Fear No Fear

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

“The Lord is worthy of praise because he has made Israel his people secure just as he promised! Not one of all the faithful promises he made through his servant Moses is left unfulfilled!
1 Kings 8:56 (emphasis added)

What is security? It is a comforting, permanent place of rest and/or quiet. Nothing else would do for Adonai’s people. All of the promises that He made through and to Moses, He fulfilled so that He could give that kind of security to His people. It was His gift. His will. His plan. And it was a plan that He faithfully executed. In spite of the wishy-washy attitude of the Israelites at times. In spite of their occasional open rebellion. In spite of their embracing fear. In spite of their looking backward to their bonds of slavery. In spite of their occasional partial obedience. He stuck with them even when there was only a remnant, a small percentage of people who remained true, and trusting, and wholly His. Adonai was FAITHFUL in His promises. It didn’t occur according to His perfect Will or original plan. It did NOT occur the way He WANTED it to. But He did NOT give up until it came to pass. Until they HAD the security they had been promised.

That is a kind of faithfulness that we tend to forget about. We forget it was even a thing. There is a tendency to look at the Old Covenant – especially the books of Kings and Chronicles – and see all the mistakes people made. There is a tendency to overlook all the stuff Adonai arranged to bring them back on track. We think of Adonai allowing everything that takes place and having it all part of a single plan. The truth is that He DOES know the beginning from the end (Isaiah 46:10). The truth is that He DID make a way for us from before creation (Revelation 13:8). But it is ALSO true He gave us free will and we have NOT always done as He wanted us to. He can and will still fulfil the promises He makes, but they may not happen according to His perfect plan.

There is a difference between a perfect plan where everything happens exactly in the way and to the degree it is supposed to; and a perfect plan where every goal is achieved, yet not in the way originally intended. Take death. Death was NOT part of the plan for this planet. EVER. Yet because of sin, death entered this world. Through Jesus it is beaten and over. So in the overall plan, there is again no more death. It is the final enemy defeated (1 Cor. 15:25–26). After it is completely defeated, it will be no more and once again there will be no death. Things will be as they were meant. Instead of always no death, we will have no death after a period where there was some death. The end result is the same. But how we got there was on a different road than He wanted.

This doesn’t mean Adonai isn’t sovereign. It means He IS sovereign AND that He respects His own laws. It means He doesn’t violate them. It means He doesn’t violate the free will that He gave us. He lets us choose life or choose death. He lets us be perfectly obedient, obedient after accepting correction, and disobedient. He lets US choose. He is there to encourage, correct, support, and try and convince us. He is there to be totally RIGHTEOUS. He doesn’t beg, He tells us the truth. If we choose life, we will have life in accordance to the qualifications (obedience in putting Him first in His rightful place). If we choose death, we will have the judgment that is on death. It is VERY simple. He WANTS us to choose life.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed. But the one who practices the truth comes to the light, so that it may be plainly evident that his deeds have been done in God” (John 3:17-21). The Father sent Jesus so that we could walk the Way back to Him. He wants us to have rest in Him. He wants us to have safety in Him. He wants us to have security in Him. What better security than submission to the Father? It’s how we have total victory in Jesus. “So submit to God. But resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).

We are told we have victory in Jesus (1 Corinthians 15:57). We are told we have the right to use the Authority of Jesus’ Name in accordance with the Father’s will (John 14:13-14). We can shelter under His healing wings (Malachi 4 1). He can be our fortress and shelter (Psalm 91:2). He can be our high place against trouble (Psalms 18:33). He is our strength (Habakkuk 3:19). And He is abundant life for us (John 10:10). So we have victory, legal authority, healing, shelter, a fortress, strength, and abundant life. These are the promises of Adonai to His obedient children. That sounds like He is promising a place where we don’t find fear, lack, sickness, sadness, depression, anxiety, or any of those other things. It sounds like we find a place where we can have security from all of that. Where peace, love, joy, patience, kindness, gentleness, self-control, goodness, and faithfulness are ours for the using.

Secure places are havens against the bad. Safe rooms in case of assault. Clean places where no disease can tread. People in research spend thousands upon thousands of dollars on biocontainment labs and cleanrooms. People spends thousands of dollars to create rooms in their homes that are ‘safe places’ where they can recharge and be themselves without judgment. Rooms where they feel like they have control over their environment even when they don’t feel up to connecting with the world at large.

Jesus is meant to be the safe space for humanity. An individual place where you can be the best you that you can be. Where you can exist without judgement. Without scorn. Without feeling less than the total you that you are. A place where spiritual germs cannot touch you. A place where PHYSICAL germs also cannot touch you. Through TRUST we connect with the GRACE that the Father offers us to be in Jesus and a place of security. “He will shelter you with his wings; you will find safety under his wings. His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. You need not fear the terrors of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in the darkness, or the disease that ravages at noon. Though a thousand may fall beside you, and a multitude on your right side, it will not reach you” (Psalm 91:4-7).

We have a FAITHFUL God who can deliver to us the fulfilment of the promises that He gave to us. Individually and collectively. It might not happen in the most perfect way, but it will happen supernaturally perfectly. When we submit to Him and are humbly obedient to His will, there is nothing that He cannot do. Nothing that He cannot bring to pass. No promise will be left undone. ALL will be fulfilled. We WILL have safety. We WILL have security. We WILL have rest. And it can happen right now. We only need to trust in the One who has never failed to deliver.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 109:25

“I am disdained by them. When they see me, they shake their heads.” The shaking of one’s head toward another was considered a gesture of ridicule. Messiah would be ridiculed. The Messiah who came as a conquering king, but not conquering by military might. Conquering by taking on the TRUE enemy: sin. By taking on what He did not earn. By being exposed to ridicule He did not deserve. By taking OUR place, OUR ridicule, and paying OUR price. Messiah suffered as the ultimate servant. Doing it all so that WE did not need to. He took the defamation of BECOMING sin. “Those who passed by defamed him, shaking their heads” (Matthew 27:39). Jesus was exposed to ridicule, scorn, punishment, suffering, and becoming that which He was NOT (1 Peter 2:24). 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