Dealing with the Giants in Our Land - Part 2 - Charles D Harris

[Deu 7:1-2 NASB] 1 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

Even though there are people groups in the land representing these strongholds, the battle is bigger than people groups.

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[2Co 10:3-6 NASB] 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

To the degree you have his kingdom in you you will have kingdom around you.

[Luk 17:21 NASB] 21 nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."

It's important to come into alignment with the Word of God and order.  It is important to conquer these kingdoms to bring God's rest and prosperity.

Allow the spirit of God to deliver these enemies into your hands and smite them.

[Heb 4:12-16 NASB] 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

All of these kingdoms represent an iniquity or bent pointing you away from God ways.

Know this that these nations are

• Greater and stronger - you don't stand a chance
• God will deliver us
• They will be defeated
• They must be annihilated

Hittites חִתִּי - Chaos and False Order (appearance of Looking Good)

Name means terror - they are the architects of terrorism. It’s the kind o.f terror that causes things to come apart.  Causing you to come unglued. A return to chaos.  In Gen 1:2 the Lord hovered over chaos and spoke order. God would go into formless and void and say "light".  His nature was to create order out of chaos.  Their nature was to create chaos out of order. This is the spirit of this age.  The antichrist.  Take order and create disorder so there can be a manipulation of a new order. To the degree you are operating in the disorder and chaos in your life the Spirit is trying to get a hold of you and reveal order.

Hittitim were known from a spiritual context of absorption context.  Just add their gods to their gods.  All gods are cool.  Keep including people.  Prototypes of the one world religion. Its interesting that the same people who use terror are the same people that use one world religion.  Its interesting that the most "tolerant" people are the most terrorist like people.  The most liberal seem to be the most intolerable. 

Some Characteristics of this spirit

Worry and anxiety 
Therefore all hands will fall limp, And every man’s heart will melt. They will be terrified, Pains and anguish will take hold of them; They will writhe like a woman in labor, They will look at one another in astonishment, Their faces aflame. (Isaiah 13:7,8)

[Luk 21:20 NASB] 20 "But when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then recognize that her desolation is near.

Busyness (activity trap)
Panicky buying and selling
Fear of man
 Pro 29:25 NASB] 25 The fear of man brings a snare, But he who trusts in the LORD will be exalted.
Fear of death

[Heb 2:14-15 NASB] 14 Therefore, since the children share in flesh and blood, He Himself likewise also partook of the same, that through death He might render powerless him who had the power of death, that is, the devil, 15 and might free those who through fear of death were subject to slavery all their lives.

Intercession is being focused on who we are in the in the perfect love of the Lord.  When the focus is present the humility is present the power is present.  Be the light the world is in need of.

Scriptures to meditate on to deal with Hittite spirit in your land

Hear His voice.  Know who you are in Him.  Then release love to others

[Mar 12:29-31 NASB] 29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' 31 "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Pray…

[Phl 4:6-8 NASB] 6 Be anxious for nothing, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all comprehension, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. 8 Finally, brethren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.

Cast out fear…

[1Jo 4:18 NASB] 18 There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves punishment, and the one who fears is not perfected in love.

Be humble...

[Jas 4:6-10 NASB] 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Girgashites גִּרְגָּשִׁי - Works of the flesh (Feel Good)

Clay dwellers. Territory is along banks of Jordan river.  Soft  ground.  Like border crossing guards. Guardians of the river which was entryway into promised land. Earthy people.  People of the flesh.
The are like the appetites of the flesh.  In Ancient Paths its mention the door to the flesh and door to the spirit. the default door we fall into most of the time is the door to the flesh. You have to make a decision and be purposeful about entering the door to the spirit. With habit and tendency to go through the door of the flesh then your spiritual tendency is to go through religion.  Religion is strategy of the flesh to try to accomplish the things of the spirit.Knowledge is a strategy of the flesh to try to accomplish wisdom. Can't get to wisdom through knowledge and can't get to spirit from the flesh.  Cant do enough religion (fasting, praying, or other "religious disciplines" to get to the spirit).  Cant be born of the spirit except by the spirit.
Girgashim represent that spirit in Israel, they represent that spirit in the body.  The body is an extension of Israel. There is a tension between the spirit and the works of the flesh.  Including some "good" things.  People can be deceived into thinking they are doing something "Godly" but has no power in it.

