John Bevere - Wanna Stay Free from Deception? (Here's the Key)
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This morning, I want to open up. Well, I’m just going to tell you, I’ve just finished the manuscript and submitted it to HarperCollins. The publication date is going to be February 21st, and I’m going to share a little bit about it this morning. The reason I switched messages is that this is just so strong in my heart right now; I have no other way of saying it. I’m going to open up with one of my favorite verses in the New Testament, which is James chapter 4, verse 8. I want you to look at this scripture: it says, «Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.» I want you to say that with me: «Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.» So the question now becomes, who draws first? Come on, we do! There is something that we initiate that will literally cause the One who put the stars in the heavens and the universe with His fingers and called every one of them by name to come near me. Now, I don’t know about you, but that really excites me!
So, what James is saying here, in essence, is this: you are the one who determines the level of your relationship with God, not God. Do I need to say that one more time? You, not God, are the one who determines the level of your relationship with Him. In my traveling for now, for 35 years, I actually think that there are a lot of Christians in the church who really have this mindset that certain individuals were born with stars over their cribs—people like Billy Graham, Mother Teresa, right? Oral Roberts? No! These people are close because they chose to be close.
In fact, when I think about this relationship, God actually desires to be close with you more than you want to be close to Him because look at verse 5. Verse 5 makes this statement: James says, «Or do you think that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns—everybody say 'yearns'—jealously?» Now, that word 'yearn' is interesting. It means to long for something intensely and consistently. Now, I love that. You know, Lisa and I are really close, and I can guarantee you that if I wake up Lisa Bevere at 2 a.m. in the morning and say, «Baby, I just want to talk right now,» she is not yearning for me at 2 a.m. in the morning. She would look at me and say, «John, I’d really like some more sleep.»
But I have noticed that I have gotten up at two o’clock in the morning, and the Holy Spirit is ready to engage because He yearns for you and me intensely and consistently. Now, when I think about that, I think about what David says in Psalm chapter 139, verses 16-17. He said, «Lord, when I consider the thoughts that You have about me.» Now, this is me personally, you personally— not the church collectively. He said, «If I were able to number those thoughts, they would outnumber every grain of sand on this planet.»
Now, I want you to think about this: every single grain of sand on this planet—every beach, every desert, every golf course—that is a lot of sand! And yet God’s thoughts about you outnumber every grain of sand. I mean, that’s crazy! I mean, look, you know what scientists tell us? That in one cubic foot of beach—just one cubic foot—there are a million grains of sand! You got that? So if I were to think about Lisa every 12 seconds for the last 40 years of our marriage, how many of you think that’s a lot of thinking? I mean, that’s including when I’m sleeping! I wouldn’t get 10 square feet of beach! That would be thinking about her every 12 seconds for 40 years. Are you tracking with this?
Okay, how many of you know fishermen exaggerate? Come on! I’ve been to Alaska fishing, and I hold the salmon out as far as I can so it looks bigger, right? And I tell people it was this big, and it was this big! Exaggerating is a lie, and how many of you know God can’t lie? So when God says that His thoughts about you outnumber every grain of sand, how many of you know He’s thinking a lot about you? Now, how many of you know you don’t think a lot about somebody you don’t want to be close to? Come on, think with me! Are you tracking this?
So here’s my question: if God wants to be close to us that intimately, why aren’t more believers in the church intimate with Jesus? Why aren’t they intimate? That’s what I want to address this morning. For us to have an intimate relationship with God, there has to be a foundation in our life, and it doesn’t matter how much God wants to be close to you or how much you want to be close to God; if you don’t have this foundation, you can’t have intimacy. That intimacy is found in Psalm 89, verse 7. I want you to look at this scripture carefully: «God is to be greatly feared"—everybody say «greatly feared"—"in the assembly of the saints and to be held in reverence by all those around Him.» Now, look at the second part of this verse: «God is to be held in reverence by all those who surround Him.»
Let me say this: you will never find the Lord in an atmosphere where He is not held with the utmost respect. Let me tell you, when I first learned this back in 1997, I was asked to speak for the first time in the nation of Brazil. It was a national conference, a believers' conference, being held in the capital city of Brasilia. I was so excited because I had never been to this nation before and had wanted to go. I flew down there; it’s a long flight—it’s like 12 hours to get down there. I remember arriving early Friday morning. I spent the entire day in the hotel room praying and getting ready for service that night. That night they came to pick me up; they drove me down to the arena that we were going to be in. I remember before we even got to the parking lot, there were cars parked everywhere on the street. We got into this massive parking lot, and there wasn’t a spot open in the whole place! I remember they pulled into a reserved spot, and when I got out of the car, I could hear the worship going on inside the building.
