FREE FROM FEAR Part 16
Yesterday we learned about the power of knowledge and how God wants his kingdom to operate on earth just like it does in heaven. Therefore, it is essential to keep in mind that fear does not come from God. “For God has not given us a spirit of fear, but of love and of power and of a sound mind.” 2 Tim 1:7 Since we know that fear does not come from God, then we know that before the fall, Adam and Eve had no fear. We also know that “perfect love casts out fear.” 1 John 4:18 When the Bible speaks of perfect love, it is speaking of the love that comes from God.
1 John 4:10 This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.
So, the perfected love that we need does not come from us but rather from God. Again, Adam and Eve stepped out of a relationship with God and, therefore, out of intimacy with his love (the Holy Spirit). Their righteousness, or their trying to feel right about themselves, was coming from being under the law and, therefore, producing shame, condemnation, and fear.
If perfect love casts out fear, then Adam and Eve had to have been separated from the love of God. If Adam and Eve realized they were naked, it had to have been the result of no longer living in the atmosphere of God’s love.
So how is this curse reversed? How can we once again step into the life of intimacy with God and his love? To do this, let’s break down what happened to Adam and Eve and then reverse it.
Here’s the sequence of Adam and Eve’s fall:
They ate the fruit of knowledge and became one-with or married to the law.
They realized they were naked. Seeing their fault, they became guilty before God.
They received fear because they were naked, afraid of their impending punishment.
They hid from God.
So, let’s reverse the sequence:
By faith, partake (eat) of the knowledge of God’s righteousness and your complete right standing with him through the sacrifice of Jesus Christ. Receive your oneness with God and wholly accept that you are forever free from accusation and will always be loved, protected, and provided for by God.
Realize that you are perfectly naked before God and, therefore, without fault in his eyes. Because of your perfect standing with God, by faith, receive the wholeness of God’s love for you and your extreme value in his sight as portrayed in the sacrifice of his only Son. You are perfect in his sight – nothing missing, nothing broken –complete and perfect before God!
Accept the blood of Jesus as payment for your sin. You are no longer guilty. Accept your co-death, burial, and resurrection with Jesus Christ that makes you perfect in God’s sight.
Instead of hiding from God accept his love and live inside of Christ, connected to him at all times as a branch continually abides in the vine and bears much fruit.
It was faith in the serpent’s words and in what the tree of the knowledge of good and evil could give them that caused Adam and Eve to become intimate with or bound to the law. The fruit that they partook of was accessed by faith. Faith is what taps you into the provision of God for your perfect standing with him and causes you to return to the existence of being forever loved, forgiven, and free.
Romans 5:5 says, “The love of God has been shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Spirit.”
Jesus said, “To him who believes, all things are possible.” Mark 9:23 So the question becomes, do you believe? Also, is it possible to grow in faith? Tomorrow we will dive deeper into understanding the role faith plays in your being able to live the life that is…
FREE FROM FEAR
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