There is absolute necessity of fearing God: reverential fear is inspired by viable realization of who and how He is, unavoidably.
Absent fear of God, there's no viable knowledge of Him as He truly is, whatsoever: to know Him to any true degree is to experience and encourage justifiable fear of Him. So, without reverential fear of God, come by valid glimpses into who He is, as He is--THE I AM--there can be no possibility of proper worship. Furthermore, without fear of God, as knowing truth of Him, there can also be no valid possibility of consistently discerning His providential will--no ability to unerringly fulfill it (only possible in the Holy Spirit, regardless).
Fear is a right response to the God which, according to His divine will and holy justice, instantaneously killed Nadab and Abihu for bringing strange fire, as implicitly irreverent, thus improper, worship. Fear is a proper response to the God which promises to completely destroy a people who take pleasure in seeing His judgment meted out upon others (Ezekiel 25 (initially mistakenly submitted as 23)). And where disobedience and lack of proper reverence for this God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob persist: where active (even unconscious) rebellion continues against this Holy God, even Christ, of the Holy Spirit...eternal damnation results under the weight of His justice, per His righteous wrath.
So, a God which does not inspire fear is not the God of the Bible. A God which doesn't inspire fear is not capable of inspiring due diligence necessary to serve Him faithfully. He, similarly, is not a God who would save people from His own wrath, sending His son--Himself, becoming incarnate, to teach, direct, and enable to right reverence. A God who doesn't inspire fear is not one who would maintain a testimony to Himself, true through the ages, even as a fearful sign through times of His judgment and enacted wrath.
God must be feared, in order to be known, is all: fearing Him is irrevocably, unavoidably characteristic of any viable knowledge of who He is.
Outside of fear of God, blasphemy runs rampant. And self-idolatry suffices for worship. These, even in and from the pulpit, where there's no fear of God. Where there's no fear of God, nor true respect for Him, His holy things are profaned as mere frivolities, amongst nominally professing (even erroneously sincere) Christians.
God saves us from His own wrath, in Christ, though: He is to be feared. And reverenced. He doesn't save us from ourselves. Nor from sin, ultimately. And He definitely doesn't save us from the devil--who is, was, and will always be defeated. God saves us from His own wrath, in Christ. He saves us from His own righteous judgment. God is the one we will have to answer to, at the end of time. For our every thought, word, and deed: Christ is the one who will judge us.
So, any God served which doesn't inspire some significant degree of terror--at the knowledge of judgment to come for all, and knowledge of wrath ensured to those who remain outside the grace of Christ--is not the God of the Bible. Because it's His wrath we're saved from, and His judgment we'll be subject to, we had ought be all the more constantly inspired to give all due diligence to obeying His will. Which requires that we know it, in order to obey it. And that requires discipline, effort, study. And prayer. Much, much prayer.
Think, also, of this: God has told us many times, His cup of wrath brings drunkenness: People reeling, reveling, completely insensible and insensitive to the judgment incurred, oblivious to the coming wrath, just as they had chosen to act as though they were oblivious to the God they had offended: people who ever become so far given to idolatry and blasphemy and self-serving they prefer those pursuits to serving God prefer delusions, which neither require nor inspire fear or diligent obedience. Failing to actively seek truth invites delusion: destruction come by lack of knowledge.
Diligence is necessary of the saved: we must be diligent. We MUST be. There's no other course, except damnation. And far worse than than, to cease from seeking God equates to an abandonment of Christ.
Consider the branches which once did abide in the true vine, yet didn't bear fruit: They were removed and cast into the fire.
I know it doesn't fit very neatly into most doctrine: the idea of having, at one point, been "in Christ" yet falling into condemnation, regardless. But it's there, in the parable of the True Vine. And in the one of the 10 virgins. And like the seed which fell among the thorns. So, we must not ever get to a place where we take Him so for granted that we lose respect for His sovereignty and fearful majesty.
Many are called, but few are chosen.
So, take heed, lest ye be deceived. For, if it were possible, in the last days, even the elect of God would be deceived: May our diligent desire to evermore completely and correctly know and serve God be our continued salvation: Falling away only proves a person is not one of the elect, ultimately.
So, don't be deceived (by your own thoughts or the testimonies of those around you) into partaking of the cup of God's wrath, which yields a drunkenness. God does and will give over to a reprobate, undiscerning mind those who don't value and strive to uphold and to know truth. We must actively strive to know truth, otherwise we're not of the truth: delusion sets in, to whatever extent truth is forsaken or relegated to a place of mundanity or apathy. Similarly, delusion may set in pursuant to rationalization away from hard truths. When we either ignore or reject truth, we effectively choose delusion. The cup of His wrath, then to drink.
