John Bevere - Escaping the Trap of Casual Christianity (09/10/2025)
What I want to share with you is quite unusual. I’m really speaking all over the United States and around the world on a particular subject right now, but as I prayed and prayed and prayed for this conference—and believe me, I did—I kept feeling the Holy Spirit pull my heart in a different direction. So I want to talk about intimacy. I want to talk about intimacy with God. Does anybody want an intimate relationship with God? Can I see your hands?
Well, one of my favorite scriptures regarding that is James 4:8. The Apostle James writes and says this: he says, «Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.» So the question is, who draws first, Him or us? We do. There’s something we initiate that will literally cause the One who put the stars in the universe with His fingers and called every one of them by name to come near us. Now, I don’t know about you, but that really excites me. What the Apostle is saying here is simply this: you, not God, are the one that determines the level of your relationship with Him. Do I need to say that one more time? You are the one who determines how close you’re going to be with God.
In my travels, I have learned that so many Christians, so many believers, have this mindset that there are certain Christians that were born with, like, stars over their cribs—people like Bill Johnson, you understand what I’m talking about, or Oral Roberts, whoever you think. But in my years of ministry, I have discovered some of the people that walk the closest with Jesus are people that you’re never going to see in pulpits. Why? Because they determined to be close to Him; they chose to be close to Him. In fact, when you talk about being intimate with God, He is more passionate—listen to these words—He’s more passionate about being close to you than you are with Him, because verse 5 in this very same chapter says, «Or do you not know that the Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously.» Everybody say, «yearns.» That’s not a word we use very much. What does that mean? It means to long for intensely and consistently. Now listen to that: the Spirit of God in you longs for you intensely and consistently.
You know, Lisa and I—she’s my closest friend on the planet—but I’m going to tell you something: there are times she’s not yearning for me intensely. Like if I wake her up at 3 in the morning, I’m telling you, she’s not yearning for me. You understand what I’m talking about? She’s like, «Why are you waking me up, honey?» Right? But I have had Him wake me up in the middle of the night, and He’s hoping that I’ll meet with Him because He yearns for you and me. When I think about Him yearning for us, I think about what David says in Psalm 139. David said, «Lord, if I consider the thoughts that you have about me personally—this is not the church collectively, it’s me personally—he said, 'If I was able to number those thoughts, they would outnumber every grain of sand that’s on this planet! '»
Now would you stop and think about every granule of sand that’s on this planet? Every beach, every desert, every golf course—that’s a lot of sand. I mean, when I think about all the thoughts that I’ve had about my wife, my wife Lisa, in the last 37 years of marriage, I don’t think I get a shoebox full of sand! Because, do you know what scientists tell us? They tell us that in one cubic foot of beach—one cubic foot—that’s how big one cubic foot is—there are 1.8 billion grains of sand! Now how many of you know God can’t exaggerate? Because exaggeration is a lie. You know you’ve heard people say, «I caught a fish this big,» and they hold their hands out like this to make it look bigger, but it was really this big, right? It’s just a nice little lie. God can’t lie! So, when God says, «My thoughts that I have about you outnumber every grain of sand on this planet,» do you understand how much He’s thinking about you? And how many of you know you don’t think about people like that if you don’t want to be close to them? He yearns for us.
Now here’s the situation: why, in all my travels around the world, do I meet so many Christians that are not experiencing intimacy with God? There is a reason, and I believe there’s a foundation we have to have in our relationship with God. If you don’t have this foundation, it doesn’t matter how much He wants to be close to you or how much you want to be close to Him; you can’t be close to Him without this foundation. And this foundation can be found in Psalm 89:7. Psalm 89:7 makes this statement: it says God, now look at these words, is to be greatly—everybody say «greatly"—feared in the assembly of the saints. And now look at this: He’s to be held in reverence by all those around Him. Let me say this: look at the second part of that verse. God is to be held in reverence by all those who surround Him. You will never find the presence of God in an atmosphere where He’s not held with the utmost respect.
