Fear No Fear

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

May grace and peace be lavished on you as you grow in the rich knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord! I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature, after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire.
2 Peter 1:2-4 (emphasis added)

Following Jesus isn’t about getting to Heaven. Following Jesus is about getting more of Heaven on Earth. Heaven is NOW. Sure, we don’t have everything we will when we get there, but we were put here to spread the things of Adonai across the globe (Genesis 2:15). To grow the Garden (Genesis 1:28). Jesus preached repentance because the Kingdom of God had arrived and come close (Matthew 4:17). After the cross, Jesus was able to open His nature to us. The Father was letting us come to Him through Jesus (John 14:6). In JESUS we become righteous because we get to take on His nature instead of relying on the one we were originally born with (Galatians 5:24). We get to become this way NOT just to get to Heaven, but to affect this Earth. “Therefore we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making his plea through us. We plead with you on Christ’s behalf, “Be reconciled to God!” God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:20-21).

We know this as FACT. Jesus can’t lie. It is not in His nature to be dishonest. Jesus is totally honest. When He promises a thing, it is a surety. He has promised us victory over evil desire. He has promised us a place in Him. He has promised a sharing of His nature. We were told that He would be the King of Kings and that His Kingdom would have no end (Isaiah 9:6-7). Jesus did it through sacrifice as a suffering servant and not military action (Isaiah 53). When this Age ends, however, things will be different. Not that He NEEDS military action, but He will respond to the military action of this planet trying to oust Heaven and everyone who stands against Adonai will fall (Revelation 20:7-10). They will come against Him and fire will devour them. Done deal. Single verse and over. NOTHING can stand against Him and WE have been promised a place in His Kingdom.

Why are we so eager to get to Heaven? Why aren’t we more eager to get Heaven down here? It was the plan. That’s what the Garden was all about. More of Heaven coming down to Earth day by day. A place Adonai could come Himself and walk with us. Not just talk to us, but WALK with us. That’s something special. In Jesus, we can get some of that back. We can walk in the reality of heaven wherever we go here on this earth. Not because of anything WE do or are. Because of who JESUS is and who we are in HIM. We are spiritually an EXACT DUPLICATE of Jesus. Right down through our DNA. “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 8:11).

We get to be Jesus. That’s awesome! That’s also the struggle! We need to get our minds around this: we have Jesus’ mind (1 Corinthians 2:16). Why don’t we use it? It’s there. It’s available. We get full of ourselves. We start to think we can do it on our own. Or we try and struggle to MAKE it happen. But Kingdom things don’t happen by FORCE they happen by TRUST. We have to TRUST that Adonai knows what He is doing. We have to TRUST that Adonai knows what is happening. We have to TRUST that Adonai knows what is coming. How do we TRUST THAT MUCH? Jesus.

He is the vine we are connected to and the Father is Jesus source. Abba, Father? Remember that? “He said, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Take this cup away from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Mark 14:36). It does not mean Daddy. Abba comes from a root word ab (awb). It means originator or patron of a class. It means producer or generator. It means ruler, chief, and protector. It means SOURCE. Jesus said my originator, my patron, my producer, my generator, my protector, my source: Father! The Father was EVERYTHING to Jesus. Everything was possible because Jesus acknowledged the Father as His SOURCE and submitted to Him. We are copies of Jesus. We should be looking to the Father as our SOURCE of all things and submit to Him. If we do, NOTHING is impossible. Impossible things will happen to us, around us, and through us because Adonai loves us, is around us, and is in us, and seeks to work through us to spread the Kingdom here on earth.

The source has “bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge.” We need to deepen our knowledge of Jesus so that we understand what it is we need. How will we know what we have if we don’t even understand who is giving it to us? We don’t stand in what we can stand in because of lack of knowledge. Lack of knowledge kills us (Hosea 4:6). Because we agree with our conditioning instead of with Adonai. The battle for who we accept we can be is in our minds (Ephesians 6:12). Adonai says we can be JUST LIKE JESUS. The world has trained us and conditioned us to believe we are subject to the forces, situations, and ‘rules’ of this world. The world trains us to believe sickness is normal. The world trains us to believe stress is normal. The world trains us to believe depression is normal. The world trains us to believe lack is normal. The world trains us to believe toil (hard work, forced labour) is normal. But they are NOT in the Kingdom.

Jesus said the Kingdom is here. “Now at one point the Pharisees asked Jesus when the kingdom of God was coming, so he answered, “The kingdom of God is not coming with signs to be observed, nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ For indeed, the kingdom of God is in your midst.”” (Luke 17:20-21). The ones looking ever-forward. The ones expecting something to eventually happen. They were the RELIGIOUS people. It’s still true today. If your focus is on heaven in the future and where you are going to be after this meat sack returns to the ground, you are dealing with religion. If your focus is on Jesus and what we can help bring from Heaven to Earth through our humbled obedience, you are NOT dealing with religion. Ruach HaKodesh came to enable us to walk in Jesus NOW. Will better things be in Heaven? YES! Will we have perfected bodies in Heaven? YES! Will we perfectly walk in ALL THINGS in Heaven? YES! Can we have some of that here, now, today and every day? YES! YES! YES!

