John Bevere - Holiness Is a Doorway to Intimacy with God
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Well, hello Sandals Church! I want you to know what an honor and a privilege it is to be here. I already know about you because I know and love your pastors. Pastor Matt and Tammy are some of Lisa’s and my closest friends. Lisa is a best friend, and I invited Tammy to come to Lisa’s 60th birthday party right in the middle of COVID. I snuck her number off my wife’s phone and actually asked her; it was a surprise party! But I want to say this about your leaders, and I feel like this is my responsibility: you have some of the greatest leaders in this church.
The thing I love so much about Pastor Matt is that he absolutely loves truth, yet he’s hilarious. He has so much joy. You say «Matt Brown,» and you start laughing, right? Yet the man has a heart after God, a heart for truth, and that’s what drew me to him from the very beginning. So I want to say you are blessed. If there’s nothing more that I say to you that helps you today—and I believe the Holy Spirit will do it—it is that you are in a great church. Please stay planted in this church because this leads into what I want to talk to you about today.
A couple of years ago, I was doing some research on the state of the church in America, and I discovered some devastating things. Basically, Barna had done some in-depth research. But I want to say this: from the year 2010 to the year 2020, over 45 million Americans stopped praying. Now, that’s crazy when you think about it! 45 million—20% of America—stopped praying. It goes even further, and that’s why I was so excited when Matt asked me to be a part of this prayer series. The other stat that riveted me was the fact that over 30 million Americans from the year 2000 until today have walked away from the faith. They’ve gone from practicing Christians to non-practicing Christians, and by non-practicing Christians I mean atheists, agnostics, and spiritualists.
So here’s the thing that we’ve got to ask: why have so many people stopped praying? And by the way, Jesus said men ought to always pray and not faint (Luke 18:1). So what’s happening? People are fainting; they’re walking away from the faith. I mean, I have a pastor friend who has three sons. He had a couple come up to him; they had three sons called to ministry. They went to universities and came back as agnostics—all three of them! Alright, so what’s going on? What’s happening? This caused me to go into a really deep dive and I wrote a book called The Awe of God. I believe this is the focus of why we are losing so many people and why so many people are not praying: we’ve lost the healthy fear of God.
And I’m going to say this; I know I’m speaking to 14 campuses this morning. You can get this on Amazon; in fact, Amazon’s got it for a big sale right now. You’re all Prime members; you’ll get it in two days. Just go to Amazon. We’ve actually got a QR code that will show you at the end of the service; you can put your phone up. I wrote 42 short chapters because people don’t read today, and you can read a chapter in seven minutes, or if you’re slow, nine minutes. I really want to get this into you because I want to see the stop of people walking away from the faith.
So this is the question I had to ask: why are so many people stopping to pray? Why are so many people walking away from the faith? I believe it’s this: it’s the absence of the presence of God. Now I want to say this, church, listen to me carefully: the presence of God is a very real aspect of Christianity. Jesus made a statement in John chapter 14; he said, «I will love him or her and manifest myself to him or her.» Now the word «manifest» is amazing. It means to reveal clearly, to bring to light; it means to disclose. It’s when God reveals Himself to our physical senses—it’s the tangible presence of God.
Now why is it important? Because Moses made a statement that I believe is still true today. He said, «Your presence among us sets your people and me apart from all other people on the earth.» If you look at Psalm 16:11, it says, «In your presence is fullness of joy.» Now think about it: the joy of the Lord is our strength, right? What is causing people to walk away from the faith? It’s the lack of strength. They’ve lost that joy because true joy is found in the presence of the Lord.
So now comes the big question: why are Christians today, when Jesus says, «I will manifest myself to you,» not experiencing the tangible presence of God? Alright, here’s the answer: because of a lack of holiness. Now, right there, I know a lot of people are going to start getting nervous, okay? You say the word «holiness,» and people shut down. There’s actually a pretty good reason for it, and that is because in the past we’ve had mean-spirited preachers. Okay, I’m talking about pastors and preachers who don’t even like people.
Can I say something? If you don’t like people, you have no business teaching the Bible! You should be teaching organic chemistry or physics; you should not be teaching the Bible. But these mean-spirited preachers made holiness into a bunch of rules and regulations to govern people’s behavior into what they thought was correct, and that has nothing to do with holiness. Other people get nervous when they hear the word holiness because they see it as dull and boring. But I love what C.S. Lewis says; C.S. Lewis made the statement that «how little people know who think that holiness is dull. When one re-meets the real thing, it’s irresistible.»