I just said something very powerful, and there should have been a lot of amens. I’ll never forget when I first learned this. Back in 1996, I was asked to do a national conference in Brazil, in the capital city of Brasília. I remember lots of people traveled from all over. I had never been to Brazil; I was so excited. I flew down there, had the whole day in the hotel room to prepare and pray. It’s Friday night; it’s the national conference. There are cars literally blocks away. I could feel the anticipation and excitement as I was getting closer—it was my first time in Brazil. I remember they parked me in the parking lot. I could hear the praise coming from the inside of the arena. Down there, what they do is they have usually a 5-foot gap between the upper wall and the ceiling for air ventilation. And so, I walked into the auditorium. They put me on the platform. There are thousands—I mean, it’s like tonight; it was even more crowded than tonight—there wasn’t a seat open in the entire arena.
I’m looking at this worship team, and they’re good; they’re really good, but you know, there’s not an ounce of the presence of God in the place. Now let me make this really clear. The Bible describes two types of the presence of God. One is His omnipresence, right? That’s where David said, «Where can I go from your presence? If I go to the highest mountain, you’re there; if I make my bed in the lowest valley, you’re there.» That’s the presence of God that says, «I will never leave you nor forsake you,» right? The other presence of God that is very, very real in our Christian walk is called the manifest presence of God. Jesus said, «I will manifest myself to you.» Right? What does manifest mean? It means to bring out of the unseen into the realm of the seen, out of the unknown into the realm of the known, out of the unheard into the realm of the heard. It’s when God makes Himself real to your senses. That presence was totally absent in that building, and I’m baffled because these are really good worship leaders, the nation’s best—thousands of Christians because it was a believers' conference; the building was filled, and I’m perplexed.
I remember under my breath, I said, «God, where are You? Where’s Your presence?» All of a sudden, it’s like my eyes opened up, and I’m seeing people sitting there during worship, looking around like this; they’ve got their hands in their pockets, looking down, whispering to one another, fumbling through their purses. People are walking in and out, you know, getting refreshments because they have concession stands in this massive arena. And I’m sitting there going, «This is calm.» Well, they go to the Word, they go to praise, they go to worship, then one of the leaders gets up and begins to read the Word of God, right? And I’m still seeing people just sitting there looking around like this, hands in their pockets, looking down, sitting there talking to one another. And you can actually hear a little mumbling going on from people talking to each other. And at this point, I’m getting kind of upset, right?
And so, all of a sudden, they introduced me, right? I’ll never forget. I did something; I don’t know if I’d do it again, but I just sat there, walked up, and put my elbow on the podium and just stared at everybody and didn’t say anything. Now when it’s Friday night and it’s the national conference and you’re the guest speaker and you’re just sitting there glaring at everybody for 45 seconds, that will get people’s attention, right? So they stopped looking around, fumbling through their purses, walking around, and everybody just kind of stopped and looked at me. And when I realized I had every single eye on me in the entire arena, these were the first words I ever spoke in Brazil: «I have two questions.»
Question number one: «You’re talking to somebody sitting across the table, and the whole time you talk to them they’re fumbling through their purse, looking at the ceiling, looking down at the floor, talking and whispering to somebody sitting beside them. Will you continue to talk to them?» They said, «No.» I said, «What happens if you go over to someone’s house, and you knock on their door, and when they open the door, they go, 'Ah, to you again' and walk away? Will you continue to go to their house?» They go, «No.» I said, «I’ve been in this auditorium now for over an hour, and I have not sensed an ounce of the presence of God. And the reason is, He will never come into a place where He is not held with the utmost of respect.»
I said, «If the president of Brazil would have walked on this platform tonight, he would have gotten 10 times the respect the Holy Spirit did.» I said, «If your greatest soccer player would have walked on this platform tonight, you would have been on the edge of your seats anticipating every word.» I said, «You’ve given no respect to the presence of God.» In the next 75 minutes, I preached to them about the fear of the Lord. At the end of the 75 minutes, I said, «Every person—I knew it was a believers' meeting; I said, 'Every person in here, you say you’re born again, you say you’re a Christian, but you lack the fear of God and you’re willing to repent, stand up.'» Three-fourths of the auditorium stood to their feet. As soon as they did, listen to this: the presence of God falls on the auditorium. No, no, no, no, no, we didn’t even pray; the presence of God just falls, and people start weeping all over the auditorium. I’m like, «Oh, finally!» I mean, services are so tough when the presence of God is not there, right? And I’m like, «Oh God, this is wonderful!»