We can be kind. We can be joyful. We can have our needs met. We can be strong. We can work on purpose, by choice, and it will NOT wear us down but bear GREAT fruit. We can have peace. We can have victory REGARDLESS of the circumstances the world sees. We can have health. We can have resources at our disposal to bless those around us REGARDLESS of the circumstances the world sees. We can have the MORE THAN ENOUGH that is part of the Nature of the God we serve (Psalm 146). Not sure how we are supposed to apply these truths? Ask for wisdom! Adonai GIVES wisdom WITHOUT JUDGMENT to all who ask with an honest desire to both get it and apply it (James 1:5-8).

“Through these things he has bestowed on us his precious and most magnificent promises, so that by means of what was promised you may become partakers of the divine nature.” Jesus has ALREADY given us these promises. We don’t have to work on getting them. We HAVE them. Through these promises, we MAY become. ‘May’ is expressing permission. It is expressing possibility. It means that we CAN. How? Through and in Jesus (John 15). When? “after escaping the worldly corruption that is produced by evil desire“. We can do that through Jesus. We cannot do it without Jesus. Through Jesus we have Ruach HaKodesh. Ruach HaKodesh is full of the FRUIT of Jesus (Galatians 5:22-23). If we are connected to Him, we can be full of the FRUIT too. It is a choice. A choice to stop and listen. A choice to submit and obey. A choice to engage a particular fruit in order to express a particular trait REGARDLESS of how we ‘feel’ in the moment.

“But keep away from youthful passions, and pursue righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, in company with others who call on the Lord from a pure heart. But reject foolish and ignorant controversies because you know they breed infighting. And the Lord’s slave must not engage in heated disputes but be kind toward all, an apt teacher, patient” (2 Timothy 2: 22-24). “Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). Remember, we are not doing it alone. HE is doing it in us. HE is retraining us to HIS thinking – if we will focus on Him (Colossians 3:17). If we will SEEK (investigate, meditate on, probe, test) Him FIRST – before we check out ANYTHING else or accept ANY report – all the things of the Kingdom of God (which are NOW) will be available to us (Matthew 6:33). It is SIMPLE, but it is not always easy because the world’s conditions is THOROUGH and INGRAINED (Matthew 10:38-39).

But IF WE DO…. Oh, I am excited. Are you? You know what we have in Heaven that in Jesus we can draw on, right? You know what happens in us when we partake in the divine nature of Jesus? When we OBEY and humbly submit (James 4:7)? When we use the spirit of power and love and self-control that He has given us (2 Timothy 1:7)? “Blessed is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly realms in Christ. For he chose us in Christ before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and blameless before him in love” (Ephesians 1:3-4). We are the LEGAL HEIRS of the Father (Ephesians 1:5-6). We have it in JESUS who is our redeemer, our transformer, our teacher, our example, our possibility on this earth. “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” (John 14:12).

If we submit to the Father and do what He wants, when He wants, and how He wants. If we will walk in His ways. If we will submit to His will. If we will CHOOSE to agree with HIS POINT OF VIEW and not ours. If we will CHOOSE to agree with how HE FEELS and not how WE feel. If we walk with Adonai before us, looking to Him for ALL THINGS, then ALL THINGS will be possible for us. We will be rejecting the outside influence of the evil inclination we were saved from through Jesus (Galatians 3:13-14). We DIED with Jesus. Our old nature DIED. It is NO LONGER. It is DEAD, BURIED, and SEALED. We are NEW CREATURES. We are RENEWED INTO JESUS. We are part of His RESURRECTED LIFE.

It’s about time we started acting like it. It’s about time we started choosing HIS WAYS every time. I’m heading that way. I’m NOT going the other way. Less of ME and more of HIM (John 3:30) is the creed I want to LIVE. Because HE is SO MUCH MORE than I could ever be. More love, more blessing (to me and others), more victory, more encouragement, more joy, more peace, more EVERYTHING. It is what I have been promised. It is what YOU have been promised. I am NOT going to let bad thinking, personal opinion, and feelings get in the way of those promises. Are you?

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 9:7

“His dominion will be vast, and he will bring immeasurable prosperity. He will rule on David’s throne and over David’s kingdom, establishing it and strengthening it by promoting justice and fairness, from this time forward and forevermore. The zeal of the Lord of Heaven’s Armies will accomplish this.” The Messiah would come to establish an everlasting Kingdom. Messiah would suffer for us. He would be the ultimate servant, submitting to the Will of His Father and walking through the redemption He agreed to before the world was founded (Revelation 13:8). His blood on the mercy seat would be the payment for our sin and the vehicle by which His Mercy and Grace would be poured out for and over us (Hebrews 9:22-28). “He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High, and the Lord God will give him the throne of his father David. He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end.”” (Luke 1:32-33). Proclaimed by an angel, Jesus is the one sitting on the throne of an eternal kingdom (Hebrews 1:5-12). 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