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The War of The Fears

The Fear of The Lord

Do you fear things? Why do you fear considering that Jesus Christ so proclaimed, “Fear not, little flock; for it is your Father's good pleasure to give you the kingdom.” (Luke 12: 32) What then remains within our hearts that keeps us in consistent fear? The prophet Isaiah understood this when he wrote under inspiration of God that Christians should, “Sanctify the LORD of hosts himself; and let him be your fear, and let him be your dread.” (Isaiah 8: 13) Why would Isaiah write such an interesting message; the simple answer is found in the Book of Jeremiah, “And I will make an everlasting covenant with them, that I will not turn away from them, to do them good; but I will put my fear in their hearts, that they shall not depart from me.” (Jeremiah 32: 40) Fear is the trust and the border of the Christian’s walk with Jesus Christ; the moment one walks along the edges of their walk with Jesus, fear sets in upon the Christian’s life. This fear is not a fear of hopelessness, but a fear of trust: trust that so drove David to state, “Deliver me out of the mire, and let me not sink: let me be delivered from them that hate me, and out of the deep waters… For thou art my rock and my fortress; therefore for thy name's sake lead me, and guide me.” (Psalms 69: 14; Psalms 31: 3) This border is simply the physical and the walk with Jesus is greatly the spiritual. As Jesus so proclaimed unto the Jews, “… Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up. Then said the Jews, Forty and six years was this temple in building, and wilt thou rear it up in three days? But he spake of the temple of his body.” (John 2: 19-21) Further rendered in Genesis 2: 24, and Romans 12: 5, the body is the boundary and the place of fear and trust wherewith we as John 14: 26 displays were knowledgeable in times past yet are now in wisdom and ignorance concerning. We should consult with great haste not to dwell outside in the physical body, but to strictly paid heed to the straight and narrow way provided in Matthew 7: 13-14 for Proverbs 8: 13 and Ecclesiastes 5: 2 fair warns that, “The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogancy, and the evil way, and the froward mouth, do I hate… Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter any thing before God: for God is in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.” It is God’s Grace that we encounter the “Fear of The Lord” when we veer from the correct and straight path of trust; however, the fear encountered after we determine to veer completely from the “Fear of The Lord” is our own devices as stated in Romans 1: 28 & 32, “And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient… Who knowing the judgment of God, that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same, but have pleasure in them that do them.” One must not forget that even the completely withdrawn child of God is never completely withdrawn from God and never completely withdrawn from his or her self-created fear as Psalms 139: 8, “If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there.”               

Proverbs further enumerates this discussion by stating, “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding.” (Proverbs 9: 10) What sense of fearful wisdom would propel a disciple named Peter to climb out of a boat unto a turbulent and stormy Sea of Galilee toward the Savior’s proclamation that he, Peter, should, “Be of good cheer; it is I; be not afraid.” (Matthew 14: 27) What fearlessness would propel a man named Abraham to offer up his son, Isaac, because, “…God did tempt Abraham…” to try Abraham and Isaac’s faithfulness and obedience (Genesis 22: 1-18). The resounding answer is this, “That the trial of your faith, being much more precious than of gold that perisheth, though it be tried with fire, might be found unto praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ: Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory: Receiving the end of your faith, even the salvation of your souls.” (1 Peter 1: 7-9) Even more interesting, why would God so hate the fearful that He describes these people as the first to inherit the Lake of Fire in Revelation 21: 8? Stated directly, the fearful without faithful are completely nothing and have no name except for their characteristics that they manifested on Earth. For God so stated that, “Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen… For with God nothing shall be impossible.” (Hebrews 11: 1; Luke 1: 37) The God that permitted fear has shown to His children that fearful faith brings forth wisdom of God that surpasses and reveals all things; however, the fearful unfaithful is the impossible nothing that God casts into the Lake of Fire [this is so from the understanding that impossible nothings are shapeless, nameless, and lifeless entities; As C.S. Lewis states, “It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities.”[1]] Psalms concludes this section by stating, “Mine eyes shall be upon the faithful of the land, that they may dwell with me: he that walketh in a perfect way, he shall serve me.” (Psalms 101: 6)

