Fear No Fear

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

Who is the one who will condemn? Christ is the one who died (and more than that, he was raised), who is at the right hand of God, and who also is interceding for us.
Romans 8:34 (emphasis added)

The Jesus died, was resurrected, went to Heaven, sits at the Father’s right hand, and He intercedes for us. Interceding is going to a person to consult. To intervene. To appeal, entreat, or plead. To deal with an issue regarding a person. Since Jesus put His blood on the Mercy Seat, He is the ONLY one qualified to make intercession for us. “So it was necessary for the sketches of the things in heaven to be purified with these sacrifices, but the heavenly things themselves required better sacrifices than these. For Christ did not enter a sanctuary made with hands—the representation of the true sanctuary—but into heaven itself, and he appears now in God’s presence for us. And he did not enter to offer himself again and again, the way the high priest enters the sanctuary year after year with blood that is not his own, for then he would have had to suffer again and again since the foundation of the world. But now he has appeared once for all at the consummation of the ages to put away sin by his sacrifice” (Hebrews 9:23-26). Once for all, He put away sin. When Adonai looks at us, all He sees is Jesus.

That right there is the answer to the oft asked question ‘why would GOD care about ME?’ Ignoring the fact that Elohim IS love (1 John 4:7–8). Ignoring the fact that He loves us so much He doesn’t even condemn us for what we deserve to be condemned for, but instead makes a way for us to be redeemed (John 3:16-17). Ignoring the fact that His loving kindness endures forever (Psalm 136). Ignoring those three HUGE things, why would Elohim care about me? Because He sees His SON when He looks at you. He sees JESUS. That’s why Jesus died and was resurrected. So that we could become the righteousness of Elohim in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). We forget the awesomeness of what Jesus did for us. We forget the loving that the Father shows us. We forget all that and look at our performance – which is of course lacking – and get guilty, depressed, stressed out, and ready for a smiting. That isn’t how it is though.

“Praise the Lord, O my soul. With all that is within me, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, O my soul. Do not forget all his kind deeds. He is the one who forgives all your sins, who heals all your diseases, who delivers your life from the Pit, who crowns you with his loyal love and compassion, who satisfies your life with good things, so your youth is renewed like an eagle’s. The Lord does what is fair, and executes justice for all the oppressed. The Lord revealed his faithful acts to Moses, his deeds to the Israelites. The Lord is compassionate and merciful; he is patient and demonstrates great loyal love” (Psalm 103:1-8). That is who Adonai is. That is what Adonai is like. He isn’t waiting to smack us upside the head. He isn’t waiting to grant us a miracle. He isn’t waiting until He is willing to heal us. Jesus did everything that He needed to do to release all of that before He died on the cross. When He died, He positioned us to be where He could intercede for us. To remind the Father that we are CLEANSED. We are ceremonially clean. We are HIS righteousness. We are healed. We have the miracle we’re seeking. We have ALL heavenly blessings. We have ALL of it. Everything we are seeking. But it has been granted in the spirit realm. The place where our completely cleansed spirit is partying with Adonai Elohim Himself.

It can be hard to recognise that looking around ourselves. We don’t see what He sees on our own. What we need to do is see ourselves through His eyes. What we need is a revelation of EXACTLY how much Jesus loves us. Since Jesus and the Father are one (John 10:30), if we understand Jesus’ love, we will understand the Father’s love. You might think that we can’t hope to understand His love. After all, His ways are higher than ours and so are His thoughts (Isaiah 55:8-9). But we are not the sinners those verses are speaking to. We are the REDEEMED. We are CHILDREN of Elohim. We have access to the mind of Messiah Jesus. We CAN understand. “I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he will grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person, that Christ will dwell in your hearts through faith, so that, because you have been rooted and grounded in love, you will be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and thus to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you will be filled up to all the fullness of God” (Ephesians 3:16-19).

We can HAVE the revelation of it. We CAN. Paul prayed that we would. We can pray too. And the Father will grant it, because it is His will that we know His Love. And when we ask according to His will? We GET IT. “And this is the confidence that we have before him: that whenever we ask anything according to his will, he hears us. And if we know that he hears us in regard to whatever we ask, then we know that we have the requests that we have asked from him” (1 John 5:14-15). The Father wants us to know how treasured we are. He wants us to know how much He loves us. The Father wants His love for us and our love for Him to be the basis of our relationship with Him. On His end, His perfect love manifested on, in, and around us casts out fear (1 John 4:18). It also perfects us because where our love for Him is, there too us obedience (John 14:15). We are perfected by Him and with Him in every area where we allow ourselves to love Him and be loved by Him (1 John 4:17).

It is an active thing, not an automated process. It is letting Him into our lives in every area – one area at a time. Letting Him love us, and realising the sacrifices we need to make to love Him back (Matthew 16:24). We don’t always want to let Him in to an area. But we need to. And we will if we listen to the correction of Ruach HaKodesh. When we do, His Word sanctifies us (John 17:17). It renews our minds to the Joy of His point of view. It helps us to walk out the obedience we have internally submitted to. Every area where we are obedient is an area where His love works with us to perfect us. It’s a process that won’t be completed until we are face to face with Him (Philippians 1:6).

In the meantime, Jesus is there. The Head of our Body. Speaking about us to His Father all the time. Every moment of every day – and probably a few in between. He is asserting His title: Bridegroom. And He’s talking us up to the Father even as the Father is perfecting us for His Son. As we seek Him first, we can be a co-claimant with Jesus. We ARE the righteousness of Elohim in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). We ARE His bride (2 Corinthians 11:2). We ARE His body (Ephesians 5:29-30). We ARE who He says that we are (John 15:15). As you do, you’ll find that you begin to see it. You begin to see what He sees when He looks at you. Let the words ring out every day. Let the verses walk through your mind. Think on it. Pray on it. Declare it. Believe it. And before you know it, His righteousness will be looking back at you from the mirror and the lies of the enemy will be faint cries you can’t even make out. There you will be. Beloved Child. Beloved Bride. Beloved Body. His.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 50:5

“The Sovereign Lord has spoken to me clearly; I have not rebelled, I have not turned back.” Messiah would be the servant bound willingly to obedience. This was a principle from the Law. “However, if the servant says to you, “I do not want to leave you,” because he loves you and your household, since he is well off with you, you shall take an awl and pierce a hole through his ear to the door. Then he will become your servant permanently (this applies to your female servant as well)” (Deuteronomy 15:16-17). Messiah would love Adonai so much, He would REFUSE to be disobedient. “Going a little farther, he threw himself down with his face to the ground and prayed, “My Father, if possible, let this cup pass from me! Yet not what I will, but what you will.”” (Matthew 26:39). At the hardest time in His life, Messiah Jesus looked toward the Suffering that He as Servant would endure. He could see it in the spirit as clearly as the stones and grass around Himself. But He would not waver. Though His flesh didn’t WANT to suffer, Jesus would not move from the centre of His Father’s will. It had been a principle of His life and He didn’t change at the end. “So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the solemn truth, the Son can do nothing on his own initiative, but only what he sees the Father doing. For whatever the Father does, the Son does likewise” (John 5:19). Jesus was EVER obedient. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

Yeshua is the Christ, the Son of the living God.

Matthew 16:16b