Fear No Fear

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

Do not let them depart from your sight; guard them within your heart, for they are life to those who find them and healing to one’s entire body.
Proverbs 4:21-22 (emphasis added)

Adonai doesn’t waste words. The only repetition in the Word is for our sake – to make sure that we understand a point. Every single thing in the Word has a purpose – whether we understand it or not. Every single jot and iota has power because it is the WORD of Yahweh. “Every scripture is inspired by God and useful for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the person dedicated to God may be capable and equipped for every good work” (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It is important in its ENTIRETY.

That word in today’s verse (entire) is the Greek work ‘kol’. It means the whole. Or all. As in all of the everything. The every that pertains to all. It encompasses EVERYTHING. When it says that something is for our ENTIRE body, it means the whole and complete and all. Our spirit body, our soul body, and our physical body. Every body we are connected to in and of ourselves. The ALL. The EVERYTHING. The COMPLETE and TOTAL us. All.

The Word, which is good for ALL THINGS is healing for ALL of us. Obviously, not when we are reading it like a light novel. Obviously, not when we are reading while thinking that it is symbolic or a story or a myth or something that isn’t REAL. Symbols can be real or they can be word pictures of ideas we are not meant to take literally. Jonah in the belly of a fish is something REAL, not a metaphor. Us rising like eagles is a metaphor for how vibrant we will be, not that we will start flying. The difference between a biblical symbol and a fairy tale is that a fairy tale is a word picture to impart a moral lesson. A biblical symbol is a word picture we can understand about a spiritual TRUTH. If we read the Word thinking of it like a story book, we aren’t getting benefit from it. If we read the Word and discount a bunch of stuff because we don’t think it is applicable or right based on today’s society, we aren’t getting benefit from it. We need to read the Word as it was inspired, not as we think it should go.

There are things in the Word that rub me the wrong way. I do not think the Word is wrong. I think that I am wrong and need to understand what inside me is getting twisted up as I read Adonai’s truth. The Word will change you if you let Holy Spirit go to work (Romans 12:2). It isn’t meant to leave you where you were. It is meant to change your thinking to realise and accept Adonai’s point of view as moral and correct. It is not there to punish us or to make us fail. It was given to us so that we could go back to where we were never supposed to leave: His Blessing.

We are able to get back to His Blessing because of Jesus. Jesus paid the price of sin which was separating us from Adonai. Yahweh HATES sin. He was, is, and always will be against it. He does NOT change (Numbers 23:19; 1 Samuel 15:29; Hebrews 13:8). Jesus took the price of sin (Genesis 2:16-17; Romans 6:23). Jesus became our WAY to the Father. The bridge over (through) which we walk in order to enter the Courts of Heaven – with joy (Psalms 100:4-5). When we remain in Jesus (John 15), we are standing in the place where Adam stood before the Fall. We are empowered to use Jesus’ authority (John 14:13-17) in accordance with the Word which is the Will of the Father (1 John 5:14-15). We are allowed to exercise our dominion according to that criteria. When we ask in Jesus’ name the Father’s will, He listens and grants us our requests. Period. If we DON’T ask according to His will, we aren’t asking with TRUST and we won’t get it because He doesn’t hear us (James 4:3).

We will know the will of the Father when we know the Word. Not in our MINDS but in our HEARTS. We do that by keeping it in front of us ALL the time. That means that we need to be dealing with it constantly. We can’t start and stop. We can’t do it a little bit once a week and expect things to go well. When I am driving a vehicle, if I take my hands off the wheel the vehicle will go wherever it wants. Wherever the road takes it. It is only by consistently and constantly keeping my hands on the wheel that I get it to go where I want it to. In the same way, it is only by constantly and consistently eating the Word that we are able to keep our spirit’s fed and our hearts digesting His point of view.

His point of view is up looking down. Perfect righteousness looking toward imperfect humanness. We actually get a choice as to how He sees us. We can do things our own way and reject Him. He will see us as fallen. Or we can accept Jesus and be seen as what we can be in Him. That’s what renewing our mind is all about. Seeing us as HE sees us IN JESUS. It takes renewal. It takes effort. We have to keep going. Keep reading. Keep digesting. Keep submitting to what He says is best. Giving Him permission to do what He wants – and then doing what He asks us to. Putting Him first. Loving Him completely. That means obeying what He says (John 14:15). That means reverencing Him as God (Deuteronomy 6:4-15). We need to see ourselves as He does because there is no other way to truly believe that we can have what He wants to give us. We are so convinced that we aren’t worthy, it TAKES the Word to get it through our heads that He sees us differently.

It takes our constant thinking on it. We cannot let ourselves look at other things. I don’t mean ignore everything around us. I mean FOCUSING on the things of Adonai. Reading it. Praying about it. Thinking about what we have read and heard in our spirit. Testing everything (I Thessalonians 5:21) and holding onto what Holy Spirit shows us is right and good. It is a way of thinking that goes against what the world teaches. It is critical thinking on a spiritual level. Asking questions of Adonai and listening to the responses. Not stopping until we have a handle on what Adonai is showing us – no matter how long we mull the verses over. This is the kind of thing we naturally do in the material world. We think about the shows we saw, the news reports, or the book we read while we drive to work, do our chores, and go about our day. The only shift here is to do that same thing but with the Word.

If we guard it and keep it before us. If we maintain our interaction with it. If we do what we are asked to do. If we rely on the Holy Spirit to do what the Word says He will do. If we do this, we will remain where Adonai wants us in order for us to benefit fully from the Word. To get it into ALL of our selves. To be healthy. To prosper in our bodies as we prosper in our spirits (3 John 1:2). To be healthy in ALL ways throughout ALL of ourselves. Spirit, soul, and body. TOTAL health.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 40:14

“May those who are trying to snatch away my life be totally embarrassed and ashamed. May those who want to harm me be turned back and ashamed.” Messiah would be confronted by enemies. Enemies who in their heart of hearts knew that He was innocent. Enemies who would be confronted by the truth and feel ashamed. “Then Jesus, because he knew everything that was going to happen to him, came and asked them, “Who are you looking for?” They replied, “Jesus the Nazarene.” He told them, “I am he.” (Now Judas, the one who betrayed him, was standing there with them.) So when Jesus said to them, “I am he,” they retreated and fell to the ground” (John 18:4-6). Jesus declared who He was and that had enough power to knock His enemies down. Jesus was confronted by His adversaries in the Garden, just as it was prophesied. The reality of who Jesus was shamed them. For a moment, they weren’t an unruly mob of men determined to catch a criminal. They were humans confronted with Messiah. 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