What is the Fear of God?

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Albert Barnes, condemnation, curses, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, freedom, God's love, joy, judging others, love, obedience, peace, spiritual blessings, spiritual power, T.A. Sparks, true faith

Photo by Paul Schuberth

Although this article springs from my own experiences with the fear of God, I did not describe here how it really feels to be struck all of a sudden by this special spirit of Him who rules the universe. If you like to read more about that, though, click here. In this entry you will rather find a definition by T. Austin Sparks’ of the fear of the Lord and some implications of what it means to truly belong to God’s people. Contrasting the evil of fear imposed on us by Satan in order to torment and paralyze us, TAS wrote regarding the fear of God,

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When does God hear (all) our prayers?

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ask and receive, being born again, experience, faith, new creation, prayer, the new self, the old self, true faith

Abiding IN Christ like these crocuses in the vase, everything we ask for will be received – Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Today as I heard someone praying about their personal issues, I suddenly heard the question in my mind, “Will God hear these prayers?” At first I thought, “Well, I am not God. How could I know which prayers He might hear and which not?” 🙄 But then as I considered this topic more closely, it occurred to me that there are certain conditions that must be met before God is inclined to listen to our heart’s pleas, even continually. Having found some Scriptures that display the connection between true faith and God’s immediate response by hearing all our prayers, I decided to highlight some parts I found enlightening there (emphasis in italics mine).

Being led by the Holy Spirit

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Baptism in the Holy Spirit, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, justification, killing sin, Matthew Poole, peace, prayer without ceasing, sanctification, sealed with the Holy Spirit, T.A. Sparks, the law, the new self, the old self

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Theodore Austin-Sparks so aptly said,

The Holy Spirit’s method is to set His seal upon us as we move according to His leading; not according to our fancy, choice, aptitude, predilection or ambition. (1)

Speaking the Truth IN Love

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Albert Barnes, discerning the spirits, exhortation, experience, God's love, grace, joy, love, peace, Truth in Love

Photo by Susanne Schuberth

Speaking the truth in love is not something we can do on our own. Actually, we need to love our Creator through Jesus Christ, so that we can behave toward all other human beings (including ourselves) as we should. If God wants us to take a stand, we should do it, of course. However, if we are not IN love with God, what will happen then? That is most probably something some of us already did: we tried to speak the truth in love by telling others what we believed, and perhaps it was really the truth (!), but we did not wait on the Lord to nudge us to do so and thus it got all harsh and judgmental.  😦 We might have even felt that there was something wrong about it and thus we added some pleasantry in order to show that we really loved the other person. Well, I am afraid that is not the way God intended it to be.