DAY 32
恐懼
雷克-喬納 Rick Joyner
翻譯：Kate
轉載/轉寄 請註明出處：國度禱告網

他（亞當）說："我在園中聽見你的聲音，我就害怕；因為我赤身露體，我便藏了。"（創世記3:10）

聖經中第一次提到恐懼是在上述經文中。對上帝有一種純潔神聖的敬畏，也有一種不神聖的敬畏。這是對神的不聖潔的敬畏，導致靈魂的進一步墮落，使我們逃避祂，而不是去找祂。

對神的聖潔敬畏絕不會使我們試圖躲避祂。對神的神聖敬畏根植於祂是神的知識，沒有人可以躲避祂。承認祂是全知的，而我們充其量只知道很少。對神的神聖敬畏是 "智慧的開端"（見箴言9:10），因為承認我們需要祂的幫助才能準確地瞭解任何事情。

對神的不聖潔的敬畏是根植於善惡樹的毒果。這種恐懼的根源不在於上帝是誰，而在於我們以自我為中心。這就是導致我們試圖躲避上帝和彼此的恐懼。這導致了在墮落的人的關係中占主導地位的裝腔作勢和矯揉造作。

不聖潔的敬畏尤其根植於對拒絕的恐懼。因為人被創造出來是為了與神和彼此相交，所以拒絕是人類最痛苦的經歷之一，也是支配人類的最殘缺的恐懼之一。拒絕會使人畏縮不前，或者試圖支配他人，這樣你就永遠是第一個做拒絕的人。因此，儘管我們自己赤身裸體，但需要對神有極大的信心才能從藏身處走出來。軟弱需要極大的信心，但這是走向救贖和恢復的第一步。

耶穌是榮耀的主，但祂卻倒空自己，成為一個軟弱的人類孩子。祂使自己完全軟弱，甚至允許腐敗墮落的人毆打和羞辱祂，然後屈服於十字架的終極羞辱。祂在我們面前變得軟弱，這樣我們就會永遠明白祂是多麼愛我們。當我們開始真正看到十字架的時候，我們就會開始走出隱藏。只有十字架能把我們從最深的恐懼中解放出來，讓我們重新開始做一個真實的人。

恐懼是在人類吃了禁果後被引入的。一般來說，恐懼是惡人進入人的生活的最大門戶之一。魔鬼用恐懼控制人；但主卻用信心引導人。這場爭奪人的心的戰鬥基本上是決定恐懼還是信心將占主導地位。信心的開始是知道神通過十字架對我們的接納。這種接受與我們做了什麼或沒做什麼無關，而是基於耶穌為我們所做的。神的恩典的偉大見證之一是它甚至延伸到最怪異的殺人犯和違法者身上。可以理解的是，人們會對那些引人注目的死囚區的皈依者持懷疑態度，但我們能在十字架上找到的恩典足以覆蓋任何在祂那裡尋求庇護的人。事實上，主自己說過，那些被寬恕得多的人就會多愛祂。因此，正如我們在羅馬書5:19-21中所讀到的：

因一人的悖逆，眾人成為罪人；照樣，因一人的順從，眾人也成為義了。
律法本是外添的，叫過犯顯多；只是罪在哪裡顯多，恩典就更顯多了。
就如罪作王叫人死；照樣，恩典也藉著義作王，叫人因我們的主耶穌基督得永生。

罪多的地方，恩典更多。這是否意味著我們應該犯罪，以便祂的恩典會更多，我們會更愛祂？這是一個最終的欺騙--保羅在後面的經文中談到了這一點，即羅馬書6:1-4。

這樣，怎麼說呢？我們可以仍在罪中、叫恩典顯多嗎？
斷乎不可！我們在罪上死了的人豈可仍在罪中活著呢？
豈不知我們這受洗歸入基督耶穌的人是受洗歸入他的死嗎？
所以，我們藉著洗禮歸入死，和他一同埋葬，原是叫我們一舉一動有新生的樣式，像基督藉著父的榮耀從死裡復活一樣。

如果我們裡面有光，我們就會在光中行走，而不是在黑暗中。然而，當我們確實犯了錯誤時，讓我們逃向祂的恩典和愛，這比我們所能窮盡的還要豐富。


DAY32
Fear
Rick Joyner

And he (Adam) said, "I heard the sound of Thee in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself " (Genesis 3:10).

The first mention of fear in the Bible is in the above verse. There is a pure and holy fear of God, and there is an unholy fear. This is the unholy fear of God that leads to further corruption of the soul, and causes us to run from Him instead of to Him.

The holy fear of God would never cause us to attempt to hide from Him. The holy fear of God is rooted in the knowledge that He is God and no one can hide from Him. It acknowledges that He is all knowing, and we at best know very little. The holy fear of God is the "beginning of wisdom" (see Proverbs 9:10) because it acknowledges that we need help from Him to know anything accurately.

The unholy fear of God is rooted in the poisonous fruit of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. This fear is not rooted so much in who God is, but in our own self-centeredness. This is the fear that causes us to try to hide from God and one another. This causes the facades and pretensions that so dominate the relationships of fallen men.

Unholy fear is rooted especially in the fear of rejection. Because man was created to have fellowship with God and one another, rejection is one of the most painful human experiences, and one of the most crippling fears that dominates the human race. Rejection will either cause one to cower in hiding, or try to dominate others so you will always be the first to do the rejecting. Therefore, it takes great faith in God to come out of hiding in spite of our own nakedness. It takes great faith to be vulnerable, but this is the first step toward redemption and restoration.

Jesus was the Lord of glory and yet He emptied Himself to become a frail human child. He made Himself utterly vulnerable, even allowing corrupt, fallen men to beat and humiliate Him before submitting to the ultimate humiliation of the cross. He became vulnerable to us so we would forever understand how much He loves us. When we begin to truly behold the cross, we will begin to come out of hiding. The cross alone will free us from our deepest fears and allow us to start being real again.

Fear was introduced to man when he ate the forbidden fruit. Generally, fear is one of the biggest open doors through which the evil one enters into the lives of people. The devil controls men with fear; but the Lord leads men with faith. This battle for the heart of man is basically the determination of whether fear or faith will rule. Faith begins by knowing God's acceptance of us through the cross. This acceptance has nothing to do with what we have done or have not done, but on what Jesus did for us.

One of the great testimonies of God's grace is the way it has been extended to even the most grotesque murderers and transgressors. It is understandable that men would be skeptical of the notable death row conversions, but the grace we can find at the cross is enough to cover any who seek refuge in Him. In fact, the Lord Himself said that those who are forgiven much will love Him much. Therefore, as we read in Romans 5:19-21:

For as through the one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, even so through the obedience of the One the many will be made righteous.
And the Law came in that the transgression might increase; but where sin increased, grace abounded all the more,
that, as sin reigned in death, even so grace might reign through righteousness to eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.

Where sin abounds, grace abounds even more. Does this mean we should sin so that His grace will abound and we will love Him more? This is an ultimate deception—which Paul addressed in the verses that followed, Romans 6:1-4:

What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace might increase?
May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, in order that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.

If we have light in us, we will walk in the light, not in darkness. However, when we do make a mistake, let us flee to His grace and love, which is more abundant than we could ever exhaust.