So the last two or three minutes it lifts, and the Lord whispers in my heart, «Lead them in a prayer of repentance.» So I led them in a prayer of repentance. All of a sudden, now here comes another wave of His presence, even stronger; now people are weeping right all over the place, you can hear sobbing, it’s wonderful, right? Last about 3 minutes, lifts, and the Holy Spirit whispered to me, «I’m coming one more time tonight.» And the only way I know how to describe this—and I could never describe this, but I’m going to try—is that you’re at the end of the runway at DFW, and a 737 takes off right in front of you. That kind of a violent wind came blowing into that auditorium, okay?
When that wind began to blow, the people started screaming. Now I want you to imagine thousands of Latinos screaming—how loud that would be, right? As loud as that is, the wind was much louder. And I remember I’m standing there going, «Oh my God!» Because I’ve never experienced anything like this. Oh my God, oh my God, I’m saying this under my breath, right? And I’m going to tell you, a thought hit me. I’m not saying it would have happened, but I thought to myself, «John, you make one wrong move; you say one wrong word, you’re dead.» Now would that have happened? I don’t know. But it did happen with a guy named Ananias; he made a wrong move in that kind of presence, and they carried him out dead. And his wife, three hours later, same thing. So I’m sitting there going, «Oh.» See, let me tell you, Daddy didn’t come in. Listen, Daddy didn’t come in. The King came in, okay?
You understand He is Daddy, but He’s also King. He is Abba Father; He’s also the consuming fire. And I’m sitting there, and all I can say is I’m terrified, but I’m not scared of Him; it’s really crazy. And I remember the wind lasted about 90 seconds and gradually subsided and left in its wake. People collapsed all over the auditorium, and I’m standing there like, «What do I do?» And God said, «I’m through with you.» So I looked at the leader, and I said, «It’s all yours.» They whisked me out to the car, and the first person that gets in the car is the national singer—she’s really well known in Brazil—and her husband. She goes, «Did you hear the wind?»
Now, I still don’t want to admit it; I said, «Oh, it’s probably a jet airplane flying over the top of the building,» right? And she goes, «What are you—» she’s mad at me now. She goes, «What are you talking about?» I saw fire all around the building. She’s going, right? And I’m like, «Aches.» And her husband calms her down; he’s a quieter guy. He says, «Sir, that wasn’t an airplane.» I said, «How do you know?» He said, «There are policemen all around the outside of the building. Most of them aren’t even saved. He said when the wind started blowing, they all came running into the building to see what it was.» He said, «Secondly, hold on. I’m at the soundboard making sure my wife’s levels are right.» He said, «I’m looking at the soundboard the whole time the wind’s blowing, and the decibel meters were at zero.» He said, «Not one ounce of the sound came over our sound system.» I said, «Oh my God, take me to my hotel!» They’re like, «You want to go eat?» I said, «No, take me to my hotel!» The next morning, you cannot believe the miracles, the deliverances—what happened in the meeting on Saturday morning just because of one word: because of reverence! Are you with me?
See, I’ve learned something as a believer. I used to struggle to get in the presence of God. I don’t know if you’ve ever had that, but maybe I was the only one. But I would struggle. And one day, I just started—I didn’t sing; I didn’t pray; I didn’t say a word. I just started meditating on the awesomeness of my Father, right? I just started meditating on how awesome He is, right? And all of a sudden, bam! There’s the presence of God! Well, I started doing this every morning, and all of a sudden, I’m going, «Whoa! This is getting easy!» So one day I said, «Lord, this is now so easy getting into Your presence.» He said, «Son, how did Jesus teach His disciples to pray?»
And so I said, «Our Father, which art in heaven, hallowed be Thy name.» There it is! Jesus taught His disciples to come into the presence of God with reverence. What is the fear of the Lord? Let’s talk about it, because people are scared of this word. What is the fear of the Lord? First of all, it is not to be scared of God. How can you have intimacy with someone you’re scared of, right? So what is the fear of the Lord? Well, let me begin by saying this: the fear of the Lord is to be terrified to be away from Him. It’s not to be scared of Him; it’s to be terrified to be away from Him. Moses shows us this when he leads the children of Israel out of Egypt. God was so excited; He was like, «Hey man, the whole reason I delivered you out of Egypt, the whole nation, was to bring you to Me! I can’t wait to meet My kids. Tell them I’m going to come down and meet them,» right? And when God comes down to meet the kids, they all run away and say, «Moses, you talk to God; we can’t handle Him.» And Moses is devastated!