What the Brazilians do is create a gap between the upper wall and the ceiling all around these arenas to create airflow for ventilation, so I could hear the music coming from inside the arena. I remember they walked me in; this was back in the days when they would put the minister on the platform. Do you remember those days, CeCe? Oh gosh, I couldn’t stand those days! But anyway, I’m on the platform, and this is one of the best teams in Brazil leading worship, and there’s not a drop—the whole arena is jam-packed, and there’s not a drop of the presence of God! Now, what do I mean by this? There are two types of the presence of God Scriptures talk about. One is His omnipresence, right? David said, «Where can I flee from Your presence? If I go to the highest mountain, You’re there. If I make my bed in hell, You’re there.» It’s the presence of God that never leaves us nor forsakes us, correct?
The other presence of God is what Jesus talks about in John 14—that He will manifest Himself. Now, the word 'manifest' means to make real to your physical senses. It is when God makes Himself real to you. That is a real aspect of Christianity. That happened in the first service when we had the altar call. I remember standing on this platform, and there wasn’t an ounce of the manifest presence of God in the whole arena, and I’m baffled because this is a believers' conference! It’s not like it’s an evangelistic conference! So, I remember bowing my head, and I said, «Lord, where is Your presence?» I remember opening my eyes and starting to notice something I didn’t see before I prayed that prayer. I saw people standing there with their hands in their pockets, looking around; I saw people with their arms crossed, looking down, just disinterested. I watched people walking in and out of the arena to the concession stands, getting concessions. I’m watching people whispering to one another, and I’m like, «This is crazy!»
I remember the praise and worship, and then all of a sudden, they stopped, and one of the leaders came up and began to read from Scripture. And now, because the music wasn’t playing, you could hear a little murmuring from all the people that were talking. I’m sitting there going, «What is going on?» I remember when they introduced me; at this point, I was angry. Okay, I’ll just be honest with you. I was angry. I walked up to the podium; my interpreter is right there, and I just put my elbow on the podium because I’m sitting there. The Holy Spirit said to me, «You’ve got to address this.» But I thought, how do I get their attention? I mean, this is just a show going on up here! So, I remember I had this idea; I know it was the Lord. I just walked up, stared at everybody, and didn’t say a word.
Now, when you’re the guest speaker for the Friday night national conference, and you’ve been introduced and you’re not saying a word and just glaring at the people, just staring at them, that will get people’s attention! After about 60 seconds, I realized every single eye in the arena was on me; and these are the first words I ever spoke in public in the nation of Brazil. I did not say, «Hello, it’s great to be here; thank you for inviting me.» These are the first words that came out of my mouth into the microphone: «I have two questions tonight.» Question number one: «You are talking to somebody sitting across the table, and the whole time you’re talking to them, they’ve got their arms crossed, looking around as if disinterested; they’ve got their hands in their pockets, looking at the ground, or they’re whispering to somebody sitting beside them. Would you continue to talk to them?» They were all quiet. I said, «No?» I said, «Okay, suppose every time you go to your neighbor’s house and you knock on the door, and when they open the door and see you, they go, 'Uh' and walk back, would you go in? Would you go back?» They were all quiet. I said, «No.»
I said, «I have been in this arena for an hour and a half, and I haven’t felt an ounce of the presence of God, and the reason is that God will never come into an atmosphere where He is not held with the utmost respect.» I said, «If the president of your nation had walked on this platform tonight, he would have gotten ten times the respect you gave the Holy Spirit. If Pelé, your greatest soccer player in Brazilian history, had walked on this platform tonight, you would have been on the edge of your seats, anticipating every single word coming out of his mouth. You have given no respect to the Spirit of God!» I went on to preach to them on the fear of the Lord for the next 75 minutes.
Seventy-five minutes later, I said, «Okay, if you’re in this arena and you say you’re born again but lack the fear of God and are willing to repent, stand up.» Seventy-five percent of the arena stood to their feet! When they did, as soon as they did, the presence of God filled the arena; people started sobbing. I remember it lasted three or four minutes, and we didn’t even pray, and it lifted! I remember the Holy Spirit said, «Lead them in a prayer of repentance.» So, I led them in a prayer of repentance, and when they said «Amen,» another wave of His presence came in, a little stronger, and people were now starting to weep more, right? It lasted three or four minutes; it lifted again. The Holy Spirit said to me, «I’m coming one more time.»
