ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: DEALING WITH FEAR, Part 2

[Regner A Capener]

ANOTHER COFFEE BREAK: Dealing With Fear, Part 2

July 11, 2014

We have a lot of ground to cover today, so without any preliminaries, let's get underway again today with the verse from II Timothy 1:7, amplified from the Greek text: "For God has not endowed, or committed to our being and existence the spirit (the very breath and speaking forth) of fear, timidity and faithlessness; but of miraculous power, might and strength, and of agape love, and of a disciplined mind (under control and not subject to "flights of fancy")."  (RAC Translation and Amplification)

As noted in our last Coffee Break, the door to three families of fear opened up in human genesis when Adam and Eve ate of the fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil.  Return with me to the Garden and watch what unfolds.  This will be a bit lengthy so bear with me as we go through Genesis 3.  The tactics and responses we see are revelatory of the way fear gains a foothold.

"Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden?  And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden:  But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die.  And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die:  For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.

"And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.  And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.  And they heard the voice of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God amongst the trees of the garden.

"And the LORD God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?  And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

"And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat?  And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat.  And the LORD God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.

^"And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life:  And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

"Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.

^"And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life;  Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field;  In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return.

"And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living.  Unto Adam also and to his wife did the LORD God make coats of skins, and clothed them.

"And the LORD God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever: Therefore the LORD God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken.  So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life."

You see how things unfolded, right?  The serpent, Satan, uses the same kind of craftiness with Eve that he uses today on folks.  His M.O. hasn't changed one bit!  He worms his way into Eve's confidence with subtlety.  As anyone knows, "subtle" isn't an overnight proposition.  The serpent obviously had engaged in numerous conversations with Eve prior to the day in question and had gained at least a conversational confidence with her.

For some folks the question arises, "Wouldn't Eve be surprised at the serpent carrying on a conversation with her?"  Let's not forget that Adam and Eve's entire existence was supernatural -- at least by comparison to what we know today.  If a serpent began talking to us today, we'd just KNOW that there was something really weird going on!  We would definitely be on alert.  Not so in the Garden -- but that's another discussion for another day.

The serpent begins this day's discussion with the same tactic he uses today, "Hath God said?"  This is where the Fear of Evil begins.  Once you begin to question whether God has said something or not -- even when it is abundantly clear that He HAS said it -- you open the door for doubt and uncertainty; and with that uncertainty comes fear.

The serpent's questioning, however, goes way beyond that simple piece of doubt.  I will paraphrase what he said: "You mean that God restricts you from eating from one tree in the Garden?"  Eve, of course, answers back and says, "Of course we can eat of all the trees in the Garden, but that one tree we can't eat, or else we will die."

Now Satan opens the door wide with his lie: "You're not going to die!  That's stupid!  The only reason God says "Don't touch" is because He knows that if you do, you will become just like Him.  In fact, you will become gods with the ability to see just like He does, knowing good and evil."

So now God's integrity has been questioned.  Now it's OK to question God.  It's OK to doubt God's motives.  God is just trying to keep you from seeing and knowing what He knows.

Tell you what, folks!  The moment God's integrity is questioned, the moment His motives are questioned, you've thrown the door wide open for the Fear of Evil.  And THAT'S exactly what takes place!  Disobedience follows and Eve eats of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil despite the fact that the Lord has clearly warned that to ingest the fruit of that tree will induce death into the human frame.

God designed us and molded us into His image and likeness.  That's an eternal likeness!  We were designed for revelation -- NOT humanly acquired or academically-learned knowledge.  Knowledge which is acquired through human endeavor WITHOUT the revelation that flows by, through and from Holy Spirit poisons our spiritual DNA.  It becomes the HIV of the human spirit.

So.....instead of giving the fruit on the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil just a passing glance, Eve gazes at it now with longing and consideration.  "Wow!  That fruit REALLY looks good!  It looks luscious and yummy!  If I eat that, it will make me intelligent!"

And, sure enough, Eve picks a piece of ripe fruit from the tree and takes a bite.  "Mmmm...Mmmm...Mmmm, THAT tastes goooooooddd!!!"  Adam comes onto the scene just as Eve is taking the fruit off the tree and horror rips his being as he realizes what is just taking place.  You can almost feel the shaking inside as his mind races, "NOOOOOOO!!  Eve!  You can't!"  In a flash, his mind takes over and a human reasoning process unfolds.

A sinking feeling fills the pit of Adam's stomach.  The words spoken by their best friend, God, ring in his ears.  "In the day you eat thereof, you shall surely die."  Oh, Eve!  What have you done?  If you are separated from God, you will be separated from me.  If you are separated from me, you will have no one to protect and watch over you.  I will be lonely and incomplete again.  You will be lonely and incomplete in the same measure that I once knew.  I will not -- I cannot permit you to know that kind of agony.

And Adam reaches to take the fruit from his beloved, Eve, to the utter horror and surprise of the serpent.  He will partake of it, and in so doing, redeem her from the separation from him which would otherwise surely come.  Though Eve will know death, it will not be the kind of death which would have come had she been ripped from his fellowship, companionship and protection.  Adam will gladly take the death to himself, and in so doing, prevent the serpent from having her to his exclusive domain.  At the same time, in the moment Adam ate of that fruit, he brought the human race under submission to that old serpent, Satan.

