John Bevere - How to Have a Healthy Fear of God
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My heart is deeply burdened for the church in America. Barna has done a study, and in the last 23 years, over 40 million Americans have walked away from the faith. Half of those 40 million are now professing agnostics, atheists, and spiritualists. Second Thessalonians tells us that in the last days, there will be a great departure from the faith. However, what the Bible doesn't say is that those people who have departed won't come back. I believe they are going to return. John the Baptist was sent to the lost sheep of the house of Israel, and I believe there are many people here who will be sent to the lost sheep of the church. Amen.
What has caused this great departure? I believe we have a gift given to us by God that we've ignored, and that gift is called the holy fear of God—the healthy fear of God. Isaiah 33:6 makes this statement: "There shall be stability in your times." What creates that stability? "The fear of the Lord is your treasure." Now, I want you to look at this closely: the fear of the Lord is God's treasure. What do we do with treasure? We protect it; we put it in safes; we hire security companies; we have alarm systems. We place it in very, very safe places. The fear of the Lord is God's treasure; it's not only ours; it belongs to God.
When we speak of the fear of the Lord today, we address a culture that has tried to eradicate fear. I mean, in the '90s, we wore T-shirts that said "No Fear." We wanted to abolish it because we hated anything to do with fear. But is all fear bad? The answer is no. For instance, the healthy fear of not messing with grizzly bear cubs will preserve my life; that is wisdom that will save me. The healthy fear of not balancing on a 2,000-foot cliff drop is a healthy fear that will keep me from an early death. However, there is a fear that eradicates all other fears, and that fear is called the healthy, holy fear of God.
Now, the first question we've got to ask is this: What is the fear of the Lord? Let me say this, students, and I want you to hear me: before you automatically shut me down, the fear of the Lord is not simply being scared of God. When Israel came out of Egypt, do you remember Moses led them out? Let me ask you, when Moses brought Israel out of Egypt, where were they going? Everybody yell it! The promised land? No, that is not right. What did Moses say to Pharaoh five times? "Thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they might worship me in the wilderness." Why does Moses want to bring them to the promised land before he first brings them to the Promiser? If you bring them to the promised land before bringing them to the Promiser, they're going to make the promised land into a place of idolatry.
I see an amazing thing when I look at Israel: they're abused by Egypt. They have stripes on their backs; their babies are put to death; they are working their whole lives to build somebody else's inheritance and eating the worst of the slums. They're living in poverty, yet they come out of Egypt, and you know what they constantly say? "Let's go back to Egypt; it was better for us there." I look at Moses. He was raised in the wealthiest man's house on the planet; his grandfather, Pharaoh, is the richest man on earth. He lives in a palace; he can do whatever he wants. He can have every Lamborghini in the collection; he can have every Harley he wants; he can throw a national party any time he pleases. But he comes out of Egypt, and Moses never once says, "It was better for me back in Egypt." Why? Because he had one encounter with God at that bush, and he wanted Israel to have the same.
Moses brings Israel straight to Sinai. He goes up to the mountain and has a private meeting with God. God says to Moses in Exodus 19, "Go down and tell the people the whole reason I delivered you from Egypt was to bring you to me. I have called every one of them to be a kingdom of priests." God wanted every one of them to be able to approach Him personally. He told Moses to tell them to get ready, and part of this preparation was for the next two days to wash their clothes and get the filth of Egypt off of them because He was coming down. Before God ever revealed Himself as a loving God, He first revealed Himself as a holy God. And at the center of that holiness is His love.
So when God comes down on the mountain, these people run from God. Why? Because they still have too much of Egypt in their hearts. Moses is utterly confused by their response. He looks at them in Exodus 20:20 and says, "Do not fear, for God has come to test you." What's the test? "To see if His fear is in you so that you may not sin." Now look up at me, everybody: "Do not fear, for God has come to see if His fear is in you." Moses is differentiating between being afraid of God and the fear of the Lord. There is a difference. A 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 God. The person who fears God has nothing to hide; he or she is terrified of being away from God.