Think about it! Moses has already experienced Him at the bush. I mean, when he delivered Israel out of Egypt, he wanted to bring them right to the place that he met with God. He didn’t say to Pharaoh, «Thus says the Lord, let My people go that they may have a Promised Land.» He said, «Thus says the Lord, let My people go and they go worship Him in the wilderness.» Why does Moses want to bring them to the Promised Land before he first brings them to the Promiser? So God comes down to meet him, and they run away. Moses makes the statement to Israel; this is the most powerful statement: Exodus 20:20. Everybody say 20:20. Here’s a 20:20 vision for you. Moses said to the people, look at this: «Do not fear.» Everybody say, «Do not fear,» for God has come to test you. What’s the test? That His fear may be in you so that you may not sin.
Now look up at me. Wait a minute! This sounds like a contradiction. «Do not fear because God has come to see if His fear is in you so that you don’t sin.» Moses isn’t 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. That’s what Adam does in the garden: he runs from the presence of God because he has something to hide. The person who fears God has nothing to hide. He’s terrified to be away from God. He doesn’t say, «How close can I get to the line of compromise and not fall in?» He says, «I want to be so far away from that line, you can’t even see it!» So what is it to fear God? It’s to venerate Him.
That’s a big word. What does venerate mean? Venerate means to honor, respect, esteem, value, reverence, and stand in awe of Him more than anything or anyone else. We firmly embrace His heart; we love what He loves and we hate what He hates. You ever see a religious person say, «I fear God; that’s why I hate those people.» You know you don’t fear God at all, because God’s in love with those people, so you hate what God loves. Good preaching, John! Amen! Thank you so much! Y’all are really quiet on me right now!
So when 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. That’s right! So you love what He loves, you hate what He hates. This is why the Bible says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil. No, no, no, no! Listen! It doesn’t say the fear of the Lord is to dislike evil! Boy, it’s quiet in this Methodist church right now! Back in the late '80s and early '90s, I prayed two hours every single morning. I’m not kidding! I got up at 4:45, and I was outside in a remote place praying by 5:00, and I prayed till 6:30 or 7:00 every single morning! To be honest with you, I wish I prayed like that now. I read my Bible diligently, but there was no anointing. The anointing on my preaching was flat; my prayers weren’t anointed. One day, I said to God, «I don’t get it! I pray like two hours every day! I’m reading Your Word! I’m serving You diligently! I’ve left an engineering job, and I’m working for a church! I took a several-thousand-dollar-a-year pay cut! How come I’m not seeing a stronger anointing on my life?» You know what He said to me? He said, «Because you tolerate sin—not only in your life, but in the lives of others.» I said, «What?»
And then He brought me, you know how the Holy Spirit does this, to Hebrews chapter 1. Do you know when God the Father inaugurated Jesus? You remember that? On the day He was raised from the dead, Hebrews 1 records that. Look what God the Father says to Jesus. He says, «Because you have loved righteousness…» And the Holy Spirit said, «Stop! Every Christian loves righteousness!» He said, «But I didn’t stop there. He said and hated sin—or hated lawlessness. Therefore God, your God, has anointed you more than your companions.» He said, «Son, learn to hate sin the way I hate sin. You’ll see the anointing of God increase upon your life.»
I was in Malaysia; I did ten meetings. It was the largest Bible school in the nation. Pastors had come from all over. We had a full packed auditorium—ten services. Some of the hardest meetings I’ve ever experienced in my entire life—35 years of ministry! And I’ll never forget the very last meeting: the Spirit of God fell on that building! I mean, it was packed wall to wall, and the Spirit of God fell in that building like He did in Brazil. Again, I’m not kidding! My mind was screaming, «I can’t take this!» It was so strong. You have to understand, there is a presence, okay? Isaiah is a very godly man; he’s preaching, «Woe to the wicked, woe to the proud!» Woe! He sees one glimpse of God on His throne, and he goes, «Woe is me!» No longer is it «woe to the wicked,» it’s «woe is me!» Because he realized for the first time who this God was he was serving.