Yeshua says...  13 "Enter through the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is broad that leads to destruction, and there are many who enter through it. 14 "For the gate is small and the way is narrow that leads to life, and there are few who find it. 15 "Beware of the false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravenous wolves. 16 "You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn bushes nor figs from thistles, are they? 17 "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. 18 "A good tree cannot produce bad fruit, nor can a bad tree produce good fruit. 19 "Every tree that does not bear good fruit is cut down and thrown into the fire. 20 "So then, you will know them by their fruits. 21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. 22 "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name perform many miracles?' 23 "And then I will declare to them, 'I never knew you; DEPART FROM ME, YOU WHO PRACTICE LAWLESSNESS.'[Mat 7:13-23 NASB]. 
The way of the Girgashim is a broad way.  There are lots of people on a broad way. People like broad ways because they are easy to see, follow, and don't require very careful observation. On the narrow path you have to see where the path is going.  Broad path everyone goes with the crowd.  Its an easy place of identity which people are looking for.  Being part of something making yourself vulnerable.  It can be Lutheran, Catholic, Messianic, Protestant, Orthadox, Christian.  They are dressed like sheep!  There goal is to give you a new form of self righteousness.  Builds on need to be part of something and gives you a form of self righteousness.

Yeshua taught anti-identity, taking up the cross, find yourself in me.  He who loses his life shall find it.

Intercession focused on vision for the heart of the father and allowing His love to satisfy.  on the door to the spirit with the same attitude as Yeshua "not my will but your will be done".  Also to pray for awareness and destructions of need identity outside of Messiah.

Do open face exercise as an activation of the spirit.

If you ever feel "Fleshy"

Scriptures to meditate on and do dealing with Girgashite spirit
[Mat 16:25 KJV] 25 For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

[2Co 3:17-18 KJV] 17 Now the Lord is that Spirit: and where the Spirit of the Lord [is], there [is] liberty. 18 But we all, with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, [even] as by the Spirit of the Lord.

[Mat 6:3-6 KJV] 3 But when thou doest alms, let not thy left hand know what thy right hand doeth: 4 That thine alms may be in secret: and thy Father which seeth in secret himself shall reward thee openly. 5 And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites [are]: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men. Verily I say unto you, They have their reward. 6 But thou, when thou prayest, enter into thy closet, and when thou hast shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret; and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly.

Dealing with the Giants in Our Land - Part 1 - Charles D Harris

[Jhn 17:15-23 KJV] 15 I pray not that thou shouldest take them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them from the evil. 16 They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world. 17 Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth. 18 As thou hast sent me into the world, even so have I also sent them into the world. 19 And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they also might be sanctified through the truth. 20 Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word; 21 That they all may be one; as thou, Father, [art] in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

Covenant is what the Father is about.  Being one with Him, the Son and the Spirit. He made a covenant with Israel.  He named the land after the covenant also.

[Deu 7:1-2 NASB] 1 "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you, 2 and when the LORD your God delivers them before you and you defeat them, then you shall utterly destroy them. You shall make no covenant with them and show no favor to them.

Even though there are people groups in the land representing these strongholds, the battle is bigger than people groups.

Listen to Message

[2Co 10:3-6 NASB] 3 For though we walk in the flesh, we do not war according to the flesh, 4 for the weapons of our warfare are not of the flesh, but divinely powerful for the destruction of fortresses. 5 We are destroying speculations and every lofty thing raised up against the knowledge of God, and we are taking every thought captive to the obedience of Christ, 6 and we are ready to punish all disobedience, whenever your obedience is complete.

Kingdom of God is within you.  It has to have territory not just eupherial.  Requires a territory and a King.  It is very physical in nature.  Example...Healing

To the degree you have his kingdom in you you will have kingdom around you.
[Luk 17:21 NASB] 21 nor will they say, 'Look, here it is!' or, 'There it is!' For behold, the kingdom of God is in your midst."
Israel has covenant God and the land of Israel.

[Jer 31:33-37 KJV] 33 But this [shall be] the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith the LORD, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people. 34 And they shall teach no more every man his neighbour, and every man his brother, saying, Know the LORD: for they shall all know me, from the least of them unto the greatest of them, saith the LORD: for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more. 35 Thus saith the LORD, which giveth the sun for a light by day, [and] the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; The LORD of hosts [is] his name: 36 If those ordinances depart from before me, saith the LORD, [then] the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a nation before me for ever. 37 Thus saith the LORD; If heaven above can be measured, and the foundations of the earth searched out beneath, I will also cast off all the seed of Israel for all that they have done, saith the LORD.


