According to His new covenant, God promises to give us a new heart ad one way to fear Him all our days; furthermore, the fear of the Lord and the love of the Lord are two wonderful results of our being forgiven of our sins.
The fear of Jehovah, the fear of the Lord, is a great topic in the book of Proverbs, and in the New Testament, it is also mentioned here and there.
In Prov. 1:7 it says that the fear of Jehovah is the beginning of knowledge; for us to have the knowledge of God’s economy, that is, for us to have subjective knowledge of Christ, we need to fear the Lord.
To fear the Lord doesn’t mean that we need to be afraid of Him; the fear of the Lord is something very positive, and it results from our abiding in the Lord and remaining in the organic union with Him.
When we love the Lord, enjoy the Lord, and abide in Him, we spontaneously consider Him and regard Him in everything, depending on Him for everything we do and say.
The wonderful God who created all things also created us, and He created us, formed us, and made us for one purpose: for His glory.
Wow, we were made in the image and likeness of God to become the expression of God, the corporate glorious manifestation of God! How awesome is this!
This means that we need to enjoy the Lord with all His riches so that we may be constituted and filled with Him, and we will become the fullness of Christ. Amen!
Fearing the Lord stops us from doing evil; fearing the Lord also causes us to be touched by the sufferings of others and to show mercy and compassion to them.
When we realize how much the Lord has forgiven us, how much He loves us, and how much compassion He has on us, we cannot but love Him and fear Him, and at the same time, we show mercy and compassion to others also.
For us to fear the Lord is not only for us to flee sins and stay away from them, but also, to reject the self.
For us to fear the Lord is for us to fear that what we are doing is out of ourselves, not of the Lord.
So we come to the Lord, again and again, we enjoy Him, we contact Him, we call on His name, and we seek to be one with Him, for we fear offending Him by doing things apart from Him.
Whatever we do apart from the Lord amounts to nothing; as we see in 2 Cor. 4:5, we want to have a work that withstands the judgment of fire, for we love the Lord and we want to do everything in oneness with Him, being filled with the fear of the Lord.
In His New Covenant, God Promised to give us One Heart and One Way to Fear Him all the Days
We may know the new covenant and we may love the fact that God promises to give us a new heart and a new spirit to seek after Him and to receive Him.
But in the same new covenant, God promises us to give us one heart and one way to fear Him all the days (Jer. 32:39).
He promises to give us one heart to love God and seek God, to live God and be constituted with God for His expression.
God promises to give us one way, which is the Triune God Himself as the inner law of life with its divine capacity (John 14:6; Rom. 8:2).
He gives us one heart to love Him and seek Him; if we feel that we don’t have a heart to seek Him, we should simply come to Him and ask Him to give us a new heart, and He will renew our heart.
He gives us also a new way, which is Himself as the one way; He comes into us as the inner law of life for us to enjoy God and know God inwardly.
How wonderful it is that God doesn’t expect us to do this and that for Him but rather, in His new covenant
He promises to give us one heart and one way to fear Him all our days!
He gives us one heart and one way for us to fear Him all the days, for our own good and for the good of our children after us.
And He makes an eternal covenant with us that He will not turn away so that He may do good to us; furthermore, He puts His fear into our hearts so that we may not turn away from Him (Jer. 32:40).
How wonderful! First, He promises that He will not turn away from us but rather, He will do good to us; then, He puts His fear into our hearts so that we don’t turn away from Him. This is so glorious!
We just need to open to Him, receive Him, and accept the new covenant, claim it, and allow the Lord to give us one heart and one way so that we may fear Him all our days. Amen!
This one heart and one way are the one accord (Acts 1:14; 2:46; 4:24; Rom. 15:6); God promises to give us the one accord, which is us being in one heart and one way, taking Him as our everything.
Divisions result from having a heart for something other than Christ and taking a way other than Christ.
May we be focused on Christ and Christ alone, enjoying Him as everything, and exercising our new heart to love Him and our new spirit to receive Him.
May we seek to enjoy Christ in all the aspects of His all-inclusiveness by paying the price to forget the things which are behind and pursue Christ to gain Him (Phil. 3:8-14).
Thank the Lord, God made an eternal covenant with us, which is the new covenant; by this covenant, God will not turn away from us, and He puts His fear into our hearts so that we do not turn away from Him.
He puts His fear into our hearts by dispensing Himself into our hearts as the Spirit of the fear of God, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord; then, we can’t turn away from Him.
When we fear God, we are instructed by God concerning the way that we should choose, and we are able to know God’s intimate counsel and His covenant.