So if you want the first definition of the holy fear of God, it is to be terrified of being away from Him. This is why the Bible tells us that by the fear of the Lord, one departs from evil. Back in the early '90s, there was an evangelist who was one of the most well-known men on the planet. He had the largest ministry in the world in the 1980s. He was a fiery preacher but was arrested for mail fraud and sentenced to 45 years, which was reduced to five. I was asked to come and visit him, and when I visited him, I will never forget: he came into the waiting area, hugged me, and wouldn't let me go. Then he said to me, "We have so much to talk about, and we only have 90 minutes." The first thing he said to me was, "John, this prison was not God's judgment on my life; it was His mercy."
Oh my gosh! Now I'm looking at probably one of the most infamous people in the world right now; CNN covered his trial every day, his arrest, everything, and he told me how Jesus had delivered him from all the evil in his life. His first year in prison was in his fourth year now. When I got comfortable with him, I said, "Hey, I have a question: at what point did you fall out of love with Jesus? When did you stop loving Him? Because I remember when you started; you were so on fire, you wept when you preached." He looked at me and said, "I didn't." I said, "No, no, you didn't understand what I just asked you. When did you fall out of love with Jesus? At what point?" He replied, "John, I didn't."
Now my walls are back up because I don't know this guy, and I remember I said to him, "You committed adultery in 1983," and I named the person. "You're involved in all this mail fraud for seven more years before you're arrested, and you're telling me you didn't love Jesus? Are you telling me you loved Jesus all the way through this?" He said, "John, I loved Him all the way through." Now he sees the confusion on my face and says, "John, I didn't fear God." He said, "There are millions of Americans just like me; they love Jesus but have no fear of God. It is by the fear of the Lord that one departs from evil."
So what is the fear of the Lord? The fear of the Lord is to stand in awe of Him. It is to honor, tremble, revere, esteem, respect, value, and venerate Him more than anything or anyone else. When someone fears God, we will love what He loves, and we will hate what He hates. You say, "God hates?" Yes, He does. Now let me show you the legalistic version of the fear of the Lord. This is why we ran from it as a church: "I fear God; that's why I hate those sinners over there." No, you don't fear God at all because you hate what He loves. He loves those sinners so much He died for them. What He hates is the sin that unmakes that person.
I remember in the 1990s, I was praying every single morning for two hours. I'd get up at 4:45 religiously every morning, go out to an outside place—usually a golf course—and pray until seven in the morning. Yet when I would stand up and preach, my words felt like there was no power, no unction, no anointing, and I was getting really frustrated. One day I went to the Lord and said, "God, I don't get it; why isn't there a stronger anointing on my life?" The Holy Spirit spoke to me and said, "Because you tolerate sin."
I went, "What?" He replied, "You tolerate sin, not only in your life but in the lives of others." Then He told me, "Read Hebrews 1." Now Hebrews 1 is when God the Father inaugurates Jesus as king of the universe after His resurrection. In verse 9, it says, "Because You have loved righteousness, and hated not disliked, not tolerated—hated lawlessness; therefore, God, even Your God, has anointed You more than Your companions."
The Holy Spirit said to me, "Learn to hate sin the way I hate sin, and you'll see the anointing of God increase upon your life." So what is the fear of God, or what is the awe of God? Number one, it is to tremble at His presence. Number two, it is to tremble at His word. I'm going to briefly cover this in the next couple of minutes. What does it mean to tremble at His presence? Psalm 89:7 says, "God is greatly—everybody say greatly—to be 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, write this down: you will never find God in an atmosphere where He is not held with the utmost respect. I'll never forget when I first learned this back in 1997. For the first time in my life, I was asked to go to the nation of Brazil. I was so excited; it was a national conference, and I was the Friday night speaker. I flew down, prayed most of the day in the hotel room, and they picked me up and took me to the service. I remember that was back in the days—oh, did I hate those days when they put the speakers on the platform! I had to sit on the platform during worship, can you believe that? I know most of you haven't even seen that because you're too young. I'm so glad we got delivered from that.
