Fear No Fear

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

Then your light will shine like the sunrise; your restoration will quickly arrive; your godly behavior will go before you, and the Lord’s splendor will be your rear guard.
Isaiah 58:8 (emphasis added)

The world swirls with a message at this time of the year. Between the gift-giving season and the New Year celebrations, there is an overarching message that is proclaimed: you need to earn it. Santa gives gifts to GOOD children, meaning you have to EARN your gifts. You have to alter your behaviour with your own efforts in order to be worthy of receiving the gifts you’ve asked for or desire. While adults don’t think that way per se, it also colours their shopping. They have to provide. They have to work to be able to give. Even the idea of going into debt to make it fun. It’s all about our efforts. New Year has the same shade of thinking. Yes there will be parties and celebrations, but under that is the effort for the new you. The new work to make you better. All those resolutions. The entire end and beginning of the year reinforces the very human idea that WE can do it. But we can’t.

The Tower of Babel wasn’t a fight between humanity and heaven. The people weren’t storming the gates of heaven – though there are legends to that effect. Humanity in Genesis 1:28 was given an ordinance of multiplication: “God blessed them and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply! Fill the earth and subdue it! Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and every creature that moves on the ground.”” This was reiterated after the Flood (Genesis 9:1-3). Multiplying is more than procreation. That’s part of it, but it isn’t like not having kids is disobeying this. Humans were meant to multiply in EVERY area. Multiply our influence. Multiply the Garden. Multiply our resources. Multiply the animals under our care. Multiply our teaching. Multiply our assets. To be fruitful and multiply is to have a bigger harvest just as much – if not more so – than just having the next generation. How can only a handful of people with only what they have in their hands and on their backs rule and subdue a globe? Impossible. We need to excel in EVERY area and increase that sphere until it covers the globe – which means care for and steward the assets, fruit, and resources we develop as we go. The people of what became known as Babel travelled to a location as they went along and ended up in Shinar (Babylonia). Once there, they said NO to the ordinance of Adonai. “Then they said, “Come, let’s build ourselves a city and a tower with its top in the heavens so that we may make a name for ourselves. Otherwise we will be scattered across the face of the entire earth.”” (Genesis 11:4). They wanted to be so entrenched, so visible, so secure, that no one could move them from that spot – even Adonai Himself. They were united in purpose and defiance. They weren’t honouring Adonai, but themselves. They didn’t want to fill the Earth. They wanted the Earth to bow knee and come to them. That was why their language was confused (Genesis 11:8-9). So they would do what Adonai had instructed them to do. So they COULDN’T rely on rebellious teaching and suck each other into the deception that humanity can do what they want, when they want, how they want, and still achieve victory.

We can’t do it on our own. We can do some self improvement. We can sculpt our bodies. We can train our minds. We can work on our personalities. All of that will be in our human selves. Our human thinking. Our absolute best falls short of where we COULD be. We bury this under the rug of the human idea that we created Elohim. If WE made up Elohim, then WE get to set our goals, patterns, and successes. Elohim would be subjective and determined by us. BUT, if Elohim existed outside of us, we would need to labour according to a standard that was outside ourselves. If Elohim is OBJECTIVE, what was right or wrong COULDN’T be determined by US. It could ONLY be determined by the God that was OUTSIDE. The God who had perspective. Of course that also means whatever He said was good would be good, and whatever He said was bad would be bad, and it would NOT matter what WE thought or felt. Humanity doesn’t like that. Because it takes things out of our hands. Because it means we can’t earn it. Because it means we need to go outside ourselves to get what we need, to get guidance, to get morality, to get behavioural standards, etc. It means our efforts, thinking, words, and actions are NOT the end-all, be-all that we often consider them to be. If we ever find ourselves thinking we have it handled, the Law is there to show us how wrong we are. When humans decided we could set the bar ourselves and claim whatever we wanted and Adonai didn’t really mind if we did that, Adonai gave them the Law. The Law has two parts. Physical actions and heart actions. Both are required to keep it. In order to keep it, every single thought, word, action, motivation, and emotion needed to one hundred percent line up with the standards of the Law. It was IMPOSSIBLE. Which shows us two things: we have no real idea deep down of what true righteousness is, and we cannot accomplish this in and of ourselves.