And I remember that presence came in, and these quiet Malaysian women started screaming like they were on fire, and it wasn’t demonic. I’ve seen demonic, and I’m sitting there again going, «You make a wrong move. You say a wrong word, I don’t know if you’ll live through this.» And I remember my mind, in that particular time, because it was even stronger than Brazil. I remember my mind went, «I can’t handle this!» And my heart went, «God, don’t lift!» That is when I found out there’s a difference between your heart and your soul. The Word of God divides between soul and spirit!
I’m sitting there, I’m having a fight. My mind’s going, «God, please lift; I can’t handle this!» My heart’s going, «God, don’t lift!» And I remember I’m walking back and forth reverently, and out of my mouth comes these words: «This is the spirit of the fear of the Lord!» And I thought, «Oh my gosh, that’s it!» I mean, I’d never known this before, but do you remember what Isaiah said about Jesus? He said, «The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him.» Do you remember this? Look at the scripture: «The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and might, the Spirit of knowledge and the Spirit of the fear of the Lord!» I thought, «That’s one of the manifestations of the Holy Spirit!» No wonder Paul said, «Work out your salvation with fear and trembling!» No wonder Paul said, «Having the promise of walking in His presence, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God—not in the love of God!»
I had an evangelist that was in jail for five years, one of the best-known evangelists in the world, and I said to him, «When did you fall out of love with Jesus?» He said, «I didn’t!» And I looked at him; I said, «You were in jail; you committed adultery and did all this stuff that put you in jail!» He said, «John, I loved Him all the way through it.» And he sees I’m puzzled. This is back in the early '90s. He said, «John, I didn’t fear God.» And he said, «There are millions of Americans just like me! They love Jesus, but they have no fear of God!»
Because look what Isaiah says! Look at this! I put the scripture back up there: «His delight,» Jesus' delight—everybody say «delight"—was in the fear of the Lord! It wasn’t in the spirit of wisdom; it wasn’t in wisdom and counsel and might; it was in the fear of the Lord! Shouldn’t His delight be our delight? Do you remember the Bible says in Hebrews that Jesus was heard because of His godly fear? It’s one thing to pray; it’s another thing to be heard. Are you still with me?
So this meeting is over in Malaysia, and remember, it’s a Bible school, and there were people from all over that hemisphere. There was a couple from India that were in the Bible school; they were in the meeting, and she was one of the women who just got rocked, right? And the couple comes up to me after the meeting and says, «We feel so clean inside.» I said, «Man, you just hit it! That’s exactly what I feel: clean!» So I left. The next morning, I’m in prayer in my Malaysian hotel, and the Holy Spirit just speaks to me and says, «Read Psalm 19.» I have no idea what Psalm 19 says, seriously! So I just start reading away and all of a sudden I get to the ninth verse, and it says, «The fear of the Lord is clean.» Look at this: «Enduring forever!»
And the Holy Spirit said to me, «You know, Lucifer led worship right at My throne. He didn’t fear Me; he didn’t endure forever.» He said, «A third of the angels that were around My throne throughout eternity will have been tested in the fear of the Lord.» You still with me? So what’s the manifestation? What’s the evidence of somebody who fears God? You understand what I mean by this? What’s the evidence? In other words, you put a knife in a socket. If they’re doing your funeral three days later, the evidence is there was power in that socket! If you live, there was no power. What’s the evidence of somebody who truly fears God? Number one: they’ll obey God instantly.
You ever meet somebody who says, «Well, you know, the Lord’s been dealing with me about this now for several months,» and they kind of laugh about it, right? They’re just laughing about their lack of the godly fear. It’s really quiet in this Anglican church now. Number two: you obey God even when it doesn’t make sense. God ever tell you to do something that didn’t make a lot of sense to you? You haven’t been saved very long if you can’t say yes to that, right? Number three: you obey Him even if it hurts. Well, I understand that one! When my mom looks at me and says, «You’ll go to Bible school over my dead body,» because she was a strong Catholic, it hurt! Especially when I didn’t get invited to my dad’s retirement party because she was scared I was going to witness to people. But now she gives away my books!
