Fear No Fear

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

Stay alert, stand firm in the faith, show courage, be strong. Everything you do should be done in love.
1 Corinthians 16:13-14 (emphasis added)

There is a warning in this chapter that is the mirror image of this verse. “Let anyone who has no love for the Lord be accursed. Our Lord, come!” (vs 22). Love is so important that if we fail to love the Father, we have no place in Messiah Jesus. This is really important, because everything we have we ONLY have in Jesus. All the promises we have access to, all the Blessing we have access to, all the authority we have access to, all the life we have access to, all the our-needs-met we have access to, we ONLY have because our love of the Father qualifies us to have access to Jesus.

“No one can come to me unless the Father who sent me draws him, and I will raise him up at the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they will all be taught by God.’ Everyone who hears and learns from the Father comes to me” (John 6:43-45). The Father calls us. It is the Father, our Source, who yearns for fellowship with the humans He created – male and female. We are taught Jesus searches us out (Luke 15:4–7), and He does. But He does it because the Father calls to us. The Father marks us so that Jesus can knock at our door (Revelation 3:20). It ALL starts with the Father. If we ignore His call or reject it enough times, it might be too late for us to answer. “Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it” (Matthew 7:13). Remember that Jesus does NOTHING without His Father’s approval (John 5:19). Even though Jesus cries for us and longs to save us, if we reject the Father effectively enough, then there is nothing Jesus will do. Elohim IS love, so love must flow between us. If there is no love, there is no relationship. No relationship, then no anything. Without a relationship, we don’t really have anything. No blessing, no authority, no power, no nothing. “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter into the kingdom of heaven—only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven. On that day, many will say to me, ‘Lord, Lord, didn’t we prophesy in your name, and cast out demons in your name, and do many powerful deeds in your name?’ Then I will declare to them, ‘I never knew you. Go away from me, you lawbreakers!’” (Matthew 7:21-23).

It’s throughout scripture. “(See what sort of love the Father has given to us: that we should be called God’s children—and indeed we are! For this reason the world does not know us: because it did not know him” (1 John 3:1). “As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on his faithful followers” (Psalm 103:13). “My child, do not despise discipline from the Lord, and do not loathe his rebuke. For the Lord disciplines those he loves, just as a father disciplines the son in whom he delights” (Proverbs 3:11-12). “Endure your suffering as discipline; God is treating you as sons. For what son is there that a father does not discipline?” (Hebrews 12:7). “So I responded to you, “Do not be terrified of them! The Lord your God is about to go ahead of you; he will fight for you, just as you saw him do in Egypt and in the wilderness, where you saw him carrying you along like a man carries his son. This he did everywhere you went until you came to this very place.”” (Deuteronomy 1:29-31). “Therefore “come out from their midst, and be separate,” says the Lord, “and touch no unclean thing, and I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters,” says the All-Powerful Lord” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18). The Father in Heaven loves us as His dear children. Perhaps that is why the first commandment with a promise is: “Honor your father and your mother, that you may live a long time in the land the Lord your God is giving to you” (Exodus 20:12). When we honour our Father in Heaven, we have access to Jesus: the Way, the Truth, and the LIFE (John 14:6).

“I, the Lord, am your God, who brought you from the land of Egypt, from the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before me” (Exodus 20:2-3). Not a dictator’s proclamation, but a loving Father’s desperate plea. Let me save you from the house of slavery to death and fear (Romans 6:23; 1 John 4:18). That’s His cry. A Messianic prophecy that Jesus came to fulfil. To open the door so that we could enter into the Courts of the Father (Psalm 100:4, 84:2) . So that we could approach the Throne without shame (Hebrews 4:6; Isaiah 54:4). So that we could walk the Way (Deuteronomy 30:16). So that we could know the Father which is ETERNAL life (John 17:3). If the Father isn’t foremost, we lose the opportunity for so much of what is available to us. Everything comes from the Father. The Father is the source of all things. And the Father’s Will is what we are looking to work, want, and walk.

