Fear No Fear

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

Make the hearts of these people calloused; make their ears deaf and their eyes blind. Otherwise they might see with their eyes and hear with their ears, their hearts might understand and they might repent and be healed.”
Isaiah 6:10 (emphasis added)

Just over a third of the bible is prophetic. There are about 23,145 verses in the Old Testament and 7,957 verses in the New Testament. That’s around 31,102 verses. Of that there are 8,352 verses dealing with prophesy. J. Barton Payne’s Encyclopaedia of Biblical Prophecy lists 1,239 prophecies in the Old Testament and 578 prophecies in the New Testament, for a total of 1,817. Prophesy is NOT a small thing. Each and every prophesy of Adonai is EITHER a prophetic PROMISE or a prophetic WARNING. It is up to US which is which.

The people of Nineveh were enemies of Israel. They were immoral people. Yahweh sent Jonah to them. Eventually he went, preached a bit of a prophetic warning, the word spread without his help, the king heard, they went into repentance, and they submitted to Yahweh. He spared them. They heeded the WARNING. However… some years later they had gone back to their ways, stopped following Yahweh, and given themselves over to immorality and idolatry. They were punished and destruction came upon them. The prophetic PROMISE had come to pass. The word had not changed. The PEOPLE chose the form the word took. The prophetic is important.

“Do not treat prophecies with contempt” (1 Thessalonians 5:20). That’s pretty clear. Yet there are a LOT of WEIRD prophesies. Are they real? Or are they misses? Paul continues in 1 Thessalonians 5:21 “But examine all things; hold fast to what is good.” Prophesy – like EVERYTHING – is to be examined. So much of what hinders us only hinders us because we don’t examine it. Not in the light of logic, not in the light of history, and certainly not in the light of the wisdom of Adonai as revealed by the Word and the Holy Spirit (yeah, that’s right. We can ask Him about things).

Why does Adonai bother to tell us things? To encourage us, for sure. “But the one who prophesies speaks to people for their strengthening, encouragement, and consolation” (1 Corinthians 14:3). It is ENCOURAGING to know that Yahweh has a plan, is enacting that plan, and that He WILL do what He SAYS He will do. Sure, prophesy can be confusing. We take it the wrong way. We assume it means that things will manifest this way or that way. Yeah, we assume it means this guy or that gal. And yes, it can mean nothing that we even in our wildest dreams imagine. But it ENCOURAGES nonetheless.

We are told Yahweh is moving so that we pay real close attention to ourselves and our walk with Adonai. “You will hear of wars and rumors of wars. Make sure that you are not alarmed, for this must happen, but the end is still to come. For nation will rise up in arms against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines and earthquakes in various places. All these things are the beginning of birth pains” (Matthew 24:6-8). “Stay alert, then, because you do not know when the owner of the house will return—whether during evening, at midnight, when the rooster crows, or at dawn—or else he might find you asleep when he returns suddenly. What I say to you I say to everyone: Stay alert!”” (Mark 13:35-37). It is important that we don’t forget there is a timeline, we will NOT know when anything is going to happen, and we need to always be ready, always be submitting to the Word, and ALWAYS letting Him correct our behaviour, our thoughts, and our hearts.

Yahweh kicked Adam and Eve out of the Garden NOT as punishment, but for protection. He did NOT want them to eat of the Tree of Life and live forever in their fallen state. He wanted them redeemed and back into His kingdom, not in the Hell reserved for the rebellious angels. We were never meant to fall. We are spirits and that place of punishment for spirits was NOT for us (Matthew 25:41). But if we are rebellious and refuse to repent and remain rebellious we will go there. That is where ALL rebellious spirits go for punishment. We humans are the only spirits for whom redemption has been prepared and so we do not have to go. This is the SAME principle that Adonai is proclaiming in today’s verse.

Yahweh doesn’t want people with hardened hearts to hear the message and come to Him in their fallen state. We MUST submit to the Word. Yes, that can seem harsh. It can seem like a hard thing. It ISN’T! “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry.”” (Matthew 11:28-30). It is so easy to be willing to open your eyes and see His Word for the TRUTH that it is. To be willing to submit to what we see there regardless of what we think about it.

I don’t want to start a debate or an argument, but a great place to start is to believe that the Word is true. Literal truth. Does it not line up with what Science teaches? So what. Maybe we don’t know all that we think we know. It is a fact of this world that great knowledge generates great arrogance. Science isn’t the study of facts. It is the explanation that we think is true based on what we observe about things that we have observed. That’s it. Human thinking. Human reason. Viewing the world. It isn’t a series of unalterable laws. We have altered laws. More than once. We just like keeping the ones that seem to be constant and true. Who wouldn’t? But new discoveries change old ones.

Malleability is the way of the world, the way of science, and the way of ALL human thinking. The Word isn’t human thinking. We wrote it down, but at the direction and behest of the Holy Spirit. Not ourselves or our own thinking. Anyone who tells you that dozens of people wrote the books and they are simply the overall philosophy of human thinkers who chose this kind of deity is a person who has not taken in the Word. If they had, they’d realise that humans would have made it differently. Humans would have done a lot to make sure that it is solely on our own efforts that we get in. Humans would have made more loopholes – even if they were only for the elite. Humans would have a different book for a different god. How different? Look at the religions of this world? They are NOTHING like what you find in the Word. And it is a sad truth that just because you call yourself a Christian, it doesn’t mean that you aren’t a blindly religious person.

Adonai wants loving children, not blind followers of a bunch of rules. Adonai wants humbly submissive obedience. Not puffed up crowing of those who think their good works or money or kind words or generosity or any other human thing or thinking is worth more than what Jesus did for us. Saul was a brilliant thinker. He was a devoted follower of Judaism. He was all about rules and strictness and literal interpretation of everything he found in the scriptures. Saul also had scales literally fall off his eyes to show him how blind he really was spiritually. Saul became Paul, a humble follower of Jesus, the Messiah. Jesus didn’t bring Saul into the Kingdom. Jesus used the Kingdom to transform Saul into Paul and welcomed him with open arms.

The blind have no place in the Kingdom of Yahweh’s Light because they cannot see it. They cannot perceive it. They cannot admit to themselves that they are kicking against the goads and working as hard as they can NOT to be part of Yahweh’s Kingdom. It is not for them. Instead, Adonai seeks to un-blind them. To let His light penetrate their hearts and minds and take the scales off. To have them be corrected and redeemed before they get healed and whole – body, mind, and spirit. Don’t be one of the blind. Open your eyes to Yahweh’s Light and Love and let Him transform you into a whole, complete, and fully functioning child of the Most High.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: 2 Samuel 7:16

“Your house and your kingdom will stand before me permanently; your dynasty will be permanent.’”” Yahweh is not into impermanence. He is into LASTING solutions. He set David on a throne and made a promise to him. Through his son Nathan (Luke 3:31) AND his son Solomon (Matthew 1:7), Jesus of Nazareth is the descendant of David. Thousands of years after David died, Jesus ascended to the throne. ““I, Jesus, have sent my angel to testify to you about these things for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star!”” (Revelation 22:16). Thousands of years after THAT, Jesus is STILL REIGNING. He still sits on the Throne of David (Hebrews 10:12-13). Jesus is that king. Jesus IS Messiah.

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b