So what I want to talk to you about today is the irresistible. Now, what happened when people got nervous about holiness? We had a bunch of pastors and teachers who were clever, and they said, «Wait a minute, we can’t ignore this subject! I mean, it’s all over the Bible.» If you look at the predominant characteristic of God in the Bible, the angels are crying out before the throne: «Holy, holy, holy.» They’re not crying «Love, love, love.» I mean, God is love; He doesn’t even have love; He is love. They’re not crying «Faithful, faithful, faithful.» God is faithful. The attribute of God that stands above all others as you read through scripture is holiness.
If you look at the only description of the church that Jesus is coming back for, it’s a holy church. It’s not a leadership church. I believe in leadership. It’s not a community church. I believe in community; God does too. He says it’s not good that man is alone. It’s not a relevant church. We’re never going to reach the lost if we’re not relevant, right? It’s a holy church!
So these teachers said, «What do we do about this holiness? It’s all over the Bible!» So they came up with a teaching and they said to all of us, «Don’t worry about holiness. Don’t worry at all about it because Jesus is our holiness.» Now here’s the problem with what happened. What they’re saying is true, but it’s not the full story. Because what they did basically is they lumped all holiness into one bucket, when in reality the New Testament shows there’s two buckets of holiness.
The first one is called positional holiness. What do I mean by positional holiness? Ephesians 1:4 makes the statement, «He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love.» Now notice He did that; He chose us in Him that we should be holy. So here’s what happened: before the foundations of the world, God the Father and the Son had a meeting, and God said, «We’re going to create man, but we know the end from the beginning. We know they’re going to mess up. Would you be willing to go die for them?» And the Son said, «Yes, of course I would, because I love them all so much,» right?
So God says, the Father says, «When they receive You as their Lord, we will declare them holy at that point.» Okay? That is positional holiness. The moment you receive Jesus, you are declared by God to be holy.
Now, if you look at the Apostle Paul, he says, «A man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two shall become one.» He said, «But this is actually an illustration of the way the church and Jesus are one.» If you want to really understand how to have an authentic relationship with God, you look at a marriage.
Now, Lisa and I, 42 years ago this October 2nd, okay? 42 years ago she walked down the aisle of Covenant Presbyterian Church in Lafayette, Indiana, and on that very day, October 2, 1982, she became my wife. I’ve got news for you: today in 2024, she is not more my wife positionally than the day I married her. And 40 years from now she is not going to be more my wife. Well, it’s the same thing with our walk with God. The moment we got saved, He declared us holy, and 20 million years from today, we’re not going to be more holy than we were the day we were saved, because that’s what God declared. Are you seeing this?
But now let me say this: when Lisa and I got married, something kind of changed. Because when we were single, Lisa used to flirt with guys—okay, believe it or not, she did! She would go out with other guys on dates; she would give guys her phone number. But after we got married, Lisa stopped flirting with guys. She stopped giving her phone number out. She stopped going out on dates with other guys. What happened? She developed a behavior that matched her position. Are you getting this?
Alright, so now that’s called behavioral holiness. If you look at what Peter writes in 1 Peter 1:14–15, he says, «Live as children of obedience to God. Do not conform yourselves to the evil desires that governed you in your former ignorance when you did not know the requirements of the gospel. But as the one who called you is holy, you yourselves also be holy in all your conduct and manner of living.» Now he’s talking about a behavior. This is behavioral holiness.
Now, this is important because holiness without it—you’re not going to get the presence of God. Okay, this is the big question of the day: what does holiness have to do with the presence of God? See, what the legalistic holiness teachers did is they made holiness an end to itself. They almost made it like a club, when in reality, behavioral holiness is a doorway into something, and it’s the doorway into what every true believer cries out for.
And that’s what I want to talk to you about. What does holiness have to do with God’s presence? Look at Hebrews 12:14. This is an amazing scripture. It says, «Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.» Okay, now let’s talk about this. First of all, what does the word «pursue» mean? In the original language, it is defined as this: to chase after with the intent to apprehend. Listen to that carefully! The word «pursue» means to chase after with the intent to apprehend. It speaks of urgency and intensity.