“So pray this way: Our Father in heaven, may your name be honored, may your kingdom come, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven” (Matthew 6:9-10). We should always be seeking to bring His Will to pass here on Earth, because it is accomplished in Heaven. The two are like sides of a zipper designed to mesh perfectly. His Kingdom present on Earth. His Will done. Cooperation with Him in humble submission. Letting Him guide the yoke that you and Jesus are hitched up to (Matthew 11:28-30). The Father’s role is to sanctify us through His Word (John 17:17) which IS Jesus (John 1:1-5). Our minds are retrained in cooperation. “Do not be conformed to this present world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, so that you may test and approve what is the will of God—what is good and well-pleasing and perfect” (Romans 12:2). The Word re-trains our minds EFFORTLESSLY. If you’re willing to study it, read it, and get it into your mind and heart, your opinions will start changing. Your thinking starts changing. Without any real effort you start to see things His way. You start seeing new things in the Word AND hear about how to apply them from Ruach HaKodesh. OUR role is to start appropriating the Word with INTENT. That doesn’t just mean declaring verses about blessing and healing and call it a done deal. It means seeing something in the Word, submitting to it, and then OBEYING it. The level of renewing that your mind will undergo is DIRECTLY related to how much of the Word you submit to. It doesn’t matter HOW much you see His point of view if you don’t follow it. Take Hitler. Learn enough about the man and you can see his point of view, but you’ll still recognise it as evil and avoid it. Learn enough about Adonai in the Word and you’ll see His point of view on a LOT of things. Then it becomes YOUR choice as to whether you will avoid it, embrace it, try to water it down, or change it when you talk to others.

His desire is that we approach the Word like children. Believe it exactly as written and put your trust in it. Your prayers will become the Word itself. You’ll pray out a VERSE, not a need. Your words will become declarations of your trust in Him and His ability to do what He says. You’ll talk successful, physically arrived in full healing because the WORD talks it. You’ll talk about the lack of lack in your life because the WORD talks it. What is around you won’t matter because you will SEE, HEAR, BELIEVE, and NOT DOUBT what the Word talks! You’ll see how it ALL points to the Father who says He’s good for it. Positively and absolutely. Standing on that. Honouring that. Honouring HIM because of His truthfulness. THAT brings Him GLORY. THAT strengthens YOUR trust. THAT perfects your PATIENCE. THAT turns your eye outward, praying the Word for those around you, seeking THEIR victory, improvement, and salvation – in the FULL sense of the Word. Love will start to shine out of you so that others will see it. They’ll comment on it. Doors of communication will open. Windows will open. It will flow from HIM to YOU to THEM to YOU to HIM in the way that it was always meant to. Perfect love. Defeating fear. Bringing victory. The FULL blessing available because your SOURCE sent His SON to bring the whole thing back home again. A Father’s love, perfected – in us and for us.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Daniel 7:27

“Then the kingdom, authority, and greatness of the kingdoms under the whole heaven will be delivered to the people of the holy ones of the Most High. His kingdom is an eternal kingdom; all authorities will serve him and obey him.” The Messiah’s kingdom would be a kingdom for the saints. Yahweh would raise Him up, give Him authority, and enable Him to establish an eternal kingdom that in Him would have no end. “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and his kingdom will never end” (Luke 1:33). “Then comes the end, when he hands over the kingdom to God the Father, when he has brought to an end all rule and all authority and power” (1 Corinthians 15:24). “Then the seventh angel blew his trumpet, and there were loud voices in heaven saying: “The kingdom of the world has become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ, and he will reign for ever and ever.”” (Revelation 11:15). The Kingdom Jesus began establishing in the hearts of those who believed in Him (Luke 17:21), will be established as a physical reality when He returns. The church on this planet is testimony to the truth of who Jesus is (Colossians 1:18). Jesus IS the Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b