Monday, March 7, 2011

Got Questions: “What does it mean to have the fear of God?”

What are your thoughts on this week’s QOTW?

– http://www.gotquestions.org/questweek.html –

 

“What does it mean to have the fear of God?”



15 Comments »

  1. Comment by Robert

    I guess it means awe and respect (perhaps in the same way as a student might fear a principal/headmaster). It doesn’t obviously mean fear like we’d fear a wild animal or a natural disaster.

  2. Comment by R

    The fear of hurting God, by our sin.

  3. Comment by Dolores

    I read your article and as always I enjoy the messages as the come and for the most part I feel that I am having a personal relationship with God over the computer which is a really great thing. I just wanted to add to todays message as an after thought that the bible also says that God reproves and disciplines those he loves why else would he take the time to discipline us but for the only reason that he loves us and wants us to live.

  4. Comment by Michael James Stone

    For me this was a good questions:
    “What does it mean to have the fear of God?”

    I grew up with absolutely no religious teaching or training. I had not been in a church. I did not know about God. I had no thoughts about the subject one way or another because I wasn’t interested and frankly no one was interested in me, or so I thought.

    If you had asked me about Hellfire and Brimstone I wouldn’t have had a clue what you were talking about.

    I got saved in the Jesus Movement by love. Everyone around me was glowing and loving and I wanted what they had. I didn’t know what sin or salvation was and while Greg Laurie is polished now, back then it was more like: If you want what we got COME ON DOWN!!

    WOO HOO I CAME ON DOWN,..and yes I had a very emotional religious miraculous salvation everyone wanted and few got, but for me I still had questions.

    You see, when I got saved I had Jesus down, I understood the Father, I know all bout the Spirit but I hadn’t a clue about this thing called the “Fear of the Lord”

    So dummy me like I had done since I got saved, I asked God about it.

    Now maybe for you that is prayer, but for me we were in some pretty tight communication in my early days and ALOT kept happening which i would later be required to talk and write about.

    SO I was laying on my couch looking up and thinking about God and talking: “Father” I said, ‘why do people fear you?”

    Time stopped. Breathing stopped. I didn’t move. I could see the cieling swirl into a mass of clouds. Like cumulous nimbus or like on TV the Old Greatest Heroes of the Bible when they Swirled a cloud mass and God spoke.

    This was indoors. This was above me. This I could not move from. This I could not Speak. This I could breathe. This I watched.

    No thought, no voice, no movement, no fear per se, but I knew what Awe was before I could say I was IN AWE now as I was “likened unto dead man” without movement, breathe or “you name it.”

    An hour went by. Later I knew that. I could not move think or do but simply exist and while I had no fear the way we are afraid, I knew I was in the presence of God Almighty more than my Father and Lord Jesus and I could only exist.

    Looking back, it was awesome. I knew later it was for me to “know” that “Fear of the Lord” and what it actually is though it will be manifested by others in different ways.

    God, in His presence, is a Awe and if I may “selah” in creation of the dimensional reality of what who and How he is and the worst we have to describe is called the Fear of the Lord and the best we can say as just is to have bee there and seen that, like Paul said, It is Sin to describe, for nothing can.

    (For those who doubt, No offense, since i am the one who experienced it, it doesn’t matter, I can only say What I saw; Heard and experienced, and until you been there; you just don’t know).

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  6. Comment by Debbie

    I get my understanding about this topic from ISA 11:2; “And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD” (ISA 11:2) These three Hebrew couplets speak of the seven spirts to the seven churches in the Book of the REV. I apologize for the lengthy discourse on the one leg of the one couplet, “THE FEAR OF THE LORD.”

    “The Fear of the Lord” (YIRAH JEHOVAH) (YIRAH) comes from a root word meaning a feeling of dread. (DEUT 2:25; GEN 3:10; 32:11; PSALM 119:120) The fear this torch represents is a fear of the LORD. This is a fear of God’s Holiness and power and produces a reverential awe of Him. (JOB 37:22-24; PSALM 33:8) The best way to describe this is a respect for God’s uncompromising holiness as the basis in all His dealings with mankind. (JONAH 1:10-16; EXODUS 14:31) Man is awed by anything that dwarfs his/her power. Fear of the Lord is awe for His sovereign power. (PSALM 8:1-4; ECCL 12:13) Stand in reverential awe of God. In order to avoid undermining this awe, keep His commandments. You can then fulfill your role as a priest of God, as an ambassador of God and as a soldier of God. (DEUT 10:12)
    a. One of the consequences of the fear of the Lord is that it keeps one from doing things that are evil. (EX 20:18-19; PROV 16:6; JOB 1:1)
    b. The fear of the Lord is the basis of all wisdom. (PSALM 111:10; PROV 15:13)
    c. The fear of God is the first principle of divine viewpoint knowledge. (PROV 1:7)
    d. The fear of the Lord is the source of personal happiness and prosperity. (PSALM 34:9:
    112:1-3; ECCL 8:12-13; PSALM 128:1-4; 34:9)
    e. The fear of the Lord extends one’s physical life. (DEUT 6:2; PROV 24:7; 19:23; 10:27; PSALM 33:18-19)
    f. The fear of the Lord provides access to divine help in time of need. (PSALM 145:19)
    g. The fear of the Lord is the mark of one in whom God takes pleasure. (PSALM 147:7)
    h. The fear of the Lord prevents the economic abuse of others. (LEV 25:14-17, 35-43; NEH 5:1-5)
    i. People who do not fear God cannot be trusted. (GEN 20:11)
    j. Those who fear God do not turn away from Him and His Word. (JER 32:39-40)
    k. Those who govern men in the fear of the Lord, rule in righteousness and are a source of refreshment and blessing. (2SAM 23:3-4)
    l. The early New Testament Christians were characterized by a Spirit of the Fear of the LORD. (ACTS 9:31)
    m. God is to be feared because He has power over one’s physical life and eternal destinay as well (LUKE 12:4-5)
    n. The fear of the LORD is developed through the learning of Bible doctrine truth. (DEUT 31:9-13)
    o. The fear of the LORD will preserve a person from idolatry (JOSH 24:14-15)
    p. The fear of the Lord preserves a nation from military conquest (2KINGS 17:39)
    q. The fear of the Lord secures infinite mercy for those who fall into sin. (PSALM 103:8, 12-18)
    r. Believers should seek close friendships only with those who fear the Lord. (PSALM 119:63)
    s. Those who are placed in positions of civil authority, are to be those only who fear the Lord (EX 18:21)
    t. The fear of the Lord prevents a heartless abuse of the physically handicapped. (LEV 19:14)
    u. The fear of the Lord preserves a respect for the aged. (LEV 19:32)
    v. God’s great desire for His children is that they would so fear Him that they would obey His commandments. (DEUT 5:29)
    w. Failure to fear the Lord leads to disobedience of His commandments and results in chastening of physical illness. (DEUT 28:58-61)
    MARANATHA

