Fear No Fear

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

But I have a testimony greater than that from John. For the deeds that the Father has assigned me to complete—the deeds I am now doing—testify about me that the Father has sent me. And the Father who sent me has himself testified about me. You people have never heard his voice nor seen his form at any time, nor do you have his word residing in you, because you do not believe the one whom he sent.
John 5:36-38 (emphasis added)

This is one of our guarantees that healing and other supernatural works of Adonai NEVER pass away. This is one of the most amazing and gracious things that Adonai does for humanity. He has NO need to prove who He is in ANY way. He IS. He exists in fullness without us, He does not need us, He is and was complete without us in totality. Yet He still gives us evidence that He is who He is and that His words are true. And He does it because He loves us. Since His love never ends, that methodology never ends. He helps us because He knows it’s hard for us.

Even Jesus’ disciples struggled with this whole idea. “Philip said, “Lord, show us the Father, and we will be content.”” (John 14:8). They could SEE Jesus, but not the Father in Heaven – not with physical eyes. The Father is unseen. When Jesus started talking about Him, Philip (and probably some of the others) wanted to SEE Him. To not HAVE to rely on trust. Do not HAVE to believe. You don’t have to believe when you’re looking at something. Because there it is. You can believe for your healing right up until you get it. After that, you can see it. It’s there. You can see it. Adonai didn’t leave us with NOTHING to see, though. We must believe. We must have trust. And if we have those two things, there WILL be something to see. “Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’? Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me? The words that I say to you, I do not speak on my own initiative, but the Father residing in me performs his miraculous deeds. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the Father is in me, but if you do not believe me, believe because of the miraculous deeds themselves. 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” (John 14:9-12). If we find that we can’t quite fully trust in the unseen, we can look to the miraculous and use that to crowbar our trust into the unseen. We can look at what Adonai is doing and declare that He’s telling the truth. He’s not lying. All of it must be true, because look at that! Look at His hand at work! Look!

The preaching of the Word is accompanied by the miraculous (Psalm 107:20; Mark 16:20) because hearing the Word strengthens our trust in Him (Romans 10:17). Something should be stirred in us as we hear about Jesus. Jesus ALWAYS points to the Father. The Father is the Source of everything. We have a relationship with Jesus to have a relationship with the Father. Without a relationship with Jesus, we would never have gained a relationship with Ruach HaKodesh. We have a relationship with Ruach HaKodesh to strengthen our relationship with Jesus, which strengthens our relationship with the Father. They are connected, joined, One, Three, and we should assume the other two are around when we are relating to one. So teaching is present and mediation is present and power is present all the time. It’s a mystery, but it’s the truth. But it isn’t SEEN. It is TRUTH, but not seen. They’ve been together since the beginning of recorded events, but we have to believe. Most people are willing to take it on trust, but there is still that craving to SEE. Nothing wrong with being open to visions, dreams, and visitations. Not at all. But we can’t live on them. They are not our bread and water, Jesus is. If you need an experience or a feeling to believe that Adonai has ministered to, you’re doing it wrong. It is better to trust and believe without seeing than it is to need an experience or a feeling to believe (John 20:29).

We still like seeing proof. Adonai knows that, which is why Jesus did works. He didn’t have to. He could have preached and taught and ministered and brought people closer to Adonai. Preachers and teachers do it all over the world today. But there is a partialness to it. They might not go so far as denying the power (2 Timothy 3:5), but they’re resistant to it. Believing it has passed away because we have the Word in written form. We have the Word which has everything we need, so why have miraculous signs and wonders? I believe it is because Adonai is a God of miracles and a God of wonder and doesn’t separate or compartmentalise His character. His character as outlined in the Word proves again and again He wants Blessing and wonder and the miraculous as part of our lives. He CANNOT love us like He SAYS He loves us and leave us shackled. Would you leave a child in shackles and chains, underfed, filthy, and dying, when you could loose them and feed them? If you couldn’t do that, how can you imagine that He can? Jesus was willing to be sent. The Father was willing to accept a substitutionary sacrifice. They made a covenant together between perfect man (Jesus) and perfect God (The Father) and then enabled ALL humans (male or female) to step INTO that covenant by entering into Jesus – which is all spiritually accomplished. It can’t be SEEN. The effects of it can be seen, but not the thing itself. How do you know that the spiritual has been accomplished? If your friend goes up and enters into that covenant, how do you know it worked, is worth it, and is something you should do? Adonai’s works, that’s how. When you see the power of Adonai being accepted by people and being set free from what shackles them. How can you scoff and say God is a fantasy when you see legs lengthen in front of you? How can you deny it when you see tumours disappear? When you see your friend who is crippled by social anxiety hugging, laughing, and talking with everyone around them. When you see your depressed friend, lighter on their feet. Happier than they ever have been. When you see miracles and supernatural alterations of personalities and bodies, making them into better versions of who they are, it is only by choosing to harden your heart that you won’t believe.

