Fear No Fear

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

And he said to them, “Take care about what you hear. The measure you use will be the measure you receive, and more will be added to you.
Mark 4:24 (emphasis added)

Take care about what WE hear. It must be important or it wouldn’t be an instruction. Jesus calls us to be careful what we put in our hearts. He is always calling us to trust Him with our lives and our burdens so that He can give us more than we can manage alone. WITH Him all things are possible (Matthew 19:26). He carries our burdens – if we let Him (Psalm 68:19). He gives us good things that He is willing to help us to handle (2 Corinthians 1:9). But if we won’t trust, we rob ourselves of the more. It isn’t ADONAI preventing our harvest. It is US.

We are a hearing oriented species. From oral histories to campfire stories to lectures in school to speeches to sermons to parental ‘discussions’ (which often seem like political speeches and sermons) to long-winded, no purpose, EXHAUSTING stories from toddlers. We HEAR a lot. All the other things we do (note taking for example) are tools we use to cement what we hear. To get it deeper into our memories. Out of short term and into long term memory. Words affect our brains in many ways. They can induce trauma. They can help you score better on tests (both paper and physical). They can bring forth memories, both good and bad. According to psychcentral.com ‘Words matter. Research has found that the choice of words can cause specific areas of the brain to activate and can affect a person’s subjective experience of pain. People use word associations to perceive neutral events as positive or negative. Words can hurt, but they may also heal. Encouragement can improve performance on exercise tests and may improve health outcomes.’ (https://psychcentral.com/blog/words-can-change-your-brain#recap). And that’s human research and thinking.

“When words abound, transgression is inevitable, but the one who restrains his words is wise” (Proverbs 10:19). “Death and life are in the power of the tongue, and those who love its use will eat its fruit” (Proverbs 18:21). The Complete Jewish Bible has “The tongue has power over life and death; those who indulge it must eat its fruit.” I like that one. Must eat its fruit. It leaves very little to the imagination. What we hear we process. What we process gets into our heart. What is in our heart determines the kind of people we are. The more we deal with something, the more like that thing we get. When we indulge in speaking, we eat what we speak. We speak what is in our heart. What is in our heart got there because of what we heard. So again Jesus’ warning: Take care about what you hear.

Our generosity, kindness, peace, etc. are determined by our personalities. Which are formed by our hearts. You could think of your heart as the soil that automatically grows what gets put inside it. Your personality tends to determine what you do. It is the ‘measure’ of your generosity. What measure YOU use for others will be used FOR you. It is similar to the so-called ‘golden rule’ of doing unto others what you want them to do to you (Matthew 7:12; Luke 6:31). It goes beyond that. In the Kingdom of God, we are all servants. We are here to serve others to one degree or another. The WILLINGNESS of your service will determine the WILLINGNESS of the Father to bless you – on OUR end though, not His. It’s like this. Candy is raining from the sky. Whatever size bucket you get for your neighbour is the same size you yourself get. If you grab laundry tubs, you’ll get lots of candy. A Dixie cup? A lot less. The way you blessed your neighbour with that bucket is the same way you get blessed with yours. The Father wanted to bless you with a sky’s worth. But what were YOU willing to accept? What were YOU willing to get? The measure we use for others is the same measure we use in receiving from Adonai. What we tell others is possible is the same as what WE believe is possible. Adonai is willing to give EVERYTHING. It is US who determine how much gets down here. It is our mission: to bring the Kingdom of God down to earth (Matthew 6:10). It is supposed to be our heart language. Our prayer.

We can accomplish this with the Word. Because that is one of the measures Jesus is talking about. Right before today’s passage Jesus is explaining the parable of the sower. The Word is what is being sown. We can see that the measure of the Word that we take in (planting it in our heart) is the measure of the Word we can draw on. Ruach HaKodesh brings to our mind all of what Jesus has said to us (John 14:26). How much of what Jesus – the Word made flesh (John 1:14) – has said is in you? That’s what He can pull out. That’s what you get as a help, a reminder, a PowerPoint presentation for victory. If we are not serious seekers, we don’t have serious seed for Him to work with. We were put here to work the Garden. We’re cultivators. Seed time and harvest is in our DNA (Genesis 8:22). It is what we DO with it that makes such a difference in our lives.

