John Bevere - The Key to True Friendship with God
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Hey everyone, welcome to lesson five of «Drawing Near: A Life of Intimacy with God.» The title of this lesson is «What Hinders True Intimacy?» After what we’ve seen in the first couple of lessons, the question still remains: why are so many people not experiencing a relationship of intimacy with God? In this lesson, we are finally going to answer that question. But before we do, let me just say this: God is not an easy catch, per se. Isaiah chapter 45, verse 15, contains an amazing statement. The prophet says, «Truly, you are a God who hides himself, O God of Israel, the Savior.» He is the holy and great King, and such is to be revered.
You cannot speak about drawing near without talking about holy fear, and that is what we are going to discuss in this lesson. It is the foundation of an intimate life with God. If you look at Proverbs chapter 1, verse 7, it says, «The fear of the Lord is the beginning; it’s the foundation of knowledge.» Now we must ask, what kind of knowledge is he talking about? Well, it can’t be scientific knowledge. You can go to most universities anywhere in the United States and find out that you don’t hear a lot about God in their science courses. Okay, it’s not even knowledge of Scripture. I mean, the Pharisees could quote the first five books of the Bible—Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy—they could quote them from memory, yet they couldn’t recognize the Son of God when he was standing in their midst. They had no intimacy with him.
So what kind of knowledge is he talking about? We find the answer in Proverbs 2, verse 5, where it says, «Then you will understand the fear of the Lord and gain the knowledge of God.» The Dictionary of Biblical Languages says that the Hebrew word for knowledge means information about a person, with a strong implication of a relationship with that person. W.E. Vine defines that Hebrew word as having an intimate, experiential knowledge of God. He goes on to say that to know God is parallel to fearing him. So in essence, what the writer of Proverbs is saying is that the starting place of a true intimate relationship with God is holy fear, and this is what causes so many today to not enter into a real, deep intimate relationship with God: it is the lack of holy fear.
So the first thing we’ve got to ask is: what is the fear of the Lord? First of all, it is not being scared of God. How can you have a relationship of intimacy with someone you’re scared of? Now, when Moses brought Israel out of Egypt and said that God was going to come meet them, when God came down on the mountain on the third day, all the people ran away. They couldn’t handle God’s presence and made the statement to Moses, «Moses, we can’t handle God! We don’t want to see him. You talk to God; tell us whatever he says, and we will hear and do it.» Moses made this statement in Exodus 20:20. He said, «Do not fear,» because God has come to test you to see if his fear is in you so that you may not sin.
Now, this sounds like a contradiction: 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. There is a difference. The person who is scared of God has something to hide. What does Adam do? He hides from the presence of the Lord when he sins. The person who fears God has nothing to hide; he’s terrified of being away from God. So your first definition of the fear of the Lord is simply this: it is to be scared! Let me go further: it is to be terrified of being away from him. Now, let’s go back to the children of Israel and Moses and provide you with a more in-depth definition of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is to venerate him; we esteem him above everything and everyone else. What is important to him becomes important to us; what is not so important to him is not so important to us. What he loves, we love; what he hates, we hate.
So let me give you an example of what is not the fear of the Lord. Have you ever heard a legalistic religious person say, «Well, I fear God; that’s why I hate those sinners over there»? No, you don’t fear God at all, sir, because you hate what God loves. God loves those sinners so much that Jesus died for them. God hates the sin that ensnares people, but he loves the sinner. See, the fear of the Lord is to love what he loves and to hate what he hates. So when God comes down on the mountain, we read in Exodus 20:21, «So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.» So isn’t this interesting? The people run away, but Moses draws near. What’s the difference? Moses feared God; the people didn’t. And that’s what we are talking about here.
When God sees that the people ran away, he laments and says, «Man, I was so excited about introducing myself to my kids; now I’ve got to create a priesthood.» What’s a priesthood? I have to create a group of men who will approach me on behalf of the people because that’s what the people ask for. They said, «Hey, you talk to God; tell us whatever he says, and we will hear and do it.» And they couldn’t for all those years, but anyway, that’s a whole other story. So God says, «I’ve got to start a priesthood.» In Exodus 19:24, just three verses later, God makes a statement that many people miss. God says, «Come up, you!» This is what he says to Moses: «Come up to the mountain, you and Aaron with you.»
