Year of No Fear “Your Fight is Won”

and he said, “Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, king Jehoshaphat. Yahweh says to you, ‘Don’t be afraid, and don’t be dismayed because of this great multitude; for the battle is not yours, but God’s.
2 Chronicles 20:15 (emphasis added)

You will not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don’t be afraid, nor be dismayed. Go out against them tomorrow, for Yahweh is with you.’”
2 Chronicles 20:17 (emphasis added)

One of the greatest revelations you can ever take home to your heart is the realisation that God has ALREADY won every victory in your life. He has healed every sickness, saved every soul, removed all authority from the devil, defeated every evil spirit, and done every miracle. Jesus did it all at the cross. In John 19:30 it tells us that When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, “It is finished.” He bowed his head, and gave up his spirit. Finished. The Greek word there (tetelestai) translates as ‘it has been finished’ or ‘it has been accomplished’. If you look up its root meanings you get: FINISH, accomplish, consummate, discharge, settle, or settle tribute.

I find that last interesting. A tribute is something given or contributed voluntarily as due or deserved. A gift or service showing respect. Something that indicates the worth, virtue, or effectiveness of the one in question. A payment by one ruler to another in acknowledgement of submission or as the price of protection. There is a LOT in this word. This is not a light, frivolous thing. This is serious stuff. This is payment paid. Settled. Remember Genesis 2:16-17 Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, “You may freely eat of every tree of the garden; but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die.” As soon as Adam ate of the fruit, he was a doomed man. Under verdict of death. Man had to die, because man rebelled. The disobedience had on it the price of death. Jesus — a man — paid it. Debt discharged. Consummated. Accomplished. Finished.

That was the price of sin paid. But there was more to it than that. Jesus’ blood, released by the breaking of His body, is the most powerful substance in the universe. And Jesus shed it seven times.

1 – In the Garden of Gethsemane (Luke 22:39-46). Toiling to get by, to just get sustenance is a symbol of the curse right from the Fall at Eden (Genesis 3:17-19). It started in a garden and in a garden Jesus finished it. We no longer have to toil and sweat for sustenance. We can do the work of the Lord and HE is our sustenance.

2 – He was struck on the face (Matthew 26:67). Your face is symbolic of your glory. Of your self-esteem. Jesus removes slander against us and restores our glory. Jesus removes self-slander and restores our self-esteem. We can be perfect in Jesus, and we don’t need to look down on ourselves or have others do the same. Believe what God says about you. He doesn’t sell you short.

3 – His beard was ripped out (Isaiah 50:6). There are two instances of the face beating of Jesus. The tearing of beards was a punishment sometimes inflicted by Jews because it was shameful. Some people have said that the Roman soldiers — clean shaven themselves — could have enjoyed mocking a condemned Jew in this way. Regardless of who did it, the word in Isaiah means to have the face peeled or the beard plucked out. Jesus removed our shame when his own symbol of honour and dignity was torn out by the bloody roots.

4 – Jesus was scourged (Matthew 27:26, Mark 15:15, John 19:1, Isaiah 53:5, Matthew 8:17, 1 Peter 2:24)) to bring us healing. ANY kind of healing: spiritual and physical. He bled so we can have our health back, redeemed from the curse. Jesus removes sickness (Exodus 23:25).

5 – The curse as laid out by God Himself in Genesis 3:17-18 included thorns and thistles. Jesus took those upon Himself in the crown of thorns (Matthew 27:29, Mark 15:17, John 19:2-3). The bounty that Adam should have enjoyed was replaced by the poverty of thorns and thistles. Jesus took that poverty on Himself and removed it from us. It enables us to enjoy the Blessings of Abraham – in Jesus.

6 – Jesus was nailed to the tree by His hands and His feet (Matthew 27:35, Mark 15:24-28, Luke 23:33, John 19:16-21). Hands represent balance and productivity. Feet represent destiny. Jesus redeemed our hands so that our work (not toil and struggle) will produce (Exodus 23:26, it’s not just about human reproduction). He redeemed our feet so that our steps may be ordered by the Lord (Psalm 37:23). Everything we touch can be Blessed through His hands. Your destiny as called by the Lord can be unimpeded because Jesus’ bloody feet walk the path out before us. When we are in Him, these are a reality and not a fond desire.

7 – Stabbed in His side (John 19:34). When a woman gives birth, her water breaks. When the baby comes out it has come out in blood and water. Prophetically, the bride of Christ was born when Jesus was stabbed and blood and water poured out. The last Adam (Jesus) was put to sleep and His bride birthed — just as Adam was put to sleep and his bride was birthed. Jesus’ heart was literally broken. Jesus blood heals broken hearts (Luke 4:18, Psalm 147:3). He puts them back together and enables you to continue full and whole. Nothing missing. Nothing broken. Shalom (Genesis 15:15, Numbers 6:24-26).

In addition to all of that, Ephesians 1:3-14 tells us: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as he chose us in him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his desire, to the praise of the glory of his grace, by which he freely gave us favour in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through his blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of his grace, which he made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth, in him. We were also assigned an inheritance in him, having been foreordained according to the purpose of him who does all things after the counsel of his will, to the end that we should be to the praise of his glory, we who had before hoped in Christ. In him you also, having heard the word of the truth, the Good News of your salvation—in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of his glory.

