Fear God! Do You?

It amazes me, little ignorant, unimformed me, how Christians are the biggest critics of God’s word. When right there before their eyes the word says this or that, but in an instant they will argue with you to disprove what God’s word says. How can you disprove God’s word, when it is right there before your eyes.
I understand more now why God has me write things that I write. I thought I was adding to what they knew, because if I know anything at all, then surely, (I thought), they know this as well. I’m just increasing their present store of information, I thought. I’m just encouraging them to get over that hump and when they read it, they too, will move happily on into greater vistas of knowing the Father. How wrong I was.
I know now that the church teachings are not always the truth, I know now that what the church has been teaching to little children on up into adulthood, has been either wrong, watered down, or was missing some important doctrine about God that people don’t know. When they hear the rest of the story now, I see, fences, walls, argumentation, anger, malice, and weapons from those who have been misled in trying to defend their positions since childhood, or from that particular church that they love so dearly. Maybe if was from dear ole mom who believed a way that was passed down to little Sally, now Sally will fight to the death and take you with her to prove you and the word wrong.
Wow. Case in point. I started a discussion regarding the fear of God. I thought that was a simple, everybody knew this, subject. It doesn’t replace the knowledge that God is love, and that it is because of Love that Jesus died for our sins, and is sanctifying us on a daily basis. However, there is the aspect of God regarding fear, that plays an important part in God’s character. It is a part of the character to the point that it has a marked influence upon our walk, our actions, motivations and decisions that we make in this life.
Seems that some people don’t want to hear that. They want the motivational force of our life to be purely out of love for God, and no fear is ever involved. However, this is absolutely wrong. First we can’t love God without God first loving us. Not anyone loves another until they first learn of who they are. So what makes a person first look at that someone to try and discern the available knowledge of who this person is? When it comes to God, the Father of all creation, whom we cannot see, it might be fear, if when we know that He says, that “the soul that sins will die” and will be under condemnation in Hell. That is fear. We are willing to look and think about the Lord, because of this knowledge and conform our lives to His and have what He wants for us.
It’s a shame when we have to explain every little detail of our writing, because we know that people will instantly want to first obstruct and argue with you. There are some things that we would all hope that all Christians would know of the word, but alas, they don’t and instead want to argue and bring accusations of heresy. They will never bring that same charge to the word of God, in regards to lets say, Paul saying that all you needed was faith, and James turning around saying that you need faith. Please don’t come back and explain this to me, I know what it means. But to the uninitiated it seems a contradiction, however, I see now, that many will just overlook this and find some compromise to satisfy, an already barely curious mind. Sad but true.
Yes it saddens me that the word of God amongst Christians, is their lesson in Polemics, when they should be practicing their Apologetics to those who don’t believe. We, as the body of Christ, should be at a place that we no longer need milk but are full grown to the point of eating the meat of the word. I’m not saying that this is the meat of the word at all, and that is what brings me such despair in the body. However, the Lord sanctifies, and works in the lives of all true believers, and the truth will prevail, because God cannot fail. So lets hit on a couple scriptures.
When it comes to quoting scriptures regarding the fear of God, there are more than I can begin to quote here. It’s something that is taken for granted in cultures past, and yet is missed today in many churches. Let me first give some background on the word itself and what it means in the original Hebrew. Fear in the original Hebrew is Yare, with various pronunciation points all over it, which means, “to be afraid, to fear, to revere, to be feared, to be dreadful, to be reverenced, to terrify, to make afraid.” “God fearing is often the motivation which affects godly living”. (see Ex. 1:17,21; Lev. 19:14; 15:17; Deut 10:18-20,; 17:19;15:18;31:11,12; II Kings 17:34.)
There is also a feminine form of the word called, ‘Yerah’, which means: fear, terror, reverence, awe; piety, religion, except for the religion this word is having the same range of meanings as the root word Yare. “If one truly recognizes God as all-powerful, this will be reflected in his attitude and daily life in the form of reverence.” This is from the “Hebrew-Greek Key Study Bible” KJV.
It is the knowledge of God as being all-powerful that moves us to the place that we determine our path for that day. When temptation comes, we think twice about which road to take. It is the fear, dread, terror, of being afraid that leads us into a reverential walk with the Father in all piety, because we know who he is. We dreaded yet loved our father when we were growing up, and we fear terror in regard to doing wrong and yet love our heavenly father as well. It is an interdependence and connectedness that makes it all work for a heavenly Father that we cannot nor will we ever see with our eyes.
Let me start some scripture with, which I think is very important. “The fear of Lord is clean, enduring forever; the rules of the Lord are true, and righteous altogether.” Psalm 19:9. Now this might be a good starting vantage for those to understand the fear of God. It may not seem very clean at times, if you are in the wrong in some way, but the fear of the Lord is the fear that will keep you alive for eternity. It is the fear that comes with it a complex loving creator, who will bless you because of this fear, with Love, and in turn you will bless the Lord with your love and adoration.
