Monthly Archives: March 2014

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The fear of The Lord


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

Proverbs 2:5 Then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.

Proverbs 8:13 The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverse mouth I hate.

Proverbs 9:10 “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.

Proverbs 10:27 The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened.

Proverbs 14:26 In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge.

Proverbs 14:27 The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death.

Proverbs 16:6 In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil.

Proverbs 19:23 The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction; he will not be visited with evil.

Proverbs 22:4 By humility and the fear of the Lord are riches and honor and life.

I don’t know about you but I want all the things that come from fearing The Lord.

So what is it to fear The Lord?

I looked up all those scriptures in the Amplified Version and found that in almost every instance, it was restated as “the reverent and worshipful” fear of The Lord. Then I went to my Hebrew and English lexicon to look up the Strong’s concordance number (3374) associated with these instances of “fear” and found 4 definitions for the Hebrew word yirah. 1)Fear, terror, great fear. 2)A terror=object of terror. 3)Fear of God, reverence, piety. 4)The fear of Yahweh=the law as revered. The word that I keep seeing over and over is some form of revere so I looked it up in Webster’s dictionary. (Revere, reverence, venerate, worship, adore-To honor and admire profoundly and respectfully. Revere stresses deference and tenderness of feeling. Reverence presupposes an intrinsic merit and inviolability in the one honored and a similar depth of feeling in the one honoring)

Is it possible to love and fear someone/something at the same time?

Frankly, I was having a hard time with this question so I spent some time in prayer about it. The Lord reminded me how important fire and electricity are to our civilization. He asked me if I feared them. I answered I do and I don’t. I am also not exposed to them directly. There are always safety measures in place whenever I come in close contact with them. However, if I was exposed to the raw and potentially all consuming power of these two forces with no buffer I imagine that I would be very afraid. Right then it all clicked for me, my loving Father was showing me that He unselfishly sent my buffer, my safety measure, my intercessor, my savior, Jesus to me. Hebrews 7:25 Therefore He is also able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him, since He always lives to make intercession for them.

Was this only relevant in the Old Testament or does it still apply?

Everything that is in the bible is truth. When Jesus was praying for us He said John 17:17 Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth. The Lord didn’t make a mistake when He had the authors of the bible, through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, write down every word that is in there. 2 Timothy 3:16 All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, Our God didn’t change during the 400 years between the old and new testaments. Malachi 3:6 “For I am the Lord, I do not change; therefore you are not consumed, O sons of Jacob.
As you probably know, the Old Testament was written primarily in Hebrew, while the New Testament was written in Greek and Aramaic. Therefore, I couldn’t search the Hebrew word yirah (Strong’s concordance reference #3374) in the New Testament. However, I found a very similar Greek word eulabeia (Strong’s concordance reference #2124) which means reverence, piety, fear of God. It is only used once in the New Testament. Hebrews 12:28-29 Therefore, since we are receiving a kingdom which cannot be shaken, let us have grace, by which we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear. For our God is a consuming fire.

I know I have given a lot of information in this blog but I feel like I have only scratched the surface of the topic. I think the bottom line is our God is mighty and powerful beyond our ability to comprehend. He is also loving, caring and concerned with every aspect of our lives. He created us for intimate relationship with Him. He gave us His Word so we could learn about His nature and character and grow in love with Him. We could spend every moment of the rest of our lives delving into His Word and still there would be Truths revealed.

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Fact vs. Truth


Matthew 7:24-27 “Therefore whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall, for it was founded on the rock. “But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall.”

Three times in Matthew chapter 4 Jesus says to satan “it is written” proving that the bible is the key to all truth and is to be used, by us, to walk in the authority and dominion given back to us by Jesus through His death and resurrection. No matter what you are going through. No matter how hopeless, hurtful, or desperate it may seem we have everything we need to combat every situation. How do I know this, because Jesus said so in John 14:12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father. There we have it…every power and ability Jesus had we have. You might say I don’t feel like I have power over anything. So now you are faced with a choice…Are you going to believe your feelings or the Truth of Gods Word?
I think the way that we appropriate the power is in what we believe and the words we speak as a result. Luke 6:45 A good man out of the good treasure of his heart brings forth good; and an evil man out of the evil treasure of his heart brings forth evil. For out of the abundance of the heart his mouth speaks.
Do you believe the bible is true? The whole bible? Do you believe it is relevant for today? Do you believe Jesus would tell us one thing and do another?

To illustrate I will show you an example of fact vs. truth.

Fact: The doctor has spoken a negative diagnosis over you. He has tested you and proven that you have a disease.

Truth: Matthew 8:17 that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by Isaiah the prophet, saying:“He Himself took our infirmities and bore our sicknesses.” Psalm 107:20 He sent His word and healed them, and delivered them from their destructions.

So now you have a choice. You can believe and proclaim what the doctor has said or believe and proclaim Gods Word. The same applies to other situations in your life you just have to find the scripture that addresses your situation, read it, believe it is Truth, get it down into your heart and speak it. Speak it every time your situation comes to your mind. Every time you are tempted to worry and fret speak the scripture instead. It is also very important that you not waver and get into unbelief even for a second. Matthew 17:20 So Jesus said to them, “Because of your unbelief; for assuredly, I say to you, if you have faith as a mustard seed, you will say to this mountain, ‘Move from here to there,’ and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you.” In my opinion this is the hardest part because satan is going to combat your faith with doubt, worry, and unbelief. He will try to plant seeds like “this doesn’t work” or “Jesus has better things to worry about than your problems” or “you don’t deserve it” or “your doing it wrong”. But you will combat his efforts with IT IS WRITTEN!!! Just like Jesus did. Jesus loves you so much! John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly. His will is for us to have a great life, not to just get by but to be blessed to the full, in every area of our lives. He has given us everything that we need for that to be a reality but we have to reach out and take it. He isn’t going to force it on us. Let’s do His sayings and be wise.