For us to fear God is for us to trust in God; we need to trust in God and not rely on our own understanding, for when we trust in Him, we are richly supplied with all that He is and we grow with the riches we enjoy of Him.
The matter of fearing God is found both in the Old and in the New Testament, but it is more emphasized in the Old Testament.
The Lord Jesus was a man who feared God; His fearing God was not Him being scared of God but rather His depending on God and taking God as His source.
In everything that He did, the Lord took the Father as the source; He didn’t do anything out of Himself, He didn’t have His own work, neither did He speak His own word.
The Lord Jesus did everything not by His will and He did not seek His own glory. Such a One has gone through the process of death and resurrection, and He became the life-giving Spirit to come into our spirit. Now He as the Spirit of reality is guiding us
into all the reality of what He is, into the reality of Himself, so that we may learn Christ as the reality is in Jesus.
Today we can read the Gospels and pray short prayers over what we read, allowing the Lord to breathe Himself into us and infuse us with His own element.
As we open to Him, He infuses us with Himself, and He as the Spirit will guide us into all the reality of Himself.
May we be those who eat the Lord as food in His Word, and may we bring the Lord as food to others to help them contact God and eat Him!
When others are depressed, we can’t just tell them to cheer up, neither should we legalistic with them; rather, we need to be Jesusly human with them, fearing the Lord and taking Him as our source in everything we do and say.
The Lord Jesus did the work of God, spoke the words of God, did the will of the Father, and He expressed the Father God in everything; such a One lives in us to repeat this same kind of life in us.
His life of submission to God and His obedience to the Father are in us, and He wants to guide us as the Spirit into all the reality of Himself.
May we just open to Him and let HIm do it, even ask Him to do it.
May we completely and absolutely open to the Lord and ask Him to fill us with the Spirit; this Spirit is the bountiful, all-inclusive, compound, sevenfold intensified Spirit, and in this Spirit, we have everything we need to live the Christian life and the church life.
If we ask the Father to fill us with the Spirit, which is the good things of God, He will do it; He will not give us something else but the Holy Spirit, for He is pleased to give Himself to us.
On one hand, the Spirit was given, but on the other hand, we need to ask the Lord to fill us with the Spirit; this Spirit is the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.
This is the way for us to fear the Lord, which is an inward matter expressed outwardly in our life of godliness for the manifestation of God in the flesh.
We Fear God by Trusting in God and thus Remain under His Divine Dispensing to Absorb His Riches and be One with God
For us to fear God is for us to trust in God; as Prov. 3:5 says we should trust in God with all our heart and not rely on our own understanding.
To fear God is to trust in God (see Prov. 3:5-8, 26; 16:1, 9, 20, 33; 19:21; 30:5-6). In all our ways, we should acknowledge Him, and He will make our paths straight.
We shouldn’t be wise in our heart but rather, we should fear the Lord and depart from evil, and this will be healing to our body and refreshment to our bones (Prov. 3:5-8).
The enemy may attack us that we fear this or that thing, to fear the COVID19 virus and other diseases out there, or to fear even crossing the street because a car may hit us.
Instead of listening to the enemy’s fearful speaking and accusations, we should simply trust in God; we should not fear the enemy but fear God by trusting in God.
When we trust in God, He will be our confidence, and He will keep our foot from beight caught.
We should take the word of God by means of all prayer, praying it back to God, realizing that every word of God is tried, and He is a shield to those who take refuge in Him (Prov. 3:26).
We shouldn’t add to His words, lest He reprove us and we be found a liar (30:5-6).
The man who trusts in God is blessed, for his trust is Jehovah; he can be likened to a tree transplanted beside water which sends out its roots by a stream (Jer. 17:7-8).
Such a man who trusts in God is not afraid when troubles and trials come, for he is richly supplied with the elements of God and he bears fruit even in the time of drought.
According to God’s economy, when we trust in God we are like a tree planted by water, that is, we take God as the fountain of living waters and drink of Him (Jer. 2:13).
We grow in life by absorbing the riches of God; as we trust in God, we remain under His divine dispensing, and we absorb Him as the living water (1 Cor. 3:6).
The riches of the supplying God dispensed into us as trees constitute us with God’s divinity and cause us to grow into God’s measure (Col. 2:19).
For us to fear God is for us to trust in Him; to trust in God is to receive the divine dispensing by absorbing Him as the living water.
Hallelujah, we have been rooted in Christ, and we can absorb His riches in and as the Spirit.
The more we remain under the divine dispensing, the more we trust in God, and the more we are constituted with God and grow with the growth of God.
In this way, we and God become one, having the same element, essence, constitution, and appearance (Rev. 4:3; 21:11).
May we be such ones; may we fear God by trusting in God and thus remain under His divine dispensing to absorb all His riches to be made one with Him.
He has already planted us in Himself; we have been rooted in Christ, and all we have to do is absorb His riches by opening to Him and praying over His word.
The more we turn the word of God into our prayer and pray back to God the promises of God in the Bible, the more we absorb the riches of God into our inner being, and the more we remain under the divine dispensing.
We are like trees planted by a stream of water, who send roots deep down in the stream to absorb the living water and grow with the growth of God.
How we love the Lord Jesus, the One who has become our life, our life supply, and our everything!
