Fear No Fear

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

Whenever I want to restore the fortunes of my people, whenever I want to heal Israel, the sin of Ephraim is revealed, and the evil deeds of Samaria are exposed. For they do what is wrong; thieves break into houses, and gangs rob people out in the streets. They do not realize that I remember all their wicked deeds. Their evil deeds have now surrounded them; their sinful deeds are always before me.
Hosea 6:11b-7:2 (emphasis added)

Yahweh WANTS to heal us. It is that simple. That plain. That obvious. Nothing has passed away. No ‘era’ or ‘age’ has ended. Nothing is preventing Yahweh from healing today, like He did yesterday, like He will in the future. It is a universal TRUTH. He IS a God of HEALING. Jesus did the work on the cross. The Father resurrected Jesus from the dead. All that was necessary to accomplish healing. All that was necessary so that we can enjoy it. It is FINISHED.

That’s what we know. What DON’T we know? Why are not all healed, whole, and exactly as He sees us in Jesus and wants us to be? Here I can give opinion. I can point to scriptures. I can categorise things. But I cannot definitively answer that. In a word of free will with billions of people and an almost uncountable flowchart of decisions, impacts of those decisions, and the new decisions that come from the consequences of the impacts of the decisions for each and every one of us – both singly and as a collective – well… it is beyond the scope and ability of humanity or A.I..

Thankfully, we can all seek the Lord and ask Him what our particular deal is. He WILL tell us – IF we’re listening. Won’t do us any good though if we don’t submit to what He says and obey. “Pay careful attention to all these things I am commanding you so that it may always go well with you and your children after you when you do what is good and right in the sight of the Lord your God” (Deuteronomy 12:28). “I also explicitly commanded them: “Obey me. If you do, I will be your God and you will be my people. Live exactly the way I tell you and things will go well with you”” (Jeremiah 7:23). IF we obey, THEN Yahweh can do. Not because He CANNOT before that point. But because we have the freedom to choose whether or not He does.

If we can choose not to obey, we can choose not to accept. Ever given someone a gift that they refuse to accept? I have. You try and try and they just won’t take it. They have reasons, which may or not be valid or make sense, but they stick to those reasons and refuse. Not only do you feel like your gift isn’t appreciated, you don’t even want it back because in your mind it isn’t yours. It’s theirs. It is similar with Yahweh. He, Jesus, and the Holy Spirit cooked this thing up together and walked it out so that we can HAVE healing. Here WE are refusing it. Not taking it. I don’t know how the Lord feels, but it cannot make Him happy.

What makes the Lord happy is FAITH. “Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). If you cannot please Him except by faith, then know this too: you cannot RECEIVE anything without faith. “But he must ask in faith without doubting, for the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea, blown and tossed around by the wind. For that person must not suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord” (James 1:6-7). Yahweh rewards those who seek Him. We need to seek Him without doubting. Faith – eager expectation that Yahweh tells the truth and rewards the seeking of Himself because He is able to do what He says He can/will do – and BELIEF: the absolute conviction of the truth of our trust and confidence in Yahweh.

It was the UNBELIEF of people that prevented Jesus from healing them. “And he did not do many miracles there because of their unbelief” (Matthew 13:58). It prevented the Israelites from accepting the Promised Land. “And to whom did he swear they would never enter into his rest, except those who were disobedient? So we see that they could not enter because of unbelief” (Hebrews 3:18-19). Even the DISCIPLES weren’t immune. “Then he appeared to the Eleven themselves, while they were eating, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him resurrected” (Mark 16:14).

What is it about unbelief that causes the problem? Unbelief is fear. Fear isn’t faith and it isn’t love. If we have unbelief, we’re harbouring an attitude that isn’t love. If we don’t have an attitude of love, we are harbouring unbelief. They’re connected. We know this because of 1 John 5:2-4 “By this we know that we love the children of God: whenever we love God and obey his commandments. For this is the love of God: that we keep his commandments. And his commandments do not weigh us down, because everyone who has been fathered by God conquers the world.” When we are sinning, we are not using love. When we are sinning, we are wallowing in unbelief. If we are wallowing in unbelief, we aren’t repentant. If we aren’t repentant, we are not putting ourselves into the place of BLESSING and REDEMPTION. “If we say we do not bear the guilt of sin, we are deceiving ourselves and the truth is not in us. But if we confess our sins, he is faithful and righteous, forgiving us our sins and cleansing us from all unrighteousness” (1 John 1:8-9). We need repentance in order to be clean.

Yahweh WANTS to heal us, but we prevent that action by our unbelief. Yahweh WANTS to restore us, but we prevent that action by our unbelief. Yahweh WANTS us whole, but we prevent that action by our unbelief. It is often characterised by sin in our lives. Sin we don’t want to let go of. It does NOT need to be major sin. ANY SIN is something that can prevent us from enjoying the things of the Lord because there is NO SIN in Yahweh. He is TOTAL RIGHTEOUSNESS and we are called to be the same. “True righteousness leads to life, but the one who pursues evil pursues it to his own death” (Proverbs 11:19).

If we are NOT repentant, our sin is NOT forgotten. It is ONLY by being cleansed by the Lord that we can be washed white again (Hebrews 10:22). Yahweh will REMEMBER our sin and it will be held on our account. It will be right there up on the board. But if we ARE repentant, we are washed clean and our sin is taken from us. Taken away so far He doesn’t remember them at all (Psalm 103:12). The memory board will be blank. Wiped clean. Jesus’ payment of the price is the ONLY thing on our account. We will be clean and free. Free to return to our belief. Free to return to our trust in Him. Free to accept what the Lord God Almighty is holding out His hand. Free to be HEALED.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Exodus 12:3-6

“Tell the whole community of Israel, ‘On the tenth day of this month they each must take a lamb for themselves according to their families—a lamb for each household. If any household is too small for a lamb, the man and his next-door neighbor are to take a lamb according to the number of people—you will make your count for the lamb according to how much each one can eat. Your lamb must be perfect, a male, one year old; you may take it from the sheep or from the goats. You must care for it until the fourteenth day of this month, and then the whole community of Israel will kill it around sundown.” The lamb was presented to Israel four days before the Passover. The lamb that was going to be sacrificed was presented to the whole people who came to Jerusalem for the sacrifice. So they could see it. Identify with it. And acknowledge that it would be the sacrifice for their sin. This is EXACTLY what happened when Jesus entered Jerusalem on the donkey (a symbol of royalty – 1 Kings 1:38). The Triumphal Entry (Mark 11:7-11) was the presentation of Jesus as the sacrificial lamb of Israel. Jesus IS our spotless lamb. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b