MY FEAR OF THE LORD
One of the hardest things for me to do is to write something "intentionally"
I’ll have to start off by saying that one of the hardest things for me to do is to write something “intentionally.” So to say the least this is very difficult for me.
I guess I’ll start at the beginning when I first made the decision to give my life (Oct 17, 2004) over to Christ, and as you have probably heard me say before it was about two months after that that I was reading the bible and God revealed to me through Hebrews 4:12-13 these verses;
“For the word of the God is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword, and piercing as far as the division of soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart. 13And 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.”
Well!! If that’s not enough to scare the hell right out of you I don’t know what is, or, you just haven’t gotten the revelation of it yet!
But you know there is another verse that actually comes right before that, Hebrews 4:11 that says (and this starts with a THEREFORE so you know you have to read the part right before that verse which is the section talking about “God’s rest.” But anyway it says;
“11 Therefore let us be diligent to enter that rest, so that no one will fall, through following the same example of disobedience.”
Oh, wow! Diligence and disobedience in the same sentence? Now that’s scary. He warns us about falling, by following the same example of disobedience, it doesn’t matter what the subject is in the preceding verses. Then, He tells us all the stuff about “His word is piercing like a two-edged sword, and His being able to judge the thoughts and intentions of the heart, and no one is hidden from His sight, and ALL things are open and laid bare to the eyes of Him with whom we have to do!
I’M DEAD!!, I’M SCARED!!
I guess what I’m saying is that knowing that God (the Holy Spirit) is in me, and that all that I do, say, think, and even the attitude and motive with which I say it is seen by Him, not only that but, felt and experienced by Him right along with me! I’m running out of exclamation marks I think?
My (and maybe our) misconception is that we think we have a certain amount of strength that we can battle things in our everyday lives, and we are very wrong. Psalm 147:10-11 says;
“He takes no pleasure in the strength of a horse or in human might. No, the Lord’s delight is in those who fear Him, those who put their hope in His unfailing love.”
You see, I guess it’s my imperfections and my inability to totally obey the word of God to do what He commands us to do that causes fear in me of the Lord. But this is the real troubling part. That fear that I say I have of the Lord God, creator of the universe, and myself, the one that holds in His hand the ability to snuff me out with no more than a thought, or who can withhold just a few breathes from me and I am gone, gonzo! Is still not enough to make me follow the commands of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. So, the famous verses in Isaiah 6:3-5 where Isaiah says;
“Woe is me for I am RUINED! Because I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips; For my eyes have seen the KING, the Lord of hosts.”
Then there is David who gets caught red handed in murder, adultery, deception, and many other sins against the Lord our God, and Moses with murder, doubt, unbelief, and other sins against our God. There is Jacob, Solomon, Paul, Peter and oh, I could gone on but I think you get my point. How can it be that all these men can do the things they did but yet be MEN OF GOD. Oswald Chambers says in his July 18th devotional called “The Mystery of Believing” that; “There is nothing miraculous about the things we can explain. We control what we are able to explain, consequently it is only natural to seek an explanation for everything”. I feel that one real evidence of our true fear of the Lord is our ability to realize that we cannot explain Him or understand His ways, so therefore we cannot control Him or His purposes for our lives that we give to Him. You see I feel that when we come to the point of letting go (surrendering) and trusting Him with our lives and concentrating on seeking Him first. It frees us from the problem of figuring it all out. There is a real freedom (for me) in knowing that I don’t know much about God except for what revelation He gives me through the Holy Spirit, and that He will give that to me as He wills and as I am ready. Also knowing that I am His, and TRULY BELIEVING that through His Son’s death I am saved! That is why I feel so sick in my stomach when I do sin against Him, which causes me to be truly repentant.
I love the verses in Isaiah 8:11-14, the Lord spoke to Isaiah and told him to “Not to FEAR what they fear or be in dread of it. IT IS THE LORD OF HOSTS WHOM YOU SHOULD REGARD AS HOLY. AND HE SHALL BE YOUR FEAR, AND HE SHALL BE YOUR DREAD. THEN HE SHALL BECOME A SANCTUARY.”
You see if we have a holy fear of the Lord then He will become our place of protection! Because our Holy sense of fear for Him allows us to surrender to Him because we intimately know His power and feel safe in His rest. I guess I’m saying that until you’ve had a true encounter with the living God, you fear the things of the world because that’s where your trust is, not in the Lord.
The same perspective applies in Romans 13: 3-5, Paul says “For rulers are not a cause of fear for good behavior, but for evil. DO YOU WANT TO HAVE NO FEAR OF AUTHORITY?? DO WHAT IS GOOD AND YOU WILL HAVE PRAISE FROM THE SAME; for it is a minister of God to you for good. But if you do what is evil, be afraid! “ See, if we are obedient to God, and have a Holy, Reverent FEAR of Him, He will be our protection against evil or things that cause us pain. He will be our sanctuary Tom Miller 06/30/2022
