Naked and Unashamed

There I was starting my day not too unlike any other day and the Lord spoke to me and said those three words.. God Hates Fear. He often mentions Himself in third person like that to me, it's one of the ways I know what he is saying is not just for me but it's something I need to share with others. 

Fear is a demon designed to ultimately blind you to your true identity. It pretends to be wisdom and even common sense at times, but it is Fear. Doing everything he can to trick you into ultimate emotional paralysis, Fear is cold and cruel. There is no lie he will not tell, no fact he will not try to exploit, no relationship he will not try to exploit... all in an effort to trick you into making decisions based on false evidence. IN fact, that is one of the acronyms for Fear... False Evidence Appearing Real. 

I grew up being afraid of not being loved. I was adopted from birth and my adoptive parents did not flow in the spirit of God like I do now. They had no way of knowing the prophetic seeds that the Holy Spirit had sown into my personality to lean me toward the prophetic or things of the spirit. I don't blame them in any way but they simply didn't know what they didn't know. As a result I was raised like most with conditional love because that is how their parents raised them...and you cannot give what you do not have to give. The result was me being afraid of never being able to be good enough and thus living in a constant state of being afraid of not being affirmed, not being held, not being accepted just on the basis of who I was but instead it was all about how I behaved. 

Shame is a tool that fear uses to manipulate people. Fear will whisper just under the conscious mind "Don't do that, people will mock you". It's fear threatening you with shame to trick you out of succeeding. 

As the Spirit of God heals us, He lets us see who we really are and just as importantly who He really is.  When we begin to see that He is for us, that He is waiting with open arms, not a fist cocked back ready to strike us... it changes everything.

Why is nakedness feared by most? Because it exposes what we all try so hard to hide.. our body's imperfections. We don't want people to laugh at us because of our imperfections so we cover them up. People that truly accept us for who we are (and not based on what we have done or may do in the future) are just fine with our imperfections and thus was the case with Adam and Eve. They were naked and unashamed. They saw their own nakedness, they saw each other's nakedness and they knew that God saw their nakedness and none of that mattered at all because they were moving out of their true identities. Only after their identity was compromised in their own minds did their nakedness bother them.

Adam and Eve's fig leaves they used to cover themselves didn't cover their nakedness nearly as much as it exposed their broken perception of themselves.  God saw this and asked one of the most powerful questions in all of scripture..  "Who told you that you were naked?"

My question for my readers today is the same... who told you that you were naked?

So many cover themselves up emotionally just like they do with their body and largely for the same reasons. They have eaten a lie that told them they were not really who God created them to be. They have crafted and cultivated relationships based often only on a piece of who they truly are. Then, when they cannot be their true selves, they get frustrated with those around them blaming those people for their own frustrations. In recent months I have identified this same behaviour in my own life and am taking steps to correct it.

We all want to be accepted as we are so let me ask you this question.. who can you be physically naked with and have them not judge your body for it's imperfections?  When you find someone like this, you have found the beginnings of a perfect lover.  One that can study your reactions and please you in ways that can only be explored in at atmosphere free of false judgements.

Let me ask an even more revealing question.. who can you be emotionally naked with.. no filters, no holding back, completely open and entirely honest and unchecked. When you find someone like this, you have found the beginnings of a soul mate.  One that can study your reactions and please you in ways that can only be explored in at atmosphere free of false judgements.

One more powerful question... can you believe that God wants to heal you to the point where YOU become this person? Healed to a place where you can see yourself physically naked and not judge yourself for your imperfections?  Healed to a place where you can explore your own emotions and mind while remaining free of judgements about what may be wrong, improper or flawed.. it's a powerful thought isn't it.. to be naked and unashamed?

Fear has limited you in ways you have mistakenly identified as part of who you really are. In fact it is NOT who you are and the part of your personality that has been hijacked by fear waits to be unlocked from that cage and set free to explore the realms of freedom that you are truly hungry for.

You don't have trust issues, trust flourishes when fear is removed. You don't have intimacy issues, nakedness is a natural state when fear is removed. You don't even have financial issues because wisdom illuminates the path of wealth when fear of lack is removed. 

I speak a prophetic breaker word over you reading this today that you are not afraid anymore. You never really were actually. It was and still is a giant lie. The fear, the shame, the rejections.. it all felt so real but absolutely none of it was who you really are.  Stop trying to be someone you are not and instead start to be the real you.  Start to prioritize and celebrate relationships where you can be naked and unafraid because those are the relationships that are based on who you are and not what you can do.

 The Kingdom of God is built upon a foundation of Intimacy. This is why so few people truly see it because very few can truly merge with and give themselves completely and honestly physically, emotionally and spiritually to anyone else.   Oh, to love like that.. to have passions purified to a place where fear is removed and the two can truly become one.. that is the heart of God my friends.. that is just one of the many things Jesus died to secure for us on the cross.  

Jesus is not afraid or ashamed of your nakedness, in fact he offers Himself to you in His own nakedness. We call it "the Glory of God" but that's just a fancy term that means He is being completely naked and transparent without holding any part of Himself back.  Under all of the fear, shame and even resentment.. the real you is so incredibly hungry for that, you don't even have the words to explain it to others. It comes out thru our brokenness sometimes as a drive to gamble, or drink, or smoke, or overeat, or for sex .. but deep under it all, those are all just band aids on the gaping wound of raw hunger for what we were truly created for... completely unchecked naked intimacy with the only one capable of giving it to us.

Fear is a lie, shame is a lie, false identities lying to you hiding your own worth and value before the Lord from you. Many have at one point said yes to God .. to be born again.. I hear the Spirit of God say He wants to push you the rest of the way out of the birth canal today...into the brand new world that you have only heard echos from and dreamed about. It's time for the real you to emerge ..naked and unashamed..ready to be intimate with the Presence of God in ways you never imagined possible before!

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