Fear No Fear

(All scripture from the World English Bible, ebible.org, all rights reserved)

I, Yahweh, will be their God, and my servant David prince among them. I, Yahweh, have spoken it. I will make with them a covenant of peace, and will cause evil animals to cease out of the land. They will dwell securely in the wilderness and sleep in the woods. I will make them and the places around my hill a blessing.
Ezekiel 34:24–26 (emphasis added)

Yahweh is a POSITIVE God. He is GOOD. He KNOWS how to promise something. When you read I WILL, brother you better believe He’s going to. Not ONLY is He a covenant keeping God, but His Word is the bond that keeps us all together. And the Word is Jesus (John 1:1–5, 14). It’s all about Jesus. If you could take all the honesty, trustworthiness, credibility, integrity, and principles of the Lord God and ball them up into one place at one time and have it physically manifest, you’d have Jesus. “He is the image of the invisible God, the firstborn of all creation. For by him all things were created in the heavens and on the earth, visible things and invisible things, whether thrones or dominions or principalities or powers. All things have been created through him and for him. He is before all things, and in him all things are held together” (Colossians 1:15–17).

In today’s verse the Lord is promising something. A place of safety. A place of peace. A place where you can lie out in the open and you will NOT be mauled, harmed, harassed, or bothered by wild animals. A place where Yahweh is God. Where David is a prince among them. That HAS to be Messianic Kingdom because David had already died. Ezekiel was at least four hundred years after David. So either this is AFTER the resurrection of the dead (Isaiah 26:19) OR this was the promised son of David: “When your days are fulfilled and you sleep with your fathers, I will set up your offspring after you, who will proceed out of your body, and I will establish his kingdom. He will build a house for my name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. I will be his father, and he will be my son. If he commits iniquity, I will chasten him with the rod of men and with the stripes of the children of men; but my loving kindness will not depart from him, as I took it from Saul, whom I put away before you. Your house and your kingdom will be made sure forever before you. Your throne will be established forever.”

Solomon did build the Temple, but he did not stay faithful and his kingdom was NOT established forever. But Jesus was the son of David (Luke 18:38–41). Jesus was raised to life (Matthew 28:2–7). Jesus is King and is King Forever (Hebrews 1:8; Revelation 11:15). Jesus is the promised one who will be prince among them! Has that happened yet? Nope. “While they were looking steadfastly into the sky as he went, behold, two men stood by them in white clothing, who also said, “You men of Galilee, why do you stand looking into the sky? This Jesus, who was received up from you into the sky, will come back in the same way as you saw him going into the sky”” (Acts 1:10–11). Hasn’t happened yet. It’s coming though. God promised.

God keeps covenant. Every time. Doesn’t matter how small. Doesn’t matter how earth shaking. God keeps covenant. Always and ever. He CANNOT lie. People love to say that God can do anything. But that isn’t TRUTH. God CANNOT lie. God WILL NOT go against what He has said. God WILL NOT violate His Word. When a covenant is made, two parties agree to something. In the ancient world, it was done with blood. Both parties passed between slain animals. Scholars have suggested that this ritual was implying a binding oath on those who participated. By walking between the animals, the person was accepting that same destruction if they broke their end of the bargain.

“It came to pass that, when the sun went down, and it was dark, behold, a smoking furnace and a flaming torch passed between these pieces” (Genesis 15:17). This was the Abrahamic covenant. Interestingly, Isaiah characterises God as a fire in a furnace (Isaiah 31:9). A kind of seal set upon the preceding prophecy. But a furnace is the Lord. In Exodus 20:18, God appears with a smoking mountain and flashing lightning. In Exodus 13, He is both a pillar of fire and a pillar of cloud. In Judges 7 God delivered His people with trumpets, a shout, and torches of fire. God in two distinct personages walked between the animals in the Abrahamic covenant. He took on the promise and the penalty. The Father provided the sacrifice for the price of sin. The Son took the penalty He did not deserve on Himself. They fulfilled the covenant. Ratified it in the flesh and the blood of Jesus (Mark 14:22–25).

