hebrews 11:18). Jesus, a descendant of Issac and Abraham, was raised up on the cross, hanging on the tree so as to become a curse in our place. To take on our sins and pay the price. No one else was willing to do it. No one else was qualified to do it. Jesus, however, DID do it. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b