fear

6.18.26. Fear is not just a spirit. Its a region, a realm that is outside the presence of God. -Isi Igenegba

 When Adam sinned the first thing he did was try to cover himself (the very first CYA), and the second thing he did was place himself out of sight of God. When God came to walk and talk with him, God said, "Adam, where are you?" It wasn't that God did not know where Adam was. He was pointing out to Adam that he was now living in fear, a place away from His Presence. Adam's response to God was, "I was afraid..." because the action of sin takes us out of the abiding presence of God. He had committed the one action God had told them never to do, and that placed his mind, his heart, his psyche in a realm where, from his perspective, God could not access him.

Fear is the result of sin. And fear distorts reality. "...so I hid..." Adam's sin placed him in such a distorted state that he actually believed he could hide from God. The reality is, of course, that's not possible. But living in the land of fear because of sin... what else could he have done? Own it?

This is the ploy of the defeated one, the devil. His plan is to get you in a place where you think you have to stay away from God. How childish we are to think that the Most High God could be limited in any capacity. He knows all, He sees all, and He is everywhere. 

 The psalmist wrote in Psalms 139:7-11 NKJV

[7] Where can I go from Your Spirit? Or where can I flee from Your presence? [8] If I ascend into heaven, You are there; If I make my bed in hell, behold, You are there. [9] If I take the wings of the morning, And dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, [10] Even there Your hand shall lead me, And Your right hand shall hold me. [11] If I say, “Surely the darkness shall fall on me,” Even the night shall be light about me...

So I ask myself, "Where are you?" God knows, and He has a destination in mind and has planned every turn and stop, every panaramic view, every vista, every valley, every hike, etc. Am I hiding? What am I hiding from God, keeping from Him? When I get in a place where my interaction with Jesus is cooled down, what lie from the defeated one has imbedded itself in my thinking? When I deny times God is calling me into prayer and worship, why do I demur? I must confess it is usually because I am either acting in a way unpleasing to God, or I've latched on to a selfish emotion or ambition.  

I wonder how God would have responded if Adam would have just owned it and "come boldly to the throne." That's what we have to do with fear, with deception, with sin. Call it what it is, or even if you don't know, come boldly, quickly, emphatically before the throne of Grace and get it sorted. When its easier to go hide in our business of life, in our t.v. shows, in our work, even in church, we know we have crossed the border into fear.  

"The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." Proverbs 1.7, 9.10. Sometimes we are genuinely afraid of being found out, punished, banished, hurt. The fear of God is not this kind of fear. The acknowledgement and respect of the Lord and His place in the world and your life is a more relevent way to say it. When we acknowledge God's rightful place and respect His authority-that is the beginning of wisdom. 

When we abide in a God-acknowledging place, we reject living in the realm of fear. And even if we have transgressed, we should not allow ourselves to believe that broken communication with Him hides us from Him. He provided the answer to our transgression in His Son's life, death, and resurrection. Love keeps no record of wrongs, God is love. Perfect love, His love casts out all fear.  

But, in our lives, in every circumstance what we need to do is just man up in the instance of transgression, and take it all straight to God. "God, I need a word. I need wisdom." "Holy Spirit, I need discernment." Or "Jesus, I did this..." Just come boldly before the throne of grace, trembling, if you must, just come to Him. Bring it all to Him and the fear will be gone. Because the moment you take the first step toward Him, you stepped out of that region, crossed the border of the realm of fear immediatly and into His Presence. Freedom stands at the gate of His presence and fear cannot follow you in!  

Where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom!