Fear No Fear

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

and then if he gets up and walks about outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay for the injured person’s loss of time and see to it that he is fully healed.
Exodus 21:19 (emphasis added)

This doesn’t start out as all that happy. The verse before provides the context for the near fulfilment: “If men fight, and one strikes his neighbor with a stone or with his fist and he does not die, but must remain in bed, and then if he gets up and walks about outside on his staff, then the one who struck him is innocent, except he must pay for the injured person’s loss of time and see to it that he is fully healed” (Exodus 21:18-19). Men (or women since this can be applied to either in the situation) beating the tar out of each other isn’t really a happy thought. But the Law is not what we are under (Romans 7:6). We are under the heart principles of the Law which remain forever because the morals of Adonai remain forever (Hebrews 13:8). What is the heart attitude here?

This was codified into Law for the simple reason that people are lazy and selfish. When we injure others, we don’t care about them. Not really. We only care about how their injury effects us. Are we in trouble? What do we have to pay for? Are we going to be inconvenienced? But these verses show a WHOLE PICTURE kind of thinking that often escapes us. We need to be thinking not ONLY of the situation, but also the repercussions of the situation. Making sure that since we got in on the injury, we’re there for the healing. That our responsibility doesn’t end when the fists stop flying.

More than that, it shows that when one of us is pursuing a healing that ALL of us should be pursuing that healing. “And do not neglect to do good and to share what you have, for God is pleased with such sacrifices” (Hebrews 13:16). “So then, whenever we have an opportunity, let us do good to all people, and especially to those who belong to the family of faith” (Galatians 6:10). We are a FAMILY and should act like it. Blessing those around us like they were our own flesh. Helping whenever we have an opportunity. Each one to the other so that NONE of us has lack. Led by the Holy Spirit, not our own ideas, to ensure that it is positive, productive, and something that TRULY blesses.

We are more than a family. We are a family founded on an functional in Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. Jew and Gentile. Together in ONE UNIT. “So then you are no longer foreigners and noncitizens, but you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of God’s household, because you have been built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ Jesus himself as the cornerstone. In him the whole building, being joined together, grows into a holy temple in the Lord, in whom you also are being built together into a dwelling place of God in the Spirit” (Ephesians 2:19-22). What happens to one of us has an effect on the rest of us. When we see a need, we should find out from Adonai HOW we can help – prayer, personal contact, financially, etc. He will know the best way for us to be involved but not hinder His plans. A way for us to be super effective regardless of what role we’re to play. It can take the role of physical help (Romans 12:13). It can take the role of emotional help (1 Thessalonians 5:11). Holy Spirit will NEVER steer us wrong. It’s OUR job to be listening. He’ll be talking. He takes FAMILY (natural or spiritual) very seriously. “But if someone does not provide for his own, especially his own family, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever” (1 Timothy 5:8).

Speaking of healing and emotions, we need to ask ourselves if we are being a help. Are we supporting them beyond the prayer on Sunday morning during service? Are we praying for them throughout the week? Sending them notes? Taking over something they need? Calling them to have a chat and encourage them WITH that chat? To be speaking life and rejecting death (Proverbs 18:21)? To help them keep on the path of expectation (faith) by building up their belief and helping to pull down disbelief?

Healing is more than the miraculous. Healing is about learning to receive what has already been done. That has a tendency to baffle the human mind. It is confusing to look at what IS and realise that it is malleable. To realise that our future can be brought into our present by what Jesus did in the past. It can be built up beforehand so that God’s best can shine with instantaneous healing. It can also be strengthened after prayers over time until we are walking in the healing we KNOW is occurring. Think of it like a pill that acts immediately or a pill that releases over an eight hour period. Both work, but one takes patience and abiding.

You’ve heard that it takes a village to raise a child. Well, we are Children of Yahweh and it takes a whole community of us to raise a believer. A fellow child of Adonai (1 John 3:2). We are not here to judge each other. We are here to encourage one another. It is so easy to blame one another when a healing isn’t manifesting. We say it isn’t God’s will (NEVER true). We say they don’t have faith (not always true). We say they’re not accepting (not always true). We say they must have doubt (not always true). Actually… all we DO know is that it is Adonai’s will to ALWAYS heal. Everything else? We need to be led.

Led in love to be loving. To be kind. To be gentle. To be helpful. To be faithful in our encouragement, blessing, and acceptance. To be patient. To be compassionate. To operate in the Fruit of the Spirit which are OURS by Grace, through Faith, IN Jesus (Galatians 5:22-23, John 15). Instead of thinking ‘I wonder if they’re healed yet’ we should be thanking Adonai for the healing. Thanking Him for what He has ALREADY done. Praying for messengers of encouragement for that person and being one ourselves. To be the supportive family member who is in NO WAY surprised when the healing renews their body. Remember that things in the Spiritual are always NOW. It is OUR journey that gives the perception of time.

In the natural, the slower we are, the faster time goes. The faster we go, the slower time goes. So spiritually, the closer we are to resting in Jesus with no doubt, full faith, and total submitted obedience and worship, the faster things manifest. It is when we move where Adonai says, when Adonai says, and how Adonai says that we see miracles happen. It is when we are fed, nurtured, and resting in the Word that we see miracles happen. It is when we are walking in His ways that His time starts to be OUR time – and His time is always NOW. When we get OUR now to be HIS now, miracles happen. We cannot do that outside Jesus and we cannot do that alone. We are a CORPORATE body. Joined together in Jesus.

Never forget to pray for those in the Body of Messiah who are brought to mind – regardless of location or nationality (Ephesians 6:18). Support everyone you know that is seeking healing. Be an encourager. Be a blessing. Be led by Holy Spirit. Rest in Jesus and help others rest there too. Together, supporting one another, and WITH Adonai, we can change the time we are in from WAITING to ARRIVED. In HIM we are victorious in every way, every day (John 16:33).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Deuteronomy 18:18

“I will raise up a prophet like you for them from among their fellow Israelites. I will put my words in his mouth and he will speak to them whatever I command.” Messiah would have the words of Yahweh on His lips. Not because He COULDN’T speak out of His own mind, but because He would CHOOSE to ONLY speak the Father’s mind. He would be sent by the Father to speak the Word. “Then Jesus said, “When you lift up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am he, and I do nothing on my own initiative, but I speak just what the Father taught me. And the one who sent me is with me. He has not left me alone because I always do those things that please him”” (John 8:28-29). Jesus ONLY spoke what the Father taught Him to. He was ALWAYS submitted in obedience to His Father. Jesus spoke the Word. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b