Fear No Fear

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

He brought his people out enriched with silver and gold; none of his tribes stumbled.
Psalm 105:37 (emphasis added)

The Hebrew word for stumbled is kashal (kaw-shal’), and it can mean to stumble, stagger, or totter. It goes deeper though. It means to be brought down. To be overthrown or brought to ruin. Cast down. Decayed. Weal. To utterly fail. It means feeble. Charles Van der Pool’s Apostolic Bible Polyglot Interlinear lists it as feeble. There were none feeble among them. This was the Exodus. When the Israelites were leaving Egypt. They had been enslaved and mistreated for generations now. How many slave labourers (they built cities for Pharaoh, NOT pyramids) whose survival isn’t a priority end up strong and capable? What about the older generation? Would you expect THEM to be strong? After a lifetime of slavery? No. You would expect some sick. Some feeble. Some infirm. Yet that is NOT what happened. That was NOT the reality. It emphasises an important point: the reality for the Children of Yahweh is NOT the same reality of the world around them.

Adonai is the Lord of all creation. Why do we always think He has to play by our rules? A computer programmer/artist making a video game doesn’t have to play by the rules of the video game. They can enter the program, they can view it from the outside, they can make changes that affect what happens in the game, they can make their character invulnerable or weak. They can make it so they can walk through walls, see into the deepest levels, and go wherever they want to go. For testing purposes it is absolutely necessary for them to have the ability to do whatever they want. None of it breaks the game. It does make it so that the rules of the game world don’t apply to the creator of the game world when the creator interacts with it either at the coding level or as a special participant inside the game.

We do the same kind of creator fiddling when we are dealing with robotics. When we use tools in medical arenas to enter the body and perform microscopic surgery. We do things that CANNOT be done naturally through the use of technology and equipment. We even do it with clothes. We can travel to areas that should freeze us to death (Antarctica) or vaporise us (the interior of a volcano) by the use of specialised clothing. If WE as human beings can do this, how much MORE could a deity? Why does Adonai have to play by OUR rules? Why can’t He speed up time, speed up natural healing processes, generate limbs, translate people (or vehicles) from one place to another (even from one side of the globe to the other), or instantly replace damaged cells with new ones? Why does He have to do things our way or according to our understanding? The answer of course, is that He doesn’t.

What Adonai DOES do is choose to limit His involvement to the rules and laws He set out and the freewill that He gave us. He CAN do anything, but He DOESN’T unless we are willing to submit and be obedient to HIS way of doing things. Why? He’s the Lord God Almighty, that’s why. He doesn’t NEED a reason. He IS. Period. If it is right and good from His point of view, then it is right and good. If we love Him, we will obey Him (John 14:15-31). This is not a hardship (Matthew 11:30). It is a privilege so that we can enjoy the Blessings of Adonai. He restricts us NOT to keep things from us, but to bring good things TO us. Look at the Garden in Eden. It was full of GOOD things. They were tempted by MORE. By DIFFERENT. By WHAT ELSE might be available. And they got it. Was it good? NO! It was information that they got in a way they were not supposed to get it. Instead of evil always being an EXTERNAL thing held in the devil and his angels (Matthew 25:41), sin entered into creation and it became and INTERNAL thing that took away the righteousness we had and left us broken and separate from Elohim. Everything Adonai does is about getting us back to where He wanted us to always be. Restricted to His righteousness. Restricted to His goodness. Restricted to His Blessing. Restricted to His Glory. They don’t sound like restrictions when we’re looking at them from His point of view, do they?

Adonai gets them to us when we CHOOSE to remain in His Son. When we CHOOSE not to walk according to the flesh (Romans 8:1), but according to His Spirit (John 16:7-13). When we CHOOSE to join Jesus in His resurrection and CHOOSE to obey Him so that we can remain there. “For the law of the life-giving Spirit in Christ Jesus has set you free from the law of sin and death. For God achieved what the law could not do because it was weakened through the flesh. By sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh and concerning sin, he condemned sin in the flesh, so that the righteous requirement of the law may be fulfilled in us, who do not walk according to the flesh but according to the Spirit. For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:2-11).

