Fear No Fear

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

filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God.
Philippians 1:11 (emphasis added)

What great news. It’s Jesus’ fruit, so He did everything for us and we don’t need to do anything, right? Do we get to enjoy the fruits of His labour and don’t need to concern ourselves with anything? No. That’s not accurate. That’s an abuse of Grace. So then do we need to buckle down and make sure we’re following every step, obeying every rule, and keeping sinful actions and thoughts far from us? No, that’s not accurate either. That’s a performance-based mindset. What IS accurate is that we need a balance of Trust and Grace in order to enjoy the fruit of Jesus’ Righteousness. “And I pray this, that your love may abound even more and more in knowledge and every kind of insight so that you can decide what is best, and thus be sincere and blameless for the day of Christ, filled with the fruit of righteousness that comes through Jesus Christ to the glory and praise of God” (Philippians 1:9-11).

Jesus did the work, we do the engaging, but not as some cosmic get out of jail free card so that we can do whatever we want whenever we want. Jesus didn’t live like that. The early church didn’t live like that. And we shouldn’t either. There needs to be a balance of Trust and Grace. A reflection of what is really occurring in the spiritual realm. Jesus is the gardener. He planted the saplings. He fertilised them, pruned them, cared for them, and has watch guarded their crop. Each tree is now dripping in fruit. Jesus has opened the gates to the orchard, told us about it, instructed us on how to harvest the fruit, and given us a basic health class course on nutrition. We need to enter the orchard, follow the directions, use the ladders and buckets, carefully harvest the fruit, and consume it. Jesus’ works and our Trust in His works which we have access to by Grace. Things to do on both sides, but His work is complete and finished. Our obedience through actions is currently unfolding. This is how we walk in His ways, this is how we gain access to the Kingdom, and this is how we receive from the Father. The engine runs on His love, which our love response echoes. If we lean too far into Grace we’ll start believing nothing we do matters because He will forgive us or that we need to sin more in order to receive more Grace – this is personified in believers accepting worldly lifestyles as ‘natural’ and believers feeling Adonai will do what Adonai will do so you never know what will happen. Lean the other way too far into Trust as you start thinking everything is by our efforts and how well we beat on Heaven’s gates – this is personified in religious thinking and the false belief in the smiteyness of Adonai.

We are definitely products of Grace. Adonai has done everything to get us back into a right relationship with Elohim by ensuring we can accept and embrace His Righteousness. It’s the only way to get before the Father. He is absolute righteousness and you need to be absolutely righteous to be before Him/have access to Him. We can’t do that on our own. It is impossible. We can’t even do that as believers on our own. The Christian life is impossible to live on our own. It CANNOT be done. It can ONLY be done in and through Jesus. “Jesus replied, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:6). Outside of Jesus there is a lot of effort, self-recrimination, self-correction, self control, but no forward motion into the Kingdom. “I am the vine; you are the branches. The one who remains in me—and I in him—bears much fruit, because apart from me you can accomplish nothing” (John 15:5). That’s Grace. He does it outside of us, on our behalf. Our performance does not affect what He did or what is available to us. It is there. Freely available if we chose it and chose to move into Him to receive it. There is no other way for salvation and no other way to receive from Him. We don’t lose it when we mess up. We don’t mess up to get a greater outpouring of Grace. Our efforts and behaviour are completely separate from the Grace He offers. We are not the why. We are the when.