Now, I have no way of accurately describing what happened, but I’m going to try. Within 30 seconds of Him saying, «I’m coming one more time,» I want you to imagine being at the end of a runway here at Nashville International Airport, and a Boeing jet takes off in front of you. That kind of violent wind came blowing into that arena! When it did, the people started screaming! Now, can you imagine thousands of Latinos screaming? How loud that is? The wind was louder! When that wind was blowing, there was such authority and presence in that place that I was standing there literally petrified—in a good way! My mind was going, «Bevere, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you’re dead!»
Now, would that have happened? I don’t know! But I do know that a man and a woman in the New Testament brought an offering up in a disrespectful way, and they fell over dead, and they buried them. Because let me tell you something, Daddy didn’t come into the arena; the King came into the arena! The authority was mind-blowing! I remember thinking, «Can I handle this?» My mind was thinking, «Can I handle this?» The wind lasted for about 90 seconds, and it gradually subsided, and when it subsided, it left in its wake people literally collapsed all over the arena—they’re sobbing, they’re bent over the backs of their chairs, weeping! I’m standing there, and I’m like, «God, what do I do?» The Lord’s like, «I’m through with you.»
I remember turning it over to the leader, and they escorted me off. They put me in a car, and within moments later, they put the national singer— the CeCe of Brazil— and her husband in the car. She gets in the car and she screams, «Did you hear the wind? Did you hear the wind?» I said, «Maybe it was a jet airplane that flew over the top of the building— a low-flying jet aircraft.» And she got so mad at me! She said, «What are you talking about? I saw fire all around the building!» And her husband, who was a much calmer man than she was, said, «Sir, that was no low-flying jet airplane!» «How do you know?» I said. He said, «Because there were security men and policemen all around the outside of the building, and when they heard the sound of the wind inside the building, they came running in to see what was going on.» He said, «Furthermore, I was standing at the main soundboard to ensure my wife’s levels were right for singing. The whole time the wind blew, the decimal meters were at zero!» I said, «My goodness! Take me back to my hotel.»
I remember that night I just sat on the balcony and worshiped—literally worshiped God till 1:30 in the morning. I was so in awe. The next morning, Saturday morning at the conference, I spoke. You cannot believe the number of people that got saved, delivered, and healed because of one word, and that is awe—respect, holy fear!
I’ve learned something as a young believer. It used to be really difficult for me to get into the presence of God. I would pray and struggle and struggle, trying to harness my mind and connect with God. Several years ago, I don’t know why I did this, but I went into the prayer closet, I didn’t sing, I didn’t pray in English; I just started thinking about the awesomeness of our Father, and bam! His presence was there.
Well, the next day, I thought, «That worked yesterday; I’m going to try that again,» and again, it happened. The third day it happened. This morning, I started praying without doing that, and I went right back to doing it again, and His presence was there! Well, many years ago, I said, «God, I don’t get it. Why is it so easy to get into Your presence?» The Holy Spirit whispered to my heart: «How did Jesus teach His disciples to pray?» I started whispering the Lord’s prayer: «Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be Your name.» There it is—Jesus taught His disciples to come into the presence of God with holy fear.
So, the question we need to ask this morning is: what is the fear of the Lord? By the way, let me tell you something interesting. We got emails and letters about that wind for years and years and years. In 2016, I went down to Goiânia, Brazil, to speak to 12,000 pastors and leaders. The first pastor I met shook my hand and said, «John, I was in the building 20 years ago when the wind blew,» and he said, «My life’s never been the same.» Lisa went down in 2019, and the leaders of the conference said, «Lisa, we were in the building in 2019 when the wind blew. Our lives had never been the same.» I’m telling you, an encounter with the presence of God like that will change you forever!
What is the fear of the Lord? That’s the question we have to ask: what is holy fear? First of all, let me say this: it is not to be scared of God. How can you have an intimate relationship with somebody you’re scared of? When Moses led Israel out of Egypt, let me ask you a question: where was he bringing Israel? When he delivered them out of Egypt, where was their destination? It was not the promised land. What did he say to Pharaoh five times? «Thus saith the Lord, let My people go that they might worship Me in the wilderness.» Moses is bringing them to the place he met with God—the burning bush—because the burning bush was on Sinai. Why would Moses want to bring them out of Egypt and bring them straight to the promised land without first bringing them to the Promiser?
So, he brings them out. You’ve got to realize Israel’s constantly complaining about going back to Egypt. Moses never once complained, and he had it a hundred times better than Israel in Egypt! Why? Because he had one encounter with God at that bush, and he wants to bring them to that same place! So, he brings them out there. He has a private meeting with God, and God makes this statement to Moses: «You saw what I did to the Egyptians and how I bore you on eagle’s wings.» Now listen to this: «and brought you to Myself.» God told Moses the whole reason He delivered Israel out of Egypt was to bring them to Himself—not to bring them to church, not to a promised land, but to bring them to Him—because He wants a relationship!
