Healing and the Fear of the Lord II - Living Grace Fellowship

Wednesday 07/10/13

Topic: The Fear of the Lord & Healing

Series – And He Healed them all:

The Fear of the Lord and Health II.mp3

Key Text:

Prov. 3:7-8

Prov. 2:1-17

Prov. 8

The Fear of the Lord and Healing…

In the first session I offered what I called our “reason to listen” verse, and it is found in Prov. 3:7,8,

“Do not be wise in your own eyes; Fear the LORD and depart from evil. It will be health to your flesh, And strength to your bones.”

Understanding the Fear of the Lord

Now let me begin with the fact that I know that this chapter is literally Solomon speaking to his own natural son, but that it is an accurate general exhortation to do the same with the Lord as our Father is well accepted and quite obvious.

In the words of Matthew Henry,

“Job had asked, long before this, “Where shall wisdom be found? Whence cometh wisdom? ” (Job 28:12; 20) and he had given this general answer (v. 23), “God knoweth the place of it“; but Solomon here goes further, and tells us both where we may find it and how we may get it.”

…and so is the reason why we are looking into these verses for guidance on understanding the fear of the Lord.

“then you will understand the fear of the LORD and discover the knowledge of God.“ ~ Prov. 2:5

Though we read verses 1-17, I list the one above because it directly references the “why” of this passage.

Notice that the verse begins with “then you will understand“…

The previous 4 verses offer a list of ‘IF’s’ making verse 5 the “then” in an “If/Then” statement.

Let’s review them…

My son,

if you accept my words and store up my commands within you, listening closely to wisdom and directing your heart to understanding; furthermore,

if you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding,

if you seek it like silver and search for it like hidden treasure,

“THEN you will UNDERSTAND the fear of the Lord.”

In order to comprehend the fear of the Lord you must first accept God’s Words and store them within you. you do this by closely and attentively listening to the voice of wisdom which we will address next) and directing the whole of our attention to obtaining understanding. This cannot be a mild and chevalier endeavor, but must be deliberate, passionate and energetic. It must be done with your WHOLE HEART. No passive inclination nor general interest will do…it must be a driving and all possessing pursuit of the entire soul.

FURTHERMORE (in addition to this)

“If you call out to insight and lift your voice to understanding”

Here Solomon shows the depth of the inner desire by being one about which one cannot be silent. What is in the abundance of the heart in desires it calls and cries out for with passion.

Finally it is the subject of your earnest searching. Again, this cannot be seen as a passive interest but one that provokes desire, emotion, verbalization and diligent searching out. It compels you to action!

The promise here is that the one who is diligently seeking will NOT be denied!

“THEN you will UNDERSTAND the fear of the Lord.”

The reason why God grants the fear of the Lord AND the ones He grants it too is then revealed in the next several verses.

“For the LORD gives wisdom: out of His mouth comes knowledge and understanding.

He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous:

He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.

He keeps the paths of judgment, and preserves the way of his saints.” ~ Prov. 2:6-8

Of special interest is verse 7, “He lays up sound wisdom for the righteous: He is a buckler to them that walk uprightly.”

This is something which is offensive to the Post-Modern church, but it is the truth none-the-less. While God does NOT want us to produce our own righteousness (and never has by the way) He does require that our rightstanding with Him be more than just situational and positional. We MUST WALK UPRIGHTLY. That is something that cannot faked, it MUST BE LIVED! To claim that you hold God in affectionate reverence while still actively clinging to sin is a direct contradiction.

The Psalmist said it this way, (remember that fearing God means that one actively hates evil)

“Come and hear, all ye that fear God, and I will declare what he hath done for my soul.

I cried unto Him with my mouth, and He was extolled with my tongue.

If I regard iniquity in my heart, the Lord will not hear me:

But verily God hath heard me;

He hath attended to the voice of my prayer.

Blessed be God, which hath not turned away my prayer, nor His mercy from me.” ~ Psa. 66:16-20

The personification of Wisdom

Proverbs chapter 8 presents wisdom as an independent spirit, one which was brought forth by God (vs. 24,25), was owned and possessed by God (vs. 22) and acted alongside Him throughout creation (vs. 26-29), was God’s delight (v. 30) and which delighted in the sons of men (v. 31).

This is also one the 7 spirits which was upon Christ in His earthly ministry,

“The Spirit of the LORD will rest on Him

a Spirit of wisdom and understanding,

a Spirit of counsel and strength,

a Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD.

