Fear No Fear

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

Now in fact all who want to live godly lives in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
2 Timothy 3:12 (emphasis added)

Doesn’t seem like much of a healing verse, does it? No one likes or wants persecution. Not even Paul. It wasn’t the persecution he focused on, but the victory. He didn’t revel in the problems, but Adonai’s solutions. “You, however, have followed my teaching, my way of life, my purpose, my faith, my patience, my love, my endurance, as well as the persecutions and sufferings that happened to me in Antioch, in Iconium, and in Lystra. I endured these persecutions and the Lord delivered me from them all” (2 Timothy 3:10-11). All the persecutions that came? He was delivered from each and every one. In Jesus, persecutions are no big deal.

The persecution the Word references is hostility and ill-treatment on the basis of your trust, belief, and obedience in Messiah Jesus, the Salvation and Light of the World. It has nothing to do with your age, sex, culture, skin colour, education, way of dressing, hairstyle, or anything else. It is ONLY because of whom you believe, put your trust in, and obey. They took your parking spot or cut you off in traffic? Not persecution. Someone else got that promotion (possibly in underhanded ways)? Not persecution. Made to pay full price? Not persecution. Had to go to the branch, which was very inconvenient? Not persecution. Have a cold? Not persecution. Have cancer? Not persecution. ADD? Not persecution. Some of these are human interaction things, some are random chance, and some are a result of sin entering the world which brought death. In a way they are ALL a result of sin, because before sin was in the world humans had no negative emotions, characteristics, ideas, or personality traits. Everything negative in this world is here because of sin. Those things we interact that are not in accord with the Father’s will (the Word) and motivated by trust in Jesus (faith) become our personal sins. That can be a LOT, which is why the Word shows us clearly what they are from His point of view. It helps us clear away all the extras we add – such as in the Old Covenant where they codified the number of steps you could take on the Sabbath or the New Testament where dancing was labelled sin without regard for intent (such as dancing to Adonai). Jesus came to save us from sin. Our personal ones and sin (with all its negatives) as a whole. Why is there persecution then? Because those who refuse Jesus and who are trapped in sin hate those who are not. “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. Now this is the basis for judging: that the light has come into the world and people loved the darkness rather than the light, because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil deeds hates the light and does not come to the light, so that their deeds will not be exposed” (John 3:17-20). This is where persecution comes from. We speak the truth of Jesus and the truth of the Word (which is the Father’s will and point of view). The world hears that, feels guilty, but since they are rejecting Him, they don’t turn from their deeds but instead lash out and try to erase the messenger so they don’t have to hear the message.

What about everything that ISN’T persecution? He saved us from it. By Grace, not because we deserve it. If we place our trust in His ability to do what He says for the reasons He said, we will inhabit that Grace He offers freely (freely to us, Jesus paid a high price for it). “For sin will have no mastery over you, because you are not under law but under grace” (Romans 6:14). “So in the same way at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace. And if it is by grace, it is no longer by works, otherwise grace would no longer be grace” (Romans 11:5-6). He did it. For our present time. By Grace, not by our works, achievements, behaviour, or even existence since He decided all this before anything was created (Revelation 13:8) and explained/showed it to us through a shadow example (Revelation 11:8). If He did all that to get us free from sin, why would He leave us in sin’s effects? The Passover was a shadow of the cross. What happened immediately afterwards? He took His people OUT OF EGYPT. If Jesus is the fulfilment of the Law (Matthew 5:17-20) and a BETTER covenant (Hebrews 8:6-9), why would He leave us where He found us? Yes, He MEETS us where we are, but He does that to bring us to where HE is. He doesn’t do it to keep us where we are. This is how we know trials, tribulations, and temptations are NOT from Adonai. They are designed to defeat us and keep us from where Adonai wants us. That’s why He always gifts us with a way to escape them (1 Corinthians 10:13); a way to defeat them (James 4:7); and when we are loving Him in our calling to His purpose, He will work the things coming against us around to His good (Romans 8:28). He can teach us lessons in those trials, tribulations, and temptations, but they don’t originate with or in Him. How could they? He wants us where humanity started: in a perfect relationship with Adonai Elohim and in perfect circumstances full of abundant life. As long as we are in a sinful world and wearing this flesh coat, things won’t be perfect. But they can be as nearly perfect as possible. They can be like they were for Jesus.