So God tells Moses in this private meeting, «Get them ready; after two days, I’m going to come down and introduce Myself to My kids. I’ve been looking forward to this for about 430 years.» So, three days later, God comes down. When He comes down, do you know what they did? They ran! They ran away from the presence of God, and they said something to Moses that was heartbreaking: «Moses, we can’t handle God! You talk to us; you talk to Him! Tell us whatever He says; we’ll hear and do it.»
Well, what’s interesting is they never could. But Moses makes a statement to them when they say that, and look what he says here in Exodus 20:20: «Do not fear, because God has come to test you.» What’s the test? «That His fear may be before you so that you may not sin.» Now, it sounds like Moses is contradicting himself, right? «Do not fear because God has come to see if His fear is in you.» He’s not contradicting himself; he’s differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord.
The person who is scared of God has something to hide. What does Adam do as soon as he sins? He hides from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God has nothing to hide because he or she is terrified of being away from God. So your first definition of the fear of the Lord is to be terrified of being away from Him. Write that down. You got it?
So to fear God is to venerate Him; that’s a big word. What does that mean? It means you honor, respect, esteem, value, reverence, and stand in awe of Him more than anything or anyone else. So what does that mean? It means that you take His heart—what is important to Him becomes important to you; what is not so important to Him is not so important to you. It means you love what He loves and hate what He hates.
Listen, it doesn’t mean you dislike what He hates. Did you hear what I just said? It means you hate what He hates, and you love what He loves! Now, let me show you what the legalist does. The legalist says, «I fear God! That’s why I hate those sinners over there.» You don’t fear God at all! You have no fear of God because you hate what He loves—He died for them! So how can you tell me you fear God and hate what He loves?
Now, He hates the sin that undoes them, okay? He doesn’t dislike the sin; He hates it! So, literally, the fear of the Lord is when you take His heart. Are you tracking with this? This is why the Bible says all who fear the Lord will hate evil. Back in the late 1980s, I was spending— I showed this with the first service—an hour and a half to two hours every single morning praying. Yet there was no authority in my preaching! My words would just go out, and I’d feel like they’d just go. There was no authority! One day I was a little frustrated, and I said, «God, why isn’t there a stronger anointing on my life? I spent two hours every day in prayer—at least an hour and a half! Why isn’t there a strong anointing?»
And you know what the Holy Spirit said to me? «Because you tolerate sin!» He said, «Not only in your life, but in the lives of others.» And then He brought me to Hebrews chapter 1, where God the Father inaugurates Jesus as King of the universe when He’s raised from the dead. Do you know what I’m talking about? Hebrews 1. This is when God says, «Your throne, O God, is forever and ever!» Right?
I want you to see this—look at Hebrews! This is amazing! God the Father says to Jesus, «Because you have loved righteousness"—stop right there! Every Christian in America loves righteousness. But He didn’t stop there; He said, «Because you have loved righteousness and hated sin"—lawlessness—"therefore God, your God, has anointed you more than your companions.» And the Holy Spirit said to me, «You learn to hate sin the way I hate sin, and you’ll see the anointing of God increase upon your life!» Still with me?
See, here’s the problem today. The problem is that we have a society that is training us to tolerate sin—training us to embrace it—training us not to expose it. So we’re a powerless church; there’s not an anointing to get the captives free! So we’re creating an environment where they stay in bondage. We tell them they’re free from the penalty of sin, but they’re in bondage to sin! It’s a big lie!
I remember I was on a radio program, and the guy got mad at me because I was talking about how I was freed from pornography. He got mad at me. He said, «Well, that may be true for you, but it’s not true for everybody, and you’re not being very compassionate towards the people in bondage.» I said, «Whoa, whoa, whoa! Let me make this really clear. What you just said to me is that the blood of Jesus only has enough power to get us free from the penalty of sin, but the blood of Jesus just doesn’t have the power to get us free from the bondage of it! Is that what you’re saying?» And he went, «Uh, no, no, no, that’s not what I said.» Yes, it is what you’re saying.
You still with me? See, our society is bombarding us so ruthlessly! It’s like a rapid-flowing river that’s just beating on our souls, saying, «Conform, conform, conform, conform!» and let everybody do whatever they want to do and tell them they can still have a relationship with their Creator! And so people are getting deeper and deeper into deception.
