Easter Conference at Brunstad

Brother Kåre J. Smith read from 2 Corinthians 5:7-12 at the first meeting of the conference, and he exhorted seriously and urgently to the fear of God that we read about in these verses—to live a life that is well pleasing to the Lord. V. 9. We must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ. All of us will receive again the things done in the body, whether good or bad. All of us should know the fear of the Lord, the godly fear that indicates that we fear to displease Him whom we love.

Wanting to please man is irreconcilable with godly fear. A person may want to please man by his outward piety (which is unadulterated hypocrisy), or, on the other hand, a person can throw such “pious ideals” overboard, call them legalistic, and become worldly in the way he dresses and conducts himself. God, who weighs our words and actions on the scales of godly fear, is well acquainted with the thoughts and motives that are behind all this.

When we read Paul’s farewell address in Acts 20:13-38 to the elders in Ephesus, we gain insight into some of his godly fear. In his preaching he kept nothing back that could be helpful for the saints to hear. V. 20. He exhorted them to shepherd the church of God “which He purchased with His own blood.” V. 28. He did not want anyone in the church of God to grieve Him who had redeemed them with His own blood. This godly fear and this love, our reciprocal love for Him, ought to weigh heavily in the scales for us. In this reciprocal love we will not let any thoughtlessness into our life, whether it be in word or deed; neither will we act according to our own pleasure and reckon that it will go well regardless.

“There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear . . . .” 1 John 4:18. A “legalistic fear” can keep many things in place, but it does not help us to come to the obedience of faith. The perfect love that John writes about is to love Him who loved us first. We do not want to grieve Him who gave His life for us.

Our gospel is not without commandments. Not at all! We read in Chapter 3:22: “And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight.” If we love Him, we will keep His commandments.

“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom . . . .” Prov. 9:10. Folly, pride, and noise go together. The Lord’s chastening drives folly out, and the fear of God will also preserve us from all youthful folly and thoughtlessness.

In Hebrews 1:3 we read about Jesus who is the brightness of God’s glory and the express image of His person. In 1 Corinthians 1:30 Paul writes about what Christ had become for him and many with him: wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption. What has Christ become for you? Are you the brightness of His person? Are you God-fearing? A God-fearing person asks only what God thinks about him and not what other people or he himself thinks about a given matter.

“Help, Lord, for the godly man ceases! For the faithful disappear from among the sons of men.” Ps. 12:1. This sigh from David’s heart is no less pertinent in our time. You have to search high and low for the God-fearing. But thanks be to God there are some, even in these days, who long for godly fear. A person who is God-fearing in his heart is not a friend of the world, a friend of money, a friend of stinginess, for such people choose (according to James 4:4) to be enemies of God.

In Isaiah 11:2 we read of the Spirit that gives us knowledge of the Lord and the fear of the Lord. May this blessed Spirit of godly fear fill each and every one. There is a strong, preserving power in this Spirit—power to overcome in areas where previously you were weak. Just think how easily one can chatter away, even backbite and utter thoughtless words. The fear of God preserves us from all this emptiness and evil. We also meet these Spirits of God in Revelation 4:5 where they are described as lamps of fire. There is a fiery wall of faithfulness around true brotherhood in which we cherish the cleansing fire. There we learn to humble ourselves, to walk in His steps who was highly exalted—not because He was God’s Son, but because He humbled Himself.

Exercise Yourself in the Fear of God

“Therefore, since all these things will be dissolved, what manner of persons ought you to be in holy conduct and godliness . . . .” 2 Pet. 3:11. It is especially necessary to come together and awaken each other in these times of dissolution. No one must become dull and be carried along by the error of the ungodly and fall from his steadfastness, as we read in verse 17. Holy conduct is a conduct that is separate and liberated, totally set free from sin and sinners. It means to walk in the light and experience the cleansing power of Jesus’ blood.

Exercise yourself in the fear of God! That was the exhortation Timothy received in 1 Timothy 4:7-8. This exercise in the fear of God is not an easy matter, because there are very strong powers in our human nature that want us to stand before the face of man. It is so easy to feel “encouraged” when, for example, an influential brother has given you a good testimony. Then it is vital to exercise yourself in the fear of God before the Lord’s face.

“Seek those things which are above, where Christ is, sitting at the right hand of God.” Col. 3:1. Here we have an example of what it means to exercise yourself in the fear of God. It is an exercise that consists of being vitally interested in what He who sits by God’s right hand believes and thinks about you, an exercise in being free from all earth-bound thoughts about people’s testimonies and what they say about you. Exercise yourself in this, you who are young, right from your earliest youth.

“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil . . . .” Prov. 8:13. Yes, the fear of God causes us to be firm and immovable so that we are not at all moved by the error of the ungodly, for example, that we are not carried away by the error which is the love of money. Let us be one with the Lord in this perfect hate of the evil. The world is suffering; people are suffering. Therefore we should, as Peter writes, look for the Day of the Lord; and we can even hasten the coming of the Day of the Lord, as we read further. We can do this precisely by a holy conduct and the fear of God, by living more sincerely before His face.

“Let your conduct be without covetousness [love of money] . . . .” Heb. 13:5. We must take this exhortation seriously, and not least we who live in the rich, Western countries. Love of money robs us of our heavenly vision. For example, it is a sad development in a brother’s life when it becomes obvious that he is falling away more and more, whereas the “business man” takes up more and more room in his life. Awaken to your calling! Do not destroy your calling for some paltry gain. Then we can boldly say: “The Lord is my helper; I will not fear. What can man do to me?” V. 6.

