The Fear of the Lord

Daily Devotional

The Fear of the Lord

What is the purpose of bringing people to the saving knowledge of Jesus as their Lord? Is it just to get people into the kingdom of heaven for all eternity? Does accepting Jesus as your personal savior guarantee you a place in heaven? What if a person continues not to be changed and even becomes a preacher and teacher of the Gospel? Does that allow the person into heaven? In Romans God says he will have mercy on whom he will have mercy but in First Peter it says about those teaching the gospel who have not been changed,

2Pe 2:1 But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them—bringing swift destruction on themselves.
2Pe 2:2 Many will follow their shameful ways and will bring the way of truth into disrepute.
2Pe 2:3 In their greed these teachers will exploit you with stories they have made up. Their condemnation has long been hanging over them, and their destruction has not been sleeping.
2Pe 2:4 For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but sent them to hell, putting them into gloomy dungeons to be held for judgment;

2Pe 2:10 This is especially true of those who follow the corrupt desire of the sinful nature and despise authority. Bold and arrogant, these men are not afraid to slander celestial beings;
2Pe 2:11 yet even angels, although they are stronger and more powerful, do not bring slanderous accusations against such beings in the presence of the Lord.
2Pe 2:12 But these men blaspheme in matters they do not understand. They are like brute beasts, creatures of instinct, born only to be caught and destroyed, and like beasts they too will perish.
2Pe 2:13 They will be paid back with harm for the harm they have done. Their idea of pleasure is to carouse in broad daylight. They are blots and blemishes, reveling in their pleasures while they feast with you.
2Pe 2:14 With eyes full of adultery, they never stop sinning; they seduce the unstable; they are experts in greed—an accursed brood!
2Pe 2:15 They have left the straight way and wandered off to follow the way of Balaam son of Beor, who loved the wages of wickedness.

2Pe 2:17 These men are springs without water and mists driven by a storm. Blackest darkness is reserved for them.
2Pe 2:18 For they mouth empty, boastful words and, by appealing to the lustful desires of sinful human nature, they entice people who are just escaping from those who live in error.
2Pe 2:19 They promise them freedom, while they themselves are slaves of depravity—for a man is a slave to whatever has mastered him.
2Pe 2:20 If they have escaped the corruption of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and are again entangled in it and overcome, they are worse off at the end than they were at the beginning.

So, what is the purpose of bringing people to acknowledge Jesus is Lord?
Jas 2:19 You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.

Now this may seem very harsh but is God’s only purpose to save sinners to an eternal state of sinfulness? Because of what Jesus did on the cross that we as Christians can sin all we want and proclaim that sinners will be eternally separated from God in the outer darkness and the Lake of Fire while we ourselves are as bad or worse than 99% of the population, but will we go to heaven because we acknowledge Jesus as dying on the cross? Yet, God saves the righteous, does he not. and he forgives our sins does he not? And the mercy of God to forgive our sins is so awesome and the price that Jesus paid to secure our salvation was so great, but are we saved by this mercy, or are we saved by grace?
Mercy cleanses us so we can approach God without being destroyed. Grace allows us to love him and others. Mercy wipes away past wrongs; grace gives us the ability to give gifts to others. Mercy is for cleansing of the past and grace is the ability to live righteous in the present, so we can be rewarded in the future.

I don’t know about you, but I have walked under the discipline of the Lord many times during my years as a Christian. This has not been easy, but it has been good. I have been searching and searching for what is the way of the Lord. At times I have gotten self focused and the Law and the word is an easy way to justify what I wanted to do, but walking by the Spirit is not. With the word I have been able to argue my point with man, but when the Spirit says, ‘Do this,’ or ‘Don’t do that,” it is hard to argue with God. Though I have tried, God knows it has been futile. For, God knows how to get my attention. The disciple of the Lord is a wonderful aspect of God. If I am resisting God he disciplines me to get me to change and this can be very difficult, I tend to be strong willed. But, when I am walking in the Spirit the discipline of the Lord comes to train and teach me. The discipline of the Lord comes to all his children, but how it affects us is depending on what we are made out of at that time. The discipline of the Lord is a consuming fire. If I am made of rotten wood it burns me up, but if I am made of silver, the consuming fire of the Lord is used to shape my life into a beautiful piece of jewelry, but that consuming fire also tends to burn up the problems I am facing also. This is an aspect of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord leads a person to resist sin; sin being how we treat each other and God with our lack of love. So, if you are facing troubles don’t always blame it on the devil. You actually might be calling God, the devil. Why I say this is because in James and Romans tell us that suffering can be from God.

