Fear No Fear

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

Keep thinking about things above, not things on the earth, for you have died and your life is hidden with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:2-3 (emphasis added)

According to Consumer.gov: ‘Someone might steal your name and address, credit card or bank account numbers, Social Security number, or medical insurance account numbers. They could use your information to: get new credit cards or other accounts in your name, get a job, steal your tax refund, use your health insurance to get medical care. Identity theft happens when someone uses your personal or financial information, like your Social Security number or credit card number, without your permission.’ In a world full of identity theft and electronic scams, it seems to me we should understand our discipleship of Jesus pretty clearly.

We are NOT who we were. We’re dead to our old selves. Those sinners are GONE. We may choose to sin, but we are not sinners in and of ourselves. “For the death he died, he died to sin once for all, but the life he lives, he lives to God. So you too consider yourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus” (Romans 6:10-11). We do not HAVE to choose sin. We do not HAVE to choose to live according to how the world lives. We are afforded a choice to be different. “But now, freed from sin and enslaved to God, you have your benefit leading to sanctification, and the end is eternal life. For the payoff of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 6:22-23). Remember that ‘eternal life’ is not the length of time we will continue to exist in spirit bodies once the meat suits have passed away. “Now this is eternal life—that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you sent” (John 17:3). We also know that the life Jesus came to bring is as abundant as Elohim Himself is (John 10:10). We as believers and disciples of Messiah Jesus are playing a whole new ballgame no one before us (before Jesus’ resurrection and the release of Ruach HaKodesh within us) was afforded. Jesus does NOT want us to steal an identity. He wants us to live HIS.

Jesus had a job (John 3:16-18). And He performed that job very well. “Jesus went throughout all of Galilee, teaching in their synagogues, preaching the gospel of the kingdom, and healing every kind of disease and sickness among the people” (Matthew 4:23). When His time on earth was over, He clearly passed that job to us – His disciples and Church. “Then the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain where Jesus had told them to go. When they saw him, they worshiped him; but some doubted. Then Jesus came to them and said, “All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, and teaching them to obey everything I have commanded you. And surely I am with you always, to the very end of the age.”” (Matthew 28:16-20). Not everyone totally believed in Jesus. Some of His OWN disciples doubted. They were looking at the risen Messiah and they doubted. It’s no wonder religious thought and doubt has raised its head in our time too. But clearly Jesus gave us HIS authority, passed on HIS job, and expected us to fulfill it. To teach. To preach. To heal. And to make disciples. We are to take the job in His name and do it everywhere we find ourselves, living according to His leading.

We are to use His Name to accomplish everything that Adonai gives us to do. “I tell you the solemn truth, the person who believes in me will perform the miraculous deeds that I am doing, and will perform greater deeds than these, because I am going to the Father. And I will do whatever you ask in my name, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it” (John 14:12-14). Jesus did only what the Father showed Him to do (John 5:19), and He expects us to operate the same way. If we don’t act at His leading and according to His Word, nothing happens. Instead, we make foolish statements and make fools of ourselves. No, He did not say we could do what we wanted with His power. He told us it would ONLY work according to the Word and will of the Father. “You ask and do not receive, because you ask amiss, that you may spend it on your pleasures” (James 4:3). We don’t have power. HE has power. We cooperate with HIM, He doesn’t do whatever WE want. He uses His power through us, and around us, but only and always according to what HE wants to do. When we operate outside of trust in Him, not only is it sin (Romans 14:23); He doesn’t even hear it (John 9:31) – as in, He does not fulfill the prayers of the unrighteous unless they are the prayer for salvation (Isaiah 59:2). When WE listen and WE submit and WE bow, acknowledging His POV as righteous and true, then His mighty works will be able to be worked in us by Jesus. Our daily prayer should be, Adonai, make me usable.

Jesus was beaten, whipped, abused, tormented, and everything else that made up the crucifixion in order to release to us healing. “He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, that we may cease from sinning and live for righteousness. By his wounds you were healed” (1 Peter 2:24). “Now Stephen, full of grace and power, was performing great wonders and miraculous signs among the people” (Acts 6:8). “Is anyone among you suffering? He should pray. Is anyone in good spirits? He should sing praises. Is anyone among you ill? He should summon the elders of the church, and they should pray for him and anoint him with olive oil in the name of the Lord. And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick and the Lord will raise him up—and if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven” (James 5:13-15). Throughout this devotional we have seen and explored hundreds of verses that speak to the healing power, the healing desire, and the healing anointing that Jesus pours out onto us, His obedient disciples (John 14:15). It’s the best healthcare in the universe(s). “He will shelter you with his wings; you will find safety under his wings. His faithfulness is like a shield or a protective wall. You need not fear the terrors of the night, the arrow that flies by day, the plague that stalks in the darkness, or the disease that ravages at noon” (Psalm 91:4-6). Jesus wants us well. The Father wants us well. Ruach HaKodesh brings that healing close enough to us we need to only reach out to take it, to engage it, mixing our trust in His words with His Word (Hebrews 4:2). When we do that in cooperation with His Will, then it will physically arrive (Matthew 19:26).

Jesus has given us His Name, His job, and His healthcare. By all standards, Jesus HAS given us HIS identity. Why are we clinging to OURS, when we can emulate the early church and be like Jesus? “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1). “and when he found him, he brought him to Antioch. So for a whole year Barnabas and Saul met with the church and taught a significant number of people. Now it was in Antioch that the disciples were first called Christians” (Acts 11:26). They said ‘oh look, they’re acting just like that Jesus did’. Not the insult they intended. No, it was our proof that we COULD be just as Jesus in this life (1 John 4:17). Embrace what Jesus has asked of you. Be an imitator of Him. Take up His identity, because it is YOURS (2 Corinthians 5:21).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 55:3

“Pay attention and come to me. Listen, so you can live. Then I will make an unconditional covenantal promise to you, just like the reliable covenantal promises I made to David.” Messiah would be resurrected by Elohim. No one else could make this claim. Some people have been raised from the DEAD. Only Messiah was going to be raised into LIFE. “But regarding the fact that he has raised Jesus from the dead, never again to be in a state of decay, God has spoken in this way: ‘I will give you the holy and trustworthy promises made to David.’” (Luke 13:34). There was angelic testimony on it. “He is not here, for he has been raised, just as he said. Come and see the place where he was lying” (Matthew 28:6). And there were many more than two witnesses to it – and they were available to testify to it. “Then he appeared to more than 500 of the brothers and sisters at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep” (1 Corinthians 15:6). Jesus was resurrected to LIFE. Able to do things we do (Luke 24:42-45) and things we cannot (Luke 24:36-49). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b