In Malachi, the people of Israel and the Levitical priests were told that if they would tithe the way they were supposed to and leave nothing back, Adonai would open the windows of heaven (Malachi 3:6-12). Anyone not under that system (the Law and the Levitical priesthood) aren’t required to do this. One reason why it is such a valuable set of verses to us today is that it shows a HUGE principal of the Kingdom. Adonai – by His very nature – deserves to be given our tithe. Not just monetary, but our lives. Our time. Our thinking. Our behaviour. “Then Samuel said, “Does the Lord take pleasure in burnt offerings and sacrifices as much as he does in obedience? Certainly, obedience is better than sacrifice; paying attention is better than the fat of rams. For rebellion is like the sin of divination, and presumption is like the evil of idolatry. Because you have rejected the Lord’s orders, he has rejected you from being king.”” (1 Samuel 15:22-23). If we want Adonai to open up supernatural doors to provide supernatural Blessing according to His rules in His Kingdom and NOT according to our thinking, this creation, or ANY natural law or system; we need to be giving Him what He deserves. Not because He will smite us mightily. Because He deserves it. Because it is how it functions. Our behaviour and choices will not make Adonai love us any more or love us any less. Adonai’s LOVE and desire for you to be in His Kingdom does NOT CHANGE EVER. He felt exactly the same way for Hitler at the height of his wrongdoing as He does for an innocent newborn. What DOES change is where we CHOOSE to be.

Adonai is willing to bring you to wherever He needs or wants you to go. Full of riches. Full of health. Victorious and not downtrodden. You will never get there without humble submission. The Israelites in Egypt obeyed Yahweh’s commands through Moses – barely. They were doing JUST enough to get the benefit of rescue by Adonai. And look! Thousands of people of MANY ages, MANY personalities, MANY walks of life, and ALL – EVERY SINGLE ONE – were rich and healthy. When we OBEY out of LOVE we prosper in our relationship with Adonai and EVERYTHING follows (3 John 1:2) because Adonai wants to Bless His obedient children. “Therefore, get your minds ready for action by being fully sober, and set your hope completely on the grace that will be brought to you when Jesus Christ is revealed. Like obedient children, do not comply with the evil urges you used to follow in your ignorance, but, like the Holy One who called you, become holy yourselves in all of your conduct, for it is written, “You shall be holy, because I am holy.”” (1 Peter 1:13-16).

Love Adonai. Listen to the guidance of Ruach HaKodesh. Read the Word and humbly submit to what you find – ALL of it can be believed and followed to your benefit. Love Him and obey. He will respond. He will respond with supernatural Blessing far above anything we can understand in ways we might not comprehend. He’ll do it because He loves His obedient children. Be one of them. Be BLESSED by Adonai. “Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 7:14

“For this reason the Lord himself will give you a confirming sign. Look, this young woman is about to conceive and will give birth to a son. You, young woman, will name him Immanuel.” The Messiah was to be Emmanuel-God with us. Elohim here on earth. Amongst us. With us. Not afar and aloof. Not some god you have to fight to get to. Not some ‘oneness’ that you have to spend years striving for (or even lifetimes). No. Adonai Elohim loves His creation and longs to be with us. He gives us Grace and shows us Mercy and does it all for us. He made a Way and used Messiah to do it. “Now the birth of Jesus Christ happened this way. While his mother Mary was engaged to Joseph, but before they came together, she was found to be pregnant through the Holy Spirit. Because Joseph, her husband to be, was a righteous man, and because he did not want to disgrace her, he intended to divorce her privately. When he had contemplated this, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream and said, “Joseph, son of David, do not be afraid to take Mary as your wife because the child conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.” This all happened so that what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet would be fulfilled: “Look! The virgin will conceive and give birth to a son, and they will name him Emmanuel,” which means “God with us.”” (Matthew 1:18-23). John spoke of how Jesus was the Son come down to tabernacle with His creation (John 1:14). His disciples recognised His anointing and His nature as the Son of Elohim (Matthew 14:33; 16:15-16). Even demons recognised who Jesus was (Luke 4:41; Mark 3:11). Jesus was Elohim in the flesh. Come to be with us and never leave us (Hebrews 13:5). 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