Communion

This is a series of devotions and meditations on Scripture that reject fear in any form. It emphasizes the power of faith and trust in God and highlights how Jesus has already won every victory in our lives. The transcription goes on to explain the significance of Jesus' sacrifice and the power of His blood. It emphasizes that through faith and grace, we have access to all the blessings and promises of God. The transcription concludes by reminding us of our worth and value in God's eyes and the unconditional love He has for us. Welcome to Fear No Fear. Grace to you from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. May the Holy Spirit embrace you today. This is a series of devotions and meditations on Scripture. We reject fear in any and all forms. Fear is a spiritual force, the currency of darkness and ignorance. It's what we inherited when Adam gave up his faith and Satan uses it to keep people down. His only weapon is words. If he can get you believing or looking at words of fear, he's got you. Instead, we champion faith as an allegiance to God, as a belief and trust and loyalty to the Lord God Almighty. We accept the evidence of His Word as unvarnished truth, as is, just as it's written. We get close to His perfect love through the Word, and perfect love casts out fear. 1 John 4.18 All Scripture is taken from the World English Bible, which is in the public domain. Visit eBible.org 2 Chronicles 20.15 And He said, Listen, all Judah, and you inhabitants of Jerusalem, and you, King Jehoshaphat, Yahweh says to you, Don't be afraid, and don't be dismayed because of this great multitude, for the battle is not yours, but God's. And again in verse 17, You will not need to fight this battle. Set yourselves, stand still, and see the salvation of Yahweh with you, O Judah and Jerusalem. Don't be afraid, nor be dismayed. Go out against them tomorrow, for Yahweh is with you. One of the greatest revelations you can ever take home to your heart is the realization that God has already won every victory in your life. He has healed every sickness, saved every soul, removed all authority from the devil, defeated every evil spirit, done every miracle. Jesus did it all at the cross. In John 19.30, it tells us that when Jesus, therefore, had received the vinegar, He said, It is finished. He bowed his head and gave up his spirit. Finished. The Greek word here, tetelestai, translates as it has been finished, or it has been accomplished. If you look up its root meanings, you get finish, accomplish, consummate, discharge, settle, or settle tribute. I find that last interesting. A tribute is something given or contributed voluntarily, as due or deserved. A gift or service showing respect. Something that indicates the worth, virtue, or effectiveness of the one in question. A payment by one ruler to another in acknowledgement of submission or as a price of protection. There is a lot in this word. This is not a light, frivolous thing. This is serious stuff. This is payment paid. Settled. Remember Genesis 2, 16-17. Yahweh God commanded the man, saying, You may freely eat of every tree of the garden, but you shall not eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for in the day that you eat of it, you will surely die. As soon as Adam ate of the fruit, he was a doomed man, under verdict of death. Man had to die because man rebelled. The disobedience had on it the price of death. Jesus, a man, paid it. Debt discharged. Consummated. Accomplished. Finished. That was the price of sin paid. But there was more to it than that. Jesus' blood, released by the breaking of his body, is the most powerful substance in the universe. And Jesus shed it seven times. Number one, in the Garden of Gethsemane. Luke 22, 39-46. Toiling to get by, to just get sustenance, is a symbol of the curse right from the fall at Eden. Genesis 3, 17-19. It started in a garden, and in a garden, Jesus finished it. We no longer have to toil and sweat for sustenance. We can do the work of the Lord, and He is our sustenance. Number two. He was struck on the face. Matthew 26, 67. Your face is symbolic of your glory, of your self-esteem. Jesus removes slander against us, and restores our glory. Jesus removes self-slander, and restores our self-esteem. We can be perfect in Jesus. We don't need to look down on ourselves, or have others do the same. Believe what God says about you. He does not sell you short. Number three. His beard was ripped out. That's Isaiah 50, verse 6. There are two instances of the face-beating of Jesus. The tearing of beards was a punishment, sometimes inflicted by Jews, because it was shameful. Some people have said that the Roman soldiers, clean-shaven themselves, could have enjoyed mocking a condemned Jew in this way. Regardless of who did it, the words in Isaiah mean to have the face peeled, or the beard plucked out. Jesus removed our shame, when His own symbol of honor and dignity was torn out by the bloody roots. Number four. Jesus was scourged. Matthew 27, 26. Mark 15, 15. John 19, 1. Isaiah 53, 