In Isaiah chapter 6, we see a prophet of God, who obviously already knew God, but suddenly saw God in a way he had never known before!
“In the year that King Uzziah died I saw the Lord sitting upon a throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. Above him stood the seraphim…” -Isaiah 6:1
Isaiah is brought into an EXPANDED REVELATION of God.
Isaiah begins to see God in His Glory, God ruling from Heaven. He sees the angelic activity taking place around God’s throne. The experience is so profound that the place he is in begins to fill with smoke! The voice of the LORD is so intensely powerful that the very foundations of his house begin to shake!!
In the greatness of God’s glory Isaiah sees things as they really are- he begins to see his utter depravity and smallness compared to the all surpassing greatness of this Holy God. He experiences a revelation of God that shakes him to the core and leaves him in the dust!
“And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost!”-Isaiah 6:4-5
God as depicted in the Old Testament was not someone to be messed with or taken casually!
“A blazing fire and darkness and gloom and a tempest and the sound of a trumpet and a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them. For they could not endure the order that was given, “If even a beast touches the mountain, it shall be stoned.” Indeed, so terrifying was the sight that Moses said, “I tremble with fear.” -Hebrews 12:21
Fast-Forward to the New Testament
In the New Testament the voice of God through Jesus seems so much more personable and inviting!
Here we find “John, the Beloved” laying at the chest of the Good Shepherd.
“There was reclining on Jesus’ bosom one of His disciples, whom Jesus loved.” -John 13:22
The gospel that John wrote is often called “The Gospel of Love” because John’s experience of Jesus and His expression of Him is so wrapped up in the love of God that it comes through everything he writes. John is infused with the love of God, and he came to know that love by experience.
When you think of John, you think of Jesus whispering in his ear, not thundering. The God of John seems far removed from the God of Isaiah who spoke so loudy it shook the house!
The God that John depicts in his gospel account doesn’t seem to resemble the God of Isaiah at all, nor does He seem to resemble the God Moses knew.
Moses heard “a voice whose words made the hearers beg that no further messages be spoken to them”. That certainly doesn’t sound like the voice that John was used to hearing!
After Jesus was crucified, rose again, and ascended to Heaven, John ended up imprisoned on the isle of Patmos because of His testimony about Jesus. While on the island something amazing happened- Jesus appeared to John in a way that He has never appeared to him before!
He writes about it in the Book of Revelation-
“His eyes were like a flame of fire, His feet were like burnished bronze, refined in a furnace, and His voice was like the roar of many waters. In His right hand he held seven stars, from his mouth came a sharp two-edged sword, and His face was like the sun shining in full strength. When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead.“ -Revelation 1:15-17
What happened to the Jesus John had come to know?
Jesus wasn’t whispering!
His voice was like the roar of many waters!!! His eyes were like flames of fire!!
What happened to the meek and mild Jesus upon whom John had laid his head?
Jesus was now looking and sounding an awful lot like the God of Isaiah and the God of Moses!
And how does John react? Exactly like Isaiah and Moses did! He collapsed under the impression of it all.
The “Gospel of Love” disciple, became the “Fear of the Lord” disciple in an instant after his revelatory encounter of Jesus!
I don’t think it would be fair to say, though, that John didn’t have the fear of the Lord before he received this revelation of Jesus Christ.
He certainly did.
John not only had a love for Jesus, but he had reverence and awe of Him. Consider that John was one of only three people to see Jesus transfigured when he went up on a mountaintop hike with Him!
“And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James and John, and led them up a high mountain by themselves. And he was transfigured before them, and his clothes became radiant, intensely white, as no one on earth could bleach them.” -Mark 9:2-3
John got to witness some pretty amazing things about Jesus! Yet, even with such an awesome experience as this we see nothing about John falling to the ground “as though dead” like he did in the Revelation.
This tells me that the fear of the Lord is an ongoing process. We are brought into an ever-expanding awareness of the Lord as God unfolds Himself to us.
Ever unfolding revelation of the nature of God is something that we see throughout scripture. We go from glory to glory and strength to strength, and our understanding of who God is grows as we are in relationship with Him.
Isaiah, being a major prophet, was certainly familiar with the voice of the Lord and knew the God He served. And John, “the disciple whom Jesus loved”, obviously had a very close relationship with Jesus founded in very deep intimacy.
