The true Christian walk consists of five factors that must be manifested in order for a salvation seeker to qualify for eternal life: fear, knowledge, wisdom, obedience and faith.

First and foremost is the FEAR of God which must be manifested in order to please Him.  Note that Jesus of Nazareth feared the Lord God, knowing that without such fear it would be impossible to please Him (Heb. 5:7). and to complete the task assigned to Him.  As a man, Jesus exhibited godly fear which compelled Him to do what the almighty commanded of Him.  Without such fear, Jesus would have treated His Father’s commands as suggestions or options.    Regarding the horrible torture and death He was about to endure, recall that the man Jesus of Nazareth asked the Father if there might be some other way to fulfil His commission.  His fear of failure and the consequences for Himself and mankind prompted Him to add, “Not My will, but Yours will be done.”  Jesus the human being serves as the example for all other human beings.  Without Christ-level fear, man will not study all of God’s Word in search of His Truth.  Instead, he will create his own version of truth and present it as God’s version.  One fears the entity (man or organization) that is superior to him, has power over him and will use that power to punish any deviation from that entity’s instructions and expectations.  Fear necessitates obedience to the superior entity.  Without fear, the subject will ignore the commands of the one in control, but will instead consider his own version of right and wrong.  Without fear there is no compulsion to gain knowledge of the will of the superior entity.

In the spiritual realm, KNOWLEDGE is the internalization of God’s Word/Truth.  Knowledge of His Truth comes only from an open-minded, in-depth study of the Holy Scriptures from Genesis to Revelation, which He condensed into the Ten Commandments.  The Scriptures contain what I call “headlines” (what is promised), the other pare provides the “fine print” (how to obtain what in promised) and the results of not obtaining God’s promises for obedience.  The easy way to “walk” this life is to ignore the Lord’s “fine print,” create one’s own version of it and present it as “the Truth.”  Those who do this are called Catholics and Protestants who have made God’s Truth whatever they want it to be.  The different versions of His Truth have produced hundreds of  “churches,” “faiths,” “denominations,” etc.  God declares that there is only ONE true church and one true set of “headlines” and “fine prints.”  Catholicism and Protestantism together constitute a counterfeit version of that one true church.  Their various doctrines constitute the sand foundation upon which “the church” is built (Mat. 7:24-27).  The Apostle Paul warned about this Truth in Galatians 1:6-9 and 2 Corinthians 11:4, noting that such church doctrines are is based on perverted versions of God’s Gospel designed by Satan to lead church people to accept “another Jesus.”  This describes 99.99% of professing Christendom whose members do not fear Almighty God and therefore are the servants of a false god, false christ who head a false church system.

The Lord tells us how to attain Scriptural knowledge through the Prophet Isaiah who asks: “Whom can He teach knowledge? and whom can He make  understand (His) doctrine (Truths)?  They who are weaned from the milk (elementary teachings) and drawn from the breasts.”  He goes on to explain that to obtain spiritual knowledge one must study God’s Word “precept upon precept, precept upon precept, line upon line, line upon line, here a little, there a little.”  For emphasis he repeats the formula (28:9-13).  Knowledge comes only from intense and open-minded study of God’s Word with a heart to believe and obey what is written therein.

WISDOM is knowing how to apply God’s Truth (Word–Jn. 17:17) to one’s life and having the will to do so.  Wisdom comes only through prayer and the work of the Holy Spirit in one’s life.  Wisdom comes with true conversion at which time one receives God’s Holy Spirit.  “They who are led by the Holy Spirit, (only) they are the sons of God” (Rom. 8:14).  Only true sons of God can gain spiritual wisdom because only they have received the Holy Spirit and obey it.

OBEDIENCE is the application of knowledge and wisdom to one’s life based on fear of the One Whom the true saint obeys–Almighty God–the same One Jesus of Nazareth feared, believed and obeyed.

The fifth part of the formula for the true Christian walk is FAITH.  Faith is knowing that the Holy Bible is the Word (will/Truth) of God, believing it and doing it.  As James 2 tells us, faith without works (obedience to the basis of faith–God’s Word) is dead faith.  The faith formula is simple: See the Bible as God’s Word, learning it, believing and obeying it.  Now we will examine a few Scriptures that speak directly to the fear commandment issued by God.