A lack of the fear of God causes a person to be careless. When Peter exhorts the elect and born-again brothers and sisters to lay aside all malice, all guile, as well as hypocrisy, envy, and all evil speaking, it is not necessarily because these things are found in massive quantities in a believer’s life. Nevertheless, because of a lack of the fear of God some remnants of these things can remain before they are thoroughly cleansed out and a person’s thought life becomes so pure that not a single cloud can cast a dark shadow over him in life’s various circumstances.

“But as He who called you is holy, you also be holy in all your conduct . . . .” 1 Pet. 1:15. Holy, in all our conduct! For example, our conduct in our homes is to be holy! We shouldn’t live a careless and superficial life in our homes; and in the church we ought to know how to conduct ourselves in the house of God—namely, by being holy and pure. 1 Tim. 3:15.

God’s Hidden Wisdom

“Our sufficiency is from God . . . .” 2 Cor. 3:5. Seeing that our sufficiency is from God, we have completely given up believing in our own sufficiency. Then we have given up all conceited ideas and all our proud opinions about how everything and everyone should be. Then we will acknowledge that we are dust.

The things that pertain to God are foolishness to the natural man. To suffer injustice is folly. To deny yourself is folly. The word that it is more blessed to give than to receive is folly to the natural man. However, a spiritual person will experience that Christ has become to us wisdom from God. Paul preached Christ crucified. 1 Cor. 1:23. This is the Christ that is the wisdom of God. Then the power of the resurrection will be at our disposal. Christ has not become anything for us if we receive honor from men. No one can follow Him without taking up his cross daily and denying himself. God’s wisdom was manifested in Jesus because a death took place in His inner man. This is the death of Christ, the death that makes an end of sin.

God has hidden this blessed wisdom from the wise and the prudent and has revealed it to babes. Read 1 Corinthians 1:26, flg. There we can see how interested God is in the things that are not to bring to nothing the things that are. We belong down there. That is where we should be found. We come to Him as someone who is bankrupt; we come to Him as nothing, and then we need to continue to remain there in lowliness before God’s face.

Further on in 1 Corinthians 2 we read how faithful Paul was in this area. His life was a judgment over everything that is great and exalted. Let us remember that we are nothing. We are nothing more than what Christ has become for us. Let us realize as well that the way God leads us in the various situations of life is the wisdom which He has hidden and has ordained for our glory. 1 Cor. 2:7. We do not always comprehend His leading; but if we in all simplicity believe in His guidance, we will experience that everything has been ordained for our glory. Therefore Paul could also boast of his tribulations, because God has hidden His wisdom in the tribulations. Then why should we fear tribulations?

Pride is the sin of man. Let us walk in a bowed and lowly spirit and believe fully and immovably in God’s perfect guidance!

Behold, All Things Have Become New!

“Do not remember the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I will do a new thing, now it shall spring forth; shall you not know it?” Isa. 43:18-19. These promises apply to the earthly as well as to the spiritual Israel. We are to pay close attention to what God is doing and will yet do for the people of Israel and their land.

We, too, must take these words to heart. Many people dwell far too much and far too long on the past, to their own hurt. If you have fallen or have suffered defeat, then God has sufficient grace to raise you up again so that you can continue. You should not dwell on matters from which you have cleansed yourself and which you have brought into order, because then you will lose precious moments of your life. There is no sense in punishing yourself when the Lord says, “Behold, I will do a new thing.”

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” 2 Cor. 5:17. All the old things are useless. Now the new thing shall spring forth. Therefore God’s Word has given us a guideline that we should use: Only a new creation counts for anything! Gal. 6:15-16. Now the Lord is doing something new in the natural as well as in the spiritual Israel. But it is the spiritual Israel, the church, which will be finished first. We can very well say that we have only a very short time left. Therefore we must not walk around with dull hearts, ears that are hard of hearing, and closed eyes, as it is written about Israel. Matt. 13:15. And no one should be discouraged and feel sorry for himself in life’s situations. Let us arise and be light!

We believe in the power of the grain of wheat. Jesus relates a parable about the mustard seed that it is smaller than all other seeds, but it grew until it became a tree so that the birds of the air could come and nest in its branches. This testifies to what God will do in our life!

The Death of Christ

“Now if we died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him . . . .” Rom. 6:8. If we want to live for God, live so completely for Him that we are untouched by Satan’s power, we need to understand what it means to be dead with Christ. We must understand the death of Christ, the death that makes it possible to manifest the life of Christ.

We cannot follow Jesus in the death He died on the cross of Calvary. But when Paul (in 2 Corinthians 4:10) testifies about bearing in our body the dying of Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested in our body, then it concerns the death which Paul also mentions in Philippians 3:10: Being conformed to His death—so that the life of Christ may be manifested in our body! What an exceedingly great and exalted calling that is! Who, for example, is manifested in your body when someone touches your person or your honor or your family’s honor? The intention is that then Jesus’ life is manifested. But then we need to surrender everything that stirs in our flesh into death. Then we need to put to death the deeds of the body by the Spirit. Rom. 8:13. Then we must follow in His steps who offered up Himself without spot to God! He did this in the power of the eternal Spirit. Heb. 9:14. This is a work of the Spirit that transpires through the means of the resurrection power of Christ, and by faith. It is not a question of “my own righteousness” as Paul calls it in Philippians 3:9, but of the righteousness which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith. We cannot take any honor for this righteousness. It is a work of the Spirit. Then we live untroubled by people’s praise or blame, by their honor or dishonor. This is the new and living way which Jesus inaugurated back to the Father. Let us therefore consider ourselves dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus!

The above account is mainly what we heard from Brother Kåre J. Smith. The entire conference was imbued with the spirit of revival to godly fear. There was also revival among the young people. They had separate meetings that were characterized by a mighty Spirit of prayer. Let us pay heed to the Word about the fear of God and be faithful in it in the days ahead!

Arild Tombre