The Fear of the Lord

”The beautiful spirit of the fear of the Lord had come to help me. He knew what I really needed. I’m so grateful. He does not come to condemn but lead us to the path of life.”

What came to mind when you read the title of this blog post? Was the lightening bolt of God in His hand ready to strike you? After walking with God for over twenty years the fear of the Lord has become precious to me. What is more, it is not something I do but the fear of the Lord is a Spirit, the Lord Himself.

Isaiah 11:1-2 says this,

And there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

These verses speak about Jesus. The spirit is the Holy Spirit who here is described as having seven facets; the spirit of the Lord, the spirit of wisdom, understanding, counsel, might, knowledge and the fear of the Lord. This sevenfold description of the Holy Spirt is found also in Revelation 3:1 and Zechariah 3:1-10 which references again the branch (Christ) and describes Him as a stone with seven eyes. The sevenfold Holy Spirit is much like the Trinity; something we find difficult to explain, seven but one.

So, the fear of the Lord is the person of the Holy Spirit, WOW! At the beginning of my adult walk with Jesus at the age of eighteen, God began to reveal himself to me as the Holy one, as the Fear of the Lord. Eighteen is a critical time in a person’s life. After high school I had wanted to study law but God said No, this wasn’t for me. OK, so I then auditioned for a christian performing arts school to major in drama and singing. I got in. This would seem like an open door – right? However something in my heart didn’t feel at peace. Through counsel and support from my prayer group we determined that the arts school was not for me. In short, at the age of nineteen I was left unemployed with no clue what to do. I felt as though my heart was breaking. In the middle of the pain and confusion God began to speak to me from Exodus 20:20. It says this,
Moses said to the people,

“Do not be afraid. God has come to test you, so that the fear of God will be with you to keep you from sinning.”

Let’s remember the definition of sinning – to miss the mark. God had come to me to examine my heart and help me not miss the mark for my life because I desired the best. I didn’t want the good, I wanted the best, I wanted Him. I was willing to allow Him to test me. Abraham went through this (Genesis 22:1-12) Jesus went through this when He was led by the Spirit into the desert to be tested. (Mathew 4)

The fear of the Lord keeps us from missing the mark! Later that year I was supernaturally led to a bible school for a five month course where my true heart desires were met as I encountered God in ways I had been longing for. God sees our truest desires, He wants us to receive these so we hit the mark. Don’t we want this? The fear of the Lord protects us. Two distinct experiences of His protection come to mind. As a single person in my early twenties I liked a young man who although was a christian had a drug problem. We hang out sometimes and I found myself thinking of him and daydreaming of different scenarios. One day as I was walking to my bedroom I heard Holy Spirit say to me, “ If you continue to hang out with this person you will be like David watching Bathsheba form the rooftop.” Woah… I don’t need to tell you what He was saying…I was standing on dangerous ground. The fear of God helped me make a choice to keep a healthy distance from this person and save both of us from possibly disastrous consequences.

The second instance happened at a time where I was in a difficult process of character transformation. At that point I had a ’goth’ identity. I watched a lot of television revolving around the supernatural. These programmes often came on late at night (before the era of Netflix) and I remember it was about midnight and I was alone in the house, sitting on my couch watching the opening credits for the show. Suddenly, I became paralyzed. Two bright blue eyes were staring at me. I froze, the fear of the Lord came upon me, He was watching me, like really! I sensed Him say I was not to watch the programme because I was going after the wrong kind of supernatural. It was hindering me from receiving the right kind. I’m not saying we can’t watch supernatural things but for me then at that time it wasn’t helpful. The beautiful spirit of the fear of the Lord had come to help me. He knew what I really needed. I’m so grateful. He does not come to condemn but lead us to the path of life.

Ask Him to come to you. Ask for the fear of the Lord to reveal Himself to you.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9.10

The fear of the Lord leads to life; then one rests content, untouched by trouble. Proverbs 19:23

We need Him. We are in desperate need of the Fear of the Lord. He is the beginning place to the path of life. Holy fear is different from emotional fear. Look again at Exodus 20:20. Moses says do not be afraid (emotional fear) but the fear of the Lord has come…see we do not “fear” God in the negative sense but the Spirit of God, His person comes to us as the fear of the Lord. If the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, what is the end? Christ!

My goal is that they may be encouraged in heart and united in love, so that they may have the full riches of complete understanding, in order that they may know the mystery of God, namely, Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. Colossians 2:2-4

I want to finish with encouragement from John the one who leant upon the chest of Jesus. Jesus who walked perfectly in the fear of the Lord as the Holy Spirit rested on Him. Beloveds let us walk too, not with fear but with a person, the Holy Spirit who is the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.

If anyone acknowledges that Jesus is the Son of God, God lives in them and they in God. And so we know and rely on the love God has for us. God is love. Whoever lives in love lives in God, and God in them.This is how love is made complete among us so that we will have confidence on the day of judgment: In this world we are like Jesus.There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.We love because he first loved us. 1 John 4:15-19