Now let’s ask a question here: Chase after with the intent to apprehend holiness. Is he talking about positional holiness or behavioral holiness? Okay, let’s just do another example. Lisa has a Bible study that she goes to on Wednesday mornings, right? Can you imagine her going to the Bible study and they’re all doing prayers, and Lisa looks at the ladies and says, «Guys, I need you to pray; I am chasing after, with the intent to apprehend being John B’s wife.» They’d all laugh at her and say, «You became his wife 42 years ago! What are you talking about? That wouldn’t make any sense.»
But if she looked at her girlfriends and said, «Hey girls, pray! I’m chasing after, with the intent to apprehend a behavior that is more befitting John B’s wife,» they would understand that. So we know immediately he’s not talking about positional holiness; he’s talking about behavioral holiness.
Alright, now look at this scripture: Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord. Now whoa, whoa, whoa, wait a minute! Everybody is going to see the Lord. Revelation 1:7 says, «Behold, He comes in the clouds, and every eye will behold Him, even those who pierced Him.» At the Judgment seat, every eye is going to see Him. So what in the world is he talking about in Hebrews 12:14, «Pursue or chase after holiness, because without it no one’s going to see the Lord»? What does the word «see» mean?
Alright, let me give you an example here. I’ve been a United States citizen now for 65 years. In that 65-year time period, I think I’ve been under 13 United States presidents. I’m under their rulership; their decisions affect my life; I am submitted to their leadership. But I’ve never seen one of them. I’ve never been in the presence of a United States president. Now, they have friends; they work with them; they see them on a daily basis. They work with them. But I have never been in the presence or seen a United States president.
Well, let me say this: there are Christians who are under the lordship of Jesus; His decisions affect their lives; but they are not seeing Him; they are not in His presence. So what he’s talking about here is that without holiness, no one’s going to enter into the presence of the Lord. Remember I said holiness is a doorway into something bigger; it’s a doorway into intimacy and enjoying the presence of God, and this is what every one of us cries out for!
Now let me say this: I’m going to prove it to you. Jesus looks at His disciples before He leaves and makes this statement. John 14:21, this is really important: «The person who has my commands"—hear the word «commands.» Now people get nervous with commands. Did you know there are over 500 commands in the New Testament?
Okay, now let me say this: commands in the Old Testament were given to earn a relationship with God. We proved we can never, ever keep the commands of God and earn a relationship with Him. That’s why Jesus had to die and give us the free gift of salvation. Correct? So what are commands for in the New Testament? They are given to enhance our relationship!
Okay, so think about this: What are Jesus' last words on earth? He said, «Go into the world and make disciples of all nations,» right? «Teaching them to observe everything I’ve commanded you.» Remember Jesus said in John 15:14, «The person who has my commands and keeps them is the one who really loves me.»
Okay, so the person who has my commands, in John 14:21, and keeps them is the one who really loves me, and I will love him and will reveal—or manifest myself—to him. I will let myself be clearly seen! «Pursue holiness, without which no one will see the Lord.» I will let myself be clearly seen by him and make myself real to him.
Okay, let me say this. Let’s go back to the marriage. I am legally married to Lisa B. I have actually a marriage certificate that shows I’m married to Lisa B. I got it 42 years ago in Indiana. Alright? Now I could technically hold that marriage license up and say, «Babe, we’re married!» But if I’m jumping in bed with other women, I’m going to lose something. What am I going to lose? I’m going to lose those moments in which our heads are on the pillow, and she looks at me and she says something to me from the deepest places of her heart that she wouldn’t say to anybody else. I guarantee you, I will lose that.
What people lose when they don’t chase after holiness is when God whispers those things to our heart that we’ve never known before. People are hungry for this! This is what we lose. You know, I’ve written 24 books. Let me just say it like this: there’s a reason I don’t commit adultery against my wife, and it’s not because I know she’ll take me out—'cause she is a sharpshooter; she’s a sniper. It’s because I don’t want to lose that intimacy. Now there’s a reason I don’t commit adultery against Jesus. You say, «Commit adultery?» James makes a pretty clear statement in James 4. He says, «My brethren,» 15 times in this book he says, «My brethren, you seek a relationship with the world. You are an adulterer.» Who are you committing adultery against? Jesus! When we seek to flirt with, date, give our phone number to the very things that drove the nails into His hands and feet, we are committing adultery against Him.
