Holy Fear

Holy Fear

“But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct, because it is written, ‘Be holy, for I am holy.’ And if you call on the Father, who without partiality judges according to each one’s work, conduct yourselves throughout the time of your sojourning here in fear . . . .” 1 Pet. 1:15-17.

We are called to live in holy fear before God, for God Himself is holy. The nearer we come to God, the more we will know His fear. Increasingly we will see our own impotence and poverty, and when God reveals Himself to us in a special way, we must acknowledge that we are only dust and ashes. Those who are great, strong, and self-confident are far away from God. Everything revolves around them. When they testify they usually attempt to make themselves appear great. Paul says that in the last days “men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power.” 2 Tim. 3:2-5.

This satanic way of thinking is powerfully at work in our days. It also seeps more and more into religious assemblies. However, Jesus says that when the abomination of desolation stands in the holy place, the end is near. Matt. 24:14-15.

Satan carries on an intense activity in every heart that allows him to enter, in order to prepare for his own coming. When he reveals himself as the Antichrist in the end, he will stand in the holy place and be received by the people. Wherever Satan works, respect and reverence for God and everything that is holy vanishes, and people become insolent, proud, and blasphemous. The reason for their conduct is that they do not see God. When Jesus is revealed at His coming, men’s hearts will fail them for fear, and they will wish that the mountains would fall on them and hide them.

When we see God, fear will fall on us. All pride, haughtiness, vanity, etc., will vanish. We will enter into the deepest poverty and acknowledgment of ourselves. When we are called upon to say something, we will not make ourselves appear great, but we will magnify Christ and what He is working in us both to will and to do. Paul’s testimony will then also be true in us: we are dead, and our life is hidden with Christ in God. But when Christ who is our life appears, we will also appear with Him in glory. All power and riches and wisdom and strength and honor and praise and blessing belong to Him. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord! Let us bow down in the dust out of deep reverence for Him. Let us honor Him with our thanksgiving, with our possessions, and with our whole life. Let us use spiritual words when we speak about spiritual things. Whoever speaks God’s Word must stand in the holy place. Everything that was in the tabernacle of meeting had to be holy. Therefore let every man who mentions the name of the Lord depart from unrighteousness. Let us not conduct ourselves in such a way that our good is spoken of as evil. Let us walk in holy fear from day to day, in all humility. “For thus says the High and Lofty One who inhabits eternity, whose name is Holy: ‘I dwell in the high and holy place, with him who has a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones.’” Isa. 57:15.