WBS.195
FUNDAMENTALS OF DISCIPLESHIP
THE HOLY
SPIRIT – XV
The Spirit of the Fear of IAUE
Isaiah
11:2 And the spirit of IAUE 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 IAUE;
3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of IAUE:
and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears:
From my many years of experience, I know that most
Christians who read this will be inclined to just sigh and relegate the power
of the Spirit to others, because the idea of witnessing terrifies them
Recently, I heard a minister state that the #1
fear among Christians is the fear of speaking in public. How interesting it is
that the #1 fear is the one thing that would keep a believer from doing his #1
responsibility as a disciple…to be a witness of Yahushua. Who knows?
Maybe this is the root cause of why the church is so powerless, today.
We saw in last week’s post that the anointing
of the Holy Spirit is released through preaching the gospel, through sharing
our testimony and love of Yahushua with others; for it is the gospel that is
the power of IAUE unto salvation. If the
church refuses to testify to the world around it, it is left to huddle inside
the walls of a building on Sunday mornings to hold regular club meetings and
keep what they believe to themselves. As
such, they are due no more respect from society than any other club or
secretive organization like the Masons who conduct their secret meetings inside
Masonic Lodges. Besides, it would appear
that most really have nothing to offer the world but a story. Just a story is
not good enough. One does not need power
to tell just a story.
1 Corinthians
2:4 And
my speech and my preaching was not with enticing words of man's wisdom, but in
demonstration of the Spirit and of power:
5 That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men,
but in the power of IAUE.
Messiah does not expect the world to place its
faith in words only. The reason Messiah told his disciples to wait until he
sent the Holy Spirit to them is because they needed to receive power; the kind
of power that is able to manifest the transcendent authority of the Kingdom of
Heaven.
When I was a young boy, my dad would
occasionally ask me to walk two blocks down the road to a convenience store to
pick up a gallon jug of milk. Interacting
with adult strangers (which would be required to make a purchase at a store)
terrified me; but I would do it. Do you
want to know why I would do that which I feared? You guessed it. I feared my dad more.
In the passage above where Paul said his
preaching was accompanied with a demonstration of the Spirit and of power, he began
those words with a comment that is quite curious.
1 Corinthians 2:3 And I was
with you in weakness, and in fear, and in much trembling.
Paul was not keen on public speaking either;
but he feared IAUE more than he feared man; and in preaching (remember last
week’s post) the power of the Holy Spirit was present to demonstrate the truthfulness
of the gospel and to manifest the Kingdom of which Paul testified.
Exodus 20:18 And
all the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of the
trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it, they removed,
and stood afar off.
19 And
they said unto Moses, Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not Elohim
speak with us, lest we die.
20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for Elohim
is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces, that
ye sin not.
In this passage of Scripture, we see two
related but different words for “fear.”
Moses instructed the people to “fear not;” (yare) then he said that what
they were witnessing on the mount was intended to put Elohim’s “fear”(yirah)
before their faces. The impact of that fear would be an influence upon them
that would turn them away from committing sin.
Now, we all are well acquainted with the first kind of fear (yare). This is the unreasonable fear man has; like
the fear of the dark, or the fear of heights, or the fear of public
speaking. The other fear (yirah),
the fear of IAUE is a reasoned fear. When we know who IAUE is, we have reason
to fear him. In my illustration above,
my reasoned fear of my dad was responsible for my obedience when he asked me to
do something that countered my unreasonable fear of interacting with adult
strangers. The one fear overcame the other fear and produced obedience within
me.
This is exactly what the Holy Spirit does
within us as the 7-fold Spirit of IAUE.
Isaiah
11:2 And the spirit of IAUE 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 IAUE;
Notice
the pairings of attributes in this verse:
the spirit of wisdom and understanding; the spirit of counsel
and might; and the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of IAUE. It is through our increasing knowledge of IAUE
that the fear of IAUE grows within us and protects us from ourselves.
Proverb 1:29 For
that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of IAUE:
Proverb 8:13 The
fear of IAUE is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the
evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate.
Proverb 14:27 The fear of IAUE is a
fountain of life, to depart from the snares of death.
Proverb 16:6 By
mercy and truth iniquity is purged: and by the fear of IAUE men
depart from evil.
Going back yet once more to my childhood
illustration; when asked to do that which I feared (with unreasonable fear), my
fear of my dad rendered my choice to obey or disobey no contest. In the same way, the fear of IAUE renders our
obedience an immediate response…even if it causes us to defy an unreasonable
fear we might have.
Isaiah 11:3 And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of IAUE:
and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the
hearing of his ears:
The Spirit of IAUE was upon the Master
Yahushua Messiah; and the Spirit, in His capacity as the Spirit of the Fear of
IAUE made Messiah’s choices immediate and positive. He was quick to understand what he must
do. There was never an option in Messiah’s
mind to disobey IAUE no matter what his eyes saw or his ears heard. He didn’t counter the will of IAUE with, “Don’t
you know we are in Nazareth? They have
known me since childhood. They are not
going to respond well to what you want me to say to them.” He didn’t say back to IAUE, “I overheard the
leaders of the synagogue say they are seeking to kill me. I think it might be better if I went back to
Galilee for the present time.” No, the
fear of IAUE prevented him from sinning, from disobeying the will of his
Father.
This brings us back to the fear of man. I believe the fear of man is at the root of
the fear of speaking in public…the fear of sharing one’s testimony with
others. What does the Scripture say
about this?
2 Timothy 1:7 For IAUE hath not given us the
spirit of fear (timidity);
but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.
8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Master…
Proverb 29:25 The fear of man bringeth a snare: but whoso putteth his
trust in IAUE shall be safe.
We are so ready for the Holy Spirit to bring
us wisdom and understanding and counsel.
We so desire the might and power of the Spirit to be manifested in our
lives. We want the gifts of the Holy
Spirit to flow through our lives; but we do NOT want the fear of IAUE; because
the fear of IAUE is what keeps us from disobeying His will. If we were truly honest with ourselves, we
would have to admit that we still want to keep a bit of independence for
ourselves; to retain some room to still do our own thing from time to time…or,
like is the case for many, for most of the time. We do not want to see the smoke covered
mountain with lightenings and thunderings and the sound of trumpet blasts. We would end up thinking about that every
single time we contemplated disobeying the will of IAUE. Well, guess what? That is a part of the package when we receive
the Holy Spirit. He is the Spirit of the
fear of IAUE. That fear is revealed to
us as we increase in the knowledge of IAUE.
We are designed and purposed to do the will of
IAUE. What better way of assisting us
toward success in that mission than to pursue the ministry of the Holy Spirit
to us as the Spirit of the fear of IAUE?
He will empower us to overcome every unreasonable fear in our life and
to keep our feet securely on the paths of righteousness.
Kingdom
heart: a heart that offers no resistance to the
performance of the will of IAUE.
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