Fear of the Lord

My husband Dave has been telling me there is a similarity between what God required of His priests in the Old Testament and what He requires of us as His priests in the New Testament. God requires integrity (honesty) in the inner parts of our temple, our human bodies. This honesty will display true honor and comes from having a fear of the Lord. Dave points out that Aaron’s sons were slain because they were not holy, and did not take their priestly duties seriously (Lev 10:1-3). Moses was forbidden to enter the Promised Land because he did not honor God as holy in the site of the Israelites (Nu 20:12; 32:51). In the days when Samuel was a little boy, Eli’s sons Hophni and Phinehas displeased the Lord and they dishonored the Lord with their sins. Therefore they also died (See 1 Sam 2:12-36). Following each of these examples, service to the Lord took on a greater integrity on the part of those who served, for the fear of the Lord brought the fruit of honor from their lives.

We think of the severity of untimely deaths as being a display of the “Old Testament” God, however, God hasn’t changed. Dave points out that the evidence lies in what happened to Ananias and Sapphira. Ananais sold land and was dishonest about the amount he sold it for. This dishonesty was agreed upon between him and his wife Sapphira. So when they made an offering to the Lord, they lied about the amount they sold the property for, each separately from the other. Peter was present when the offering was made, and asked how they could lie to and tempt the Lord (Acts 5:1-11). They each fell dead after Peter asked them about their deceit. The result was that fear of the Lord spread through the rest of the Christians.

God established that He was to be honored, and not lied to in the first century church. This behavior, honor, is a fruit of the fear of the Lord. What followed was that the first century church had the power of God validating their words (Mk 16:20; Acts 5:12). The question is, do we want what they had, at the price they paid? Do we want to hear the Holy Spirit inside our hearts and honor Him with our obedience, even if our honesty costs us what we want in this life? Or are we half-listening and half-obeying so that we can keep our lives nice and running smoothly?

One of the sad things that is happening in churches today is that there is not much credence given to the word of the Lord. It was through prophetic revelation that the first church received the knowledge about how God wanted His people to meet, and what they should do (Eph 3:5). They could not waver about what was received and still find agreement in implementing the structure that we find in the New Testament Church. However, most prophesies and revelations today are barely received. If there is a weighty revelation it is set aside to see if it comes to pass, with total disregard to any wisdom that could be obtained were the word received in faith. And this points to a second ingredient missing from our churches: wisdom. God intended to display His wisdom through His churches (Eph 3:10), not only to unbelievers but to the wicked spirits in high places. God wants to beat His chest with pride through us and our words, if we would believe He speaks through us. Yet we have fallen into a tepid belief that prophecies are at best nice words to make us feel better, and anything else must be false.

If we really want the kingdom of God to dwell on the earth we need to honor God and welcome His word. In Revelation we read about the angel with the eternal gospel who says to fear God, give Him glory, and to worship Him (Rev 14:7). God wants us to return to the clean, pure fear of God that lived in the men and women that first built the Church for Him. God’s word has power to save, build, and deliver. We cannot construct a kingdom without His input. His word is an ark that carries us during the trials that flood our lives, and His word validates that our lives have purpose when we find ourselves stranded in the desert. His word is a strong tower that the enemy cannot tear down, and a helmet upon our heads to keep the evil one out of our thoughts. If the fear of the Lord brings wisdom, then the first fruits are faith in God’s spoken word. Without a word spoken, there is no wisdom. We cannot share the vision without God’s word, and therefore people fail.

The work God intends us to do is locked up and awaits the key of faith in Him and trust in His revealed word to open up. Do we fear revelation? Do we fear what God might ask of us? Then we should not pretend to be following Christ. Yet, if we follow Him, let us believe the words He speaks through others and honor God by implementing with wisdom what He reveals to us. This we have within our authority to do.