Now, God has just invited Moses and Aaron to come up into his presence because he’s going to establish this priesthood, and Aaron’s going to be the first high priest. But if you keep reading, you’ll find something quite amazing: Moses ends up on the top of the mountain for 40 days, while Aaron ends up back in the camp. Even though God said, «You and Aaron come up,» Aaron ends up back in the camp. Why? Because Aaron found more comfort in the presence of people than he did in the presence of God.
You know you’ve got to ask yourself that question: what are you more comfortable in? Are you more comfortable in the presence of people or are you more comfortable in the presence of God? Aaron was not comfortable in the presence of God; that’s why he gravitated back towards the people. All right, so what happens after Moses has been up on the mountain for a long time? In Exodus 32, the people, when they see that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, gathered together to Aaron and said, «Come, make us gods that shall go before us.» Now listen to this: «As for Moses…» Notice they don’t say, «As for God,» they say, «As for Moses, we don’t know what has become of him.» They don’t say, «As for God, we don’t know what has become of God»; they say, «As for Moses.»
The reason I’m laboring over this is that when the people said, «Come, make us gods that shall go before us,» I think the translators got scared and wrote «gods» (little g-o-d-s) because of their fear of what’s happening here. The Hebrew word for gods is «Elohim.» Now, let me explain this word. «Elohim» is found 2,606 times in the Old Testament. Now listen carefully: in roughly 2,350 times, that word appears in the Old Testament, and it refers to almighty God whom we serve. Okay? In Genesis chapter 1, «Elohim» is found 32 times alone. The first verse of the Bible says, «In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.» You know what it reads? «In the beginning, Elohim created the heavens and the earth.» So the people said to Aaron, «Come make us Elohim that will go before us. We don’t know what happened to Moses.» Are you getting the drift of what’s happening here?
Now, in approximately 250 times in the Old Testament, «Elohim» refers to a false god. So you always have to read it in context to understand if it’s talking about almighty God who is the God of the heavens and the earth or a false god. So let’s keep reading so we can get the context. Aaron says, «Okay, bring me all your gold,» bring me your jewelry, your gold jewelry, and he puts it into this pot, melts it, and forms a calf. Got it? Now this is what’s interesting: when the people saw the calf, they said, «This is your Elohim! This is your god, Elohim, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt.» Now here’s where we find out what they’re saying: when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it and made a proclamation and said, «Tomorrow is a feast to the Lord.» The word «Lord» there is the Hebrew word «Yahweh.» It is the one and only sacred name of God. It is so sacred that the Hebrew writers wouldn’t even write the vowels; they would write Y-H-W-H because they wouldn’t write the whole name out; it’s that sacred!
This name is never used for a false god in the Bible, except in Exodus 32. They looked right at Aaron, who looked right at that calf and said, «Tomorrow is a feast to Yahweh.» In other words, the people didn’t deny Yahweh; they didn’t deny almighty God. They still acknowledged that he delivered them from Egypt; they still acknowledged that he healed them, still acknowledged that not one feeble one came, and still acknowledged that he buried the Egyptians. It’s just that they changed his image into a manageable Yahweh, a Yahweh that would give them what they wanted. They reduced his greatness; they reduced his glory. And what do they do now? They’ve got a Yahweh that will give them whatever they want.
So they get up the next day and have a bunch of, okay, partying, getting drunk, and having orgies—sex; they’re having all this stuff going on because now they’ve got a Yahweh who’s okay with what they’re doing. You got it? Now this is my question: is this happening today? Okay, Romans chapter 1, verses 22 and 23 says, «They profess to be wise but they became fools, and they changed the glory.» Now listen to this: «they changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like corruptible man.»
So in our society, we don’t have gold statues that we worship and call gods. What is the god (little g) in our society? It’s corruptible man, okay? Humanism, corruptible man. So my question is: have we created a Jesus that is in our image, a Jesus that will give us whatever we want instead of him being the authentic Jesus at the right hand of the Father? I’m going to actually say it like this: have we created a knock-off Jesus, no different than Israel created a knockoff Yahweh? They still said Yahweh delivered them; they still say Yahweh saved them; they still said Yahweh buried the Egyptians. We still say this Jesus delivered me; this Jesus saved me; this Jesus died on the cross for me. But is he the Jesus at the right hand, or have we created a Jesus who will give us what we want?
