THE SYMPTOM OF FEAR

 If our hope does not come from love, is it faith or just wishful thinking?

For years I knew what I believed but I didn't really choose to believe until I came to know the Word of God for myself. When I received the knowledge of truth, I turned to Christ and began to live by faith in Him. At that time I was experiencing every symptom of fear. Before we turn to Christ we live from fear and not from love. Sometimes fear can feel like love. But the purpose of fear is to tear down. There is a purpose for everything under the sun. And the purpose for fear is to break up the fallow ground so to speak. The root of selfishness is fear. Intimidation comes from fear. Insecurity comes from fear. Addiction comes from fear. Abuse comes from fear. People are afraid of exposure so they spend their whole life trying to prove that either everything that happens is Gods will or that there is no god and they attempt to find fulfillment in the things they do. Both are wrong. Hope is a funny thing. People who smoke, hope they don't get lung cancer. Unmarried people who are sexually active, hope they don't get an infection. People who overeat, hope they don't get too big. People who lie, hope they don't get caught. And then spend a majority of their time protecting the lie, the food, the sex, the addiction- hoping not to get sick from the actual cause which is selfishness that comes from fear. 

I know I always bring everything back to Scripture and I'm sure it makes the eyes roll for people who don't know Jesus. But He really does heal, He really does save and His Word really is the Truth that sets us free. If whatever you have been taught didn't set you free, I'd bet my life that it wasn't the TRUTH.  

Have you received the knowledge of truth? And are you living from faith because of truth?

Guilt is a weird thing. People do all sorts of things and come up with crazy ideas in hopes to suppress their guilt. For example, I felt guilty for the first two years of my daughters life because she didn't have a dad. And because I didn't have a husband, she became the one I confided in. Without going into too much detail- this was simply not the design for family where the child takes on the role to bear the burden of the unwed parent. But that does happen. Longing to give my daughter a family where she could have a dad, I quickly married a man that I barely knew. We then had a daughter together and became a family of four. Still feeling unsettled in my heart, I went on to spend many years trying to fix on the outside something that was broken on the inside. After divorce, I again remarried quickly still attempting to fill this void that made me want to end my life. I thought that if I could just get married and stay married then the void would go away. I am leaving so much of this story out intentionally because someday I hope there is more to this testimony. But this was the pattern of my life- trying to readjust behavior, atmosphere and everything on the outside in hopes that this longing in my heart would go away or be fulfilled. It turned out the hope was in vain and nothing resulted from it except lies, addiction, affairs and hopelessness. Will power can do a lot but it will never set you free. Good behavior can keep bad consequences at bay, but it will never take away the longing in your heart to know God. Being kind can make you feel better about yourself and give you a counterfeit feeling of self worth and value. But it can never take away the longing you have for connection. 

After we receive the knowledge of truth and if we do not live from faith- there is no sacrifice left. When we live from fear (which is the outcome of not putting our faith in Christ) the expectation becomes a vain attempt to avoid the reality of judgement and fire that consumes the enemies of God. Colossians 1:21, Once you were alienated from God in your mind because of your evil behavior. Evil behavior comes from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. Good and evil became the experience of humanity when Adam ate the fruit of the tree. The problem is that a bad tree cannot bear good fruit. Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. We are all born eating from the tree of knowledge of good and evil. This is the fall of man. Because of Adams disobedience man fell short of the glory of God. There was a consequence for disobedience. Disobedience is what happens when one does not believe. Adam did not believe God that he would die. He believed the serpent that he would be like God and not die. The result of that, is the man was separated from God and the image in which he was created. The immediate result of unbelief is disobedience. The immediate result of disobedience is fear and shame. This is the curse of the law of sin and death. Mankind has been trying to remove this curse without putting their faith in Christ. God told Adam, "Cursed is the ground because of you; through painful toil you will eat food from it all the days of your life. It will produce thorns and thistles for you, and you will eat the plants of the field. By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and dust you shall return." So then man began to live under the curse of the law, men toiling and women laboring in pain, being ruled by her husband. We see man taking pride in their toil and women rebelling against the curse by wanting to be independent of man proving herself to be her own provider. Both are in error. These are the operations of fear given by the curse of the law of sin and death. Man has been trying and trying and trying to work himself approved since he fell short of the glory of God. Women have been rebelling and manipulating for years and years and years trying to prove their worth. This is the work of the curse and unless you put your trust in Jesus Christ, you will live under this curse for the rest of your earthly and eternal life. I promise you, you cannot outsmart God and the only way out is to surrender. Satan wants to take your life, but Jesus came to give you His.

By our fallen nature, man is an enemy of God in his mind/heart/conscience. Our old self/nature/inheritance from Adam is crucified in Christ so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves to sin because anyone who has died has been set free from sin. If we died with Christ, then we believe that we will also live with Him. (This is the first death- not the second death which is our physical death).

"The death He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life He lives, He lives to God." Romans 6:10

Our flesh/old self/mortal body/old nature is our identity in Adam.

Our new self/born again spirit/ immortal body/ new nature is our identity in Jesus Christ.

Through our new life in Christ we receive a new spirit, not one of fear like the one we received from Adam. Fearing the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Adam did not fear the Lord so he ate the fruit of the forbidden tree. The fruit of disobedience is the fear of the Lord. This is the beginning of wisdom. Disobedience brings suffering. Suffering produces obedience. Don't believe me? Look up Hebrews 5:8, "Jesus learned obedience through what He suffered." The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, not the fruition of wisdom. Fear has to do with punishment. Fear was the punishment for unbelief. The only thing that removes fear is love. Perfect love casts out all fear. Satan holds the power of death. Your fears are rooted in death- because death happened to Adam when he ate the tree. The only way to be free from the power of death is to allow Jesus Christ to give you life. Sure, you can toil and toil and try to prove you can do it. But you are wasting the precious time you have here on earth. The Kingdom of God is in our midst, right now. Do you understand that God became a man and made a way for us to be free today, right now and we can be reborn from above and receive a new spirit that will never die or be again taken from us? Too many people have more faith in the identity of Adam than they do the finished work of Jesus Christ. It is not in fear that we have been predestined for adoption to sonship, but in love, we have been predestined for adoption to sonship through Jesus Christ! He freely gives this to ALL who believe in the One God loves! God resolved everything we need IN CHRIST to restore us back to HIS IMAGE!! Christ is the One God loves and until we are reborn in Him, we will never know how much God loves us. Without a revelation of Gods love, all we have is a vain attempt to make life more comfortable under the curse, hoping death will save us when our time is up. The unrest of man is only a symptom. The wrestle with God is evidence that you are in the beginning of wisdom. Maybe today can be the day that you stop trying to prove yourself and maybe today can be the day that you cry out to God and say I TRUST THE FINISHED WORK OF YOUR SON and no matter what it looks like on the outside, I thank you God for sending me your Son, it is through Him and only through Him that I am cleansed, that I am free, that I am forgiven, that I am made new, I am no longer under the curse, I no longer have anything to prove because You have given me the name above every other name and by the power of that name, the name of Jesus I am saved, just as if I never (fill in the blank). I pray today you receive the life Jesus paid for you to have in  every area of your life. To God be the glory forever and ever! 

Love you all, 

Talli