Anyway, I'm looking at this arena. It wasn't an auditorium; it was an arena, and there are thousands of Brazilians. This place is jam-packed; it's a national conference, and I'll never forget that the worship team was unbelievably gifted. Yet I'm standing on that platform, and there isn't a drop of the presence of God in the whole place. Now you understand what I mean by that; the Bible talks of two types of His presence: His manifest presence and His omnipresence. His omnipresence is the presence of God that says, "I'll never leave you nor forsake you." That's the presence that David said, "If I go to the highest mountain, You're there; if I make my bed in the lowest parts, You're there."
But to manifest means to bring from the unseen into the seen, the unheard into the heard, the unknown into the known. It is when God reveals Himself to our senses. That presence was totally absent in that arena, and so I closed my eyes and said, "God, where's Your presence?" All of a sudden, when I opened my eyes, I noticed something I hadn't seen before. I noticed people standing there during worship, looking around with their arms crossed, some with their hands in their pockets, looking down. I saw a lot of people talking to one another, coming out of the high places, going down to get concessions, and going back to their seats with tacos or Coke or whatever it was, and I'm like, "This will stop." But it doesn't.
The worship set is over, and all of a sudden one of the leaders of this big movement in Brazil walks up, starts reading scripture, and because there's no music, I hear a mutter of people talking to one another. Now I'm sitting there in absolute disbelief, and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, "You've got to address this." I'm like, "How? Nobody's even listening!" So He gave me an idea. I walked up, got introduced, and just sat there, staring at everybody, saying nothing. My translator is looking at me like, "What are you doing?"
When you're the Friday night guest speaker and you're introduced and you're not saying a word—just glaring at people—that'll get their attention. All of a sudden, all the muttering stops. Every eye in the place is on me, and I said, "This is the first words I ever spoke in public in Brazil: I have two questions." I didn't say, "Hey, thanks for having me, love being here." I said, "I have two questions: Question one—you're talking to somebody sitting across the table, and they are staring at you with their arms crossed, looking around as if they are disinterested, or they're whispering to the person beside them. Would you continue talking to them?" They said, "No."
I said, "What if every time you go to your neighbor's house, when he opens the door and sees you, he goes, 'Oh, it's you again.' Would you go in?" They said, "No." I said, "I have been in this arena for an hour and a half, and there is an absence of the presence of God here because God will never manifest Himself in a place where He is not held with the utmost respect."
I said, "If the president of your nation would have walked onto this platform tonight, he would have received ten times the respect you have given to the Holy Spirit." I said, "If Pele, your greatest soccer player in the history of Brazil, would have walked onto this platform, you would have been on the edge of your seats, anticipating his every move. Yet you've given no respect to the Spirit of God." I preached to them for 75 minutes on the holy fear of God.
At the end of 75 minutes, I said, "If you are in here and you say you're a Christian—because it was a believer's conference—and you say you lack the fear of God and you're willing to repent, stand up." Seventy-five percent of the arena stood up. As soon as they did, the presence of God came in; people started weeping. I led them in a prayer of repentance, and they were weeping. The Holy Spirit said to me, "I'm coming one last time."
There's no way of describing this that can do it justice, but I'll try. Imagine standing at the end of the runway at Birmingham International Airport when a Boeing jet takes off in front of you. That kind of violent wind came blowing into that arena. When it did, the people erupted. Can you imagine thousands of Latinos screaming? I mean, that's loud, but the wind was louder. I remember I was standing on this platform, petrified but drawn at the same time. I don't know how else to describe it. I was terrified, but yet I was drawn to this presence. The authority was mind-blowing; I had never sensed anything like it in my life.
