Fear No Fear

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

Don’t be afraid, for I am with you! Don’t be frightened, for I am your God! I strengthen you—yes, I help you—yes, I uphold you with my victorious right hand!
Isaiah 41:10 (emphasis added)

Fear is not a feeling. It is a choice. You can be frightened in the same way that you can be wet in the rain. The wet is a thing you are, but the cause is the rain. Frightened is a thing you can be, but the cause is fear. You have to accept it in the same sense as rain. You can block rain with clothes, hats, umbrellas, etc. You can block fear by choosing not to give in through who you are in Jesus. Because of HIM, you can make that decision. But it isn’t enough. It’s a half measure. It’s a partial promise. It’s a half life.

Scientifically, a half-life is the time required for half of something to undergo a process. Spiritually, it is the life we life when we only let yourselves undergo half the process of salvation. Salvation is complete. Whole. Nothing missing. Why is it we stop with our acceptance of a heavenly inheritance? Why is that enough? Why is it we don’t want to let Jesus go all the way? It’s like He won the sports match already, but we will only watch the last five minutes of the program. That’s like reading the four Gospels, Revelation, and ignoring the rest of the New Covenant. You’ll only ever walk in half of what you could be.

Jesus did not come to condemn us. “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). Jesus came to help our trusting. He came so that we COULD trust. But He wants us to trust EVERYTHING not part of a thing.

The Word can be trusted. That is what Jesus embodies. He was the fulfilment of the Old Covenant promises. That’s the first half of the Word. The second half is all about what we WILL experience when we know who we are in Messiah Jesus. The Revelation to John was a peek at the end so that when the trials and pressures and tribulations try and deceive us into thinking Adonai’s promises aren’t for us, we can rest on them in the knowledge that Adonai wins. That He spoke truth to us. That’s the whole thing. Front to back. It can ALL be trusted. At NO point did Adonai take part of it and say, this is done now (like with healing). At NO point did Adonai say this part isn’t useful anymore (like the Law). At NO point did Adonai say this is just for the early church (like miracles, signs, and wonders). Because “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).

When will we have the wonders? When will we have the miracles? When will we walk in the healings? When will we be the victorious? When will we have the peace? When will we get the strength? When we know who we are in Messiah Jesus. When we get it into us as revelation knowledge from hearing the message from hearing the Word (Romans 10:17). The message? We can choose to accept the salvation Jesus completed for us. When we do, we become by the death of the old nature, the Righteousness of God – in Messiah Jesus who embodies it. Jesus came to kill us with Himself so that the Father could resurrect us into Jesus’ own resurrection and give us the Holy Spirit to remind us of who we are so that we can abide in it. To rest in it. To KNOW that we KNOW that we KNOW we are in Messiah Jesus. To KNOW and be able to confidently proclaim that we ARE in Jesus.

One of the goals of the attack on identity is to get us as a human collective to be unsure of who we are. To learn the lesson that it VARIES. That there are no CONSTANTS. That we can go through various stages where we are one thing, and then another, and then another. That each stage is just as valid as each other stage. If we choose to learn that lesson, then when Jesus tells us that we are a NEW thing in HIM, we’ll doubt it. We won’t have confidence. We’ll wander around saying we’re sinners saved by Grace. That we don’t know what God will do in a given circumstance. We’ll embrace this wishy-washy attitude toward identity that looks to feelings to validate our knowledge. Instead of looking to the WORD to validate our knowledge. The Word is the only flat and total truth that is solid enough to stand on. Human knowledge and human truth varies based on what we have discovered about our world and our lives. Our observations explain what happens and we go with that until the next observation alters our understanding. But the Word is changeless. It is ever-true. It is ALWAYS valid. It is worthy of being a standard because of its universal application in every stage of life, in every region of the globe, in every nation, in every people, individually and as a whole. It is the truth that, if known, will set you free.

Not intellectual knowing, but experiential. Every single promise of the Word can be proven. Adonai can be proven. According to the scientific method, you make a hypothesis and test it in an experiment. You will then prove or disprove the hypothesis. Other people need to be able to perform the same experiment and get the same result. This is exactly how the Word works because Adonai doesn’t favour one person over another (Romans 2:11-16). Adonai says again and again: if YOU, then I. So if ANYONE does the thing, Adonai will do the thing for ANYONE. Usually though it has to do with trust and belief. So in order to prove it as TRUTH, you need to honestly believe and honestly trust. If you DO, then HE will. How we get to that honest belief is through revelation knowledge.

