Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

My comfort is gone from me, sorrow is on me, my heart is sick. Look, the sound of the cry for help of the daughter of my people from a distant land, ‘Is Yahweh not in Zion? Is her king not in her?’ Why have they provoked me to anger with their images, with idols of a foreign land?”

Jeremiah 8:18-19

I like nature programs. I like seeing the beauty of the world the Lord created. I like seeing the various creatures within it (especially apes and birds). I really enjoy the harsh climate of the desert. I really enjoy the windswept desolation of the arctic and antarctic. I enjoy the waterways and grasslands. But the last time I watched a nature program, I had to stop it and fast forward part of it. I could NOT get through it. My heart was breaking. Over what? Predator animals hunting, killing, and eating their prey. Seen it hundreds of times. It’s life out there in the wild places of the world. Carnivores attack and kill to live. It happens. But THIS time, my heart HURT. Took me a bit to hear clearly enough, but what I felt was Adonai’s heart about it. He made ALL of creation. He did not design these animals to eat the flesh of other animals. That was not their food. “And to every kind of animal of the earth and to every bird of heaven, and to everything that moves upon the earth in which there is life I am giving every green plant as food.” And it was so” (Genesis 1:30). Then the Fall happened, creation was corrupted, and flesh was eaten. It has been thousands of years since then and He still HURTS when He sees it. My heart was open to a faction of that.

Ruach HaKodesh is our companion. Our teacher. Our leader. Our guide. Our corrector. Our lecturer (in a good and educational way, not a boring being nagged by a parent way). The friendly voice of our Righteous and Godly Creator. The stern voice. He is all of these things. He is our God as much as Jesus and the Father. Yahweh, living inside us. But how well do we KNOW Him? How much do we WANT to? I have had some emotional experiences over the last few months and they are crazily separate from anything I would normally feel. They are glimpses into the heart of Adonai. They are small and minuscule ways in which the Word is realigning my mind and my heart to think and feel like He thinks and feels – LONG way to go, yet (2 Corinthians 3:18; 1 John 3:2). Ruach HaKodesh is opening my eyes.

This is a big step and an important step. It will hit everyone slightly differently because of how we process things. But we NEED to know the character of Adonai intimately. Beyond the rules, beyond the moral guidance, beyond the ways in which it impacts US. We need to see the character of Adonai in order to see more of Adonai. Not simply seeing the character TRAITS of Adonai, but the actual character and how it affects every interaction He has with us. Understanding HIM helps understand Him in all the phases of humanity. He met with Abraham based on trust, belief, and obedience. He had to meet with the Israelites with the Law because they would not meet with Him based on trust, belief, and obedience. Jesus came and met with the world, showing it was not the rules that were the important bit (without saying don’t do them) but the heart intent and spiritual reality that lay behind them (giving value to doing them everyone could understand). And beyond Jesus’ resurrection, meeting with us one on one, heart to heart, to inspire us to see Adonai and realise what He really IS and what it really MEANS to follow Him.

We see so many things around us and accept so many things around us because we cannot conceive of them being any different. But getting to know Adonai’s character can open our minds to a whole other reality where we see what HE sees, want what HE wants, and enjoy what HE enjoys. It isn’t limiting, but freeing. It can also be difficult to implement. Easy to fight against. And impossible to achieve in even the smallest ways without His direct help through Ruach HaKodesh. We study the Word with Ruach HaKodesh’s guidance and instruction. It then dwells in our hearts by Ruach HaKodesh’s transport of it to our deep places (writing it there). And that enables us to utilize Ruach HaKodesh’s power to help us live it out. We need Him to be filled with His Spirit, we need Him to have the Word written on our hearts and minds, and we need Him to continually fill us so that we can live life in His abundance. The more we know of Adonai’s character, the more this zoe life is possible (John 10:10).

Ruach HaKodesh can open our eyes to see. Ruach HaKodesh can open our ears to hear. But we need to be willing to humbly submit to His will and His Word. We need to be willing to put our trust in Him, believe what He says because He said it, and obey what we hear to do, to say, and to think. We need to take the Word and plant it in the soil of the air by declaring what IT says, not what WE think. We need to let Ruach HaKodesh minister to us. And we need to be open to minister to each other. We need to be open to all the possibilities in the Word. There are a lot. And we get to all of them by trusting, believing, and obeying. It’s the secret to life in the Kingdom. His kind of life, that He wants for everyone.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Matthew 25:12

“But he answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, I do not know you!’” Ruach HaKodesh is here to (among other things) help us know Adonai. To help us understand the love that Jesus has for us (Ephesians 3:14-19). Adonai knows everything there is to know about us. He knows us better than we know ourselves. But He is not looking for head knowledge. He wants to KNOW us. Like a husband knows a wife. Intimate knowledge without barriers. Not secret keepers, but secret sharers. A RELATIONSHIP. He is King of the Universe. He is the Righteous One. He is ALMIGHTY GOD. Yet He loves us and IS love and WANTS to have a relationship with us. Not of equals, but of family. If all we know is who He is and what He is, we won’t KNOW Him. He’ll BE there, but He won’t be WITH us. We will hold Him in A place, but not THE place He should be in. Lip service and great-idea-but are human thinking we use to keep Him at a distance. If we do that, we won’t really KNOW Him. Consequently, He won’t KNOW us. He doesn’t reject us because we keep Him at arms length. But He cannot be just and claim us when we don’t let Him in with humble submission to who and what He is. He has made it so simple for us. And we have Ruach HaKodesh to help us. We have the Word that spells it all out. He goes over and above every day to help us into the place where we KNOW Him (John 3:16-18). He NEVER leaves us alone. He has made US His number one priority. What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8