Hi all,
When I was a child we lived in the country with a horse farm bordering the back of our property. We had about 2.5 acres (1 hectare) with a creek and a few fruit trees on the hill on the other side of the creek. We had a swing set and sand box outside the back door dad had built for we 4 kids. The neighboring horse farm had a cat that regularly wandered onto our property, and used the sand box as a giant litter box. My dad hated that cat because we were always having to clean out the sand box before we could play in it.
One evening I was playing in the sand box when dad burst through the back door with a rifle in hand. I didn’t even know there was a gun in the house. Without hesitation he cursed the cat once again, took aim as it walked along our back fence about 110 yards away (100m), and with 1 shot killed it. At that moment I was afraid of my dad. I was probably 6 or 7 years old at the time, and being afraid of my dad was a new emotion for me. I knew him as the one the dog and I wrestled with, the one who cut my hair in the basement, the one who taught me how to shake hands and shine my shoes – I didn’t know him as a man with a gun who would kill a cat! The was a revelation.
When we had horses
I told my sons not to think of their horses as giant pets. I told them they may love their horse and think their horse loves them, but never forget they are a 1,000 pound animal (453k). Love them, but never forget their power.
In Numbers 16:9 when Korah and friends, who were Levitical priests, rebelled against the leadership of Moses and Aaron, Moses asked him: “Do you think it is a small thing that the Lord chose you from the congregation to minister in the tabernacle and minister to the congregation?” In Jeremiah 23: 32 the Lord says of false prophets; “They cause my people to err because of their lies and their ‘lightness’.” The word ‘lightness’ is ‘pachazuth’, meaning frivolous, extravagance, lightness, casualness.
The common thread among these examples is a lack of a revelation: Me that my dad could kill. My sons that their horses were powerful. Korah that they were responsible to God. The Lord had revealed Himself to Israel by the plagues of Egypt, the miracles in the wilderness – because a revelation of His power should put the fear of God in a person. Today, the revelation of His power, His highest and best exertion of His power, was when He raised Jesus from the dead. With that, we are to see, know, understand and let it sink into our being, His power revealed when He saved us. Saved us from h*ll, prison, sin – whatever it was – He saved us through the exertion of His mighty power when He raised Jesus from the dead which eventually caused us to be born again in our spirit. When we think of that power in our lives, which has changed us so dramatically, the fear of God is the natural response. Stir that up once in a while! Live in it! Live in the awe of what He has done in us, for us, with us! When we know that, then we start the path of learning.
The casual approach to the things of God in many churches and Internet today is reflected in the frequency of ‘words’ prophets or other ministers say are from God. It is reflected in the corruption and immorality so frequently revealed in pastors and ministers. It is reflected in the casual familiarity of those who call Almighty God the Father, ‘daddy’, in a misunderstanding of the use of the word ‘abba’ in the first century. This lack of the fear of God shuts off revelation for teaching, revelation in worship, revelation for holy living.
I’m not talking about being afraid of the Father or Lord just because we sin here and there, or even if a person battles something habitual. No, I’m talking about a casual approach to the things of God within Christian culture. Many auditorium churches have exchanged the flow for the show, the manifest presence (anointing) of God for emotion, and going deep in the Spirit in worship for smoke and lasers.
Sometime a few decades ago the idea took over that churches should not challenge people in a service and have the highest and best of everything in order to attract people to Christ. A church would raise millions for real Italian marble in the foyer or a million or more for the best sound system while many in their congregation couldn’t pay their rent. Priorities were switched from caring for the true church to caring for the building called church. Appearance became what mattered. In the name of being relevant, the altar calls, fear of God, and preaching of absolutes ended. The things of God became a system, a formula, a scheduled professional presentation.
“Be still and know that I am God”
That is from Psalm 46:10 and answers the question: “How can I get a (revelation) of the fear of God?”
Be still and know that I am God. Be still and think what He saved you from. Be still and mediate on where you’d be without Him. Awe, fear, worship is the natural response to that level of personal revelation. It is in that stillness we contemplate, we search, we shift attention down to our spirit where He reveals Himself. A rabbi said: Silence is the most powerful prayer. Rabbi Shimon son of Gamliel said: “All my days I have grown up around the wise, and I have found nothing better than silence.” Many rabbi’s write of silence being the main way to connect with God.
Silence is not just the absence of sound, it is a state of being,
A state of quietness of whole-self, of coming to the end of yourself to sit, stand, work, in His presence. When a person is silent in their being, they can work, they can sit – it is a state of being, not the lack of sound.
The ancient priests did not talk at all when performing sacrifices in the temple – the choir did – the people did – but the priests when making sacrifices to God did not talk at all. They were to be in a state of communion with the Lord through silence – observant, reflective – but actively doing their job. It is a condition of humbling oneself before God, silence in His presence in both the awe and fearful respect of the Almighty.
Some might call it meditation, or shifting the mind to neutral, which allows for reflection, inner thoughts, thoughts turned to the spirit of man. In I Samuel 1: 10-13 Hannah prayed silently for a son, whom she promised to dedicate to the Lord. Eli the priest saw her lips move slightly, but heard no sound. God heard her prayer. In Genesis 21: 15-17 Hagar and teenager Ishmael are sent out into the wilderness. There, with water gone, she lays him under a shrub then walks away, saying to herself she can’t stand to see her son die. But in v17 the Lord tells her twice ‘I have heard the voice of the boy’.
It was in that silence of near death for young Ishmael that the Lord heard him. It was in Hannah’s silent prayer, that the Lord heard her. It is written in the Torah that when Sarah laughed in the Lord’s presence when He told her she would have a son, in Genesis 18: 12-13, that she laughed in silence to herself – but the Lord heard her.
I have found most of the time, when I am in the Spirit and the Lord comes to visit me, it is when I am silent that He comes. I see Him in our conferences quite often while we are in worship. I have seen Him in house church meetings, often in worship. But most often, my most private times with Him that I never share with anyone, happen when I am silent.
Paul wrote in I Corinthians 14: 10 that there are many voices in this world, and none without significance. Consider turning off those voices, including your own. Yes, stop talking. In ancient times in the Breslov branch of Hasidic Judaism they practiced silence while walking out in fields. There is also a ‘taanit dibbur’ meaning ‘a fast of words.’ We fast food, we fast TV, we fast sweets. Consider fasting words for a time. In Judaism the most profound, private prayer is called ‘tefillah be-lachash’ or ‘the silent prayer’, based on Hannah’s silent prayer of the heart in I Samuel 1.
Consider silence to gain or regain the fear of the Lord. You won’t find it in church. And…when the mind wanders, reign it back in to focus on the Lord. I have found the Lord to be a perfect gentleman in that He won’t talk as long as I am talking. I employ this when I lay hands on someone for prayer. I tell them to be quiet – no praying, no praying in tongues – silence, for as long as they are talking He will not. I won’t start praying for them until they are silent. Then He can flow into them and in them.
And I’m ending this 1 page ‘Thoughts’ about the fear of God, to pick up next time with a related topic: Why the wilderness? Until then, blessings,
John Fenn