He puts His fear into our hearts by dispensing Himself as the Spirit of the fear of the Lord into us, and we have the fear of the Lord; the result is that we have a revelation of His covenant, and He gives us His intimate counsel, for we fear Him (Psa. 25:12, 14).
Thank You, Lord for Your promise to give us one heart and one way to fear God all our days, for our own good and for the good of our children after us! Amen, Lord, we open to You: dispense Yourself as the Spirit of the fear of the Lord into us so that we would not turn away from You. We exercise our new heart to love You, seek You, live You, and be constituted with You to be Your expression. We turn to You, dear Lord, and we take You as our unique way, walking according to the inner law of life with its divine capacity. Amen, Lord Jesus, keep us in the fear of the Lord all the days of our life so that we may know God’s intimate counsel and His covenant. Grant us to have God’s revelation of His covenant and give us Your intimate counsel, for we fear You!
The Fear of the Lord and the Love of the Lord are two Wonderful Results of being Forgiven by the Lord
With God, there is forgiveness, that He would be feared (Psa. 130:4); when we experience the forgiveness from the Lord, we fear Him and we walk in the fear of the Lord.
When people hear that we can simply come to the Lord and ask for forgiveness for our sins, and He forgives us, they think that God’s forgiveness will cause man to become audacious and reckless, for you can simply sin and then ask for forgiveness.
But this is not true, for the grace of God’s forgiveness brings man into the fear of the Lord.
If we really receive God’s forgiveness, we will spontaneously fear Him and love Him; we will not be reckless and sin even more, thinking He will forgive us when we ask for forgiveness.
Our experience testifies to this, for the more we are forgiven by God, the more we fear Him and the more we love Him; being forgiven by the Lord issues in the fear of the Lord.
Being forgiven by the Lord doesn’t make us audacious or reckless; it will make us fear Him, trust in Him, honor Him, and regard Him in everything, having a reverential awe for Him in everything.
Thank the Lord, the grace of God’s forgiveness causes us to fear God and also love God!
In Luke 7:39-50, we have the story of the sinful woman who was forgiven much by the Lord; she sinned much, but the Lord forgave her, so she poured out her love over the Lord.
He who is forgiven little, loves little, but he who is forgiven much, loves much.
Thank the Lord, we are those who are forgiven much, so we love the Lord very much, and we are in the fear of the Lord in our daily living!
As we taste the grace of God’s forgiveness, we have the fear of God and the love of God.
Once we have tasted the grace of God’s forgiveness, we immediately have a fearful heart and we also hate sin.
When we come to the Lord to confess our sins, we are exposed by His light, we confess under His shining, and we receive the grace of His forgiveness; the result is that we fear God and we love God.
The more the Lord forgives us, the more we fear the Lord; the more we fear Him, the more we love Him.
On the negative side, because we fear the Lord, we refrain from doing things that are displeasing to Him, for we do not want to offend Him.
On the positive side, because we love the Lord, we do things that are pleasing to Him, for we love to have His smile, His loving presence.
The law condemns us but cannot free us from sin; grace forgives us and frees us from sin, for grace is God Himself in Christ to be our enjoyment to do everything in us and for us.
The reason the sinful woman loved the Lord much was that she was forgiven much by the Lord.
The reason we love the Lord and we fear the Lord is that we have been forgiven much by Him.
When we see the greatness of His forgiveness toward us, we love Him and we also fear Him; on one hand, we love Him and want to please Him, and on the other, we stay away from anything that displeases Him.
With Him, there is forgiveness that He may be feared and loved.
Thank You Lord for forgiving us of our sins whenever we come to confess under Your light. Thank You we can taste the grace of Your forgiveness and thus fear You and love You. Hallelujah, we are forgiven by the Lord for our many sins and trespasses, and therefore we love Him so much! Oh Lord, with You there is forgiveness, that You would be feared; we thank You for Your forgiveness, and we fear You, not wanting to do things that displease You. We love You, Lord, and we want to please You, doing all things in the organic union with You. We fear You, Lord, and we do not want to do things that displease You. Our heart is fearful and loving toward You because we have tasted the grace of Your forgiveness!
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, Truth Lessons – Level One, vol. 3, lsn. 36 (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:
– Thou art my Savior, strength and stay, / O Lord, I come to seek Thy face; / Though I’m the weakest of the weak, / My strength is nothing but Thy grace. (Hymns #578)
– I will also give you / A new heart, and a new spirit / I’ll put within you, / put within you; / And I will take away the heart, / The heart of stone out of your flesh, / And I will give you a heart of flesh. (Scripture song)
– ’Twas grace that taught my heart to fear, / And grace my fears relieved; / How precious did that grace appear / The hour I first believed! (Hymns #313)
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