I remember back in the early 1990s, I had written the first book I wrote, Victory in the Wilderness, and there was a televangelist who was the best-known televangelist in the world. The reason he was best known was for the wrong reasons—he did have the biggest television ministry in the world, but CNN covered his trial because he committed mail fraud and was put in jail for 45 years. It was later reduced down to five years, and he was on CNN every single day. I remember the fourth year of his prison sentence, he had his assistant read the first book that I wrote in prison. He had his assistant call my assistant, and my assistant called, and asked if I would come visit him in prison. I remember I had never met this man; he was so infamous. I thought, «Yeah, I’ll go meet with him.» So we went to that federal prison where he was.
I remember walking into the waiting room, and here is this famous man coming to me in prison garb with his arms outstretched. He grabbed me and held me and wouldn’t let me go, and then he put his hand on my shoulders and said, «Did you write this book or did a ghostwriter?» I said, «No, I wrote it.» He said, «We have so much to talk about!» And he sat me down and said, «John, this prison isn’t God’s judgment on my life; it was His mercy.» I said, «What?» He said, «John, because if I would have kept living the way I was living, I would have ended up in hell forever and ever and ever!»
All of a sudden, I realized, okay, I’ve got to listen to him! He proceeded to tell me how they had a prison church, and they go through the Gospels for two to three hours every day; they break Jesus’s sentences down to five words, three words, one word, three words, five words. I said, «Well, you’re leading this church, right?» And he says, «No way! I’m a manipulator, and I’m not going back to that!»
I remember when I got comfortable with him, I looked at him after about 20 minutes and said, «All right, I need to know something: When did you fall out of love with Jesus?» I remember how the fire and passion he preached with in the 1980s—I’d watched him weep over souls! I said, «When did you fall out of love with Jesus?» At what point? He said, «John, I didn’t.»
I said, «Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa! What do you mean you didn’t fall out of love with Jesus? John, you committed adultery seven years before you got arrested with Jessica Hahn! You committed adultery in 1983; you weren’t arrested until 1990! What do you mean you didn’t fall out of love with Jesus?» He said, «John, I loved Him all the way through.» And then he sees my bewilderment and says, «I didn’t fear God!» I went, «What?» He said, «John, there are millions of Americans just like me. They love Jesus, but they have no fear of God.»
See, God’s given us two great forces to keep us on the narrow road. There’s a ditch on both sides of the narrow road; the first ditch is called legalism. The church was in it in the '60s. A few of us remember that around here—in the '60s and '70s, we were in a ditch of legalism, and God gave a revelation. It was called the Jesus Movement, that our Daddy loved us. Oral Roberts came out with the famous words, «God is a good God!» And you know what the love of God did? It delivered us from the ditch of legalism! But you know what we did? We said, «We want to go so far from that ditch, we’ll never fall into it again!» We went to the other side of the road and fell in the other ditch, and that’s called the ditch of lawlessness.
And God’s given us a force that keeps us out of that ditch, and it’s called the fear of the Lord! It takes the love of God and the fear of God. If you look at the fear of God in the Bible, it was Jesus’s delight! If you look at the fear of the Lord, Isaiah 33:6 says it is God’s treasure. I will never forget when I was in Malaysia in 1999. It was one of the hardest weeks of ministry I’ve ever had in my life. We had just a jam-packed building—pastors had come from all over the nation of Malaysia. Islam is state law in Malaysia, but pastors had traveled—it was the biggest Bible school we were in!
In the last meeting, it had been a hard, hard week, and I remember after my message, I said, «Hey, I want all the women in here who are called to preach the gospel but have never admitted it publicly to come down.» I’ll never forget the platform was really wide, and we were about four deep of women all down in front of the platform. I remember walking down the stairs to go minister to the women, and all of a sudden, this presence of God filled that building, and women started laughing hysterically!
Now, I just need to let you know, it was like Daddy came in and touched His girls! That’s the only way I know how to describe it. But then it started spreading to the whole congregation! This is an Asian, quiet congregation, and yet within 30 seconds, all those women were on their backs, and some of them two or three on top of each other! I’m like, «Whoa, this is amazing!» I remember just sitting on the platform, and I thought, «I’m going to enjoy this.» I just saw God touching these women, bringing refreshing to them, right?
But within minutes—within minutes—all of a sudden, their laughter stopped, and the Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, «I’m coming in a different way.» And I remember all of a sudden, I sensed the same presence that I sensed two years earlier in Brazil. I remember getting up and walking back and forth, and within moments, those girls started screaming like they were on fire, and there was that authority that came into that building! That awesome presence!
