Fear No Fear

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

For by grace you are saved through faith, and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God; it is not from works, so that no one can boast.
Ephesians 2:8-9 (emphasis added)

A catalyst is a person or thing that precipitates an event. This is an important concept in the Kingdom because our TRUST is the catalyst for everything. We need to believe. We need to not doubt (unbelief). We need the Word, which is how we know WHAT Adonai has done and released for us. We need the Word, which shows us the Will of the Father – how to apply what He has released for us. Those are the elements that we need. But the CATALYST is our trust. It is our trust that pleases Elohim. It is our trust that mixes with the Word to give effect to what the Word says – failure to mix it with our trust makes it of none effect (Mark 7:13). Our trust is a vital component of our RECEIVING.

“Now without faith it is impossible to please him, for the one who approaches God must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who seek him” (Hebrews 11:6). This is the foundation of salvation. If we don’t trust in the fact that Adonai exists and rewards seekers of Himself, we can’t be saved. “No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day” (John 6:44). The Father calls to us. That’s how we can approach Him. That’s how we can start seeking Him. We answer His call. It isn’t done of ourselves, but by Him. In that call is His trust, gifted to us so that we can use it (Mark 11:22). If we do not use that trust, we cannot answer His call. We HAVE to trust in order to seek Him because we are trusting in the unseen. We can’t see Him when we seek Him. We’re blind and in darkness (Luke 19:10). Jesus came so that we could answer that call. “For this is the way God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world should be saved through him. The one who believes in him is not condemned. The one who does not believe has been condemned already, because he has not believed in the name of the one and only Son of God” (John 3:16-17). Without our trust, our belief has nothing solid to hang onto.

Now, we were sinners born of sinners. Adam and Eve fell, lost their divine nature – it died. They had a sinful nature, an evil intent, and any descendant of theirs has the same thing because like begets like. “So then, just as sin entered the world through one man and death through sin, and so death spread to all people because all sinned” (Romans 5:12). The price of sin is death. We deserved the penalty because we had sinful natures. Done deal. Once Jesus was the sacrifice for us, we had options. We could stay dead or choose life (Deuteronomy 30:19). There are no other options (John 14:6). Because we had a sinful nature, we did not qualify for righteousness (Romans 3:23). Jesus died for us even though we didn’t deserve it. It was in His mercy and by His GRACE that He did it. “But they are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus” (Romans 3:24). Grace and mercy don’t get us in the Kingdom though.

We need to TRUST in this act of Grace. “God publicly displayed him at his death as the mercy seat accessible through faith. This was to demonstrate his righteousness because God in his forbearance had passed over the sins previously committed. This was also to demonstrate his righteousness in the present time, so that he would be just and the justifier of the one who lives because of Jesus’ faithfulness” (Romans 3:25-26). Jesus loved us and showed us Mercy. By an act of Grace He offered Himself and paid the price of sin. The mercy seat was now available to us. “But now Christ has come as the high priest of the good things to come. He passed through the greater and more perfect tent not made with hands, that is, not of this creation, and he entered once for all into the Most Holy Place not by the blood of goats and calves but by his own blood, and so he himself secured eternal redemption” (Hebrews 9:11-12). We only have access to it by our TRUST in Him. Jesus was displayed and hung up high so that we could see Him and choose to accept His sacrifice and by our TRUST that He is telling the truth and actually paying for sin, we get access to the mercy seat and get cleansed of sin. “because if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and thus has righteousness and with the mouth one confesses and thus has salvation. For the scripture says, “Everyone who believes in him will not be put to shame.”” (Romans 10:9-11).

Our trust is the catalyst by which we get to be saved. We are NOT saved by Grace alone – if that was true every human would be saved. Jesus extended that Grace to every human. The Father calls us all. “The Lord is not slow concerning his promise, as some regard slowness, but is being patient toward you because he does not wish for any to perish but for all to come to repentance” (2 Peter 3:9). Adonai wants everyone saved and coming to Heaven and living eternally, never dying. “Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live even if he dies, and the one who lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?”” (John 11:25-26). Grace is there. Like electricity in power lines and wall sockets. Like sunlight. Without TRUST in Him, nothing happens. Unless you plug something into a socket. Unless you flip a switch. Unless you have a solar panel, that electricity and sunlight does you no good. Grace does us no good unless we trust in Him. Belief doesn’t do it. “You believe that God is one; well and good. Even the demons believe that—and tremble with fear” (James 2:19). Demons believe, but they do not trust – they rebelled. Belief alone doesn’t cut it. We HAVE to trust.

You can disbelieve something, but trust in the individual claiming it. Your trust will enable you to overcome your disbelief. Let’s say you want something. A new car. And a friend tells you they can get you that new car. You don’t believe them. You do not believe they can. But you KNOW this friend. You trust this friend. So you set aside your disbelief and choose to trust in them, and will be willing to believe their words. Our trust in Adonai does the same thing. Jesus told us a lot of things. The Father has told us a lot of things. Ruach HaKodesh is constantly reminding us of what they said in the Word. Promises. Blessing. Authority. We have a tendency to disbelieve because there is no PROOF that these unseen things are real. We choose to TRUST them, and put aside our disbelief. That trust opens the door to the promises of Adonai. It opens the windows of our lives and lets Adonai bring us good things. Doubts may rise, but we can use our trust to put them down and kick them out. We CHOOSE to trust. That is why we read the Word, listen to the Word, and listen to anointed teaching on the Word. It helps us strengthen our trust. It takes the trust of Elohim that He gave us – each getting exactly the same amount – and works it like a muscle. Building it and strengthening it and getting it so that we can believe for a small thing, a large thing, a larger thing, a huge thing, a spectacular thing, and impossible thing, and then anything at all that Adonai mentions or shows us to aim for.

Our TRUST is the catalyst for everything in the Kingdom. We need to focus on it. Work on it. Strengthen it. Use it. Develop it. Whatever words you care to use. Without functional trust, we will be useless. Babies in Adonai. Reeds blown at the mercy of the wind. Our trust is the anchor of our belief. Functional trust is a must. Do not neglect it. Get the Word working your trust muscles so that your belief will go to ever greater heights in Him.

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 Elohim and Man. Fully Elohim and born from a human so that His form would be fully Human. This is one of things that would MAKE Messiah the Messiah. “And we all agree, our religion contains amazing revelation: He was revealed in the flesh, vindicated by the Spirit, seen by angels, proclaimed among Gentiles, believed on in the world, taken up in glory” (1 Timothy 3:16). “Now the Word became flesh and took up residence among us. We saw his glory—the glory of the one and only, full of grace and truth, who came from the Father” (John 1:14). Jesus IS the Word (John 1:1-5). The Word became flesh. The Messiah was Elohim (the Word) and Man (male born of a female). Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b