5. Matthew 8, 17. First Peter 2, 24. He was scourged to bring us healing. Any kind of healing, spiritual and physical. He bled so we can have our health back, redeemed from the curse. Jesus removes sickness. Exodus 23, 25. Number five. The curse as laid out by God Himself in Genesis 3, 17-18, included thorns and thistles. Jesus took those upon Himself in the crown of thorns. Matthew 27, 29. Mark 15, 17. And John 19, 2-3. The bounty that Adam should have enjoyed was replaced by the poverty of thorns and thistles. Jesus took that poverty on Himself and removed it from us. It enables us to enjoy the blessings of Abraham in Jesus. Number six. Jesus was nailed to the tree by His hands and His feet. Matthew 27, 35. Mark 15, 24-28. Luke 23, 33. And John 19, 16-21. Hands represent balance and productivity. Feet represent destiny. Jesus redeemed our hands so that our work, not toil and struggle, will produce. Exodus 23, 26. It's not just about human reproduction. He redeemed our feet so that our steps may be ordered by the Lord. Psalm 37, 23. Everything we touch can be blessed through His hands. Your destiny, as called by the Lord, can be unimpeded because Jesus' bloody feet walk the path out before us. When we are in Him, these are a reality and not a fond desire. Number seven. Stabbed in His side. John 19, 34. When a woman gives birth, her water breaks. When the baby comes out, it is come out in blood and water. Prophetically, the bride of Christ was born when Jesus was stabbed and blood and water poured out. The last Adam, Jesus, was put to sleep and His bride birthed. Just as Adam was put to sleep and His bride was birthed. Jesus' heart was literally broken. Jesus' blood heals broken hearts. Luke 4, 18. Psalm 147, 3. He puts them back together and enables you to continue full and whole. Nothing missing. Nothing broken. Shalom. Genesis 15, 15. Numbers 6, 24-26. In addition to all of that, Ephesians 1, 3-14 tells us, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we would be holy and without defect before Him in love, having predestined us for adoption as children through Christ Jesus to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His desire, to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He freely gave us favor in the Beloved, in whom we have our redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses, according to the riches of His grace, which He made to abound toward us in all wisdom and prudence, making known to us the mystery of His will, according to His good pleasure, which He purposed in Him to an administration of the fullness of the times, to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens and the things on the earth in Him. We were also ensigned an inheritance in Him, having been foreordained, according to the purpose of Him who does all things after the counsel of His will, that we should be to the praise of His glory, we who had before hope in Christ. In Him you also, having heard the word of truth, the good news of your salvation, in whom, having also believed, you were sealed with the promised Holy Spirit, who is a pledge of our inheritance, to the redemption of God's own possession, to the praise of His glory. Add that together and it is a lot. In fact, it is everything, everything, all price paid for sin, all redemption from the curse, all healing, all prosperity, all of us born again in Christ, and an all new spirit, His, to hold it all, and circulate it through our spirit, soul, body, existence, until every cell of every corner of our being is saturated, renewed, and restored in Jesus, by Jesus, and because of Jesus. And He did it all by grace, out of love for you, for us all. Our spiritual existence is to be one of wholeness and blessing. The rest of us is to be healthy and prosperous because of that. 3 John 1-2 Just as Jesus told His disciples in Matthew 6-33 But seek first God's kingdom and His righteousness and all these things will be given to you as well. If we don't accept salvation, if we don't abide in Jesus, we aren't eligible for any of it. But if we are saved, and if we abide in Jesus, then we have access to it all. By grace, through faith, Jesus gave it to us. Everything. You don't need to ask Him to move for you, or work for you. He already did. All you need to do is use the faith Jesus gives us and receive it. Faith is nothing but believing that He did, in fact, do it. Faith is being fully persuaded. Not believing it will be, but believing as in, I believe it. Like you believe in breathing. Gravity. That the world is a planet. Like you believe you exist. This is not hard to do, just hard to understand. But remember this, you've already done it once. You did it when you got saved. You heard some words. You believed those words. By faith, you accepted those words. And then, you received the offered gift by those words. By grace, through faith. We believe the impossible fact that Jesus was the seed of God the Father Almighty, born through a virgin woman, fully man, and fully God. We believe the impossible fact that Jesus physically