Yeah! Number four: you obey Him even when you don’t see a benefit. You know how many Americans the only way you can get them to obey God is if they see a benefit? «What’s in it for me?» If you give, God will do that; if you pray, God will do this. Well, listen, will God do that if you give? Absolutely! Chris K couldn’t have said it better tonight, right? «Give and it’ll be given to you. The world of the generous gets larger and larger,» right? But that’s not your motive. Number five: you obey to completion. Saul did 99,9% of what God told him to do, but God said, «He didn’t obey Me.»
Sure is quiet here now. I want to get to the scripture that I’ve been trying to get to all night. This is the one I really want to talk to you аbout: Psalm 25:14. One of my favorite verses in the whole Bible! Look at this! Look at this verse: «Friendship"—everybody say «friendship"—"with the Lord is reserved for those who fear Him. With them, He shares His secrets.» You know what God’s saying right there? You know what God’s saying? Whoa, whoa, whoa! You know what God’s saying? God’s saying, «Not everybody’s My friend!» Let me go a little deeper, okay? God’s saying, «Not everybody in the church is My friend!»
That one went over like a lead balloon! Two men in the Old Testament that were called the friends of God—were there others? Oh yeah! David’s a friend of God; you know Joseph’s a friend of God. But these two men’s lives exemplify what it takes to have a friendship with the Lord, right? The first guy is Abraham, right? He’s called the friend of God, right? Why does God call Abraham His friend? Because when Abraham’s old, God comes to him one night and says, «Abe? Yes, yes, sir. I want you to sacrifice your son. You know, your son you’ve waited for for 25 years—the son you love so much? I want you to go on a three-day journey and kill him for Me.»
Now God didn’t say, «If you do this, you’ll seal the covenant, and I’ll send My son.» He doesn’t give him a reason. He just says, «Go kill him.» Can you imagine the evening? You know what my Bible says: now look at this! It says, «Early the next morning.» Abraham’s on his way! Now God gives him a three-day journey. Why? He wants three days for him to think it over in case he wants to turn back! It’s easy when you heard the booming voice of God the night before, but what about two and a half days later when you look at this mountain you’re going to put your only son to death—the one you waited for for 24 years-just because God said «Do it» and didn’t give you a reason?
Abraham goes to the top of the mountain, builds the altar, puts Isaac on the altar, lifts up the knife; he’s ready to put the most important person or thing to death in his life just because God said to do it. And the angel of the Lord appears, and the angel of the Lord says, «Abraham, stop!» Look what the angel says: «Because now I know you fear God.» How did the angel know that 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! And because he obeyed to completion!
Now watch this: Abraham puts down the knife, unties Isaac, lifts up his eyes, sees a ram in the thicket, and out of his heart comes this: «Jehovah Jireh!» Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah! But whoa, whoa, whoa! God just revealed a facet of His—listen—His personality to Abraham that nobody had ever known before! Wait! Some of you aren’t getting this! No, no, no! I see blank looks on some of your faces, okay? All of you tonight know me as John B. speaker. Some of you know me as John B. author. But there is a lady—and whoa, she is a lady—her name is Lisa. She knows me as John B. husband, John B. daddy, John B. dad. She knows me as John B. athlete. She knows me as John B. lover.
Can I say this? None of you will ever know me as John B. lover. That is a facet of my personality reserved for one person: the person that’s closest to me on this Earth. God just revealed a facet of His personality to Abraham that nobody had ever known before! Because he’s My friend! Preaching myself happy! I don’t know about you! Now, now, now, look at the relationship between God and Abraham. It’s amazing! One day, God says, «Should we tell Abraham what we’re going to do to Sodom and Gomorrah?» Well, we’re planning on doing it without first talking to our friend Abraham! So God comes down at the terebinth trees and says, «Abe?» «Yes, yes, Lord?» «Yes, Abe, we’re thinking about blowing up these two cities; what do you think?»
Abe goes, «Sodom?» And the Lord goes, «Yeah, yeah, yeah! Gomorrah too! What do you think?» Abe goes, «Oh my gosh! Think, think! My nephew Lot’s over there! Oh my gosh! Thank! Okay God, You wouldn’t blow up those two cities if there were 50 righteous people, would You?» And the Lord goes, «Excellent idea! Excellent idea! Okay, we will not blow up the two cities if there are 50 righteous people! Glad we talked to our friend Abraham.» Abraham thinks, «What if there’s not 50? Okay, what about 45? Would You do it if there were 45?» And God goes, «Another good point!» Right? So Abe talks God down to ten people, okay? He figures there’s got to be ten—Lot’s one; all I need is nine others, right? But here’s the scary thing: there isn’t!