I remember all that was coming out of my mouth was, "Oh my God." And I remember thinking, "John Bevere, you say one wrong word, you make one wrong move, you're dead." Now would that have happened? I don't know, but it did happen in a church service in Jerusalem when a couple brought an offering and lied about it, and they were buried. I knew irreverence wouldn't be tolerated, but yet I was so drawn to it. My head was saying, "Can I handle this?" My heart was saying, "Oh God, don't lift, don't lift."
Then I remember the wind lasted 90 seconds. It subsided, and I was standing there like, "Lord, what do I do for five minutes?" I'm like, "What do I do? What do I do?" Of course, I froze. I said, "Okay, it's all yours." Then the leaders whisked me out, put me in the car, and put the national singer and her husband in the car. She goes, "Did you—maybe it was an airplane flying too low over the arena." I go, "What are you talking about?" She was almost screaming at me, and her husband said, "Honey, that was no airplane." I said, "How do you know?"
He said, "Because there were security men and policemen all around the outside of the arena; most of them aren't even saved; they're union people. When the wind began to blow on the inside, they heard it; they came running in saying, 'What's going on?'" He said, "I'm at the sound board, making sure my wife's levels are right for her singing. The whole time the wind's blowing, the decibel meters were at zero; not one ounce of the sound of the wind came through our sound system."
I said, "My God, take me to my hotel room." I remember I stayed up till 1:30 at night just in awe and worshiping. The next morning, you cannot believe the miracles that occurred for one reason—ah, reverence, holy fear. God makes the statement in Leviticus 10:3: "By those who come near Me, I must be regarded as holy."
I'll never forget one day; I used to struggle to get into the presence of God. One day in my prayer closet, I didn't sing, I didn't pray, I didn't say anything—I just thought about the awesomeness of my Daddy. I thought about the fact that He put the stars in the heavens with His fingers and called everyone by name. I thought about how He weighed every drop of water on the planet in the palm of His hands and weighed the mountains in His scales. All of a sudden, the presence of God came in.
So the next morning, I thought, "I'm going to try that again." It happened again. The next morning, I said, "I'm going to try it again." It happened again. So the third morning, I said, "Lord, I don't get it; I've struggled so much to get in Your presence before in prayer times; it's so easy right now." The Holy Spirit said, "How did Jesus teach His disciples to pray? 'Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.'"
Oh my gosh! Hallowed be Thy name. There it is! Jesus taught His disciples to come into the presence of God with reverential fear. I remember I was in Malaysia in 1999, two years after Brazil. By the way, we heard about that wind blowing for 20 years; we got emails and snail mail. I remember Lisa and I—I actually went down in 2016 to speak to 12,000 pastors in an arena in Goiânia, Brazil.
The first pastor I met, who is one of the leading pastors, said, "I was in the building when the wind blew in 1997, 20 years ago." He said, "My life has never been the same."
Well, two years later, I'm in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I'm in the largest Bible school in the nation. Pastors and leaders had come from all over the nation; it was a totally jammed auditorium, this time, not an arena. I remember we were on our final service, and again that presence manifested. I had all the women—now these are all Asian people—all the Asian women were down there because they were saying, "I'm called to ministry; I've never publicly…"
I went down to start praying for them, and something happened that shocked me. Daddy came in, and all these women started laughing all at the same time in unison. Within 30 seconds, every one of them was on the floor; nobody caught them. I saw three women lying on top of each other from just collapsing, laughing, and I was just observing and enjoying this. This went on for about five minutes; they were laughing hysterically, and Daddy was blessing His girls.
I was just sitting with my feet dangling, just watching this and going, "This is magnificent." All of a sudden, the presence lifted, and another presence came in. I recognized it from Brazil and thought, "Oh boy." Now, I didn't say a word; I just got up, and all of a sudden, within moments, those women stopped laughing and started crying out, weeping, and almost screaming. I'm going, "Oh my God!"
