The Fear of the Lord and Clarity of Vision
Introduction
I am a by nature a low-key reserved person who avoids the melodramatic, but some intense things have been happening indicating a major shift in the heavenly places above our city. Praying in the middle of the night recently during a recent thunderstorm, I felt constrained to get out of bed and, uncharacteristically, kneel at its end. Reflecting on what to pray, I appealed for an intensification of the fear of the Lord in my heart (Ps 86:11); immediately there was a massive and noisy cloudburst overhead. Several days later at a World Prayer Assembly (WPA) meeting a leader shared this text from Samuel, “Now therefore stand still and see this great thing that the LORD will do before your eyes.”, yet he failed to give its context: “Is it not wheat harvest today? I will call upon the Lord, that he may send thunder and rain. And you shall know and see that your wickedness is great, which you have done in the sight of the Lord, in asking for yourselves a king.” 18 So Samuel called upon the Lord, and the Lord sent thunder and rain that day, and all the people greatly feared the Lord and Samuel.” (1 Sam 12:16-18). The message from God’s Spirit is that things must not continue as normal. A few minutes later in the WPA gathering I was constrained, against the flow of excitement in the meeting, to fall to the ground earnestly beseeching the Lord to pour out his fear on the Church (Acts 9:31), for revival without reformation leads to the failure of God’s people to mature and births an explosion of cults amongst a deceived populace (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Burned-over_district.). This calls forth a prophetic teaching from the Bible for our current dire need of godly fear.
The Unbelief of Abraham
The first use of “prophet” in Scripture is accompanied by the first applied use of the term for the “Philistines”, the ancient enemies of Israel, (Gen 21:32-33). “Give Abraham his wife back. He is a prophet. He will pray for you, and you will not die. But if you do not give Sarah back, you will die. And all your family will surely die.”” (Gen 20:7). Abraham is identified as a prophet-intercessor who has sinned in not acknowledging Sarah as his wife before the king of the Philistines; his explanation for his deception is profound. ““I did it because I thought, ‘There is no fear of God at all in this place, and they will kill me because of my wife.’” (Gen 20:11). Though graced with a unique fatherly covenant call (Gen 12:1-3), Abraham was still indwelt with an uncrucified ego. The spiritual reality proved opposite to his fleshly fears, for when God warned the king in a dream, and by the infertility of his wives (Gen 20:4, 7), not to harm Abraham, the Philistines were “very much afraid” of the Lord (Gen 20:8). The church today in whom all hold “the testimony of Jesus, the Spirit of prophecy” (Rev 19:10), is called to believe that a visitation from the Lord can create a holy fear of God revealed in the gospel. Even amidst an easy-going unbelieving generation like that in Perth, “this (exorcism) became known to all the residents of Ephesus, both Jews and Greeks. And fear fell upon them all, and the name of the Lord Jesus was extolled.” (Acts 19:17). God can gift sinners with his fear!
The Unbelief of Moses
In the region of “Kadesh” (from the Hebrew root קדש “holy”), God commanded Moses to speak to the rock in the presence of rebellious Israel. When he struck it with his staff, a symbol of divine authority (Ex 4:17), the Lord punished this prophet-leader (Deut 18:15) by denying him entry into the Promised Land, ““Because you did not believe in me, to uphold me as holy in the eyes of the people of Israel, therefore you shall not bring this assembly into the land that I have given them.”” (Num 20:12). Moses failed because he did not trust that “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” (Prov 9:10). God did reveal his holiness at Kadesh both by refusing to get angry with the chronically complaining Israelites, and by denying Moses’ entry into the Holy Land. This is a warning recorded for a generation like ours (1 Cor 10:6), whose sole hope for a godly obedient fear is to turn to the substitutionary sufferings of Jesus for us all.
The One True Fear
Only the fear of Jesus promised the Church (Eph 5:21) can reveal what the fear of God really and truly is. This perfect fear that that brings “cleansing from every defilement of body and spirit, bringing holiness to completion in the fear of God” (2 Cor 7:1) is fear of separation from the presence of the Lord revealed in Christ as a beloved intimate “Abba!” and “Holy Father” (Mark 14:36; John 17:11). This real prospect of separation was sheer trauma to the Son of God. This explains why the language of Christ’s experience in Gethsemane is maximally intense, “(he) began to be greatly distressed (ἐκθαμβεῖσθαι “shuddering horror/terrified surprise”) and troubled (ἀδημονεῖν “inescapable anguish”). 34 And he said to them, “My soul is very sorrowful (Περίλυπός “stretched to the limit”), even to death. Remain here and watch.” 35 And going a little farther, he fell on the ground (in panic Mark 5:22) and prayed that, if it were possible, the hour might pass from him. (Mark 14:33-36). This perfect clarity of vision is the fear of God the Father offered to us.
Conclusion
No one naturally desires the fear of the Lord, because unlike the other fruit of the Spirit (love, joy, peace etc. Gal 5:22-24) it is not a pleasant experience. As only times of great distress have moved me to the ground embracing the lowest place in my union with Christ (Eph 4:9), so only a similar visitation can constrain the Church to accept her posture of godly fear. In such great lowliness and humility such a mature fruit will be shared with the holy ones of God; as the prophet of holiness paradoxically testifies of Messiah, “his delight shall be in the fear of the LORD.” (Isa 11:3). The call of Father, Son and Spirit that is descending upon the Church of Perth to pray is a call not to ordinary but to extraordinary prayer. It is a call to the unashamed prophet intercession that separates the old from the new covenant. Jesus rightly spoke of his own age, ““A prophet is not without honour except in his hometown and in his own household.”” (Matt 13:47cf. Gal 4:4). Yet after the cleansing work of his death-and-resurrection and the gift of his Spirit from glory (John 7:37-39; Acts 2:33; Rom 6:4) genuine prophets are revered in the Early Church (Acts 11:27-28; 13:1; 15:32; 21:10; 1 Cor 12:28ff; Eph 3:5; 4:11). As those filled by the Spirit of Jesus, all believers can hear and speak the prophetic word about him as Son of God (Acts 2:4; 1 Cor 14:31), especially when these words are inspired within the realm of intercession (Rom 8:26-27).
Currently we are in danger that after a genuine move of God, “the last state be worse than the first” (Matt 12:43-45). The first revival we need is revival of the fear of the Lord. Only a foolish and ignorant person would deny this, for “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is insight.” (Prov 9:10). In Jesus’ name I urge you to seek the prophetic clarity of vision that only the fear of the Lord can give.