“I strengthen you—yes, I help you—yes, I uphold you with my victorious right hand!” That is His promise. He is telling us that He WILL help us and He WILL uphold us. The help He gives is revelation knowledge. Not new revelation that no one has ever had before. Not revelation to replace the Word. No. It is commentary from His Spirit to our spirit about His Word. This isn’t the Matthew Henry Commentary or the John MacArthur Commentary or the Andrew Wommack Commentary. This is the Adonai Elohim Commentary. His words about His Word. It will ALWAYS line up with everything else in the Word and NEVER contradict it. It will ALWAYS bless and build us up. It will ALWAYS be verifiable and testable to determine just how true the truth is (I Thessalonians 5:21). And we will know it because it will come in Jesus’ voice. “My sheep listen to my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish; no one will snatch them from my hand” (John 10:27-28).
We KNOW it will be in Jesus’ voice because Jesus is the victorious right hand that we have our help and strength in. “But when this priest had offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, he sat down at the right hand of God, where he is now waiting until his enemies are made a footstool for his feet” (Hebrews 10:12-13). “And this prefigured baptism, which now saves you—not the washing off of physical dirt but the pledge of a good conscience to God—through the resurrection of Jesus Christ, who went into heaven and is at the right hand of God with angels and authorities and powers subject to him” (1 Peter 3:21-22). “The Son is the radiance of his glory and the representation of his essence, and he sustains all things by his powerful word, and so when he had accomplished cleansing for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high. Thus he became so far better than the angels as he has inherited a name superior to theirs” (Hebrews 1:3-4).

Jesus is the right hand of the Father. Jesus is victorious (John 16:33). And in HIM we too are victorious because we are little versions of Jesus. “The one who says he resides in God ought himself to walk just as Jesus walked” (1 John 2:6). “For to this you were called, since Christ also suffered for you, leaving an example for you to follow in his steps” (1 Peter 2:26). “You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). This is our reality as New Covenant believers. We have the RIGHT to be called the sons and daughters of Adonai (John 1:12-13). As sons and daughters of Adonai, our legal right of inheritance is victory (Isaiah 54:17). We have this NOT in ourselves, but by Grace through Trusting Him (faith). In JESUS, we are the righteousness of Adonai (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Since we are in Him and He is in us (1 John 4:13), then in ANY and EVERY circumstance we are in the result we should expect is the very self-same result that would occur if Jesus was physically standing there in the flesh. Jesus NEVER EVER failed to heal someone. He NEVER turned someone away. Jesus did NOT believe that someone who was in ANY WAY debilitated but still praised Him was a better story and testimony than one where they were whole and healed. Adonai can use you in ANY condition, but He wants to completely, totally, and absolutely heal and restore you to total and instantaneous wholeness with no reason to return to your former state and to do it IMMEDIATELY. That’s alcoholics delivered and never tempted to a drink again regardless of it was around them or not. That’s cancer melting away to nothing and never raising their dirty cells again. That’s cripples walking. The blind seeing. Limbs regrown. Death falling off like a coat and people living again. JUST LIKE WITH JESUS. We aren’t called to a lesser ministry than His. We are ALL called to a LIKE ministry. “I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son” John 14:12-13, emphasis mine).

Does the thought make you nervous? Don’t fear. Don’t be frightened. Adonai will help you. When we are acting to glorify the Father in all we do – whether it is cleaning the drains or commanding healing in a sick or broken body – He will uphold us in His VICTORIOUS right hand. In JESUS all things are possible. In JESUS we can do all things because He is doing the things and providing the strength for us to stand as He works through us (Philippians 4:13). When we know who we are in Messiah Jesus, we know what He can and wills to do – and are obedient to that will. If we, then He. Take that promise and let Him prove it.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Psalm 110:1

“Here is the Lord’s proclamation to my lord: “Sit down at my right hand until I make your enemies your footstool.”” Messiah would be the Son of David (2 Samuel 7:14–16). While being a descendant of David could be true of many people, only Messiah would be called Lord. Not any Lord. Not any ruler or master or one of authority. But THE Lord, the highest authority (Matthew 28:18). That is who Messiah would be. ““‘The Lord said to my lord, “Sit at my right hand, until I put your enemies under your feet”’? If David then calls him ‘Lord,’ how can he be his son?”” (Matthew 22:44-45). The Messiah would be THE Lord because Messiah would be GOD, Son of David, Son of God, indivisible with the Father. “Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and examine my hands. Extend your hand and put it into my side. Do not continue in your unbelief, but believe.” Thomas replied to him, “My Lord and my God!”” (John 20:27-28). 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