Are You Afraid of God? |
Or do you have the Fear of the Lord? |
by David A. DePra |
| Many Christians are afraid of God. They obey God, and even |
| say they believe Him, because they are afraid of His "punishment." |
| They are afraid He will punish them by bringing bad things into |
| their life, or by taking things away from them. So they live "good" |
| lives to avoid this "punishment." |
| Despite the fact that being afraid of God is never the right |
| motive for obeying Him, Christian teaching has always served to |
| cement this error into the minds of most people. "Obey God or |
| go to hell for all eternity," has always been preached, one way |
| or another. It is so much a part of our religious mentality that to |
| suggest another motivation for obeying God sounds as if you are |
| removing all incentive for obedience. Afterall, who obeys God |
| simply out of love for Him? Sadly, very few of us. |
| The fact is, many people, if they were no longer afraid of God, |
| WOULD disobey Him. They would do as they please. But where |
| that is the case, the problem is not the removal of incentive for |
| obedience. The problem is that they may have never seen the |
| Truth to begin with. If the only reason I do what is right before |
| God is that I am afraid of what He will do to me if I don't, well, then |
| I'd better ask God to start exposing me for who I am. I have yet to |
| take the first steps in God's grace and love. |
| There is a "fear of God" which is commanded in the Bible, but |
| which has nothing to do with "being afraid of God." The proper |
| "fear of God" is reverence for Him. It means to ascribe to Him the |
| value He deserves -- which is infinite. Such a reverence of God |
| is the beginning of wisdom, because once I start treating God AS |
| God, it will filter down and affect my entire being. |
| The wrong kind of fear is when I am AFRAID of God. Or it is |
| when I am afraid of something else DESPITE saying I trust God. |
| And this wrong kind of fear is NEVER of the Holy Spirit. "God has |
| not given us the Spirit of fear, but of power, love, and of a sound |
| mind." (I Tim. 1:7) If God has not given us the spirit of fear, then it |
| means we can stop trying to figure out whether our fear is of God. |
| He has already told us it isn't. We need to simply believe Him. |
Standing by Faith |
| Now believing is the hard part, isn't it? Yep. That's because |
| within us are many damaged emotions which constantly LIE to |
| us. And since most of us have been thoroughly trained to listen to |
| our emotions, and to take what they are saying as the truth, we will |
| have a battle on our hands if we try to stop listening to them. We |
| will be faced, on the one hand, with powerful, persuasive emotions |
| which lie, and on the other, with the still, small voice of the Holy |
| Spirit. It is just so much easier to listen to the "louder," emotional |
| voice. |
| We must not. We must stand IN faith against the lies of our |
| emotions, intellect, and damaged perspective -- where these |
| contradict the Truth. And God will not do this FOR us. WE must |
| do it, by faith. WE must make that choice, and keep making it. |
Dealing With Fear |
| Fear is never of God. Ever. God never talks to us using fear. |
| Neither is there is anything in God which could incite fear in us. God |
| does that which is good for us. We need not fear His plan. |
| The way to deal with fear is the way we should deal with any lie: |
| Stop listening to it. Tune it out. Focus elsewhere. Treat it as a |
| bag of hot air which carries no weight at all. If we will do this, fear |
| isn't going to shut up altogether. No. The enemy will always try to |
| use it in our lives. But it will have less and less impact upon us. |
| We will less and less be moved by it, for we will know the |
| Truth. |
| It is the Truth which sets us free. That's because the Truth is |
| light. Light exposes all the lies for what they are, and then shows |
| us the reality to which they blinded us: Jesus Christ. |
| What this tells us is that the solution to fear is never to attack |
| and fight it. We cannot rid ourselves of fear by getting out a club |
| and beating it down. If we try this method, we will become more |
| focused on fear. And that's exactly what the enemy wants. |
| Fight fear by neglecting it. But not in a passive sense. Neglect |
| it by speaking the Truth in your heart. Tune out fear by tuning in |
| the Truth. Then the light will shine and expose everything for what |
| it is. |
Knowing the Truth |
| When we say we must "stand by faith" in the Truth, this must |
| not be taken as some abstract, impractical thing. There will be |
| many choices we must make in conjunction with this stand. But |
| the real stand is in the inner man. I must refuse to be moved from |
| my unconditional trust in God. I must stand in the Truth. |
| What if we don't know what the Truth is? What if we haven't |