In Deuteronomy 5:29 we find the Lord saying about the Israelites who had pledged to obey Him: “How I wish that the people had a heart to fear Me and keep My commandments at all times so that I could bless them forever.”  Note that fear of God compels one to obey His Law which proves that one loves Him (John 14:15,23).  Note that He equates His Commandments and His Words–they are one and the same–every Word in the Bible is a command.  In Deuteronomy 8:6 He equates keeping of His commandments to fearing Him.  In 10:12,13 Moses asks: “… what does the Lord require of you, but to fear the Lord your God, to walk in all His ways, and to love Him and serve Him with all your heart (mind) and all your soul (body).”  In 10:20 Moses tells us that in order to inherit eternal life we must: “fear the Lord your God, serve Him and cling to Him.”  As noted previously, Christ’s prayers were heard on high only because He feared the Father (Heb. 5:7).  Without fear of the Almighty, all of the religiousness, all of the faith, all of the obedience one can produce will amount to nothing.  Note that in every case involving obedience to God, fear of Him is mentioned first.  It is that fear that compels the God seeker to build his life on the Rock–Jesus Christ.  Without fear, one will unwittingly build his life on sand, which will not stand (Mat. 7:26).  There is only one Rock.  However, there are many grains of sand.  They are the various organizations who call themselves “the church” which, He tells us, will fall.  Jesus promised that His church, which He, not man, would build, would not fall.”  Do you know where to find His church?  If you do, go to it.  If not, avoid that which calls itself “the church” as if your life depended on it–because it does.  Read 2 Corinthians 6:14-17:1.

Relative to our commanded fear of the Lord, 2 Corinthians 7:1 makes a statement that is hard to improve upon relative to fear of the Lord.  Here we find him compelling those in the false church to “come out of her and separate themselves from that unclean thing.”  Only then would God be their God and they would be His people.  Notice that he is writing to the church about the church.  “Having therefore these precious promises (of 6:17,18) dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves of all filthiness (sin) of the flesh and spirit, then continue on to perfect holiness in the fear of God” until we are manifesting “to measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ” (Eph. 4:13).  The church rejects these Truths, having conjured up their own truths, Adam and Eve being their examples.

In Hebrews 12:28,29 Paul makes another powerful statement: “Having the promise of the kingdom, … let us embrace grace whereby we may serve God correctly with reverence and godly fear, for our God is a consuming fire.”  Here he is referring to the removal of the “chaff”–every word, thought and act that is not of God–from His wheat–true seekers of holiness.

Paul them tells us to “work out our salvation with fear and trembling” (Phil. 2:12).  It is in a state of godly fear that the Truth-hunting saint will search the Scriptures to learn exactly what God requires of him in order to be saved upon the return of His Son.  The saint will work out his salvation–learn what he must do–through much fear and trembling.  Then, upon learning God’s Truth, he will “work” (obey the Truths he has found) until the end so as to be saved at the end of the age (Mat. 10:20).

You will not hear this message in church because there is no fear of God among the parishioners.  Due to the lack of godly fear, no Truth is being taught, your leaders having “cast the Truth into the ground,” just as Daniel prophesied would happen (8:12).  The enemies of God within professing Christendom have stopped true worship of and service to the true God by coming against “the daily” (worship)” and have substituted the worship of their own god–Satan.  Note that the word “sacrifice” is written in italics because it was not in the original writing.  “The daily” referred to morning and evening services of the priests in the Temple.  Today we are commanded to meet for such a service once each week on the 7th day (Saturday) where we are to worship the Lord of the Sabbath on what He calls “My holy day” (Isa. 58:13).

Let us fear the Almighty, worship and obey Him with all of our being.  Nothing else matters in this instant of time known as life.  Let us “redeem the time” by putting it to good use by fearing, knowing and obeying the Lord with the faith and wisdom that comes only through the study His Word.  L.J.