John Bevere - The Fear of the Lord
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Hey, I’m Jon Bevere, and I’m so honored to be a part of this online event. What an amazing occasion that’s happening right now! You know, the leaders I’m working with have asked me to share on the aspect of the fear of the Lord. You say, «Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! God’s not given me a spirit of fear; He’s given me a spirit of power, love, and a sound mind.» That’s so true, but you have to understand there is a difference between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. The Bible says when you have the fear of the Lord, there is honor for the Father that comes with it; there are riches, and there is long life. I could go on and on. I really believe that Moses differentiates between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord.
If you look at Exodus, Moses had taken Israel out of Egypt, and he wasn’t taking them straight to the promised land. He was first taking them to the mountain where he met with God in the burning bush. Why would Moses want to take them to a promised land without first introducing them to the Promisor? When God meets with Moses upon the nation exiting Egypt, God says to Moses, «You tell these people the whole reason I delivered them out of the world was to bring them to Me.» Well, Moses brought the people to God. God came down on the mountain, and what did the people do? They screamed, cried out, and ran away. They said, «Moses, we can’t! We cannot handle meeting with God one-on-one like this.» And Moses made this statement. He said in Exodus 20, «Do not fear, because God has come to test you to see if His fear is in you.»
Now that sounds like a contradiction, but he’s not contradicting himself. He’s saying, «Don’t be scared of God, because God has come to see if His holy fear is in you.» The person who is scared of God has something to hide. If you look at Adam, when he sins against God, he runs from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has nothing to hide; he’s terrified to be away from God. So there’s your first definition of the fear of the Lord: it is to be scared or terrified of being away from God. The person that fears God doesn’t say, «How close can I get to the line of sin and not fall in?» That person says, «I want to be so close to God I can’t even see that line of the world or that line of sin.» To fear God is to venerate Him. That’s a big word. It means to honor, esteem, respect, and stand in awe of Him above anything or anyone else. We tremble at His presence, and we tremble at His Word.
Now, let me say this: why is the fear of the Lord so important? Because the Bible says that the fear of the Lord, in Proverbs 1:7, is the beginning of knowing God intimately. If we are going to be effective in bringing the kingdom of God to this earth and sharing the gospel of Jesus with people, we must know God intimately. What stands out about Jesus above everything else? The intimate relationship He had with the Father. He knew things about people without even being told. He knew what people were thinking; He knew the places to go; He knew how to escape mobs that wanted to stone Him. He walked in very close relationship with His Father. Well, you know what?
Jesus delighted in; Isaiah chapter 11 says, «The root of Jesse shall come forth. The Spirit of the Lord will be upon Him: the Spirit of wisdom, the Spirit of counsel, the Spirit of might, the Spirit of knowledge, the Spirit of understanding, and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.» Then it says His delight—Jesus’s delight—was in the fear of the Lord. Why? Because that is the avenue to having an intimate relationship with God. Now, we as believers, what does it mean for us to practically fear the Lord? Well, to fear the Lord means I’m going to tremble at His Word. What does that mean? I have found five descriptions of what it means to fear God and tremble at His Word.
Number one, it means you’ll obey God instantly. The person who says, «Well, you know, the Lord’s been dealing with me about this now for three months» and laughs about it is just laughing at their lack of godly fear. We obey Him instantly. We obey Him when it doesn’t make sense. There will be times when God tells us to do things that just don’t make sense. It doesn’t make sense when God tells Abraham to take his son and go off to offer him as a sacrifice. It doesn’t make sense when God tells a prophet to go one way and not come back another way, and to not eat anything on the way. Yet when he violates that command, a lion devours that prophet; read about it in 1 Kings 13. It’s mind-blowing!
To tremble at His Word in fear of God means that we’ll obey even when it hurts. It means that we’ll obey even if we don’t see a benefit. You know how many people you have to show the benefit of obeying God to get them to do so? The person who fears God—you don’t have to tell them that. They don’t want to hurt the heart of God; they hate evil. Okay, listen to me carefully: the person who fears God hates evil. They don’t dislike evil; they hate evil. You say, «I heard somebody say the other day they fear God; that’s why they hate those sinners.» No, they don’t fear God because they hate what God loves. God gave Jesus for the whole world. So if you fear God, you’re going to love what He loves, and you’re going to hate what He hates.
