The Fire and the Fear of the Lord Part 2
6.17.22
By
Nita Johnson
I want to finalize what I started in Part 1. I think it's important that you have some bit of understanding of what the Lord is offering you. In these teachings, I am running along like a rock skipping over the water to share this with you. It is nothing deep just information so that you can understand, to the best of my ability, in such a short time, what the Lord is offering, willing to give, and bring you into the knowledge of His responsibility and your responsibility, so that if you receive what He wants to give you at the end of the meeting, you will have an idea of the difference it will make in your life.
We have many Scriptures in the Word of God that speak of the Fear of the Lord. Some of the Scriptures would speak of someone who was fairly new in the Lord and is learning to love Him. Some of the Scriptures would speak of someone who is a mature son or daughter of God, and what kind of inner reaction it would provoke between the believer in God. Some of the passages refer to someone who is in Union with Christ and even deeper things going on. Then, we have a cluster of Scriptures in Isaiah 11:2 (AKJV) the Seven Spirits of God.
and the spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him,
the spirit of wisdom and understanding,
the spirit of counsel and might,
the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord;
One of those seven Spirits is in fact the “Fear of the Lord”. It is my understanding in my walk with God that you may be visited by one Spirit or another during particular moments in your life, you may have some that accompany you day by day and may not know it, but to become possessed with the Spirits, the seven Spirits of God as Christ was, you need to walk in Union with Christ. They promote an entirely new person within and an entirely different relationship.
May I add one thing before I move on. As I shared with you in Part 1, I was very young in the Lord when He gave me the Fear of God through an impartation. This was not something I consciously tried to nurture. I did not know how to nurture it. I was too young in the Lord. Still, He gave me the amazing gift of the Spirit of the “Fear of the Lord”. When He did, what arose out of that experience was a new person. The transition was remarkable, as much as getting saved was. I would say getting saved had a dramatic effect, and I really did have kind of a Damascus experience like Paul. I did not ask for it. I was being as headstrong as anyone could be like Paul was when it happened. It was an extremely dramatic experience with me. A few months later I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. I felt an even greater growth and added to that growth was immediately such a hunger for the Word of God it was insatiable. I do not know how to explain it. There is nothing neither food nor drink that I had ever hungered for like I did the Word of God. It was wonderfully incredible.
It started in church on a Sunday morning. Our pastor, whom Ricci and I loved very much, preached his Sunday morning message. You could clock his messages at 45 minutes; not 45 minutes plus 30 seconds or 45 plus 50 seconds, no 45 minutes on the dot he preached. When he finished this particular Sunday morning in exactly 45 minutes as always, I started crying. I cried hysterically. My sister and a new member of the family, her husband said, "What is wrong? Why are you crying?” I replied, "He is done preaching?" Her husband said, "Yes, the message is over." I said, "No, I cannot bear it. I am so hungry for the Word of God. He cannot be done. What am I going to do? And my sister, being so concerned about me, was so sweet. said, "Well just go home and read the Bible, Neet. I do not know what to tell you to do because he is done."
So that is what I did. I went home and read the Bible and cried and cried because of my hunger for the Word, and today, I still feel that way about the Word. I love the Word of God. Out of that hunger came the experience I wrote in Part 1 that was another dramatic change to my life. I immediately loved holiness more than I loved to breathe. I loved Christ more than I loved to breathe. If someone said the word holiness, Jesus, or Christ, I would just tremble. I would tremble for hours just hearing one of those three things only one time because of that experience. That went on for months. The Book of Isaiah speaks about the favor one has who trembles at God's word. He put within me the Fear of God and the Fire of God, and those two things caused me to tremble before God over His Word; not to mention over my walk with Him. Again, I was dramatically changed.
Is 66:2 (KJV)
For all those things hath mine hand made,
and all those things have been,
saith the Lord:
but to this man will I look,
even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit,
and trembleth at My Word.
The Fear of God is something so radically beautiful in the eyes of God it is not just because it promotes obedience. If you want to help rebellious teenagers get over their rebellion, pray them into a love for the Word. Pray them into a love for the Fear of God. The Fear of God will take care of their rebellion. I promise you. It is beautiful in the eyes of the Lord because the path you are placed on is a path of light and holiness. Holiness unto the Lord and a path of light; I am shaking inside right now because this is so beautiful. I just saw it in a vision. This path of light is beautiful because it was from light to light, grace to grace, and glory to glory. I see the ever-increasing revelation of God on this path. Having the Fear of God and the Fire of God puts you on this path.
It is a new path even for a Christian. It is a path of light, grace, illumination, revelation, and it carries you from glory to glory; ever increasing Glory. It is a path of illumination of God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. God's Kingdom! As a Christian, we want that. We do not want just to know about God. He Himself does not want that kind of relationship with His children. He said I do not want you to know about Me, I want you to KNOW Me. Big difference! About Him is all head knowledge, but to KNOW Him is a deep and abiding experiential intimacy with God, Who is the Creator of all things. Huge difference!
This is a bad equation at best, but it might be the best that we have on this side of Heaven. I would equate it to a woman and a man who meet and start getting to know about each other. They eventually decide to marry. When they marry, it is not long before the relationship changes because now they are not learning about one another, but they are coming into an intimate knowing of each other.
It is the same thing God wants with His children. As I write, I do not know if He will help me to help you know about Him in this Fear of the Lord, but I sure am asking Him to make Himself known in that kind of relationship to those of you reading this and desire it. It is so different. Anyone can teach about the Fear of the Lord if they do some Bible study. If what you want is a good teaching, then most anyone can do that. I prefer not to stop there. We are not interested in knowing about God. We are interested in knowing Him personally and intimately. Knowing Him and knowing what it means to be in this kind of relationship with Him is a beautiful ongoing ever-increasing reality.
