The Fear of the Lord

Dear friends,
Grace and peace to you. Almost every night I pray that the Lord would speak to me in the night, Spirit to spirit, dreams, visions, or however He chooses to speak. It has not happen often, but from time to time I'll have a dream that I believe is from the Lord. Recently, I have awakened several mornings recently with a scripture passage on my mind. That happened this morning. I woke up this morning thinking about Ananias and Sapphira. I would like to share some of those thoughts with you.

So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. Acts 5:11

Ananias and Sapphira conspired together to hold back part of the price of their land. The issue was not the fact that they had kept part of the money for themselves. They did not have to sell the land in the first place. We are not to give under compulsion. They had chosen to sell the land and said they were giving the entire proceeds to the church. What was in their hearts? Peter said Satan had filled their hearts. It may be that they had sought the praise of men in their giving. There was obviously some greed because they were willing to lie to hold on to some of the money. Peter said that they had not lied to men, but had lied to God. Why was the judgement so swift? This was an unprecedented time of the presence and power of God being revealed to His children. How in this atmosphere could they have purposed in their hearts to sin? Sin cannot abide in the presence and glory of God. I believe that there was an absence of the fear of the Lord in their lives. How common is the absence of the fear of the Lord in the modern church. It is almost as if in this age of grace we live as if there are no consequences of sin to a Christian.

What is the fear of the Lord? We define it as a reverential awe. How does the Bible define it?
Come, you children listen to me; I will teach you the fear of the Lord. Who is the man who desires life, and loves many days that he may see good? Keep your tongue from evil, and your lips from speaking deceit. Depart from evil and do good; Seek peace and pursue it. Psalms 34:11-13

The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate. Proverbs 8:13

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Proverbs 8:13
If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, then not fearing the Lord is the continuance of foolishness.

There are many verses concerning the fear of the Lord. Some would say that is an old testament concept, but I say God has not changed. Yes, if we have been born again we are not children of wrath. Jesus took the wrath of God for us. We have forgiveness, if we confess our sin. Where sin abounds grace does much more abound. It is the kindness of God that brings us to repentance. But having said all that, do we have license to sin? Absolutely not! The nature and consequences of sin have not changed. Sin when it is full-grown brings forth death.

For if we sin willfully after we have received the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins but a certain fearful expectation of judgement, and fiery indignation which will devour our adversaries. Hebrews 10:26, 27

To willfully sin, we have taken lightly the finished work of the cross. We have insulted the Spirit of grace and we have allowed death to work in our lives. I know that this might seem negative today, but I believe the Lord is calling for the purity of His bride. Can we say that we fear the Lord when there are few real distinctives between the church and the world? We could look at just a few statistics and see the absence of the fear of the Lord. The divorce rate is the same for the church as it is for the world. There are just as many of our kids getting in trouble. What is missing? 56% of the evangelical church believes that Jesus is not the only way.
It is time for us to wake up. I am not calling for a puritanical, legalistic existence, but for a life that is different out of relationship with Him. I heard a minister who had been touched by God in revival say that he now understood the fear of the Lord. He said that he did not want anything in his life that would deprive him of the Lord's presence that he was now experiencing. If we have tasted His presence, we want that above anything else this world has to offer. If the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, then evil is anything that keeps me from His presence. David said in repentance: Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me. Do not cast me away from your presence and do not take your Holy Spirit from me. Psalms 51:10,11.

I have talked about it before, but as Christians we have been bought with a price. Jesus paid the full price for our redemption. If we hold out any part of ourselves from Him Who gave Himself for us then we are not walking in the fear of the Lord and that which we hold on to is working death in us. We sing "I Surrender All" when we are willing only to surrender part. The part we hang on to is not submitted to God and therefore is submitted to the devil.

The scripture is full of promises to those who fear the Lord. I won't take time here, but just get your concordance and look. It will be an encouraging experience. Just a thought; what impact would it have for us to return to days of Ananias and Sapphira in our time?

I pray that you will be blessed today and that His love will encourage you. May you know and experience His presence in your life in ever increasing dimensions.
In His love,
Herb Dean