Fear No Fear

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

So do not throw away your confidence, because it has great reward. For you need endurance in order to do God’s will and so receive what is promised.
Hebrews 10:35-36 (emphasis added)

Her brother was sick. Very sick. Might even die. It was that serious. But she (they really, two sisters and their brother) knew a guy. They sent a message to the guy. Response? “This sickness will not lead to death, but to God’s glory, so that the Son of God may be glorified through it” (John 11:4). That’s it. The next verse does explain that the guy (Jesus) loved the brother and the sisters. Just so we don’t get the wrong idea. But the guy didn’t go. Jesus wasn’t nearby. He was outside the region because some religious hotheads were out to kill Him (John 10:39-42). He was between a thirteen and seventeen hour walk depending on the route (Al-Eizariya to Al-Maghtas on a modern map). Jesus didn’t go. He START to go for FOUR DAYS. The brother died in the intervening time. The sisters may not have felt that was good. They may have thrown away their confidence in their guy. He was not quick to respond as they felt it. But Jesus DID respond and they got back a brother alive, healthy, and whole – Adonai’s best. Martha did not throw away her confidence. It was rewarded.

Jairus had a daughter. She was twelve. On the cusp of the rest of her life. But she was sick. Really, really sick. He was so worried, this Jewish leader of a synagogue risked his position, his reputation, and excommunication (John 9:22) to go to Jesus. Jesus lived in this town (He owned a house there – Mark 2:1; Matthew 4:13), so He was known to Jairus. Jairus came to Jesus and asked Him to come heal his daughter, but it didn’t go as planned (Mark 5:21–43; Matthew 9:18–26; Luke 8:40–56). A woman came and got healed by touching Jesus (without Jesus’ knowledge). Jesus looked for her, got a Word about her, she relented and came forward, told her story, and all the while Jairus is waiting and waiting and waiting. You know how people are. It would have taken awhile. She DID have a story to tell and Jesus WAS actively listening. During this time, the daughter died. Jesus warned Jairus not to throw away his confidence. He did not. The daughter was raised.

These are only two examples in Jesus’ ministry of people having to WAIT for the reward of their confidence in Jesus. It must have been hard. The things we see around us – the physical world we know so well – is hard to ignore. Take healing. Sometimes the speed bump comes down to ‘I cannot’. You have an issue. Say your leg is weak, deformed, broken, whatever you want. You receive and engage the healing Jesus provided with His stripes/bruises/wounds through the crucifixion sacrifice. This is good. You have FULL confidence about it. But when you go to move, your leg hasn’t gotten the message. It is still in the same condition regardless of your FIRM and UNSHAKEABLE knowledge you WERE healed by Jesus. What are you going to do? Believe what the Word says and your experience with Jesus shows you? Or are you going to believe your leg and what your feelings from it shows you? Are you going to hold onto the promise, or are you going to give up and say it doesn’t work? This is the issue with things of the spirit. They cannot be seen. But they DO come to pass. They DO occur. They are NOT fictitious. They are NOT formulaic forcing of manifestation from the universe. This is the LIVING ONE touching you and ACTIVELY engaging with what He released two thousand years ago and watching it COME TO PASS. We can be confident in that.

The problem is that science has evolved and we have been fascinated by it – I am not knocking science since it is our human explanations and investigations to what we observe around us. Science has advanced us. In healthcare. In transportation. In living conditions. In lifestyle. In fashion. In entertainment. Science is cool and great. Adonai inspired those scientists. Adonai eagerly worked with them as they explored His creation. Adonai LIKES surprises. Adonai LIKES us discovering things. It brings Him JOY. Science isn’t bad. But science is of this material world and we live in this material world and there are physical laws of this material world. It’s really easy to think that is all there is. Especially when the kingdom of darkness is going in overdrive to make anything supernatural seem foolish, mythical, and nonsense. It blunts our eyes. The school system currently deals only with what we can ‘prove’ based on our current knowledge. They no longer teach the Word (although that was the sole reason for the school system to exist in the West). We’re left learning and being conditioned in only ONE side of the human experience: human knowledge. We are woefully underprepared or knowledgeable in the very much provable Word of Yahweh. It’s like teaching about the Solar System but omitting Jupiter, Saturn, and the Sun. It would be like sending a pilot up to fly an airliner, but saying he can only use half the instrument panel and doesn’t get a co-pilot.

It isn’t that human knowledge is bad or wrong. But it is only human. We can only investigate what our senses show us. We can only codify into knowledge what we understand. We also change that knowledge as our understanding grows and changes. Take evolution. Some people firmly believe it. But it is still only a THEORY because parts of science (probability science) completely disproves it. Concepts of science (entropy) completely disprove it. Tools used in investigation of it (carbon dating for example) are not always accurate – and are all based on our current understanding of the way the world works, which history shows us can change radically in a short period of time. For example, we are studying the stars and galaxies and discovering that based on the motions of satellite galaxies that reveal how recently they have fallen into a galaxy grouping, the universe may be much younger than traditionally believed. Nothing about human knowledge stays the same. And not all is left un-argued.

