Are you searching for a deeper connection with God, yet can’t figure out what’s missing? There could be a lot of answers to that question, but as author and speaker John Bevere explains, there’s one key to going deeper that we can’t miss out on: holy fear.
The concept of the fear of the Lord isn’t often discussed these days. Or if it is, it’s explained in a way that leaves Christians terrified of God instead of in awe of Him. That’s something Bevere set out to correct in his latest book, The Awe of God. Instead of being scared of God, Bevere wants the Church to be scared of being away from God. It’s a small difference that he says makes a drastic change.
We sat down with Bevere to talk about his new book and why a holy fear is the key to unlocking a new spiritual relationship with God.
This conversation has been edited for length and clarity.
Why does our faith require courage?
Well, think about it this way: In the Old Testament, the older generation had all died in the wilderness. And here’s Joshua ready to take the new generation into the promised land. And what does God say to him seven times? “Be strong and of good courage.” That tells us that you are going to get the opportunity to be discouraged in entering into your destiny.
So think about all of us as believers today. We all have destinies, we all have promised lands that God has called us to. What’s the number one thing He’s going say to every one of us? Be strong and of good courage. Now, why do we need to be of good courage in this day and hour? Because the forces of darkness have unleashed their attack against silencing the church now more than ever.
If you look at Jesus, Jesus didn’t say go into all the world and make disciples of all nations by keeping quiet. He said to “teach them to do whatever I’ve commanded you.” Now what happened? I think this is such a tremendous strategy of the devil. What does he do? He gets a bunch of legalistic preachers about what is legalism. Legalism is when I’m speaking the letter of the word of God without a heart of love. I’m speaking truth without a heart of love. When I speak truth without a heart of love, it turns into legalism. So what happens is we swung the pendulum to the other side and we’re saying, hey, let’s just kind of bring people on journeys. But the problem is we never get them to truth. We never get them to the place of having that authentic relationship where there is genuine repentance, genuine hatred for sin, a genuine passion for God. If you think about the Christians of the second and third centuries. they were burned at the stake, they were crucified, they were put on racks and stretched. What gave them the courage to continue to stand up for Jesus when a world was hostile against them? It was the fact that they had a genuine awe of God, a fear of God.
Our church fathers have preached for every generation until this generation that what frees us from all unhealthy fears is the fear of God. The fear of God is not to be afraid of God. It’s actually being afraid of being away from God. When God brought Israel out of Egypt, Moses led them right to the mountain. That mountain is where Moses met with God.
Now I want you to stop and think about this really carefully. Israel is abused by Egypt. Their children are put to death. They have stripes on their backs. They’re working all their lives to build somebody else’s inheritance. They were brutally treated by Egypt, the world. They come out of Egypt and what do they constantly say? Let’s go back to Egypt. It was better for us back in Egypt. Moses was raised in the most beautiful home on the planet. His grandfather is the wealthiest man on the planet. He comes out of Egypt and he never once says, I want to go back to Egypt. It was better for me. Well, if you look at the contrast between Moses’s life and Israel’s life, Israel was oppressed. Moses actually had a pretty good life. He could have any party he wanted, any chariot. He could do whatever he wanted but he never once said it was better for me. Why? He had one encounter with that bush at Mount Sinai and he brings the people right to that place.
Think about it, he never said to Pharaoh, “Thus saith the Lord, let my people go that they can go to a promised land.” He said, “Let my people go that they can go to the wilderness to worship or to meet God.” He brings them to that mountain. God comes down to introduce himself because God says to Moses in a private meeting,
God’s number one desire is to have intimacy with you and I. He is more passionate about being intimate with us than we are with Him. So God tells Moses to get the people ready because He’s going to introduce Himself. Three days later, God comes down and the people all scream and run away. Moses is shocked and he makes a statement in Exodus 20 that’s mind-blowing. He said to the people in Exodus 20, “Do not fear because God’s come to see if his fear is in you so that you may not sin.” Whoa, whoa, wait a minute. Do not fear because God’s come to test you to see if his fears in you. Is Moses speaking out of two sides of his mouth? No, he is differentiating between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord. There’s a massive difference.
