Reformation in the Fear of God

Dear Saints,

The absence of the Fear of God in His people has greatly impacted the Church in these recent generations. I truly believe that the Church is in need of a reformation in the Fear of God. Anytime a Revival has broken out in Church History, the Fear of God is always awakened in the hearts of His people and within the community.

The ministry of SI is hosting a live simulcast event in October with the topic "Has the Church Lost the Fear of God?" This event has tremendous potential to awaken and stir the hearts of God's people all across the Body of Christ and impacting His Church intra-denominationally. What a tremendous opportunity for this needed and timely message to go forth. Please, please keep this event in prayer and if you are able, talk with your Church leadership about possibly hosting a simulcast in your Church. What might happen if this event spread all accross our land? What if this Word could come into every town and community within this Country? The Church truly needs a Reformation in the Fear of God, and perhaps this event could be 95 theses nailed to the hearts of the people of God illuminating such a need through the powerful preaching of the Word and conviction of the Spirit.

Sin runs rampant because of the absence of the Fear of God. When the Fear of God is absent, sin is present. When the Fear of God is present, sin is absent. God’s fear always accompanies Him. If the Fear of God is present, God is present, but if His fear is absent….God is absent.

Brothers and Sisters, please pray.

Luke 12:5
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

Acts 2:43
Then fear came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were done through the apostles.

Acts 9:31
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

2 Corinthians 7:1
Therefore, having these promises, beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God.

Hebrews 5:7
who, in the days of His flesh, when He had offered up prayers and supplications, with vehement cries and tears to Him who was able to save Him from death, and was heard because of His godly fear,

Hebrews 12:28
Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear.

Revelation 15:4
Who shall not fear You, O Lord, and glorify Your name? For You alone are holy. For all nations shall come and worship before You, For Your judgments have been manifested.”

Isaiah 29:13
Therefore the Lord said: “ Inasmuch as these people draw near with their mouths And honor Me with their lips, But have removed their hearts far from Me, And their fear toward Me is taught by the commandment of men,

Isaiah 33:6
Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; The fear of the LORD is His treasure.

Isaiah 57:11
“ And of whom have you been afraid, or feared, That you have lied And not remembered Me, Nor taken it to your heart? Is it not because I have held My peace from of old That you do not fear Me?

Jeremiah 2:19
Your own wickedness will correct you, And your backslidings will rebuke you. Know therefore and see that it is an evil and bitter thing That you have forsaken the LORD your God, And the fear of Me is not in you,” Says the Lord GOD of hosts.

Jeremiah 5:22
Do you not fear Me?’ says the LORD. ‘ Will you not tremble at My presence...

Jeremiah 5:24
They do not say in their heart, “ Let us now fear the LORD our God, Who gives rain, both the former and the latter, in its season. He reserves for us the appointed weeks of the harvest.”

Jeremiah 32:40
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.

Deuteronomy 10:12
“And now, Israel, what does the LORD your God require of you, but to fear the LORD your God, to walk in all His ways and to love Him, to serve the LORD your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

2 Chronicles 19:7
Now therefore, let the fear of the LORD be upon you; take care and do it, for there is no iniquity with the LORD our God, no partiality, nor taking of bribes.”

Psalm 25:14
The secret of the LORD is with those who fear Him And He will show them His covenant.

Psalm 33:18
Behold, the eye of the LORD is on those who fear Him, On those who hope in His mercy,

Psalm 34:9
Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.

Psalm 36:1
An oracle within my heart concerning the transgression of the wicked: There is no fear of God before his eyes.

Psalm 85:9
Surely His salvation is near to those who fear Him, That glory may dwell in our land.

Psalm 89:7
God is greatly to be feared in the assembly of the saints, And to be held in reverence by all those around Him.

Proverbs 9:10
“The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 14:27
The fear of the LORD is a fountain of life, To turn one away from the snares of death.

Proverbs 16:6
In mercy and truth Atonement is provided for iniquity; And by the fear of the LORD one departs from evil.

Ecclesiastes 12:13
Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all.