A lack of holy fear does this. This is exactly what Cain did. Okay, Cain—what does he do when he sins against God? He has lost his godly fear, and God says, «Where is your brother?» And Cain says to God, «I don’t know; am I my brother’s keeper?» So in other words, Cain thinks he can hide where Abel is from God because what happens is: when a person loses the fear of God, that person starts reducing the greatness of God and brings him down to their own level. This is why you constantly see in the Old Testament the people of God making statements like this: Ezekiel 9:9, «The Lord doesn’t see it.»
What do you mean the Lord doesn’t see it? They actually thought they could hide what they were doing from God. This even happened with the leaders of Israel, the elders, the spiritual leaders; they said, «Listen to what God says to Ezekiel: son of man, have you seen what the leaders of Israel are doing?» They are saying, «The Lord doesn’t see us.» So you know when you reduce God’s greatness down, when you lose the fear of the Lord, because the fear of the Lord keeps him in that place where he is supposed to be.
If you look at Isaiah, Isaiah is a preacher of righteousness, right? In Isaiah 5, he’s crying out, «Woe to the sinners! Woe to those who call evil good and good evil! Woe to the drunkards! Woe, woe to the proud!» Okay, that’s Isaiah 5. But in Isaiah 6, while he’s in the Spirit, he goes to the throne room of God, and he has one glimpse of God, and Isaiah doesn’t say, «Woe is the drunkard! Woe is those who call evil good.» He now says, «Woe is me!» Because for the first time in his life, he really realized who this holy, awesome God was, and he’s not crying out «woe» to the sinner; he’s crying out, «Woe is me!» You’ll see that this made him cleansed and able to bring the word of God to the people.
So it is so important that we have a holy fear of God because that keeps him in his proper place in our lives. Jesus made the statement in Luke 12:2, «There is nothing covered that will not be revealed, nor hidden that will not be known.» When a person loses the fear of God, they think they can hide things. You know, I can hide things from people; I can do things in the shadows; I can do things in the dark, and nobody is going to know. I can think things in my heart, and I’m going to think nobody knows. That’s what Ananias and Sapphira thought when they brought an offering. There was no problem with the offering; the problem was that they were deceiving people and telling them it was everything they got for the sale of their land. They thought they could hide it even from God; they lost the fear of God. They were struck down dead because they did it in the presence of his glory.
I said in the earlier lesson, «Hey, you have Ananias and Sapphira that are struck down dead; why do we have preachers in the 21st century that have been lied to by congregation members, and those congregation members didn’t fall down dead?» It’s because the word of the Lord is not as strong today as it was in the day of Peter. The revelation of God is not as strong today as it was in the days of Peter. In other words, the glorious presence of God today is not as great as it was in the days of Peter. But it will be, and it will be greater than it was in the book of Acts. God spoke to me years ago and said, «Son, before I return, my glorious presence will be seven times greater than the book of Acts.» Do you believe it? And he gave me Scripture; he said, «The end of a thing is better than the beginning.» He said, «The glory of the latter church shall be greater than the glory of the former.» I mean, we are heading into days of greatness, power, and glory. That’s why it’s so important for us to have the holy fear of God in our hearts. When we lose the fear of God, we reduce him down to our level and subconsciously think we can hide things from him.
If questioned about God’s omnipresence or his omniscience, they would without hesitation strongly agree, but deep within their hearts, they’ve lost the awareness of his awesomeness. For if they still possessed it, they would not seek to keep things secret. You know a lack of the fear of God will lead us into idolatry—or I should say idolatry will lead us into a lack of the fear of God. When we face God, we should always come to him with a neutral heart; in other words, knowing that he is the one that loves us. If you remember from lesson one, the way he values us, he cares deeply for us; that means he only wants what’s best for us. Correct? That’s why we’ve got to come with a neutral heart because approaching the Lord with strong desires, which are not in line with his will when he has made it known to us, can prove to be the most unwise and dangerous thing. For this can lead us to the next level of deception—one that is most sobering. This level of deception is when God himself will actually give us or allow us to have what we want.
