Fear No Fear

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

If our God whom we are serving exists, he is able to rescue us from the furnace of blazing fire, and he will rescue us, O king, from your power as well. But if he does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected
Daniel 3:17-18 (emphasis added)

Jesus said that if we pray according to the Word (which is the Will of Elohim), and if we pray believing that it is accomplished at that moment in its fullness, and if we do not doubt, then we will see the physical arrival (or manifestation) of that prayer (Matthew 21:22; Mark 11:24; and witnessed in James 6:1-9). This is a Kingdom Truth. A Law. Something that ALWAYS works. It is hard, though, to grasp the meaning and apply it. What does it LOOK like? We’ve trained ourselves to be visual people. We see it, we believe it. How then do we not see, yet fully believe? We trust.

How much do you trust your covenant partner? Your children? Friends? Church leadership? Town council? School board? Government? World Health Organisation? The reporters of the news? All to different degrees. It’s based on past experience. It’s based on the experiences of those you know. In written material. And in how well you know – or are in relationship with – the individual(s) in question. It’s how we operate. What if we didn’t know them? If nothing was written down? If we hadn’t heard anything one way or another? Then we would draw a blank. Our opinion of them and our trust in them would be total blind trust. We’d have nothing to go on. Adonai does NOT ask us to have blind trust (1 Thessalonians 5:21). In fact, He advises us to base things on no fewer than two agreeing reports (Matthew 18:20; Deuteronomy 19:5; 1 Timothy 5;19). How can we get full trust in what we are to believe without doubt? Our revelation of Him.

“Now to him who by the power that is working within us is able to do far beyond all that we ask or think, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen” (Ephesians 3:20-21). It is by the power working in us that our trust is empowered and physicality arrives. We can have trust. We can have the Word. But if there isn’t revelation knowledge alive in our hearts (the power that works within us), there is no connection between those two points and nothing flows. Don’t connect the leads and no matter how much power is coming into your house, and no matter how hard and well you flick the switch, nothing will turn on. The Kingdom of Elohim is INSIDE us (Luke 17:21). It works from the inside out. It travels from our internal heart to our external words and then physically arrives – exactly like seed time and harvest (Genesis 8:22). If we don’t have a revelation of who HE is, we won’t trust that His power is there. If we don’t trust that His power is there, we won’t believe it. This is why the devil’s strategy has two prongs. First, he tries to keep the Word from getting inside your heart (distractions, twisted teaching, etc). If he can’t do that, he’ll try the second tactic: get you to speak that Word against yourself (idle words, agreeing with the world not the Word, defeatist talk, negative confessions, etc). Anything He can do to keep us from getting and deciding to keep (believing) the revelation of who Adonai is.

When the Word talks about belief and trust, it means really real stuff. One of the best examples is Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The story is in Daniel chapter three. They were supposed to bow down and worship a golden image of the king (who had made it a law punishable by death). They were called before the king who demanded compliance. They refused. The king ordered the furnace that was kept on hand to administer the ‘punishable by death’ part, to be heated hotter than normal. Then he tossed the boys in. When the boys were facing this punishment, they weren’t facing something abstract. There was no ‘maybe it will be the king’s will to kill us or maybe it won’t.’ They knew EXACTLY what the king was willing to do. They could SEE the furnace. They had experience with fire as we all do. They knew it was hot. They knew it burned. They knew it could kill. In fact, for this to be a viable and believable threat, the king had to have done this kind of thing in the past. Nebuchadnezzar was totally willing to cut people into pieces and turn their homes into latrines (Daniel 2:5-6). He killed a rival king’s children in front of that king and then gouged out his eyes (Jeremiah 39:6-7) – and then burnt down everyone’s houses and pulled down the city’s walls (vs 8). Nebuchadnezzar carried out his threats. The furnace was a real and threatening punishment. This was NOT a bluff.

They were facing a real threat with real consequences. They could see it, hear it, feel it, and were threatened with touching it. Science was against them. Rational thought was against them. By ANY human measurement, they were going to die if they didn’t submit. That is the level of reality that we face every day. We are surrounded by a world that is real. We can see it. We can touch it. We can experience it. When we come across something in the Word that we cannot see and cannot touch, how can we believe that we can experience it? Religious thinking says you cannot. “Dear friends, we are God’s children now, and what we will be has not yet been revealed. We know that whenever it is revealed we will be like him, because we will see him just as he is” (1 John 3:2). “But our citizenship is in heaven—and we also eagerly await a savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who will transform these humble bodies of ours into the likeness of his glorious body by means of that power by which he is able to subject all things to himself” (Philippians 3:20-21). Based on verses like these, religious thought says that in this world we are less than. We don’t get more than until we get to heaven and are transformed into our heavenly body. Since our rewards are in Heaven (Matthew 5:12), we must wait until heaven to get ANY reward. We cannot see what is not here, is how they think. Therefore, they believe all those supernatural things have passed away, aren’t for today, and they are not part of the experience of being a believer.

