Hebrews

” Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.” Psalm 51:10

He is renewing us. He’s cleaning out our fellowships, getting out the bad parts and keeping the good. It’s hard and it hurts… We lose friends and family, but we can’t let it get to us! We have to keep moving forward! We have to keep pushing and worshiping and praying harder than ever before! The enemy comes to devour, to destroy and divide. When a lion hunts for its prey, what does it do? Well, it comes to a herd and searches for the week, the ones that are separated from its herd. The herd might not even notice the lion at first, because it comes in secret and comes in hiding, crawling through the long grass. Then it spots its target, and then snatches the separated one and kills it. The herd needs to stay together! They can drive the lion away if they band together and fight! One big herd against one lion will win.

What I’ m trying to show here is how the enemy is searching for believers who have separated themselves from their fellowship. Ones who are falling away. I’ m not saying you have to be in a congregation, or that if you’re not then the devil is coming to take you to hell. What I really want to hit on is how we NEED fellowship. To have that brother or sister in Messiah to pray with you, counsel you, worship beside you, and be there to give an encouraging word or be used by the Father to speak into your life. Iron sharpens iron, right? Then how can we sharpen each other if we’re never communicating to one another? Fellowshiping? The enemy is causing us to get angry with each other, causing us to gossip, to hate one another! Yeshua says that if you hate someone then you’ve already committed murder in your heart. We cannot do that! We are supposed to be a light in the world! To live in Spirit and Truth and preach to the nations! How can a unbeliever follow someone who has too much hate in they’re heart? Because if they see that anger in you, that extremism, the constant disagreeing, the fighting, the bickering, the hypocrisy, they are going to want to flee from God! Because all they see is a bunch of stubborn people who can’t agree on Kosher, or Feast day ” Timing”, moon cycles, and silly things that aren’t even a big deal. I’ m sorry if this offends you but we really have to stop! We are supposed to be the body of Messiah! But we’re broken.

Lets look at some scripture verses on fellowship and congregation.

” The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. BUT if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” Matthew 6:22-23

” As a prisoner for the Lord, then, I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received. Be completely humble and gentle; be patient, bearing with one another in love. Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace. There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called to one hope when you were called; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is over all and through all and in all.” Ephesians 4:1-6

” May God our Father and our Lord Yeshua bring us to you very soon. And may the Lord make your love for one another and for all people grow and overflow, just as our love for you overflows. May He, as a result, make your hearts strong, blameless, and holy as you stand before God our Father when our Lord Yeshua comes again with all His holy people. Amen.” 1 Thessalonians 3:11-13

” In the presence of God and of Messiah Yeshua, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of His appearing and His kingdom, I give you this charge: Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction. For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths. But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry” 2 Timothy 4:1-5

That last verse really sticks out to me. It’s exactly whats going on today in ministries! People are turning from sound doctrine, or ” A balanced teaching” and going to conspiracy theories and weird things that DON’T line up with Gods Word. Guys, we have to stay balanced. We can’t have spiritual ADD. Its not good! Trust me, I’ve just been realizing this now! I’ve been letting other peoples ideas of things get to me and I let it cause me to let anger in me, and to not love the body of Messiah! We can’t let the enemy win! He’s coming to divide us! And cause us to leave our fellowship because one, tiny, silly, disagreement. We agree on A TON of things don’t we? I’ m not being sarcastic, we actually do agree on more things than we do disagree! That’s great! We agree on keeping Kosher, we agree to keep The Feasts Of The Lord, To keep Shabbat! And the ultimate agreement is, we believe in Yeshua! The Son of God! Who came to earth that He created and walk with us who are dirty and full of sin… Who died on the cross so we could be renewed and born again! So that He could get rid of the laws of the Pharisees ( Who were extremists) and showed us how to keep the Torah in a balanced way! He didn’t do away with the Law, He just showed us how to live it and be filled with His Spirit while we walk in Spirit and Truth! That, my friends, is perfect balance. Walking with one another in this agreement! We agree when we all stand in the presence of our Savior and we worship as one body! We worship in Spirit and Truth! Please, fellowship with each other! Please, find your balance, find friends who will walk with you! You will never EVER agree 100%, but you have to try and get along with one another! I urge you to please try!