And what do we lose? Yeah, we can technically say, «I prayed the sinner’s prayer, Jesus. I’ve got it right here: if I confess you as my Lord and Savior, I’m a Christian.» But I guarantee you what you’re going to lose is when He whispers those secrets in your heart that you’ve never known before. People ask me all the time, «How in the world have you written 24 books? Where do you get all that revelation from?» I am preaching about it right now.
The reason I don’t want to commit adultery with the world is I don’t want to miss the times when He whispers those things in my heart that I’ve never known, never seen before—the things that will change my life first and change other lives second. I don’t ever want to lose that, and that, because I’ve tasted it, is more valuable to me than anything you can offer me that this world craves and goes after.
So you see the holiness? Yeah, it’s a good place to clap; I’m okay with that! So the legalistic holiness teachers—what they did is they removed the beauty of holiness. Holiness is a doorway that enters into a place of deep intimacy with God. Jesus said that the person who is chasing after, with the intent to apprehend my commands is the person that I’m going to make myself really known to.
Now what’s interesting is it doesn’t say the person who arrives at holiness will be the one who sees God. What does that mean? That means all my life I’m going to be chasing after, with the intent to apprehend holiness. And to be very honest with you, the person who’s really doing that actually doesn’t become more proud; they actually become more humble. Some of the most godly people that I’ve been around are the people that are more aware of their flaws than others that I’ve met. Because when you really come to know Him, you walk in a deeper humility.
Because Jesus is the most humble human being that’s ever walked this earth! He humbled Himself to the point of obedience to the Father. He was so dependent He said, «I can’t do anything except I see my Father do it.» Why did He see His Father doing what His Father was doing? Why did He hear what His Father was saying and say, «I can only say what my Father was saying»? It’s because He walked in a holiness in behavior, because He is the Holy One, and He’s called us to be conformed into His image.
So Paul writes this scripture in 2 Corinthians 6 that I quite frankly think, why have we ignored this? Paul makes the statement, «As God says, I will live in them.» I want you to listen to these words: «I will live in them and I will walk among them.» Now I want us to step back and think about who’s talking here. We’re not talking about a Hollywood actor, a great notable athlete; we’re not talking about the president of the United States or someone else you admire. We’re talking about the one who created the heavens and the earth; He said, «I’m going to live in you and I’m going to walk among you.»
Okay, now you have to understand: we got to remember who this is. This is the one who put the stars in the universe with His fingers and called everyone by name. This is the one who measured the length of the universe with the span of His hand. This is the one who weighed every drop of water on the planet in the palm of His hand. This is the one that weighed all the mountains around here that you see—all around here—in His scales.
This is the one Isaiah, who was the most godly man in Israel, God brings him out of his body in Isaiah 6, plops him right in front of the throne; the angels are crying holy, shaking in an arena that seats over a billion beings, they’re crying holy so loud, they’re shaking that arena to its foundations in heaven. Isaiah sees the Lord and doesn’t go, «Dude, check it out! There’s the man upstairs!» He’s on his face! This most godly man in his whole generation is on his face, crying out, «Woe is me!» I am completely undone. «Undone» means I’m coming apart at the seams because for the first time in his life he realizes who it is he’s really serving.
And the first time in his life, he realizes who he is before this holy God. You know, I love what Oswald Chambers says: «When we preach the love of God, there is a danger of forgetting that the Bible reveals not first the love of God but the intense, blazing holiness of God, with His love at the center of that holiness.»
Okay, so here’s Isaiah! He’s crying out: «Woe to those who call evil good and good evil; woe to the drunkard; woe to the proud.» In Isaiah 5; but in Isaiah 6 he has one glimpse of God, and it’s no longer «Woe to the sinner!» It’s «Woe is me!» If you look at Job, God Himself said Job is the most godly man on the planet. Job gets one glimpse of God and he says, «I’ve heard You by the hearing of the ear; I went to church, I heard my pastor talking about You.» But now my eye sees You; I utterly abhor myself! If you look at Moses, the closest man to God in his generation, he has one glimpse of God in His glory, and he cries out; it’s so terrifying is the sight! He says, «I trembled with fear.» If you look at John the Apostle, he was the closest one to Jesus. He had one glimpse of Jesus on the deserted island of Patmos in his glory, and he fell down like a dead man when he saw him.