Okay, now listen, listen, listen, listen! The Bible says that Sodom and Gomorrah, that they’re buying, they’re selling, they’re marrying, they’re giving in marriage, they’re planting, they’re harvesting! What? Let’s put it in today’s vernacular: life is great! The economy is booming! And if there’s a God, He doesn’t care the way we live! They’re 24 hours away from being obliterated, and they’re clueless. That’s not what’s scary. That’s not what’s scary. This is what’s scary: Lot. Everybody say Lot. Lot, who the Bible calls righteous—let me put it in today’s vernacular: saved, born again, okay? Lot is 24 hours away from being obliterated. He’s as clueless as Sodom! It takes two angels of mercy—because Abraham prayed, thank God Abraham prayed—they came in and got him out. But even his wife—you know Jesus said, «Remember his wife,» right?
So now look up at me. Here’s here’s here’s two saved men—two born again men, let’s modernize it—two righteous men born again, right? One saved, born again, righteous man knows what God’s going to do before He does it and helps God decide how He’s going to do it. The other righteous, born again man is as clueless as the world! Why? Because this saved, righteous, born again man fears God; therefore he’s the friend of God; therefore God shares His secrets with him. This saved, born again man does not fear God; therefore he is not the friend of God; therefore he does not get the secrets. Moses! Moses knew His ways; Israel knew His acts!
Do you know how many Christians there are that the only way they know God is by how He’s answered their prayers? My daughter was sick; I brought her to a Bethel meeting; she got healed. Moses knew many times what God was going to do before He did, and helped God decide how He was going to do it! In fact, twice, go listen! Twice he changed God’s mind. The Bible says the Lord relented because of what Moses said to Him! Two born again groups of people coming out of Egypt as a type of coming out of the world. They ate that rock which was Christ; they followed that rock which was Christ. But, yeah! One group only knows God by how He answers their prayers; the other one knows God so intimately he knows what God’s going to do before He does it, and he helps God decide how He’s going to do it and twice changes God’s mind!
Now do you want to see this in the New Testament? I said, do you want to see this in the New Testament? Okay! Jesus is at the Last Supper, right? Right? Are you following me? Okay, so Jesus at the last. And look what He says to His guys: «No longer do I call you servants!» Now, the fact that Jesus says «no longer» means at one time these 12 were looked at—or these 11 were looked at and regarded as merely servants! That’s not a revelation; that’s an English lesson! If I say «no longer,» I’m calling you— that means at one time I did see you as servants! Are you still with me? Why does God do that? Why is there a time—remember the Bible says, «As long as the heir is a child, he differs nothing from the servant?»
Why does God do that? To protect us! He doesn’t want any Ananias and Sapphira situations. Let me give you a really weak example: the first employee—a messenger intern I ever hired. I said, I had come out of two very large ministries, and I said, «I’m going to run my ministry totally—or Lisa and I are going to run our ministry totally different. Every employee is going to be my best buddy.» Some of you already know the stupidity of that wisdom. So the first employee—his name was John—best buddy. We played ball together; he came over, watched videos with us; he ate Thanksgiving with us. He was best friend, right? Best friend! It was great for the first year until I had to confront him because he was being rude to people at our resource table. And when I confronted him gently, he just points his finger at me and goes, «You’re this and this and this and this!» And I’m sitting there going, «Oh my gosh!»
And I said, «God, what do I do?» And the Holy Spirit said, «Fire him!» So I said, «Hey, I’m really sorry; you can’t work for us anymore.» And he storms out the door, and I’m crying because I really cared for the guy. Three months later, he calls me up and says, «Man, God’s never talked to me the way He’s talked to me in the last three months!» I said, «Oh, yeah! He said, 'I took you for granted. I lost sight of the position that God had placed you in my life. I lost sight of the position God had placed Lisa in my life. I lost sight of the position I had in your life and you had in mine. I’m so sorry! Would you come back and work for us? '» He did, and we never had problems with him again!