  7. Comment by John A. Lee

    GQ answer is correct – See my acroymn on FEAR at leewordcodes.com Father Expects Awe Respect – JAL

  8. Comment by ceseeley

    All;

    Being open to and not resisting the Sanctification Process … where it leads one Biblically, Spiritually, Psychologically, Emotionally, Physiologically … etc.!!!

  9. Comment by Phil Dennis

    To Michael Stone…..I believe your story, and thank you for sharing it. A lot of people seem to be having a serious connection with the celestial realm lately and I find it takes great courage to speak of it openly, again thank you…..Fear of God…I agree in part with what was posted but I fall away when it begins to accept one word for the meaning of another (fear =s some other word) changing the structure of the question, my view only…it IS a valid question and the answer to it one I have sought for some time, for me it goes like this. God IS my Father, He has created all of this for the all of us, I trust Him, I believe in Him, who else would you trust to have judge your life lived? I see all the creation of this world and think on what we as people do to one another, and If I was to fear anything about God it would be for me to face Him and the question to be asked to me…What did YOU do to help? I would fear that if my answer was a blank stare…yeah THAT would be the fear of God to me……

  10. Comment by Edith Jane

    I fear God with respect. I’m afraid to commit sins. I’m afraid to hurt Him by falling asleep during my night prayer. I’m afraid to lie, even if it’s “just a white-lie”. I’m totally in love with Christ Jesus that I want to please Him with EVERYTHING I do… and I fear not pleasing Him. That’s a good fear, it keeps me straight.

  11. Comment by Mimi

    Michael James Stone, wow! Amazing story! I have had some unique experiences myself, much different, but unique. Thank you for sharing.

    Debbie! Oustanding Scripture and the work you put into your post is amazing thank you for blessing all of us.

    Ceseeley, So true, HI Big Brother. Red Oak Tree.

  12. Comment by Mimi

    Hahahaha!!!! I forgot to write what I came here for…………
    So let me try again….“What does it mean to have the fear of God?” I like what Robert said that “it means awe and respect” & what R. said makes sense “The fear of hurting God, by our sin.”…I also feel that fearing the LORD keeps us safe and desiring to do good rather than evil. IT gives us a healthy balance to our lives.

    Proverbs 9:10 (King James Version)

    10The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.

  13. Comment by Mimi

    Revelation Song – Live Worship
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GzPTYHyXY-g

  14. Comment by alvin

    I have to confess that i never have experienced a ‘pillar of smoke and fire filling the temple experience’. And though i am a christian as Job was, i have not testified ‘now my eye sees You’ like Job 42:5, so perhaps i have not really reached the position of self awareness that is in verse 6 “therefore i abhor and repent in dust and ashes”. I know that it is not only an old testament experience because of verses like revelation 15:8 “and the temple was filled with smoke from the glory of God and from his power; and no human was able to enter into the temple until the seven plagues of the seven angels were fulfilled.”
    The QOTW mentioned Hebrews 12:29 “our God is a consuming fire” which is experienced by unbelievers at the great white throne judgement, and by believers as the burning away of sin. many who have been used of God have testified of being exposed to their own sinfulness, and the burning removal through an experience of divine presence purity and power during their earthly life, like Isaiah. Others have claimed it falsely like Jobs comforter Eliphaz the Temanite in Job 4:15-17 “a spirit passed before my face; the hair of my flesh stood up: it stood still. i could not discern the form of it. an image was before my eyes, silence… i heard a voice, ‘shall mortal man be more pure than his maker?’ ”
    and i am puzzling through the 3 verses in hebrews about ‘through the veil’. 6:19 we have the truthfulness of God as an anchor to the soul both sure and steadfast, and which enters into that within the veil where the forerunner entered, Jesus the eternal priest. and 9:3 about entering beyond the second veil into the holiest of holies with 9:12 as Jesus entered in once, obtaining eternal redemption. and 10:19-25 boldly entering into the holiest by the blood of Jesus, the new and living way that he consecrated for us(in the gospels, the veil of the temple tore from the top to bottom when Jesus died). and with this high priest drawing near with a true heart in full assurance of faith with hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and bodies washed with pure water,and holding fast in v23-25.
    I accept and believe the simplicity of salvation, but wonder if i fully understand what is going on here.
    Deb, thank you for your list on the fear of God.

  15. Comment by Mimi

    Revelation Song
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=brreo8QlkEE

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