Fear No Fear

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

Make every effort to present yourself before God as a proven worker who does not need to be ashamed, teaching the message of truth accurately.
2 Timothy 2:15 (emphasis added)

There are people in the world that are all about energy. And they ALMOST get it right. Our hearts DO send out signals and our minds can interact with them and send them out into creation to perform things. But WE aren’t the source. Yahweh is the Source of ALL power. It is HIS Word that radiates out of us. When we choose to align ourselves with what HE wants, it happens because HIS WORD never returns void and accomplishes its purpose (Isaiah 55:11). Anything else is trying to high-jack that power signal. It’s an abomination and Adonai takes a very dim view of it.

If the enemy can’t get you to throw in with these false signal singers, his next plan is to distract you. “The good person out of the good treasury of his heart produces good, and the evil person out of his evil treasury produces evil, for his mouth speaks from what fills his heart” (Luke 6:45). What is in our heart comes out and gives the mind the opportunity to agree with it. If what is in your heart is the Word it is SO MUCH EASIER not to doubt when your mind decides to trust. Two witnesses – heart and spirit – are speaking to you and it is easy to agree with their report. Naturally, Adonai wants the Word coming into agreement with those two witnesses because He adds the witness of Ruach HaKodesh. When you have all three in agreement with the Word, that’s nigh on impossible to break (Ecclesiastes 4:12). Then we have the Word going out in power (Luke 24:49) and when we are lined up with Adonai, everything becomes possible (Matthew 19:26).

The job of the enemy is to distract you. He enlists the world to help – and it doesn’t take much because so much of the world is desperate to be distracted or to do something to bring meaning to their lives. Turning horror, fear, and anxiety into entertainment. Doing the same with immorality, revenge, violence, and murder. Trying to make these projects, thrillers, and manipulators of our feelings into valid, ‘it’s just pretend’ playing. Making them water cooler talk. Using them for training and programming. In the same way a visible minority can feel validated by seeing themselves represented in mainstream entertainment (without it being satire or stereotype), our flesh can feel validated seeing our sins and desires presented as ‘normal’ and a regular part of life. Our hearts then become a petri dish for all kinds of sin-based living. “But the things that come out of the mouth come from the heart, and these things defile a person. For out of the heart come evil ideas, murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false testimony, slander” (Matthew 15:18-19).

The more garbage we put in, the more garbage comes out. We start thinking things that are full stop WRONG from Adoani’s point of view, are maybe okay. That it’s okay to consume them (watch, hear, or read). That it is normal to feel these things. Desire these things. And act on these things. “But each one is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desires. Then when desire conceives, it gives birth to sin, and when sin is full grown, it gives birth to death. Do not be led astray, my dear brothers and sisters” (James 1:14-16). Sin does not happen by accident. We need to see it, think until we desire it, and THEN we act on it. Though once we are desiring, we’re already dabbling in sin because we are focusing on a sin that is unseen as we decide whether or not to bring it out to commit it. Focus breeds desire. It works with the righteous and with the sinful. It’s a spiritual LAW (2 Corinthians 4:18 – good version).

When we go down rabbit holes of bingeing these things, we are dabbling with sin. How long will it take watching young, attractive people making sex a regular part of their interactions (from hookups to dating) until you start thinking it normal? How long watching the cop shows, the serial killer shows, the medical dramas before you start taking in their messages? Everything from life is cheap to karma to moral values to revenge and violence as normal? It doesn’t need to be a hot button issue like abortion or pride parade conduct or pronoun usage. It can be small things. Small compromises that are embedded in the characters and situations – often with humour – will be dropping into your heart. What we focus on and pay attention to is what gets in there. What gets in there is what comes out.

We say the heart wants what it wants, but that’s an excuse so we can indulge in immorality. We cannot escape responsibility, no matter how often we want to. We can mask it, but it will be like cheap perfume. It won’t do the job AND it will stink in its own right. The heart is a garden growing whatever we plant. Every show, movie, social media profile. They all drop seeds. Make sure the seed you’re putting in is the right stuff. Make sure it’s Word stuff. Make sure it’s Jesus. Listen to HIM and you’ll only grow good, strong fruit.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:8

