Do not call conspiracy all that this people calls conspiracy, and do not fear what they fear, nor be in dread. 13 But the Lord of hosts, him you shall honour as holy. Let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.
ISAIAH 8:12-13 ESV
The early church, we are told from Acts 9, walked in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit. Isaiah chapter eleven tells us that the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord would rest on Jesus and his delight was to be found in the fear of the Lord. These verses tell us that the fear of the Lord is imparted by the Holy Spirit. As our union with the Holy Spirit enlarges and we have a greater yielding to His leadership, I believe we will see the church, the body of our Lord Jesus Christ, living and walking in this righteous, holy, reverential fear of the Lord.
The Psalmist cried ~ Unite my heart to fear your name O Lord!
It is by the fear of the Lord that man departs from evil. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. We are all looking for wisdom and the Holy Spirit, again from Isaiah eleven, is shown to be wisdom. He alone knows the heart and mind of the Father. He alone is the revealer of all things. He is the Spirit of Almighty God who is Holy. He is the presence of God who has come to live in us and He is absolute truth.
I’ve been thinking about Fear vs. fear. One being the positive aspect of fearing the Lord, the other being fear of man, not afraid of a man, but the fear that lurks around all of us. The mother of all fear is this fear of death. Hebrews 2:14 explains:
“..through death he might destroy him that had the power of death, that is the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were all their life subject to bondage”
We learn two things from this verse. Jesus has destroyed him who had the power of death and has (past tense) delivered all who are subject to bondage through this fear of death.
You might say - Im not afraid of dying, Im just afraid of…. but when followed to the end of what that fear could produce, the ultimate is a death.
John wrote in his first epistle that fear has torment. A careful word study shows us that this fear is actually a fear of condemnation from the judgment of God. It is actually a fear of being rejected by God and sentenced to a life of separation from Him.
If we consider ‘fear of death’ in its broadest sense, it is simply separation. We know that leaving our earthly bodies does not end life for us, it is simply a separation from this world. The question then becomes, leaving here where do I go? Shall I spend eternity, united to God or separated from His loving presence and condemned to torment, i.e. hell?
So, this negative sense of fear involves the fear of rejection. The potential that God could possible find fault with us in such a way that he would reject us. The command throughout the Bible has been to fear Him and keep His commands.
The fear that comes from not fearing Him is one of judgment and condemnation.
The cure ~ the perfect love of God that casts this out. Romans reminds us that there is no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus who walk after the Spirit and not the flesh. Living in the flesh creates a sin conscious reality that Jesus has redeemed us from. This place of flesh gives entrance to all the accusations from our enemy. These accusations create guilt, shame and drive us to separate ourselves from our Father.
Again, Paul wrote in Romans, nothing can separate us from the love of God. Yet time after time in our human weakness and strivings we fail to ‘measure up’ and that fear expects a fiery judgment. Do we fall into works or do we repent and come into a place of mercy, grace and peace? This negative fear will drive us to works to try and earn something from the Father that has been freely, graciously and willingly provided in Christ Jesus. The Fear of the Lord will keep us in the place of loving Him, loving His word and welcoming the work of the Holy Spirit on a daily basis to lead and guide us into the ways that are pleasing to the Father, finding us, as His church, walking in the fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy One.
My prayer today is that we, as the body of Christ, would cry out for our hearts to be united to fear Him and stand in the liberty and freedom He longs for us to hold, doing the works He has assigned to us, His church, the body of Christ.