So, ask for grace to accept truth, instead of shying away. Pray for grace, so to conform to hard truths: don't rationalize away from them, when they hurt. Don't rationalize against them, when there seems no conceivable way of accommodating or adapting to them: God has given things which we are incapable of fulfilling, according to our own abilities.
He has. He does.
Salvation is one such thing: Nicodemus couldn't begin to comprehend how a person could be "born again," and Christ let Him know it was impossible. And sometimes, just like Nicodemus, we lack understanding sufficient to accept the scope of what's set before us as an expectation, as a requirement. So faith is required. Faith in God, as who He is...and not according to regard for our own limitations.
Because we serve a God--those who serve the God of the Bible--who is infinitely capable. We serve a God to whom all things are possible.
So, when He asks and requires the impossible, don't fret. Have faith in who He is, knowing He will fulfill. He will guide, He will instruct, and He will provide the grace necessary to meet the demands He requires, even of the pursuit of truth unto sanctification: to be holy, as He is holy: to be pure, as He is pure. Even as sometimes, we're given the task of Abraham...we must unflinchingly obey, faithfully trusting God for who He says He is, knowing obedience is thus the only option. Even unto holiness.
While knowing that, even becoming holy, in Him...we who are saved are not without sin: Christ, alone, has been and is sinless. No other human is or ever will be capable of being sinless. He, alone, within us and living His life in and through us, can produce a state of holiness: Yet, this holiness is only directly related to our position in Him--not in any way related to who we are. We who have sinned even once can never be considered without sin, because we have sinned...and might yet be tempted into sinning, again. This, even as we cannot practice sin, as we do abide in Christ: if we abide in Him, He works further, and further, and further repentance, unto purity. So that we may walk, as He walked...walking in Him, alone: Not by might, nor by power, but by His Spirit.
To begin to believe oneself sinless or somehow superior, for having ceased to practice "observable" sin, is to perpetuate self-righteousness. Self-righteousness is sin, as surely as any other. (Pride is an abomination before God.)
God looks only upon those who are humble and of a contrite spirit, is what need concern us: those who remain broken before Him, acknowledging their guilt and insufficiency, are the ones who are able to be saved: the ones who accept and seek to know truth, they are able to know Him. He didn't come for those who deludedly consider themselves whole and well, but for those who truthfully acknowledge their insufficiency and brokenness.
This, as it's not possible to hold yourself and your efforts in esteem and simultaneously esteem God as is His due: He is wholly righteous. He is wholly sufficient. And in comparison to the infinity of His sufficiency and His righteousness, we are neither, whatsoever.
A recent illustration of this concept made use of contrasting the difference between Michael Jordan and a two year old, in comparing how close each is to the sun: for the sake of such a comparison, the difference in their relative nearness to the sun is absolutely arbitrary. Neither one is significantly closer than the other, in any meaningful way. And it's the same with us, considering "sinlessness" and sufficiency and righteousness and faithfulness: comparing ourselves to other Christians or non-believers is completely arbitrary--we won't be judged according to their abilities and progress. Comparison to Christ is the only viable comparison: we will be judged in comparison to Him. A fearful thought, indeed, as no one can compare to His perfection: No one compares to God. He is holy. Looking at oneself in the light of His perfection absolutely destroys any delusions of self-sufficiency and self-righteousness, if one looks at the true Christ, of the Bible.
In recent church movements, however, primary focus remains on the love, comfort, and promises/benefits of Christ, somehow never inspiring requisite revelation of man's wretchedness and God's fearsome majesty. The predominant regard for God, as such, does not lead to a rightful response of fearful trembling before His wrath, inclusive of brokenness and contrition: each (fear, humility, guilt), inspired by increased awareness of one's own wretchedness, irreconcilably contrasted against true revelation of Christ's precious love, perfect sinlessness, pure goodness, and God's unwavering justice, unto wrath.
No one can experience true revelation of the Lord's abject purity, justice, and holiness, without simultaneously seeing how utterly wretched and dark is their own heart: even unto fearing for their very soul. So, claims of revelation or so-called experiences of God which don't increase awareness of one's own wretched insufficiency...unto changes in behavior, per such inspiration unto repentance...are patently false, as void of express fearfulness of the presence of the God of the Bible. Thus there must be a self-referential conception of Him being embraced, per course of endeavoring a worship which is inherently faithless of the true, living God.