The believers who suffer from a dull life, tossed by the winds of the world, are the ones who are not aware of the promises we have access to in Jesus. In Jesus we hear of them. In Jesus we are instructed in them. In Jesus we have the fulfilment of them. Jesus is the root we are connected to. The Father is our source (James 1:17) and He pipes it all through Jesus. It is in Him that we live, move, and have our being (Acts 17:28). When we choose to cultivate the Word into our hearts, He will perform the harvest – a harvest we don’t look to impatiently (pulling up roots verse). A harvest we are content to let Him manage, bringing everything to fulfilment in His time according to His plan. He is the Master Builder making ALL things work with ALL people in ALL the situations on this Earth (Philippians 2:13).

The promise we have is clear. If we root the Word in our heart, He will add more to us. More of Him. More revelation on the Word we’ve taken in – a Heavenly Commentary if you will. This isn’t NEW revelation in the sense of material that is brand new to the world. This is new to YOU revelation about what Adonai ALREADY laid down in His Word. It’s like He is the teacher and He’s giving lectures. Thing is though, we still have to show up for school. If WE are doing our part in getting the Word into us, Jesus has promised He will do His. We’ll get what we put in out and then MORE besides. I think that’s great because no matter how big our thinking, Adonai’s is bigger still. I would love to get HIS idea of more.

The mysteries of Yahweh are hidden. But it is NOT meant to be a detriment to our knowledge. “I became a servant of the church according to the stewardship from God—given to me for you—in order to complete the word of God, that is, the mystery that has been kept hidden from ages and generations, but has now been revealed to his saints. God wanted to make known to them the glorious riches of this mystery among the Gentiles, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory” (Colossians 1:25-27). Yahweh hid the mysteries FOR us to find. He WANTS them found. Why hide them in the first place? He knows the value of seeking. That’s why it is our HOPE. We eagerly expect (Biblical Hope) the arrival of the knowledge of Messiah Jesus through Ruach HaKodesh that dwells within this Temple of Adonai we call a body. This is EXACTLY one of the reasons we have access to the mind of Messiah Jesus (1 Corinthians 2:16). So we can UNDERSTAND all the everything that He is downloading into our spirit as we put Him first and seek His face.

There really is no downside here. Get the Word and use it. Get a BIG measure of it. Lean into the knowledge of Adonai as He lays it out in the scriptures. Study it. Submit to it. Obey it. Be generous and kind with those around you. Live out the Fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23). Be a light in the darkness. Be an encourager. Be a cultivator. Leave everyone better than when you came across them. Listen to everything Ruach HaKodesh says and then apply it as He shows you the way. Look to Jesus and see the wonders of the Father that He will show you. Don’t rob yourself of your spiritual harvest. Don’t give away your Kingdom rights. Hold fast to Jesus and never let go.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 11:1

“A shoot will grow out of Jesse’s root stock, a bud will sprout from his roots.” Messiah would be called a Nazarene – the Branch (Netzer). Netzer means ‘branch’ or ‘shoot’. Which doesn’t seem to imply anything until you look deeper at the Hebrew word play: ‘But what does ‘Nazareth’ or ‘Nazarene’ have to do with נצר (netzer)? Although the name seems so familiar to us, ‘Nazareth’ should actually be spelled ‘Natzeret.’ The English spelling is a transliteration of the Greek word Ναζαρέτ (Nazaret), which is itself a transliteration of the Hebrew word נצרת (Natzeret). The Greek alphabet does not have a letter which corresponds to the Hebrew צ (Tzade) and uses the Greek letter ζ (Zeta) or ‘z,’ instead’ (April 7, 2020 / Jewish Gospels / By Dr. Noel Rabinowitz). So Messiah would come from Nazareth and be of the Line of David. “He came to a town called Nazareth and lived there. Then what had been spoken by the prophets was fulfilled, that Jesus would be called a Nazarene” (Matthew 2:23). Jesus was the adopted son of Joseph and lived in Nazareth. Jesus was also of the line of David. 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