Yeshua provided a way for gentiles to be reconciled to and the covenants of promise.  We are in covenant now with Israel not replacing them.  Their enemies are our enemies and their God our God.  What happens to Israel affects me and what happens to me affects Israel. The condition of our oneness affects the condition of the land and people.
[Eph 2:10-14 KJV] 10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them. 11 Wherefore remember, that ye [being] in time past Gentiles in the flesh, who are called Uncircumcision by that which is called the Circumcision in the flesh made by hands; 12 That at that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world: 13 But now in Christ Jesus ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ. 14 For he is our peace, who hath made both one, and hath broken down the middle wall of partition [between us];
It's important to come into alignment with the Word of God and order.  It is important to conquer these kingdoms to bring God's rest and prosperity.

You can track every move of God to something that happened in Israel.  You can map every disaster in America to how they treat Israel.  Touch not the anointed of God.  That doesn't mean perfect.  You are anointed of God and you are not perfect.

God wants to reconcile us to his land and people and rest.
[Heb 12:22-23 NASB] 22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to myriads of angels, 23 to the general assembly and church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the Judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect,

Allow the spirit of God to deliver these enemies into your hands and smite them.

[Heb 4:12-16 NASB] 12 For the word of God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, of both joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13 And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do. 14 Therefore, since we have a great high priest who has passed through the heavens, Jesus the Son of God, let us hold fast our confession. 15 For we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but One who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. 16 Therefore let us draw near with confidence to the throne of grace, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help in time of need.

All of these kingdoms represent an iniquity or bent pointing you away from God ways.

Know this that these nations are

• Greater and stronger - you don't stand a chance
• God will deliver us
• They will be defeated
• They must be annihilated

Hittites חִתִּי - Chaos and False Order (appearance of Looking Good)

Name means terror - they are the architects of terrorism.Its the kind o.f terror that causes things to come apart.  Causing you to come unglued. A return to chaos.  In Gen 1:2 the Lord hovered over chaos and spoke order. God would go into formless and void and say "light".  His nature was to create order out of chaos.  Their nature was to create chaos out of order. This is the spirit of this age.  The antichrist.  Take order and create disorder so there can be a manipulation of a new order. To the degree you are operating in the disorder and chaos in your life the Spirit is trying to get a hold of you and reveal order.
Hittitim were known from a spiritual context of absorption context.  Just add their gods to their gods.  All gods are cool.  Keep including people.  Prototypes of the one world religion. Its interesting that the same people who use terror are the same people that use one world religion.  Its interesting that the most "tolerant" people are the most terrorist like people.  The most liberal seem to be the most intolerable. 


Intercession is be focused on who we are in the love of the Lord.  When the focus is present the humility is present the power is present.  Be the light the world is in need of.

Scriptures to meditate on to deal with Hittite spirit in your land

Hear His voice.  Know who you are in Him.  Then release love to others
[Mar 12:29-31 NASB] 29 Jesus answered, "The foremost is, 'HEAR, O ISRAEL! THE LORD OUR GOD IS ONE LORD; 30 AND YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH.' 31 "The second is this, 'YOU SHALL LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF.' There is no other commandment greater than these."

Be humble...
[Jas 4:6-10 NASB] 6 But He gives a greater grace. Therefore it says, "GOD IS OPPOSED TO THE PROUD, BUT GIVES GRACE TO THE HUMBLE." 7 Submit therefore to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you. 8 Draw near to God and He will draw near to you. Cleanse your hands, you sinners; and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Be miserable and mourn and weep; let your laughter be turned into mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves in the presence of the Lord, and He will exalt you.

Be the light...bring order

[Jhn 8:12 NASB] 12 Then Jesus again spoke to them, saying, "I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life."


[2Co 4:4 NASB] 4 in whose case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelieving so that they might not see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God.

Living into our Destiny - David Mitts

And a lawyer stood up and put Him to the test, saying, "Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?" And He said to him, "What is written in the Law? How does it read to you?" And he answered, "YOU SHALL LOVE THE LORD YOUR GOD WITH ALL YOUR HEART, AND WITH ALL YOUR SOUL, AND WITH ALL YOUR STRENGTH, AND WITH ALL YOUR MIND; AND YOUR NEIGHBOR AS YOURSELF." And He said to him, "You have answered correctly; DO THIS AND YOU WILL LIVE." But wishing to justify himself, he said to Jesus, "And who is my neighbor?" Jesus replied and said, "A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, and fell among robbers, and they stripped him and beat him, and went away leaving him half dead. "And by chance a priest was going down on that road, and when he saw him, he passed by on the other side. "Likewise a Levite also, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. "But a Samaritan, who was on a journey, came upon him; and when he saw him, he felt compassion, and came to him and bandaged up his wounds, pouring oil and wine on them; and he put him on his own beast, and brought him to an inn and took care of him. "On the next day he took out two denarii and gave them to the innkeeper and said, 'Take care of him; and whatever more you spend, when I return I will repay you.' "Which of these three do you think proved to be a neighbor to the man who fell into the robbers' hands?" And he said, "The one who showed mercy toward him." Then Jesus said to him, "Go and do the same."