I remember thinking to myself again, «John, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you’re dead.» I remember that! As I’m walking back and forth, out of my mouth came words I had never thought of before. I said, «This is the spirit of the fear of the Lord,» and I went, «Oh my gosh! That’s it! That’s one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit!»
If you look at Isaiah, Isaiah says, «The spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him: the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel, the spirit of might, the spirit of knowledge, and the spirit of the fear of the Lord.» And look at what it says next: «His delight was in the fear of the Lord.»
I remember walking out of that auditorium that day, and this couple from India—they were in the Bible school—they were from the nation of India. They had both gotten touched so deeply, and she just looked at me and said, «I feel so clean inside.» I said, «That’s exactly what I sensed! That’s what I felt in Brazil! That’s what I feel right now!» I couldn’t articulate it; that’s what I feel.
The next morning, I’m getting ready to play basketball with the guys in Malaysia; I’m putting on my shorts, and I hear the Holy Spirit say, «Read Psalm 19.» I started reading Psalm 19, and when I got to the ninth verse, I about hit the ceiling! Because look what I read: «The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever.» The Spirit of God spoke to me right there in that hotel room and said, «Son, Lucifer led worship right before My throne! He was anointed to do so; he didn’t fear Me; he didn’t endure forever! He said a third of the angels surrounded My throne—they didn’t fear Me! They didn’t endure forever; they were cast out of heaven like lightning! He said Adam and Eve walked right in the presence of My glory; they didn’t fear Me! They didn’t endure forever! He said every created being who surrounds My throne will be tested in the holy fear of God!»
So let me bring this to a wrap in the next couple of minutes—next 15 minutes. What is the manifestation of somebody who truly fears God? Do you know what I mean by that? What’s the evidence? What’s the evidence that somebody really has a holy fear of God burning in their heart? They’ll obey God instantly! They’ll obey God when it doesn’t make sense. Has anybody ever been asked to do something by the Lord that didn’t make sense? They’ll obey Him even if it hurts! They’ll obey Him even if they don’t see a benefit!
Do you know sometimes the only way we can get people to obey God is if we show them the personal benefit, and they’ll obey God to completion? Now, let me show you how far we’re drifting from the fear of the Lord: we have Christians in the church that think the Bible’s a little out of date! Ninety percent of the people live together before they get married, so they think nothing of living together. They think nothing of having sex before marriage! They think nothing about what’s being propagated as far as gender choices when God created them male and female—not half and half!
So we’re sitting there and we’re choosing aspects of the Scripture that we feel are good and nice, and then we’re eliminating the rest! That’s not the fear of the Lord! The fear of the Lord says, deep within my heart, I choose to obey whatever God says, even if I don’t get it; because I know He loves me, and He knows what makes me and what undoes me.
I told the first service that at Christmas time, I would open up the box, throw the stuff on the floor, throw the manual away, the box away, and build the toy. After an hour and a half of building it, there were still ten pieces on the floor! I go to flip the switch on it, and it doesn’t work! What do I do? I go find the manual that I threw over in the corner. I deconstruct the toy, rebuild it how the manufacturer said to build it, and I flipped the switch, and it works!
The fear of God says, «I know that You’re my Creator, and You know what makes me and breaks me!» The wisdom of man—which is the opposite of the fear of God—says, «I know what’s best for me!»
So the person that really, truly fears God obeys Him because they know that God loves them perfectly! Perfectly! I mean, think about it—He thinks about you more than any grain of sand that’s on this planet! Which means you’re the object of His affection! Adam and Eve chose to walk away from God; God didn’t walk away from them! There are people walking away from the One who loves them the most because they think they know more!
Amen?
All right, now let me bring you to my favorite scripture in the Bible. You ready? «Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him; with them He shares His secrets.» Do you know what He’s saying? God is not everybody’s friend! Let me get a little more specific: God’s not everybody’s friend in the church! There are two men in the Old Testament who were called the friends of God. Who were they? Anybody know? Abraham and Moses.
Enoch was one. Were there others? Yes, Enoch was one. Noah was one. Daniel was one. Joseph was one. But I think these two men are specifically called friends of God because their lives exemplified what it takes to have a relationship—a friendship—with God! So, let’s talk about the first one: Abraham. Why is Abraham called the friend of God? Because when he’s really old, God comes to him one night and says, «Abe, you know the son that you waited for for 25 years? The one you love so much? The one who’s a miracle child? I want you to go and kill him for Me.»
