Fear No Fear

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

For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, then, and do not be subject again to the yoke of slavery. Listen! I, Paul, tell you that if you let yourselves be circumcised, Christ will be of no benefit to you at all!
Galatians 5:1-2 (emphasis added)

What are we living for? The hereafter? The next world? Or are we living now? Are we here in this world and stuck to it? Or are we in this world and not of it? Paul is talking here about circumcision and looking to the Law of Moses for salvation or looking to Jesus. He didn’t understand why the Galatians wanted to give up Grace and go back to the Law. In the same way, are we going to live according to the rules and systems of this fallen world or are we going to live by Jesus? Are we going to be set free and have to follow all the systems of the Kingdom or are we going to be subject to the systems of this world? What cause and what effect are you okay with?

I don’t want to judge anyone. I am not convicting anyone. Being saved and gaining back eternal life as defined in the Word (having knowledge of and relationship with Elohim – John 17:3). That is plenty good, you know? Hanging on until we get to Heaven is not a bad thing. But it IS a half life. It is not a full life. It is absolutely not an ABUNDANT life, which is what Jesus brought us and wants for us. “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come so that they may have life, and may have it abundantly” (John 10:10). It’s not ‘kill’ as in ending life. It’s ‘slaughter’ as in butchering you like an animal. It’s vicious. And the first step is convincing you what you have available to you isn’t available to you (Matthew 13:4). It isn’t that hard to do, because the Word almost always has the easy reading and the hard reading. The easy reading always looks to Heaven. To the completed time when we have our resurrected bodies and can stand before the Throne face to face. When all the blessings of Glory are physically ours (Revelation 21:3-4) as we walk the golden heavenly streets (Revelation 21:21), seeing all who came before us and all who came afterward (Matthew 25:46), and rejoicing in the fullness of what we will have (Ephesians 4:13). When we will live with Jesus in booths and mansions which are part of our promise and reward (John 14:1-3). When we hear how well we have done (Matthew 25:23). These are joyful promises. These are great things to look forward to, and we should ALL be excited about them. These are promises to stand on and not let go of. Many believers do just that. But that is also ALL they do. They are heaven-centric. Life here on Earth is a holding pattern. Get as many people saved as you can, hold hands to support each other, and wait until we get to heaven and the promises are ours. It seems to be the totality of their experience. Does that seem like an abundant life to you?

Think about it like this. If you are always looking forward to heaven as the fulfilment and arrival of what we really have in our salvation, shouldn’t you desperately yearn for it? Shouldn’t that be the ultimate desire and greatest celebration? You might say yes and you might think yes, but look at reality. Believers we know die, and we’re not happy. We don’t celebrate. But they’ve just achieved the ultimate everything, right? Here’s another thought. We might get sick. Like really sick. Cancer, for example. Or heart disease. Maybe even diabetes. Conditions where death is the end result – in varying time periods. We get scared. Stressed. We consult doctors. We fight. We undergo horrible treatments on the off chance they will work. We get mad at Elohim, or beg Him. We get friends, family, and churches praying for us. WHY??? If getting to heaven is the ONLY goal, why do we try to stay out? If you really think about it, there is a desperation programmed into humanity to stay living. To not give in to sickness. To do anything to survive (and no, we should not survive at the expense of others). Maybe there is something deep inside the DNA of the human being, something inside our spirit, that tells us life is something we should be experiencing. Something that tells us on a fundamental level that life is WORTH living. All of us try to survive. None of us want to die, because we know about the finality of the flesh. We can see it. We take on trust the life of the spirit. We have to, because we can’t see it. That can be hard, so you get a group of believers who are ‘abiding until they arrive’. They’re not abiding in Jesus, they’re abiding in the promise of salvation. Looking for the future blessing only and making do in the meantime. They’re shackled to flesh thinking and dreaming of the spirit life they’re GOING to get. I do not want to be in this group. I pray that you don’t either. Again, they’re getting into heaven and that is cause for celebration. But there’s more on offer.