God has repeatedly given delusion to those who prefer falsehood to truth, though. When people turn away from Him, He allows them to do so. When they turn to worship other things, He permits it--He warns, He admonishes, He chastises, but ultimately, He will not prevent someone from acting against Him...even to the extent He allows consciences to dull, so they no longer have any qualms against sin. And we go that route, outside of Christ. We choose it, according to our self-centered natures. Of our own free will, we choose self, society, and/or family, over God. Despite the blasphemy of so doing. And even as He warns us against the course (nature stands as a witness against idolatry, even as does our conscience--we have no excuses), He thus lovingly beseeches us not to rebel against Him, all the while as we go further and further on "our own way." We effectively thumb our noses at Him, by so doing, and He thus allows us to have exactly what we pursue: ignorance of Him. We thus effectively pursue delusions, in seeking the impossibility of such distinction as conceptual separation from God implies--such blatant irreverence of Him, utterly aberrant of the truth that we subsist in Him. But He allows us the delusions we pursue. Would it be merciful of Him, to restrict us from ability to wander? Would it be righteous of Him, to prevent us all from sinning? If it were in keeping with His nature and His will, He would do so. However, when a heart is turned to desire selfish, temporal things in the world, rather that the God of truth, it seeks out darkness: When a heart desires to do such wickedness as comes by those ways, it actively rebels against the goodness of God.
And He allows those who tread that path to become unable to recognize truth, given such whole-scale rejection of truth.
Truth is unwavering, is the thing. It makes requirements. Truth pierces and shreds, as a two-edged sword. It cuts more deeply and precisely than the sharpest knife. So, it wounds, at times--per the light it sheds and per the requirements it enforces. But it cleanses, thereby: cutting away infections of delusion and wickedness. Just as the fear of God is pure, cleansing.
The fear of God is good. It helps to keep one in the way of righteousness. It helps give one further impetus for remaining strictly given to Christ, so to become and to remain pure.
So, church movements which don't result in fear of God, in love of Christ? No. Just no.
I was involved in many of those such practices. Even attending services where the Word was preached, but without power to convict of sin (a form of godliness, but no power thereof). There would be tears, there would be comfort, there would be crying out to God...but no repentance: no changes in behavior. Only reassurance. And vague direction to the Word: Not even to Christ, Himself, moreover. Just to the Word. So to rely on the promises, rather than relying upon God.
The promises are entirely dependent upon the one who made them, though. They don't exist outside of or independent of who He is. So, without striving unto Him, clinging to His promises is just another perversion of perpetuated self-idolatry: Seeking to sate our own lusts upon the promises of God, rather than seeking after Him, so to be conformed to His image, as is His will.
He commands we be holy, as He is holy, for one.
We must beware of a great danger in relying explicitly upon details: Not seeking the forest, for seeing the trees.
What good does it do, to know a single tree, if you're completely unaware of its location in the midst of its brethren? What good, to know its location in the midst of its brethren, if you don't know the forest it's in? We can't pick and choose: Even as it's impossible to entirely take everything of God, as revealed in the Bible, into constant consideration:
It is thus utterly, absolutely, completely required that we be led by the Spirit of Truth, which is the Holy Ghost. He is the one who is to instruct us, guide us into all truth, and bring to remembrance all things God ever said. We have no choice but to rely upon Him (some more consciously so than others, perhaps?), otherwise we're deceived even by our own efforts.
And that reliance upon the Holy Spirit is not stagnant--it's not a stationary dependence, but progressive:
We must strive continually to see Christ more clearly--to know Him, to understand Him, to fear Him more purely, to revere Him more wholly, to honor and worship Him more aptly, and to obey Him more completely. Always.
So as He leads, we must follow:
The pursuit we conduct, in and unto Christ, requires unwavering diligence in disciplined efforts--even as He is the source of all power, who emboldens, inspiring and directing development and maintenance. We must desire these things, though--we must yearn to desire to seek to know Him more completely: praying for such a desire and praying for such diligence: We must desire to seek Him with our whole heart, requiring Him as a vital necessity: just as we must seek Him with our whole heart, requiring Him as a vital necessity:
One on a right course thus knows it's impossible to "indulge" in the presence of the Holy Spirit, without being indicted unto repentance, unto a desire for reconciliation to Christ. For, His presence is precious. His presence is comforting. His presence is peace and understanding. And, above all, His presence changes a person, perforce who He is: from image to image, glory to glory, we are thus transformed into His image. Ever pressing onward, to be more conformed to His will. (Excelsior!)
Reading through Ezekiel, yesterday, a few things were particularly striking. Attention has caught, numerous times since October, on the idea of God's judgment yielding drunkenness: Job, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Nahum, Zachariah, and Revelation (and likely others--try Biblehub.com's cross references for Ezekiel 23:33, following in various directions unto other pages' cross references) all make mention of the cup of God's wrath entailing onset of "drunkenness," ever per such reference as the "wine of His fury."
