Fear No Fear

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

My whole body is sick because of your judgment; I am deprived of health because of my sin.
Psalm 38:3 (emphasis added)

Jesus on the cross was deprived of the health He had enjoyed His entire life. This went beyond the beatings. This went beyond the crown of thorns. This went beyond the flaying of His back. This went beyond the nails in His flesh and His struggle on the cross as He was executed. Jesus was living out Isaiah’s prophesy. “(just as many were horrified by the sight of you) he was so disfigured he no longer looked like a man; his form was so marred he no longer looked human” (Isaiah 52:14). Jesus took on OUR sickness. He died while it was on Him. It was buried in the ground with Him. But He was raised to LIFE. That sickness stayed in the ground. Why are we so desperate to dig it up?

The word for salvation is the Greek word sótéria (so-tay-ree’-ah). It means deliverance or salvation from something. That something can be (the usage of the word): welfare, prosperity, deliverance, preservation, salvation, and safety. So when we know that Jesus SAVES, we know that Jesus sótérias. Which means that Jesus is our welfare. Jesus prospers us. Jesus delivers us. Jesus preserves us. Jesus makes us safe. Funny thing about ‘preserve’. It means to to keep safe from injury, harm, or destruction; PROTECT; to keep alive, intact, or free from decay; MAINTAIN; to keep or save from decomposition. Does ANY of that match up with the idea of being sick or diseased? The SAME WORD we use to mean our SPIRITUAL salvation also means our salvation from DECOMPOSITION.

The first argument people will have is that if that is true no believer would die. That is silly. No one wants to live in a dirt body. We want our renewed bodies. We want to walk in the fullness of the benefits and blessings that we will have in the Kingdom of Heaven (Romans 13:11). But when a believer has FINISHED their assignment here and has COMPLETED their race, then we give up our spirits into the Father’s hands. It is supposed to be a CHOICE, not something enforced by sickness, disease, or circumstance (John 19:30; 2 Timothy 4:6-8).

The second argument people will have is two-fold. First, that if it is true no one in the Body of Christ would be sick. Second, that Adonai uses circumstances and sickness to teach us things. The first is false. If ANY believer had full TRUST in Adonai about healing and when it was accomplished, sickness would NOT be able to stay on that believer whether it was a head cold or stage-5 cancer. When a believer is sick, diseased, defeated, or dies early is is always US (human beings) who got something wrong and NEVER Adonai. It is ALWAYS the Father’s will to FULLY and COMPLETELY heal. It is ALWAYS us who miss it. We need wisdom to see that. To see what we missed or what we are missing. Adonai grants wisdom freely when we ask (James 1:5-8). We need to use it once we get it. We need to listen when we hear. If we don’t, it does us no good.

Does Adonai use sickness and circumstances to heal us? I will say this: Adonai NEVER sends them. Of course He can use something to teach us things. Jesus used good and bad to teach things throughout His ministry. He met people where they were and taught them how to be free and how to enjoy the freedom they had. Jesus only did what the Father told Him to, so the Father does the same thing. There was no sickness, disease, lack, defeat, or fear before the Fall. After the Fall all of that entered the world because ALL of that is fruit of sin. Sin is of the curse that came upon Mankind (male and female) when we chose to listen to the devil and not Adonai. When we were redeemed of sin, we were redeemed of all the effects of sin (Romans 5:17). We don’t HAVE to put up with them because IN JESUS we are FREE of them. Outside Jesus, we’re on our own strength. It is ONLY in the strength of Jesus that we have victory (1 Corinthians 15:57). It is by GRACE through FAITH (trust) that we receive ANYTHING from the Father. It’s true of spiritual salvation. It’s true of healing. EVERYTHING we get from Him, we get the same way.

We got sick because we were in sin. We were separate from Adonai. “But your sinful acts have alienated you from your God; your sins have caused him to reject you and not listen to your prayers” (Isaiah 59:2). “Let no one say when he is tempted, “I am tempted by God,” for God cannot be tempted by evil, and he himself tempts no one. But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death” (James 1:13-15). Separation from Adonai is to be in a place of everything that is NOT of Him. He is life. Not-Him is death (Romans 6:23). This is binary. Only two options. Faith, which is trust in Adonai. Sin, which is not trusting Adonai. “But the man who doubts is condemned if he eats, because he does not do so from faith, and whatever is not from faith is sin” (Romans 14:23). When we are not trusting Jesus, we are in sin. When we are in sin, we are not in the Blessing zone. When we are not in the Blessing zone, we are where sin and its effects can get at us.

This was the whole problem with Job. He had no one to pay the price for Him. He was vulnerable to the devil because he wasn’t saved. He was sinful in his nature. He needed a redeemer. He needed someone to stand as mediator. He needed someone he could meet face to face and talk with. He needed Jesus. But he lived BEFORE Jesus. Job was stuck in the Old Covenant system to deal with sin. Job was at the mercy of the devil. It wasn’t a bet. It wasn’t a contest. It wasn’t a whim. It wasn’t to teach Job anything. Job learned a LOT, but that wasn’t the object of it. Job was simply a human being who wasn’t saved. With Jesus, all that goes out the window.

We have victory in Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:57). We have safety in Jesus (2 Timothy 4:18). We have authority in Jesus (Matthew 28:18–20). Jesus saves us (Matthew 1:21). Jesus preserves us (1 John 3:22). Jesus mediates for us (1 Timothy 2:5). Jesus heals us (Matthew 8:16-17; 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus delivers us (Matthew 6:13). Jesus renews us (Titus 3:5). Jesus was deprived so that we would not be (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Don’t pick up what Jesus put down. He came to renew our minds to what the Father wants for us (John 3:17). He finished it on the cross. It was dead and buried in Him. He came to rescue us from trouble and give us abundant life (John 10:10). In all ways. In all things. In every way. This is what the point was. This was the plan. This IS the Good News (Luke 2:8-11). Jesus was sick so we do not ever, ever, EVER have to be. Period.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 72:16

“May there be an abundance of grain in the earth; on the tops of the mountains may it sway. May its fruit trees flourish like the forests of Lebanon. May its crops be as abundant as the grass of the earth.” The kernel of wheat would fall into the ground. Messiah was that kernel of wheat. He was to ‘fall’ into the ground. To die. To be buried. To enter the ground for a time. Only Messiah could be the sacrifice for us, because only He was the kernel of wheat. “I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life” (John 12:24-25). Jesus taught on the importance of the kernel of wheat. He needed His disciples to understand what was going on when He was laid in the tomb (Matthew 27:57-61). They needed to understand so that they could obey His command NOT to be depressed, anxious, or fearful about it (John 14:1-7). He was able to give the command because He understood His place as the kernel of corn that MUST go to the ground for a time. He had that knowledge because the Spirit revealed it to Him because of who He was and is. 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