died, was buried, stayed there three days, and then was resurrected to physical life, raised up in perfect glory and righteousness. We believe the impossible fact that Jesus did it not because He deserved it, but because we deserved it. He paid the price for us because He loves us as we are and as we will be. These aren't things you can see, touch, hear, feel, understand, or prove in double-blind clinical trials. But we believe it by faith through grace, and we get saved. He did it then. We accept it now. Set free from the law of death and sin. Reborn into God's kingdom as co-heirs with Jesus and the children of both Abraham and God the Father almighty. Romans 8, 17. Why would anything else having to do with faith and the kingdom of God be any different? Jesus prayed and performed miracles. He didn't beg God for them. Jesus stood on His authority and cast out demons. He stood on His authority and cast out sickness. He stood on His authority and Jesus was fully man and operating by the Holy Spirit which came on Him at His baptism. Mark 1, 10. Before that point, Jesus was sinless, but just like us. Same faith, same abilities, same authority. The Holy Spirit came on Him and changed all that. It gave Him God's faith. It gave Him God's power. It gave Him God's guidance. How do we know that? How do we know that? Jesus said so. For I spoke not from myself, but the Father who sent me. He gave me a commandment, what I should say and what I should speak. I know that His commandment is eternal life. The things therefore which I speak, even as the Father has said to me, so I speak. John 12, 49-50. And also, I can of myself do nothing. As I hear, I judge, and my judgment is righteous because I don't seek my own will, but the will of my Father who sent me. John 5, 30. And also, most certainly I tell you, the Son can do nothing of Himself, but what He sees the Father doing. For whatever things He does, these the Son also does likewise. John 5, 19. Jesus can only do the will of His Father because that is His choice. The Father has the power and gives Jesus the authority to wield it. Jesus has the authority and the power and gives it to us in faith to wield it through the Holy Spirit that rests in us and by grace which gives us Jesus' righteous nature, making us a new creation free from sin. Through that faith, we get to do things that God can understand, but we cannot. How else can we believe the impossible if not by His faith? We can't even conceive of it. God's kingdom is a kingdom of faith. It's awesome to see the things of God and experience them. It's awesomer to use His faith to receive them. That doesn't mean we can do anything on our own. Jesus was clear about that in John 15, 5. I am the vine. You are the branches. He who remains in Me and I in Him bears much fruit for apart from Me, you can do nothing. But He is also clear that we're in the same boat as Jesus, seeking not our will but the will of the Father, doing what the Father says to do, speaking what the Father says to speak, and having all things possible by Him through ourselves because we are in Him. It's a profound truth and a wonderful gift. Jesus told us, Most certainly I tell you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do, he will do also. And he will do greater works than these because I am going to my Father. John 14, 12. That is quite the promise. Start believing it today and move some mountains in your life. Believe it and receive everything that God has for us. All that Jesus did for you and everyone else. Be fully persuaded. There's nothing else like it. Our daily affirmation of God's love is Job 7, 17 to 18. Have you seen the images from the James Webb Space Telescope that have started coming in? They're fuzzy but startling in their possibilities. Just reading a little of the images that could come back makes me let out a breath of wonder. And yet with all this majesty and glory and amazing vistas, God chose us. He chose you. You. As you are to spend time with, to talk to, to hug, to listen to, to love. We have value to the God of everything and all there has ever been. That is something special. You are something special. As we close, remember that you have worth. You are precious and valuable. Declare this. Today God loves that I now you fill in the blank. Was it a meal you made? A smile you gave? Did you get out of bed? Read? Put on socks? There's no wrong answers here. There is no end to God's love and no end to the things about you that he loves each and every day. And remember, the Lord loves you just because you're you. First John 4 9-10 tells us, By this, God's love was revealed in us that God has sent his only-born Son into the world, that we might live through him. And this is love, not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as the atoning sacrifice for our sins. His perfect love turned away God's wrath because of sin, and it casts out our fear too. See verses 18 and 19. He loves because he first loved us. He just loves us. He can't get enough of us. And amen to that. See you next time.