Understanding the "Fear of the Lord"

We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.  No, we speak of God's secret wisdom, a wisdom that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began.  None of the rulers of this age understood it,...but God has revealed it to us by his Spirit.

 

The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God.  For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him?  In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God....This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words. 

 

The man without the spirit [i.e., "the natural man"] does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned....but we have the mind of Christ (I Cor. 2: 6-16).

 

Many, many years ago, I puzzled over the phrase so prevalent in Scripture -- "The Fear of the Lord."  This quality seemed to be the gateway for so much else that I wanted:  "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom," for example.  I desperately wanted wisdom, but wasn't so sure about the "fear of the Lord," whatever that was.  I had never been afraid of God, and I sure didn't want to start now, this late in life.  But whatever "Fear of the Lord" might mean, I wanted that.

 

So I prayed, "O Lord, show me what is meant by 'Fear of the Lord.'  I want the beginning of wisdom, and I trust You to show me how to receive it."  Of course, the answer to that prayer came so slowly and gradually that I hardly realized it was being answered.  It was only years later, in hindsight, that I came to understand that Fear of the Lord is not, and cannot be, an intellectual concept, but an attitude of the heart.  In order to understand it, we must experience it, and then we know it deep within ourselves.

 

Many people want to define "fear of the Lord" as awe or amazement, and that is a start for the "natural man," who cannot grasp the things of God, but it does not really express the experience of Fear of the Lord.  Jesus, for example, "feared God," but His "fear" went so far beyond awe and amazement that those words don't even touch the reality of His love and devotion, His total absorption in the relationship of Father and Son and Holy Spirit.  I can be in awe and amazement at a sunset or the flight of a bird or the ways of a child---but that "relationship" does not begin to express "Fear of the Lord." 

 

The closest I can come to expressing the meaning of this phrase is in deep, very close, and lasting relationships.  I am so grateful to my husband for his everyday gifts to me that I don't want to do anything that he would not like.  I am aware of and sensitive to his thoughts and feelings, and I want to uphold, to be in union with, his desires.  I don't want to go against his wishes to accomplish my own will.  One of my children had this same kind of sensitivity toward me.  She used to watch my face to see if I was happy or sad or angry.  She always wanted "my face to shine upon her," and nothing made her more happy than to see me happy.  Nothing scared her more than to see me angry or upset. 

 

Once we enter into relationship with the "Abba" that is revealed to us by the Spirit of Jesus in us, we want nothing more than to live in very close companionship and union with Him.  We hunger to know His thoughts, and we wait for His direction in our lives.  We "fear" to walk away from so great and precious a relationship, for in Him is our very Life.  He is all we need and all we want.  We may sin, but we run back to Him like the Prodigal Son, knowing that we cannot live in the dregs of the world. 

 

The "natural man" will never grasp the "Fear of the Lord," because it describes a relationship, a union, that seems impossible to man -- unless he is born again of the Spirit of God:  And when He, the Comforter, comes, He will teach you all things, even the very deep things of God.  Now you cannot bear the teaching, but later, you will understand (a composite quote from the Book of John and I Cor. 2).