I remember when my boys were young; they were about 12 years old down to 4 years old, and this was back when a certain NBA player—who I still think is the best NBA player that’s ever played—was huge; he was winning his six world championships. There were posters of him in the boys' rooms; their friends would come all over; they’re all talking about Michael, Michael, Michael, Michael. Right? And I got fed up with hearing about Michael!
And I’m an athlete—I played college D1 athletics; I mean, I love athletics—but I was just fed up with hearing about Michael! I remember we were at the Atlantic Ocean, and I was preaching for a church there on the Atlantic Ocean, and they put me up in a hotel right on the beach. I had Lisa and the four boys with me, and I remember the Atlantic was stirred up that day. They were trying to body surf, and they were getting slammed—they were getting sand in their mouths and their suits; it was great!
So I thought, this is my chance! We walked up to the hotel room; I on purpose opened the sliding glass door so they could hear the pounding ocean. They were all wrapped in their towels, and I said, «Guys, I want to have a little dad talk with you.» I said, «That’s a pretty powerful ocean out there, isn’t it?» They went, «Whoa, yeah! Whoa, it’s powerful!» I said, «It’s a pretty big ocean, isn’t it, guys?» They go, «Yeah!» I said, «You know, you can only see one mile out, but it goes another 4,000 miles, and there’s another one on the other side, and there are two others beside that!» They go, «Whoa!»
And I said, «You know God weighed every drop of that water in the palm of His hands?» And I said, «You’re enamored with this guy that can jump from a 15-foot line and put a little ball through a hole?» They went, «Dad, we got it, we got it!» Right? So you know what happened after that day? Michael got back into perspective! See, Isaiah 45:5 says, «You are God who hides yourself.» He hides His glory from us to see if we’re going to be enamored with the movie stars, the incredible guru businessmen, with the athletes, or if we’re going to see His glory. Because He has revealed His glory in our hearts—that’s where we see His glory.
He has revealed the glory of God in our hearts in the face of Christ Jesus. So my boys—what happened is their focus went from that to that. And all four of them are walking with Jesus, and all four of them have worked with us in ministry. So God says, «I will—watch this in 2 Corinthians 6—I will live in them.» Here’s promise number one: «I’ll walk among them,» promise number two: «I’ll be their God,» promise number three: «And they’ll be my people,» promise number four: «And I will be your Father,» promise number five: «You will be my sons and daughters,» promises six and seven. Now watch the very next verse, because we have these seven promises: «Let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit.» Whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! Let us cleanse ourselves!
Do you notice he doesn’t say, «Say the blood of Jesus is going to cleanse us»? Whoa! Matt, Pastor Matt, I can’t believe you just had this guy in here! Wait a minute, whoa, whoa, whoa! I am not saying the blood of Jesus does not cleanse us—believe me, it cleanses us from all filthiness! Amen! But what I am saying is don’t confuse the work of justification with the work of sanctification!
Okay, whoa, wait! That’s a big word; those are big words! The work of justification—the moment you receive Jesus Christ as your Lord, God cleanses you from all sin in the spirit; you are declared holy and spotless and blameless before God. But at that very moment, the work of sanctification begins. That’s when what’s done on the inside of me is worked out to the outside! That is called sanctification, and that we have to cooperate with the grace and the holy fear of God to accomplish.
Notice Paul says that we cleanse ourselves from all—not 99% but all—filthiness of the flesh and spirit. Now let’s just talk about this filthiness of the flesh. Let me just show you a couple of scriptures. I don’t know why we don’t talk about this anymore because we’re hurting people by not talking about it. If I want to keep you from the presence of God, I’m going to avoid talking about these things.
Look at 1 Thessalonians 4. It says God’s will for you is to be holy, so stay away from all sexual sin. Can I say something? It amazes me! It literally amazes me how many times people will come up to me—I’m traveling, I’m in a hotel, they recognize me as an author, they come up, they talk, «Oh yeah, we’re living together until we get married next year! You know, we’re just making sure we’re financially secure.» And I’m like, «You’re living together?» And you just said that without even blushing!
