FEAR OF THE LORD LEADS TO OBEDIENCE

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This message is for ministers/pastors/leaders:

To build Christians that will stand strong and stay the course, leaders will need to not only to teach sound doctrine, but even more importantly, be a godly example and live a sanctified life of fidelity to the truth, thus helping to mature the saints. Ministers and especially pastors/shepherds will, like leaders in the Book of Acts, need to share their lives with their flock, and therefore, teach more by their life example perhaps than anything else.

In Jesus’ parable (Matt. 7:24-27) He uses a storm, signifying the pressures, hardships and trials of life, as well as the persecutions we will suffer for the gospel, as a measuring gauge for how solid our foundation is. And what is our foundation based upon? Jesus taught us that it is based upon doing His sayings. Obedience is the issue. “”Not everyone who says to Me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ shall enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven” (Matt. 7:21). Obedience, not lip service, is what God requires.

Have you ever thought about what gives us the strength and fuel to obey God? Why are some people obedient and some are not? Why are some doers of the Word and some are not? Why do some people stay faithful to God and remain true while others do not? Why do some start this Christian race but never finish? What is it that causes us to endure to the end (Matt. 24:13)?

I would like to suggest that it is the fear of the Lord. Obedience to the Lord is not only proof of your love for Him (John 14:21), but also of your fear of Him. There’s been an emphasis on love, although we’ve fallen short of the full counsel of God in that area, too, but there has not been nearly as much of an emphasis on the fear of the Lord. It takes both of them to produce a strong constitution in your Christian life. Notice in the following two different translations how the love of obedience in Jesus was rooted in the fear of the Lord. They are identical. Or a better way to say it would be that the manifestation of the fear of the Lord is obedience to His Word and His commandments.

“And his delight shall be in the fear of the Lord.” Isaiah 11:3 ESV

“He will delight in obeying the Lord.” Isaiah 11:3 NLT

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge; fools despise wisdom and instruction. Proverbs 1:7

By wisdom a house is built, and by understanding it is established; Proverbs 24:3

If we build our lives and homes on the true wisdom and knowledge of God that comes from the foundation of the fear of the Lord, we need not fear the storm, because we will stand.

Paul’s Great Desire

One of the apostle Paul’s greatest burdens was this very thing: that the people He ministered to would stand firm in their faith and remain obedient to God even in the midst of the troubles and persecutions of his day. Other New Testament writers shared the same burden.

Paul’s great desire was that the people he taught would not falter under pressure, lest his work be useless or his labour be in vain. Notice his great concern for the Thessalonian saints (1 Thess. 3:1-9). He had warned them of the troubles that would soon come. In his farewell speech to the Ephesian elders, he warned them of the same troubles (Acts 20:25-31). To the Galatians and the Hebrews he did the same, warning them not to turn back to the Law. He was preparing them for the storm and the persecution they would receive from preaching the cross and paying the price to follow Jesus. Warnings are such a large part of the Scriptural admonition that Paul and the other New Testament writers gave to the churches. Today there is a glaring absence of these warnings in our preaching.

Here are some more scripture warnings: Matthew 7:15, 10:17, 24:4-5, 24:11-13, 24:24; Mark 12:38-40; Luke 12:1, 15; Acts 20:29-31; 1 Corinthians 6:9, 10:12, 11:3; Galatians 6:7; Ephesians 5:6, Philippians 3:2, 18; Colossians 1:28, 2:8; 1 Timothy 4:16; Hebrews 2:1-3, 4:1; 2 Peter 1:10, 3:17.

Fellow minister and preacher, how well are you preparing yourself and your people for the storm? Are you teaching them the whole counsel of God or catering to itching ears? Are you including the warnings in your preaching? Are you preaching on only the goodness and mercy of God, or do you also preach on His severity, wrath and judgments? Are you only preaching on the love of God, or do you place emphasis on His holiness too? Do you ever preach on sin and repentance? Are your concepts of the love of God and the grace of God accurate and in accordance with Scripture?

