Fear No Fear

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

I am the one who gives them reason to celebrate. Complete prosperity is available both to those who are far away and those who are nearby,” says the Lord, “and I will heal them.
Isaiah 57:19 (emphasis added)

Prosperity is not segmented. Health is not segmented. The entire package has to be considered. If we neglect the spiritual, we will not walk in the physical. If we focus on the physical, we will let the spiritual atrophy. John said it like this: “Dear friend, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, just as it is well with your soul” (3 John 1:2). Our health will improve only as our spirits deepen and strengthen, because it is our BELIEF in the promises of the Lord that enables us to grasp hold of what the Lord is offering us.

It is a SIMPLE principle. How can you take something out of someone’s hand if your back is turned, you’re watching a movie, you’re talking to someone else, or you’re walking out of the room? You can’t. You might not even notice that they’re offering you something. I have a picture of my youngest son when he was about five or six with a granola bar (still in wrapper) on his head. He is oblivious to it and is focused with intent on the television. Cute picture. Not so cute of a concept when it’s your healing, your finances, your joy, your mental peace, your relationships, your job, freedom from depression, or any number of other things that either the Lord has for us or we’ve asked the Lord for.

That is one of the two things that can keep us from receiving from the Lord. The other – of course – is sin. Sin breaks fellowship with the Lord until we decide to deal with it and repent. That is the ONLY way that ends. We either stay in disobedience and rebellion, or we accept that the Lord is correct and change our mind on it. If we keep up with the Word, we will eventually change our mind because it is clear that the Lord is RIGHTEOUS and RIGHT. Always.

Walking away or getting distracted is also sin. We don’t like to think of it that way, but it is. Anything not done in faith is sin (Romans 14:23). When we are ignoring the Lord, we are sinning. We are commanded to keep the Lord first and foremost in our lives, minds, and hearts (Proverbs 3:6; Deuteronomy 6:4-5; Matthew 22:37). Anytime we do ANYTHING else, we are disobeying and disobedience is sin. It is an act that needs repentance. Thank the Lord for His mercy, because this sin is the number one sin we re-commit. Mostly because there are thousands of ways in which we can commit it. Sometimes without even realising that we’re doing it until it’s done.

How does this affect healing? The same way it affects our relationship with God (our spirituality). When we sin, we are choosing to do things contrary to what God says. He says put me first, but we watch a show instead of read the bible because we just want to veg. We play a game. Do a puzzle. Talk to a friend. Take a nap. Because we’re tired and we want to relax. Or we’re tired and we don’t want to fight our way through keeping awake while we read. It is just as bad to choose to ignore alarms and sleep through fellowship time on purpose as it is to lose track of time while scrolling through content videos on social media. When we don’t put God first, we are doing wrong. Period. HE said so. What we THINK or FEEL is immaterial. He is RIGHT.

The benefit of the Lord is that He is EVERYWHERE (Jeremiah 23:23-24). There is NOWHERE you can truly be away from Him (Psalm 139:7-9). He fills ALL in ALL (Ephesians 1:23). Years of being lost are eliminated in the single step back it takes to be with Yahweh. Whether we are close to Him or far away, in the end it is the loving arms of a correcting Lord that we find ourselves in. There may be consequences for our actions, but the Lord is there to direct our steps to the victory He has planned.

The Lord is our Shepherd – we were the ones who first called Him so (Genesis 48:15). He WILL get us when we are lost (1 Peter 2:25). He will whistle for us when we wander. He will lie us down in green grass good for grazing. He will lead us to clear water good for drinking. He will lie down in the gate and be our door and protection. He will drive off the wild beasts and foil the plots of bandits. He is a shepherd of His children and will BE a shepherd to us. He is GOOD at it. He will NOT withhold ANY good thing from us (Psalm 84:11), but WE need to be walking uprightly before Him. We need to be able to be trusted with things. Because if they are going to be a stumbling block, He won’t give them to us because then they would be a source of hurt and not happiness (James 4:3-6).

Abraham, Issac, Jacob. All were promised the land of Canaan. They weren’t given any of that land. They were all wanderers in it. Why? Because they weren’t enough. In order for them to have a place of their own. To live their lives and teach the good things of God and hold to them. To be where the idols and unrighteous practices of those around them would not affect them. In order to cleanse the land of evil as they expanded would take MANY people.

They weren’t enough yet. So to protect them and their culture of relationship with Yahweh, they were not given a portion of the land to live on. They remained visitors and wanderers in the land, sowing dreams of ownership for a future harvest. God didn’t withhold from them. He used them to build a foundation for dominion. They trusted in HIM and He became their celebration, their victory, and the provider of all their needs. Their Jubilee – the horn that sounded their overcoming.