Look at this! «He who rejects this does not reject man but God.» I’m like, «Have you not read in Hebrews 13:4, 'Marriage is honorable among all, and the bed undefiled, but fornicators and adulterers God will judge? '» I mean, have you not read this? You’d be amazed that 67% of the men right now in churches in America are bound to pornography. I was bound to pornography; I’m not throwing stones. I got addicted at 11, and I got free May 6, 1985, and I’m still free to this day—thank God!
And what I’m talking to you about this morning—the awe of God, the holy fear of God—is what set me free, and I’m still free to this day! So men, there is hope! But you know, we know the psalmist said, «I will put nothing; I will be careful to live a blameless life. I will lead a life of integrity in my own home. I will refuse to look at anything worthless or wicked. I will reject perverse ideas and stay away from every evil.» This was David’s heart!
Okay, did he walk it out 1,000% perfectly? We all know he didn’t, but he was chasing after it! Do you see what the difference is? There’s a difference when somebody goes, «Hey, I’m just a guy with needs. Come on, you know what? My marriage bed’s not stimulating me anymore. I need some pornography to kind of get me in the mood.» Really? Now I understand somebody goes, «I fell into something, and I’m trying to get through it,» right? I understand somebody battling it. I was battling it for six years after becoming a Christian.
But when we sit there and go, «Ah, it’s okay; we’re just human beings; we have needs,» we’re actually denying people the privilege of walking into the presence of God and hearing that word that gives me the strength so I’m not a statistic of 45 million that stopped praying and 30 million that walked away from the faith. Do you understand why I’m saying this? I’m not saying this to beat you up and say, «Get into a holiness club!» I’m saying this because I know you’re craving to walk with God and to hear His word, and I have news for you.
He—listen! Here’s the thing: I’m on a radio program one time, and the guy’s like, «What about the guy that’s got problems with pornography?» And I said, «Whoa, whoa, whoa! Wait a minute! I had problems with pornography, and the Lord set me free, and I’m still free today! Let me just make sure I understand what you’re saying: Are you saying on this live radio podcast that the blood of Jesus is powerful enough to get me free from the penalty of sin, but it’s just not powerful enough to get me free from the bondage of sin? Is that what you’re saying?» And the guy went, «Uh, uh, uh.» He realized the foolishness of what he was saying!
And I said, «Do you understand you’re keeping people from God’s presence? You’re actually encouraging people!» I don’t want to do that! I know what has kept me in the faith; it’s the fact of having intimacy with God, and I want everybody to have that and enjoy that! That’s what He’s called us to; He’s called us to intimacy!
And so, the filthiness of the spirit—oh, that’s another one! I don’t have time for it. You can see it in the book because I spent a whole section in the book. Filthiness of the spirit basically means your motives and intentions. If you look at Ananias and Sapphira, their acts were just fine as far as their actions. They gave an offering; there’s nothing wrong with that. But what caused them to lie about that offering? They wanted to project themselves—project, hello! —as being the biggest givers in the church.
So they kept back part of the property, but they wanted to be seen as giving all their property. And in Acts chapter 5, that couple fell over dead. I mean, that’s crazy! Why? Because when you lie in the presence of the glory of God, there’s going to be a reaction! Okay, this is what we’ve got to realize: God came to liberate us! We were bound to sin; we had a nature that sinned, and He liberated us by freeing us. But now He’s given us a choice: Are we going to listen to our flesh or are we going to listen to our spirit?
Because here’s the greatest news of all: Let’s go back to 1 Corinthians 6—or 2 Corinthians 6—and I’ve got to get there! Because we have these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. Here’s the thing I want to say: you’re probably sitting there going, «John, I’ve tried to walk in holiness and I’ve failed! I’ve tried to walk in holiness, and I’ve failed.» I’ve got news for you: God’s given us a way to walk and to have the power to walk a godly life, and that’s called the fear of the Lord.
You say, «The fear of the Lord? Wait a minute, being scared of God?» No! The fear of the Lord has nothing to do with being afraid of God! Let me say this before I give you the definition of what the fear of God is: We are told in Isaiah 33:6 that the fear of the Lord is God’s treasure. We are told in Isaiah 11:3 that the fear of the Lord is Jesus’s delight!