So don’t tell me you fear God and you hate sinners. Now, God hates the sin. Why does God hate sin? Because He hates anything that unmakes us because He loves us so much. And when you fear God, you will obey even when you don’t see a benefit. That’s so important! When you fear God, you’ll obey to completion. If you look at Abraham, God tells him to sacrifice his son but doesn’t give him a reason. He waited for that son for 25 years; it didn’t make sense. It hurt! But yet the Bible says the very next morning he immediately obeys and is on his way.
God gives him a three-day journey to give him time to think it over in case he wants to turn back. Oh my goodness, when you think about it, that’s amazing! He goes to the top of that mountain, builds the altar, puts Isaac on it, and lifts up the knife to kill him—to put to death the most important person or thing in his life just because God said it! He didn’t get a reason. And yet when that knife was raised, God sent the angel, and the angel of the Lord said, «Stop!» He said, «Because Abraham, now I know that you fear God.» How did He know he feared God? Because he obeyed instantly. Because he obeyed when it didn’t make sense. Because he obeyed when it hurt. Because he obeyed when he didn’t see a benefit. Because he obeyed to completion. Abraham feared God; that’s why Abraham was called the friend of God.
Yeah, the Bible says in Psalm 25:14 that the Lord’s secret is reserved for those who fear Him. If you look at King Solomon, he had the fear of the Lord; therefore, he walked in the wisdom of God because the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding. He walked in the wisdom of God, but he lost it. He married too many wives; his wives turned his heart away from God, and then he became mad. He said, «Life is vanity. Everything that goes around comes around.» But at the very end of his life, he came back to his senses; he came back to God. And you know what he said at the very end? This is the conclusion of all of life: «Fear God and keep His commandments.»
In other words, what he’s saying is, «Lord, I lost it, but now I’ve realized that it is the most important thing in life.» If you look at Psalm 19:9, it says, «The fear of the Lord is clean.» It has a purifying effect to it. The fear of the Lord is clean, and it endures forever. One day, we had a powerful manifestation of the fear of the Lord in Malaysia. I was in my hotel room the next day, and I remember the people that were there. The building was jam-packed with school leaders from all over the country. A Bible school student looked at me and said, «I feel so clean.» I said, «Man, I do too.» The next morning, I was going through my prayer time in the hotel room in Malaysia, and the Holy Spirit said, «Read Psalm 19.»
I got to that ninth verse, and it said, «The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.» And the Holy Spirit said, «Son, Lucifer led worship right at My throne. He didn’t fear Me; he didn’t endure forever. A third of the angels led by him were around My throne; they didn’t fear Me; they didn’t endure forever. Adam and Eve walked in My very presence in the garden; they didn’t fear Me; they didn’t endure in the garden forever. Every created being that surrounds the throne of God throughout eternity will be tested in the fear of the Lord.»
This is why it’s so important that we, as believers, love God and fear God. You see, Jesus said the road to life is a narrow road, and every road has two ditches on both sides. The first ditch on the road to life—you know what that ditch is called? Legalism. And you know what delivers us? The love of God. You know, the church was in a legalistic ditch in the 60s and 70s, but we found out that God was our Father and He loves us, which got us out of that ditch of legalism. But you know what we did? We swung the pendulum. We went to the other side, and we fell into the other ditch, and that ditch is called lawlessness—an excessive, fleshly, world lifestyle. The fear of the Lord keeps us from that ditch.
A healthy Christian life is one based on our love for God and our fear of God. When we operate in those two virtues, we come into a very intimate relationship with God, and you can’t be sent into the world as an ambassador of the kingdom if you don’t have an intimate relationship with God. How do you get the fear of the Lord? Remember I said Isaiah made the statement that the Spirit of the fear of the Lord was upon Jesus, and His delight was in the fear of the Lord. Jesus made the statement, «If you, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask Him?»
All we need to do is pray and ask God to fill us with the Holy Spirit of the fear of the Lord. Can we pray together? Father in heaven, in the name of Jesus, I pray for my brother and my sister who are being sent as ambassadors of the kingdom into the world. I pray that the Holy Spirit of the fear of the Lord would come upon and within them now. We ask You for the Spirit of the fear of the Lord in Jesus' mighty name. Amen. You guys, I’m so proud of you! Thank you for wanting to change the world by your influence, by listening to God, and by walking with God, making a difference, and bringing the Kingdom of God to this earth. I love you!