“But what does it say? “The word is near you, in your mouth and in your heart” (that is, the word of faith that we preach), 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” (Romans 10:8-9). We must audibly confess a heart-held belief in the sacrifice and resurrection of Jesus and His position of Lord of All Things – especially your life. That’s Trust in Him. You must believe, because you can’t see it. You can see the effects of it, but not the act itself – that was spiritually accomplished before creation and physically arrived over two thousand years ago. That takes Trust. Trust that we must mix with the Word (Hebrews 4:2), because trust is shown with action, not inaction. Trust is perfected with obedience because it shows we trust. We could have someone build a bridge for us and go on and on about how we love and trust their work, but if we don’t go across the bridge then it is lip service. Because we love, we can trust. If we trust, we’ll obey. That’s why if we love Him we will obey Him. Obedience is the physical manifestation of our trust. It is a natural occurrence, not forced action. Without action, you have no real trust. “But someone will say, “You have faith and I have works.” Show me your faith without works and I will show you faith by my works” (James 2:18). It isn’t works that justify us (that’s religious thinking), it is works that are the EVIDENCE of our Trust. Our engaging (or appropriating) what Jesus did (finished, completed, and released) for us is the evidence that we truly trust in Him. Whenever we truly trust and take it from His hand is when we will receive it. It’s kind of like He is in a park offering a peanut to a squirrel. Whenever the squirrel gets over His presence and nature and is brave enough to grab the peanut from His hand is exactly when the squirrel receives the nut – even if He sits there for hours.

The fruit of righteousness comes through Jesus. It is the manifestation of the fruit of the Spirit as we live a life in harmony with the Word and what is right from His point of view. We can’t DO that without Jesus. He is the Way we access it. He is the Way we engage it. He is the Word which is our manual to how it works and how we operate in it. We can’t produce the fruit if we’re not in the vine. We can’t reflect the nature of Jesus if we are not part of Jesus. I know we all like the idea of a big, fuzzy, Daddy in the sky. Or a loving partner in adventures to pal around with. Adonai can be those things, but never without His nature of Righteousness. He meets us where we are, but He requires righteousness in us so we can be where He is. That’s why we should always strive to keep a reverence in our interactions with Him. Yes, He is our Father, but WHAT a Father. That reverence will keep us from ever forgetting the Grace He shows us. If we remember who He is – which makes us thankful for His Grace, instead of feeling we’re entitled (Romans 6:1-15); and if we remember who we are in Jesus – which can only be accomplished by our trusting in what He did (Romans 1:16-17); then we will be well positioned in the balance of those two things.

We will be able to live by our trust, relying on Him for everything, knowing His Grace is how we are functioning. Knowing when we need to repent because we’ve missed it. Knowing when we can engage our trust and receive what He is offering us. Getting filled with His fruit that we can use as it grows in and through us, filling us with more of Him every day. The fullness of the fruit does not have sickness, or depression, or mental conditions, or injuries, or missing pieces. The basic list is Galatians 5:22-23. Do you see your negative thing, negative trait, or negative experience there? If not, you don’t YET have personal revelation of your freedom in Messiah Jesus in that area. But hearing the Word on Jesus preached? It helps build trust. Study the Word. Get some good anointed preaching about what you’re studying. Read it aloud and agree with it. Ask Ruach HaKodesh to speak to you about it and LISTEN. The more of His Blessing we engage, the more we have. But we can’t engage what we don’t know exists or don’t understand. He does far above what we can ask or think, but it is according to the power working in us (Ephesians 3:20). The power works in us based on the knowledge we have as it has been revealed to us about the Word (Ephesians 1:17).

If you’re struggling with the Trust-Grace balance, seek the Word on it. Find out what His part is (the finished part) and what your part is (the engaging part). Every day you study they will get closer together and better balanced until one day (a day soon), it will light up inside you and you WILL have what you say because you’ll be saying according to the Word and promises of Adonai.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Zechariah 9:9

“Rejoice greatly, daughter of Zion! Shout, daughter of Jerusalem! Look! Your king is coming to you: He is legitimate and victorious, humble and riding on a donkey—on a young donkey, the foal of a female donkey.” Messiah would be beheld as King. “The next day the large crowd that had come to the feast heard that Jesus was coming to Jerusalem. So they took branches of palm trees and went out to meet him. They began to shout, “Hosanna! Blessed is the one who comes in the name of the Lord! Blessed is the king of Israel!”” (John 12:12-13). The Jews of Jerusalem recognised in Jesus His Kingship. They joyfully received Him – though the religious elite did not. But the average people saw Jesus the King and rejoiced. 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