The difficult reading of the scriptures is whenever we are asked to trust in the unseen. Sight (our vision) is the basis of how we secure physical safety, how we recognise friends and family, how we bond with each other, how we navigate, how we communicate, and how we function. Can we do these things without vision? Of course. People whose vision is impaired live very fulfilling lives. We were designed to have sight as the basis of our functioning, however, and having access to vision is always easier and smoother than not. All that vision is geared toward what we see. Physically see. From the beginning we rely on it. We move by it. We explore by it. We engage life by it. Once we get into the Word, though, we learn about the unseen world. The SPIRITUAL world. It is very real and very much cannot be seen by mortal eyes. Take the Garden of Eden. Adam rebelled and had to leave, but nothing in the Word says the Garden left. It is still here on this Earth. But it CANNOT be found by human or technological eyes. We’ve scanned almost every square centimetre of this planet for one reason or another. And while we are still discovering things with our satellite images, we have not seen the Garden – something that pure, lush, and vibrant, would be EASY to spot (from the stark contrast between unfallen and fallen alone, if not by flora). The Kingdom of Elohim has come near to us again (Matthew 4:17; Mark 1:14-15). It is not a visible kingdom, but a Kingdom of SPIRIT. A Kingdom found in the Body of Messiah. You can see the RESULTS of that, but not the boundaries of the Kingdom itself.

We are either choosing to see it with our heart or not. It is looking at what is NOW without ignoring what will be. Jesus was about NOW (Luke 4:17-21). Adonai’s favour has come. It has arrived. We have favour in THIS life, not just in Heaven. Since it is NOW. Since Jesus lives in us (Galatians 2:20). Since Ruach HaKodesh dwells in us as if we were the Temple (1 Corinthians 6:19). Since we can bring things to Jesus to mediate (1 Timothy 2:5-6). Since we can approach the Throne directly instead of banging on Heaven’s Gates/Doors (Hebrews 4:16; Psalm 100:4). Since all these things are true, HOW can we think we have a life like everyone else?? “We are experiencing trouble on every side, but are not crushed; we are perplexed, but not driven to despair; we are persecuted, but not abandoned; we are knocked down, but not destroyed, always carrying around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be made visible in our body” (2 Corinthians 4:8-10). “For those who live according to the flesh have their outlook shaped by the things of the flesh, but those who live according to the Spirit have their outlook shaped by the things of the Spirit. For the outlook of the flesh is death, but the outlook of the Spirit is life and peace, because the outlook of the flesh is hostile to God, for it does not submit to the law of God, nor is it able to do so. Those who are in the flesh cannot please God. You, however, are not in the flesh but in the Spirit, if indeed the Spirit of God lives in you. Now if anyone does not have the Spirit of Christ, this person does not belong to him. But if Christ is in you, your body is dead because of sin, but the Spirit is your life because of righteousness. Moreover if the Spirit of the one who raised Jesus from the dead lives in you, the one who raised Christ from the dead will also make your mortal bodies alive through his Spirit who lives in you” (Romans 8:5-11).

This says we are FREE from the shackles of the flesh. Of the ministrations of this world. Of the devil and all his works. We are NOT in the storm of this world, but in the boat with Jesus – IF we want to. “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light” (Matthew 11:28-30). Why settle for regular life when Jesus Himself is offering ABUNDANT life (John 10:10)? If I am free from sickness because Jesus defeated sickness (Matthew 8:16-17; 1 Peter 2:24), why am I accepting sickness? Why do I think that ‘flu season’ could touch me? Why would I think a sneeze or a cough from someone else will infect me? Don’t talk about science and biology. Science and biology puts their TRUST (FAITH) in N95 respirators and level A or Type 1 Hazmat suits. Does the Creator of ALL reality have less ability to keep us safe than respirators and suits? Why do we doubt the Word when it says we can be safe from all harm if Adonai is our Source and the one we look to (confessing with our mouths) for all our protection, humbly submitting to His point of view on all things (Psalm 91)?

