“But (just) AS He who has called you is holy, SO (therefore) you must be holy in every aspect of your lives.  As it is written, ‘You must be holy for (BECAUSE) I am holy'” (1 Pet. 1:15,16).  The Almighty is saying in plain language that to be His children we must be holy AS He is holy BECAUSE He is holy.  In summary: WE MUST BE LIKE HIM.  We must emulate (copy) the “walk” (life-style) His human Son Jesus manifested during His time on earth.  When asked by the disciples if He would “show us the Father,” Jesus repeated 1 Peter 1:15,16 using different Words: “He who has seen Me has seen the Father” (Jn. 14:9).  Notice that holiness is not simply a mental concept, it requires to be “seen” in our thoughts, words and actions.  He also said: “Verily, verily (truly), I say to you, ‘The Son can do nothing by His own power; but what He sees the Father do, that He does, for whatsoever the Father does, the Son does also” (Jn. 5:19).  He did what He did by the power of the Holy Spirit, the same Holy Spirit that is available to Truth seekers today.  Only those who receive that Spirit and obey its “voice” are true sons of God like the original Son of God (Rom. 8:14).

Salvation seekers must understand that God sent the Word (the other God in the Godhead-Jn. 1:1-4,14) to earth as a man in order to set THE EXAMPLE for those who would join Them in Their earthly kingdom.  Therefore He expects those who would spend eternity with Them to “walk” (think, speak and act) as did Jesus of Nazareth who was a mortal human being exactly like all other mortal human beings.  His “walk” of holiness was the template (example/pattern) for those who would follow in His footsteps Him into the Kingdom of God (1 Jn. 2:6).  Read Jesus of Nazareth: God, Man or God-man?  Key word–God-man.  Whether a God seeker follows Him or not depends solely on the seeker’s FEAR OF HIM.   Fear of God is not merely a mental entity.  Like faith, it involves behavioral requirements that must be met.  Meeting those requirements (commandments) proves one’s fear of God.  Otherwise, one’s fear is dead.  And like dead faith, it accomplishes nothing.  Fear’s behavioral (thought, word and deed) aspect is summed up in one Word: OBEDIENCE.  WE ARE COMMANDED BY GOD TO PROVE OUR FEAR OF HIM AND OUR FAITH IN HIS WORD BY OBEYING HIS WORD.  HE ACCEPTS NO OTHER PROOF.  Zealous religiosity and churchivity are abominations to Him because they are designed to substitute for obedience.  Again, obedience to His Word, not church doctrine, is the only proof He accepts.  All other “proofs” are of Satan.

Very early on in my spiritual journey I was led to focus on Psalm 119.  I immediately fell in love with it.  The 119th Psalm is God’s Word about His Word.  By directing my attention to that one chapter He was preparing me for a ministry that would focus on only one thing–His Word.  If it isn’t His Word, it isn’t me.  I have no interest in anything else this world has to offer.  Occasionally He will direct me to write or speak something about the political or social world, but my statements will always relate to His Word.  I rarely wax political or social, but when I do there is always a spiritual aspect to it, which normally involves Biblical prophecy concerning the future.  Prophecy is the result of the Lord’s revelation.  Read Revelation: A Work of the Holy Spirit and Biblical Prophecy: The Two-sided Expression of God’s Love.  Key words–Work and Expression respectively.  With the above in mind, let us turn to the subject of this series–the FEAR OF GOD.

As the Proverbist noted: “The fear of God is the beginning of wisdom.”  Note that fear is the BEGINNING (foundation, pre-condition) of the true Christian walk.  Without a healthy fear of the Lord one will never receive the wisdom required to follow Him.  Without a deep and abiding fear of the Almighty one will serve himself according to his own wisdom, which is in reality Satan’s wisdom.  Initially, Adam and Eve FEARED their Creator because they BELIEVED what He said.  HE SAID THAT DISOBEDIENCE PRODUCES DEATH.  However, they quickly lost their fear of God by listening to the Serpent of Eden who told them that they could disobey their Creator and live eternally in paradise.  Having lost their fear of God, they did what they wanted to do “knowing” that the fruit of the forbidden true would “make them wise” (Gen. 3:6).  They “knew” that its fruit would give them wisdom superior to that of the Lord.  They would be able to create their own “truths.”  God declared that this had happened when He said that Adam and Eve were now “like us, knowing (able to create their own version of) good and evil” (Gen. 3:22).

The lack of fear of God always produces a lack of faith in and obedience of His Word.  Fearlessness and faithlessness are spiritual twins.  So-called “Sinners Saved By Grace” have no fear of God and therefore no faith in His Word.  Though they will adamantly declare their fear of God and faith in His Word, their walk proves that they 1) are self-deceived, 2) have “turned the grace of our God into a license to sin, and 3) have denied the only Lord God and our Lord Jesus Christ” control over their lives (Jude 4/ Jam. 1:22).  Note that SSBG (the whole of professing Christendom) have, by continuing to sin (transgress the Law/Word–1 Jn. 3:4), have replaced the Godhead with themselves.  By continuing to sin they DENY BOTH THE FATHER AND THE SON, THEREBY BECOMING THEIR OWN GODS, WHICH IS IDOLATRY.  SIN IS IDOLATRY–THE BREAKING OF THE FIRST COMMANDMENT IN GOD’S LAW.  As I have stated many times: EVERYTHING COMES BACK TO THE WORD.  The believer must obey God’s Law/Word/Gospel/Truth if he/she is to have any chance for eternal life.  I cannot stress this Truth enough.  If you are still in the counterfeit Catholic/Protestant Church, you are being lied to.  If you believe what you are hearing, you are believing a lie.  If you are living according to what you are being told, you are living a lie.  I not only lived many of those lies, I once preached them.  I praise God for His patience.   L.J.