This is when I discovered there's a difference between my heart and my head because, once again, I had the thought: "You say one wrong word, you're dead." I was thinking, "I can't take this," and my heart said, "Oh God, don't lift, don't lift!" I was literally having an argument. Remember, the Word of God pierces between soul and spirit; there's a difference.
I remember I was walking back and forth, saying, "My God!" This is stronger than before. There was no wind, just that presence, and these women were crying out—nobody was orchestrating this except Him. I'm going, "My God!" This is when I discovered there's a difference between my heart and my head.
My heart was saying, "Oh God, please don't leave!" My mouth said something that my mind hadn't thought of in its entire life. My mouth said, "This is the spirit of the fear of the Lord." All of a sudden, I went, "Oh my gosh, that's it!" I didn't do it on purpose!
Not in that atmosphere; inside I was going, "That's it! That's it!" Isaiah said—remember Isaiah said—the spirit of the Lord should rest upon Jesus. Look, I'm going to put the scripture up: "The spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord."
Now look at this: and Jesus' delight was in the fear of the Lord. Have you ever noticed the Bible says, "Who in the days of His flesh lifted up His voice with vehement cries to Him who was able to save Him, and He was heard"? Jesus was heard because of His godly fear. It's one thing to pray; it's another thing to be heard. Why? Because He delighted!
Every morning, I'm praying, "God, baptize me in the Holy Spirit. God, please." I know that's only drawn to people who truly walk humbly; it's not for the proud.
Are you still with me? The next—that meeting in Malaysia is over, and the pastor very wisely didn't end the service with a song; he just got up and said, "I can't end this service; you're welcome to stay as long as you want." I stayed about 15 minutes, then I started walking out.
This Indian couple walks up to me, and they just look at me. Now, she was nailed by His presence—I mean nailed. I remember I like to get as close to you as possible, is that all right? I'd be down here if I could.
So I remember we were just staring at each other, like, "What do you say after something like this?" She said, "I feel so clean inside." I went, "Oh my gosh, that describes it!"
You just articulated that! That's what I felt in Brazil; that's what I felt in California; that's what I felt in North Carolina—it's only happened five times. I said exactly, "That's exactly what I feel!" It feels so clean.
The next morning, I'm playing basketball with the Bible school students in Malaysia, right? I'm putting on my gym shorts in the hotel room, and the Holy Spirit speaks to me and says, "Read Psalm 19." I have no idea what's in Psalm 19. So I go, I get my Bible, and I go over to Psalm 19. I start reading verse 1, verse 3, and then I get to verse 9: "The fear of the Lord is clean."
I went, "Oh my God, my girl, the fear of the Lord is clean!" Now look at this: "enduring forever." Everybody say "enduring forever!"
The Spirit of God spoke to me at that moment and said, "Son, Lucifer led worship right before My throne." Hey, Chris Tomlin's a friend of mine; he's my next-door neighbor. He's good, but he isn't leading worship right before the throne where the angels are crying out, "Holy!" Lucifer led worship right before My throne. He was anointed to do so; he didn't fear Me; he didn't endure forever.
Then the Lord said, "A third of the angels surrounded My throne; they beheld My glory, My greatness; they didn't fear Me; they didn't endure forever." He said, "Son, every created being that stands before My throne throughout eternity will have been tested in the holy fear of God."
After that, I started thinking: so many pastors have started in ministry on fire; they love Jesus, but they don't endure in ministry. Why? They lack holy fear. Are you still with me? There's so much I could talk about.
The second aspect of holy fear is to tremble at His word. All the people of Israel are trying to serve God. They're doing it in their way; they're doing many things He asks of them; they're offering their lamb sacrifices, their bold sacrifices, their grain offerings, but God says, "It's like offering pig's blood to Me." They're confused, and God says, "This is the one whom I look at."
Now that word "look" means to pay close attention. God is saying to Israel, "You're doing all this stuff; you're having your services, offering your lamb's blood, but this is the one I pay attention to: the one who is humble and contrite and who trembles at My word."