We love HIm and we trust in Him by absorbing the riches of Christ to grow in Christ and be one with Christ until we become the fullness of Christ, the church as the Body of Christ!
Lord Jesus, we love You and we trust in You. We do not rely on our own understanding. We acknowledge You in all our ways, for You make our paths straight. Save us from being wise in our own eyes; we fear God and depart from evil. Amen, Lord, make us those who fear God, those who trust in God. Lord, we trust in You and You are our trust. We send our roots deep down in You to absorb Your riches and to drink of You as the living water so that we may grow with the growth of God until we become the fullness of God. Hallelujah, we are like trees planted beside water – we have been put under the divine dispensing to drink the living water, absorb God, and be filled with the riches of God to be one with God, grow with God, and become the fullness of God! Amen, Lord, we trust in You by absorbing all the riches of Christ to become His fullness!
We Cleave to and Obey the Word of God, we trust in God, and we Exercise ourselves unto Godliness
Those who love God learn the fear of God by coming to the Lord in the Scriptures (Prov. 2:3-5; John 5:39-40).
As believers in Christ, we are commanded to cleave to and obey the Word of God as evidence of our fear of God (Deut. 6:2).
This expression “fear God” has been very much spoiled by the enemy throughout the ages to the extent that it has become something negative.
But as the Bible reveals it, to fear God is something very positive, for to fear God is to trust in God and to remain in and enjoy the word of God.
As believers in Christ, we love God and we learn the fear of God by coming to Him in the Scriptures.
We need to come to the word of God, cleave to the word of God, and obey the word of God as evidence of our fear of God.
We cleave to the word of God by coming to the word in the way of prayer; it is by our prayerful consideration and reading of the word of God that we cleave to the word of God and join ourselves to it.
We obey the word of God by saying Amen to His word and by taking Christ as our life of obedience.
It is not by our trying to fulfil the word in the Bible that we obey the word of God but by turning to the Lord, coming to Him as we come to His word.
The Lord warned us in John 5:39-40 that it is possible to come to the word of God without coming to Him, and thus we don’t get life; when we come to the word of God, we need to come to the Lord by praying and opening to Him.
It is good to pray short prayers before and during our reading of the word of God; we may tell the Lord, Lord, I come to You in your word. Speak to me. We should pray simple prayers to open ourselves to Him.
This will make a big difference, and it will cause us to open our inner being and cleave to His word.
In this way we trust in the Lord, not relying on our own understanding.
In the Old Testament, the matter of fearing God in the sense of revering Him is very much emphasized; God’s people in the Old Testament revered Him, but we as His New Testament people should have a godly living.
In the Old Testament, the people of God knew Him as the living God, but now we know Him as the God of resurrection.
With respect to the living God, man should have reverence, but with respect to the God of resurrection, man should express godliness.
To revere God is to deal with sin, the flesh, and the world in our living; to be godly is not only to deal with these negative things but also to be mingled with God to express God.
Having a godly living is expressing God in our living; when we cleave to the word of God and make it personal to us by praying it back to the Lord and being infused with Him, God has a way to express Himself through us.
We need to exercise ourselves unto godliness (1 Tim. 4:7); on one hand, we should revere God and not touch sin, the flesh, and the world, and on the other, we should be infused with Him to live Him and express Him.
We should not only revere God but also live a godly life by being infused with God, following God, and expressing God in our living.
When we follow God and live one with God, we will move when He moves, we will speak when He speaks, and we will express Him in everything.
This is to fear God by trusting in God in our daily living.
Lord Jesus, we come to You in Your word; speak to us in our reading and praying of the words in the Bible. We cleave to You word and we take You as our life of obedience to Your word. Amen, Lord, we want to be one with You and live in this oneness with You. We exercise ourselves unto godliness so that You may be expressed through us. We open to You, dear Lord, and we want to deal with anything of the self, the sin, the flesh, and the world. Even more, we come to You to be mingled with You and be one with You so that You live in us and we live in You! We want to follow You and express You in our living. Keep us in the organic union with You. Amen, Lord, we trust in You, we revere You, and we want to have a godly living to express You!
References and Hymns on this Topic
- Sources of inspiration: the Word of God, my enjoyment in the ministry, the message by Ed Marks for this week, and portions from, Life-study of Proverbs, msgs. 3, 5 (by Witness Lee), as quoted in the Holy Word for Morning Revival on, Crystallization-study of Job, Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes (2020 winter training), week 11, The Intrinsic Significance of Fearing the Lord in the Economy of God.
- Hymns on this topic:
– Now be wise, O be instructed, / All ye rulers of the earth, / Fear the Lord, rejoice with trembling, / Serve the only One of worth. / Kiss the Son, lest He be angry / And ye perish in the way. / “All who trust in Him are blessed,” / All who trust in Him will say. (Hymns #1094)
– Then trust in God through all thy days; / Fear not, for He doth hold thy hand; / Though dark thy way, still sing and praise, / Sometime, sometime, we’ll understand. (Hymns #715)
– God with man completely blended, / Mystery of godliness. / God in glory, full, resplendent, / Man, His dwelling, doth express. / ’Tis a vessel universal / All God’s fulness to express. (Hymns #1211)
About aGodMan
