Fear No Fear

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

If only you had obeyed my commandments, prosperity would have flowed to you like a river, deliverance would have come to you like the waves of the sea.
Isaiah 48:18 (emphasis added)

Rivers flow fast. They flow slowly. They overflow their banks. They shift and twist and reform the landscape they’re found in. They have times they get low. What they don’t ever do, is stop. A river is a flowing body of water. They are large. They flow from a source and as a channel toward another thing (lake, ocean, or another river). Something thrown in the river is carried away. It is always flowing.

You know what advantage a running source of water is? No matter WHAT kind of muck you have on yourself, when you wade out into the middle of that river it comes off. It isn’t just a refreshing stream, but a cleansing one. Yes, it is MUCH less uncomfortable than cleansing fire – unless it is an icy stream. But it still packs a wallop. We can still lose our footing. It can still FEEL like we’re being swept downstream to our doom. But if you’re anchored to the rock that is at the bottom, you don’t go anywhere. Even if you lose your footing. You might sputter and gasp a little, but your connection to the anchor will help stabilise you and soon your feet will be on the ground. The river can be a calm and peaceful one. It can be a cleansing one. It can be a rushing one. You’ll be safe no matter what – if you’re anchored.

The other advantage to the stream is that people on the banks can’t do much to you. They can yell and throw rocks, but unless they are willing to submit to the current, they’re not getting in there with you. We have a river. It is made up of Living Water. “let the one who believes in me drink. Just as the scripture says, ‘From within him will flow rivers of living water.’”” (John 7:38). Jesus was quoting the Old Covenant, but no one is sure exactly which one. Isaiah 44:3; 55:1; 58:11; and Zechariah 14:8 have all been suggested. I like Zechariah because of its connection to John’s Revelation. “Moreover, on that day living waters will flow out from Jerusalem, half of them to the eastern sea and half of them to the western sea; it will happen both in summer and in winter” (Zechariah 14:8). This Living Water will rise up and flow out of us. Its source will be the Father sitting on the Throne of Heaven (Revelation 22:1-5). Jesus was telling us the Living Waters of Heaven come from the Father, through Jesus, and out of us toward the world. I’m going to guess that it is a mighty flow. A powerful current. If that is true, it is one more way that the Spirit helps to cleanse us as the Father wants us cleansed. Another tool in the Kingdom toolbox geared toward making us righteous as He is righteous. Sadly, it is a tool we frequently don’t even think about. I’m as guilty as any.

One of the biggest impediments to us receiving from Adonai is our inability to remove our own view of our own worth from the calculation. Everything the Father has done has been because He loves us as much as He loves Jesus. Everything Jesus has done has been because He loves us as much as He loves the Father. Everything Ruach HaKodesh has done is because He loves us as much as He loves Jesus and the Father. Elohim is looking to have a relationship with us in the same way He enjoys relationship amongst Himself. The situation is that we are NOT righteous. If we want a relationship with Elohim, we need Jesus. He is the ONLY way that exists to get us into fellowship with Elohim. It’s so simple. Why then do we struggle with it? Because we look down.

When our focus is on ANYTHING other than Elohim, we’re going to struggle. When our focus is on OURSELVES, we’re going to struggle AND feel guilty. Adonai says that when we are truly repentant, He doesn’t remember our sin. “I, I am the one who blots out your rebellious deeds for my sake; your sins I do not remember” (Isaiah 43:25). The slate is wiped clean by the Blood of Jesus (1 John 1:7-9). The issue is that WE remember. If we also happen to forget, the devil or old friends or old enemies may come along and remind us. The miserable don’t like to see free people. The lost hate to see the saved, because saved PEOPLE remind them of their own shortcomings. That’s why we seek to show them JESUS and not ourselves. We need to always be pointing toward Jesus. HE is the one who saves, not us. He is the ONLY reason we can go before the Throne (Hebrews 4:16). In Jesus, we are made worthy (Ephesians 2:9). In HIM, we become the Righteousness of Elohim (2 Corinthians 5:21).

We need to let the Living Water coming out of us cleanse us of our memories of who we used to be. We need to get the Word before our eyes and ears so that our minds can be renewed, letting the Living Word alter the passage and neural configurations of our physical minds until we run our own thoughts along the same pathways that Jesus used when He was walking the earth (Proverbs 3:5-6; 16:9). When we do that, our own image of ourselves fades. Little by little, we’re able to begin seeing ourselves as Elohim does. All that dirt won’t be weighing us down. That anxiety will fade. That depression will fade. We won’t be broken vessels unable to contain anything and getting stupider all the time. We can be a surprise and a joy to those around us as they see us rise, and bloom, and shine. We’ll be a witness to the efficacy of the Word. We’ll be an example of the Truth that Jesus speaks. It will be easier to be obedient to what we’ve been called to, when the Word is our bread and water.