What does it mean to tremble at God's word? It means we'll obey Him immediately. You ever hear somebody say, "Well, you know, about this now for several months"? You are boasting about your lack of holy fear. When you tremble at His word, it means you'll obey even if it doesn't make sense. When you tremble at His word, you'll obey even if it hurts. If you tremble at His word, you'll obey even when you don't see a benefit.
There was no benefit for Esther to go before the king, but she said, "I'm going; if I die, I die." She feared God. You know, you almost have to show people the benefit of obeying God in America to get them to obey. That's a real sad story.
You ever wonder why 40 million people have walked away? Could it be that we sell Jesus instead of preaching? Could it be that we get people to try to join instead of repent? I don't know about you, but all over the New Testament, it says the only way to turn to Him is to repent. It's the first foundation: repentance from dead works.
You know Lisa and I, I really love her, but you know, if she said to me, "You know, Tony, was my high school boyfriend. I'd like a few nights a year in bed with him. Peter, I was pinned to him in college. I'd like about a week with him, but you'll be my favorite. I'll love you more than any of them, and I'll spend the majority—90%—of my time with you," I wouldn't have married her.
And we think a bride—we think a groom—Jesus is coming back for a bride that says, "Let me just have this part of the world." We say, "Let me entertain myself." No! Let me entertain myself with what drove the nails through Your hands.
To tremble at His word means you'll obey all the way to completion. What's the greatest promise of the awe of God? It's friendship. Look at Psalm 25:14. "The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant." That word "secret" actually means secrets.
The secrets of the Lord are with those who fear Him. How many of you have secrets? Let me see a show of hands really quick. Put them up high! Do I pray for the rest of you for lying now or later? How many of you know there are good secrets? Not all secrets are bad secrets. There are things Lisa knows that you don't know.
Do you understand what I'm talking about? God says, "I share My secrets with those who fear Me," which means just like you, you don't share your secrets with everybody. You share your secrets with intimate, close friends. Can I show you this in another version? Friendship with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him. Not everybody is God's friend.
Oh man, could I—now in your book, I have a whole section on this, so just read it. Jesus made a statement. He said, "You are My friends." We write songs about it; we preach sermons about it, but we never finish what He said: "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."
That's why Abraham was the friend of God. God said, "Go kill your son," and didn't give him a reason why. Abraham goes three days, lifts the knife up, and God says, "Stop! Now I know you fear Me because you obeyed instantly. You obeyed when it didn't make sense, when it hurt, and when you didn't see a benefit. You obeyed to completion."
Abraham lifts his eyes, "Jehovah Jireh: God just revealed a facet of His personality to him; nobody's ever known before because he's My friend." Look at the friendship relationship between God and Abraham; it's amazing. One day, God says, "Should we do to Sodom and Gomorrah what we're planning on doing without first talking to our friend Abraham?"
So the Lord comes down to the territory and says, "Abe!" "Yes, yes, Lord!" "Thinking about blowing up those two cities over there; what do you think?" Abraham goes, "Think, think, think. Okay, my nephew's over there." Okay, God, you'd like to blow up those cities if there were 50 righteous people?" The Lord goes, "Great idea! We won't blow up the cities if there are 50 righteous people; glad we talked to our friend Abraham."
Abraham goes, "What if there aren't 50? Okay, Lord, don't get really mad, but what if there are 45?" The Lord goes, "Another good idea!" Abraham talks Him all the way down to 10 because he figures there's gotta be ten lots of one—all he needs is nine others. There isn't.
Now here's what's amazing: the Bible says Sodom and Gomorrah are buying, selling, trading, marrying, giving in marriage, planting, and harvesting. What is that? In today's vernacular, life is great, the economy is booming, and if there is a God, He doesn't mind our lifestyle. They're 24 hours away from being obliterated by God's judgment, and they're clueless.
