Fear No Fear

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

Listen! I am standing at the door and knocking! If anyone hears my voice and opens the door I will come into his home and share a meal with him, and he with me.
Revelation 3:20 (emphasis added)

It is common for humans (male AND female, though different in approach) to want to meet people where they are. Especially people we care about. However, we almost ALWAYS interpret that as sharing in a participatory way their fads and enthusiasms. When we combine that with the VERY human compulsion to categorise and diagnose ourselves, we have a recipe for disaster. Adonai ALWAYS meets us there we are, but He NEVER participates in ANYTHING that isn’t Righteous. Adonai NEVER calls us what we are, and ALWAYS what He sees us as able to become. When humans do it our way, we can cause damage. When Adonai does it? It NEVER feeds anxiety, depression, obsession, sexual impulse, sexual inclination, bad feelings, ego, or harm. It’s only by Adonai’s GRACE that the human species has made it this far without self-destructing.

So where are we? Where do we FIT? Our biological identity is found in our skeletons, our brain function, and our reproductive system (the first two have clear scientific markers of the male and female sex, the third is increasingly viewed by the world as changeable through drugs and surgery). Our attraction identity is seated in the mind, which makes the choice as to whom we love. Our personal identity (social gender and psychological identity) are in our heart, the second mind and the seat of our personality. And our expression of identity (social gender and a mix of physical and psychological identity) is our whole body (appearance and clothes), our actions, and our words. This complete mix of markers gets blended together and becomes a whole ‘identity’. Then we stop being growing kids (the pre-teen to early twenties) and start interacting in the world in a REAL way. We get jobs. We have responsibilities thrust on us. We start having adult relationships (friend and romantic). We start having to make more serious political choices. We might have children. A lot of things that were theoretical or catered by our parents or mentors, we have to pick up and run with. Add to that the deeper actions, decisions, and activities that religious and cultural expectations can throw our way, and it is a wonder that ANY of us manage to become productive. Usually, we pick a couple of things and hold THEM up as our identity. They may not FULLY be our identity, but they are explainable and like an anchor, help us from drifting into dangerous waters.

We pick these things that we call our identity based on our senses. Taste, touch, smell, sight, hearing, and feelings. They are the external information that comes our way and enables us to make choices. Without a FUNCTIONING spirit, it is all EXTERNAL information. We need more than that to make wise decisions. But Adam’s spirit died the moment he rebelled. “She also gave some of it to her husband who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them opened, and they knew they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves” (Genesis 3:6b-7). Nothing happened when Eve ate. But once Adam did, rebellion had occurred and their spirits died. They had no living spirit to pass onto us. No human since then has been born with a living spirit, but only dead ones. The physical always follows the spiritual. Spiritually dead people end up with dead lives. Once the bodies die, the spirit goes to where death is. The opposite is also true. Living spirits enable humans (male and female) to live abundant lives. Once the bodies die, the spirit goes to where life is.

The only chance we have not to lose ourselves in the morass of human thought and reasoning is to have another source of information apart from our senses. Preferably one that is objective to counter the subjective information of our senses. That way our hearts will be able to make the best decision possible. It will have all the information, from two sources, and it can take the path that benefits us the most. But that brings up what we will use to determine whether or not something is the best for us. Which is why our second source MUST be objective. Something that is not affected by ANY choice we make. Something that CANNOT benefit or lose by our decisions and behaviour. Something that is completely, totally, and ABSOLUTELY outside of us. Something TRULY objective. Of course, logic tells us that anything THAT objective MUST be outside of the universe as we know it, since everything inside the universe in some way or another impacts everything else (the science of connectivity, the butterfly effect, quantum connections, etc). The ONLY thing outside the universe as we know it that cares to not just notice us but interact with us is Elohim. He is by His very nature ONLY able to tell us what is best for us because His nature and His point of view are both completely outside our experience and able to see the completed and full picture of all reality.

