A very popular
speaker and author of several Christian books with topics timely for today has
written a book to address what it means to fear the Lord, and he also talks
about holiness for every Christian. The
two must go together, holiness and the fear of God. One of the things we
must be very careful of, when it comes to understanding holiness and the fear
of God, is that we don't get into our own works to try and bring things
about. It is not about being religious,
it is about recognizing who God is, and how we are to respond to Him.
In thinking
about how to live a holy life, in addition to looking at many Scriptures, and
what I had already been taught, and what has been revealed through God's Word,
I had to look back on my own life in order to begin to understand what it means
to me to live a holy life and fear God.
So I will begin with sharing my own experience with fearing God.
I confess that I
was once a backslidden Christian, and I was filled with a fear of God, not a
holy reverential fear, but a terror of the Lord for how He was going to punish
me for living a life NOT according to His Word.
This fear came to a head when I suffered with a nervous breakdown. Part of that terror was real because I was in
a head-on collision, and I became unconscious.
During that time, I entered into another realm, and I knew I was dying
unless the Lord spare me and let me wake up.
During those terrifying moments (maybe 20 minutes?), my life flashed
before me, and I felt my life slipping away.
I had absolutely no idea that I was even saved at that point, and I KNEW
BEYOND A SHADOW OF A DOUBT THAT HELL IS REAL, and I was on my way there unless
God would intervene. Dear friends, please DO NOT let anyone
persuade you that hell is not a real place, because it is. We need to warn people.
2Co 5:10 For we must all appear before the judgment seat
of Christ; that every one may receive the things done in his body, according to
that he hath done, whether it be good or bad.
2Co 5:11a Knowing therefore the terror of the Lord, we
persuade men;
It is
interesting that this car accident did nothing to change my heart, but added a
great deal of nervous fear
and anxiety in general. And so I continued living my backslidden
lifestyle. All that time, deep down in
my heart, I wanted out,
but sin had not yet finished its course in my life, and I had to experience it
in full before it finally died, and I got to live again, to live a brand new
life in Jesus. So you can be in the
midst of living a sinful life, you can pray for release from your sin which has
you under its bondage, but until it (sin) has run its course, God knows you will
not be ready to give Him your all. If we
read Romans 7, the Apostle Paul explains how sin reigns and rules in our
fleshly body until Jesus delivers us from it.
It wasn't until
a few years later, after the accident, that I came face to face with the
reverential fear of God, and for the first time ever in my life, I understood a
Holy God, and I understood what holiness means.
He brought me to a place where I could finally let the sin go, and
instead, love Him with
all my heart, soul, strength and mind. I
understood holiness while I stood in His sweet and powerful presence, and I
repented of all my sin, and He took it all away instantaneously. I was washed clean, and then filled with a
love that I can't explain to this day!
The terror type
of fear of God was gone, and
in its place a reverential AWE OF GOD to think that He would love me like that
filled my being! This is how I
understand the fear of God --
a Holy God forgave a sinner like me, and He will remember my sins no more. HOLINESS AND THE FEAR OF GOD IS THE
RECOGNITION OF A PERFECT GOD LOVING UNDESERVED SINNERS LIKE US! It is realizing what He did for us, suffering and dying for us on a cruel
cross and BECOMING OUR SIN for us, so that we would escape eternal punishment
and separation from Him. He wiped our
black slate clean. What a wonderful
Savior!
That is the reverential
fear of God – it is when we respond to the awesomeness of God with singleness of
heart, and we are in awe of Him. From such
an experience, we willingly and gladly submit our heart and life to Him on a
daily basis. The fear of God is to realize
who we are in light of who He is, that we are unworthy to be the recipients of
such an unconditional love.
To try and live
a holy life apart from repentance of our own sin is IMPOSSIBLE. No one knows their own heart, only God
does. David lived with unconfessed sin
for two years before he repented of it, and David was considered a friend of
God. How could this happen? Well, sin hardens our hearts and sears our
consciences, so we will continue living a sinful life until God deals with
us. God used a prophet Nathan to remind
David of his unconfessed sin. When it
was revealed to David, he cried out one of the most beautiful prayers of
repentance ever recorded in the Bible:
Psa 51:2 Wash me throughly from mine iniquity, and
cleanse me from my sin.
Psa 51:3 For I acknowledge my transgressions: and my sin
is ever before me.
Psa 51:7 Purge me with hyssop, and I shall be clean:
wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow.
Psa 51:10 Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a
right spirit within me.
Please stay
tuned for Part 2.
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