Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study

Dr. Kevin Zadai 07-09-2023

The Fear of the Lord

"The ability to truly love others unconditionally comes from walking in the fear of the Lord and gaining understanding."

~Kevin Zadai

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom, and the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.
—Proverbs 9:10

DISCUSSION:
This week we will be talking about the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is one of the best subjects that you can focus on in the time that we live in right now. This is something that satan has tried to resist and has been neglected in the church. The fear of the Lord is not the same as being afraid of the dark or something scary; it is honor and reverence for God. It is a holy awe that I have experienced many times.

The holiness that God dwells in, His manifest glory, causes people to reverence Him; this is the fear of the Lord. I literally fear God in this way. Many distractions take people away from that fear of the Lord, even in the church. The best thing that you can do in your life at this point is to implement this fear of the Lord. Although there are many scriptures on it, we discuss a few in this study.

IN ALL YOUR WAYS, GET UNDERSTANDING
The fear of the Lord is attributed to and congruent with wisdom. Proverbs 9:10 states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and that the knowledge of the Holy One is understanding. According to this verse, you begin to obtain understanding by fearing the Lord. Wisdom is the idea of gaining understanding. Knowledge is the ability to recite facts, which is good, but in all of our ways, we are instructed to get understanding.

Wisdom is the principal thing; Therefore get wisdom. And in all your getting, get understanding.
—Proverbs 4:7

The ability to see an object and name it is knowledge. We refer to the application of knowledge as wisdom. You can identify a red car or the moon based on your knowledge because you've seen it before. You were told what it was, which is a fact, so that you can identify it. God, in His infinite wisdom, wants you to be able to understand what you're seeing, not just name it. Proverbs 4:7 instructs us that in everything we do, in all our ways, we must seek understanding.

When I encountered Jesus, He showed me that it’s not enough just to hear what He is saying. He said that even though I could hear Him talking, knew what He was saying, and could repeat it, I needed to understand how to apply it. Trained birds, such as parrots, can speak by mimicking what someone says, but they do not know what they are saying. They can be trained to say what you are saying. Parrots say hello but don't understand the meaning; they just repeat what they hear. As believers, we can replicate what we hear, but do we really believe it? Do we understand what we're saying?

If you do not understand, you may find yourself speaking Christian clichés. Jesus said, "It's not what you hear; it's what you understand." He told me that when He speaks, it's what I understand when I walk away that I really take hold of. We should not just quote facts but also understand how to apply God's truth.

o What is the difference between the reverential fear of the Lord and ungodly fear?

WISDOM IS APPLICABLE
Asking God, the glorious Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, to give you spiritual wisdom and insight so that you might grow in your knowledge of God. I pray that your hearts will be flooded with light so that you can understand the confident hope He has given to those He called— His holy people who are His rich and glorious inheritance.
—Ephesians 1:17–18 NLT

When I get a captain's rating in an aircraft, I must learn the systems of that particular airplane. Passenger and fighter jets have different hydraulics, electricity, fuel, and pressurization systems. There are seven systems on each aircraft. When I'm getting tested by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), they're not just asking me to spout off facts. They require me to discuss how it works, which is entirely different. So if you want to discuss the fuel system, you can't just spout off all the various components or statistics. It's not enough to know how much fuel the airplane holds. You will not pass your test with that information alone. The FAA wants you to discuss how it actually works, which is different from just knowing components or facts.

As I've gotten deeper into aviation, I have found a parallel to what's happening with the church and spiritual things. Many people know what to say but don't really understand, so they cannot apply the truth. In other words, they're not encountering it. Jesus wants us to encounter the truth, not just have head knowledge. He wants us to understand the dynamics of what's happening.

COMMUNICATION OF THE GOSPEL
That the communication of thy faith become effectual by the acknowledging of every good thing which is in you in Christ Jesus.
—Philemon 1:6 KJV

The communication of the gospel is different from just spouting it off. You can take notes on a sermon, have bullet points, and lists under different headings. Yet after the teaching or preaching, when you leave to go home, you can only apply what you understood. It would be difficult to memorize all those bullet points and go through them each time you need that truth; it must become part of you.

Jesus explained that the understanding you walk away with is most important, not just what you hear. Yes, faith comes by hearing and hearing the word of God (Romans 10:17), but it also comes by understanding what you heard. It's more than just being able to spout off a bunch of facts.

