Fear No Fear

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

Then he said to the man, “Stretch out your hand.” He stretched it out and it was restored, as healthy as the other.
Matthew 12:13 (emphasis added)

In many of the healings Jesus was involved with there was action. He sent a blind man to wash. Hands were stretched out. Clothing was touched. Mats were picked up. Men were sent to offer the sacrifice signalling cleansing at the temple – including a Samaritan who would not have been able to accomplish the task. Jesus didn’t wave His hand and heal people. Quite often, action of the individual desiring wholeness was required. It is never enough to BELIEVE we trust in Adonai. We have to DO something with it. That can be a lot of different things.

When we are saved, we believe in our hearts and confess with our mouths. We believe and are baptised. Belief and action. Actions that come from belief. Actions that we can’t help doing because we believe. “What good is it, my brothers and sisters, if someone claims to have faith but does not have works? Can this kind of faith save him? If a brother or sister is poorly clothed and lacks daily food, and one of you says to them, “Go in peace, keep warm and eat well,” but you do not give them what the body needs, what good is it? So also faith, if it does not have works, is dead being by itself” (James 2:14-17). If we truly have trust. If we truly believe. We cannot HELP acting. That is how it works. Even worldly life teaches us that. When we believe drinking is okay, we drink. When we believe premarital sex is okay, we seek it out. When we believe watching anything doesn’t affect us, we watch anything. When we believe we can succeed, we seek success. Why would this basic mechanism be any different in the Kingdom?

We believe, we act on that belief. It can be words. It can be actions. It can be both. We see those three things active and evident in Jesus’ earthly ministry. Since at a minimum we are empowered to do everything Jesus did, we can see them active in our ministry as well (John 14:12). There are three keys to that. Active trust (faith), active belief (rejecting disbelief), and the Will of the Father (1 John 5:14,15). We can see that being ABLE to do what Jesus did isn’t a blank cheque for the miraculous. Rather, we need to do what Jesus did and ONLY do what the Father shows us to do and say ONLY what the Father shows us to say. After all, Jesus didn’t walk on water every day. He didn’t spit in mud every day. He didn’t command healing only by voice every day. He did it the Father’s way, in the Father’s time, EVERY time.

What we have to do, is submit. Submit to Elohim, stand on the Word, and the devil flees (James 4:7). This principle is true when facing anything of sin and the curse (Galatians 3:13). Submitting to Elohim means giving Him permission to do ANYTHING He wants ANY WAY He wants ANY TIME He wants. That will take you to some interesting places to minister His Word. That will take you into some interesting phraseology (word choice) in ministering His Word. Miraculous things follow when He gets to do what He wants. Yes. When He GETS to. We have free will built into each and every one of us. We can hamper Adonai’s work (Mark 6:5; Psalm 78:41; Romans 1:18). We need to be open to HIS moves. HIS will. HIS desires. They will not always be what we expect. They may seem foolish. They may not make sense. But we are stuck in our point of view too much. From HIS point of view, everything makes sense. Most importantly, Adonai sees into the deepest parts of us all (Hebrews 4:13). He knows what WE need and what THEY need and how to gets HIS desire to manifest. Because that’s what it is about. Bringing HIS will to earth (Matthew 6:10).

We all want restoration. We all want others to be restored. But it won’t happen the way WE want. It ONLY happens the way HE wants. If you hinder Him, it won’t happen. But if you release Him to move as He wants, it will always happen (Matthew 18:18-20). That doesn’t mean the physical manifestation of it – because of free will. We miss it sometimes. Or there is a resistant part of us somewhere – either the minister or the ministered to. The Ruach HaKodesh will always tell us what we missed (John 14:26), but we’ll need to ask, listen, and seek Him for the answer. It will come. There is NO REASON other than our own wills that healing should be anything less than instantaneous or accomplished in full manifestation within the hour. That’s what happened with Jesus and that is what can happen with us. Nothing has changed except our willingness to disbelieve and hinder.

It was Yahweh’s will for the Israelites to enter the Promised Land right after they left Egypt. They rebelled and hindered and spend another forty years in the desert. It was Yahweh’s will for the Israelites to leave Egypt at a specific time. Moses jumped the gun, killed an Egyptian, and cost the calendar forty years. It was Yahweh’s will for Israel to never have a king. They rebelled and demanded one. It was Yahweh’s will that the king and the people always seek Him. They rebelled and were almost constantly under the condemnation of the Old Covenant. There are a lot of things that are Yahweh’s WILL, but we HINDER Him, refuse Him, and disobey Him. Adonai never gives up. He is always looking for someone to obey (2 Chronicles 16:9).

Are you willing to do what He says in a given situation? Are you willing to stretch your hand out? Walk across town with spit mud dripping down your face? Stand up with confidence when you know you can’t walk? Go somewhere you never would be caught dead and tell who you find there that they have worth and a purpose in life? Talk to the homeless? Feed the poor? Ask a stranger to let you pray for them? Tell someone in a wheelchair to stand up in Jesus’ Name? Are you willing to leave your comfort zone? Will you do what Jesus asks you to in order to prove (demonstrate the truth or existence of) your trust? Are you willing to walk as Jesus did? If you are, miraculous things will follow (Hebrews 2:3-4).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 88:8

“You cause those who know me to keep their distance; you make me an appalling sight to them. I am trapped and cannot get free.” The followers of Messiah would stand afar off and watch. They would be kept apart by fear. They would be kept apart by a kind of disgust, watching the horror being inflicted upon Him whom they loved. “And all those who knew Jesus stood at a distance, and the women who had followed him from Galilee saw these things” (Luke 23:49). Too fearful to help, scared to get caught and have the same happen to them, the disciples of Jesus stood and watched from a distance. 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