The person who is scared of God has something to hide. That’s what Adam does when he sends against God, he hides from the presence of the Lord. The person who fears God is nothing to hide. That person’s actually terrified of being away from God. So if you wanna look at the very first definition of the fear of God, the healthy fear of God is to be scared, even terrified of being away from God. So Israel lacked the fear of the Lord.
What we lack in our generation right now is the healthy fear of God. We’ve forgotten who it is we’re serving. We have forgotten that this is the one that weighed every drop of water on the planet in the palm of his hands. He measured the mountains in his scales, put the stars in the universe with his fingers and called everyone by name.
The question is, are we going to be in awe of the talented athletes, the beautiful Hollywood stars that we have, or the guru businessmen? Or are we going to see the glory of God in our hearts in the face of Jesus Christ? He hides himself — why? To see what is going to enamor us, what’s going to excite us, what’s going to draw us? The glory that’s not visible to the world of God that we see in our hearts, or if we’re going to be drawn to the talented people and the beautiful people of our day.
What can we do to make sure we’re viewing God the way that we should be?
I think it’s as simple as connecting with God every day. A lot of times pastors, ministers, even believers, they go off of yesterday’s encounter. Now I’m not in the Word every single day, beholding Him. I’m not in prayer getting into His presence. I may be singing worship songs, but am I really connecting? And what happens with me, and I think the Bible teaches this, is we connect with this awesome God. I used to really struggle to connect with God, to get into His presence. And that’s a very real part of Christianity.
Jesus said, “I will manifest myself.” Manifest means I’ll openly reveal myself. I used to really struggle to get into His manifest, tangible presence. One day I went into prayer and I just started thinking, “Wow, my father measured the universe with the span of his hand. He put the stars in their orbits with his fingers. He weighed every drop of water on this planet in the palm of his hands.” All of a sudden, there’s the presence of God. I went, whoa, that was easy. The next day I tried it again. I didn’t say anything in English, didn’t listen to any songs. I just started thinking about the awesomeness of my Father. Bam, there’s His presence again. I thought, wait a minute. Third day, same thing happened. Third day I said, wait a minute, this is so easy.
So, when we really grasp who God is, and we begin to just turn in and think about the awesomeness of our God, all of a sudden I believe we’re going to enter into His presence. If you look at the Lord’s Prayer — “our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name” — it actually reads in the original language, “your name is to be kept holy.” Where His name is kept holy, that is where His kingdom manifests and where His kingdom manifests, that’s where His will is done. That totally sheds a new light on how to manifest the kingdom of God wherever we go.
That’s such a simple change to make. Oftentimes, Christians like to make it more complex. Why do you think we do that?
I will say, we’re people who want to figure it out. And when we do, we don’t have to search anymore. So if I come up with a formula on how to seek God, how to pray, how to run my day, the searching is out the window.
But when I have a heart that searches and seeks, God says, when you seek me with all of your heart, that’s when I’ll be found. Jesus said to ask and keep on asking, and you will receive. Seek and keep on seeking, and you will find. Knock and keep on knocking, and the door will be opened. That speaks of a heart that is pursuing God. And to pursue God, we have to pursue being set apart for him. Pursue holiness, being set apart, without which no one’s going to see or enter the presence of the Lord. Every eye will see him.
You know, I’ve been under 13 presidents of the United States. They have authority over my life. They govern my life. They make decisions that affect my life. I’ve never seen one. I’ve never been in the presence of a United States president. There are Christians under the lordship of Jesus. His decisions affect their lives, but they’re not in his presence. Why? Because they’re not pursuing holiness, which means a good way of looking at it is the relationship of a husband and a wife. When Lisa, when she was single, she flirted with guys, gave guys their numbers, went on dates with guys. After we got married 42 years ago, she became my wife. Positionally, she’ll never be more my wife than she is the day we got married. But she took on a behavior, something else happened that day. She took on a behavior that matched her position. She stopped dating guys, stopped flirting with guys, stopped giving guys her number. She was separated to me and I was separated to her.
Jesus gave himself completely to us as his bridegroom. Now he asks no more of us than what a spouse would ask. He just says, “Will you be all mine? Or are you going to flirt and jump in bed with what I died to set you free from?”
