Fear No Fear

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

For unclean spirits, crying with loud shrieks, were coming out of many who were possessed, and many paralyzed and lame people were healed.
Acts 8:7 (emphasis added)

Neither Jesus nor His disciples were confounded by demonic OR evil spirits. They were prepared to deal with them AND make a distinction between natural from the curse sicknesses and spiritual sicknesses. They drew the line and dealt with what was in front of them as they came to it. They didn’t see a demon behind every bush. They also didn’t shy from calling it what it was when there were spiritual factors involved. In BOTH types of healing, it was ALWAYS trust (faith) that was used to engage (to secure for use) the healing.

“and a woman was there who had been disabled by a spirit for eighteen years. She was bent over and could not straighten herself up completely. When Jesus saw her, he called her to him and said, “Woman, you are freed from your infirmity” (Luke 13:11-12). This was CLEARLY a spirit causing the issue that needed healing. “Then he came up and touched the bier, and those who carried it stood still. He said, “Young man, I say to you, get up!” So the dead man sat up and began to speak, and Jesus gave him back to his mother” (Luke 7:14-15). This was CLEARLY the curse (death) that was being rebuked and the condition being healed. “Now when Jesus entered Peter’s house, he saw his mother-in-law lying down, sick with a fever. 15 He touched her hand, and the fever left her. Then she got up and began to serve them” (Matthew 8:14-15). This was CLEARLY a physical condition that needed healing. Spiritual, physical, and the curse. The three separate categories that EVERYTHING falls into. All confronted by Jesus in the same way. Jesus TRUSTED His Father’s faith (Mark 11:22). Jesus CONSISTENTLY prayed and fasted in order to school His flesh and keep His focus ENTIRELY on the Father (Matthew 17:20-21). Jesus kept His TRUST sharp.

Jesus’ trust was KEEN (alert and ready). Keen in intellect (quick-witted: wisdom). Keen in perception (acute: sharp sighted). Keen in attention (vigilant: looking outward). Keen in attention to the interests of others (peaceful: always seeking a way). Keen in spirit (active: never releasing). Keen in action (brisk: full of activity). Keen in reaction (capable: ready to react strongly). Jesus rubbed His trust against a whetstone in order to sharpen it. It was the same stone that He used to STRENGTHEN His trust. The WORD of Yahweh. The Jewish teachers call the Torah the BREAD of the Jew. Without their bread, they will die. Jesus took the SAME stance. Jesus was the Word Made Flesh (John 1:14). Jesus said of Himself ““I am the bread of life. The one who comes to me will never go hungry, and the one who believes in me will never be thirsty” (John 6:35). Without food and water, the human being dies. Without Jesus (bread and water), the human SPIRIT dies.

Jeremy Pearson has said, ‘Faith is the front door into the House of God.’ By trust we get saved, because we must trust Adonai or we can’t accept His salvation. By trust we walk with Him, because we cannot see it. By trust we function in the Kingdom, because the Kingdom is built on trust (Hebrews 11:6; Romans 14:23). What did Jesus say about doors? A lot. But I am thinking of this: “Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20). Are you doing to exercise your trust and open that door? Trust (like a door) is USELESS if you don’t engage it. Trust (like your legs) don’t accomplish much if it isn’t strong. “for we live by faith, not by sight” (2 Corinthians 5:7). We LIVE by our trust.

This is SO IMPORTANT because it does not matter if you are looking at a sick person desperate for help, three hundred drones and missiles coming at you, a speed limit when you’re in a rush, or the food you put on your plate. If you have no TRUST, you will default to whatever your body has learned. Over all the years you have been alive, your body has been learning things. These things are based on what you SEE. We call them limits. What we can do and what we cannot do. There is a whole other UNIVERSE of learning that we don’t have access to until we open the door. There is a whole BODY of instruction, correction, and leading that is ONLY available through the Word (the physical book or the physical Jesus). It is by TRUST that we access it, study it, let it strengthen us, and engage it.

A vehicle is useless until you turn it on and engage its transmission. You can press the pedals, turn the wheel, push the buttons, get the wipers going, and beep the horn; but if the transmission isn’t engaged you are going NOWHERE. Your TRUST needs to be engaged. It cannot be engaged if it has nothing to run on. It needs fuel. It needs bread. It needs water. It needs it digested and ready to go. TRUST needs to be strengthened. TRUST needs to be sharpened. We do both with the Word. The Word strengthens our trust by deepening it (Romans 10:17). The Word strengthens our trust by instructing us about Yahweh’s point of view (Romans 12:2). OUR point of view is interesting and valid, but ADONAI’S point of view MATTERS. The Word gets our hearts to see that so that we can join our hand with His and say honestly and without reservation ‘What YOU say is good, I say is good and what YOU say is bad, I say is bad.’ When we KNOW it, we ACT it. No one accidentally puts down the number three when they know one plus one equals two. In the same way, when we are ACTIVELY strengthening our faith we will not accidentally do what we KNOW and have been SHOWN is wrong from Adonai’s point of view.

Storms happen, but they are not problems they are situations in which we know that Adonai has the solution. That is a deepened, strengthened trust. You are actively seeking the solution to what OTHER people think is a problem but YOU know is just a bump in the road that Jesus can step over and take you with Him. When Adonai tells us the solution, we need to now walk it out. That relies on a strengthened trust, but it isn’t what starts it. Strong leg muscles are great, but if you don’t engage them nothing happens. It is a SHARP trust that engages. Using the Word, using prayer, using fasting, using our ears (inner and outer) to listen to Holy Spirit. THAT is engagement. That is a ready-to-use trust. Like ready-to-eat snacks, we need to only engage it, take off the wrapper, and walk out what we have been shown.

Jesus was ALWAYS ready because He strengthened His trust (faith) and kept His eyes on the Word so that His trust (faith) was sharp and ready. Whenever a situation came up, He was ready! He spoke the Word. He taught the Word. He healed according to the Word. He trusted, and trusted, and trusted. This was the cry of Jesus’ heart: “My God, I trust in you. Please do not let me be humiliated; do not let my enemies triumphantly rejoice over me” (Psalm 25:2). Jesus TRUSTED. Jesus OVERCAME (John 16:33). In Jesus, we can too (John 15). We can LIVE by our trust. We can WALK by our trust. We can ENGAGE our trust. And HE will give us the victory over EVERYTHING because instead of fear we have TRUST. Amen.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 38:12

“Those who seek my life try to entrap me; those who want to harm me speak destructive words. All day long they say deceitful things.” Messiah would be perfect and would do no wrong. His enemies would seek His life and His destruction, but they would be unable to point to anything He DID. His enemies would turn to deceit and craft to make the opportunity to eliminate Messiah. “Two days before the Passover and the Feast of Unleavened Bread, the chief priests and the experts in the law were trying to find a way to arrest Jesus by stealth and kill him” (Mark 14:1). “Then the Pharisees went out and planned together to entrap him with his own words” (Matthew 22:15). Jesus’ enemies tried to trap Him. They used their craft and their wiles to try and trick Him. Jesus’ was constantly sought by the deceitful. Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b