Fear of the Lord
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Then there are those Afraid of
God who run away from God. True fear
of the Lord is awe and respect, love and reverence, which
leads us closer to Him, and leaves us overwhelmed and full of Joy. When this fear sweeps over us, our faith
soars, and there is a deep desire to be with Him and to have fellowship. This
closeness and fellowship is the vehicle that transforms and brings us to be in
His likeness.
The other kind of fear of God is destructive and evil. It is the type
that we see in deliverance sessions where people are paranoid over God being
angry with them. It is seen in people who are afraid to get close to God and
develop their relationship with Him. Such fear drives us away from God instead
of to Him. It is the constant fear that if I fail in the flesh and break what I
and dogmatic religion teach God will send me into outer darkness and punish me
or dis-own me.
Scripture points out that; the
fear of the Lord leads to a long life,
In my years of experience I find that people that think God is angry with them, often have serious health
problems (both mental and physical) if the problem is not addressed. Many end
up in mental hospitals. Some years back we had a team ministering at our local
city hospital and after a few weeks we found that 30-35% of the patients were
born again Christians. As I researched this phenomenon I found that a direct
result of their spiritual bondage was simply lack of knowing God. Obviously the
wrong fear!
So how do you fear the Lord?
Maybe you should first check to see what kind of faith you have, this
will determine how often you go to God just to get close to Him and sit at His
feet. No I am not talking about praying to get but a time of fellowship where
you just listen to His heart.