The word fear appears in the New King James Version of The Bible, 455 times. In my research and opinion the word is used in the following categories.
1. Fear of God
2. Fear of God’s judgement
3. Primal fear of flight or fight
4. Fear of a situation or circumstance
5. Fear of authority
6. Fear of failure or unplanned result
7. Fear sent by God on your enemies – Deuteronomy 11:22
8. Irrational fears – Job 3:24
Let us look the first fear, the Fear of God: We will see that the bible talks about the fear of God as the departing from evil, Proverbs 8:12 The Bible talks about the fear of God bringing blessing, life, peace, length of days, safety to your children, as a process of wisdom, as a deflection of evil and the list goes on.
The definition of fear, in the modern world is limited to only the fear of impending danger. But the wisdom of God teaches us to discern and understand there are more important events impending in our lives. God is watching, keeping record. This is a good thing, because when we fear God He is keeping track and His grace and protections and promises are extended to us. I am glad God keeps an account, He does it out of love. He is rooting for me to succeed, He is not waiting to strike me down at the first wrong turn.
So its my understanding that the fear of God is not fear at all, but the Love for God. We need to love God and His commandments and stay away from evil. How do we do that? Well here is what I have been working on, Giving my mind to Christ. Here is the basis, 2 Corinthians 4-6, “For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal but mighty in God for pulling down strongholds, 5 casting down arguments and every high thing that exalts itself against the knowledge of God, bringing every thought into captivity to the obedience of Christ, 6 and being ready to punish all disobedience when your obedience is fulfilled.”
The strongholds are our thinking, what we think we can and cannot do. Our mindset, paradigm, our cultural upbringing call it what you will. The Lord says they are to be cast down or brought to submission, submission to what? to the knowledge of God. Every though has be compared and sifted through the standard of the bible and should be judged at the point the though is formed in our mind. Some of us have such a wild and unbridled imagination that we live our entire lives in our mind away from everyone and in secrecy. This is the final barrier and segment of our lives we need to turn to Jesus. When He becomes Lord of our though life, sin is no longer an issue.
Because, all sin starts in the mind, it then is planned and meditated upon and then is executed. A lot of people think the action is the sin, the action is the result of the sin. The sin was committed long before the action. Jesus said it like this, Matthew 5: 27,28 “You have heard that it was said, ‘Do not commit adultery. 28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart.” So here Jesus, says that the action is not the point of sin, but the fermentation of the thought.
Do not give your thoughts free access to roam about your mind to corrupt it. Arrest it and throw it out. Like the old saying, Just because a bird lands on your head does not mean you have to let is build a nest there! I know I make it sound easy. But the fact of the matter is, we are creatures of habit. And we are what we do.
The second tier of this revelation is what are your habits? Solomon was a generous giver even before he was a rich king. 1 Kings 3:4-5. Solomon makes an extravagant offering a 1000 whole-burnt offerings. You see Solomon was a habitual worshiper. There was no temple to worship God, but that did not stop him. If you notice that, this offering was a large offering and it was first offering he made after he had become king. There was no need for Solomon to give just an offering. He was not facing an enemy, there was no war or rumors of war but Solomon worshiped God for who He was – Great, Wonderful, Excellent, Merciful and the list goes on. Solomon feared God. He realized who his God was and measured his response not to his limit but what was fitting to God. As a result, God responded to the worship the only way He knows how, in His limitless way.