(Luke 10:25-37)

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We have been speaking at great length about our destiny.  The whole point of the atonement of Yeshua on the execution stake, what is commonly called the cross, was to restore that which was lost, our destiny as sons and daughters of God.

When we look at this conversation, first we see the legitimate question about the inheritance.  Yeshua answers the lawyer, the legalist, with a question.  The question is a reference to Torah.  This is evidence that the Torah contained the keys to eternal life all along.  The lawyer answers that the key is to Love, to Love God first and to love others.  Now notice the key is in the heart, NOT in the mind.  The heart comes first, not the knowledge of the mind.

Then the Lord affirms that this is the truth, Love is the key that opens up eternity into our lives and unlocks our destiny.  This love has to include loving our neighbor. 

The lawyer then determined to live out of his head instead of opening up his heart.  He asks the question “who is my neighbor?”.  This is the crux of the matter.  He is asking from the perspective of law.  Yeshua discerning the heart responds by teaching him the heart of being the neighbor.  This is because the command is to love the neighbor as we love ourselves and we cannot love the neighbor without becoming a neighbor. 

At the center of this is the question of religion.  You see there are priests and Levites.  These are the worshippers of God, they are the ones who attend the meetings.  They are the ones who have the commandments, the oracles of God.  They “knew” the Word to love their neighbor.  Yet what they lacked was “being” a neighbor.  They had a form of godliness but not the power thereof.  This is us.  We are the priests and the Levites. 

The Samaritan, felt.  He felt the compassion of the Lord.  He had love inside his heart and poured out of that place.  He was the neighbor loving his neighbor outside the church on the road with the oil and the wine, the power of God and His Love and the provision.  Now, we could even go deeper into this, but for today, I just want to ask the question, why?  What did he have that the others didn’t and why?  Now, we know the answer is love and mercy, but why not the others?

More importantly, what does this say about us and eternal life.  I think to begin to answer these questions we look under the surface to what inhibits us from being ourselves and allowing freedom to direct our hearts in love??  I believe it all has to do with our image, how we see ourselves in that seeing how we see life.  TURN WITH ME TO GEN 1:26-28

Then God said, "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth." So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them. And God said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth." (Genesis 1:26-28)

We are created in an image. Our image is the expressed image of our Father.  Our image includes fruitfulness and dominion, to rule as the ambassadors of the King.

Let’s look a little further into this: TURN TO GENESIS, CHAPTER 2, VERSE 18-25

Then the LORD God said, "It is not good for the man to be alone; I will make him a helper suitable for him." Out of the ground the LORD God formed every beast of the field and every bird of the sky, and brought them to the man to see what he would call them; and whatever the man called a living creature, that was its name. The man gave names to all the cattle, and to the birds of the sky, and to every beast of the field, but for Adam there was not found a helper suitable for him. So the LORD God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and he slept; then He took one of his ribs and closed up the flesh at that place. The LORD God fashioned into a woman the rib which He had taken from the man, and brought her to the man. The man said, "This is now bone of my bones, And flesh of my flesh; She shall be called Woman, Because she was taken out of Man." For this reason a man shall leave his father and his mother, and be joined to his wife; and they shall become one flesh. And the man and his wife were both naked and were not ashamed. (Genesis 2:18-25)

First, we see the declaration that man is not by design made for isolation.  Man is created for fellowship and communion.  Remember this is the image and likeness of God that is created not to be alone.

Look at the power.  Adam named every animal and named woman. 

BUT, here is the big key to eternal life and destiny:  they were naked and unashamed.  There was no self-consciousness, as we know it about our differences being something to cover up.  There was an openness to one’s nature as a created God-image bearer.  Shame causes us to lose this freedom of being.

In the next chapter we read of the fall from this image, from the loss of identity and destiny.

