Fear No Fear

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

Therefore we must be wary that, while the promise of entering his rest remains open, none of you may seem to have come short of it. For we had good news proclaimed to us just as they did. But the message they heard did them no good, since they did not join in with those who heard it in faith.
Hebrews 4:1-2 (emphasis added)

Salvation is like the Promised Land. The Israelites were called into the Promised Land where they would have the ability to truly enjoy Sabbath rest. In a land full of things they did not toil to achieve, they could rest their bodies and minds completely on a regular basis. A pause to see the Goodness of everything that they had been given. Salvation also comes with a promise of rest, and it is no less serious that the one the Israelites were given.

The Israelites were commanded to have a day of rest in the Law (Exodus 20:8-11). There was no Sabbath command before this. What we do have is the idea of resting. “The heavens and the earth were completed with everything that was in them. By the seventh day God finished the work that he had been doing, and he ceased on the seventh day all the work that he had been doing. God blessed the seventh day and made it holy because on it he ceased all the work that he had been doing in creation” (Genesis 2:1-3). Elohim wasn’t tired. He wasn’t worn out. His muscles weren’t sore. He stopped because it was complete. Everything that He was going to created had been created. He would never have to create another plant or animal because He had made them self-replicating. It was finished. Everything was in a perfected state. His purposeful and productive activity was over, so He stopped. This was AFTER humanity was brought into being. That’s one reason why Jesus said “The Sabbath was made for people, not people for the Sabbath” (Mark 2:27). People were not made in order to keep the Sabbath. The Sabbath was created as a way to ensure people got rest. Medical science tells us that rest is very important. Adequate rest helps your body activate its repair and recovery mode. Rest in the form of sleep is vital to brain function, memory, concentration, immune health and metabolism. Physical rest helps with stress levels, reduces muscle strain, reduces fatigue, improves mood, calms the nervous system, reduces inflammation, helps muscle repair, and lowers blood pressure – among other things. Rest is really important to the human physical system. In fact, you cannot run the human physical system without it. The system will shut down and die.

The Sabbath rest was important for its physical benefits, but it is clear that there was a spiritual component to the Sabbath as well. It was a shadow of things to come, but it was vital in and of itself. It kept the focus on Adonai Elohim. It kept up an atmosphere of gratitude. Which helped with an atmosphere of worship. Not because Elohim needed it, but because Adonai deserves it for who He is. It was a seventh of the week devoted to pursuing Him. Keeping the Word before their eyes, praise on their lips, and their minds seeking Him out to know Him better. It showed the people WORK wasn’t the only thing there was. Taking one seventh of your productive time away should have made the Israelites less well off than their neighbours. But when they truly kept Sabbath the opposite was true. It shows the people DEPENDENCE on Yahweh. It reminded them of the care He took to provide and shepherd them. It was a VITAL day. Without it, they stagnated. If they were keeping it as lip service, instead of from their hearts, they started to deteriorate and ultimately to die spiritually. To forsake worship and devotion to Adonai Elohim, and start to fornicate with other gods. Trading the real divine for the fashioned by humanity. Leaving the truth and embracing a lie. This is what got them kicked out of the land (2 Chronicles 36:2-23)

just like the people before them (Leviticus 18:28).
“At that time Jesus said, “I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and intelligent, and have revealed them to little children. Yes, Father, for this was your gracious will. All things have been handed over to me by my Father. No one knows the Son except the Father, and no one knows the Father except the Son and anyone to whom the Son decides to reveal him. Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke on you and learn from me because I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and my load is not hard to carry” (Matthew 11:25-30). This is the Sabbath promise. Rest. A re-setting of things to the Father’s will. This is what we’ve been talking about for awhile now. Seeing the Father as our SOURCE. We are able to do that in Jesus. We are able to do that in the True Sabbath. It is a matter of reliance. When we rely on HIM, we can rest IN Him. Because HE has all the authority. HE accomplished all the work. He FINISHED it on and through the cross. It is all dead and passed away. Stuck in a grave. Rotting into nothing. When Jesus was resurrected to life, He became our rest. A fully complete True Human who can show us how to walk, give us the strength to walk, working through us to perform the miraculous, and handing to us all things that are beneficial to us. It is all done through Jesus as the behest of the Father. “For the one who enters God’s rest has also rested from his works, just as God did from his own works. Thus we must make every effort to enter that rest, so that no one may fall by following the same pattern of disobedience. For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any double-edged sword, piercing even to the point of dividing soul from spirit, and joints from marrow; it is able to judge the desires and thoughts of the heart” (Hebrews 4:10-12). If we don’t rest in Jesus, we run the risk of going our own way or of treading water.

If we want to, we can go our own way. We can choose in our personal sovereignty to not trust Jesus. To not listen to Him or to Ruach HaKodesh or the Father. To base our lives on our own wisdom, desires, and feelings. “For although they knew God, they did not glorify him as God or give him thanks, but they became futile in their thoughts and their senseless hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for an image resembling mortal human beings or birds or four-footed animals or reptiles. Therefore God gave them over in the desires of their hearts to impurity, to dishonor their bodies among themselves. They exchanged the truth of God for a lie and worshiped and served the creation rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen” (Romans 1:21-25). They knew Elohim, chose not to go His way, started with other images to glorify from humans to creeping things, and finally went with feelings over what Adonai says is proper. They ended up at the mercy of creation. I find that interesting. In Genesis 1 & 2 Adam is given mastery over the Earth. Over the plants and the animals. Did you realise that most of the addictive substances in this world (from cocaine to chocolate to coffee) come from plants? As a whole, this world has freely chosen to enslave themselves to plants. This isn’t even a moderation thing. This is wholesale choosing to put something inside of ourselves that takes over our internal systems and leaves us at the mercy of our cravings. And we call this addiction advancement. We may have come a long way technologically speaking, but we are enslaving ourselves into bondage on purpose and by choice. We’ve exchanged freedom in truth for a lie. And we are paying the price for it in our own bodies. Everything works that way. From sexual immorality to food, when we go against what Adonai says is correct from His point of view, we suffer. It might feel good, but it is killing us either spiritually, physically, or both. That is TRUTH.

