Fear No Fear

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

For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith.
Hebrews 4:2 (emphasis added)

“Jesus answered him, “It is written, ‘Man does not live by bread alone.’”” (Luke 4:4). The Word is good for ALL that occurs in this life. Jesus didn’t speak new words. He didn’t make new scripture. He stood on and spoke about what He already had. It was good enough. The Word is ALWAYS good enough. Even when Messiah Jesus returns, the sharp sword He will use to defeat His enemies will be the Word AS WE HAVE IT NOW. “From his mouth extends a sharp sword, so that with it he can strike the nations. He will rule them with an iron rod, and he stomps the winepress of the furious wrath of God, the All-Powerful” (Revelation 19:15). The Word as it is written TODAY will solve every problem and defeat every foe. All we need to do is mix it with TRUST.

What should we be putting our trust into then? Everything? Short answer, yes. Long answer, there are many things that help us live victorious lives – and also victorious marriages. We’re going to talk about five (5) of them. These five things help connect us to Adonai and to each other, as well as helping to remove roadblocks to abundant living. These aren’t five guaranteed rules for success or five methods to bring manifestation to you. These are scriptural principles that help US choose a mindset in line with the Word – which is the only way any of us can see lasting and satisfying success. In regards to marriage, you can look at them as a five-spoked wheel that helps you roll along life’s highway. We’re looking at the first today: gratitude.

This is one of the cornerstones of human experience. Those that are more grateful in life tend to lead better lives. It helps us feel more positively about things, treasure good experiences, improve our health, deal with negative circumstances, and strengthen our relationships. With THAT many positive things–all acknowledged by the world–it is clear that Adonai had something in mind. “in everything give thanks. For this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:18). We often talk about what the will of Elohim is. Well, it’s for us to be grateful. To live lives of thanksgiving. Recognising the positive in ALL circumstances. Yeah, you might be in a boat with only one paddle but there’s no splinters in it! That is a mentality that is hard to grasp on our own, because we see the negative so easily. Isn’t it funny that negativity is VISIBLE but positivity is often HIDDEN? It’s like negativity is some big-headed, hot air filled, braggart who is so insecure they need to trumpet their worldview just to make sure no one does better than they do. Remind you of anyone? “He says to himself, “I will never be shaken, because I experience no calamity.” His mouth is full of curses and deceptive, harmful words; his tongue injures and destroys. He waits in ambush near the villages; in hidden places he kills the innocent. His eyes look for some unfortunate victim. He lies in ambush in a hidden place, like a lion in a thicket. He lies in ambush, waiting to catch the oppressed; he catches the oppressed by pulling in his net” (Psalm 10:6-9). It’s the playbook of the devil (1 Peter 5:8). The BEST way to combat the negative is with positivity. Not looking at the silver lining. Not hoping for the best, trying desperately to believe that the glass is half-full. This is looking at what Adonai has done in our lives. This is looking at the promises Adonai has given us about what is and what will be happening. It is being truly thankful about it. Praising Him because He deserves it. Praising Him for His wonderful works (Psalm 105:2). It is making our mindset one of thankfulness. “Let them give thanks to the Lord for his loyal love and for the amazing things he has done for people. Let them present thank offerings, and loudly proclaim what he has done” (Psalm 107:21-22). There is ALWAYS something to be grateful for. Mixing our gratitude with our trust in Adonai is a POWERFUL combination. It enables us to engage our trust. It enables us to engage our gratitude. It helps to show us what is REALLY happening and to lift us above the mire of this world and all the feelings and politics and human thinking. To lift us onto THE Rock. THE Fortress. The ONE and TRUE God we can rely on. It enables us to live in His Kingdom reality. It is NOT far. It is NEAR (Mark 1:15).

“Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire” (Hebrews 12:28-29). Gratitude should be the foundation of our worship. After all, why worship something that cannot and does nothing for you? That’s what idol worshippers do. That’s what the religions of the world do. Worship something that had things written or proclaimed about it – and then leaves YOU to do it on your own power. That’s crazy and takes more determination and blind faith to obvious un-truth than the wildest claim ANY Christian has tried to make about ANYTHING in the Word. The only humans with more blind faith than that are atheists. Our God made a Way for us to get back the relationship WE threw away. Our God gives us value even though there is nothing remarkable about us in comparison with Him. Our God enables us to accomplish all that He says we can by giving us the faith to succeed, giving us the Spirit we need to succeed, and staying with us every step of our journey. Our God BECAME the sacrifice that was required to pay for sin. Our God is merciful and extends us Grace. Our God made peace for us and freely offers it. Our God doesn’t force us to do ANYTHING we don’t want to. Our God freely helps us, freely blesses us, doesn’t give us what we deserve, is holding back all judgment so that more and more people can come to Him, loves us and actively encourages us to love one another AND freely gives us the tools we need to accomplish it. Our God is DIFFERENT. Our God is UNIQUE. Our God is the only REAL God. Our response to Him is also DIFFERENT. We don’t beg. We don’t plead. We don’t try to convince Him not to smite us. We are THANKFUL. We are GRATEFUL. We give Him honour, glory, and praise JUST BECAUSE OF WHO HE IS. “Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise. Give him thanks. Praise his name” (Psalm 100:4). Because we can and do, we are enabled to be like Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). When we are like Him, we’ll be grateful people. Grateful people hit a VERY different way. “Let the peace of Christ be in control in your heart (for you were in fact called as one body to this peace), and be thankful” (Colossians 3:15).

People we meet are met with positivity. People we meet are encouraged. People we meet are supported. People we meet are NOT judged. “And whatever you do in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him” (Colossians 3:17). Instead of focusing on that thing they did that makes you upset (or that aspect of them you don’t like), think about something they have done that is good. Something they’ve given you, said to you, done for you, etc. It doesn’t matter if it is big or small. Take that thing and remember it. Focus on your memory of it. Think about how it made you feel. What you thought. The emotion you chose to project. Then thank them. You can write a note, send a text, or talk to them. Mention to them in passing that you appreciate them because _. Try to do this every time you are upset with them or just make it part of your daily routine. A single thing about them you are thankful for and tell them about it. Every single day. It may surprise you at how thankful and how much richer your relationship with them will become. It may surprise you at how much MORE you feel toward them. Gratefulness not only communicates to them their true value to you, but it reminds YOU of their true value. It is a glue that bonds you like nothing else. It works with us and Adonai. It works with us and our loved ones. It is something that simply WORKS. When you encounter bumps, fight them with gratitude.

“My brothers and sisters, consider it nothing but joy when you fall into all sorts of trials, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance. And let endurance have its perfect effect, so that you will be perfect and complete, not deficient in anything” (James 1:2-4). We are going to be tested. Adonai lets us prove what He knows is true about us–which means we ALWAYS succeed in His tests. The world tests us to prove our hypocrisy because it makes them feel better about themselves when we show that we are, in fact, not yet completely perfect. “Not that I have already attained this—that is, I have not already been perfected—but I strive to lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus also laid hold of me. Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself to have attained this. Instead I am single-minded: Forgetting the things that are behind and reaching out for the things that are ahead, with this goal in mind, I strive toward the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus” (Philippians 3:12-14). The devil tests us to try and make sure we fail so hard and so big that we’ll give up, say the Word doesn’t work, and back off of our stance. When he is really successful it will dent our trust so much we struggle to receive anything from Adonai, which also leaves us ripe to accept things from the devil. “Be sober and alert. Your enemy the devil, like a roaring lion, is on the prowl looking for someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8). Gratefulness to Adonai over what He has done, what He is actively doing, and what He will do in the future guards us. We submit to His will and trust Him because of His word (James 4:7). This is the victory we have in this life. The same victory Jesus walked when He was here (John 16:33).

Where does it say that Jesus was struggling? Where does it say He was poor? Where does it say that He didn’t get done EXACTLY what His Father wanted regardless of the desires of the crowds and religious elites? The crowds wanted to make Jesus a military king, but He walked away from it of His own free will (John 6:15). After they found Him again, He preached to them about the TRUE meaning of His kingship and what He was on Earth to accomplish. They didn’t take it well. “Then the Jews who were hostile to Jesus began complaining about him because he said, “I am the bread that came down from heaven,” and they said, “Isn’t this Jesus the son of Joseph, whose father and mother we know? How can he now say, ‘I have come down from heaven’?”” (John 6:41-42). At another time the religious thinkers got so ticked off at Jesus’ claims they wanted to throw Him off a cliff (Luke 4:29). Another time they wanted to stone Him (John 10:31-42). Jesus walked through it as a winner. He went to the cross as a winner. He suffered horrific torture as a winner. He was crucified as a winner. He died as a winner. He went to hell as a winner. And He was resurrected to life by the Father through Ruach HaKodesh as a winner. Jesus did NOTHING but win–from the Father’s point of view. The SAME point of view we have looking at us. When He looks at us, He sees Jesus. “He is the reason you have a relationship with Christ Jesus, who became for us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification and redemption, so that, as it is written, “Let the one who boasts, boast in the Lord.”” (1 Corinthians 1:30-31). Jesus overcame the world and everything in it (John 16:33). In HIM, we too are overcomers. We too are winners, winning in every circumstance, every trial, every situation–from the Father’s point of view.

