Fear No Fear

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

For this is the covenant that I will establish with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord. I will put my laws in their minds, and I will inscribe them on their hearts. And I will be their God, and they will be my people. And there will be no need at all for each one to teach his countryman or each one to teach his brother saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ since they will all know me, from the least to the greatest. For I will be merciful toward their evil deeds, and their sins I will remember no longer.”
Hebrews 8:10-12 (emphasis added)

In the Old Testament, we love Elohim first and then are able to love our neighbour. If we weren’t loving Elohim first and putting Him first, we wouldn’t be able to fulfil the second. The Old Covenant was all about how to obtain and remain in Elohim’s love – and realising you needed a saviour to achieve it. The New Covenant is our RESPONSE to Elohim’s love. The greatest commandment for New Covenant believers is in John 13:34: ““I give you a new commandment—to love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another.” Just as if you always perfectly kept the two categories of commandment in the Old Covenant you would fulfil it (Matthew 22:37-40); if you keep John 13:34 you’ll fulfil the New Covenant. We were not equipped to keep the Old, but in Jesus we ARE equipped to fulfil the New.

Jesus loved people more than anyone ever had before. Ever. Yet here He is commanding us to love as HE does. Have you ever really thought about that? Total acceptance of people while not accepting sin. That is a knife edge we are not equipped to walk. What about loving in spite of how you’re treated? Blessing everyone, but ESPECIALLY those who are abusing you? Going WHEREVER you are asked 100% ready to heal them, bless them, give to them, encourage them, deliver them from their bondage – in spite of how others might see it. Ready to confront everything bad with everything good? NEVER holding a grudge of ANY kind and ALWAYS ready to forgive with a smile in your HEART, regardless of how many times you have to? Always kind. Always gentle. Always ready to thank and glorify Yahweh no matter your circumstances. Always ready to humble yourself to His will without question. Are we ready for this level of love? It seeps into every aspect of life. Into how we think and speak and eat and store things and clean things and relate to one another. Are we READY for that?

Well, unlike in the Old Covenant we don’t have to study scripture to find the Law. We have the advantage that when we got born again into Jesus’ resurrection, the Father wrote His law onto and into our hearts. “For whenever the Gentiles, who do not have the law, do by nature the things required by the law, these who do not have the law are a law to themselves. They show that the work of the law is written in their hearts, as their conscience bears witness and their conflicting thoughts accuse or else defend them” (Romans 2:14-15). This is how the Gentiles GET the commandments of Adonai. They are written into our hearts by Elohim, giving us a spiritual conscience we otherwise would not have. It is the fulfilment for the Jews AND the Gentiles of the prophesy Adonai spoke in Jeremiah 31:31-33: ““Indeed, a time is coming,” says the Lord, “when I will make a new covenant with the people of Israel and Judah. It will not be like the old covenant that I made with their ancestors when I delivered them from Egypt. For they violated that covenant, even though I was like a faithful husband to them,” says the Lord. “But I will make a new covenant with the whole nation of Israel after I plant them back in the land,” says the Lord. “I will put my law within them and write it on their hearts and minds. I will be their God, and they will be my people.“

This is the most tremendous statement in the Old Testament to me. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Talk about Grace. In spite of being able to see our future if He chose to (Isaiah 46:9-10), STILL choosing people who COULD reject Him and turn away? After all the times it had happened in the past? We don’t have a great track record. We are VERY selfish. Yet He CHOSE us. He loved us when we were sinners (Romans 5:8-9). He gave us His trust so we could believe Him (Ephesians 2:8). He shows us Mercy by giving us the Grace we need to succeed. “For no one is declared righteous before him by the works of the law, for through the law comes the knowledge of sin. But now apart from the law the righteousness of God (although it is attested by the law and the prophets) has been disclosed—namely, the righteousness of God through the faithfulness of Jesus Christ for all who believe. For there is no distinction, for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness” (Romans 3:20-26).

He calls us to love as HE loved. He gives us Grace to succeed. How does that look? The Fruit of the Spirit gives us the CHARACTER needed to succeed (Galatians 5:22-25). The Armour gives us the DEFENCE we need (Ephesians 6:10-18) and also – when we let Ruach HaKodesh work as He is called to – our OFFENCE. It is US cooperating with HIM. It is never us on our own. Adonai works IN us, THROUGH us, AROUND us, and sometimes DESPITE us. It is us humbly submitting to HIS plan, HIS ideas, HIS targets, HIS morals, HIS values, HIS everything. In return, He gives US everything we need. Help, health, salvation, security, rest, renewal, and restoration (Psalm 91).

We don’t have to go LOOKING for this. Adonai has WRITTEN it inside us. We KNOW when we are stepping off the path. We KNOW when something comes up that’s a little hinkey to our spirit. We don’t have to memorise scripture to get it as head knowledge (although there is NOTHING wrong with that and a good place to start). The reality is that as we read and study the scripture it doesn’t live in our head, but gets down into our HEART. There, Ruach HaKodesh makes it come alive to us (John 14:26). It becomes part of who we are and changes our character (Proverbs 23:7). It is our teacher, instructor, and one of our guides (2 Timothy 3:16-17). It helps us solidify in our thinking the unseen things of the Kingdom which are more real than the physical things we interact with (2 Corinthians 4:18). It is one of the pillars of who we are as believers. It is like the clothes we wear to keep warm. When our hearts are steeped in the Word, our relationship with Adonai is warm and nurturing.

We have a better promise. We have a better Covenant. We have a better relationship. We have a better Counsellor, Comforter, and Corrector. We have a better relationship with the Word. We have better tools. We have better anointing. We have better assignments. Not better as the Old Covenant was bad – it was not – but superior in that it ACHIEVES everything the Old was meant to show as achievable with a saviour. “There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. 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” (Romans 8:1-4). We have a Covenant of Spirit where we enter into Jesus’ Covenant with His Father through the Spirit of Jesus (Romans 8:11). By joining Him in His resurrection (1 Peter 1:3), we get to walk in Jesus’ shoes doing all that He did, how He did it, provided we submit to the Father in all things as He did (Philippians 2:10-11; James 4:7; John 1:12-13; Luke 22:42; John 5:30; John 12:49-50; John 14:31; John 15:10).

We are the apple of Adonai’s eye. If we will just submit to Him, He will write His Laws in our heart. Forever changing us into who He says we can be. Forever making our relationship as easy as can be. Because of His Mercy. Because of His Grace. Because of His Love. He engraves His very character into our hearts and minds so that we can be restored to the carbon copy images of Jesus that we were always meant to be. Every day becoming more like Jesus in our love for others. Able to walk in victory and not in defeat. Healthy, Whole, and His.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 12:2

“Look, God is my deliverer! I will trust in him and not fear. For the Lord gives me strength and protects me; he has become my deliverer.” ( or salvation)” Messiah would be called deliverer. Or ‘saviour’ is how some translations have it. Messiah would be the salvation of the world, starting with Israel-with the Jews, the term included Judah. “She will give birth to a son and you will name him Jesus because he will save his people from their sins.”” (Matthew 1:21). Jesus or Yeshua means ‘salvation’. It’s a shortened form of the Hebrew name Yehoshua or Joshua meaning ‘the Lord saves’, ‘the Lord is salvation’, ‘the Lord will save’, or ‘is opulence’. Mary gave birth to a boy, the Son of the Most High and named Him ‘Yahweh is Salvation’. The word salvation includes the ideas of deeds of deliverance, deliverance itself, help, prosperity, saving, security, victories, victory itself, rescue, welfare, and safety. The entire Gospel message all in one name. Jesus’ name. 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