How do we know if we have the fear of God in our lives?
Hello Friends!
May this day be full of great victories and breakthrough in your life in Jesus Name!
As you know every blessings or valuable things carries with it a price tag. Victories, success and breakthroughs are no exception. One of the prices for divine fulfilment is the fear of God. We have been talking about that for some times now, and today I want us to answer this question: How do we know if we have this fear of God in our lives?
The first way to know this is to understand that the fear of God expresses itself in a hatred of evil.
“To fear the Lord is to hate evil; I hate pride and arrogance, evil behavior and perverse speech” (Prov. 8:13)
(see also Prov. 3:7; 14:16; 16:6; 23:17; Job. 1:1,8; ; II Cor. 7:1).
This is just the opposite of the wicked (Eccl. 8:13-“Yet because the wicked do not fear God, it will not go well with them, and their days will not lengthen like a shadow”). (see also Prov. 1:29; Ps. 36:1-4. ).
Fearing God means we hate the wrong things that by nature we want to do. People can have four levels of hatred toward sin. Not all of these levels demonstrate the presence of the fear of God. That is why we need to go through all four levels so that you can define for yourself what level you are.
Level one: This is a person who doesn’t sin because the consequences are too great. A person may lust after another, but doesn’t commit the act because of the possible results-i.e., pregnancy, jail, sexually transmitted disease, addiction, etc. There’s no fear of God, just a fear of the consequences.
Level two: These people live at the level of the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” They do good deeds for others, but have little hatred of sin-such as selfishness.
Level three: People who live at this level are sincere Christians who don’t want to sin. They are sensitive to sin, and confess quickly when it is committed. They feel badly when they keep confessing the same sins, but often find they are in defeat and failure in some areas of their life.
Level four: This person has faced the reason for sin, and has done something about it.
Do you know that the reason we sin is because we love it and choose to do it?
There must be a love in our heart for that sin, which we often commit. In James 1:13-15, the Bible says:
“When tempted, no one should say, ’God is tempting me.’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each on is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to death.”
We sin because we love it and then we choose to do it. We choose to do something we love. We don’t choose to do something we hate to do, unless we are forced by an authority structure. When we have the fear of God, however, what will be our reaction to sin? We will choose not to do it, because we hate sin.
People in level four have faced the reason for sin and have done something about it. They have done some thing to their love for sins. If sin still has any fascination to us, we do not yet fear the Lord as we should.
You are three-quarters of the way through victory over temptations if you hate sin. You can have knowledge of the weapons of warfare, but they will not work if you don’t hate sin.
A proper response for those who fear God is a hatred for the sins they are committing-a loathing of the sins they love.
Take some time today to tell God where you are with regard to your love for sin. If you have a love for certain sins, are you willing to confess that and ask God for a holy hatred for them? If you are, do that right now!
Remain blessed!
Pastor Rufus Ajiboye