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Yeshua, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” Hebrews 10:19-25

Faith- A strong trust or belief in something you cannot see
Fear- Unbelief, Doubt; To dread; to be afraid of; to be anxious.
These are the definitions of fear and faith! As you can see they are completely opposite. Fear and faith cannot occupy something at the same time. Except for when you fear someone out of respect. Like God says we are to fear Him, He doesn’t mean to be afraid of Him! He’s our Dad! He wants us to respect Him and love Him. Have a deep respect for the Father. So let’s talk about fear. FEAR is NOT given by God.
“ For God has not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.” 2 Timothy 1:7

A sound mind! That’s something we should all have! That never-ending trust in the Father! The complete faith in Him, no fear, no worry, no anxiety, none of that. But, we are human! So this isn’t the case for us. We do worry, we do fear sometimes. But that’s okay! Just know that when you feel that way you have to stop what you’re doing and pray! Pray for it to leave you, pray for peace and a sound mind! He is our comforter! He will get us through. Nothing good comes out of fear. We can’t live our life being afraid of everything. We need to be positive! We need to live our lives boldly so that all can see God’s power working in your life! People will see you and in a stressful situation, you could be the calmest person and everyone is going to think you are crazy! And they will ask, “ Are you crazy? Why aren’t you freaking out right now?” And then you can say. “ Because God gives me peace. I know He’s in control.” And they will be amazed. That’s all you have to do. And you can be that person that they will go to for advice and they might even start to ask you some things about the Bible. So you can really change someone’s life by just making a small change in your thinking process.
So what happens when you walk into a room with no light? It’s overtaken by darkness. You start to get scared! It’s unfamiliar, you don’t know what’s in the room, if there is a hole somewhere, you know nothing! You are completely surrounded by darkness. So you just curl up in a ball, start to panic, cry, or whatever it is you would do in that situation. But then, you discover, there’s a light switch! That light switch is faith! And all you have to do is flip the switch and then what? What happens when you turn on a light in a dark room? Darkness HAS TO FLEE! It has no choice! It cannot stay! It cannot occupy that space anymore. Sure that light might create some shadows, because our lives aren’t perfect, but we know that God will always make the darkness go.
The Bible says a lot about faith!

“ Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.” Hebrews 11:1
“ But WITHOUT faith it is IMPOSSIBLE to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him. ( And it continues on explaining the faith of Noah) By FAITH Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with Godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of righteousness which is according to FAITH.” Hebrews 11:6-7

You can also continue to read and it talks about the faith of Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, the harlot Rehab! And the writer of Hebrews keeps going on how things were done by FAITH! These people of God lived by faith! They believed and they overcame many things because they had faith! We can look to them for example! They were just ordinary people like you and me! But what made them go from ordinary to extraordinary? Having faith in God! They accomplished amazing things because our Father, who still does amazing things today, used them because they had faith! God is always working “behind the scenes” in our lives. He does things for us that we probably don’t even notice. So we must thank Him always and trust Him with our lives! He has already done so much for us that we take for granted! He gave us life! He breathes air into our lungs! He gives us power to heal the sick and to lead nations to Him! He gives us everything! He IS our provider. He gives us faith. How do we get faith?

“ So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the WORD of God.” Romans 10:17

We get faith by HEARING! Hearing worship music, by hearing a good teaching, by HEARING the Word of God! Not just reading it in your head, but declaring the words out loud so that you can hear every word! It gives you faith. Try it out and see! It really does work!
Spend time in prayer and worship in your secret place and establish your relationship with the King of Kings! Trust Him. We CAN lean on God! We can depend on Him and Him alone! Faith does not mature or strengthen without trial or persecution. We need to go through things to learn and to get a deeper faith! Going through trials is a stepping stone closer to God. You can either trip over it and curse God, or you can use it as a step UP! Use them as stairs to go up to the throne of God! He sustains us to keep us coming closer and closer to Him! If you fall, stand back up and keep going! When you’ve done all you can to stand, just stand.

Tag Archives: Hebrews

Fellowship

Fear vs Faith!