Our Nation Must Return to the Fear of the Lord by Dominic Muir

‘That they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them. 40 And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me. 41 Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good’

Jeremiah 32:39-41

Be zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day 

Proverbs 23:17

The highest revelation of God, our perfect Father in heaven (Matthew 5:48) is His love.  God IS love and can only love us - there is not a shred of darkness in Him!  He loves us all unconditionally and always will do.  However, out of His love and goodness (Matthew 19:17), and His immeasurable concern for our well being God commands that we fear Him.   This is a type of fear required of all of God’s creation that is a holy fear and a holy reverence rightly directed at an Almighty God who is holding us all together right now at a sub cellular level by the word of His power (Hebrews 1:3).  This fear is different from the unsanctified, demonically inspired fear of rejection, loss or pain.  This fear of God is for our own good (Jeremiah 32:39-41). I remember that before I was saved I used to fear certain film directors whom I worked for in Soho.  I revered and worshipped them.  I suffered under the fear of man, because I deeply cared what they thought of me. I behaved and spoke according to what I thought would please them.  In this way I entrusted myself to them and made them an idol.  In the gospel of John it says that Jesus did not ‘entrust Himself’ to man, nor ‘man's testimony … for he knew what was in a man.’ (John 2:24-25).  Instead we read, ‘the fear of the Lord is His treasure.’ (Isaiah 33:6)

Who are we Christians trying to please?  Whom do we fear?  Are we trying to please the world?  Our unsaved friends? Celebrities?  The government?  The church?  Our Pastor? Our Christian friends?  Or are we trying to please God?  Whom do we wish to be popular with?  Whom do we really fear?  Whatever or whomever you fear, that you have made your god.  The Bible states that it is against God alone that we sin (Psalm 51:4).  We need only concern ourselves with pleasing God, being popular with Him, standing right before Him, fearing Him.  In this way every base is covered.  All due respect towards elders, authorities and love for our neighbour and fellow man is only catered for when we fear God. Being nice, being popular is very different, and at times the very opposite, of being Truly good and loving (Ephesians 4:15, John 15:5).  The Preacher even declared in the last lines of His sermon on life that to ‘fear God’ was the conclusion of the whole matter (Ecclesiastes 12:13). 

The fear of man, any man, however piously or justifiably it may manifest, is sin.  The fear of man is pure vanity.  Thank God for infinite grace! The fear of man is very subtle, don’t I know it in my own life!  Not only is it idolatry, worship of man, but like all sin it keeps us in bondage to the evil one and robs us of peace, abundant life and kingdom fruit.  The fear of man is one of Satan’s trump cards and is a breeding ground for all other fears, confusions and evils.  Conversely, the fear of the Lord is clean, the beginning of both wisdom and knowledge, a fountain of life and leads to riches and honor. Take your pick! (Psalm 19:9, Proverbs 9:10, Proverbs 1:7, Proverbs 14:27, Proverbs 22:4)

As mentioned at the start, a higher revelation than the fear of the Lord is the love of God the Father.  We must also cry out to understand and know the love of the Father as Jesus knew it (John 17:23).  This also is our inheritance to the degree that Jesus will not stop interceding for each of us to receive this revelation, until we get it (John 17:26).  But we forget, and I believe as a church we have have forgotten, at our peril, this all too important revelation and commandment of the fear of the Lord.  Isaiah received this revelation and was ‘undone’, disintegrated (Isaiah 6:5).  John the Revelator, the man who had once snuggled with his old friend Jesus, received it when he later fell like a dead man before the now risen Lord of Lords (Revelation 1:17).  Contemporary Prophet John Paul Jackson shared the following account from his third heaven encounter with the Lord (2 Corinthians 12, Hebrews 13:8) in a talk on the supernatural nature of God (‘Naturally Supernatural’ available from ‘Streams Ministries’ website). Below is a transcript but click here a YouTube link for another version of the same encounter direct from 'the horses mouth'!

