The coming King Wednesday 19 December 2007

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and understanding, the Spirit of counsel and power, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord- and he will delight in the fear of the Lord. Isaiah 11:2

Do you fear God? I can almost hear you answer, “no because perfect love casts out fear and I know God loves me”. And, of course you’d be right. The bible teaches us very clearly that we don’t need to be frightened of God: we can call him “daddy” and feel safe with God. But Jesus was filled with the spirit of the knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

The fear of the Lord speaks to me of standing in awe of God, or as often happened to prophets in the Old Testament when they had a revelation of God, falling flat on my face in the presence of God. It is acknowledging God as God. As the notice board in front of Central Methodist Church says, “If God is your co- pilot, swap seats”. God isn’t just here to help us; God is our leader, guide and Lord. We make a great mistake when we liken God to human beings; we are made in God’s image, not God in ours! As the song we love singing reminds us, “Almighty God, in every way you are above and beyond understanding”.

Amazingly, even though we can’t understand God, we can know our loving creator. The Almighty God, reveals himself to us in Jesus; and through the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord we can not only know about but experience the great one true living, loving God in our hearts and lives.

Has your God got too small? – pray for the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.
Have you lost touch with God? Pray for this spirit to fill you again and to deepen your relationship with him.

This Christmas we can each enter into a deeper knowledge of God as we receive from Jesus God’s spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord. As you seek God’s spirit you will find that the fear of the Lord will bring you delight.