Jesus needs to be our Jubilee. He is the One who Overcomes the World (John 16:33). He is the only reason for celebration that we have. He is the SOUND of our victory. The source of all we need AND all we want. The socket we plug into. The guide we turn to. The driver of our car. The pilot of our plane. The one we fellowship with. The one we turn to for teaching on something. That’s why we have HIS Spirit. Holy Spirit is HERE because Jesus is THERE, but we’re not separated from Him while we abide because the Spirit lives in us and therefore Jesus IS WITH US. We need to be abiding in our Jubilee.

Abide is a powerful word. It is an action word in the same way that receiving is an action word. We need to take action to abide and take action to receive from the Lord. There is a LOT of motion when we start doing these things. Abide means to remain, as on a well-marked path or trail. This word can also mean to stay, continue, or remain in a certain place. It can mean to stop overnight and rest. It can also mean to ‘know’ in the sense of intense, and inner intimacy.

Interestingly, one of the Hebrew words that is used for abide (yashav) means ‘enthroned’ or ‘Messiah’. Jesus IS the one who we are to abide in. The one whose Spirit we share, our bridegroom, and the Lord and Saviour of our lives.
We need to make sure we are looking where we are going or we might step off the path. If we step off the path, we need to be watching carefully so that we can get back onto it. If we are stopping for the night, we need to make sure we are comfortable and secure. If we are pursuing intimacy, it means we need to get close to Him and learn about Him, talking and speaking and spending time becoming incredibly familiar with each other. It is NOT a passive word.

There are times that the word abide is used in conjunction with ‘toward the face of God’ or ‘forever before God’ like in Psalm 61:7 (the translation will change the English work used). We are to not just abide, but to remain ever moving toward the FACE OF GOD. Ever seeking it (Psalm 105:4). Never leaving that place. Which is the heart of Deuteronomy 6:4-9: “Hear, O Israel: The Lord is our God, the Lord is one! You must love the Lord your God with your whole mind, your whole being, and all your strength. These words I am commanding you today must be kept in mind, and you must teach them to your children and speak of them as you sit in your house, as you walk along the road, as you lie down, and as you get up. You should tie them as a reminder on your forearm and fasten them as symbols on your forehead. Inscribe them on the doorframes of your houses and gates.“

It is when we are intimate with Yahweh God, seeking His face, looking toward Him with our WHOLE heart, and keeping His Word and His commandments, then we will build a relationship of TRUST that will form the core of our BELIEVING. It is EASY to believe someone we trust. It is difficult to believe someone we don’t know – not impossible, just not easy. Wouldn’t it be nice to truly KNOW the One who declares Himself to be THE source of celebration? I think it is WONDERFUL. To know that when we are near or far from the point we are supposed to be, we do NOT have a God seeking to smite us. That we have a GOOD God seeking to gather us in and provide circumstances where we will CELEBRATE.

A part of the celebration – that ABUNDANT LIFE (John 10:10) – is healing. Healing of our past. Healing of our mental landscape. Healing of our spirit. Healing of our bodies. Healing of everything in our WHOLE COMPLETE selves that needs it. Maybe all at once. Maybe piece by piece to make sure that we truly understand what is being healed, by whom, and to enjoy the feeling of lightness that removed bondage brings. He IS the God who HEALS (Exodus 15:26). In Him is LIFE and it is the LIGHT that we all need (John 1:4). No more darkness. No more sickness. Just wholeness – nothing missing, nothing broken. “And there will no longer be any curse, and the throne of God and the Lamb will be in the city. His servants will worship him, and they will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. Night will be no more, and they will not need the light of a lamp or the light of the sun, because the Lord God will shine on them, and they will reign forever and ever” (Revelation 22:3-5). Amen.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Genesis 28:12

“He reached a certain place where he decided to camp because the sun had gone down. He took one of the stones and placed it near his head. Then he fell asleep in that place and had a dream. He saw a stairway erected on the earth with its top reaching to the heavens. The angels of God were going up and coming down it” There is a bridge between Heaven and Earth. In the Old Covenant it was found at a specific place – a place some traditions place the site of the Tabernacle or temple, but I couldn’t firmly corroborate this. The bridge, however, existed as a physical location. But in the New Covenant, Messiah becomes that place. Messiah embodies the bridge. “He continued, “I tell all of you the solemn truth—you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man”” (John 1:51). In the rite of Communion, we take the Lord’s body and it becomes for us the bridge over which we walk into Heaven. The body broken to break the curse. The body broken to defeat death, sin, and hell. The blood washing sin from us. Separating it from us forever. The blood sealing our NEW and BETTER covenant with Yahweh God Almighty. Jesus is the bridge to heaven for us. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b