Now I have a new strategy—okay, somebody, an employee comes because we have 45 team members. A team member comes on board; they are not best buddies. But once I know they’re very established in who I am and who they are, then I bring in some of my employees! Some of my very closest friends! You know what God says to us? «Till you’re very established in who you are before Me and very established in who I am before you, even though you are an heir, I’ve got to keep you as a servant because I don’t want to see you end up like Ananias and Sapphira. But when you’re very established in who I am—the fear of the Lord—then I can bring you in as My friends!» You with me?
So now look at this: Jesus says, «No longer do I call you servants! A servant doesn’t know what his master’s doing! The master’s ways, His secrets, His wisdom!» But He said, «I’ve called you now friends!» Look at this! Here’s a statement to the whole church! You ready for this? And I’m going to close. Jesus said, «You are My friends!» We quote it; we preach it; we sing about it, but we never finish the statement because you notice the word «if?» If is a condition! If I say to you, «If you work for me,» if, if, if you work for me for 20 hours, I will pay you this much! And you don’t work the 20 hours, you don’t get the money! And then you say, «Hey, where’s the money?» I said, «Well, I said if you work!»
Jesus said you’re My friends if—there’s a condition! What’s the condition? He said if you do whatever I command you. There it is! The fear of the Lord, trembling at His word! Do you know what Jesus is saying right there? Not everybody in the church is My intimate, close friend! But listen, listen, listen! He passionately desires every one of us to be His intimate, close friends! But you’re the one that determines the level of your relationship with God, not God. Therefore, draw near to God, and He’ll draw near to you! Did you get it? Did you get it?
I want every head bowed; I want every head bowed, every eye closed. I want every head bowed, every eye closed. You know, I don’t have to labor on this. I want you to ask yourself some questions: do you find yourself only obeying God when it’s convenient for you? Do you find yourself only obeying God when it doesn’t interfere with your agenda, your schedule, your pleasure? Do you treat the word of God casually? Do you take His presence for granted? These are just some of the symptoms of a lack of holy fear! But you know what Jesus said?
If you ask the Father for the Holy Spirit, He’ll give Him to you! Almost every day when I pray, I ask the Father for a fresh baptism of the holy fear of God! If you’re in here tonight, and you’d say, «John, I’m born again; I do love Jesus! I’m like that minister that you met in jail, but I lack the fear of God, and I know it! And I want to—I want the fear of God! I want to repent of my lack of the fear of the Lord. I want to ask Him for it!» That’s you! Stand up right now! Don’t even wait for anyone else! Stand up right now! Wow, wow! About 90% of the building is standing! If you’re sitting right now and you say, «John, I really do fear God!» I want you to stand up with your brothers and sisters—90% of the people that are standing!
I want you to lift your hands up; I want you to close your eyes because I want you to open the eyes of your heart! I don’t want you to see who’s standing or sitting beside you; it doesn’t matter! If you could see His face right now—and some of you may get a glimpse—you’re not going to see an angry look; you’re not going to see a disgusted look; you’re not going to see angry eyes; you’re going to see the biggest smile, eyes dancing with joy, so strong—though strong eyes! You see those eyes? Holy Spirit, give them a glimpse of Jesus! You’re going to notice the body posture; He doesn’t have His arms folded at His chest; He’s got His arms outstretched to you! He’s got the hugest smile on His face! You see Him? He wants to be your friend! He longs! He yearns! There’s the presence of the Lord! We haven’t even prayed; He’s already here! My goodness! He just manifested; He’s here! Just keep your eyes open in your heart! Don’t look for a feeling; don’t look for a manifestation; look for Him! There He is, right there! Right there! Right there!
Wow! Master, thank You! There’s His presence right there! Holy Spirit, thank You so much! I want you to say these words to the One you’re looking at: say these words, «Father!» Say it out loud! «Father, forgive me for my lack of holy fear! I realize tonight I’ve been a little casual with You! I’ve only seen You as Dad; I failed to see You as King! I’m asking You to forgive my ignorance and my casual attitude! Cleanse me with the blood of Jesus! I lift my hands to You, and I’m asking You, my Father, baptize me in the Holy Spirit of the fear of the Lord! Jesus delighted—He delighted in holy fear, so do I!»