I want you to stop and think about it: God doesn’t say, «If you go and kill him, you’ll secure the covenant, and I’ll send My Son.» He just says, «Go offer him as a sacrifice! Take a three-day journey and offer him as a sacrifice!» Do you know what my Bible says? Early the next morning, Abraham was on his way! You know how some people say, «The Lord’s dealing with me about this,» and they laugh about it? You’re laughing about your lack of godly fear! You’re still here! God gives him a three-day journey. Why? Because it was easier two and a half days ago when you heard the booming voice of God! But what about two and a half days later? You’re looking at the mountain you’re going to put the most important person or thing to death in your life just because God said it and didn’t give you a reason!
Abraham goes to the top of the mountain, builds the altar, ties Isaac up on the altar, lifts the knife, and is ready to put the most important person or thing to death in his life just because God said, «Do it,» and didn’t give him a reason. And the angel of the Lord says, «Stop!» And what does the angel of God say? «Now I know that you fear God! Don’t touch him!» I know now you fear God!
How did the angel know that Abraham 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, and because he obeyed to completion! Abraham puts the knife down, unties Isaac, lifts his eyes, and there’s a ram! And what comes out of Abraham? «Jehovah Jireh—the Lord is my provider!» Do you realize God just revealed a facet of His personality to Abraham that nobody had ever known before? Because he’s My friend!
Does that make sense? See, let me help you understand: all of you know me as John Bevere minister; some of you know me as John Bevere author. But my wife, Lisa, knows me as John Bevere husband. She knows me as John Bevere friend, best friend. She knows me as John Bevere athlete; she knows me as John Bevere father; John Bevere g-daddy; she knows me as John Bevere lover. None of you will ever know me as John Bevere lover—that is a facet of my personality reserved for the closest person to me on the earth! Do you understand that? God just revealed a facet of His personality to Abraham that nobody had ever known before! Because he’s My friend!
Do you see that? Now, if you look at the relationship between God and Abraham, it’s amazing! One day the Lord says, «Should we do to Sodom and Gomorrah what we’re planning on doing without first talking to our friend Abraham?» So God comes down at the terrible trees, has a meal with Abraham, and so Abraham and God go over on the cliff, and they’re overlooking the plains of Sodom, and God looks at Abraham and goes, «Abe, we’re thinking about blowing up these two cities! What do you think?»
And Abraham goes, «Sodom?» God goes, «Yes, Sodom and Gomorrah! What do you think?» And Abraham goes, «Well, my nephew’s down there.» My nephew’s down there! Okay, think! Think! «Okay, God, You wouldn’t blow up the cities if there were 50 righteous people, would You?» The Lord goes, «Excellent idea! Excellent idea! Okay, we’ll not blow up the cities if there are 50 righteous people.» Abraham goes, «What if there are 45? Would You blow them up?» The Lord says, «Another good idea! I’m glad we talked to our friend Abraham!»
Now, Abraham talks Him all the way down to ten! He figures there’s ten—Lot’s one; all he needs is nine others! But there aren’t! There aren’t! So here’s the deal: I want you to listen to this! The Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah are buying, selling, marrying, giving in marriage, planting, and harvesting. What is that in today’s vernacular? The economy is booming; life is great! And if there is a God, He doesn’t mind our lifestyle! They are 24 hours away from being obliterated, and they’re clueless!
That’s not what’s scary—this is what’s scary! Lot, everybody say «Lot!» Who the Bible calls righteous, okay? A born-again Christian! He is 24 hours away from being obliterated, and he’s as clueless as Sodom! It took two angels of mercy to get him out because Abraham prayed. Thank God Abraham prayed!
Now, now look at this: you’ve got two righteous men. One righteous, now let me make it modern—two saved men, two born-again men. One righteous man knows what God’s gonna do before He does it and helps God decide how He’s gonna do it. The other righteous, say, born-again man is as clueless as the world! Why? This righteous, saved, born-again man knows the secrets of God because he’s the friend of God—because he fears God! This righteous, saved, born-again man does not know the secrets of God because he does not fear God—because he is not the friend of God!
Now, you want to see this in the New Testament? You want to see this in the New Testament? Jesus made a statement. Watch this! Jesus said, «No longer,"—He’s with the eleven; Judas has already gone to betray Him—and Jesus looks at these guys that have stayed with Him for three and a half years when everybody else left, and Jesus looks at him and said, «No longer do I call you servants.» Now, wait a minute! No longer do I call you servants? The fact that He says «no longer» means at one time He looked at them and merely regarded them as servants—that’s an English lesson, okay? Why does God do this? Even though you’re an heir, will He keep you at a level of a servant? Even though you’re an heir? Remember Galatians says as long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from the servant? Why does God do that? To protect you!
Did you hear what I just said? To protect you! Why? Because He doesn’t want what happened to Ananias and Sapphira to happen to you! Ananias and Sapphira got a little too familiar with God, and they were buried!
