Fear No Fear

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

The Lord responded favorably to Hezekiah and forgave the people.
2 Chronicles 30:20 (emphasis added)

The word for forgive here is the same word used for healing. It is the Hebrew word ‘rapha’ meaning to heal. To make fresh. To forgive. To purify. It’s a great word. It is the same word used to signify salvation. Yahweh healing us and Yahweh saving us is the same thing from His point of view. It is the same ACTION. It is the same PROCESS. How do we get saved? By the use of His FAITH. How will we be healed? By the use of His FAITH. Why, oh why, do we make it so COMPLICATED?

Hezekiah was heading up a revival and return to Adonai. He was tearing down places of idolatry. He was rebuilding the Temple. He was calling the people to worship of Adonai as proscribed by the scriptures. Not everyone responded favourably. “The messengers journeyed from city to city through the land of Ephraim and Manasseh as far as Zebulun, but people mocked and ridiculed them. But some men from Asher, Manasseh, and Zebulun humbled themselves and came to Jerusalem” (2 Chronicles 30:10-11). In Judah (vs 12-14) there was a huge response. The people who were moved answered the king’s call and they gathered in Jerusalem for the Feast of Unleavened Bread (Passover). It was a huge success. They humbled themselves before Adonai and brought themselves into line with Him and His commands.

It was really that easy. All the stuff they had to do wasn’t because of Adonai. It was because of THEM. THEY were the ones who had built the incense altars and the sacrificial altars. THEY were the ones who had strayed. THEY were the ones who had ignored what Adonai had told them. Naturally then, THEY were the ones who had to go to all the trouble to undo what THEY had done. It was a moment, a single step, to get back to where they truly wished to please Adonai and worship Him. But they had to get rid of everything that they had previously set up – in other words, they had to deal with the consequences of their actions.

Sometimes, we have to do the same. Now we are not under the Law. We don’t have a lot of physical, natural world things we need to do, but there might be some. We might need to get rid of objects that were created to stand against Adonai. We might need to remove perfectly innocent things that we have set up in our hearts and our minds as more important than Adonai. If it is interfering with our walk with Adonai, maybe it needs to go for a time – or permanently. NOT because there is a verse that says Thou Shalt Not Binge Netflix, but because we consistently choose it over time with Adonai. Because WE have put it in a place of such importance we are refusing to seek Adonai with our whole heart. I’m not against entertainment, but when we engage in it at the expense of time with Yahweh, we need to re-evaluate whether to have it in our lives.

Hezekiah and the people found the scriptures, chose to turn back to Adonai, and to worship Him in the way He wanted/required (2 Chronicles 29:3-11). For them it was with Temple worship and sacrifices. Jesus is OUR sacrifice. He is OUR propitiation. He is the sacrificial lamb for ALL the offerings that were proscribed in the Word (1 John 2:2, 4:10). We don’t need to do all of that. We need to look at our HEARTS and our ATTITUDES. We have the INTERIOR cleaning to do (2 Corinthians 10:5). We have the INTERIOR worship to consider. “But a time is coming—and now is here—when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father seeks such people to be his worshipers. God is spirit, and the people who worship him must worship in spirit and truth” (John 4:23-24). In spirit and in truth we must worship. Adonai wants TRUE worshippers, not LIP SERVICE. He doesn’t care if you’re warming a pew on Sunday. He cares that you are worshipping Him. He cares that you are seeking Him – and if you are, you’ll be gathering with other believers. We can’t worship in TRUTH if we aren’t investing ourselves in what we find in the WORD.

What is Adonai’s side in all of this? What is it that HE says He will do? Nothing. He doesn’t say HE will do anything. Because this isn’t a bargaining table. Yahweh created us because He WANTED us. But He doesn’t NEED us. He is GOD ALMIGHTY! He is above us, superior to us, and exists in FULL outside of us. He didn’t NEED us, He WANTED us. He still WANTS us. And the procedure is very simple. If we are worshipping Him in SPIRIT and TRUTH, we will LOVE Him. In LOVING Him, we will FREELY seek to do His will. We will keep His commandments out of LOVE and CHOICE. We will be in the place where WE can accept the BLESSING that He is pouring out CONSTANTLY on His Beloved Children. That’s how simple it is. It isn’t bargaining, begging, or anything else. Be where He says and experience BLESSING. Be ANYWHERE ELSE and you’re at the mercy of everything OUTSIDE of the BLESSING – the curse.

