Lately I have been thinking. Ouch....I know! 😂😂😂 In the last blog I wrote about some "fake" Christians or "lukewarm" Christians. The ones that seem to worship with their lips and not their hearts. They are out there. All around us. I was there for about 6 or 7 years until I truly surrendered.
What makes the difference I wonder?? What has the power to change a lukewarm Christian to a on FIRE🔥🔥🔥 Christian?
"So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth."
Revelation 3:16
And we all know that God is not a liar. So why do we pretend that He is. We tend to walk around acting like only some of the things in His word are truth. I feel like we pay more attention to the things that feel good, rather than the things that seem to scare us a bit. Of course we all know and love verses like John 3:16 "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life." or Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ that gives me strength" Don't get me wrong those are amazing versus, but where is the Fear of the Lord in there? Well, you guessed it, there is none. If we don't fear the Lord, then what do we fear. If we don't worship the Lord, then what do we worship. We are human, we Fear no matter how much we want to act like we don't.
"The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of of Wisdom; and the Knowledge of the Holy is Understanding"
Proverbs 9:10
I cannot even count the number of times I have heard the Fear of the Lord is just a reverence of God. But I do not believe that to be the completeness of it, yes part of it, but not all. As a human I know that fear has a job and it is to reduce or avoid harm. Fear serves a good purpose when we are fearing the right things. Sadly, the world has taught us to fear the wrong things. Yes the Bible does say that perfect love cast out fear. I have begin to realize that when I fear the Lord I follow His commandments. Jesus said, "If you love me, you will keep my commandments." When I first came to the Lord, and probably still to this day I do NOT know PERFECT LOVE. God's love is perfect but that is far from our fleshly love. I know that I am not perfect but I am in the process of being made perfect. I do know what it looks like because I have experienced it from God, but I cannot operate in it yet! Usually when we fear something, it seems to be human instinct to bow down to it. I know when we bow down to the Lord, He exalts us! When I am not bowing down to the Lord, there is something else in my life that I am bowing down to. Fear of the Lord leads to my protection, which then leads to my love and trust for the Lord. When I can trust the Lord all other fear then leaves me. I WANT to obey God and bow down to Him because I FEAR what will happen when I don't. I fear the Lord because I realize how powerful He is, that He is in control and not me, that I am unworthy of His presence. That is a reverence of Him.
WHAT DOES THAT LOOK LIKE FOR US????
I am so glad you asked. To me Fear of the Lord is all about OBEDIENCE! Which is extremely hard because I can be very disobedient at times because I want what I want whether it is good for me or bad for me. Yes we have to obey the Lord for our safety and our protection. Just like we obey the speed limit (most of us) which is there to keep everyone safe. The good thing about it is that the Lord is forgiving when we miss it, but there will be consequences right? Like if I go sleep around with a bunch of people while in addiction, I will more than likely get STD'S or pregnant. God's law tells us to flee fornication. See for our safety. I fear the Lord and the consequences that He has made for my disobedience.
The only way that I will know what the Lord ask of me,
is to be in His word consistently. I cannot just be in devotionals
every morning for 3 minutes before work. I cannot just listen to
Christian "worship" music. I cannot just go to church on Sunday
morning. I have to spend time reading His Word.
"For the Word of God is quick, and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the diving asunder of soul and spirit, and the joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. "
Hebrews 4:12
I can not even begin to explain how important it is to be in the Word of God. I know when I am not in the Word, I do not have the Fear of the Lord. For me the Fear of the Lord comes from seeing just how sinful I am. Without the Word of God, I tend to believe that I am a good person. But what about those time I gossip about he neighbor, or have hatred in my heart towards a co-worker. That is not fruit of a "good" person. I get into the Bible and read and God just highlights those scriptures and conviction starts. I feel conviction because I Fear the Lord. Because I love the Lord. I cannot change those things if I do not first feel that conviction from the Holy Spirit. I will not see real change without having the Fear of the Lord. The Bible tells us in Proverbs 15:33 that the Fear of the Lord is the instruction of Wisdom; and before honor is humility. I have heard before that BIBLE stands for Basic Instructions Before Leaving Earth.
Therefore, my beloved, as ye have always obeyed, not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence, work out your own salvation with fear and trembling.
Philippians 2:12
My Prayer for us today is that we can walk in the Fear of the Lord as a church. Not only in reverence but also in trembling. Because our Lord is POWERFUL. A fear of the Lord that brings us into obedience of His Word, that brings us into perfect submission, That we would not take it so lightly anymore. That we would begin to believe all of the Word and not just what feels good to us. Father God, rest the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord on your church!!!
More verses that you can look up after reading this are:
Hebrews 10:31
Acts 9:31
Isaiah 33:6
Isaiah 8:13
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