1 John 4:18 There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.
Isaiah 60:1-2 Arise, shine; for thy light is come, and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee. For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the Lord shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.
Ever since the Garden of Eden where the story began and our first parents sinned, fear has permeated humankind. The fracturing of relationships, God to man, man to man, man to woman, engendered a universal pandemic of fear and alienation. Fear supplied the Adversary, Satan ("satan" means adversary in Hebrew) with a powerful means for control, manipulation, and deception of fallen humanity, with nearly infinite varieties of expression.
In this light, 1 John 4:18 is perhaps one of the most significant and profound statements in all of scripture, and one which we do well to memorize, meditate upon, and pray into. "There is no fear in love..." In a sense we could say that fear is the greatest enemy of love. If love is our goal, if God is love and we seek to be like Him, then fear must be acknowledged and banished from our motivations. This may not be easy, but is a worthy and entirely possible approach.
Whatever causes fear in us will be a test; it will bring out our best...or worst response. The emotional or even physical reaction of "fight" or "flight" will threaten to overwhelm my connection with God's Spirit within. If I allow fear to manipulate or control me and drive me into a reactive mode rather than a responsive Spirit-controlled one, love will evaporate. This reaction to fear might simply be expressed by another F-E-A-R acronym, Forget Everything And Run....or Fight Everything And Ram.
But how about Face Everything And Rise!!! Those who do will reveal the growing perfection in love which is our inheritance in Messiah Yeshua. Where love is made perfect fear is cast out! With fear conquered we are equipped to be light in the darkness because the Holy Spirit in us will not be quenched from revealing the glory of God through us.
Can you imagine a more perfect time in these days of growing darkness to take this word to heart? Can you begin to fathom the opportunity to rise above your fears and to reveal the glory of God? How to do it? Cast anxieties on Him;
[1 Peter 5:7]; pray and supplicate with thanksgiving; [Philippians 4:6]; if you lack wisdom, ask with faith; [James 1:5-6]; let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; [Colossians 3:16];" fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul;[Matthew 10:28]". Face and rise above your fear now, today. The glory of the LORD will arise upon you.
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[worthy_plugins_devotion_single_body]The Jewish leaders of His time rejected Yeshua (Jesus) when He first came. He didn’t meet their expectations. They were expecting a Messiah who would bring relief from the Romans, restore the Kingdom of David, and usher in an era of tranquility throughout the world. It is probable that their intense jealousy of Yeshua blinded them to the numerous passages in the Tenach (OT) which describe Messiah as a suffering servant, since they were certainly aware of those passages.
As thousands of believers around the world will celebrate Palm Sunday, I thought I’d offer some additional historical insight into the day Yeshua (Jesus) entered Jerusalem. Most people associate Palm Sunday with the fulfillment of Zechariah 9:9, “Behold, thy King cometh unto thee: he is just, and having salvation; lowly, and riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass”. But there is another significant detail associated with this beautiful fulfillment…
I could tell you about countless difficult and drawn out circumstances over which we have tried to stand firmly in faith until they finally came to pass. Sometimes we made it and sometimes we were weak and began to doubt. But God mercifully came through for us on most of these things, despite our lack of strength to stay faith-ful.
New Testament genealogies of Yeshua Ha Mashiach (Jesus the Christ) all identify Him as the son of king David. It was universally understood from the Tenach (OT) that the messiah would be descended from David and that he would restore the Davidic monarchy to its ultimate and most universal expression, even that this king would reign and sit on the throne forever.
This weekend, the Jewish people will celebrate the festival of Purim. This holiday commemorates Israel’s amazing reversal in Persia during the reign of King Xerxes (Ahasuerus) when Queen Esther and her uncle Mordecai gained victory for the Jews and protected them from annihilation at the hands of the evil Haman.
Over two decades ago, when I moved to Israel, I had the opportunity to spend considerable time with a pastor and his wife. This pastor imparted significant wisdom to me during that period, counseling me to “be like the children of Issachar,” he directed me to this specific passage in 1 Chronicles 12.
Over the past few days, I’ve been discussing the will of God and how to walk out His will daily in our lives. The Lord’s general will involves the development of our character and the ways in which we relate to Him and to our fellow man. Much of this is the same for every believer. But each of us is unique, and each has a potential life vision unlike any other. God has an individual will for every soul that belongs to Him, an individually shaped destiny which varies according to our gifting and calling and purpose in His Body.