What's scary is this: this is what's scary. Lot, everybody say "Lot," who the Bible calls righteous (2 Peter 1) I'll put it in today's terms: saved, born again, is 24 hours away from being obliterated. He's as clueless as Sodom! It takes two messengers of mercy—two angels—because Abraham prayed. Thank God Abraham prayed to get him out.
Now here's two righteous, saved, born-again men, and I'm going to put it in today's terms. This man knows what God's going to do before he does it and helps God decide how He's going to do it. This man is as clueless as the world. Why? This righteous man fears God; therefore, he knows the secrets of God because he's the friend of God.
This man, this righteous man, born again, does not fear God; therefore, doesn't know the secrets of God because he's not the friend of God. "You are My friends if you do whatever I command you." That's trembling at His word. I'm going to end it with this; I could show you all the benefits. Joy is a benefit.
The person who fears God is the one who is really happy. Oh yeah, it's in the book; read it. Your posterity is going to be blessed. I could go on and on about that, and the whole chapter eliminates all other fears. You want to know why people fear? Because they have no fear of God. When you fear God, you don't fear anything else.
But this is the one I want to get to: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Everybody say, "The beginning of wisdom!" Say it again! Proverbs 4:7: "Getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do." I love that verse! All right. Now look at this; I want to show you something. I want you to remember this for as long as you live, as long as you're in ministry.
The fear of the Lord is a fountain—everybody say fountain! That word fountain means a continual flowing source. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life to turn one away from the traps of death. So whoa, whoa, whoa, death has traps!
Anybody in here trap or hunt? What do we need for a good, successful trap? It's got to be hidden, and it's got to be baited. So a good trap is hidden and baited; that's the way traps of death are. They're hidden and baited.
The fear of the Lord is a continual flowing fountain of life. What is it a fountain of? Well, Proverbs tells us in chapter 15 that it's the counsel of wisdom; it's the instruction of wisdom.
Right? So the fear of the Lord is a constant flowing fountain of wisdom that protects you from the traps of death. I'm going to give you an example. Can I give you an example of a man who had no relationship with God but feared God?
Do you know that Cornelius feared God but he didn't have a relationship? I'm going to give you another man; his name is Abimelech. You'll find him in Genesis 20.
What about this guy? Abimelech—Abraham presents Sarah, his wife, as his sister. He takes Sarah into his harem, and God comes to him at night in a dream and says, "You are a dead man!" Oh yeah! Put it up! I think you guys will find it. Hopefully, I got it. God says, "You are a dead man because the woman you have taken is already married."
So you know what Abimelech says? "God!" "Lord, I didn't know." And you know what God said back to him? "I know you didn't know! That's why I kept you from sinning against Me!"
There you go! I kept you! What kept him? That fountain! That fountain! You see, ninety percent of the time, you are operating with the wisdom of God, and you don't even know it. But it's a fountain that protects you from the traps of death.
Now, this is what I want to ask: How can a man sit in a church service for 20 years, hear the word of God, and end up in bed with somebody else's wife? It's not rocket science—no fear of God!
How can a pastor preach from a pulpit and end up in bed with another man's wife? It's not rocket science—no fear of God! Abimelech had the fear of God; that's why God kept him.
If you look in Ecclesiastes, you'll find that that situation is like a net and a snare, and the man who fears God won't fall into it, nor will the woman that fears God.
The fear of the Lord is God's treasure; it's Jesus' delight. Why aren't we preaching it? Because Paul the Apostle writes, "Work out your salvation with fear and trembling," not loving kindness. That famous evangelist made that pretty clear to me. You mature your salvation through fear and trembling.
There is a coming move of God, and we are on the beginnings of it. This move will be marked by the holy awe of God; you mark it down. In moves in the past, men got in the way; they stopped the move of God. In this move, if men get in the way, they'll be taken out like Ananias and Sapphira. There will be no stopping this move.
This is not the time to be a performer. This is not the time to be competitive with your brothers and sisters. Did you get something out of this? Did you get something out of this?