NOT because He is putting it on you. NOT because He is mad at you. NOT because He is seeking to teach you something. No. Because YOU are not staying under His protection. Because YOU are not staying in obedience. Because YOU are choosing not to worship in TRUTH. Because YOU are more concerned about this world than Him and His things. Yahweh will use our circumstances to teach us things. But WE choose those circumstances, NOT Him. He IS sovereign. But WE have been given free will. Adonai wants EVERYONE saved, but He told us few will choose to accept Him. It is heart wrenching to imagine the tears Adonai has spilled as His creation walks away from Him into darkness.

What’s the GOOD NEWS? It takes a MOMENT. A single STEP to get back to Him. Yes, there may be consequences we have to deal with. Stuff we need to get in line with Him. We may have some physical housecleaning to do. But so what? What’s a little cleaning, removing, or sacrifice compared to what He has done for us? What’s a favourite item or activity compared to the GLORY of Adonai? What’s the point of some twisted shadow of what Adonai does (like witchcraft, for example) when we can be cleansed of that and be with the True Living One? Why stay out in the wilds, at the mercy of this world and all the stuff in it? Why not walk into the Lord’s place. Into HIS yard where HIS blessing resides?

“Certainly spending just one day in your temple courts is better than spending a thousand elsewhere. I would rather stand at the entrance to the temple of my God than live in the tents of the wicked. For the Lord God is our sovereign protector. The Lord bestows favor and honor; he withholds no good thing from those who have integrity” (Psalm 84:10-11). “For when you were slaves of sin, you were free with regard to righteousness. So what benefit did you then reap from those things that you are now ashamed of? For the end of those things is death. But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:20-23). “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).

In faith and worship we can love Him, investigate Him, and worship Him. We can humbly submit to Him and His Word. Reading it with intent and submitting to what we find there. Choosing to DO the things we read in the Word because they are there. To do it because HE says it is right and good. To seek to do what is righteous from HIS point of view, not ours. To call sin what HE calls sin. To call wrongdoing what HE calls wrongdoing. To not look to what WE see in and around us, but to look to what HE sees in and around us. To conform to HIS pattern, HIS morality, HIS behaviour, and HIS love. Not because we HAVE to, but because we love Him and WANT to.

You know the best news? He INSTANTLY responds to us. He has been waiting a LONG time for us (1 Peter 2:9). He has been eagerly anticipating our turning around and looking to Him. We can do it alone. We can do it as a family. We can do it as a group. We can even do it like Hezekiah did and do it as a NATION. It may seem like a tall order, but it was no shorter in his day than ours. We can turn as a NATION if we choose to. No matter how we turn, how many turn, or when we choose to, Adonai will respond. He can heal us of our unrighteousness in a MOMENT. A nation changed in a DAY. He can do it spiritually, mentally, and physically. There are NO LIMITS for Adonai when we choose to submit to Him. When we choose to let Him move in our lives HIS way.

The Word is clear about what pleases Adonai. Will we seek to please Him? Will we seek to submit to Him? Will se seek to let Him do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants? Will we accept what He has for us? Will we love Him the way He wants to be loved? Will we be BLESSED? Simple choices. HUGE ramifications. Healing is there. Body, Soul, and Spirit. Will you take it in the fullness in which He is offering it? Will your family? Your friends? Your nation? He can turn it around for all of us in a day. Imagine it. Pray for it. Submit to Him. Don’t wait. Make THIS the day you are changed by Him FOREVER.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: 1 Samuel 7:12

“When the time comes for you to die, I will raise up your descendant, one of your own sons, to succeed you, and I will establish his kingdom.” Messiah is the seed of David. Messiah is the fulfilment of the covenant Adonai made with David. A kingdom that never ends with a descendant of David on the throne forever. That’s a GREAT promise. “This is the record of the genealogy of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1). “Salmon the father of Boaz (by Rahab), Boaz the father of Obed (by Ruth), Obed the father of Jesse, and Jesse the father of David the king” (Matthew 1:5-6). “the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David, the son of Jesse, the son of Obed, the son of Boaz, the son of Sala, the son of Nahshon,” (Luke 3:31-32). Jesus was a descendant of David through his son Nathan. Jesus was linked through genealogy both of the man who adopted Him (Joseph) and through His mother Mary. Jesus is the seed of David. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b