If not, then Paul warns, we may be guilty of the blood of men: “Therefore I testify to you this day that I am innocent of the blood of all men. For I did not keep from declaring to you the whole counsel of God. …. Therefore watch, remembering that for three years night and day I did not cease to warn everyone with tears” (Acts 20:26-27, 31).

Make sure you are preparing yourselves and those whom God has entrusted to you for the storm. Oh, how much stronger our churches would be if we included these things in our preaching and teaching and living them out before the people!

extracted from message by Bert M. Farias, revivalist and founder of Holy Fire Ministries, 

Can We Handle the Severity of God?

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Paul wrote that we must “behold then the kindness and severity of God” (see Romans 11:22)

God is all powerful

One of the biggest sources of spiritual delusion and false doctrine in the church today is the lack of the fear of the Lord. He is an awesome God not to be trifled with. Psalm 111:10 and Proverbs 9:10 tells us that“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” Proverbs 1:7 says that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge.” So the fear of the Lord is the foundation of both wisdom and knowledge.

A foundation holds up an entire building. If you remove it, everything built upon it collapses. So it is with foundational doctrines like the fear of the Lord.

And when I saw Him, I fell at His feet as dead. But He laid His right hand on me, saying to me, “Do not be afraid; I am the First and the Last” Revelation 1:17 (NKJV). 

At the time John received this revelation, he was the only one of the twelve still alive. Therefore, he had walked with the Lord Jesus more than any other apostle. The most intimate of the apostles with Jesus, John would lean his head up against the Lord’s breast as they reclined for their last meal together. Even with this remarkable history, when John saw the Lord in His glory, he fell at His feet like a dead man!

Bearing in mind our body is the temple of the Holy Spirit. He is the third person of the Trinity. Every time we engage in gossip, tell white lies, embellish a story to make us look good, the Holy Spirit is grieved and we certainly quench His work in our lives. Don’t forget the story of Ananias and Sapphira when they lied to the Holy Spirit. Acts 5:1-11

God is our loving Heavenly Father, but we also need to keep in mind that He is an awesome Almighty God. Those who only see His kindness are at least half deceived. Those who only see His severity are also at least half deceived. It takes knowing and walking in the tension of both that keeps us on the path of life.

Creation is FOUNDATIONAL to knowledge of GOD

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Prof Bernard Brandstater

So says, medical pioneer Professor Bernard Brandstater. He is in his eighties and still doing part-time operating theatre work at Loma Linda University, California. He has many firsts in his distinguished medical career. He introduced prolonged intubation to assist infant breathing. This landmark technology spread rapidly. It triggered the quick appearance of neonatal intensive care units around the world.

“God made us”, says Professor Brandstater. “That’s His identity: the Creator, the sovereign Lord of the Universe. God as Creator is foundational to our understanding of anything”. According to Professor Brandstater, a Creation that deserves a central place in our worldview cannot include a long process that is abhorrent to us with millions of years of pain, suffering and death. The process of Creation must fit the character and purposes of God who does all things well, who is generous and merciful and delights in beauty. This is the God we can trust, seek to know and love. The Creation is clearly described in God’s Word as a brief time-limited event with a clean ending on Day Six and a celebration the following day. Moreover God tells us why he made the universe in six days, it is a pattern for mankind, six days we will work and rest the seventh day and it’s significant we still have a seven-day week. Dare we add a drawn out process that distorts this picture. Sadly most people do, adding long ages of evolutionary time. As Darwin’s Theory of Evolution does not make sense under the scrutiny of the latest scientific findings so why should we bow to such conjectures? God’s mode of creating tells us about His mind, His heart. In the Bible there is no indication of a long incubation. “He spoke and it was done.” Psalm 33:9. Evil and death certainly exist in the world today but they came later, not as part of God’s original Creation. They were a tragic result of the FALL; mankind’s disobedience. For the full article by Don Batten on Professor Bernard Brandsater, Medical Pioneer: Creation Foundational go to http://www.creation.com