I’ve talked about identity and how we frame ourselves to get to this point: how Adonai sees us is almost never how we see ourselves. Now He is outside our system. He needs nothing from us. He doesn’t NEED our worship. He doesn’t NEED our obedience. He doesn’t NEED your tithes. He doesn’t NEED our fellowship. He is Yahweh. The Great I AM. “I also know that whatever God does will endure forever; nothing can be added to it, and nothing taken away from it. God has made it this way, so that men will fear him” (Ecclesiastes 3:14) – ‘fear’ meaning reverence. All the things He ‘asks’ of us are for OUR benefit, not His. Adonai knows what we are (Psalm 103:14). Adonai knows what we CAN be (Psalm 139:4). Adonai chooses to ONLY see Jesus when He looks at us. “Think about the circumstances of your call, brothers and sisters. Not many were wise by human standards, not many were powerful, not many were born to a privileged position. But God chose what the world thinks foolish to shame the wise, and God chose what the world thinks weak to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, what is regarded as nothing, to set aside what is regarded as something, so that no one can boast in his presence. 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 1:26-31). We are seen as great by HIM because of HIMSELF, not US. We’re to show everyone that same GRACE and MERCY and the LOVE that birthed them. We cannot do that outside of Jesus (John 15:5).

We as human beings are seeking to quantify ourselves. Define ourselves. Find some way to make ourselves UNIQUE. Yet in the eyes of the Almighty, we are ALL unique. In fact, since we as believers are IN JESUS, when the Father looks at Jesus, He sees us. Each ONE of us. He interacts with us like we are the ONLY human being on the planet. We ALL get His undivided attention. Human reasoning will say that is impossible, but He exists OUTSIDE human reasoning, experience, and reality. He isn’t bound by OUR rules. “Look, I have inscribed your name on my palms; your walls are constantly before me” (Isaiah 49:16). We are desperate to define what makes us unique and here He is writing our name on His hand because we are THAT special. THAT unique. Even angels wonder. “Of what importance is the human race, that you should notice them? Of what importance is mankind, that you should pay attention to them?” (Psalm 8:4).

Where do we fit? What shall we define ourselves by? ANYTHING HE SAYS TO. He isn’t wrong (Psalm 18:30). He never lies (Titus 1:2). He has a place for each of us, made for each of us specifically (John 14:1-3). He called us all to Him (2 Timothy 1:10; John 6:44-51). And made a place in Himself for us to function and function properly (Romans 12:4-8; 1 Corinthians 12:12-27). We have identity in Him (2 Corinthians 5:21). He justifies us. He uplifts us. He hold us in the hand that has our name on it. As the world spirals faster and faster, we need to hold onto what we have in Him. Identity. Righteous identity. Because of HIM, not us, so give Him glory that you do not need to be confused. You do not need to be lost. You do not need to be anxious. You can KNOW who you are in HIM which is the firmest, clearest, and most solid place upon which to place your identity in all of creation and heaven combined.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:7

“He was treated harshly and afflicted, but he did not even open his mouth. Like a lamb led to the slaughtering block, like a sheep silent before her shearers, he did not even open his mouth.” Messiah would be silent before His accusers in spite of His innocence. He would do this as an example and to fulfil prophesy, for sheep do not bleat when they are slaughtered. They are silent. In addition, it was by the passing of blame instead of repenting that we lost dominion in Eden (Genesis 3). Messiah would NOT pass the buck. Messiah WOULD fulfil the Will of the Father. Messiah WOULD be our sacrifice. “But when he was accused by the chief priests and the elders, he did not respond. Then Pilate said to him, “Don’t you hear how many charges they are bringing against you?” But he did not answer even one accusation, so that the governor was quite amazed” (Matthew 27:12-14). Jesus COULD have protested His rightful and true innocence. Jesus COULD have defended Himself. He remained faithful to His assignment. Jesus went silently to the cross so we would not have to. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b