What I am sharing these days is the 12 Pillars of the Kingdom, the foundation of which is, "Worship God only". The first pillar is Truth. The second pillar; Justice! The third is Righteousness. The fourth is Mercy. The Fifth Pillar is Love. Sixth; Faith. The Seventh Pillar is Holiness. Eight, Humility. Ninth; Fear of the Lord. Tenth; Goodness. Eleventh Pillar; Obedience and twelfth Pillar; faithfulness.

[Prayer] You are too good, Lord. We don’t know how to walk with the holy God but in Your goodness, You’re willing to teach us. We don’t know how to be strong and become what You’re calling us to be Lord. However, You’re willing and able to take us by the hand and lead us to Yourself. Lord, sometimes we feel like children who need Your instruction because You’re wisdom is too high for us. You are so right… always right! Sometimes we get so frustrated not knowing how to walk with You. At times, it feels as though You have let go and circumstances have taken control but, we feel this way only because we don’t know You. We don’t know You.

Lord, there are twelve pillars that You are willing to place within us to strengthen us. I pray that You will help me to share these pillars so that Your people can be strengthened by the knowledge of You and Your ways. I thank you, Father, In Your precious Name, amen. [End prayer]

Last week we spoke of the fear of the Lord. So few Christians have the fear of the Lord, most Christians don’t even know what the fear of the Lord is. We would not do the things we do; we would not say the things we say, or believe the things we believe if we walked in the fear of the Lord. There are various levels of it, which develop in the earlier stages of our Christian walk. Such as, those who smoked, quit smoking, for those who took drugs—you quit taking drugs, for those who drank—you quit drinking. You know, you just stop doing the things that the world is doing.

I’d rather not remember, but for your sakes, I will. Way back in the earliest days of my salvation, although I had quite a Damascus road experience, there was one thing that did not drop off immediately. It took a couple of months; I sold Real-Estate and had a lot of friends in the real estate business. Not all the time, but occasionally they would want me to go out and have an afternoon cocktail with them. Feeling torn as to how I should represent my new position, I was in a quandary. I wanted to talk to them about Jesus, but I also wanted them to know I wasn’t judgmental toward them either. The second or third time this occurred, I was talking to my mother on the phone and said, “Well, I promised to meet some friend before my next appointment and have a cocktail, so I need to let you go,” and she said, “A what?” To which I responded, “A cocktail!” She replied, “I thought you gave your heart to Jesus.” I said, “I did, Mom.” She said, “What do you think Jesus would do if He walked in and saw a cocktail in your hand.” I said, ”Oh, mom...” hung up the phone and went to meet my friends. We placed and received our order, and they begin to drink their’s while mine remained on the table untouched. My Mother’s words were running through my mind “what would I do if Jesus walked in?” Finally, after about twenty minutes one of them said, “Aren’t you going to….?” I responded, “You know what guys I love you, and want to talk to you about the Lord, but I cannot do it with this drink in my hand. What would I do if the Lord walked in and saw me doing that?” They said, “Well I don’t know, what would you do?” I said, “I couldn’t bear it and how can you think He has done anything in my life if we keep doing this? I can’t do it. I’ll never do it again.”

We learn the fear of the Lord little by little, right? So there are the earlier stages, but when you work hard to learn His ways, you work hard to come to know Him through prayer; spending time in the Word; spending time in worship. Eventually, you find yourself in a place where you hunger for Him so insatiably that it can be almost unbearable. You cry out; what do I need to do? How can I find You? How can I know You the way my heart cries out for? Have you ever felt that?

If you did, or have, experienced this and are earnest, and sincere, the Lord will speak to you and what He will speak to you is: you need the fear of the Lord because you cannot go any further without it. Now how do you know when someone has the fear of the Lord? Number one: if they have the fear of the Lord imparted that is God's own fear which He placed in your heart. I’m not talking about something that slowly develops as you spend time in the Word and prayer. But, God has imparted something that only He can do.

How do you know when a person is walking in the fear of the Lord? Number one: you will not find that person pointing fingers. When there is contention, the person who has the “fear of the Lord” is the first to humble themselves and say: perhaps I have failed, let’s investigate before we move on. There is a humility that overtakes when the fear of the Lord is present. And when your heart is deeply humble, the desire to put the blame on someone else is absent. Instead, the individual wants to take responsibility for their wrong behavior because they know that is what pleases the Lord. Another way you can tell if someone is walking in the fear of the Lord is that they are not judgmental. They’re not judgmental or critical. Even if they have to correct, it is not coming out of a judgmental, critical spirit because when you’ve got the fear of the Lord, you’re so busy judging yourself you don’t have the energy to judge anyone else. When you have the fear of the Lord, you walk in greater levels of faith and, therefore, greater levels of endurance. You can endure painful seasons longer. You can bear more stress greater burdens of the Lord; because the fear of the Lord strengthens you. It builds you up from within; it is a part of God that gives you great grace making you strong in His spirit. Another way you know whether or not someone has the fear of the Lord is that God speaks to them a lot so they tend to walk in deeper levels of revelation than someone that doesn’t. Another way you can tell is that person is very humble and, therefore, able and willing to take correction.

When someone tells me: I want you to mentor me and help me grow in God. I wait to see how they respond to correction. If I have to correct them, something I don't enjoy doing, but if they will not receive correction than the mentoring has to stop. If you have the fear of the Lord, you’re correctable. Not only are you correctable, but your heart is always open to it because you think more highly of others than you do yourself.

When a person walks in the fear of the Lord, they live to obey no matter how hard obedience is. They don’t run from obedience because it’s difficult. I can promise you that if you don’t find yourself in difficult places often, you’re not obeying God very much. To obey God and to live to obey Him, means that there is always a little stream of difficulty in everything He asks you to do; He does it on purpose to develop your dependency and to purify your heart. Sound like fun? There are many, many other ways by which you can tell; I am sharing just a few.

What is the blessing of the fear of the Lord? Those who really fear God are allowed to walk with Him very close. He reveals more about Himself to those who walk in the fear of the Lord than those who do not—that’s the blessing, and that’s what makes it all worthwhile. The fear of the Lord—this isn’t what tonight’s message is all about so I will wrap this up shortly, but the fear of the Lord you might say is like the yolk of the kingdom. It is the yolk. It’s like the reins of the Holy Spirit; you know you put the reins on the horse to steer him to the left or right. The fear of the Lord guides you when you don’t understand. Sometimes you're seeking God's direction and feel confused yet, even in the confusion you’re walking. You find out you walked the right way and didn't know how or why—it is because the reins of the Holy Spirit were upon you through the fear of the Lord. It infuses grace into you to walk with God.

We begin next week with the Pillar of Truth!

In His Amazing Love,
Nita Johnson