It again comes down to belief and trust. But if we DON’T, we are shackling ourselves to this fallen world and how things work. Entropy is a very real thing everywhere that isn’t the Kingdom of Elohim. As human beings, we ONLY find the Kingdom within the Resurrection of Messiah Jesus. We partake in it ONLY through Jesus’ Covenant with the Father. Without Jesus, we CANNOT get into the Kingdom. That’s salvation. But if we are IN the Kingdom, then eternity starts NOW. There are some things we can’t walk in without spiritualised bodies. But there is a LOT we can walk in without them. We can’t be the salt of the world if we’re the same as all the other ionic mineral compounds (Matthew 5:13-16). We MUST be different by definition and there is NOTHING in what Jesus says limiting that to spiritual, mental, or emotional states. It counts for physical too! But we have to BELIEVE it. We have to CLAIM His promise and mix it with our TRUST! It is our liberty in Jesus to be free of the slavery to flesh. Slavery to worldly wisdom. Slavery to the ‘rules’ of the world. Things don’t have to work that way for us. If it is sickness, if it is ANY kind of lack, if it is less than whole, complete, and totally functional, it is NOT our inheritance. It is NOT something Jesus experienced, and so it isn’t OURS to experience. Jesus ONLY experienced it on the cross (more than we can imagine, truthfully), but He did that so that WE could put it down (Psalm 55:22; Proverbs 16:3; 1 Peter 5:7). THIS is Grace! THIS is Mercy! THIS is the life of the True Human Being that we are invited to partake in (Hebrews 3:14).

Let the Creator who Sets people Free set YOU free. Let Him set you free from sickness thinking. Let Him set you free from ‘seen’ thinking. Let Him set you free from human thinking. Let Him set you free from all thinking that prevents you from embracing EVERYTHING He offers us with the same enthusiasm and complete obedience with which we humble ourselves and worship Him. Accept His LOVE and the Blessing that comes with it. Accept HIS point of view, which does NOT in ANY have ANYTHING about it that detracts, diminishes, decays, or destroys the ABUNDANT LIFE Jesus wants to saturate us in. Change where you are looking so you can change what you’re receiving.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Isaiah 66:18-19

““I hate their deeds and thoughts! So I am coming to gather all the nations and ethnic groups; they will come and witness my splendor. I will perform a mighty act among them and then send some of those who remain to the nations—to Tarshish, Pul, Lud (known for its archers), Tubal, Javan, and to the distant coastlands that have not heard about me or seen my splendor. They will tell the nations of my splendor.” Messiah would bring about all Nations coming to Elohim. Messiah would institute the New Covenant prophesied (Jeremiah 31:33). “Jesus said to them, “I tell you the solemn truth, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink his blood, you have no life in yourselves. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood has eternal life, and I will raise him up on the last day. For my flesh is true food, and my blood is true drink. The one who eats my flesh and drinks my blood resides in me, and I in him. Just as the living Father sent me, and I live because of the Father, so the one who consumes me will live because of me. This is the bread that came down from heaven; it is not like the bread your ancestors ate, but then later died. The one who eats this bread will live forever.”” (John 6:53-58). “For I received from the Lord what I also passed on to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night in which he was betrayed took bread, and after he had given thanks he broke it and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way, he also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, every time you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For every time you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes” (1 Corinthians 11:23-26). “While they were eating, Jesus took bread, and after giving thanks he broke it, gave it to his disciples, and said, “Take, eat, this is my body.” And after taking the cup and giving thanks, he gave it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you, for this is my blood, the blood of the covenant, that is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins” (Matthew 26:26-28). Jesus gave Himself for ALL NATIONS. Through His Covenant with His Father, we ALL can be saved when we accept Jesus as our Lord and Saviour, the King who Conquered Death and Hell by paying the price of sin. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b