Fear No Fear

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

A good tree is not able to bear bad fruit, nor a bad tree to bear good fruit.
Matthew 7:18 (emphasis added)

In Humanity loves something for having done nothing. Or maybe for having done the bare minimum. This world, however, runs on do and then done, not done without doing. Take a seed. A seed does NOTHING. It cannot grow anything. It takes a soil medium before the potential in the seed is unlocked. To put it another way, the SOIL releases the SEED to growth. But no matter what soil is used, only the nature of the seed is released. That’s why it is important to know what kind of seed we have in our hands. No matter where we put it, it will only make more of itself. If the soil is poor, you get poor growth. If the soil is good, you get good growth. But the growth itself will be more of whatever type of seed you have.

That’s really long winded, but so many people either ignore it or don’t know it. Farmers know it. Most gardeners grow it. Children often do not. Which is why there are hotdogs and candy in the gardens of mothers all over the world. What kid wouldn’t like a hotdog or candy tree? Since they don’t fully understand the factors involved, they plant and wait hopefully until it grows into a wonderment. Which doesn’t happen. NOT because it is a bad idea, but because they are not applying the correct principle in the correct way. It takes BOTH of those things for it to work – which in the case of hotdogs, candy, and religious thinking, is impossible.

We want growth. We want moves of Adonai. We want miracles. Who wouldn’t? Yet we also want true crime documentaries. We also want ‘reality’ television where we can watch people live out the basest of passions for our entertainment. We want action movies full of death, revenge, and sex. We want books full of killers and intense drama. We want heart-stopping, edge of our seat thrills and chills. But those two VERY general categories don’t mix. You won’t get more of Adonai by having more of the world. As one teacher said, if you do nothing but watch Road Runner cartoons all day long, when you get up to minister all that comes out is ‘Meep! Meep!’ What we put in is what will grow. We are the soil that releases that seed to growth.

We are spirit-beings housed in a body. We are more than what we see. We are a growth medium. Whatever we put in us will bear fruit. It is a fact. Look at the education system. We can make engineers. We can make poets. We can make athletes. While there is natural talents at work, we can put anyone into those systems of learning. With enough study and push and focus, they will become those things. Their final form on those paths might be tremendous or mediocre at best, but they WILL be those things. We can train anyone to be anything. That is the human mind at work. The physical body has limitations, but the mind does not.

What are we training our minds to? What seeds are we picking up are what seeds we are planting. We will bear that fruit in the fullness of time – when the harvest is ready. What harvest you want should be reflected by what seed you plant. If you don’t know what seed to plant to get what you want, ask. First, Adonai freely gives wisdom to all who ask Him (James 1:5). Second, Adonai is the Lord of the Harvest (Matthew 9:37-38) and knows before you plant what fruit will come of it (Isaiah 46:9-10). It is basic farming.

A good example is our relationships. Love is a choice, not passion. Since it is a choice, we need to make sure we are continuing to choose it every day. A really basic tool to do this is take one thing every day that you love about your partner and either write it down or say it. Size doesn’t matter. It can be trivial. It can be serious. It can be a passing thing like you love how they said that phrase, walked across the room, dressed, styled their hair, or breathed. It doesn’t matter WHAT it is, as long as it is something you love about them. Something you appreciate. Something that makes you smile inside because of them and who they are. Do that every day – without fail if possible – and you will always find it easy to choose love. It will strengthen and deepen your love because you are always feeding the decision you make and proving to yourself that it was a good one. That kind of love is hard to shake, damage, or destroy.

Healing falls into the same category. If you are always taking what the world says about it or what the religious institutions say about it, you are not feeding your choice to believe the Word on it. It isn’t even about the whole big picture. Not at first. It is simply and exercise about reinforcing your CHOICE to believe Adonai. If the WORD says it, it is true. No matter what (Romans 3:4). Sure there can be all sorts of facts thrown at you, but you can choose to believe the thing that DOESN’T change. Facts change (John 8:32). Adonai does not (Hebrews 13:8). Feeling sick? Thank Adonai for a moment of health. Preferably every time you have one. It is good to stand on the Word about healing and health. It is better to also praise the Lord for the healing and health you ALREADY have – not just the unseen you are eagerly expecting. Did you walk to the car without your cane? Praise Him for that! Praise Him for it even when you’re needing your cane to get out. Praise Him for EVERY victory and taking a stand against the sickness will get easier and easier.