But both of these men came into an encounter that totally EXPANDED their understanding of who God is!
They came into the fear of the Lord in a way that they had not previously known.
The love of God and the fear of the Lord in 2020 and onward
At this point I’m going to share what I see God doing in 2020 and onward to get across the point I believe the Holy Spirit is making to the Church in this hour.
It’s my conviction that there will be no great revival without a return of the fear of the Lord.
With Isaiah 6 the whole thing is that He saw the LORD as He really is, and instantly he had the fear of the Lord in him.
The same was true of John in the Revelation- He fell as though he was dead at the feet of Jesus because he saw Him as He really is.
The Church in our day has for a very long time embraced an extremely lopsided view of God. We have chosen to focus on the love of God to the exclusion of other important attributes that we consider less appealing.
In fact, it would not be an exaggeration to say some attributes that the scriptures plainly reveal to us about God are almost completely denied today in favor of a view of God that is manmade and pleases us.
We’ve essentially made God in our image.
God’s bringing back a biblical view of Himself!
This view will be straight from the Word of God- THE WHOLE WORD ABOUT HIM, not just the pieces we’re comfortable with.
I also believe we’re seeing a massive separation occurring right now in the prophetic movement. There are already prophets appearing that are beginning to strongly declare righteousness, and repentance, and the fear of the Lord!
Not only will we see many more “prophets of righteousness”, arise, but the gravity of the message they declare will only increase! The Elijah’s are coming, and there will be no compromise in them! They will be slandered and accused of not understanding grace and come under condemnation by many in the Church. But these very ones will be sent by God!
Their message will be in stark contrast to much of what we call “prophetic” today.
God’s glory and power is coming out of the fires of purification. The great revival we’re all hoping and praying for is not going to come in any other way than that.
That’s exactly what we see in Isaiah 6. He saw the Lord as He really is, realized how desperately he fell short, and cried out, “Whoa is me!”
That’s what God is bringing to the Earth.
Jesus and His blood is the cleansing we need in entirety, but God is bringing back the “Whoa is me” cry of Isaiah. He saw himself, and saw God, as He really is.
When we’re hidden in Christ, it removes the “Whoa is me” dread, but the healthy fear of the Lord remains.
A Marriage of Love and Holiness
Like many of you, I have had fleeting glimpses of what it means to fear the Lord. These have come through revelation, the Word of God, and by what I can only call, “The Lord’s discipline”.
I sometimes talk about this discipline and it unnerves some people!
The Psalmist said, “It was good for me to be afflicted”.
“It was good for me to be afflicted so that I might learn your decrees.” -Psalm 119:71
I’m not saying that you should pray for affliction, but I will say this- if it comes by the Hand of God it’s because He loves you!
“My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord, nor be weary when reproved by him. For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives”. -Hebrews 12:5-6
The word chastise in this verse is literally, “to scourge”.
It’s worth looking at the definition.
Definition of scourge:
1: FLOG, WHIP
2a: to punish severely
b: AFFLICT
c: to drive as if by blows of a whip
d: CHASTISE
The Bible tells us that God does those things in the lives of those He loves!
We are told in the Epistle of Romans that “the kindness of God is meant to lead us to repentance”.
With all of my heart I can tell you one of the greatest kindnesses that God has ever shown me was when He scourged me!
If God hadn’t brought discipline to me I wouldn’t be where I’m at today in my relationship with Jesus.
That’s just a fact.
Not only did His discipline NOT negate His goodness and love, it proved He cared enough to not let me go on forever in the state I was in. It proved His love for me!
We must get back to an understanding of God that allows Him to be God! We must get back to an understanding of God that believes that all of His actions toward us are loving however it is they may look. This is what it means to have a healthy fear of the Lord!
Like John the Beloved, I am steeped in “the love of God”, but I’ve also witnessed how that love will not let me go on in my sin under the guise of “grace”.
This again, is what the fear of the Lord is all about.
Jesus is the gentle Lamb of God, but He is also Him who has eyes as flames of fire. He is BOTH- These things are not mutually exclusive.
Our God is a consuming fire, and a fiery love!
For a better understanding of how these attributes of God coexist please read, “A marriage of Love and Holiness”.