Fear No Fear

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

Yet it was I who led Ephraim; I took them by the arm, but they did not acknowledge that I had healed them.
Hosea 11:3 (emphasis added)

Thanksgiving is a POWERFUL force of the Kingdom because THANKFULNESS is rooted in BELIEF. It’s true. We aren’t thankful for what we aren’t expecting. There is a grace about thanksgiving. It is the ability for us to except the promise of Adonai. This is VITAL. “because we are not looking at what can be seen but at what cannot be seen. For what can be seen is temporary, but what cannot be seen is eternal” (2 Corinthians 4:18). This isn’t because we cannot physically see a thing. This is because we are thankful for what we KNOW is coming based on the WORD of who tells us of the blessing.

We experience this almost every day. We are told we’re getting a raise or we’ve been accepted for a job. It isn’t instantaneous. We aren’t immediately putting on the uniform, taking up the duties, or getting a paycheque. There is usually a time of preparation or training, a start date you wait for, or a next pay period where the new amount will be active. It isn’t instantaneous. But we are THANKFUL. We KNOW it will come to pass. We trust the WORDS we are told, regardless of the physical reality. We KNOW those words will come to be with such certainty, it is as if we are experiencing the result NOW. Why do we assume it is all different when we talk about Adonai?

“At that time you will say: “Praise the Lord! Ask him for help! Publicize his mighty acts among the nations. Make it known that he is unique. Sing to the Lord, for he has done magnificent things; let this be known throughout the earth. Cry out and shout for joy, O citizens of Zion, for the Holy One of Israel acts mightily among you!”” (Isaiah 12:4-6). Thank the Lord! Why wouldn’t we? Why wouldn’t we thank Him for what He does? No one ELSE can do the things. No one ELSE is promising these things. Why stop because we haven’t seen them physically around us or in our life YET? We don’t whine and bang on the bosses door. No. We wait because we KNOW the raise is coming. When Adonai promises things we can KNOW they are coming. Sure, we don’t know the timeline, but we KNOW with CERTAINTY it will happen. It will arrive. HE knows the exact. WE know He can be trusted. Thank Him. Don’t get caught up in the ‘but I’.

‘But I’ is when we let our flesh determine what it is that we are seeing. We see our circumstances. We see people who are rubbing us wrong. We see the events of the world. We see the bank balance. We see our clothes. We see our health. We see all the storms of life and all that is around us. That is what creates the ‘but I’. It is a false perception. It is based not on the promise of the Word, but on the past. What we got last time. What happened before. What we saw in the life of someone else. And we apply that to ourselves today. It’s a false narrative. It makes about as much sense as letting how I feel run my life.
Let me be clear. I do not get up and ‘feel’ like going to work that often. If I let that feeling run the show, I’ll be using up sick days, personal days, mental health days, and every other kind of day until I finally am forced to be at work every scheduled moment or be fired. I do not always ‘feel’ like spending time with my spouse. If I let that feeling run my relationship I risk getting sucked into an endless spiral of ‘me time’ or ‘de-stress time’ or ‘unwinding time’ that will do NOTHING to build our relationship. I run the risk of alienating them bit by bit until we are living two separate lives in one house, probably headed toward two separate lives period. This is what feelings can do when they are the marker by which you make decisions. The problem is I can change my feelings by choice. I can choose to be happier. I could smile more or do some other happy-type behaviour. Once the flesh gets the message, I find I ‘feel’ happier. Nothing changed by what I chose to do.

Feelings are important. They are markers so that we realise where our flesh is at. Cold, hot, happy, sad, passionate, morose, anxious, depressed, etc. We don’t stop there. We use our minds to choose the emotion we want. We choose to take that feeling and deal with it. Cold? Put on more layers or turn up the thermostat, for example. Anxious, choose to rely on Adonai. Using the Word. Using gratitude. Praising Him. Letting our attitude with Him change our feeling with us. Simple, but not always easy.

Thanksgiving is one of the major tools we have on our toolbox to make those kinds of decision. To make those kinds of shifts. We have the ability to look at everything Yahweh has ALREADY done for us and praise Him for them. Each and every one – maybe not all in one sitting. We praise and thank Him and get to focus on what He has done. This reinforces our belief and trust in what He has yet to do. We can take past actions to predict future ones. He blessed us then, He’ll bless us again. Take those two and you can decide to accept that we were blessed then, will be blessed, and are blessed now as well – no matter what the ‘but I’ thinks.

It is EXACTLY like being told of a promotion that will get us out of our current position, but temporarily leaving us in that position. We are blessed NOW even though nothing has changed. But our ATTITUDE moves and shapes reality around us until we are JOYFUL in our NOW because our ANY DAY NOW is so great. When we CHOOSE to be grateful and thankful for everything Adonai is GOING TO DO it revolutionises and changes what our right now feels like. It is the best way to be thankful in ALL circumstances. Eager for what He is going to do with this thing that has arisen. Expecting miracles because look how hopeless this seems. A lifetime of JOY and PEACE in what Adonai WILL and DOES do.

Never forget to be thankful. Never forget to be grateful. Practise enables us to see the perfection that we are IN JESUS (2 Corinthians 5:21) and the perfection we will be EVEN MORE when we stand before the Throne. If we do NOT deny the blessing that IS COMING, we won’t hinder its arrival. Don’t leave the airport before the plane arrives – especially if it is just delayed by a little stormy weather. Stand where He says to stand: on His Word which NEVER fails (Luke 1:37).

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Job 19:23-27

““O that my words were written down! O that they were written on a scroll! O that with an iron chisel and with lead they were engraved in a rock forever! As for me, I know that my Redeemer lives, and that as the last he will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has been destroyed, yet in my flesh I will see God, whom I will see for myself, and whom my own eyes will behold, and not another. My heart grows faint within me.” Our Redeemer LIVES. This is a POWERFUL Messianic promise. The Redeemer who will pay the price for us and offer us a way to be saved will LIVE. Perhaps it was one of the reasons the Pharisees had trouble believing. They saw Jesus’ body die, after all. But just like Abraham was certain Yahweh would provide the sacrifice, this promise shows with certainty that the Messiah cannot be kept down. Messiah WILL be the Living One. Jesus was raised to life, the stone being moved so we could see the truth of that. A stone didn’t stop Him from leaving the tomb. Death did stop Him from rising up. Nothing could stop the message of Jesus. ““I tell you the solemn truth, the one who hears my message and believes the one who sent me has eternal life and will not be condemned, but has crossed over from death to life. I tell you the solemn truth, a time is coming—and is now here—when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live. For just as the Father has life in himself, thus he has granted the Son to have life in himself, and he has granted the Son authority to execute judgment because he is the Son of Man. Do not be amazed at this because a time is coming when all who are in the tombs will hear his voice and will come out—the ones who have done what is good to the resurrection resulting in life, and the ones who have done what is evil to the resurrection resulting in condemnation” (John 5:24-29). Jesus was raised through the Holy Spirit by the Father in Heaven. Jesus is alive. Jesus lives. Jesus IS Messiah!

Your Daily Confession of Jesus/Yeshua’s Identity:

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

Matthew 16:16b