The works of Adonai change minds. They unlock the door of the heart that has been conditioned by life to mistrust those things that seem too good to be true. A rescue where you don’t have to make it happen? Where you don’t have to purge yourself? Where you don’t have to meditate it into reality? Where your strength isn’t the platform it sits on? Where God has done the thing that God says is needed for rescue and offers it to you free of charge? Seems too good to be true, doesn’t it? How can you trust that? Adonai shows us something else that seems too good to be true. He shows us things that are impossible according to the natural laws of this planet, our societies, and our knowledge of biology. It doesn’t matter if the impossible thing is small or large, interior or exterior, an impossible thing is ALWAYS an impossible thing. It is the physically arrived evidence that the unseen spiritual happenings actually happened. That’s great for Jesus, the doubters might say, but He’s not here anymore. What evidence is there now?

Jesus substituted Himself for us on the cross so that He could pay the price of sin for us. By doing that, He created the way for us to substitute for Him here in this world so that we could continue the work He was anointed 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” (John 14:12). Jesus said we would do the works He did. We’ll do them for the same reasons He did. The Father tells us what to do so that we can bring glory to Him (John 5:19). How? They point to His truth. His faithfulness. His ability to perform His Word. They are the witness that our witness is true. They are the witness that His love is real. They are the witness that His trust which He gives us is real. They are the witness that we did not imagine His call. They are not a laser show so people see something neat. They aren’t making US look good. They aren’t getting us on the news. They aren’t earning us pats on the back. They are the megaphone proclaiming LOOK AT WHAT HE DID! If He can do THAT based on nothing but His WORD, He can do ANYTHING that is based on His WORD.

We can have this testimony that Jesus works in and through us which testify that the Father Anointed Jesus to do these works which testify that Adonai is telling the truth in all things – Father, Son, and Spirit, the Great I AM. We cannot have it in ourselves. It is in JESUS that we have it. Connected to the Father – our Source – through His covenant with Jesus by our abiding and consistently seeking Jesus as guided by Ruach HaKodesh. We can experience the wealth of His glory and show that to the world around us. Being the light. Being the salt. We can do it when we are humble before Adonai. When we pray that He will make us usable. When we submit to His commandments – which is what keeps us in His love (His love to us doesn’t change, but our love for Him is dependent on our obedience). When we let His Spirit move, guide, lead, correct, and remind. Reminding us of who we are in Jesus. Reminding us of our ability to trust Jesus in EVERYTHING. All the time. “I pray that according to the wealth of his glory he may grant you to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inner person” (Ephesians 3:16).

We get to BE a testimony to His truthfulness, faithfulness, mercy, and grace. We get to be a signpost where people can come and see the evidence of what we preach. We get to be the lighthouse where people can come and encounter Jesus Himself, Messiah of the World. We get to stand where we can say: this is TRUE. We get to be stable in a world of shifting ideas, shifting alliances, shifting feelings, and shifting identity. We get to point to THE Rock. The place where your identity doesn’t need to be a single aspect of your existence. A single facet of the whole, fancy, complicated YOU. The place where your identity can be stable, secure, fulfilling, enriching, and rewarding in all times and all circumstances and amongst all people. We get to stand on and in the ONE place where there is TRUTH which does not change, does not waiver, and can ALWAYS be relied on. That is a testimony so great and vital and renewing, it is selfish to keep it to ourselves. A testimony that healing, miracles, and the supernatural are ETERNAL and will NEVER pass away.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Jeremiah 23:5-6

““I, the Lord, promise that a new time will certainly come when I will raise up for them a righteous branch, a descendant of David. He will rule over them with wisdom and understanding and will do what is just and right in the land. Under his rule Judah will enjoy safety and Israel will live in security. This is the name he will go by: ‘The Lord has provided us with justice.” Messiah would be a descendent of David. David’s son Solomon carried on the line (1 Chronicles 22:10), but turned idolatrous which violated (Psalm 89:30-32) the covenant Adonai had with Solomon. Solomon and his line were barred from the promised kingship (Jeremiah 22:30). But David had more than one son. “So Jesus, when he began his ministry, was about thirty years old. He was the son (as was supposed) of Joseph, the son of Heli, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Melchi, the son of Jannai, the son of Joseph, the son of Mattathias, the son of Amos, the son of Nahum, the son of Esli, the son of Naggai, the son of Maath, the son of Mattathias, the son of Semein, the son of Josech, the son of Joda, the son of Joanan, the son of Rhesa, the son of Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel, the son of Neri, the son of Melchi, the son of Addi, the son of Cosam, the son of Elmadam, the son of Er, the son of Joshua, the son of Eliezer, the son of Jorim, the son of Matthat, the son of Levi, the son of Simeon, the son of Judah, the son of Joseph, the son of Jonam, the son of Eliakim, the son of Melea, the son of Menna, the son of Mattatha, the son of Nathan, the son of David” (Luke 3:23-31). It was through Nathan that the blood lineage is traced. Nathan, who was still eligible for the throne of his father David. There is a Messianic promise that began in Genesis 3:15. It ends with Messiah Jesus, Yeshua HaMashiach, son of David. “After removing him, God raised up David their king. He testified about him: ‘I have found David the son of Jesse to be a man after my heart, who will accomplish everything I want him to do.’ From the descendants of this man God brought to Israel a Savior, Jesus, just as he promised” (Acts 13:22-23). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b