Now the serpent was more crafty than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, "Indeed, has God said, 'You shall not eat from any tree of the garden'?" The woman said to the serpent, "From the fruit of the trees of the garden we may eat; but from the fruit of the tree which is in the middle of the garden, God has said, 'You shall not eat from it or touch it, or you will die.'" The serpent said to the woman, "You surely will not die! "For God knows that in the day you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." When the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was a delight to the eyes, and that the tree was desirable to make one wise, she took from its fruit and ate; and she gave also to her husband with her, and he ate. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together and made themselves loin coverings. (Genesis 3:1-7)

This is the story of how we became chidden of a lesser god whose name is shame.  It begins with hearing another voice.  The purpose of this voice is to bring about fear and shame.  He does this by simply getting us to engage with him, be tempted to violate the trust we have in our Father and act on that mistrust.  The result is we become aware of our differences from each other and become afraid of those differences.  We sew fig leaves to cover ourselves and hide from God and man.  The ones who we created to for love and intimacy become chameleons, lizards who want to blend in and disappear.  We cannot be the Samaritan in the story because, we fear exposure and death. LET’s CONTINUE:

They heard the sound of the LORD God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the LORD God among the trees of the garden. Then the LORD God called to the man, and said to him, "Where are you?" He said, "I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?" The man said, "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate." Then the LORD God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" And the woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate." (Genesis 3:8-13)

Shame has taken possession of God’s beloved children.  First and foremost shame causes us to avoid the Presence and Voice of the Lord.  Oh, we will go to church, as truly chosen levites and priests but we don’t enter in.  We hold back and hide in our shame.  Or we don’t even come because shame causes us so much fear that even this closeness to God is scary.

You see God hasn’t lost Adam.   He isn’t asking a positional question.  He is asking a relational question.  It isn't Adam’s physical location that God is questioning.  No it is his heart.  Shame causes us to hide our hearts from God and from each other.

The reason is the feeling of being naked.  Now naked again isn’t just our fear of being undressed but what is behind that our fear of being ourselves.  You see what was lost was our identity, that unique quality that is only in me, or you.  The bible calls this glory.  What was lost was the glory.  God’s glory is His uniqueness.  There is only one God.  Now, we take that as a positional statement.  There is only one God, like the idea of many gods is wrong. That is called pantheism.  But that’s actually true, pantheism.  There are many gods, little “g”.  Mammon is a little god. Fear is for many of us a god.  SO, pantheism from a positional reality is actually true.  But there is only one God, the creator of heaven and earth.  This is a relational reality.  Shame keeps us hidden from that reality and we create little gods as fast as we need them.  The result of this is we lose the Glory, the true identity of God and what should be the place of God in our lives becomes the habitation of many gods, none of which have the true Glory, or identity of God with all that this means.

In the same way, shame has caused us to lose our identity, our uniqueness and actually fear ourselves.  We run around hiding who we are and putting on masks which are designed to make us blend in.  So like Adam we are in hiding and it because of this question:  “Who told you that you were naked?”  You see it wasn't that the fruit was the source of shame but the voices that tell us that we are naked and that we shouldn't be.  The Hebrew word for naked “arum” means to seen for who we are.  To have the glory that is our unique identity as a child of the One True God, the one who is light and love be expressed in the earth.  Now, why am I talking about this?  This is an attack on love and love growing cold is the enemy’s tactic in this hour.  Look at Isaiah 54 with me:

"Shout for joy, O barren one, you who have borne no child; Break forth into joyful shouting and cry aloud, you who have not travailed; For the sons of the desolate one will be more numerous Than the sons of the married woman," says the LORD. "Enlarge the place of your tent; Stretch out the curtains of your dwellings, spare not; Lengthen your cords And strengthen your pegs. "For you will spread abroad to the right and to the left. And your descendants will possess nations And will resettle the desolate cities. "Fear not, for you will not be put to shame; And do not feel humiliated, for you will not be disgraced; But you will forget the shame of your youth, And the reproach of your widowhood you will remember no more. (Isa 54:1-4)

You see our destiny as a ministry, as a people, and as individuals is connected to the removal of shame and fear.  We cannot inherit our prophetic promise if we do not allow Him to remove our shame.  He says we will forget it.  We will walk in our inheritance when shame stops stopping us from living the Gospel. 

Listen to Perry's Testimony

Altar call for repenting of false identity, hiding and wanting to stay safe.

Next time, we will look at how to access fully and on purpose our righteousness in Messiah.

This weeks offering teaching: Kingdom of God vs Kingdom of Worry

One New Man ministry is committed to causes of healing the sick, setting the captives free, binding up the broken hearted and bringing the good news of the Kingdom of God. Please partner with us.

 

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For additional study about abiding in His love in the times we live in, obtain and read the book "Love versus Law, or BOTH!" by David Mitts.