Consistent obedience is not frivolous. It is an important Kingdom principle. Prosperity is the opposite of lack. It doesn’t matter WHAT area or type of lack we’re talking about. No one wants it. It is the unseen Kingdom that informs the seen world. We need to have prosperity in the spiritual before we can see clearly enough to listen to Adonai about the physical. How do you know what jobs, opportunities, and relationships are best if you can’t hear Him clearly? How can you follow His plan if you can’t hear it? How can you seek answers in the Word if you’re reading it like a chore or a light novel instead of infallible, absolutely trustworthy, literal words direct from Adonai to us? We need to get our minds renewed to Him before we’re going to be able to walk as Jesus did in full and complete prosperity (3 John 2). Being consistently obedient is a HUGE part of that. He told us to read the Word (2 Timothy 3:16; Hebrews 4:12; Romans 15:4; Mark 13:31). He told us to be thinking about it, talking about it, meditating on it, and sharing it as much as we can as we go about our daily life (Deuteronomy 6:6-8). If we don’t have the Word on speed dial, we’re going to be lost when trouble comes. Our AUTOMATED response should be speaking out the Word within us. All our responses to everything and the core of all our decision making should be the Word. From sex to employment to active listening to healing to mental health to government to leadership to child rearing to relationships, there is something in the Word to stand on and think on in EVERY situation that comes up.

Walk into the river. Open your heart and open your ears and get the river into you. It’s a river. You’ll fill up fast. Fill up, spill over, and bless everyone who is around you. When you get all the bits and pieces of the dirt of the world off yourself, and let the current sweep away the last few crusty bits of your old self; you’ll find that you are living in a whole lot of peace. Because the blessing place is a place of peace (1 Corinthians 14:33). It is truly wonderful to have a calm inside your mind that you didn’t have to fight to get there. A calm that brings order to your mind and a focus to your thoughts that you know you’re incapable of. We don’t need to try and understand it (Philippians 4:7), but we can all experience it. Get your Self out of the way and let Jesus take the top spot. It’s so much easier to defeat doubt and truly believe what you’re trusting in when His image of you is the image you see. Don’t let a substandard image replace you in your thoughts. Keep connected to Ruach HaKodesh and let Him shine on what the Father sees in you: Jesus, the hope of Glory. Jesus, your righteousness. Jesus, your saviour and King. This truth of who you are is one of the ways we get set free. Don’t settle for an identity Jesus didn’t buy for you. Live for Jesus in humble obedience because of the Love you share. Nothing will stop you. None will attack and steal your stuff. Jesus will be the fortress and high tower that protects as you grow into the you He knows you as. The unvarnished follower of Jesus who Abides in Messiah Jesus. Who abides in victory. Who abides under the Healing Wings of the Most High. Who trusts in the Word and believes it without doubting. A disciple of Jesus walking the Way in truth and freedom in Him. Amen.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 53:12

“So I will assign him a portion with the multitudes, he will divide the spoils of victory with the powerful, because he willingly submitted to death and was numbered with the rebels, when he lifted up the sin of many and intervened on behalf of the rebels.”” Messiah would be sin-bearer for all mankind (male and female). Leviticus 4 delineated the idea that a life could pay for sin by bearing it. It was a lesson humanity needed to get down into its bones so that when Messiah came as the Suffering Servant, we would understand and accept His role. If we didn’t, He could not return as Conquering King because there would be no one for whom to return. “God made the one who did not know sin to be sin for us, so that in him we would become the righteousness of God” (2 Corinthians 5:21). Jesus was made to become sin so that first the Jew and then the Gentile could believe and receive payment of sin through Jesus’ willing propitiating sacrifice on our behalf. The blood of animals could never truly cover our sin (Hebrews 10:4). Yahweh was generous and merciful, not imputing our sins unto us until Jesus could pay for them (2 Corinthians 5:19). Only a sinless and willing sacrifice by a man could cover willing rebellion by a sinless man. Payment by like, for like, enabling the rest to become what they always should have been. Jesus paid. Jesus provided. Jesus bore sin for ALL males and females. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b