OK, so I've somewhat dramatized this picture, but I wanted you to see and experience what I saw and experienced personally when I was transported in the Spirit to the Garden and watched this event unfold.  Even before I got to share this event with Della, the Lord showed her the exact sequence of these events and what Adam did.  (But that's another story that will have to wait for a different time.)

You've seen the sequence of events as they unfolded thus far, but we've yet to touch the consequences of what Adam and Eve did.

No sooner had they partaken of the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil when fear set in.  Suddenly the Glory of the Lord, which had clothed them from the moment He had breathed His life into them, vanished and they realized that they were seeing each other for the first time stripped of God's presence.  That was a scary proposition.  They had never known each other except with the Glory covering them.  The Glory of God brought a peace and love and a sense of protection they'd never been without.

So Adam and Eve tried to "fix" the situation using their own un-anointed imagination.  They took a bunch of fig leaves and stitched them together (Imagine that!  Brother, that took some doing!) to make loin coverings to protect themselves.  Why do you suppose they needed protection -- especially for their private parts?  Nobody tries to protect themselves unless they fear danger or injury or death?  There's a whole lot more here that we could go into, but we will save that for another time.

Now, the Lord shows up on the scene.  Following what had become a normal daily event, God shows up for their daily walks, their fellowship and sharing.  Adam and Eve hear the sound of the Lord walking in the Garden.  (By the way, that is a very distinctive sound!  For folks in union and fellowship with Him, that sound brings great joy and excitement.  For people who are NOT in fellowship, or who have disobeyed a very specific command of His, that sound brings.....the Fear of Evil!)

THAT is precisely what took place.  The very sound of the Lord walking in the Garden provoked such fear that they ran and hid from Him amongst the trees.  And here we see the evidence of a wicked spirit which they've opened the door to by their disobedience: the spirit of the Fear of Evil.

Consider the nature of that spirit for just a minute.  The Fear of Evil specifically targets a person's relationship with God.  If you hide from God (or at least think you can hide from Him), it's because you are afraid He's going to bring down judgment upon you.  Folks try to hide from God in the midst of religion -- and religion is a direct product of the Fear of Evil.  One of the ways people try to hide from God is to involve themselves in a lot of "good works."  They attempt to shield themselves from what they perceive as the expected wrath or anger of God because of their failures by doing something that they think will compensate with God so that He doesn't execute judgment on them.

The Fear of Evil causes folks to miss out on what Jesus did on their behalf.  This fear blinds them to the fact that there is nothing they can do that will add to the price that Jesus paid with His suffering, His death on the Cross and His resurrection -- for them!   It's one thing to minister to the widows, the orphans, the needy and to do these things because Holy Spirit has specifically directed you to do them; and it is another thing altogether to do these "good works" because you are trying to "please God."

This may shock you, but God isn't impressed with "good works" that are done just because folks are trying to please Him.  The Fear of Evil drives those kinds of good works.  God isn't looking for folks to "help" Him!  He's looking for people who will respond to Him in a place of absolute love, trust and faith in His Word to them.  Faith and love-motivated obedience pleases God, NOT the doing of "good" works.  "Good" works motivated by eating of the Tree of the Knowledge of "Good" and Evil produce nothing of spiritual benefit when it comes to one's relationship with the Lord.

Getting back to Adam and Eve in the Garden, the Lord calls out, "Where are you?"

Adam's response is very telling: "I heard your sound in the Garden as you approached, and was fearful of you because I was naked; so I concealed myself amongst the trees."

God's response to Adam gets right to the heart of the issue: "Who told you that you were in the nude with no covering?  Have you eaten of the tree I specifically instructed you to NOT eat from?"

Now we're going to see the "blame game" get underway as the Fear of Man manifests.

"It's THAT woman you gave to me who did it!  (Get it?  All of a sudden, it's God's fault for giving Eve to Adam!?)  She gave me the fruit of the tree and I had to eat it!"

Well, folks, once the blame game starts, it's going to swing like a pendulum back and forth.   Obviously, the Lord isn't going to let this go.  "What have you done?"

And Eve is going follow Adam's example and pass the buck just like he did.  "The serpent seduced me.  He led me astray and convinced me it was OK to eat of the tree."

What's with this "blame me," anyway?  Once fear gets a foothold in a person, it begins to manifest in multiple ways.   We've already talked about the Fear of Evil, which is the granddaddy of all spirits of fear.  The Fear of Man, however, cannot stand to be seen as responsible for any contrary actions or blunders in the sight of other men or women, and when confronted will immediately point the finger at someone else.

In the case of Adam and Eve -- and even today in husband-wife relationships -- the finger will generally get pointed at the opposite spouse when tensions arise or one is confronted with an issue.  We'll talk more about this in the weeks ahead, but let's pick up the rest of this Garden event in our next Coffee Break.

Again, if you are in need of healing -- especially if you have some terminal disease or prognosis of a very short time to live from the doctors -- please join our prayer conference calls on either Monday or Wednesday of each week at 7:00 PM Eastern. Once again, the number to call is [phone].  Then enter the access code: 124763#.  To get into the queue for prayer, when Randy opens the call up for everyone, hit *6-1 on your keypad. Let us minister to your need for healing!

Blessings on you!

Regner

Regner A. Capener
CAPENER MINISTRIES
RIVER WORSHIP CENTER
Sunnyside, Washington 98944
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