Currently there is a debate about gender and that you can choose it. That there is malleability to the male-female model. Yet the human skeleton is distinctly male or female. It can be surgically altered, I suppose, but at birth it gives you male or female as your choice. Science tell us The general structure of the female pelvis is thinner and less dense, in comparison to the thick and heavy male pelvis, which is designed to support a heavier body build. The true pelvis is wide and shallow in the female, and the pelvic inlet, also known as the superior pelvic aperture is wide, oval and rounded. While in the male it is heart shaped, and narrow. A male pelvis has a v-shaped pubic arch that is approximately <70°. The pubic arch is usually wider in the female pelvis at about >80°. This is SCIENCE. What about the brain? It also codes itself male or female. Women excel in several measures of verbal ability — pretty much all of them, except for verbal analogies. Women’s reading comprehension and writing ability consistently exceed that of men, on average. They out­perform men in tests of fine-motor coordination and perceptual speed. They’re more adept at retrieving information from long-term memory. Men, on average, can more easily juggle items in working memory. They have superior visuospatial skills: They’re better at visualising what happens when a complicated two- or three-dimensional shape is rotated in space, at correctly determining angles from the horizontal, at tracking moving objects and at aiming projectiles. This is SCIENCE. Scientists don’t argue these things. But PEOPLE do. Because they don’t like what they hear. And this is HUMANS arguing against HUMAN science – based on things we can ALL measure and prove to be correct.

With that, you can see how without ANY education on the things of Adonai we are WOEFULLY underprepared to deal with those things. BUT Adonai knows that. He knew that. He made a WAY. “For the Lord gives wisdom, and from his mouth comes knowledge and understanding. He stores up effective counsel for the upright and is like a shield for those who live with integrity, to guard the paths of the righteous and to protect the way of his pious ones” (Proverbs 2:6-8). “he reveals deep and hidden things. He knows what is in the darkness, and light resides with him” (Daniel 2:22). “I pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, will give you spiritual wisdom and revelation in your growing knowledge of him” (Ephesians 1:17). “But if anyone is deficient in wisdom, he should ask God, who gives to all generously and without reprimand, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5). “For one person is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, and another the message of knowledge according to the same Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:8). Adonai is NOT keeping knowledge from us. Adonai does NOT fear knowledge. Adonai ACTIVELY seeks to GIVE us knowledge. ESPECIALLY of spiritual things. Why?

Today’s verse is why. So that we have something we can hang onto. Jesus gave the family of Lazarus a word to hang onto. Jesus gave Jairus a word to hang onto. Adonai gives us words to hang onto. He does NOT want us wondering what may happen. He wants us CERTAIN that He IS ANSWERING or has ALREADY ANSWERED. There may be a delay between the answer and our receiving it in physical manifestation. NOT because Adonai is slow. Sometimes there is interference. Sometimes it needs to come at a specific time because of other people and their involvement. Sometimes only certain times will give Glory to Adonai – and that is the purpose of life. Sometimes it is OUR disbelief that pauses it. We MUST hold to our confidence in Him REGARDLESS of timeframe. Adonai’s best is INSTANTANEOUS. Yet it WILL HAPPEN no matter HOW much time passes. Peter was FIRM in this. Paul was FIRM in this. Whether it was suffering or receiving, everything was only a matter of time. The time involved was INSIGNIFICANT.

One day, two days, ten years, it doesn’t matter. Done is done is done. The sooner WE accept that, the sooner things happen. Both because we stop watching the pot to see it boil and also because we stop interfering with receiving with our doubt that there is something there to receive. I mean, why stretch out an open hand to catch something you don’t think was tossed to you. Ever seen a dog playing catch? It is FIRM in its belief you WILL throw the ball. You can pretend to throw it and the dog will race off to find it. Doesn’t wait to see it. Doesn’t confirm it by sniffing your hand. Doesn’t bark questions at you. No. It heads off IMMEDIATELY because of its unshakeable TRUST that you DID throw that ball. We need to be the same way. The big difference is that Adonai NEVER plays with us and NEVER pretends to throw something. Adonai ALWAYS throws the ball.

“Now, dear friends, do not let this one thing escape your notice, that a single day is like a thousand years with the Lord and a thousand years are like a single day. The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:8-9). Adonai is not slow. Hold TIGHTLY to your confidence. To your TRUST IN HIM. It is the foundation of your relationship with Adonai. It is the vehicle through which we receive. YES, it can take time. YES, we need endurance to remain in our trust. But Adonai is MERCIFUL and GRACIOUS and has given us PATIENCE as an automatic outgrowth of Ruach HaKodesh inside us. We CAN reach out and take it. We CAN choose to manifest patience. So that we WILL endure WITHOUT wavering. So that we WILL receive what Adonai DID give. Period. Trust is more than words. Trust is the action of living according to that trust. Walking that trust out regardless of what we sense or feel. We’re given the tools by Adonai. Stay seeking Jesus above all and living according to His values and we WILL get what He says we WILL get. No matter what. He is NOT a liar. Endure patiently, with Joy, praising and thanking Him for what you have: before, during, and after you get it from our human point of view. Because spiritually? It’s ALL already OURS (Ephesians 1:3-6).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 28:16

“Therefore, this is what the Sovereign Lord, says: “Look, I am laying a stone in Zion, an approved stone, set in place as a precious cornerstone for the foundation. The one who maintains his faith will not panic.” The Messiah would be the precious cornerstone. The lynchpin upon which all the Kingdom would stand. Without Him, nothing. With Him, everything. Messiah would be precious AND foundational. “This Jesus is the stone that was rejected by you, the builders, that has become the cornerstone. And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given among people by which we must be saved” (Acts 4:11-12). Jesus is the precious cornerstone. He was a living stone (1 Peter 2:4). Jesus is the key part of the foundation of the Body of Messiah (Ephesians 2:20). Jesus is the only foundation that can be laid (1 Corinthians 3:11). Jesus is the marvellous cornerstone (Psalm 118:22-23) and did not deny it (Matthew 21:42). 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