Now there’s something to this: when we’re talking about God’s treasure and Jesus’s delight, we’ve got to talk about this. Are you with me? Okay, what is the fear of the Lord? It’s not to be scared of God; it’s to be scared of being away from Him! When Moses brought Israel to the mountain and God came down on the mountain, the people ran away. And Moses made a statement in Exodus 20:20. He said, «Hey, do not fear, because God’s come to test you to see if His fear is in you, so that you may not sin.»
Wait a minute! Do not fear, because God’s come to see if His fear is in you. Sounds like he’s talking out of both sides of his mouth! No, he’s talking about the—he’s differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. There’s a difference! The person who’s scared of God is something to hide. What does Adam do when he sins against the Lord? He hides from the presence of the Lord.
The person who fears God has nothing to hide; that person is actually terrified of being away from God. So if you want your first definition of the holy fear of God, it’s to be terrified of being away from Him! Why are people walking away from God? Because they lack the fear of God! Psalm 19 tells us that the fear of the Lord is what gives us the ability to walk with God forever!
Lucifer led worship right before that throne; he was anointed to do so! He didn’t fear God; he didn’t endure in heaven forever! A third of the angels surrounded God’s throne; they didn’t fear God; they didn’t endure forever! Adam and Eve walked in the presence of God’s glory; they didn’t fear God; they didn’t endure forever!
So what is the holy fear of God? It is when we stand in awe of Him! It’s what happened when those boys realized, «Wow, He held that water in His hands,» and we’re all enamored by a guy who can hold a basketball! Wow! When you really see Him—and this is what you’ll do in your heart—this is what the fear of God does: It opens up your heart so you can behold His glory in your heart. All of a sudden, the things of this world begin to fade compared to Him.
When you don’t have Him, the things of this world will enamor you; they will literally cause you to be in awe. But when you see Him, it puts everything in the world back into perspective! So we fear God by reverencing and honoring Him and valuing Him above everything and everyone else.
And here’s the really good news: the fear of the Lord is actually a manifestation of the Holy Spirit. This is what Jesus delighted in, and we can ask God to fill us with that fear, and He does it! And all of a sudden, now things come into perspective! That’s what I hope happens as you go through The Awe of God book. I’m really believing that you’re going to encounter the presence of the Lord.
We have had so many testimonies of people that have been changed. They said, «John, I encountered the presence of God, and my life is so changed!» This is what we’re believing for because I don’t want to see any more people walking away from the faith! I want to encourage you to do Bible studies with it; we have workbooks. I’m believing, and God showed me this, and I’m going to close: the final move of His Spirit before Jesus returns is going to be a move of the fear of God!
If you look at the Jesus revolution, we found out our daddy loved us. The love of God keeps us from legalism, but the fear of God keeps us from lawlessness. And the church that Jesus is coming back for is a holy church! I believe this move of the holy awe of God will create the church that Jesus is going to come back for—a holy bride without spot or wrinkle. I hope you got something out of this today! I love you so much!
And I want every head bowed and every eye closed on all of our campuses. The first step to having intimacy with God is to have an authentic, genuine relationship with Him. When you look at a bride and she puts on a white dress and she walks down the aisle of a church, she’s actually saying something pretty significant. She’s saying goodbye to about 3.9 billion guys! She’s saying, «This is the one and only man I’m giving the rest of my life to.» That doesn’t make her the perfect bride the first week, the first year, the first 50 years. It just means she’s given her entire heart to that groom.
Jesus is called the groom; we are called the bride. I know you could never imagine a young man proposing to a girl and saying, «Would you be my wife?» And she squeals with excitement and says, «I am so excited to be married to you! But I did date Jim for two years, and I’d like two nights a year in bed with him. I’ll love you more; you will be my favorite, but I want two nights with Jim a year!» No bride has ever done that; no groom would ever accept that! Jesus gave Himself fully for you so that you could become a child of God.
All He asks for you to do is to do what that bride does. He doesn’t ask any more than what a spouse asks for. He asks you for your entire heart. So if you’re ready to give your heart to Him today and you say, «John, I want to give my life to the lordship of Jesus,» I want you to stand wherever you are. I just want you to stand. And the reason I’m asking you to stand right now is because no bride’s ever been ashamed of her groom! Let me tell you, Jesus gave His life; He died; he created you, but yet He chose to come and be…