| even reached the place where we know WHAT to stand in -- let |
| alone HOW to stand? Well, that's easy. You really aren't to stand |
| in truth as an idea or doctrine. You aren't to stand in a teaching or |
| concept. You are to stand in a PERSON! So if you don't know |
| what the truth is, as far as being able to articulate it, then stand in |
| GOD! Stand in the Person of Jesus! And refuse to be moved by |
| anything that would paint Him as less than perfectly faithful to you. |
| In time, if you'll stand, God will make you able to articulate these |
| things in an understandable way. |
| It might seem scary to stand in Jesus Christ by faith even if |
| don't know what He is doing. Or even if we can't see where He is. |
| But Jesus Christ knows where we are. And God knows what He is |
| doing. It will become a normal part of our spiritual walk with Jesus |
| to have to walk by this kind of faith. If we go on with God, we are |
| going to find that out. |
Afraid of God |
| As mentioned, one of the greatest problems Christians have in |
| their spiritual walk is that the are afraid of God. Why? And how do |
| we stop being afraid of Him? |
| The reason we are afraid of God is that we believe lies about |
| Him. ALL fear goes back to somewhere I have embraced a lie |
| about God. But the lies I've embraced do not have to be in the |
| form of doctrines or teachings. No. Spiritual lies are almost |
| always in the form of mental and emotional concepts. They are |
| almost always generated within me as a seemingly real |
| perception. I have this image of God, howbeit unspoken, which |
| terrifies me. I simply react that way; think about Him that way. |
| And it is unreasonable. I should know better, but I just can't seem |
| to help it. It affects my faith, my actions, and my peace and rest. |
| No matter how hard I try, I just can't seem to see God any other |
| way. |
| This is, of course, deception and bondage. It is something |
| born into us through Adam. It is not an intellectual or emotional |
| problem. It is a spiritual problem. It is a problem of nature. We |
| can expect little else until God begins to set us free. |
| The wrong kind of fear of God, the Bible says, has to do with |
| "torment" -- or as the Greek indicates -- "PUNISHMENT." (I |
| John 4:18) But in order to grasp the full meaning of what John is |
| saying, we have to read the entire passage. For in it is a contrast |
| which explains that meaning. |
| God is love, and he that dwells in love dwells in God, and God in |
| him. Herein is our love made perfect, that we may have boldness |
| in the day of judgment, because as He is, so are we in this world. |
| There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. Because |
| fear has torment (punishment). He that fears is not made perfect |
| in love. We love Him because He first loved us. (I John 4:16-19) |
| We are afraid of God, John says, if His love is not perfected in |
| us. And this fear has to do with "punishment." We will be afraid of |
| God because we will think that He is One who wants to punish us, |
| rather than save and redeem us. |
| In contrast, if God's love is "perfected" -- (Greek: matured) |
| -- in us, then we will have "boldness in the day of judgment." |
| Why? Because we will know God loves us and is NOT out to |
| punish us. God is always seeking His best for us, and always |
| working towards redemptive ends. |
| Thus, we see again WHY Christians have a wrong fear of God: |
| Rather than know He loves us, we see Him as a God who is out to |
| punish us. And so we are afraid of Him. |
The Gospel of Fear |
| The gospel which most of us have grown up with simply verifies |
| this wrong concept of God to us. Rather than a gospel of grace, |
| many of us have heard a "gospel of fear." We were told that, yes, |
| God so loved the world that He sent Jesus to die for us. But we |
| had better believe it or God is going to punish us by sending us to |
| hell! And then piled on top of that we were handed a list of rules |
| to obey under this same threat of punishment. All of this, right in |
| the middle of sermons and teachings about the grace and love of |
| God! |
| This "gospel" is, of course, not THE gospel. The real gospel of |
| Jesus Christ is not a threat of punishment if you don't receive |
| Christ. The real gospel tells us that we are ALREADY dead. So |
| Jesus came to offer us LIFE. He came to do everything for us that |
| we cannot do for ourselves. And yes, if we refuse it, God will |
| judge us. But He won't need to "add" some kind of punishment. |
| He will simply judge us worthy of our own choice to die. |
| The "gospel of fear" is one of the biggest lies which has ever |
| infiltrated the body of Christ. It gained public entrance once |
| church leadership sought to control those in the church for |
| financial gain, and out of a desire for power. They sought to |
| control by demanding obedience from people under threat of |