I think that people have the image of a abusing spouse, or marauding gangs about to pounce upon you and destroy your life, your person, your contact with this world, emotionally and spiritually. However, that is not the by-product of the fear that leads us and maintains our life with God. It is a fear that comes with love and it comes with the blessings of God. We fear to lose our place with the Lord, we fear to upset Him, we fear grieving the Holy Spirit. We fear sin. It is a clean fear. If you can’t understand this, then all I can say is ask the Lord who will teach you all things. There are many things that are hard for us to understand, yet that doesn’t negate God teachings, nor does it give place for one to attack their brothers or sisters in the Lord, for something they don’t even understand. So with that said, let’s move on.
“Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall he teach in the way he chooses. He himself shall dwell in prosperity and his descendants shall inherit the earth.” Psalm 25:12,13. This is an unmistakable blessing that the Lord gives in regard to the clean fear that God says that we must have for Him. Yes, I can hear it now, God does not give us the spirit of fear. However, this is a different kind of fear. This is the unclean Greek word, “Deila”, which means, cowardice, timidity, fearfulness, to shrink for fear, ‘used always in a bad sense.’ This again from the Hebrew-Greek study bible. So it’s clear that understanding the original words to some extent will dispel the ignorance that pervades the Christian community. Fear in English is seen one way, and it’s not the type of thing that anyone wants to be a part of. So to use that word with those who don’t know what it means is to conjure dreaded things from their past. Christian counseling might be recommended here. Just kidding, maybe not.
Lets hit another scripture. We are still in the old testament, with the Hebrew word ‘Yare’, so don’t lose sight of that. This is the dread, terror, afraid, yet as God says, and God cannot lie, a clean fear. This is the fear that will keep you from walking in front of the train or bus. This is the fear that will keep you from walking into that dark alley, no matter if it’s a short cut or not. This is the fear of driving too fast on dark, wet roads and bald tires. It is a clean fear that will lead you to safety and never bring you harm.
“The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant.” Psalm 25:14. The Lord loves those who fear Him, and gives to them rewards that are compensatory to the fear that they show Him. All Godly fear ends in love, and reverence and blessings from the Father Himself. God encourages fear in us, that we may not only live, but have all that the Father has to bless us with. “Let all the earth fear the Lord; let all the inhabitants of the world stand in awe of Him.” (Psalm 33:8). If God could get all the earth to fear Him, then the problem of salvation and His love towards us would be a moot point. However, that is the problem. There is no fear in the world’s eyes for God. “The fool in his heart, says there is no God.” Psalm 14:1. Thus if the world thinks there is no God then there will be no fear for that that doesn’t seemingly exist, or is close enough to do us any harm or influence us in a negative fashion.
Now let me make note that at times in the scripture the word says, “Fear not!” That is God or angels telling someone that they should not fear in whatever the situation, because it is God that comes to them, either directly or in angelic proxy. This is the same English word that is used over and over again, yet the original word is the Hebrew word, ‘Pachad’. The English translations fall far short of the words that are used in the original Hebrew and Greek. We have one word for fear and they have many. This particular word is not of a good connotation. This is the, “your in trouble, the end is here, you’ve done it now“, kind of fear. This is the startled by sudden alarm, and it’s the ‘fight or flight response’ that kicks in. Your next move is to either run, move in your pants, or simply fall down dead, but God says, fear not. Don’t be alarmed, don’t fear and please don’t move in your pants. So it’s all in knowing what fear we are talking about.
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge, but fools despise wisdom and instruction.” (Proverbs 1:7) So God is saying that if we are to even begin to grow in the Lord, then we must first fear Him. Yare is the fear of which we speak. It is the clean fear of God. Yes it is fear, trembling, afraid, terror, awe, and reverence, but this type of fear is the fear that will keep you alive. It is the fear of swimming with sharks. I respect sharks, and I will not tempt them into eating me. I respect electricity, and I will not stick my finger in the socket to see if it exist. I fear it. I’m afraid, I have the terror of being eaten by sharks in the ocean, and I am in awe of lightening. So I will not stand under a tree in a lightening storm. “Do not be wise in your own eyes; fear the Lord and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh and strength to your bones.” (Proverbs 3:7,8) Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge, blessings and health to our flesh and bones. Imagine that. Fear in this case is a good thing. This is the supernatural, spiritual fear of God. This is not the fear of your ex-spouse, or facing your boss on Monday morning, after missing 3 days of work. So the Lord says that as we seek Him, and wisdom, “Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.” Proverbs 2:5. This is amazing in the utter pretense of what it means. As we seek God in the fearful way that He commands us, yes commands us, then we will understand the fear of the Lord and find the knowledge of God. What is the knowledge of God you say? Well, it’s everything, that will take an eternity to ever find an end of. It’s life, living and love with the most High God, who is there to give to His children all the blessings that He has to bestow upon us, with our Lord, brother, savior, God and friend, Jesus Christ.
There are too numerous scriptures to copy them all. Please do your own search of what the Lord might have to show you in this lesson. Even in the Christian community there is very little fear of God, because they think that all things are coming up roses, in Christ, and he will just overlook all their television watching, excessive eating, excessive drinking, and just excessive excessiveness, and disregarding the Lord in your daily routines and affairs. He is less than He should be in your life, because you, (Christians in general), do not fear Him. It’s fear that would make you come out of the water to avoid that shark, it should be the fear and love of God and our savior Jesus Christ that will put you on your knees and open that bible to learn and read of His truth and purpose in your life. Amen. God Bless and Godspeed.