Fear No Fear

(All scripture from Lexham English Bible, Copyright 2012 Logos Bible Software)

“O Yahweh, you have searched me, and you know me. You know my sitting down and my rising up. You understand my thought from afar.“

Psalm 139:1-2

Adonai knows us REALLY well. He’s ALWAYS known us really well. That’s why Jesus came (John 3:16-18). He knows the things we think are our weaknesses and the things we think are our strengths. He also knows the things that are our weaknesses and strengths. He knows the talents He gave to us and the things we’ve taught ourselves. He knows our wants, our dreams, and what He has called us to. He knows everything about us. One of the best things about Adonai is that He doesn’t make us climb to Him. He comes to us. He meets us where we are, wherever that is. But the truth is, just because He comes where we ARE, it doesn’t mean that we are where He wants us to be.

When He was here ministering, Jesus didn’t make people come to Him. He walked from town to town. He took boats, crossed water, went up mountains, and stood on plains. Jesus went to houses and had crowds come to His (one group even removed His roof). Jesus went to where the people were, and although He wasn’t against people coming to Him, He never relied on or encouraged it. He wanted to touch lives where they were. He was all about them hearing the truth of the scriptures. And He wanted to reach everyone He could. When He couldn’t reach everyone, He sent out the Twelve and then later sent out the Seventy. Jesus was CONSTANTLY reaching out. He has NEVER changed (Hebrews 13:8). He never will.

Jesus is ALSO about being saved. From Sin. From broken thinking. From fallen conditions and from habits, words, and thoughts that lead to death. Jesus wants us sanctified by the Word (John 17:17) and completely set free (John 8:36). Which means where we are is not where He wants us to be. We’re not talking sin here. We’re not talking about you having been told to do something and you being disobedient. I’m talking about where He wants us to be. He wants us whole. He wants us healed in every way that we can be. He wants us blessed in every way we can be. Even the LAW talked about being blessed going in and out, being held by His hands, and in consistent, near-constant communication with Him. He wants us to be just like He was when He was ministering here on Earth as a man. That’s what He wants. But that is not where we are most of the time.

Jesus isn’t about holding us down or ONLY showing us how He can use us where we are. He DOES use us where we are. He NEVER holds us down. But He ALWAYS wants us to get better, to grow, and to become day by day more like Him (2 Corinthians 3:18). He designed us as a species to be CURIOUS so that we would move ever-deeper into Himself. So that we would NOT be satisfied with the status quo, but would always be moving forward into Him. He wants to use us now, but He wants to use us more as we grow. We can go through times and seasons, but we can learn relearn and keep ever changing right long with the times. We can only be successful at it by basing ourselves in the Word, because the Word is the only Holy Book that is ALWAYS relevant. Since God always knows the hearts of humanity, when we get into Him we will have insight available for our dealings with whatever is going on in the society that surrounds us. WE won’t necessarily be relevant, but HE is and we’re with Him – kind of Jesus’ plus one. That will mean renewing our thinking to match HIS thinking. That means getting hungry for being different than we were. That means deciding that we aren’t always right. We don’t always know. And it also means acknowledging that our experiences might have been lying to us.

Someone who can’t walk has the experience of mobility issues. But if you were to engage the healing Jesus released, you would not have those issues. Our experiences are true to US, but they are not TRUTH. No matter who we are and no matter what we are dealing with, there is a better us. A whole us. A developed and godly us that Jesus is looking at. THAT is who He wants us to be. The US that is in His mind and heart. It doesn’t happen all at once. It happens over time, but the JOURNEY toward that US never stops. Jesus calls us to that ever-forward walk. If it ever pauses, that’s on US not on HIM. It isn’t without difficulties, but Jesus is committed to the process. If we get committed too, there won’t be a stop until it is complete and we are standing before the Throne smiling into the face of our Father. We should NEVER stop rejecting the lies and reaching toward what Jesus says is our rightful BEST selves.

Daily Affirmation of the Goodness of Elohim: Galatians 2:20

“and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me, and that life I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” I am a dead man. You’re dead too. All believers are dead. Dead, buried, and gone. We are not who we were. We don’t have to be that way. We don’t have to act that way. We don’t have to speak that way. We are dead. The dead don’t rise. They don’t speak. They don’t walk. The dead rot. They cease all forward motion and they deteriorate until they are nothing. That’s what we WANT. Old us rotted into nothing but a pile of unmentionables. Of course, we’ll have to get out of the coffin. We’ll have to leave the tomb. We’ll have to find LIFE and live in it. Those are really our choices. We can stay with the dead, talk about how great it is. We can deny the reality of the rot. OR we can go to Jesus and live in the abundant, vibrant life. The tomb wasn’t open for JESUS to get out. The tomb was opened to prove there was nothing there for us anymore. Jesus wanted us to know that He was LIFE and everything in Him spoke to LIFE and fed LIFE. That NOTHING of the tomb was part of Him. He wanted us to know that we could choose HIM and reject all that go-nowhere, do-nothing garbage. He wanted us to clearly see the GOODNESS He was making available to us FOR FREE. What a GOOD God!

Your Daily Confession of Elohim’s Goodness:

I taste and see that Yahweh is good; I am blessed because I take refuge in Him.

Psalm 34:8