Fear Not to Fear God

How revealing. Almost no one ‘liked’ my posts from the past two days. One of the pictures was of the she bears devouring the young rebels who mocked the prophet Elisha. And the other one? Oh, just some folks falling into the fiery pit of hell, that’s all. The content of both posts was explanatory of the pictures, so that must have been just ‘too much’ for a lot of folks to handle. But hey, that's fine, my feelings haven’t been hurt in about thirty two years; neither will they be hurt now or in the future. That’s part of the reality of “the truth shall make you free” (Jn. 8:32). I don’t preach, write, or minister through any venue in order to please men anyway. If I did, “I could not be the servant of Christ” (Gal. 1:10). But really, it reminds me of an old Simon and Garfunkel song, where he says; “A man hears what he wants to hear, and disregards the rest.” Eighty people so far have seen my post from yesterday, and two hundred and sixty six have seen the one about Elisha and the she bears; so what that tells me is that there are a whole lot of folks who do not want to hear about the God of judgment. And what THAT tells me is that a whole lot of folks only want to hear the things about God that they want to hear, and they want to disregard the rest, as Simon and Garfunkel sang it. To me personally it simply isn’t an issue, as I love EVERYTHING about God, very much including the things that emit godly fear and terror. But to all who do NOT love to hear everything about the God of truth, it is a VERY BAD SIGN. Very bad indeed my friend. Since my employer requires of me to “declare unto you ALL the counsel of God,” maybe I should detail this understanding a bit further (Acts 20:27). The reason for this common malady of God’s people shying away from the concept of “the God of judgment” is that the devil has people AFRAID of having the fear of God. How ironic.

The scripture tells us plainly that “perfect love casts out [worldly] fear” (I Jn. 4:18). However, perfect love DOES NOT cast out the fear of God. The kind of fear that perfect love casts out, is as John said, the fear that “hath torment;” and there is surely no torment in the fear of God. The fear of God in fact is the ABSENCE of ALL OTHER fear! David prayed about this in the Psalms: “Teach me thy way, O Lord; I will walk in thy truth: UNITE MY HEART to fear thy name” (Psm. 86:11). David had and loved the fear of the Lord, and as he stated there, the heart that fears God has room for no other fear THAN the fear of God. To further illustrate that the fear of God does NOT have torment, as worldly fear has, we have the powerful proverb that I love: “In the fear of the LORD is strong confidence” (Prov. 14:26). Now I have just a small personal testimony here to illustrate these scriptural truths: I do God’s will, and I speak God’s words. I follow hard after his Spirit, and his love can be felt from me. So can his peace and his fear. Whenever someone finds it in themselves to try to intimidate me in some way, THEY are the one to blink first, not me. And it doesn’t matter who it is, because the reality is that the outcome of my conflicts are decided, “Not by might, nor by power, but by my spirit, saith the LORD of hosts” (Zech. 4:6). That is a living, present reality with me, and those who are around me know it; whether they are of the number who like it, or among those who do not. This reality exists with me simply because I make it my priority to “purify [myself], even as he is pure,” and that means every day (I Jn. 3:3). That purifying includes keeping all worldly type of fear out of my heart, so that only the fear of God is left.

Please don’t misunderstand me, I’m not claiming some special place because of this reality, but rather it is one of the promises of God to all of his people who obey him implicitly: “For if ye shall diligently keep all these commandments which I command you, to do them, to love the Lord your God, to walk in all his ways, and to cleave unto him… There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Lord your God shall lay the FEAR OF YOU and the DREAD OF YOU upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you” (Deut. 11:22,25). I can tell you by long experience that there is great benefit of people being afraid of you for the Lord’s sake, both for yourself and for them as well. So how much greater benefit is there for God’s people to fear him? Please don’t try to turn the fear of God into some sweet little package of respect or reverence. We should have those things as well, but true godly fear is much more than just these things. All of the faithful saints that we read about in the Bible understood this, such as Jacob: “And he was AFRAID, and said, How DREADFUL is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven” (Gen. 28:17). So did Moses: “For ye are not come unto the mount that might be touched, and that burned with fire, nor unto blackness, and darkness, and tempest… And so terrible was the sight, that Moses said, I exceedingly FEAR and QUAKE” (Heb. 12:18,21). So did the beloved John: “His head and his hairs were white like wool, as white as snow; and his eyes were as a flame of fire… And when I saw him, I fell at his feet AS DEAD” (Rev. 1:14,17). It is the devil and his wicked horde who persuade God’s people to hear what they want to hear and disregard the rest. Jesus himself straightly commanded us to be afraid of God for the reason that we will end up in hell fire if we do NOT fear him (Lk. 12:4,5). The scripture plainly states that “by the fear of the LORD men depart from evil” (Prov. 16:6). So what if we do NOT “depart from evil?” Well, the Bible has that answer for us as well: “Follow peace with all men, and HOLINESS, without which NO MAN shall see the Lord” (Heb. 12:14). I think that sufficiently says it. Amen.