Isaiah 11:3
His delight is in the fear of the LORD, And He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes, Nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

Devoted to Fearing His Name,

Kevin

Kevin, well said.

May the Lord restore the early Church testimony to us...

Acts 9:31
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Does the Fear of God conflict with Grace?

This question, among others, often surfaces when the Fear of God is spoken about. The Fear of God has not been a popular doctrine in the modern Church, and it is very evident and clear that it has been almost eliminated from most Churches and Bible schools as an essential doctrine and teaching in Scripture. Since the Church at large has heard very little about it in recent generations, the general response of Christians, even the sincerest of Christians, is to reject it as a "new teaching" or "rabbit trail". Some oppose the Fear of God saying that it conflicts with Grace and is hostile towards the New Covenant.

Dear Saints, nothing could be farther from the truth!

It is not the Fear of God that conflicts with Grace, but it's the ABSENCE of the Fear of God!

Consider the nation of Israel during the time of the judges.

"And when the LORD raised up judges for them, the LORD was with the judge and delivered them out of the hand of their enemies all the days of the judge; for the LORD was moved to pity by their groaning because of those who oppressed them and harassed them. And it came to pass, when the judge was dead, that they reverted and behaved more corruptly than their fathers, by following other gods, to serve them and bow down to them. They did not cease from their own doings nor from their stubborn way." Judges 2:18-19

The book of Judges could be summed up in one phrase: The Abuse of Grace.

Each generation was more wicked than the previous one, yet God showed them tremendous mercy and grace in raising up deliverers to free them from the tyranny of the oppressing nations. Once liberated, instead of walking with God they quickly reverted and turned back to their old ways again. The land was so vile in those days that even the deliverers were vile! Consider Samson. Raised up by the Lord in a mighty way, given giftings and strength, a true call on his life. With the same hand that he used to strike down 1,000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey he defied God's commands and dipped it into the carcass of a lion. He defiled the very body that God gave him! For what?? A bit of honey? He clutched an adulteress to his bosom and felt the scorching flames of judgment in his lap...you cannot take fire to your bosom and not get burned. The absence of the fear of God was his demise. He stood to his feet thinking that he would strike the Philistines as in times past but he did not know that the Spirit had departed! The absence of the fear of God had led Samson to the abuse of the Grace of God. All Samson had was licentiousness and presumption.

In the same token, the Bride of Christ, His Church, has played the harlot with the world, we have abused God's Grace, we have taken His grace as a license to sin. Then, when the enemy comes we wonder why there is now power to defeat him, and have our eyes put out and are taken to grind in Satan's dungeon. Samson became Ichabod! Does the Church know if it has become Ichabod? Would we even sense the departing of the Spirit in our meetings? Or would we go to Church and worship "as at other times" and even know that the Spirit was not present and had departed?

The last verse in the book of Judges says it all:

"In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes."

This is what happens to a people who do not fear God! Everyone does what is right is his own eyes! The dethroning of Christ in the Christian is caused through the absence of the Fear of God.

It is vital that we know and understand this truth. I believe that the Lord wishes to bring about a reformation in the Fear of God, but we must be equipped to be able to share these truths in love with those who will reject it.

When the Grace of God is taught without the Fear of God it leads to licentiousness.

When the Grace of God is taught with the Fear of God it leads to Holiness.

Israel was decimated during the time of the Judges due to the absence of the Fear of God and the Abuse of His Grace. It’s no coincidence that the Fear of God is preached from Genesis to Revelation, but it is not found in the book of Judges! There was no Fear of God before their eyes!

Is the Fear of God hostile towards the New Covenant?

The Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld Him, the only begotten of the Father, full of Grace and Truth. What did the dear Savior, who is the very essence of Grace, say about Fearing God?

Luke 12:5
But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear Him who, after He has killed, has power to cast into hell; yes, I say to you, fear Him!

Jesus clears up any confusion about the Fear of God in this one teaching. He reinforces and reiterates everything that was said about the Fear of God in the Old Testament.

As Jesus was instituting the New Covenant at Passover, He was bringing to pass the promises from Jeremiah and Ezekiel. Observe this portion of the New Covenant sealed by His blood:

Jeremiah 32:39
Then I will give them one heart and one way, that they may fear Me forever, for the good of them and their children after them.