This promise WILL come to pass. It is only a matter of time. If it does not, if God lied, then everything that is will fall apart. The universe will end. All things will end. Because they are upheld in the personage of Jesus, one of the Godhead, fully divine and one with the Father. In Him are ALL THINGS. If the nature of God fails, everything will fail. If the nature of God includes lies, it is NOT righteous, it is NOT pure, and then it will all end. Why do you think the devil and his angels are always attacking the Word? If they can trip God up in some way, they’ll ‘win’ when they and everything else ceases to be. That will NOT happen. God IS truth. Don’t let the world’s idea that truth is subjective and individual. It is NOT. It is NOT. Truth is constant. Facts change. The truth does not. When we discover something, it is working. There it is, working away. When we discover that we didn’t fully understand it and it actually works THIS way, there it is. Still working. Not affected by our facts, our truth, or our understanding of it. The TRUTH is constant, no matter what we think or what we do with what we know.

So we have God. Pure. Righteous. Truth teller. Makes promises and will keep them. “God is not a man, that he should lie, nor a son of man, that he should repent. Has he said, and he won’t do it?” (Numbers 23:19). The question is whether or not we will believe Him. He says things again and again. To generation after generation. Nation after nation. To get across to us the point: it will happen. We are covenant partners. Hand in hand. Making the impossible possible (Matthew 19:26). Making the seen from the unseen—not NOTHING, just UNSEEN by human senses (2 Corinthians 4:18). Which means operating by FAITH and not FEAR. That’s why we’re told not to fear so many times. That’s why we’re told to have peace (which is rejection of fear) so many times. Not to be anxious, depressed, troubled, worried, fearful, or anything else like it. To believe. Just believe. Many of the miracles of healing were by faith. Faith that God could do it — and God believing that He could legally do it because of Jesus’ upcoming manifestation of the sacrifice that spiritually happened before the foundation of the earth (Revelation 13:8). This is the faith of God which we are given and are meant to operate in (Mark 11:22).

You might say that didn’t take much faith seeing as Jesus was God. Not true. Jesus was going to become fully man. He COULD have chosen to lie, to cheat, to sin. He was the SAME as us, tempted by things that were TEMPTING. But He did NOT. Why? Because He was obedient. That’s it. Obedient. ALWAYS obedient. He does what He says He is going to do. He wrestled with His flesh over this in the garden (Matthew 26:41). But Jesus overcame. He overcame so that we could BY GRACE walk in His ways. In what He did (Romans 6:8–11). By FAITH (given to us by God — Ephesians 2:8–9) we can walk in His GRACE. By His GRACE, we were given FAITH. It is the mystery of His love. Our part is believing what He says.

Everything about the human mind is based on faith. You have faith in science or you have faith in something else. Science takes a LOT of faith. Every ‘fact’ has dissenting opinions. Every ‘truth’ has opponents. And they all use the same systems, procedures, and rules to arrive at completely opposite conclusions — not counting the ones purposefully making studies slanted toward the interests of those giving them paycheques. Science takes faith because everything about the human system, the human world, and the human universe is malleable. It’s all changing. It CAN all change. Nothing is absolute. Sure, sometimes we should leave things alone (like our gender, for example), but we CAN choose to change it. We can choose to be anything we want. Be who we want. Live with who we want. Have relations with who or what we want. It’s all malleable. But we keep trying to get that onto God when God is NOT malleable. God is NOT a man. God is OUTSIDE His creation even as He inhabits it. His nature is not affected by creation, creation is affected by His nature.

“Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). Why do we want to change that? If God was willing to do it six thousand years ago, He’ll be willing to do it today — unless there was a covenant about it. Like the flood. He covenanted not to globally flood us again, so He has not and He will not. He could. Easily. Science tells us that. There is water beneath the crust (more than seven times the world’s oceans) locked in a special porous rock about 700 kilometres down. Without getting supernatural, God could loose that. Instead, He keeps it locked up because of a covenant. God is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34). You want to be taken to heaven like Enoch? Live, talk, think, and walk like He did. You want to see visions like Moses? Humble yourself before the Lord like He did. Be willing to do ANYTHING the Lord asks and then do it. Forty-day fast, anyone? Total life of service? No? We can have the same things the people of the bible had if we are willing to do what they did. God loves obedience and love. He won’t penalise you for that. He’ll reward you. He rewards those who diligently seek Him (Hebrews 11:6). The CONSISTENTLY righteous get rewarded (Isaiah 26:7–21). In ways the occasionally or inconsistently righteous don’t. When you give pure devotion, you’ll receive pure blessing. Simeon did it. Anna did it. They were rewarded with being able to hold and look at the Messiah. But look at how Anna lived (Luke 2:36–38). Constantly worshipping the Lord. Day and night for over fifty decades. Are you up for that? He’s up to reward you.

Not up for it? That’s fine. He doesn’t judge us for that. Our efforts do not move Him. Our actions don’t move Him to act. Our efforts and actions alter our heartscape and THAT enables US to get from His hand what He is offering. Seek His face, be close to the hand that offers blessing. Disobey, walk away, be stubborn, refuse to humble yourself? You’ll be far away from that hand. You won’t be able to get what He is offering. If there is a promise in the Word and it is not manifest in your life it is NOT because of God. You either do not qualify or you do not have true faith for it. Period. How is it you want to be living? Trapped in fear? Or at peace in hopeful expectation for the promises you KNOW are coming your way, the world’s way, and the manifestation of them is any day now? Walk by FAITH, not sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). Know who you are in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:21). Worship Him, praise Him, and look at HIS things, HIS Word, and HIS promises, NOT the world or ANYTHING happening in it. Unlike the world, we can walk in the CERTAINTY of our faith. We KNOW, we don’t hope. We KNOW, we don’t wonder. We KNOW, we don’t need to wait. We can walk in the certainty of the fulfilment of His promises NOW and their manifestation will be the icing on the cake. Not ignoring reality, but denying reality the right to rule — that’s for the Almighty alone.

Daily Affirmation of God’s Love: 2 Corinthians 4:17–18

The Lord has saved me from my own stupid. To get sick is stupid. Foolish. It doesn’t make me a fool, but it does make me somewhat stubborn. Like a teen heading to school in a hoodie and thin pants because it’s cool — while a rainstorm is coming down and turning them into a wilty popsicle. That is foolish behaviour. Stupid. THEY aren’t stupid, but their behaviour is being controlled by a flawed feeling. Feeling that proper gear is not the best thing because of what people might say. Or how they might look. We are sick for the same reason. We choose to get sick because of something we learned about how we think God works. Or because we learned really, really well that this is what happens to everyone. Maybe we’re having trouble remembering things because we choose to be aging physically. Maybe we’re getting weak because we choose to be elderly in our actions. Maybe we need glasses because we choose to have poor eyesight since it runs in the family. Remember: we are BORN AGAIN as NEW CREATURES (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are HEALED (Matthew 8:16–17, 1 Peter 2:24). Jesus saved us over two thousand years ago, but we receive it now and walk in it by FAITH. Jesus healed us over two thousand years ago, we CAN receive it now and walk in it by FAITH. As soon as you choose to believe and start getting it into your heart you are on the path to being whole. Once your heart believes it — they way you believe you are human, your race, your culture, your height, your weight, and that gravity works — you WILL walk in healing. He accomplished it eons ago. Accept it. Choose to age by a calendar and not by bodily deterioration. Choose not to be limited by family history. Sure, there might be more to it than that. We’re to be good stewards. Prayer sometimes needs to be applied in strategic ways. But NOTHING happens before you have FAITH in your HEARTSCAPE for EVERYTHING JESUS ALREADY DID FOR YOU. You cannot see it, but it is real. You cannot see it, but you can touch it with your spirit. You cannot see it, but it is YOURS. Everything you can see in ANY way is malleable. It can change. Why not change it into what God says it can be? He loves you so much, His vision is rich and deep. Jump in. The waters are fine.

Your Daily Confession of God’s love to YOU:

Today God loves that I _______.