There has for some time been a shifting in the atmosphere here in The Church.

I’m not the first, and I won’t be the last, to identify this shift as a return to a Holy and Reverential Fear of The LORD.

Not a frightened or quaking fear, but a real concern for getting, and remaining, in His Will at all times. It’s a realisation of who He really is — our creator who loves us.

A reverential fear that says, “I know what’s right and wrong in Gods eyes, and I truly don’t want to do wrong.”

We all slip up — many times. It’s called sin.

However, The Fear of The LORD doesn’t let us stay there. We want to get back into right standing with God. We need to keep short accounts, own to our slip ups, confess and repent.

And yes, The LORD knows that we will slip up time and time again, and He really will forgive us a million times if we confess, but it’s the state of our heart and our agenda He is watching.

That’s when the fear of The LORD turns our half-hearted, half meant apology into true repentance and a determination to at least try to do better.

A Fear of The LORD is a desire for greater holiness — to ‘be holy as He is Holy’.

We all know that statement in Philippians 2:12-13 “work out your salvation with fear and trembling”.

William Barclay says it well concerning that statement.

“This is not the fear and trembling of the slave cringing before his master, nor the fear and trembling at the prospect of punishment.

It comes from two things. It comes, first ,from a sense of our own lack of power and confidence to deal with life situations and being triumphant.

It comes second from a horror of grieving God.

When we really love a person, we are not afraid of what he may do to us; we are afraid of “what we may do to Him”.

First published April 2018 & Revised 2022

~ Chris G. Bennett

Chris Bennett came to salvation in 1962 but didn’t begin ministry until 2007 — a late-comer! Now mandated by The LORD to prophesy and open old wells of revival in the U.K., but especially in Wales. He has also operated Healing Rooms, and worked with deliverance teams, all with his wife, Linda. Happily now doing whatever The LORD asks of them! Founder, with wife Linda, of their ministry The Upper Room Encounter.

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