Jeremiah 32:40
And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from doing them good; but I will put My fear in their hearts so that they will not depart from Me.

In the New Covenant, God promises to put His Fear into our hearts...that we might not depart from Him! With His lovingkindness He draws us, and it's His kindness, yes, that leads us to repentance...but brothers and sisters...how are we kept in His presence? What holds us in His Grace and keeps His people from backsliding and departing....it is the Fear of God! "SO THAT YOU WILL NOT DEPART FROM ME."

Why have we seen such a gross departure of the Church from God? Thy maker is our Husband, and yet we have played the harlot with the World! It is because of the abuse of Grace and the absence of the Fear of God! Why do Pastors shy away from addressing Sin, Hell, God's Wrath, and Judgment? It’s because of the absence of the Fear of God. Why do Christians find themselves in the same wilderness period as the children of Israel in the time of the Judges...it's the absence of the Fear of God! Why has the Church lost its savor and saltiness and blended in many ways with the heathen of the land....we have lost the Fear of God!

What is the solution?

When a person is cold, and weak he visits the doctor to find out the cause of these ailing symptoms. "You're anemic" explains the doctor. "You have poor circulation, and there is a loss of iron in your blood. You need a concentrated does of iron immediately." It wouldn't do to merely adapt a small amount of iron into daily living, but the entire body needs a healthy dose of iron injected into the veins to shock the system and set right what is lacking. Is it any different in the Body of Christ? Have we become Anemic? Are we cold? Poorly circulating the Gospel? Poorly Circulated in our Fellowship? Poorly circulating the blood of Jesus in this Christ-rejecting world? What is needed? May the Holy Spirit inject a concentrated does of the Fear of God into the vein of the Church. That we would have fresh revelation of the Holiness, Glory and Majesty of God. Only a God-Fearing Church will be able to withstand the shaking that is to come.

"See that you do not refuse Him who speaks. For if they did not escape who refused Him who spoke on earth, much more shall we not escape if we turn away from Him who speaks from heaven, whose voice then shook the earth; but now He has promised, saying, “Yet once more I shake not only the earth, but also heaven.” Now this, “Yet once more,” indicates the removal of those things that are being shaken, as of things that are made, that the things which cannot be shaken may remain."

Does the Fear of God conflict with Grace?

“Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

Dear saints, it is the grace of God and the fear of God coupled together that allows us to serve Him acceptably. Grace of God without godly fear leads to unacceptable licentiousness. It is godly fear that moved Noah to build the ark, and Noah found grace in the eyes of the Lord.

May the King of the Kingdom, the one who shakes heaven and earth shake us to the core, loosening any false understandings that we have about Fearing Him. May he consume in the fire of His Holiness His Bride, making her a God Fearing Church, once again.

Acts 9:31
Then the churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified. And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Lord, please begin a reformation this weekend in what it truly means to fear You! Restore Your people to a place of reverence and absolute surrender to You. Teach us what it means to walk in the Fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Holy Spirit as the early Church did.

Anoint your servants this weekend and speak a Word to us straight from Your throne. Revive us O Lord, in the midst of the years!

Break up the fallow ground in our hearts and let the seed of your Word penetrate to the rich soil beneath! Give us ears to hear, Father!

Psalm 34:9
Oh, fear the LORD, you His saints! There is no want to those who fear Him.

"Does the Fear of God conflict with Grace?"

This is a very needed thread for discussion because many Christians see the Fear of God and the grace of God as being in conflict with one another.

If we are being established in the true grace of God, then we will not see it as a way to pursue our own selfish desires and still make it to heaven, but the grace and mercy of God will cause us to want to give ourselves wholly to the Lord by presenting our bodies as a living sacrifice unto Him.

"For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared to all men,teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly, in this present world." (Titus 2:11,12).

"What shall we say then? Shall we continue in sin, that grace may abound? God forbid. How shall we, that are dead to sin, live any longer therein?" (Romans 6:1,2).

AMEN!!!!!!