Two things:
Spiritual drunkenness (as characterized by spiritual equivalents of the hallmarks of physical drunkenness:) can be considered a persistently reeling, dizzying insensibility to the import/meaning of any situation, no matter how dire. Moreover, drunkenness effectively desensitizes a person to active processes around them, to an extent they are wholly incapable of right-assessment unto proper discernment of circumstances, thus they are wholly incapacitated from initiating necessary responses or actions appropriate to any situation. Another characteristic of spiritual drunkenness is false confidence. Much false confidence, given into vanities of false elation and false comfort, blind arrogance, and potentially violent indignation: All founded in faulty perception. As, ultimately, such drunkenness is a type of delusion, given unto a self-satisfied, reprobate mind: this all is implicitly entailed, as entirely complicit with the idea of drunkenness.
Secondarily, it has been brought to my attention that the Lord always gives ample warning prior to enacting the sentence of His judgment. And one way He, historically, has warned people was by directing His prophets to live out characterizations of the wrath to come (think of Hosea's wife, as a simple example...and of Jeremiah's celibacy, as another God-ordained statement of judgment)--just as a means of exemplifying the judgment which had thus far been wrought, signifying wrath to come.
And, in terms of current trends (increasingly, over the past 100 years, 150...?), there have been "revivals" characterized not by repentance but by revelry.
Including, for all appearances (and experience), what equates to a perfect likeness of the incapacitating effects of physical intoxication. And not unto repentance--not characterized by a renewed reverential fear of God.
In fact, my experience has been that the opposite is true: Rather than becoming more fearful of God, more desirous of submission to His will, so as to please the Almighty, Majestic, Omnipotent, Immanent Creator... ...in those movements characterized by "spiritual drunkenness," there's increasing adaptation to the belief that it's possible to manipulate God into complying with one's own will. Even if just expressed in terms of folks "working up the Spirit," still--such things overtly imply the possibility of human manipulation of God.
I renounce these things, terrified of even the thought of continuing to toy with the holy things of God. For, that's what it is: believing oneself capable of manifesting God, of controlling Him, is blasphemy, and equates to trivializing His immanence, sovereignty, sufficiency, and holiness. No better than Nebuchadnezzar's son/grandson, partying with the goblets from God's temple--trivializing God, by trivializing His sanctity. And drinking to idols, no less, in doing so.
Likewise, considering God's "involvement" and "presence" in church something to be desired for the effects it has on you, and for the "power" it gives to the individuals and the congregation...is idolatry. It's playing with the idea of God. Making light of Him. Blaspheming Him, in His very own temple. And is thus utterly demented. Seriously demented.
Literally demented.
Origin
mid 17th century: past participle of earlier dement ‘drive mad,’ from Old French dementeror late Latin dementare, from demens ‘out of one's mind.’
There is a nuanced yet absolutely vital distinction between seeking God for the sake of what He could do for you, and seeking Him for the sake of who He is, perforce an inherent obligation to seek Him entailed of any reverential knowledge of who He is.
Experiencing His presence is thus both a severely fearful and incomprehensibly comforting experience. Fearful, for reverential, humbled/humbling knowledge of His total holiness, complete righteousness, and unwavering omnipotence: He is completely unlike anything and anyone known, He is who He is, and there is nothing to compare Him to, as to understand Him by any other terms except those He has given and in His position of such absolute holiness--wholly distinct from and above all things else--He is also completely sovereign. That's a fearful premise, really. There's nothing which He is not Master of, even as He allows people to perpetuate chosen delusions otherwise, in rebellion against Him, unto their day of reckoning. For, one final day, everyone will irrefutably acknowledge He is sovereign and holy, and there will be no chance for repentance, then.
He is long-suffering, though. He is very patient, in ways which are fairly unfathomable, as completely unlike the grasping efforts unto patience which humans wield. Just think: He has allowed us to blaspheme His name without eradicating us from existence, at that very moment--He is all-powerful, and yet He hasn't completely destroyed us, despite our complete treachery against Him...despite ongoing treachery against Him--even amongst His own people. He deserves all praise, all worship, all obedience, all faithfulness, all due reverence--infinitely, is He worthy of all glory. He is infinitely glorious. And yet He has had mercy, despite such blasphemies as are infinitely incomprehensible and horrific, per irreconcilable contrast to His infinite goodness and glory.