The Fear of The World

For those that are tossed about daily in fearful tantrums to appease what they perceive as real, the conversation now leads towards defining the order that rules the fear of the world. The captain of this enterprise of fear, Satan, is understood by closely examining Ezekiel 26: 21 and John 10: 12, “I will make thee a terror, and thou shalt be no more: though thou be sought for, yet shalt thou never be found again, saith the Lord GOD… But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep.” This terror of Satan is the fabric of the fear of the world. “What could he do to me,” one might say. “Will he harm my family because I did not do something for him,” others might say. Let us first reveal that Satan’s chief characteristic is terror, fear is the means he uses to accomplish his ends, yet we must not forget that his ends are solely for his preservation at cost of his own flock. Satan is not proprietor, he is merely a hireling, one in responsible for the Master’s good pleasure. But, we must not forget that Paul wrote, under inspiration of God, that, “And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also be transformed as the ministers of righteousness; whose end shall be according to their works.” (2 Corinthians 11: 14, 15) Works? Works of fear is how the deceit of the fear of the world operates. Empty promises, hollow commitments, and abundance of lies is the devouring force so stated in 1 Peter 5: 8, “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour…” Before one says, “I am protected from such devouring,” let us investigate Genesis: focusing on the creation of Adam and the judgment of the Serpent:

The Creation of Adam:

Genesis 2: 7, “And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

The Judgment of The Serpent:

Genesis 3: 14, “And the LORD God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life…”

We should have gathered that Adam, dust of the ground, is open prey for the Serpent, the devourer of dust. The reason the dust is the food of the Devil rests in the misunderstood 5^th “I Will” of Satan, which states in Isaiah 14: 14 that Satan, “... will be like the most High.” Heavy accent should rest on the word “like” for Adam and the physical descendants of the First Adam (consult 1 Corinthians 15: 45-50 for further explanation) were as Genesis says made, “…in the likeness of God...“ (Genesis 5: 1) Thus, the devouring of dust is driven by Satan’s hatred that man is physically made in the likeness of God, which is what he so desires and will even destroy his own flock to achieve.

The significance of this worldly fear remains. Therefore, we turn now to the Book of Job to study the manifestation of this fear. Job 1:7, Job 2: 2 present this, “And the LORD said unto Satan, Whence comest thou? Then Satan answered the LORD, and said, From going to and fro in the earth, and from walking up and down in it.” “What is ‘to and fro’ and ‘up and down’,” you might inquire. The most precise answer to this: Satan exists on two dimensions [a plane existence], being up and down represents length on a plane, and to and fro[2] represents width on a plane. Essentially, Satan can devour the dust that compiles humanity by physically being all around his prey’s third-dimensional existence, and yet being completely absent from the sight of his prey, being that he exists on the second dimension[3]. This long winded discussion was necessary to fully appreciate the depth and magnitude of Matthew 10: 28 and Isaiah 10: 18, “And fear not them which kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul: but rather fear him which is able to destroy both soul and body in hell… And shall consume the glory of his forest, and of his fruitful field, both soul and body: and they shall be as when a standardbearer fainteth.” The resounding question remains, “What is this fear of the world then?” Well, frankly, the fear of the world is the “Knowledge of Good and Evil” stated in Genesis, “But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.” (Genesis 2: 17) Yet, we must not forget the old lie that ever is part of our sin-filled existence on Earth, “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil.” (Genesis 3: 5) Before our minds run away with idea of knowing good and evil within the package of knowledge, let us hear from Proverbs and Hebrews, “For that they hated knowledge, and did not choose the fear of the LORD…  The fear of a king is as the roaring of a lion: whoso provoketh him to anger sinneth against his own soul... who through fear of death were all their lifetime subject to bondage.” (Proverbs 1: 29; Proverbs 20: 2; & Hebrews 2: 15) Concentrated upon the fear of the world, we understand that even “Knowledge of Good and Evil” and the fear associated with this knowledge are all illusions created from the real factor of disobedience unto God, the only entity that does exist. Touching upon a final point, we discover that even Satan himself, the curator of the fear of the world, is an illusion for Job 20: 24-26 so states, “He shall flee from the iron weapon, and the bow of steel shall strike him through. It is drawn, and cometh out of the body; yea, the glittering sword cometh out of his gall: terrors are upon him. All darkness shall be hid in his secret places: a fire not blown shall consume him; it shall go ill with him that is left in his tabernacle.” We now fully appreciate the importance of Matthew 16: 26 and John 12: 25, “For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world shall keep it unto life eternal.”