Anyone who says we lose here and win once we’re in heaven doesn’t believe that. But the Word clearly tells us that. And THAT is a reason to be grateful. To sing with it. To shout with it. If you are in a situation and you don’t FEEL like you’re winning, then praise your way to the throne with real gratitude in your heart for what Jesus has done for you and ASK what His point of view is on the situation. ASK whether there is anything He would like you to do or a way to do what you are already doing or something He wants you to say about the situation. LISTEN for His answer. And the key to it? OBEY. In gratitude for the solution, obey. In grateful love for Him that He loves you enough to help you, obey. Obedience is the manifestation of our love for Him (John 14:15). Gratitude for the chance to be obedient WHILE being obedient is like giving double hugs and a smooch to your Daddy Christmas morning. He has done SO MUCH for us. How can we see that and not be grateful? One of the things the Word does as we process it and let it slow-drip into our hearts, is to open our eyes to the spiritual realities around us as well as to open our eyes to the real-to-our-flesh realities around us. In BOTH realms there is a lot to process. In BOTH realms there is a lot to be grateful for. In BOTH realms we have a lot to learn about being grateful and recognising the truth of what Adonai has done, is doing, and will do.

Like I said before, that same gratefulness that explodes in our hearts toward Adonai as we choose to love Him more and more is the SAME kind of gratefulness that will explode in your heart toward your spouse as you choose to love them like Jesus loves us. It isn’t about ignoring negativity, it is about choosing to grow positivity. Choke the weeds of the relationship out with the over-abundant growth of the positive. Choosing to love is a decision that should never be taken lightly. Choosing to love is also a decision we make on a daily basis–toward Adonai as well as toward our fellow humans. Gratefulness is a direct fruit of that love. It is also fertiliser for that love. We cannot have a successful marriage without gratefulness toward our partners. We cannot have a successful relationship with Adonai without gratefulness. Our gratitude toward our partners in life is a type and shadow–practise if you will–for our gratitude toward Adonai. Our grateful mindset toward Adonai should inform our mindset toward our marriage. They are intertwined like a two-fold cord. And even better? Jesus gets involved and adds His love to it. So we now have a three-fold cord of love and gratefulness that keeps us strong. Strong in each other and strong in Adonai by and through the Bread and Water that is Jesus (John 15:5). Connected to Jesus, we are able to do what He did by His Spirit, who inhabits us, His Body (1 Corinthians 12:27).

Take a moment every day to be grateful. Practise gratefulness until it is a part of WHO YOU ARE. Until it is a part of your day. A routine so ingrained that you don’t even think about it. You just ARE grateful. We cannot do it on our own. We must practise gratefulness IN JESUS. Using the Word to let Him retrain our mindset. To retrain our spirit, which He set free and made into a brand new thing. We don’t have to act like the world. We don’t need to succumb to the world. We don’t have to have the struggles of the world. We are BRAND NEW CREATURES. We are something the world hasn’t seen for thousands of years. We ARE the Righteousness of Elohim–in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). Be grateful for something every day. It nurtures YOU as much as it blesses Adonai and our spouses and families. Be grateful. Be gratitude in your attitude. Be like Jesus.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:1

“Who would have believed what we just heard? When was the Lord’s power revealed through him?” The people would not believe Messiah. The vineyard that had been carefully planted with excellent stock had turned (Jeremiah 2:21). The once pure people had bad tares among the wheat. They were lost sheep without a shepherd, but they were led by rebellious people who were refusing the voice of the Shepherd. “Although Jesus had performed so many miraculous signs before them, they still refused to believe in him, so that the word of the prophet Isaiah would be fulfilled. He said, “Lord, who has believed our message, and to whom has the arm of the Lord been revealed?”” (John 12:37-38). Jesus’ message was simple. “He said, “The time is fulfilled and the kingdom of God is near. Repent and believe the gospel!”” (Mark 1:15). What was the gospel? That the Son of Elohim, the Word, had become flesh to die so that sin and death could be conquered and people could have life with restored relationship with Adonai Elohim Almighty (John 3:16-18). They did not believe. They persecuted Him (unsuccessfully) and killed Him (so He could be a sacrifice for them). They fulfilled the Father’s Will, but they did NOT believe. Jesus gave His all for them and for us. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b