Fear # 3

Fear # 3

But, of course, this is a very real thing, this fear, and although the Word of God may not use the phrase, we have reason to believe that among the hosts of evil spirits, there are definitely the spirits of fear. For very often this thing is something extra to ourselves; it comes upon us. It is something that happens to us at times. We find ourselves afraid. The enemy wants to make us afraid and his spirits of fear are sent forth to do that. There needs to be a very definite and strong attitude taken in spirit before the Lord to resist the devil in this form. When we say the devil, we mean all his hosts as well; however, he may come - to resist fear. It is a resolution - "I will trust and not be afraid - for the Lord...".

Well, that is all I am going to say for the moment about the evil of fear. I want you to take that word and keep it in your heart; dwell much upon it, because I am convinced that the enemy is pressing very much along this line. Do you notice what Nehemiah said? Oh, it was a significant thing! Nehemiah said something more than he knew he was saying, I am quite sure of that! He said a thing which embraces a great deal of the New Testament. He said, "For this purpose were they hired that they might make me afraid, and do so, and sin." Yes, but that is only half. And then what? "That they might have an evil report, a case, against me." What the enemy is after all the time is, first of all, to make afraid, and then to get us to take some step, to do something out of fear, and then to come right around on us and accuse us before God. How cruel, how subtle, how wicked! - but that is of no consequence to him. What he is after is to cast the saints down by accusation, and if he can only get them either to do or to refrain from doing through fear, he has got a case, and it will not be long before he comes back on that very ground and makes accusation, condemnation, and distress.

The Evil of NOT Fearing

Now we pass over to the other side - the evil of not fearing. But this is another kind of fear, fear of the Lord, walking in the fear of the Lord, perfecting holiness in the fear of the Lord, submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of the Lord. "Great fear came upon the church" - with what result? It lost heart, it became afraid, it was paralyzed? No! - the Name of the Lord Jesus was glorified and the Church multiplied. On, this then, must be another kind of fear. It operates in exactly the opposite way from that of which we have been speaking.

What is fear? Well, it is the fear of devotion to the Lord. It is that fear which, in the first place, has all questions of relationship with the Lord settled, has the whole matter of acceptance by the Lord settled, the sin question is got out of the way through the righteousness which is of faith. Then the fear of the Lord means recognition of His glory, recognition of His greatness, recognition of His holiness, His majesty, and a humble submission to Him in the fear that would not in any way work against Him and His honor. It is another kind of fear, the fear of devotion to the Lord, and the chief characteristic of this fear is meekness. And that is where the sin of not fearing is found in the Word of God.

If you go through the Word and you find those various instances where God came out in judgment because this fear was not there, you will find that it was that those instances represented something like this. In Numbers 16 you have Dathan and Abiram and their company. What are they doing? To Moses, the meekest of men, the anointed servant of the Lord, they say, "You take too much on your self. You are not the only one through whom the Lord speaks. We are as much the children of God as you are!"  That is how they speak, and they fear not to put their hand upon that which is anointed. It is not that Moses is anything, but it is that which is anointed. It is something anointed of God and they were guilty of the sin of spiritual assumption; it was due to a lack of meekness. The Lord came out in terrible judgment, showing for all time that when the Lord anoints anyone or anything, that anointing is not something that constitutes that person a special office or officer. The anointing is the Lord, the Lord Himself. The Lord is on that, the Lord Himself is in that, the Lord is there, and when you touch that, you touch the Lord; you touch that in word, you touch the Lord, you touch that in deed, you touch the Lord. "He reproved kings for their sakes, saying "Touch not Mine anointed ones, and do My prophets no harm" (Psa. 105:14-15).

If you and I ever have the slightest reason to conclude that the Lord is anywhere or with any person or with anything or with any people, we touch that to our peril if it is touching it other than in the fear of the Lord. It is a tremendous check. We read that little bit from 1 Samuel. Yes, David was anointed, David was God's chosen one, but Saul had been anointed and Saul was not yet dead. Saul was not yet set aside finally, although potentially. David got an opportunity and cut off the skirt of Saul's garment and then it says, "David's heart smote him". David's heart smote him. We in New Testament times in whom the Spirit dwells would say, "The Lord rebuked me, smote me in my heart, in my spirit." Again and again this comes up - exactly what happens in the case of the bringing up of the ark. When Uzzah died before the Lord, what was the reason? It was a lack of the fear of the Lord of the right kind. It was assumption. It was a putting forth of a hand to touch holy things. That is terrible! The evil of not fearing, you see. It comes from an insufficient apprehension of the sacredness of what is of God.

But this fear is a holy fear. Let no one think for a moment that this fear of the Lord is death, bondage, stultification and repression. Not at all! Wherever you find this fear of the Lord you find joy, love, peace and liberty.  People are not afraid of the Lord. But they are careful not to grieve the Lord. They do not take liberties with the Lord.  They do not think of spiritual liberty as spiritual licence. They do not cast off restraint, they do not ride rough-shod over all sacred things, calling it liberty. No, there is holy fear which restrains and in restraining keeps things pure and keeps things clear and makes a straight way for the Lord. The true fear of the Lord is not dread. It is a very blessed and precious thing.

Now you notice these passages in the New Testament show us that it was at such times when this kind of fear came in a special way that there was something to the glory of God. You know, if you get into the book of Acts and you begin to see things happening, the expression and manifestation of divine power there is your peril. That was so in the case of Ananias and Sapphira. Things were happening. What a peril when the Lord is doing something, for the flesh to just step in and begin to sport itself in what God is doing, to take advantage, to exploit the situation for its improvement, and the Lord had to step in to save the situation. What did He do? Well, what he did in the issue was to recover a wholesome fear, a fear that would keep things pure and "fear fell upon all." That kept things pure. it did not arrest the Lord. It did not mean that things had got to come under bondage again. No, it just kept things pure, and so that was repeated from time to time. "Great fear came upon all...the Name of the Lord was glorified and the Church multiplied."

Oh, let us ask the Lord that there may be found in us that true holy fear which is LOVE, not the fear which is contrary to love,but the true holy fear which is love. The Lord will be able to go on and lead us into all His fullness if He has that quality in us, that in us which simply means that we honor Him, we recognize Him, we trust Him, we have perfect confidence in Him, and that we are very reticent either by word of criticism, or judgment, or by any other way, to put a hand upon what is sacred to the Lord, even a child of God. If it is a child of God, then the Lord is in that one and we must be very careful. That is what it means, and this matter of the blessing of the Lord which makes rich, this matter of the light of His countenance, is a very practical matter. It may all hand upon some matter of our attitude towards another child of God. The whole of the fullness of Christ may be held up and suspended for us because of some injurious way in which we talk about what is precious to God, if we criticize it, judge it, think that we can improve it. The Lord may stand back.

Let us ask the Lord to put into our hearts His fear while on the other hand He is seeking to root out of us that evil which is so much to His dishonor. I simply bring this to you and urge upon you further prayerful reflection. Ask the Lord about this. Do not forget the enemy's drive along the line of fear, but do not forget that freedom from the enemy's kind of fear does not make us those fire-eaters who care for nothing and simply trample all sacred things down under foot because we are very bold. No, there is a right boldness and a wrong boldness, a right fear and a wrong fear. The Lord teach us the meaning of that!

~T. Austin-Sparks~

(The End)