I've been thinking alot about the fear of the Lord lately and have been wondering how to obtain it. I don't mean to sound foolish it is just that I can't ever remeber trembling before Him and Paul tells us to work out our own salvation with fear and trembling. Htrembled before Has anyone of you trembled before Him?
timg: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It is absolutely vital if we are to be useful in the kingdom of God and if we are to remain steadfast to the end that we understand and have the fear of the Lord. It is a reverential awe. It is a recognition of God's holiness and majesty. It is a bowing of our heart in submission to the one who created us and will be our judge. I am not sure what you mean by trembling. Paul trembled before God as a lost man who encountered the God who he had claimed to know but had been warring against. It was a trembling in fear (of being afraid) of wrath and judgment. As born again believers we do not stand before God in fear (being afraid) but rather in confidence. However we do so with reverence and awe at who He is and what He has done for us. We do not take Him for granted nor do we consider it a light thing when He speaks to us. He is God!
fear and trembling has allways been an experance scinc a year befor i was baptises in the spirit in my opinion
somtimes when i reconisediv sinned ,as a conviction
and other times as a sweet power of the spirits love as it manfests in my soul ,,by body reacts with trembling
but more so now ,as just a trembling of the botom lip as the reality of god strikes me ,through his gift of faith ,that he deals to every man in a mesure accoring to his good pleasure
i would think praying is a good way to get closer to his presence ,,along with bible study .,,,,,and powerfull sermons ,along the lines of paul washer ,,should cause a weeping and trembling ,and a joy
concencly dening your life ,,and a giving your self as an offering to god ,and works of mercy ,and distributing gosple tracts ,and videos , combine thoses things,and add to it expectation of his manfest blessing
he who comes to god must believe he is and that he is a rewarder of them that seek him
and you will tremble at his presence ..in my opiniion
i take it verry literal when the bible talks about fear and trembling
take it literaly ....brother dont enterpret away the scripture ,,,belive in the power of his spirit ,,,his word and believe both are absultly supanatural
and brother never resist holy tears when they come upon you
blessed is the one who ways is to cry
for hidden with in the way is to fly
Dear timg,
As to your question, "should we pray for the fear of God", Yes I believe. We read that "The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom" and also, "If anyone lacks wisdom, let him ask God". Now I'm not sure if we can co-relate these two verses, but then, fear of God is a GOOD THING! So why shouldn't we pray for it?
Fear of God is not just an OT thing - Jesus Himself told us not to fear man who can destroy the body alone but fear God who has the power to destroy both the body and soul and throw us in hell.
Some of the consequences of Fear of God:
1. Take His word seriously and follow it and not be casual about His commandments
2. Hate sin & not yield to temptations
3. Not take God's name in vain
4. Depart from evil
5. not deceive ourselves or fool around - God sees everything and knows our heart's intents and motives. God will not be mocked.
6. dread God's other side (the wrath side) and so not want to have anything to do with that side of God
7. be careful with every word we speak and at times just keep our mouth shut
8. Remind us that ultimately it is not man whom we are dealing with but God Himself - so rather be wronged by man than offend God.
9. See and accept the complete truth - and not be one sided.
10. Be cautious even in neutral matters
11. Not be men-pleasers
12. Reminds us that vengence belongs to God! Oh yeah! (whether it is on us or on the other party)
13. Reminds us that when God is against us, no one can be for us
14. Reminds us that God measures us by the same standards we measure others when we judge others.
Fear of God puts things in the right context, in the right light. Eg. We may have a lot of Bible knowledge, but instead of quoting Scriptures correctly/appropriately, we may misquote them to our advantage (like Satan did). Fear of God will take away all that pride and cock-suredness.
In addition to the love of God, fear of God will help us not to stray from the narrow way.
And as our friends have said, it makes us literally fear and tremble to think of His awesomeness and power.
Your sister in Christ,
Angelin
Fear of the Lord is the fear that our actions will hurt our loving father. To have such a fear one should first realize truly that God loves him/her. Pray that you will get a revelation about God's love for you. Pray that the eyes of your heart will be open to see the amazing love that he is showing you everyday. Fear will automatically follow.
The fear in which I am talking of is the scared in your boots fear. Trembling in terror if you will. The word fear in 2Corinthians 5,and Philipians 2 is the same word for terror in the greek, not respect and honor.
Could it be that if we understand or "know this terror we will better understand His mercy and love?
Has it been your experience Sree, fear comes after He reveals His love? Or do you think maybe God deals diffrently with each individual. I guess I could pray that He will do whatever it takes so that I may understand His love more deeply.
Thank you Angelin, For you thoughtful answer. I am encourage by it to seek the fear of God all the more.
What a wonderful God we serve! May we all grow in our likeness to Christ as we seek to understand and know Him better.