| God's punishment upon them. And it was easy to get people to |
| believe it, because, by nature, we are fearful creatures. |
| We see this in the garden after Adam sinned. The first reaction |
| Adam had after the sin was to run and hide. He said, "I was |
| afraid." And remember: Adam did not have anyone to hide from |
| but God! Thus we see that being afraid of God is fundamental to |
| the sin nature. It is fundamental to who we are in Adam. A |
| "gospel of fear" is therefore a gospel which fits right into our |
| nature, and is easily embraced as the Truth. |
A Spiritual Condition |
| But why was Adam afraid? Fear is the direct result of living in |
| independence from God. It is the result of being disconnected |
| from the only source of security, light, life, and sanity in existance. |
| I fear because I am alone; away from home. I am lost; without a |
| Father. There was nothing in the original design of God for man |
| that would enable us to live in such a condition. But Adam |
| decided to do it anyways. And fear was one of the results. |
| Fear is therefore a SPIRITUAL CONDITION. It is more than an |
| emotional state, or the result of intellect. Emotions and intellect |
| are merely the servants of spiritual fear. Fear is always rooted in |
| sin and death -- in what we are in Adam. And until we allow |
| God to bring us back to Himself, we will be bound to it in one way |
| or another. We will spend our lives compensating for our fear. We |
| will do all manner of things to try to cover our nakedness, just like |
| Adam tried to cover his. Many of them MAY be extremely |
| RELIGIOUS. |
| So how do we stop being afraid of God? We stop being afraid |
| of God by growing to KNOW Him. If fear is the result of embracing |
| lies about God, then the solution is to believe the Truth about Him. |
| Jesus said, "You shall know the Truth, and the Truth shall set you |
| free." |
| Can we possibly imagine a God we are not afraid of? Can we |
| possibly imagine believing and obeying God for no other reason |
| than love for Him? The fact that these are almost foreign concepts |
| to us shows us how far afield Christianity has gone. The NORM |
| should be that we are not afraid of God. The NORM should be |
| that we believe and obey Him out of love. But this is not the norm. |
| The norm is to be afraid of God, and to develope a religious |
| pattern we think will appease Him. |
Abandonment |
| God is not out to punish us! He is out to redeem us. Even |
| when He causes or allows what we perceive as "bad things" to |
| happen to us, He does so for redemptive purposes. He is |
| chastising us as a loving, Heavenly Father. |
| All of that being said, how do I grow to know God like that? If |
| the way fear is cast out is by love, then how to I grow to know God |
| loves me? |
| Our passage in I John tells us, "We love Him because He first |
| loved us." God takes the initiative upon Himself to reveal to us His |
| love. He does this by dealing with us through His grace. In the |
| process of time, we grow to experience the love of God. |
| Now make no question -- God does not force His love upon |
| us. There comes a point in each stage of spiritual growth where I |
| must choose to let go of the old and embrace the new. I must |
| dare to do so. But if God has brought me to such a place, I will be |
| able to do so. I will have what I need to make that choice. If I |
| make it, I'll find a greater freedom FROM the false knowledge of |
| God born into me through the old creation, and a greater freedom |
| TO the Truth in Jesus Christ. |
| It is not possible for me to think of God more highly than He is. |
| It is not possible for me to overestimate His love, faithfulness, or |
| involvement in my life. It is not possible to presume God loves me |
| more than He does. Therefore, I can afford to abandon myself to |
| Him -- totally and unconditionally. I can't go too far. |
For God So Loved |
| There is absolutely nothing in God to incite fear in us. Nothing. |
| Thus, fear is never of God. This Truth stands at the foundation of |
| the gospel of Jesus Christ: "For God so LOVED the world that He |
| gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believes in Him |
| should NOT perish, but have everlasting life. But God sent His |
| Son into the world, NOT to condemn the world, but that the world |
| through Him might be SAVED." (John 3:16-17) This passage |
| proves that God's motives towards us are always redemptive. |
| God is not out to punish us. He is out to save us. And He paid |
| the ultimate price to do so. |
| Am I afraid of God? Probably at least on some level. But as |
| God exposes these fears which are in us, we can rejoice. For He is |
| giving us the opportunity to face these lies head-on, and to stand |
| in Christ against them. If we will choose to do so, we shall grow |
| to see the Truth and realize the freedom in Christ it brings. * |