Jas 1:2 Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds,
Jas 1:3 because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance.
Jas 1:4 Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.

Ro 5:3 Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance;
Ro 5:4 perseverance, character; and character, hope.
Ro 5:5 And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us.

Trails, testings, and sufferings are all good events that God uses to train us.
What would you think if you were going through a very hard time; you ask someone to pray for you and they started off with, “O’ God continue the fire of testing that you have my sister going through, let your disciplining hand continue on her, but give her the strength to endure and rejoice in the work that you are doing.” Would you ever ask for them to pray for you again? This shows that our minds are on the will of man and not the will of God.

When we call for judgment to come upon somebody else, a person, a group, or a nation, the problem is that we are the conduit (because we are the one praying) of the flow of that judgment, so that means the judging of the spirit of judgment flows through our lives first. Let say we call for judgment on our church because they are not giving to the poor, the spirit of judgment starts first with the house of God, which is us, and flows out from there. So, that spirit of judgment begins to put us in the situation that they are in, and then the spirit judges us accordingly. For at what even point you judge another you will be judge
Mt 7:1 “Do not judge, or you too will be judged.
Mt 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.

Ro 2:1 You, therefore, have no excuse, you who pass judgment on someone else, for at whatever point you judge the other, you are condemning yourself, because you who pass judgment do the same things.
Ro 2:2 Now we know that God’s judgment against those who do such things is based on truth.
Ro 2:3 So when you, a mere man, pass judgment on them and yet do the same things, do you think you will escape God’s judgment?

If we take a look at anybody else’s sin we see that sin comes down to a lack of love for others. So, at any point we judge others, we are just condemning ourselves. When we judge, we set into action spiritual dynamics of spirits of judgment that not only affect them but also affect us.
This is a huge aspect of the fear of the Lord. And I think it is pretty cool of the Lord. If we are who are kings and have authority in the spiritual realm and call for the spirits of judgment to come, those spirits of judgment are impartial; they judge all that is about them. If you call for judgment on San Francisco for their sexual perversity, and you are at home watching porn, then do you think you will escape God’s judgment? This is why Jesus said, why do you look at the speck in your brothers eye when there is a log in your own?

Mt 7:2 For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.
Mt 7:3 “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye?
Mt 7:4 How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye?

This aspect of looking at others faults is related to judgment. This is one aspect of the fear of the Lord.
So, is it our fault that we have so many Christians in the United States that don’t go to church? Is it because we have told them, ‘Just accept Jesus and you will go to heaven,’ yet we haven’t told them about spiritual realities that they have and do enact in their lives that brings judgments upon them?

Mt 18:33 Shouldn’t you have had mercy on your fellow servant just as I had on you?’
Mt 18:34 In anger his master turned him over to the jailers (added: the tormenters, in King James Version) to be tortured, until he should pay back all he owed.

We enact these spiritual principles and then we wonder what is going on in our lives, our churches, and our nation. But, according to James 2:13 ‘judgment without mercy will be shown to anyone who has not been merciful. Mercy triumphs over judgment!’

Therefore, if we want to release ourselves from the judgments that are on our lives and we plead for mercy, we need to forgive and call on the spirit of mercy to flow through us to others, so that just as the spirit of judgment marks our lives, now the seal of the spirit of mercy will be stamped on our lives. So, does this mean we are not to judge, well - yes and no. For Paul tells us that we are to judge those inside the church

1Co 5:12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside?

But, this is a fearful thing, it should be done in the spirit of mercy and in cleanliness of washed and sanctified eyes that have had the sticks gruelingly pulled and surgically removed from our eyes.

Therefore, let us remember what it is like to have logs removed from our eyes and let us fear the Lord, who is the Great Physician, before we try to attempt surgery on the eyes of our brothers, with our blind eyes and dirty hands.

All Scripture were taken from:
The Holy Bible, New International Version

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