“You should have the same attitude toward one another that Christ Jesus had” (Philippians 2:5). “Therefore, be imitators of God as dearly loved children and live in love, just as Christ also loved us and gave himself for us, a sacrificial and fragrant offering to God” (Ephesians 5:1-2). “You were taught with reference to your former way of life to lay aside the old man who is being corrupted in accordance with deceitful desires, to be renewed in the spirit of your mind, and to put on the new man who has been created in God’s image—in righteousness and holiness that comes from truth” (Ephesians 4:22-24). “By this love is perfected with us, so that we may have confidence in the day of judgment, because just as Jesus is, so also are we in this world” (1 John 4:17). Do any of these sound like we are to be living apart from or in a different way than Jesus did? Jesus had a perfect relationship with the Father. Why don’t we? Because we listen to us more than we listen to Ruach HaKodesh. Jesus’ flesh talked to Him like ours does to us. But Jesus put His focus on the Word and the Father. Always. He got up early to pray. He went to the synagogues to hear the Word read out. He quoted the Word because it was on His mind. These were habits. He practiced them consistently. Because He sought His Father, studied the Word, prayed, fasted (to keep His flesh subdued), and obeyed what He heard from Ruach HaKodesh, Jesus overcame the world. He was tempted like us, but did NOT sin. Ever. Not in thought, word, or deed. On our own we can’t do this (Romans 3:10-12). But IN JESUS we become something DIFFERENT (2 Corinthians 5:17). I think this is what irritates the world so much. We are no longer in it, so we’re no longer stuck with their conditions and expectations. This is also why we are supposed to be a light (Matthew 5:14-16). We’re to shine and show them what’s possible.

What kind of draw is a sickly light that can’t manage to illuminate anything? If our lives are not different from everyone else’s, why should they listen to us? Why would they come to ask questions? What would be the appeal? It’s all well and good to talk about the afterlife, but we are physical beings who frequently get our eyes on what’s around us and not on the afterlife. And since none of us can experience the afterlife, it’s all intellectual. We can talk about our similarities and differences, but it would be hard to pick between them on the merits of their descriptions alone. We need ACTUAL experience to base decisions on. Jesus is unique in that eternal life is a relationship with Elohim, not just a place to go and get rewarded. In addition, that eternity can start NOW. Even more, we get to pack as much victory and eternal characteristics into our HERE and NOW lives as we have trust in Jesus for. That is something no other religion can offer. That is something no other religion even TRIES to do. They leave you with hopes and expectations founded on human thinking often combined with your efforts which may or may not be rewarded. Yahweh doesn’t play that game. He IS truth and He IS love and He proves it again and again and again. He is trustworthy and faithful. He GIVES us everything we need to rescue us from sin and all unrighteousness. He does the work. He is the sacrifice. He is the blessing. He is the reward. And He did it all for the relationship He wants with us. We can’t earn it, work for it, strive for it, accomplish it, or deserve it. It is His Grace from His Mercy. Period. THAT is some Good News, yes?

Are there going to be persecutions because we are proclaiming Jesus not just through words, but with our lifestyles as well? Yes. Yes, there will. But they PALE when we consider first the reward awaiting our faithfulness (Revelation 3:21-22), and second that He can deliver us from ANYTHING sent TO us or dumped ON us. Jesus came to save us. Save us from a broken future and to save us from both broken thinking and broken circumstances. We don’t have to get sick. We don’t have to have cancer. We don’t have to stay paralysed. We don’t need to be anxious – it gives us nothing useful. We don’t have to have ADD or ADHD. Depression is NOT meant for us. We have the right to walk without those things. We need to get the Word into us and then see ourselves in the promises. We need to submit to the Word and obey Ruach HaKodesh. We need to seed our trust into the promises and not lose heart. Staying focused and rejecting doubt. Believing Him because He is believable, trustworthy, and He did it all already. It is finished. Accomplished. Done and ready for us to take. To walk in. To live by. This is the reality of life in Jesus if we’ll only do it His way. Following Him is so much more than what will happen after we see Him face to face (1 Corinthians 13:12). Through our Trust, by Grace, we can be changed piece by piece, day by day, until there is only Him and His positive good things – and none of the negative, the painful, and the sickness. It is possible and it is how He has always wanted us to live (Genesis 1:26-30). Seed your trust into the promises of the Word and praise Him thankfully for the Harvest that will burst forth: deliverance in this life.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Zechariah 6:12-13

“Then say to him, ‘The Lord of Heaven’s Armies says, “Look—here is the man whose name is Branch, who will sprout up from his place and build the temple of the Lord. Indeed, he will build the temple of the Lord, and he will be clothed in splendor, sitting as king on his throne. Moreover, there will be a priest with him on his throne and they will see eye to eye on everything.” Messiah would be Elohim’s Servant. Messiah would be a priest and a king. Not many are both. Melchizedek was one (Genesis 14:18). Messiah would be one too. “Now the main point of what we are saying is this: We have such a high priest, one who sat down at the right hand of the throne of the Majesty in heaven” (Hebrews 8:1). “I charge you before God who gives life to all things and Christ Jesus who made his good confession before Pontius Pilate, to obey this command without fault or failure until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ—whose appearing the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, will reveal at the right time. He alone possesses immortality and lives in unapproachable light, whom no human has ever seen or is able to see. To him be honor and eternal power! Amen” (1 Timothy 6:13-16). Jesus was a priest and a king (Hebrews 6:19-20). Recognised by His disciples and the early church. And in times to come by the whole world (Revelation 1:6-9; 19:11-16). 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