How the Fear of the LORD Instructs for Wisdom

SPIRITUAL BATTLES are waged every day in the eternal realms, in the midst of what we might call worlds within our world. The war is waged in two names – one, Jesus, the name above all names; the name every knee will bow to, and every tongue confess. The other is the father of lies, Lucifer, Satan, the devil – however you want to refer to him by. By his name is every dark motive, vantage point, and evil personified in us – as we might align. In Jesus’ name we have every mode of resisting the darts of this enemy, together with every mode of attack that has no human force, but has the force of all eternity behind it.

This is all about the will of God – doing Divine will or not.

Where we do God’s will – trusting and obeying – we have Divine protection that has been afforded the saints from time immemorial.

Where we do not do God’s will – stubbornly disobeying – we have no protection and we find ourselves virulently under prolonged attack.

But, let’s get one thing straight – and this is from personal experience: we will experience spiritual attack wherever we are a serious threat to the prince of this world. Satan will select his angels of darkness to undermine our mission. Our only defense is to do the will of God; we, therefore, must become highly attuned to discern the spiritual things (and it doesn’t matter how much of a dunce we are around worldly things – this is about discerning the spiritual things – things only we, with God, can know; things that require our fullest trust, and, with it, faith in a hope that is invisible.)

Where the Fear of the LORD Fits In

The Fear of the Lord, which is a principle of theological understanding from the Old Testament, particularly the Wisdom literature (Psalms, Proverbs, etc), is simply this: trusting and obeying God out of the knowledge, that, if we don’t, there are dire consequences – both here and in the eternal realms.

The Fear of the Lord instructs; it undergirds; it inspires revelation and discernment of the spiritual things. Where we side with God to the extent of willingly choosing for a belief system pumping with the Fear of the Lord we have afforded for ourselves the protection of the Holy Spirit in this war.

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The Fear of the Lord instructs, and, by the protection of the Holy Spirit, by such fear we have wisdom for the journey. Nothing can harm us; not in the ultimate sense.

To know God’s will, and to do it – that is wisdom, and that is the Fear of the Lord in effective and blessed operation.

© 2013 S. J. Wickham.