“He was led away after an unjust trial—but who even cared? Indeed, he was cut off from the land of the living; because of the rebellion of his own people he was wounded.” Messiah would be confined and persecuted. Taken from those who knew Him and taken to those who would bind, beat, and persecute Him without cause. “While he was still speaking, Judas, one of the twelve, arrived. With him was a large crowd armed with swords and clubs, sent by the chief priests and elders of the people. (Now the betrayer had given them a sign, saying, “The one I kiss is the man. Arrest him!”) Immediately he went up to Jesus and said, “Greetings, Rabbi,” and kissed him. Jesus said to him, “Friend, do what you are here to do.” Then they came and took hold of Jesus and arrested him. But one of those with Jesus grabbed his sword, drew it out, and struck the high priest’s slave, cutting off his ear. Then Jesus said to him, “Put your sword back in its place! For all who take hold of the sword will die by the sword. Or do you think that I cannot call on my Father, and that he would send me more than twelve legions of angels right now? How then would the scriptures that say it must happen this way be fulfilled?” At that moment Jesus said to the crowd, “Have you come out with swords and clubs to arrest me like you would an outlaw? Day after day I sat teaching in the temple courts, yet you did not arrest me. But this has happened so that the scriptures of the prophets would be fulfilled.” Then all the disciples left him and fled. Now the ones who had arrested Jesus led him to Caiaphas, the high priest, in whose house the experts in the law and the elders had gathered. But Peter was following him from a distance, all the way to the high priest’s courtyard. After going in, he sat with the guards to see the outcome. The chief priests and the whole Sanhedrin were trying to find false testimony against Jesus so that they could put him to death. But they did not find anything, though many false witnesses came forward. Finally two came forward and declared, “This man said, ‘I am able to destroy the temple of God and rebuild it in three days.’” So the high priest stood up and said to him, “Have you no answer? What is this that they are testifying against you?” But Jesus was silent. The high priest said to him, “I charge you under oath by the living God, tell us if you are the Christ, the Son of God.” Jesus said to him, “You have said it yourself. But I tell you, from now on you will see the Son of Man sitting at the right hand of the Power and coming on the clouds of heaven.” Then the high priest tore his clothes and declared, “He has blasphemed! Why do we still need witnesses? Now you have heard the blasphemy! What is your verdict?” They answered, “He is guilty and deserves death.” Then they spat in his face and struck him with their fists. And some slapped him,saying, “Prophesy for us, you Christ! Who hit you?” Now Peter was sitting outside in the courtyard. A slave girl came to him and said, “You also were with Jesus the Galilean.” But he denied it in front of them all: “I don’t know what you’re talking about!” When he went out to the gateway, another slave girl saw him and said to the people there, “This man was with Jesus the Nazarene.” He denied it again with an oath, “I do not know the man!” After a little while, those standing there came up to Peter and said, “You really are one of them too—even your accent gives you away!” At that he began to curse, and he swore with an oath, “I do not know the man!” At that moment a rooster crowed.Then Peter remembered what Jesus had said: “Before the rooster crows, you will deny me three times.” And he went outside and wept bitterly. When it was early in the morning, all the chief priests and the elders of the people plotted against Jesus to execute him. They tied him up, led him away, and handed him over to Pilate the governor. Now when Judas, who had betrayed him, saw that Jesus had been condemned, he regretted what he had done and returned the thirty silver coins to the chief priests and the elders, saying, “I have sinned by betraying innocent blood!” But they said, “What is that to us? You take care of it yourself!” So Judas threw the silver coins into the temple and left. Then he went out and hanged himself. The chief priests took the silver and said, “It is not lawful to put this into the temple treasury, since it is blood money.” After consulting together they bought the Potter’s Field with it, as a burial place for foreigners. For this reason that field has been called the “Field of Blood” to this day. Then what was spoken by Jeremiah the prophet was fulfilled: “They took the thirty silver coins, the price of the one whose price had been set by the people of Israel, and they gave them for the potter’s field, as the Lord commanded me.” Then Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, “Are you the king of the Jews?” Jesus[ said, “You say so.” 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. During the feast the governor was accustomed to release one prisoner to the crowd, whomever they wanted. At that time they had in custody a notorious prisoner named Jesus Barabbas. So after they had assembled, Pilate said to them, “Whom do you want me to release for you, Jesus Barabbas or Jesus who is called the Christ?” (For he knew that they had handed him over because of envy.) As he was sitting on the judgment seat, his wife sent a message to him: “Have nothing to do with that innocent man; I have suffered greatly as a result of a dream about him today.” But the chief priests and the elders persuaded the crowds to ask for Barabbas and to have Jesus killed. The governor asked them, “Which of the two do you want me to release for you?” And they said, “Barabbas!” Pilate said to them, “Then what should I do with Jesus who is called the Christ?” They all said, “Crucify him!” He asked, “Why? What wrong has he done?” But they shouted more insistently, “Crucify him!” When Pilate saw that he could do nothing, but that instead a riot was starting, he took some water, washed his hands before the crowd and said, “I am innocent of this man’s blood. You take care of it yourselves!” In reply all the people said, “Let his blood be on us and on our children!” Then he released Barabbas for them. But after he had Jesus flogged, he handed him over to be crucified. Then the governor’s soldiers took Jesus into the governor’s residence and gathered the whole cohort around him. They stripped him and put a scarlet robe around him, and after braiding a crown of thorns, they put it on his head. They put a staff in his right hand, and kneeling down before him, they mocked him: “Hail, king of the Jews!” They spat on him and took the staff and struck him repeatedly on the head. When they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe and put his own clothes back on him. Then they led him away to crucify him” (Matthew 26:47-27:31). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b