The Law is clear. The price for sin (the rebellion against Elohim) is death. It was a capital crime. Sin in and of itself needed to be dealt with. In addition, individual sins (breaking the Law) needed to be dealt with. Since they were capital crimes, they needed to be paid in blood. A sinless man rebelled, so a sinless man had to pay the price. No human qualified. To understand the seriousness of it, and to temporarily cover sin/sins so that humanity could maintain a close relationship with Adonai, the sacrificial system was introduced. Without that system to teach us, we wouldn’t really understand the process. We’d have an easier time buying into the message of the world and the devil that we can EARN salvation. That OUR efforts get us the victory we want. That we only need to focus more, work harder, concentrate better, and then we’ll unleash our inner potential and achieve all our goals, get all our stuff, and be satisfied success stories. But when we understand the need for a sacrifice, the need for full payment to clear the debt, we can reject the world’s system and the devil’s lies. We can see what is required, why it is required, and who it is that is required (the Messiah).

We can’t MAKE our healings happen. We can’t MOVE Adonai with our efforts. Our performance makes NO difference. We ONLY receive from Adonai by Grace. What WE do is submit to Adonai Elohim because He IS Adonai Elohim. We submit to His way. We acknowledge He is right and good. We give Him Lordship. Then we walk His way. His way is Merciful Grace founded on Love. Our love for Him (which motivates us to repent and avoid sin), and His love for us (which is where the Merciful Grace originates). He Covenants with us so we understand the serious connection that is possible and required. It’s the same formalised connection that exists in a modern marriage contract. Adonai is OUTSIDE Creation, but fellowships with us INSIDE Creation when we access the Way. Jesus IS the Way and it is in HIM we have the Righteousness of Elohim, so that we can fellowship with the Father. We don’t EARN it, we HAVE it IN JESUS. That’s why knowledge of the love of Jesus is so vital. It’s how we understand what’s available to us. That’s why praise is so vital. It renews our attitude toward Adonai and helps us to stay focused on His Grace from His love.

If we can see the love Jesus has for us, and we can accept Him as Messiah (the only possible worthy sacrifice to pay for sin), then as we give our lives and specific areas/aspects of our lives to Him, we encounter renewal. As we worship and praise Adonai, we give ourselves permission to receive from Him because we acknowledge He is a Good God and Well Able to Bless us. As our understanding of His love deepens, our trust in that love deepens. As we hear the Word and the Word preached, we strengthen and deepen the trust Adonai gave us to believe Him on these things. It’s all designed so we would choose to depend on Him, look to Him alone as our Source, and love Him without conditions BY CHOICE. If we don’t have this as our motivation, we have trouble receiving our healing and other blessings. If we don’t have Jesus as our foundation and consistent connection, we won’t have the proper priority for the things in our lives (from relationships to possessions) which can limit our receiving of His blessings. And if we aren’t operating in love, bitterness and unforgiveness can take up place in our lives, which can limit our receiving of His blessings. If we’re yoked with Jesus as our Saviour and Messiah, things are simple and clear. If not, they get muddied and we don’t walk where we’re meant to, how we’re meant to, and in the freedom we’re meant to. If you’re having issues with receiving, check your foundations and let Ruach HaKodesh help seal any cracks. A firm foundation makes for a wonderful landing strip for the blessings and favour of Adonai: our Sabbath rest in His Grace.

Daily Affirmation Jesus IS Messiah: Zechariah 13:7 & 12:10

““Awake, sword, against my shepherd, against the man who is my associate,” says the Lord of Heaven’s Armies. “Strike the shepherd that the flock may be scattered; I will turn my hand against the insignificant ones. . . I will pour out on the kingship of David and the population of Jerusalem a spirit of grace and supplication so that they will look to me, the one they have pierced. They will lament for him as one laments for an only son, and there will be a bitter cry for him like the bitter cry for a firstborn.” Messiah would be BOTH God AND Man. Divine AND human in equal proportions. Messiah wouldn’t qualify as a sacrifice if He wasn’t a human, since humanity is the one who rebelled and incurred the penalty for sin. Messiah wouldn’t qualify as a sacrifice if He wasn’t divine, since only a sinless sacrifice could substitute for a sinful one. Messiah had to be BOTH, or He couldn’t be Messiah. “Jesus replied, “Have I been with you for so long, and you have not known me, Philip? The person who has seen me has seen the Father! How can you say, ‘Show us the Father’?” (John 14:9). “The Father and I are one” (John 10:30). Jesus was co-equal with the Father. They were and are of ONE Spirit. Jesus IS the Word. Jesus IS divine. Jesus WAS born of a woman. Jesus WAS human. Jesus is both Elohim and human. The Living One. 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