Listen to this: Ezekiel 14, verses 2 and 3, and the word of the Lord came to me, saying, «Son of man, these men have set up idols in their hearts—not in their backyards, not up on the hill, but in their hearts—and put before them that which causes them to stumble into iniquity. Should I let myself be inquired of by them?» He answers the question; he says, «I, the Lord, will answer him who comes according to the multitude of idols in his heart.» That is sobering! God said, «I’ll answer you, but according to the multitude of your idols!»
Now how does this translate to today? Stay with me, because it’s going to make sense. How is idolatry identified in the New Testament? It’s covetousness. Listen to this: Colossians 3:5 and 6 says, «Therefore put to death your members which are on the earth: fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry.» Okay? What is covetousness? It is a strong desire for obtaining something. Now think this through: God wants the very best for us! Adam and Eve thought that they could get what was best for them outside of the will of God. That covetousness was idolatry; their own wisdom, apart from God’s, was idolatry, and it caused their fall. It’s no different today. If we come to God and we want something that we know he doesn’t want us to have, that’s idolatry.
What can happen now? God will actually say, «Okay, that’s what you want; you can have it.» You say, «What? God would actually give me something that I wanted that wasn’t good for me?» Oh sure he does! Look at Israel. They’re in the desert, and they get fed up with the bread. The bread is so good that Elijah ran 40 days and 40 nights on just two cakes of it, okay? But they’re getting this bread every day, and they go, «We’re fed up with this; we want meat!» So they make a prayer request; they said, «We want meat.» And Psalm 78, verses 36 through 41, says that God miraculously answered their prayer request and brought meat in enough quail to feed three million Jews in the middle of the desert. Enough quail! And they just fluttered, and the people just picked them out of the air, right? But the Bible says in Psalm 78 that before they were done eating it, the judgment of God came on them. So, he gave them what they wanted, but they were judged for it because of their idolatry.
Israel wanted a king. «We want a king!» God says, «Oh no, no, no, it’s not good for you that you get a king, because if you get a king, they’ll take your best daughters, your best sons, your best lands, your best everything.» They go, «We want a king!» So God says to Samuel, «Give them their king!» Samuel says, «But God, it’s not best for them to have a king.» God said, «That’s what they want; give it to them!» Balaam, the elders of Moab, and Midian come to him and say, «We want you to curse Israel.» God says, «Do not go with them.» So, they go back to the king, and he says, «Balaam’s not going.»
The king of Moab sends more money and more honor, and Balaam says, «Let me pray about it one more time,» like more money and more honor are going to change God’s mind, right? Yeah! God comes to him that night and says, «Balaam, go with the men!» So Balaam gets up the next morning; he’s got the word of the Lord to go. He gets on his donkey and goes. And now God is angry because he’s gone! Why? Balaam really wanted it! So God said, «Fine.» What you’ve got to understand is God gave you a free will, and he won’t violate that free will. And if you know that something is not the will of God and you still really want it, let me tell you something. Those people of Israel—remember that God parted that Red Sea—did you really think they believed that the golden calf could do it? But they wanted their indulgences, and God said, «Let them have a god that will give them whatever they want.» And they were judged for it.
Today, I’m going to ask you a question, and I want you to think this through carefully: do you want to know the real Jesus that sits at the right hand of the Father, or do you want to know a knock-off Jesus who will give you whatever you want? If you lack the fear of God, eventually you will discover that Jesus will give you whatever you want. If you have the holy fear of God, where you love what he loves and you hate what he hates, what is important to him is important to you. If you carry that holy fear of God, you will come to know the one who can satisfy you. He’s the one who cares so much for you that he died in your place. Think about it: when we were still enemies, he chose to take the form of a human being, to be beaten, to be despised, to be rejected, to be spit on, to have his beard plucked out, to have thorns shoved into his skull, to be whipped by a whip with bone and lead tips on it that ripped open his flesh, to have nails put into his hands—he knew it! He knew he was going to do this because he loves you that much. Do you really want a knock-off Jesus, or do you want the real Jesus who died for you?
The fear of God is the starting place for knowing the real Jesus—the Jesus I just spoke of, who died for you on an intimate level. Hey, not only should we love God, but we should fear God! And remember, fear is not to be scared of him; it’s to be terrified of being away from him. I hope you got something out of this lesson. In the next lesson, we’re going to talk about this: what does it mean to really worship God? I think you’re going to be quite pleasantly surprised when you find out what true worship is in the next lesson.