"I’ve stood before the Lord, whatever part of me He wanted me to see up there, once.  It was holy terror. It was holy terror.  I was standing up there and I saw light.  I saw seven rings of light around this light.  And they were moving in total harmony with the light.  I thought He was going to kill me.  I didn’t know why, but I knew He had a good reason.  I’m yelling my head off.  I am not (present continuous implication: i.e. in this instant) a brave man, I am a coward. I’m yelling my head off.  My hands are in front of me: “Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhh” And while I’m yelling, I’m thinking.  I’m thinking this is what John saw when he said ’God is light’, this is what James saw when he said ‘God is the Father of lights’, this is what Isaiah felt when he said ‘Woe is me, I am coming apart at the seams.’  This is amazing.  All the time I am there I am screaming, yelling. I can’t tell you all that went on there but I can tell you this: I came back. I can also tell you this: For three days I was deeply sorrowful and depressed.  Why? Because I told God, I sat in my living room and said ‘I’ve known You since I was a little boy, I’ve known You forever – You’ve never let me get away with anything.  And I saw Your power.  I saw Your power and if You’d just give me a drop of that power I’d clean out every hospital in this city.  And it would probably take about 24 hours to do it.  Because it would take me that long to drive to all the hospitals and go to all the rooms.  I’d clean out every hospital in this city. If you just gave me a drop – I am so disappointed in You (joking tone) You’re not giving me that power, you’re not giving anyone that power, at least give someone that power!  God all you’ve got to do is just think it.  Just think it and it’s done.  And for three days I cried and wept and cried and wept.  I could hardly talk, could hardly do anything.  And then on the third day the Lord spoke to me and here’s what He said: He said, ‘Son, I long to give you that power, much more than you long for it yourself.  But I love you too much to give you something that would destroy you.  Because you’re not ready for the adulation that would come with that level of power.’  To a friend of mine, Paul Cain, God said: ‘To the church without mixture I will pour out my power without measure."

I think we need some of Isaiah’s, John’s and John Paul Jackson’s perspective, don't you?  Meditate on the dreadful and beautiful power of God: He knows the number of hairs upon every human being’s head right now.  Right now God knows what you were thinking ten years ago today and, eternally now, He knows, presuming you end up having them, your grandchildren’s granchildren’s favourite colours. (Psalm 139)

And He Himself existed before all things, and in Him all things consist (cohere, are held together)

Colossians 1:17 (Amplified Bible)

‘All that is, God causes to be. God is constantly causing us. If He’s not thinking about us, we’re gone. When God spoke and you became, that’s not a process that started 16 billion years ago, He’s causing you to be right now, we see that in this verse, and if He stopped thinking about you in a nano second you would disolve. He’s causing you to be in this nano second right now. And if He stopped causing you, you would not be. That’s exactly what happened to Enoch. Enoch walked with God and God so enjoyed him there that Christ for a nano second stopped causing him to be here and he was not.’ (‘Quantum Leap’ Conference - David Van Koevering, writer, minister, motivational speaker, quantum physicist and inventor)

We begin to see why the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. (Proverbs 9:10)

I believe that the fear of man is a huge problem in the world and the church today.  I believe we all need to repent and cry out zealously for the Spirit of the fear of the Lord to come, as God commands in His Word (Proverbs 23:17, Ecclesiastes 5:7, Ecclesiastes 12:13, Isaiah 11:2).  In the days of Whitfield and Wesley the unbelievers would cry out and wail for forgiveness for days, so strong was the anointing of the Spirit of the fear of the Lord on their preaching (John 16:8, Isaiah 11:2).  God is not some kind of power hungry sadist who wants us to fear Him because He has a chip on His shoulder!  Imagine if the Eternal, Uncreated One, God Almighty, Creator of the Universe was chippy!  How hilariously absurd!  There are many reasons for God commanding us to fear Him and they all originate, as with all His commands, from His abounding love and goodness towards us and His whole creation (Matthew 19:17, 1 John 4:16).  For when we don’t fear God, we fear man.  And when we fear man we become ensnared (Proverbs 29:25).  God, through Jesus, the Truth, is all about setting us free (John 8:32). 

The greatest part of that Truth is the love of the Father and we must ask and wait for that revelation, but we must also zealously ask for the fear of the LORD.  In the times coming we are going to need it more than ever. Furthermore, when we start to put on the Spirit of the fear of the Lord daily, as Jesus did (in fact He remained upon Him constantly (Isaiah 11:2)), the world will come running to us in a similar way.  We will barely need to go to them, there will be great crowds and multitudes, so rife is the idolatry and ensnarement in this nation.  For when the Spirit of the fear of the Lord is upon us then the world will truly discern our freedom, wisdom, knowledge, boldness and abundant life. 

Let’s take our eyes off man and the world and keep them fixed on Jesus - the author and finisher of our faith (Hebrews 12:2).  Let’s let go and stop worrying what people think about us, stop being a seeker-friendly church. As Jesus declares, ‘Do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. But rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.’(Matthew 10:28).  Fear God and receive the True, Eternal honor. ‘For those who honor Me I will honor.’ (1 Samuel 2:30)

All creation cries out for the True God and we have their Answer.  Much of the world today laughs at Christians and sees us as sandal-shuffling, needy, smile machines, who simply don't possess the courage for their convictions.  When we truly fear the Lord, delight in the fear of the Lord (Isaiah 11:3) and are zealous for the fear of the LORD all the day (Proverbs 23:17), we will dreadfully, cleanly and lovingly manifest that Answer. Then we'll truly burn, truly shine and truly smile; and so will they.

This entry was posted on 2010-03-08 09:50:00 and is filed under Big Questions , You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.

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