Tim
Thankyou Brother Gary,
I have been asking for the baptism of His spirit in my own life. After reading your testimony I am encouraged to seek it all the more.
I am so greatful to be part of a family that spreads the globe. Blessed be the name of jesus.
Quoting timg "pray that He will do whatever it takes..."
Wow! That's the thing brother... we want to gain Christ whatever the price may be.
Has it been your experience Sree, fear comes after He reveals His love?
Yes, this is my short testimony. I was born in India and was a Hindu till I was 26. I came to US and also came to know Christians. I saw them different from the worldly people I know and hence understood that Jesus was their secret. I read the 4 Gospels and soon accepted Jesus as my Savior. I thought I will be able to love Jesus as he wants me to love. To love Jesus means to walk in his light all the time and to keep his commands. I thought I can do it but I failed badly for year and half. Every time I fail I used to repent and start fresh, just to fail again. One night when I was alone in my room, I cried out to God saying this life that you are offering me is great but I cannot live it anymore. Please tell me whether there is really a Hope for me to be like Jesus, if not then I will leave you today and right now. I do not want to assume anything. I then turned my Bible and it opened to John 14:1. I heard Jesus talking to me that he has already reserved a place for me in his Kingdom. If there is no place he would have told me. This gave me so much confidence, I for the first time believed that God has truly called me to live this life. He is listening to me and he cares for me. I then started seeking his strength, the person in me who was listening to flesh died that day. I started listening to the spirit of Jesus (Holy Spirit) because I know he loves me and all I need to do is to listen to him. Fear came automatically that if I did not listen to him then I am grieving him. I was different and I am able to taste victory in Jesus. Now I am 29 years. If Jesus had not revealed to me that day about his amazing love then I won't be who I am now. Praise God.
Brother according to me both Love of our Father and fear of his judgment should be there in a believer. There needs to be a balance. Just by fear we cannot achieve Godliness and neither by love can we, because love alone can lead to licentiousness (Jude 1). Since you (sounded to me like you) were giving to much importance to fear I talked to you about love to bring a balance. If I find someone posting like "Father loves me so I can live however I want"- then I will talk about fear of his Judgment.
God will use all kinds of different things to cause people to "get it". For me it was understanding reconciliation. I'd heard that word my entire life but reading it in Romans one day I stopped to meditate on it a minute. I started thinking that to be reconciled you would have had to have known the person before. Since we're reconciled at salvation when have we known God? The only answer I could come up with was before the fall of man.
Upon salvation we are reconciled to a time before we even sinned. I began to remember the stories of the Old Testament when the Creator created our world, spoke with Adam, confused the language of people, parted the Red Sea and many other things. All of a sudden I was no longer praying to a god in heaven. I was praying to the Almighty God who was with me, listening and acting. A BIG God who chose to be merciful and patient with me.
That change in thinking shortened my prayers (why repeat myself over and over to God. He heard me the first time.), made me choose my prayers more carefully (I could see the frivolous nature of so many former prayers)and gave me a sense of awe when speaking to God. He is so much closer than we often realize.
I admit that I do have an inner shutter at times when praying. He's God and He's listening.
I am so encouraged by your testimonies and responses. Thankyour for taking the time to write and give God glory through your experiences.
Shree, I can relate to you when you said that you were so frustraited that you ready to give up. I have prayed very similar prayers, but have always come back to the realization that I can not quit my walk with Him no matter how frustrated I am with my inconsitent walk. Actually it is consistent. Up and down!
Outside of people on this website and the testimonies I have listened to here, there is no one that I know who is living a victorious christian life.
It seems that I am surrounded by people who are satisfied with living an up and down average christian walk, not because they want to, but becauase they think that is the only option.
I don't believe that to be true. I want to be able to speak from experience too.
Reading the verses and testimonies of my brothers and sisters in Christ is increasing my faith and assurance that the victorious walk is for all of us not just a few.
Please pray for me that I will "get it" too.
Humbily,
Your brother in Christ
It seems that I am surrounded by people who are satisfied with living an up and down average christian walk, not because they want to, but becauase they think that is the only option.
This is true, more than 90% of Christians are deceived and do not inherit the full promise of God because of their unbelief and self satisfactory nature. I don't know whether I can be called a victorious man either but I know I am called by God to be one and I will be one as long as my mind is set on the needs of SPIRIT.
The Spirit of God is working in us, we just need to workout with him (cooperate).
In Atlanta we (Atlanta CFC) is organizing a conference by Brother Zac Poonen on living a victorious life. You can see more info on http://www.atlantacfc.org. We will soon update on the webcast links. I believe it will help us both.
I just saw that Brother Zac is going to Atlanta. I will make every attempt to be there.
This discussion is locked.
