Fear No Fear

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

The Lord supports him on his sickbed; you have healed him from his illness.
Psalm 41:3 (emphasis added)

“The Lord supports” is a Hebrew word haphak (haw-fak’) meaning to overturn, reverse, to overthrow, or transform oneself. “on his sickbed” means affliction, disease, grief or griefs, illness, sick/sickness/sicknesses. “you have healed” meaning to hold, refresh, sustain, uphold, support, comfort, and to establish. “from his illness” in the Hebrew is “of all illness” or “all his bed you have changed in his illness” which is the whole, all, complete, and total of loathsomeness, languishing, sorrowful, disease. This is a POWERFUL verse that speaks of GREAT redemption from Elohim.

Adonai overturns, and overthrows the affliction, disease, grief, illness, sickness; having upheld, refreshed, sustained, supported, comforted and established him apart from all illness, transforming him wholly, completely, and in total reversal of his loathsome languishing in sorrowful disease. That’s something. That is what Adonai does. He changes things COMPLETELY. “So then, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; what is old has passed away—look, what is new has come!” (2 Corinthians 5:17). “Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we will also live with him. We know that since Christ has been raised from the dead, he is never going to die again; death no longer has mastery over him. For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:8-11). That is about as transformed as you can be: from dead to alive. And being alive is the goal of ALL of us. You see it all the time with those who are sick. There is a lot of talk about procedures, treatments, and others things that might ‘prolong their life’. No one wants to die unless they have something wrong with them. Adonai is ALL about life.

Jesus came NOT to condemn us, but to bring us a chance at new life (John 3:16-18). To take the sacrifice that He was about to make for us and use it for our bread and our water. For what we need to enter into the New Covenant between the Father and Messiah Jesus. In order to BE new. We get to be new because Adonai is a God of renewal. Of restoration. When Adam and Eve were removed from Eden so they couldn’t hurt themselves (Genesis 3:22), they walked put with the promise that their situation would be reversed (Genesis 3:15). It wasn’t them, but the seed of promise that lived to see it. Jesus of Nazareth descended from Adam through Seth (Luke 3:38). Adonai made a way through Jesus for all of us to be reversed. To change our condition from death (Genesis 2:16-17) to life (John 5:24). Translated from the kingdom of darkness to the Kingdom of God (Colossians 1:13-14). We are completely renewed through Jesus’ finished work (John 19:30).

What was finished? The whole, complete, and total removal of our sorrows and disease which we no longer need to languish in. To languish is to suffer from being forced to remain in an unpleasant place or situation. It is a loss or lack of vitality. It is a growth of feebleness and weakness. It is what our spiritual state is before salvation. After salvation we have access to abundant life (John 10:10). We have LIVING water rising up inside us (John 7:37-38) methodically removing all the bad and replacing it with pureness and goodness (Romans 12:2). He does the work. It is NOT by our own strength, but by HIS Spirit (Zechariah 4:6). That is how we rose from our poverty of spirit into the rich blessings of His Spirit.

Interestingly, today’s verse is speaking of an Old Covenant person. Someone under the Law, not Grace. We are free from the Law (Romans 8:2). But the person of today’s verse wasn’t and points us to a wonderful principle of Adonai’s nature. If we look at the beginning of this Psalm down to today’s verse we get a VERY interesting picture. “How blessed is the one who treats the poor properly. When trouble comes, may the Lord deliver him. May the Lord protect him and save his life. May he be blessed in the land. Do not turn him over to his enemies. The Lord supports him on his sickbed; you have healed him from his illness” (Psalm 41:1-3). If you treat the poor properly, you are rewarded with health. Not just a feel better day, but a full-on wholeness of health. THAT is how much the poor matter to their Father who loves them. If we take care of them, He takes care of us (Matthew 25:40-45).

In the Old Covenant, it was physical poverty. Poverty of health. Poverty of resources. In the New Covenant, it can ALSO be physical poverty. But it can be spiritual poverty, too. Prior to acceptance of Jesus, we were all spiritual beggars. “Blessed are the poor in spirit, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to them” (Matthew 5:3). “All of us had wandered off like sheep; each of us had strayed off on his own path, but the Lord caused the sin of all of us to attack him” (Isaiah 53:6). In Jesus, we are able to be whole again. In Jesus, we are restored. Us caring for the poor in spirit is us sharing that possibility of restoration. Sharing the Gospel. No more separation between Adonai and humanity (Luke 2:14). It is also one of the commands that we have been given. “Then Jesus came up and said to them, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And remember, I am with you always, to the end of the age” (Matthew 28:18-20). It is the most important thing that we can do aside from abiding in Jesus. After all, when you have a free and wonderful gift that is shareable, why would you want to keep it to yourself?