LIVING BY THE LAW OF LOVE
The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; A good understanding have all those who do His commandments. His praise endures forever.
—Psalm 111:10

Psalms 111:10 shows us another aspect of the fear of the Lord: Having good understanding means doing God's commandments. Those who fear the Lord participate in His commandments from their heart; they don't just mindlessly obey. We are not just servants or slaves to the law of Moses. As believers under the new covenant, we should live by the law of love.

Warrior Church Home Fellowship Study

Dr. Kevin Zadai 07-09-2023

Jesus replied, "'You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.' This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments."

—Matthew 22:37–40 NLT

In Matthew 22:37–40, Jesus said that if you want to sum up the law, you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself. So there are really three instructions in this verse: you must love God, love your neighbor, then He said, "as yourself," which means you must love yourself, too. If you do those three things, you fulfill all of the law of Moses. How is that possible?  Well, it has to do with your understanding of love.

And now abide faith, hope, love, these three; but the greatest of these is love.

—1 Corinthians 13:13

The greatest of all is not faith, but love. If you operate in love, you will not infringe upon others, so you won't break the law. For instance, if you speed, you are endangering others, which is not walking in love. Speed limit settings are based on the distance needed to brake to avoid an obstacle. In other words, it all has to do with preventative safety for unexpected situations. You will see the speed limit decrease as you get into more congested areas, so if you have to stop, you will have time to break and do so safely. If you were going through a green light at the speed limit and someone accidentally ran through the red light at the interaction, you would have enough time to stop, even though you had the right of way.

LOVE CONSIDERS OTHERS, EVEN WHEN IT'S COSTLY

Love is about thinking of others. If someone accidentally does something dangerous, the law of love wants them to be safe, even though they're wrong. So if you love your neighbor as yourself, even if your neighbor is wrong, you still have to look out for them. The ability to truly love others unconditionally comes from walking in the fear of the Lord and gaining understanding.

So He called His disciples to Himself and said to them, "Assuredly, I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all those who have given to the treasury; for they all put in out their abundance, but she out of her poverty put in all that she had, her whole livelihood."

—Mark 12:43–44

When you love someone, you are willing to give what's costly. For example, if God tells you to give your last bit of food to someone else, understand that when you sow in your greatest time need, it is worth much more than if you had an abundance of food. Jesus said the widow who gave the two mites in Mark 12:41–44 gave more than anyone. Many wealthy people gave in the temple offering, but the person who gave the most was the one who had given her last because it cost her everything she had. And thus, Jesus equated it as being the most, and her reward will be great. She walked away from the church without money to buy food or pay her bills. Understanding the fear of the Lord in the light of love gives us insight into what is being said.

THE DOORWAY TO UNDERSTANDING

The doorway to understanding is the fear of the Lord:

• Realize that the fear of the Lord is not being afraid of God like

you're afraid of something scary. It's not that kind of fear.

• The fear of the Lord is reverence and honor related to His holiness. It's realizing that He's God and you're not.

• God has the power to do whatever He wants. He had the power to create you. He has the power to judge people. He has the power over everything.

• When you choose to honor and reverence God, it causes understanding to come forth.

• You must choose to walk through that door of the fear of the Lord.

• The fear of the Lord is not only the beginning of wisdom; it also keeps you clean.

• We all need to experience the fear of the Lord and His holiness in our lives in a greater manner.

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of understanding and causes us to walk in love; therefore, you want to have the fear of the Lord.

PRAYER:

Father, in the name of Jesus, thank You so much for everything You're doing in our lives. We submit to You, Holy Spirit. We are in awe and reverence of You, Holy Spirit. May the fear of the Lord come upon us. I pray that we all encounter the understanding and wisdom that is needed in the times that we live. Father, thank You for providing for each of our family members all over the world at Warrior Notes. Cause each person to prosper so they can take care of their bills, provide food for their families, and share with those around them in their neighborhood. Father, I pray that You would prosper them so they can provide for others. Thank You, Lord, for providing and paying their bills. Thank You, Lord, for bringing health, healing, and deliverance to their bodies and households. I declare that the blood of Jesus is upon each of us and that deliverance is coming to everyone. Thank You, Lord, that miracles, signs, and wonders are occurring in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

1. According to Proverbs 9:10, how does the fear of the Lord coincide with understanding and wisdom?

2. Discuss the enemy's strategy to distract people from the fear of the Lord, even in church. How do we overcome this?

3. According to this study, what is the difference between head knowledge and understanding a subject?

4. In Matthew 22:37–40, Jesus states that all the law hangs on what three things? Discuss what it means to live by the "law of love."

5. How does having the fear of the Lord affect how you view other people, even those who do wrong?