John 17:3 (AMPC)
3 And this is eternal life: [it means] to know (to perceive, recognize, become acquainted with, and understand) You, the only true and real God, and [likewise] to know Him, Jesus [as the] Christ (the Anointed One, the Messiah), Whom You have sent.
Let us move on. Deuteronomy 10:12, 13 (AKJV) tells us to walk with Him in the Fear of God.
12 And now, Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee, but to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy heart and with all thy soul, 13 to keep the commandments of the Lord, and His statutes, which I command thee this day for thy good?
Deuteronomy 6:1-6 (AKJV) introduces a life like that of walking in the Fire and the Fear of God.
Now these are the commandments, the statutes, and the judgments, which the Lord your God commanded to teach you, that ye might do them in the land whither ye go to possess it: 2 that thou mightest fear the Lord thy God, to keep all his statutes and his commandments, which I command thee, thou, and thy son, and thy son’s son, all the days of thy life; and that thy days may be prolonged. 3 Hear therefore, O Israel, and observe to do it; that it may be well with thee, and that ye may increase mightily, as the Lord God of thy fathers hath promised thee, in the land that floweth with milk and honey.
4 Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God is one Lord: 5 and thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might. [the word “might” actually means – will] 6 And these words, which I command thee this day, shall be in thine heart:
Deuteronomy 11:8 (AKJV). When we walk in the Fear of God, He is able to make us strong enough to take the land of promise.
8 Therefore shall ye keep all the commandments which I command you this day, that ye may be strong, and go in and possess the land, whither ye go to possess it;
Without the Fear of God, many of the promises that He gives to His own people will probably never come to pass. Not because He did not want it, but because we are not strong enough to bear what He would have done if we do not have the Fear of the Lord. Again, this is not a mental nurturing. This is the impartation of the Fear of the Lord.
Deuteronomy 11:25-28 (AKJV). If you fear God, your enemies will fear you.
25 There shall no man be able to stand before you: for the Lord your God shall lay the fear of you and the dread of you upon all the land that ye shall tread upon, as he hath said unto you.
26 Behold, I set before you this day a blessing and a curse; 27 a blessing, if ye obey the commandments of the Lord your God, which I command you this day: 28 and a curse, if ye will not obey the commandments of the Lord your God, but turn aside out of the way which I command you this day, to go after other gods, which ye have not known.
What does that tell us about our Nation? If America would just repent, humble herself and repent as a Nation for the way she walks before God, our enemies would so fear this Nation that they would leave us alone.
The passage I wrote in Part 1, Isaiah 57:15 (AKJV) God is a holy God. He dwells with those who have a contrite heart.
For thus saith the high and lofty One
that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy;
I dwell in the high and holy place,
with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit,
to revive the spirit of the humble,
and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.
Several years ago, Jesus allowed me to feel life without pride. It is a place of peace and love. Again, a few days ago, He spoke to me audibly, “I took you into contrition many times during prayer. In Union, there is a new level of contrition that you enter.” Still, there is a place in the depths of contrition where people can walk with absolutely no pride in their hearts. Is not that amazing? As I shared, He allowed me to experience that.
You have this holiness of God that begets in us a contrite heart, and in this contrition, the Lord promises to dwell with us. He loves the contrite heart. He is a God Who inhabits eternity Isaiah said, but also the heart of the contrite.
The Fear of God is the beginning of knowledge of God. It is also the beginning of wisdom and understanding. The Bible tells us that God will personally teach those that fear Him, Psalm 25:12.
What man is he that feareth the Lord?
him shall he teach in the way that he shall choose.
For years He did this for me; He appeared to me here on this earth and pulled out passages of Scripture to teach me the Word or take me to Heaven to teach me the Word. Sometimes He took me to Israel to teach me things pertaining to Israel that are in the Word. If I went to Heaven, one of the things that would go with me is my Bible because He or an Angel that came to get me would take my Bible from me and open it to the passage and explain what I would learn on this trip. I am not speaking out of my own personal illumination of the Scriptures.
I promise you; you can love the Word with all of your heart and think that your personal illumination will give you the truth but be wrong. He is the One that wrote this Book. These are His words through His Prophets and Apostles. He knew what He meant when He wrote the Words through His agent. When He comes and teaches you the Scripture, there are times you can misunderstand something He has said. Nevertheless, I can pray and ask Him to clarify or help me better understand what He was saying when He said thus and so, and He will tell me if I will humble myself and ask.
There is a place where Jesus will teach the disciple. When He teaches a disciple, He does exactly what Jesus did when He was here on this earth. He walks with them and teaches them as they are walking. That is how He teaches me. This comes with having the Fear of the Lord. During the intermittent times, His Spirit teaches me as He will any child of God.
The Bible says in Psalm 25:14 that to those who Fear Him are given the secret of the Lord.
The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him;
and he will shew them his covenant.
Lastly, if you have the Fear of the Lord, you will dine with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It says that right in the Bible.
Matt 8:11 AMPC
I tell you, many will come from east and west, and will sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,
I can promise you I have dined with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. It is true what the Bible says. If you live and walk in the Fear and Fire of the Lord, you love His commandments. You love to obey Him even if it is very difficult to obey Him in a certain issue. You may fail a few times trying to learn how to obey this particular issue or that, but He will keep working with you if He knows your heart is true.
When it is done, no one is happier that you learned the lesson of obedience than you and the Lord. You feel His joy over your perfection of obedience in that particular area, and it brings great joy to your own heart. The Fear of the Lord is to be highly prized, highly desired, but He is the One Who has to impart it. If you are trying to nurture and build the Fear of the Lord in your heart, you may do that, but that is different than what I am writing. When I finish, I will make another invitation to you to accept the Fear of the Lord from the Lord and the Fire of God from the Lord.