As we know, the problem with that is that there is very little to differentiate us from unbelievers. Other than a name, a book we read, what difference is there with that kind of thinking? Religious thinking is stuck: with the same health issues, the same financial issues, the same employment issues, the same relationship issues, the same living conditions, and other categories like these. If we’re living no different than the world, we’re BOTH dark. If we’re experiencing life the same way as the world is, we’re not salty to their blandness. If we are confessing the Lord Jesus as Saviour and King out of some formulaic ceremony, we are not truly saved. We may be separated, but we’re still enslaved to worldly thinking. It’s the same way the Israelites physically walked out of Egypt, but took Egypt with them in their hearts. Religious thinking changes up the place where your chain is attached, but it does not remove the chain: “They tie up heavy loads, hard to carry, and put them on men’s shoulders, but they themselves are not willing even to lift a finger to move them” (Matthew 23:4). True freedom comes from true trust in Jesus.

The Hebrew boys looked at what they SAW, but they stood on what they did NOT see. They then went the single step further that is required for true trust. “But if he does not, let it be known to you, O king, that we don’t serve your gods, and we will not pay homage to the golden statue that you have erected.” It did not matter to them if Elohim did NOTHING. They looked at the Law of Elohim which said “You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:3). They stood on that. They KNEW Adonai had the power to save them because they had the Torah which showed them how Adonai saved His people again and again. But they DECIDED that He didn’t have to. Their trust that Adonai was worth being given first and only place in life was not based on what they SAW or KNEW, but on their revelation of the nature of Elohim. They knew His nature dictated that first and only place as the ONLY place He should inhabit. They were so certain of it, they were willing to die for it. They didn’t think of being saved. They didn’t think of not being saved. They ONLY thought that they would NOT act out of accord with Adonai. They faced that fire with their trust and knew they were going to win: either they’d be saved or they’d be with Adonai. Either way, it was a win (Philippians 1:21).

That is fiery trust. Being willing to put your trust in the Word of Adonai regardless of what you see, feel, or know with your human thinking. No matter what your senses detect. No matter what report is given. You’re not ignoring those things any more than the boys ignored the furnace or the command of the king. It is a question of what you believe, what you accept to live, and what you will expend your words on. We all speak. Are you going to speak the same things that everyone else does? Are you going to repeat negative reports? Or are you going to COUNTER the negative with the Word? Are you going to OVERWRITE the conventional, human thinking with righteous Jesus thinking? It isn’t ignoring a bill. It’s declaring a bill paid and taken care of according to the Word (like Philippians 4:19 for example) – AND THEN seeking Adonai about it. Will there be a job opportunity showing up providing the money? Should you seed for it? Will something ELSE happen? Jesus knows. Ruach HaKodesh will tell you. Instruct you as to your path to walk. It is the same with healing. Will you be standing? Getting prayed for? Getting a doctor to help? What is HIS will? He’ll tell you, if you ask, believing He will.

Nothing can thwart the will of Elohim. But YOU might not be involved. YOU might miss out. YOU might reject His offer. It’s there, unthwarted, ready to be engaged. You need to put your trust in Him. You need to believe Him. You need revelation knowledge about the meaning of the Word you’re putting in your heart (which Ruach HaKodesh gives us) – commentary about what the Word means. You need to see, acknowledge, and submit without complaining in ANY way to the TRUTH that His point of view is the CORRECT point of view. Every. Single. Time. No exceptions. THAT is fiery trust. That willingness to put your life on the line REGARDLESS of whether Adonai is going to save you. That is STABLE trust from a STABLE mind. We get it through the Word (Romans 12:3). We get it by BELIEVING the Word. It’s a trust that engages. It’s a trust that receives. It’s a trust that overcomes. It’s ELOHIM’S kind of trust (Mark 11:22). And He’s given it to YOU (Ephesians 2:8). Start exercising it. It is ALWAYS win-win.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:11

“Having suffered, he will reflect on his work, he will be satisfied when he understands what he has done. “My servant will acquit many, for he carried their sins.”” Messiah would be Elohim’s servant. A servant who would be obedient. Who would carry out what He was shown to do. Who would say what He was asked to. Messiah would suffer in that role, but He would stay true to His role and remain a servant to the end. “Consequently, just as condemnation for all people came through one transgression, so too through the one righteous act came righteousness leading to life for all people. For just as through the disobedience of the one man many were constituted sinners, so also through the obedience of one man many will be constituted righteous” (Romans 5:18-19). Jesus was the servant of His Father (John 5:19). Jesus had a servant’s heart for His disciples (John 13:1-17). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b