The only way we can avoid these pitfalls is to rely on Jesus, trusting in Him for every decision we make. That is RESTING in Him. It is ceasing to promote our own selves. It is ceasing to push our wants and desires. It is ceasing to let our feelings determine what we say about a given thing, person, place, activity, emotion, thought, piece of entertainment, food, or drink. It is ceasing to evaluate everything by our experience. It is ceasing to fight against what we know is correct from Adonai’s point of view. It is ceasing our WORKS and accepting His BLESSING. That is how we get healing. That is how we see lack destroyed. That is how we walk in victory, inside the boat instead of tossed in the storm. Ceasing US and embracing HIM. We only enter into it with and by our TRUST. It is the only way. “Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). “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). Our Sabbath isn’t a day, but a lifestyle of humble submission to Messiah Jesus: “For the Son of Man is lord of the Sabbath” (Matthew 12:8).

What does this mean day to day? Jesus is the end-all and be-all of who we are. That’s what it means. If you want healing, you have to stop trying to earn it. Stop trying to reach for it. Stop trying to MAKE it happen. It means if you want healing, rest in Him and accept what He has done. What is finished and complete. Struggling with emotions? He has plenty for us. Struggling with attitudes? He has a great one for us. It is by relying on Him that we function. He is the clothes we wear. He is the car we drive. He is the shelter we live in. The world and the devil are both out to take us down. Jesus is the rock and the shelter. The high tower. The protective shield behind which we not only survive, but thrive. It is all Jesus, through the love of the Father for us, that accomplishes everything. We already have everything that we need. He has already laid the table for us. Laden with all the food and drink we need: Himself (John 6:35). All we need to do to benefit from everything He has for us is rest in Him. We need to accept that revelation and put our trust in it – without doubting. To confirm it with the Word as we read it day by day. It’s all over the place. From every type and shadow in the Old Covenant to the teachings and explanations in the New, the Word agrees unanimously that Jesus is the REST that we need to inhabit.

“Therefore since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast to our confession. For we do not have a high priest incapable of sympathizing with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in every way just as we are, yet without sin. Therefore let us confidently approach the throne of grace to receive mercy and find grace whenever we need help” (Hebrews 4:14-16). It is by and through Jesus that we can accomplish our rest. It’s ironic. We accomplish it by accepting what He accomplished. He knows what our lives are like. He knows what we are going through. He did it because He was unbroken. He was pure. We are broken. We are NOT pure. But in Jesus we can be. We can exchange our stress for His rest. We can give up who we were in order to be who He is. That’s a good deal right there. That is the Father’s deal. That’s the deal we accepted – whether we realised it or not. The wonderful thing about the Father is that He loves us and is eager for us to get into the Word so that we DO realise what is possible for us. What is available to us. What was and is meant for us. To enter a spiritual Sabbath rest where we CEASE from our labours, our ideas, our feelings, and embrace HIS accomplishments, HIS objectively true ideas, and HIS emotions. To be FAR more than we are on our own. To BE what He made for us to be.

The Sabbath was made for us to enjoy. For us to live in. For us to rest in. Jesus’ completed work is our Sabbath. He is our daily rest. He is our daily bread. He is our daily assignment. He is our all in all. He is all we need. In Him, we can do all things because He IS all things. Perfect love. Perfect judgment. Perfect thought. Perfect action. Perfect worship. Perfect humbleness. Jesus is what we are becoming when we submit to His will and exist at rest. This is not laziness, because we still do the work He assigns us. This is not rebellion, because we are submitted to the will of the Father. This is rest. This is truth. This is our victory: Messiah Jesus in you, and you in Messiah Jesus (John 15:5). This is LIFE, life abundantly, and life eternal. Don’t settle for anything less. Anything less is a lie designed to rob you by keeping you blind.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Hosea 11:1 & Numbers 24:8

““When Israel was a young man, I loved him like a son, and I summoned my son out of Egypt. . . . God brought them out of Egypt. They have, as it were, the strength of a young bull; they will devour hostile people, and will break their bones, and will pierce them through with arrows.” Messiah would escape to Egypt. He would flee there to preserve the promise of the future redemption of Elohim’s children. “Then he got up, took the child and his mother during the night, and went to Egypt. He stayed there until Herod died. In this way what was spoken by the Lord through the prophet was fulfilled: “I called my Son out of Egypt.”” (Matthew 2:14-15). Jesus and His family fled to Egypt where they stayed until an angel called them out. “After Herod had died, an angel of the Lord appeared in a dream to Joseph in Egypt saying, “Get up, take the child and his mother, and go to the land of Israel, for those who were seeking the child’s life are dead.”” (Matthew 2:19-20). Jesus fled to Egypt and Jesus was called out of Egypt. 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