Remembering to be thankful on a consistent basis is a good way to ensure that your seeds are the right ones. When we plant a seed and see it succeed, we are more likely to plant more of those seeds. It’s one of the ways you train a child, a student, an employee, or a politician. Positive reinforcement. When they do a good thing and get praised, they are more likely to do more of that thing. When they do badly and don’t receive praise, they are more like to do that thing less. You don’t have to make a big deal of it. You just can’t bless them because they’ve moved into territory that isn’t blessed. They’re out of the zone. Instead of punishing them, you’re trying to get them back into the blessing zone where nothing is hindering your desire and ability to shower them with success and reward. Sound familiar? It’s how Adonai deals with us. We have free will, so we can choose to do what He says is right or we can choose to do what He says will bring us harm. We’ll get the result that we do.

Good fruit or bad fruit. If you, then I. Plant and get a harvest. These are basic and simple principles that Yahweh uses to get across to us the importance of CHOICE and SEED. We are made to prosper and produce (Deuteronomy 28:1-68). What kind of prosperity do you want? Good or bad? His or the world’s? It is OUR choice. Praise Him for all that He DOES. Stand on what He says in His Word He WILL do. Thank Him for what has ALREADY been accomplished and will MANIFEST any day now. You will see the fruit you have planted. We can’t plant bad and get good. We can’t plant good and get bad. We only get what we plant. Plant well and enjoy the harvest that He has for you.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 88:1-7

“O Lord God who delivers me, by day I cry out and at night I pray before you. Listen to my prayer. Pay attention to my cry for help. For my life is filled with troubles, and I am ready to enter Sheol. They treat me like those who descend into the grave. I am like a helpless man, adrift among the dead, like corpses lying in the grave whom you remember no more and who are cut off from your power. You place me in the lowest regions of the Pit, in the dark places, in the watery depths. Your anger bears down on me, and you overwhelm me with all your waves. (Selah)” Messiah would suffer. Messiah would undergo the reproach of Calvary, of being a sacrifice. Of being the object upon which wrath is poured and sin is manifested, in order to take it off of those who deserve it. The sacrifice takes the rap, as it were. Bearing the cost of something it did not commit so that those who did commit don’t have to pay for their wrongdoing. This is wrongdoing from Yahweh’s point of view, not ours. It only BECOMES ours when we submit to what we find in the Word. Messiah would be the bridge between those two states. “Then he released Barabbas for them. But after he had Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe around him, and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” They spat on him and took the staff and struck him repeatedly on the head. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him. As they were going out, they found a man from Cyrene named Simon, whom they forced to carry his cross. They came to a place called Golgotha (which means “Place of the Skull”) and offered Jesus wine mixed with gall to drink. But after tasting it, he would not drink it. When they had crucified him, they divided his clothes by throwing dice. Then they sat down and kept guard over him there. Above his head they put the charge against him, which read: “This is Jesus, the king of the Jews.” Then two outlaws were crucified with him, one on his right and one on his left. Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads and saying, “You who can destroy the temple and rebuild it in three days, save yourself! If you are God’s Son, come down from the cross!” In the same way even the chief priests—together with the experts in the law and elders—were mocking him: “He saved others, but he cannot save himself! He is the king of Israel! If he comes down now from the cross, we will believe in him! He trusts in God—let God, if he wants to, deliver him now because he said, ‘I am God’s Son’!” The robbers who were crucified with him also spoke abusively to him. Now from noon until three, darkness came over all the land. At about three o’clock Jesus shouted with a loud voice, “Eli, Eli, lema sabachthani?” that is, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” When some of the bystanders heard it, they said, “This man is calling for Elijah.” Immediately one of them ran and got a sponge, filled it with sour wine, put it on a stick, and gave it to him to drink. But the rest said, “Leave him alone! Let’s see if Elijah will come to save him.” Then Jesus cried out again with a loud voice and gave up his spirit” (Matthew 27:26-50). 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