Add that together, and it is a lot. In fact, it is everything. Everything. All price paid for sin, all redemption from the curse, all healing, all prosperity, and an all new spirit — His — to hold it all and circulate it through our spirit-soul-body existence until every cell of every corner of our being is saturated, renewed, and restored in Jesus, by Jesus, and because of Jesus. And He did it all by Grace. Out of love for you. For us all. Our spiritual existence is to be one of wholeness and Blessing. The rest of us is to be healthy and prosperous because of that (3 John 1:2). Just as Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 6:33 “But seek first God’s Kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things will be given to you as well.” If we don’t accept salvation. If we don’t abide in Jesus. We aren’t eligible for any of it.

But if we are saved; and if we abide in Jesus; then we have access to it all. By Grace through Faith Jesus gave it to us. Everything. You don’t need to ask Him to move for you or work for you. He already did. All you need to do is use the faith Jesus gives us and receive it. Faith is nothing but believing that He did, in fact, do it. Faith is being fully persuaded. Not believing it will be. But believing as in ‘I believe it’. Like you believe in breathing. Gravity. That the world is a planet. Like you believe you exist.

This isn’t hard to do, just to understand. But remember this: you’ve already done it once. You did it when you got saved. You heard some words. You believed those words. By Faith you accepted those words. And then you received the offered gift of those words. By Grace. Through Faith. We believe the impossible fact that Jesus was the seed of God the Father Almighty, born through a virgin woman, fully man and fully God. We believe the impossible fact that Jesus physically died, was buried, stayed there three days, and then was resurrected to physical life, raised up in perfect glory and righteousness. We believe the impossible fact that Jesus did it not because He deserved it, but because we deserved it. He paid the price for us because He loves us as we are and as we will be. These aren’t things you can see, touch, hear, feel, understand, or prove in double-blind clinical trials. But we believe it by Faith through Grace, and we get saved. Set free from the law of death and sin. Reborn into God’s Kingdom as co-heirs with Jesus and children of both Abraham and God the Father Almighty (Romans 8:17).

Why would anything else having to do with faith and the Kingdom of God be any different?

Jesus prayed and performed miracles. He didn’t beg God for them. Jesus stood on His authority and cast out demons. He stood on His authority and cast out sickness. He stood on His authority and raised the dead. Remember, Jesus was fully man and operating by the Holy Spirit which came on Him at His baptism (Mark 1:10). Before that point Jesus was sinless, but just like us. Same faith, same abilities, same authority. The Holy Spirit came on Him and changed all that. It gave Him God’s faith. It gave Him God’s power. It gave Him God’s guidance. How do we know? Jesus said so: “For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me, he gave me a commandment, what I should say, and what I should speak. I know that his commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak” (John 12:49-50), and also: “I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous; because I don’t seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me” (John 5:30), and also: “Most certainly, I tell you, the Son can do nothing of himself, but what he sees the Father doing. For whatever things he does, these the Son also does likewise” (John 5:19).

Jesus can only do the will of the Father because that is His choice. The Father has the power and gives Jesus authority to wield it. Jesus has the authority and the power and gives it to us in Faith to wield it through the Holy Spirit that rests in us and by Grace which gives us Jesus’ righteous nature (making us a new creation free from sin). Through that Faith that we get to do things that God can understand, but we cannot. How else can we believe the impossible if not by His faith? We can’t even conceive of it. God’s kingdom is a kingdom of Faith. It’s awesome to see the things of God and experience them. It is awesomer to use His faith to receive them.

That doesn’t mean we can do anything on our own. Jesus was clear about that in John 15:5 “I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in me and I in him bears much fruit, for apart from me you can do nothing.” But He is also clear that we’re in the same boat as Jesus: seeking not our will, but the will of the Father. Doing what the Father says to do, speaking what the Father says to speak, and having all things possible by Him through ourselves because we are in Him. It’s a profound truth and a wonderful gift. Jesus told us “Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in me, the works that I do, he will do also; and he will do greater works than these, because I am going to my Father” (John 14:12). That is quite the promise. Start believing it today and move some mountains in your life. Believe it, and receive everything that God has for us. All that Jesus did for you and everyone else. Be FULLY persuaded. There is nothing else like it.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: Job 7:17-18

Have you seen the images from the James Webb Space Telescope that have started coming in? They’re fuzzy but startling in their possibilities. Just reading a little of the images that could come back makes me let out a breath of wonder. And yet, with all this majesty and glory and amazing vistas, God chose us. He chose you. You. As you are. To spend time with. To talk to. To hug. To listen to. To love. We have value to the God of everything and all there ever has been. That is something special. It’s hard to imagine. In fact, it is the reason given for many atheists not to believe. Why would a God who created the whole universe — possibly multiple universes — care about a single individual on a single planet in a single galaxy of that vast, near-unending creation? It’s a good question. The bible tells us that God created the heavens and all that are in them with words. The bible also says He made us with His hands. He got down and looked us nose to nose and breathed into us. The first human opening the first eyes looked directly into the face of the Creator. Warm breath washing over them. We are MADE. And made in His image. We are unique. Many things have souls. Only humanity has the spirit of God within us. If you believe in Jesus, you’re gifted with His eternal living spirit. If you don’t, you have a dead one. But either way you have a piece of something that nothing else in the vastness of universes has. You are something special. Why wouldn’t the Father who loves you, made you, breathed into you, pay attention to you? How could He not? He loves you.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.

Fear No Fear