So let me give you an example. When we first started Messenger International in 1990, I had worked for a ministry that had 450 employees and 150 teams. I remember I got this new leadership mentality that I’m going to be every employee’s best buddy! Some of you already know the stupidity of that!
So the first guy I hired in 1991 for Lisa and me was a guy named John, and he was my best buddy! We played basketball together, watched videos together, we went out to eat together, he was at our house— the whole time! It was great! It was really great until about a year later when I had to bring some minor correction! He was being rude to people at the resource table, and I said, «John, you’re really unapproachable at the resource table! You’ve got this look on your face of 'buzz off'! You need to be a little more friendly!»
Well, he looked across the table and just started railing on me, saying, «You’re this and you’re that, you’re this and you’re that!» and I’m sitting there going, «Oh my gosh!» So, I looked inside and said, «Lord, what do I do?» The Lord said, «Fire him.» So I let him completely vent. I let him completely vent. I said, «Well, you can’t work for us anymore!» He stormed out of my office, right? My office was in my house. Stormed out of my office! I started crying, and the Holy Spirit said, «He’ll be back, and he’ll be twice as faithful!»
Three months later he calls me back and says, «John, God’s never talked to me like He’s talked to me the last three months!» I said, «What happened?» He said, «God told me I became too familiar with you. I lost sight of the place God put you in my life, and I lost sight of the place God put me in your life.» He said, «I did the same with Miss Lisa,» and he said, «I’m so sorry!»
After I really heard him out, I said, «Would you come back and work for us?» He said, «Absolutely,» and we never had problems in that area again! Now today, I have a new policy with our team members. Today, I will not open up and share the secrets of my heart—the intimate things of my heart—with any employee until I know they’re very established in who I am and very established in who God’s made them to be in Lisa’s and my life. But once they become established, I bring them in as friends. Some of my employees are my dearest friends.
So God does the same thing with us. God says, «Until you’re really established in who I am and you’re really establishing who you are in the fear of the Lord, I’ve got to keep you at a level of servant even though you’re an heir. But He said, „Once you’re really established in the holy fear of God, I can bring you in as My friend.“
So this is what Jesus says: look what He says! „No longer do I call you servants, for a servant doesn’t know what his master is doing. The master’s ways, His secrets, His wisdom, but I have called you My friends.“ Now, He gives His universal decree to the whole church, and I’ll close with this. Jesus said, „You are My friends.“ Stop right there. We have sung songs about Jesus being our friend, we preach sermons about it, we write books about it, but we never finish His sentence! He said, „You are My friends if, if, if—if!“
„If“ is a condition! In other words, if I say to you, „If you work for me 40 hours, I’ll pay you 2000,“ and you don’t work 40 hours, and then you come and say, „Where’s my $2000?“ I said, „It was a condition! You didn’t fulfill the condition!“
Jesus said, „You are My friends if you do whatever I command you!“ Now, whatever society is saying is cool now—whatever government is saying is permissible! If you do whatever I command—remember what He said? „Go into all the world and make disciples of all nations, teaching them to do whatever I’ve commanded them!“
If you do whatever I command you, you become My friends! You know what Jesus is saying right there? Not everybody is His friend! Let me get more specific: not everybody in the church is His friend! But He passionately desires everybody in the church to be His intimate, close friend! But you’re the one who determines the level of your relationship with God, not God!
Therefore, draw near to God, and He will draw near to you. You get it?
I want every head bowed, and every eye closed. I’m going to tell you something: I love this church so much, and I love you people so much. But I’m going to be real blunt with you—our society, social media, our government is brainwashing people! Many of the preachers of our day are seducing people away from the fear of the Lord! And the reason I took all this time to show you what the fear of the Lord is is because it’s the only thing that’s going to protect you in these last days!
The Bible says we work out our salvation with fear and trembling—not love and kindness—Paul wrote that! In other words, we mature our salvation through fear—holy fear—and trembling! Without it, you’re going to get swept away by the deception of the day! And some of you have already gone down that route. Some of you have already bought into the lies! And today you realized that you lack the holy fear of God! I want to give you an opportunity now to become a disciple of Jesus that says, „I’ll obey instantly! I’ll obey when it doesn’t make sense! I’ll obey even if it hurts! I’ll obey when I don’t see a benefit! And I will obey to completion!“
If you’re in here and you’d say, „John, that’s me! I want to obey the word of God! I want to have a relationship of intimacy and friendship with my Lord Jesus Christ!“ then I want you to stand up! If that’s you, stand up!