The Battle of The Fears

Let us entreat in the battle of the fears so described in the above sections, for the Book of Jeremiah so proclaims, “A sound of battle is in the land, and of great destruction.” (Jeremiah 50: 22) Yet, we must remember that before we are shod with armor and arrayed with all weapons of war we must chose a side, for Jesus so commanded, “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.” (Matthew 6: 24) Upon which side will indeed dictate your fear and will indeed dictate your eternal resting place for all have sinned as Romans 5: 12; 3: 10-11 reveals, “Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned… As it is written, There is none righteous, no, not one:  There is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God.” The battlefield is not of the physical, but of the spiritual for as Ephesians 6: 12 so declares, “For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.” For who will not mount and be counted among their master’s numbers, God hath so decreed that, “…I know thy works[4], that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” (Revelation 3: 16) We must not forget that many will follow the fear of the world while few will follow the fear of the Lord, for Matthew 22 :14 and 1 Corinthians 1: 28-29 states, “For many are called, but few are chosen… And base things of the world, and things which are despised, hath God chosen, yea, and things which are not, to bring to nought things that are: That no flesh should glory in his presence.” If our inquiry leads to a number of both sides, let us now consult Revelation 5: 11, “And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands…;”[5] however, we must remember what  Jude 1: 11 says, “And Enoch also, the seventh from Adam, prophesied of these, saying, Behold, the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his saints…[6];” thus, the blood mentioned in Revelation 14: 20, “And the winepress was trodden without the city, and blood came out of the winepress, even unto the horse bridles, by the space of a thousand and six hundred furlongs,” so unveils the significance of the armour of God stated in Ephesians 6: 13, “Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand.” Let us not slide back to the physical in our thinking that blood is only from bodily blood, instead, let us learn from Jesus what this blood truthfully is, “Then Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of man, and drink his blood, ye have no life in you… It is the spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing: the words that I speak unto you, they are spirit, and they are life.” We should have learned that physical blood so spelt in Revelation 14: 20 is indeed the Body and Word of Jesus for Revelation 12: 11, “And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death,” though this be so, we must integrate the understanding gained from 1 Corinthians 15: 53, “For this corruptible must put on incorruption, and this mortal must put on immortality.” The blood is indeed blood physically and blood spiritually, yet these are both of different kinds than we are accustomed to, God the Father has put forth, “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and my thoughts than your thoughts,” thus we must not soon forget that, “The LORD is a man of war: the LORD is his name.” (Exodus 15: 3) Confidently, we now rest in assurance that the armaments of war are not physical as we now know, but as dually spiritual and physical in a spiritual context, for 2 Corinthians 10: 4 details, “(For the weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the pulling down of strong holds;)”

          Now that we have devolved into the first layer of this discourse, let us hold composure and investigate even further. We have read that the warriors of either camp are in likenesses to their Commander in Chief: those that fear the Lord are so like Jesus Christ as 1 John 3: 2 describes, and those that fear the world are so like Satan physically and so like the Devil spiritually as Matthew 25: 41 foretells. The right side of the battlefield is Jesus Christ and His army, and the left side of the battlefield is Satan/Devil and his army. Though much of the battle still rests in Revelation to be fulfilled in future times, the framework of these coming conflicts is described and detailed in Matthew 4: 1-11, yet the interesting factor of this conflict is the battlefield for this wilderness battlefield is noted again in Revelation 17: 3. The war waged against the fear of the Lord and the fear of the world orbits around these three prizes: whose obedience will yield food for their respective flock, whose servants will follow their master unto what ever end to accomplish the good of their master, and whose dominion is everlasting in magnitude to call those who would worship.

          In concluding this discussion, in order for us to fully grasp the weigh and magnitude of this battle, we would need to reverse our existence and see things from top-down, which Jesus Christ taught, “So the last shall be first, and the first last: for many be called, but few chosen.” (Matthew 20: 16) The battle is simply between the order in imperfection [fear of the world] versus the perfection of order [the fear of the Lord]. In ending, Jesus knew full well the consequence of the battle and the war, yet as He is observed, “But when he saw the multitudes, he was moved with compassion on them, because they fainted, and were scattered abroad, as sheep having no shepherd;” as Zechariah 10: 2 fair warns those that fear the world, “For the idols have spoken vanity, and the diviners have seen a lie, and have told false dreams; they comfort in vain: therefore they went their way as a flock, they were troubled, because there was no shepherd,” 1 John 5: 21 and 1 Corinthians 15: 57 advises those that fear the Lord, “Little children, keep yourselves from idols. Amen… But thanks be to God, which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”

Admirable Advise:

Pray you believe not in vain as 1 Corinthians 15: 1-2 states, “Moreover, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; By which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in vain.” Importantly, rest not your faith in rocky soil as Luke 8: 13 so declares, “They on the rock are they, which, when they hear, receive the word with joy; and these have no root, which for a while believe, and in time of temptation fall away.”