I don't understand it. Bits and pieces of Christ's love, of God's love, of His goodness and righteousness...of His mercy. Of grace. And of having paid such a price that He now rightly deserves His due portion: His people. Even as we need refinement. We need the furnace's fire, to be refined like silver. And then to be tried as gold is tried.
These are things to our good. Our eternal good.
Those such things are not necessarily reconcilable with what's generally conceived of as temporal good, though:
What is good in the present often entirely obfuscates our true dependence upon God for everything. He is the breath we breathe. And none of us deserve mercy. None of us. We all deserve His wrath. Period. We all have turned from Him, at one point acting in our own interests... And there are even many (of which I once was one) who seek to be good, without reference to God: claiming they don't need Him, to be good. Ignoring Him, perhaps. But, effectively taking a concept whose sole basis derives from His nature and resolves in His person, yet seeking to define it outside of Him. It's a slap in the face of the Creator, ultimately, if such a thing were possible: blasphemy, moreover.
So many things going on: I don't pretend to know what He's doing, right now. I can't claim to know what's next. All I can do is remark upon what I do see, what He has drawn my attention to, and what has been explained to me. Especially concerning matters I have been delivered from, unto and by revelation of Him.
There's just so much depravity, so much conformity to the world, so much endless compromise with secular ideology and practice in the church, right now. Even as there are people He has called out from among them, from among such churches. He is still calling people out from among those who cause His name to be blasphemed through and in their faithlessness.
Just know that an absence of reverential fear of God indicates a lack of faith in Him, a lack of belief in Him: a lack of knowledge of who He is.
Knowing Him for who He is--who He has said He is, and who He continues to be--determine whether faith and belief are even possible.
How can you believe in something you know nothing about, after all? The idea is akin to saying, "I believe in traffic lights--I have faith in their effectiveness," without having any knowledge of what they are or how they operate. Only knowing the name. Only claiming to believe. And, you could say and enthusiastically, sincerely profess you believe in and have faith in the effectiveness of traffic lights all day, but if saying so doesn't also entail knowledge of what they are and what they signify, so as to be capable of heeding them?...your faith is worthless--it's void of meaning.
Your faith would refer only to your idea of a traffic light, not to what they actually are nor to how they operate nor to how to heed them, so as to be able to live according to viable belief and faith. Your faith would equate, in essence, to self-idolatry. (How effective would it be to protest a moving violation, by proclaiming to the ticketing officer "But I believe in traffic lights!--I have faith in their effectiveness!" after driving through a red light. Without living evidence of your belief and faith, entailing obedience to the traffic light's direction, your faith and belief would be considered void--the profession would just as well not be made.)
Seriously. Belief without express knowledge of that which is believed--manifest through reverential observance/expression of such belief in one's thoughts, speech, and actions--is empty. Faith lived in such a way can be similarly empty: if faith only derives from and is founded upon concepts which are intellectually developed in one's mind, lacking external foundation in the existing object professed (evidenced by a lack of reference to known defining characteristics of that such object), that faith is only self-referential; it is, thus, unfounded--a faithless faith.
So, claiming belief and faith in Christ while refraining from diligently seeking to know who He is, seeking to know His commands, as to walk more closely with Him, be more obedient to His will...so as to better know Him...is of the same emptiness: Claiming to believe in God without seeking Him, in whatsoever ways are possible, is thus moreso a self-idolatry. For, if you believe He is who He says He is, you have EVERY REASON to seek Him, and no excuse for refraining from seeking out every knowledge of who He is: if you believe He is who He says He is, He's responsible for your every breath, your every move, for all of creation, and for everything around you, you are comparatively capable of NOTHING, and He deserves perfect obedience, thus He had ought be recognized as the most important person/being in existence and the most vital in need of diligent pursuit, in one's life.
Otherwise, claiming belief in Him while simultaneously refusing to acknowledge (by obeying) His commands equates to refuting His Words, contesting His authority.
Christ told us we are to seek Him FIRST: To do anything otherwise is thus to ignore His command. And, again: Ignoring His command evidences belief that He is not worthy of obedience, in order to permit such easily perpetrated disobedience. Similarly, to continue in ignorance of His being and of His commands signifies belief that He's not worthy of obedience--otherwise, obedience would be sought with all due diligence, caveat being that obedience explicitly requires we abide in Him, which implicitly entails knowledge of Him.
It's not possible to believe in Him as God while refraining from bending the knee to Him, is all: Just according to what He's revealed of Himself, through Scripture.
So, choose ye this day whom ye will serve: If the world and self be God, serve them. If the living God be God, serve Him.
That's all.
I may not know how. I have no idea to what end. And I certainly know I'm incapable. But I choose to serve God, in Christ, by the power of the Holy Spirit. What else is there?
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