His delight will be in the fear of the LORD. He will not judge by what He sees with His eyes, He will not execute justice by what He hears with His ears…etc.” ~ Isa. 11:2-3a

There are also 7 spirits before the throne of God mentioned in Revelation…

Rev 1:4 “John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be to you, and peace, from him who is, and who was, and who is to come; and from the seven Spirits who are before His throne;”

Rev. 4:5 “From the throne came flashes of lightning, rumblings, and thunder. Burning before the throne were seven fiery torches, which are the seven spirits of God.”

and
Rev. 5:6 “Then I saw one like a slaughtered lamb standing between the throne and the four living creatures and among the elders. He had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent into all the earth.”

Of note in these verses is verse 13 which says,

“The fear of the LORD is to hate evil: pride, and arrogance, and the evil way, and the perverse mouth, do I hate.” ~ Prov. 8:13

I am not here attempting to make a case for the spirits being one and the same with the Holy Spirit or being in fact as they seem to always be represented as seven individual spirits themselves for an argument might be made justifiably for either belief. For where Proverbs 8 uses terms like brought forth and possessed and Rev. 1:4 clearly states that these spirit were BEFORE God’s throne (not on it), it also called them the seven spirits OF God. This might mean “processing forth from Him” or “that they ARE Him”. Since we only see in part and know in part I will abstain from any further speculation and in the end it changes nothing.

The main point of this chapter was to point out that because “Wisdom” teaches the fear of the Lord, “The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom” it seemed prudent to learn a little about wisdom itself (either as an entity or an attribute).

For more concerning this teaching please listen to the recording.

Pastor Mark

View posts by Pastor Mark

Hi my name is Mark and though I am opposed to titles, I am currently the only Pastor (shepherd/elder) serving our assembly right now.

I have been Pastoring in one capacity or another for nearly 30 years now, though never quite like I am today.

Early in 2009 the Lord revealed to me that the way we had structured our assembly (church) was not scriptural in that it was out of sync with what Paul modeled for us in the New Testament. In truth, I (like many pastors I am sure) never even gave this fundamental issue of church structure the first thought. I had always assumed that church structure was largely the same everywhere and had been so from the beginning. While I knew Paul had some very stringent things to say about the local assembly of believers, the point of our gatherings together and who may or may not lead, I never even considered studying these issues but assumed we were all pretty much doing it right...safety in numbers right?! Boy, I couldn't have been more wrong!

So needless to say, my discovery that we had been doing it wrong for nearly two decades was a bit of a shock to me! Now, this "revelation" did not come about all at once but over the course of a few weeks. We were a traditional single pastor led congregation. It was a top-bottom model of ministry which is in part biblical, but not in the form of a monarchy.

The needed change did not come into focus until following 9 very intense months of study and discussions with those who were leaders in our church at the time.

We now understand and believe that the Bible teaches co-leadership with equal authority in each local assembly. Having multiple shepherds with God's heart and equal authority protects both Shepherds and sheep. Equal accountability keeps authority and doctrine in check. Multiple shepherds also provide teaching with various styles and giftings with leadership skills which are both different and complementary.

For a while we had two co-pastors (elders) (myself and one other man) who led the church with equal authority, but different giftings. We both taught in our own ways and styles, and our leadership skills were quite different, but complimentary. We were in complete submission to each other and worked side-by-side in the labor of shepherding the flock.

Our other Pastor has since moved on to other ministry which has left us with just myself. While we currently only have one Pastor/Elder, it is our desire that God, in His faithfulness and timing, may bring us more as we grow in maturity and even in numbers.

As to my home, I have been married since 1995 to my wonderful wife Terissa Woodson who is my closest friend and most trusted ally.

As far as my education goes, I grew up in a Christian home, but questioned everything I was ever taught.

I graduated from Bible college in 1990 and continued to question everything I was ever taught (I do not mention my college in order to avoid being labeled).

Perhaps my greatest preparation for ministry has been life and ministry itself. To quote an author I have come to enjoy namely Fredrick Buechner in his writing entitled, Now and Then, "If God speaks to us at all other than through such official channels as the Bible and the church, then I think that He speaks to us largely through what happens to us...if we keep our hearts open as well as our ears, if we listen with patience and hope, if we remember at all deeply and honestly, then I think we come to recognize beyond all doubt, that, however faintly we may hear Him, He is indeed speaking to us, and that, however little we may understand of it, His word to each of us is both recoverable and precious beyond telling." ~ Fredrick Buechner

Well that is about all there is of interest to tell you about me.

I hope our ministry here is a blessing to you and your family. I also hope that it is only a supplement to a local church where you are committed to other believers in a community of grace.

~God Bless!