Is it love to watch people stay bound to something that is killing them? Robbing them of all the possibilities of joy? Is it fun to keep people without the necessities? To keep them from buying enough food? Clothing their children? What if we could help them? We’re called to help them as much as we can whenever we can. “John answered them, “The person who has two tunics must share with the person who has none, and the person who has food must do likewise.”” (Luke 3:11). And when we do, Adonai blesses us even more. He will always bless those who bless others because He uses us to get His blessings to our fellow human beings (male and female). ““But I say to you who are listening: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. To the person who strikes you on the cheek, offer the other as well, and from the person who takes away your coat, do not withhold your tunic either. Give to everyone who asks you, and do not ask for your possessions back from the person who takes them away. Treat others in the same way that you would want them to treat you” (Luke 6:27-31). ““Do not judge, and you will not be judged; do not condemn, and you will not be condemned; forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you: A good measure, pressed down, shaken together, running over, will be poured into your lap. For the measure you use will be the measure you receive.”” (Luke 6:38).

We show love to others by helping them. Blessing them. Assisting them. Forgiving them. The more we get, the more we can give. The more we give, the more we can get. Because the resources aren’t OURS to spend, but HIS. Imagine it: ALL our needs met and enough left over that we can STILL bless everyone He brings across our path. Physical poverty. Poor health. Dead spirits. We can be hand in hand with Adonai as these conditions are REVERSED, RENEWED, and OVER-TURNED. WITH Adonai ALL things are possible ((Matthew 19:26).

Do you want to have more money flowing through your life? Ask Adonai for someone you can bless. Do you want to have more health flowing through your body? Build up your trust in Adonai on the healing He’s accomplished and find someone to pray for. We don’t help the poor TO GET things, but we can help the POOR get things. Our heart attitude is LOVE. Love isn’t greedy. Love doesn’t seek acquisition. Love seeks to help, nurture, and spread itself. Bless because we’re blessed. Love because we love. It’s the same principle. We ONLY can love because of Adonai. “We love because he loved us first” (1 John 4:19). Love is the thing that drives us. Our love of Adonai manifesting in our love for one another. “Everyone will know by this that you are my disciples—if you have love for one another” (John 13:35).

Adonai wants to remove ALL humanity from their sinful bed. From languishing in the curse that keeps them soaked in all that is against His love for us (2 Peter 3:9). Even as WE have been healed, we also are to help OTHERS to meet Him. To give them the same chance that we had: to answer the call of the Father (1 Thessalonians 5:24). To show them the Father by showing them Jesus (John 14:8-9). To disciple them in abiding in Jesus as we were discipled ourselves (John 15). It IS our Great Commission. Let’s help with the loss of languish. Let’s do what He has enabled us to do. Let’s express our ABUNDANT LIFE by helping Adonai OVERTURN poverty in EVERY sphere we find it in.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 42:4

“He will not grow dim or be crushed before establishing justice on the earth; the coastlands will wait in anticipation for his decrees.” The nations of the world would wait on Messiah’s teachings. They would recognise them and seek them out. Willing to wait for His timing, they were eager to partake in the unique righteous wisdom of Messiah. “Now some Greeks were among those who had gone up to worship at the feast. So these approached Philip, who was from Bethsaida in Galilee, and requested, “Sir, we would like to see Jesus.” Philip went and told Andrew, and they both went and told Jesus. Jesus replied, “The time has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. I tell you the solemn truth, unless a kernel of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains by itself alone. But if it dies, it produces much grain. The one who loves his life destroys it, and the one who hates his life in this world guards it for eternal life. If anyone wants to serve me, he must follow me, and where I am, my servant will be too. If anyone serves me, the Father will honor him” (John 12:20-26). Jesus was sought out by Greeks. By Romans. By Samaritans. By the religious leaders of the Jews. By Magi from the East. Jesus was sought by the nations, many of them wanting to hear His teaching and all of them wanting to witness His Anointing. 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