“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, And the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. Proverbs 9:10
The Lord has been showing me about fear and how it plays out in our life both if you have a healthy fear of the Lord and an unhealthy fear of the world and men of the world and what they can do to you. This lesson is learn the same way as all others, not from reading about something in the bible, like the verse above and then knowing. Not from a church and its preachers, and not even from another man who learned about fear from what they suffered. But I learned it from something we went through.
A few months back I mentioned to you about us getting a call from a guy threatening to torcher us and kill us if we did not do something the way he wanted. To which because of my healthy fear of the Lord and no fear of men and what they can do to me, I told him to bring it on, and of course he never did. But then I also know who is in control of this world, and I know there is nothing that can touch me unless the Holy One Yahweh allows it. People can talk and things can happen, but no one can do anything to a man of God unless God allows it. And there are times he does allow it, but most of the time he protects his children.
Even his only begotten son, Yashua. He saved him many times even since his first few years. However eventually he allowed him to be killed for the good of man kind. Same with the disciples, they had their day of dying, but the Lord protected them many times over, until it was time.
Bad fear makes you freak out when something happens and make crazy decisions or comments because of it. So the next test which happened 2 nights ago, which is we had a break in of one of our condo units. Not the one we live in, but one of the eight. A older couple lives in it and it is not as protected as most. Men came at 2:30 in the morning all dressed out in black (we got video camera coverage of them). They woke up the old man and took a few things including an older car, nothing worth much money, but the idea of someone being in your home sucks. No harm to our neighbor and the wife was out of town.
Now we are 99.9% sure we know who did it, which is not really a big deal in the story, but as usual it is an inside job as it was a guy we use to do some work around the grounds and knows the couple and the condo to well.
But here is the point, when my wife found out she was scared and extremely upset. Me, not at all. But I have not built my house in a way where rust and moths can destroy and thieves can steal it. Yes we have things that the thieves could take, but I could care less about them. I also do not care of my life because again I know who my God is and what he is capable of doing.
This morning when meditating he brought this all up and reminded me of the stories of Elijah, and how he took on all the prophets of Baal with calling down the fire, and how he had to escape with his life when he did it and they did not. And how David faced Goliath, and then was on the run from King Saul because of Saul being envious. And how Saul went from being chosen as King to being really mental because of disobedience to God and eventually took his life. The point of what he was showing me is the difference in the fear of the Lord and the fear of men and when you disobey the Lord and fear things of the world, how it plays out in your life, again focus on Saul.
So back to my wife and her fear. Immediately she was blaming me for bringing us down here and causing all these problems, to which I made a truthful point about the other places we lived and how although we never had anyone in our home unwelcomed, we have had homes broken into we were renting and or building. But more so I pointed out her craziness of thinking we were safer in either of the two other places, where break-ins are rampant and there are even many times we heard gun shots and know of murders in the neighborhood. Where we live now is 100 times safer than either of those two homes. And the way our condo is set up with being on the top floor and gates to get through before you even hit the front door. Getting in our unit is not easy. And then you have to deal with my Rottweiler and me with a baseball bat. But mostly I know that it will only happen “IF” the Lord allows it. Because no matter what you do if someone really wants in they will get in, “IF” God allows it.
Speaking of this the Lord also then put on my mind Moses and the Pharaoh and how he harden his heart a few times over. Maybe the Lord does that to us also, allowing access to our condo. But I also know the end result which the Lord shows us over and over in bible stories where it always ends well for his men who hear him and obey.
Now to tie this together and make a few points. It is one thing to read about these stories, and another when you have break-ins and death threats. Living it is what counts and is what shows you who you are, or more so who’s you are. Are you of God or are you of something else?
I fear the Lord and what he can do with my soul after he kills me, not what any man can do. Again, even if the Lord allows man to do something to me, it is short term as is our life which is like a blink of the eye. I know this life is so short it does not even really register compared to forever or eternity. It will be like trying to remember our first few years of life as a baby. That was so long ago and no way to remember. I am building my home on the foundation of the Lord in obedience to him and his way and truth, and do not fear nor worry about anything else. If the Lord blessed me with worldly things, which he did, then great. But if he would have kept me as a missionary and single and broke as I thought, no problema either. He wants to allow someone into my home to rob us, no problem. Or this guy to torcher me and kill me, he has his reason. It is OK because the short term suffering is achieving for me a glory which far outweighs it all. So if I suffer or am having the time of my life, it is all the same.
Without going into too much details, I also know why the guy robbed the couple he did, not only because an easier target. But because the wife was too friendly and open with him. Letting him into their condo feeding him and treating him like a son. He knew where the keys to the car were and many other thing he took. Which brings me to another point the Lord made. Although this young man is poor and you want to help, you cannot. He gets drunk on weekends not showing to work on Mondays and does drugs. Many times the Lord has shown me the verse about not even having pity on the people who keep shooting themselves in the foot like this. Because when you reach out and help them, they bite you in the a__. God knows what is in their heart and what they will do to you when their true colors shine. Normally it is the ones you help the most who screw you over the most.
So back to my wife and her fear and something I said to her about it. I made it clear to her how irrational her comments were but she still did not stop talking. So I made the point about the peace of God and how her religion is failing her terribly, where my relationship of obedience is working perfect. She tried to argue that one, but couldn’t. Nor can anyone, you see the fruit that is being bared by each person. How one can have the true peace of God and the other does not. And what is the difference? Religion verses relationship. All the stories from the bible talked about above, and the personal experience is a result of both, because religion keeps you in the flesh listening to men teachers and your bible stories which do not apply because you did not live them. Where a relationship builds you up and gets rid of the flesh, you see the weakness in the flesh and do not want to be weak. A religious person cries when the suffering comes, complaining and blaming, where a man of God accepts it and allows it to build them up making them stronger and lifting them up on eagles wings. The men of religion have no vision of God, where a man of God has a vision and understanding. The men of religion have a fear of things of the world and cares of the world, where a man of God has none of those things.
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom!
