Jesus said, “…where I go you know, and the way you know the way.” Interesting. Thomas said: “Lord, we don’t know where You are going!” But it wasn’t just about the heavens. Thomas probably thought that there was something deeper hidden there.
“Jesus said to him: “I am the way, the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me. If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also. And from now on you know Him and have seen Him” (John 14:6-7).
That is, Jesus reveals here what we have and what we know. Can you imagine? I advise you to think about this. The Lord asks Job questions, he goes still, covers his moth, and the Lord says: “You know all this… where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you have understanding.” (Job 38:4).
“…“Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell Me, if you have understanding. Who determined its measurements? Surely you know! Or who stretched the line upon it? To what were its foundations fastened? Or who laid its cornerstone, When the morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God shouted for joy?” (Job 38:4-7).
“Do you know the border of death? Have you reached the brink of it? – Job is silent. And the Lord says to him: “You know all this, because you were already born then, and your number of years is very great.”
This is the Lord speaking. And I love that Jesus says these words: “Where I go you know, and the way you know.”
Today this indicates that our mind and intellect are lower than our spirit. Just because we don’t know yet doesn’t mean we don’t have it. Like a little son asking his billionaire father: “Dad, am I rich?” And he answers: “Yes, son!” “And I can even buy this car?!” “Not just it!”
His understanding of the inheritance has increased a little, but he doesn’t yet realize what “what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe, according to the working of His mighty power” (Ephesians 1:18-19).
And what we understand with our heads often spoils our mood, because we move from reason, and not from what is the reality of revelation.
If only we knew how rich the sons of God are! Because it is written that He revealed the glorious inheritance of His grace. Then we would not be discouraged by any doubts. Therefore, let us rejoice in what God says, and not in what we feel about ourselves.
Jesus says, “You know the way, and you have seen the Father and know Him.”
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A few things I want to declare today. First is that we do not accept a false witness against our neighbor. As I abode in the Word today I felt that some were accepting a false witness against their neighbors. It is written “A false witness who speaks lies, and one who sows discord among brethren” (Proverbs 6:19).
You have accepted a false witness against your neighbor, whom the Lord has justified, washed and cleansed, He covers him and has compassion to him, but you judge him in your heart. Therefore, be watchful and do not accept a false testimony against your neighbor. Love your brother and your sister.
Another word is – husbands, be tender to your wives. Because roughness pushes Holy Spirit away from you and you from one another. It happens so that we accept roughness as a form of communication, even inside family. A wife can also be rough to her husband, humiliating him with her communication style. This all deprives us of strength. Be tender. Because roughness pushes you away from the Holy Spirit.
And one more thing – step by step follow your calling, do not neglect a small beginning. You want a big thing right away, that’s good, but a small beginning is right before you, don’t step over it. Begin small, do the small thing, don’t step over it. Small good is also good, and often times it is a door to greater things. God will take you to the high places of the earth through your gathering ears, like Ruth did. She must have seen sheaves around her, but she was gleaning one ear after another. For her it was important to have the ears that were purposely let fall for her. Thus we build up our ministry, build up our calling. Therefore, do not neglect every single ear, don’t step over them to great things. Great things won’t come suddenly. Perhaps, some inheritance may crush upon someone, but it will be soon scattered, if we don’t evaluate its true cost. Thus people may lose what the Lord sends them. Those ears are let fall for you by Angels, the Lord, Holy Spirit – do not neglect this, but value it.
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I want to speak about the man who fears God. O, I so much desire to be such a man who fears the Lord! You may say, why fear, let us all love. But I want to love with the fear.
You know, love is actually a dangerous thing. If you love an ordinary simple little man – there’s nothing to expect, he will give to drink all of him very soon. But if you love a king – that is dangerous.
For instance the kings says, “Come, darling, I want you to be by my side”. And she says, “Common, I am busy now, I don’t want to, I feel unwell”. There comes silence, servants go whispering. She keeps making her hair curls. A servant comes in, she says, “Go away, later you come”. But he goes, “Excuse me, you are not of this competence anymore. Please, get dressed, pack up, you are leaving for a monastery in a village – so is the king’s order. You are not his wife anymore.
This is what happened to Vashti. She was stupid. She thought, she had drunk the king to the end, but he was dangerous for her. She thought she knew everything about him, thought that he wasn’t capable of this, humiliated him in her heart and put herself above him.
The King gathers his twelve princes – the prototype of the Apostolic ministry – and says to them: “I want to ask you, my dear friends, what should we do with her?” They say: “She has to be removed. Because if you don’t remove her, all the wives in our kingdom will behave like that” – “Good advice, – he says, – do so today.”
He first shock was that she didn’t know him from this side. Because she was stupid. And love is dangerous. Therefore, one should love with fear, because we love the King of Kings! And not the one whom we have fully drunk and known. O how wonderful that is! All that you know of Him is less than who He is. Praise God for that!
The devil was foolish when he said, “I shall lift up my throne, sit among the gods and shall be like God”. And he cast down on earth and from the radiant Cherub he turned into Satan.
In the Song of songs she always wanted to keep him. First she wanted to be in the chariots of the noble ones. Then he came to her, but in the “wrong” time. He left – she ran after him, received suffering, lay beaten in the puddle – she ran to seek him. She found him and wanted to take him into her mother’s rooms. But then she finally understood the things, all those cycles and settings were through. She realizes that she can’t know him fully and eventually lets him go – run, my beloved, be like a young stag. She lets him go to be himself.
That is love. She doesn’t tie to herself, but she trusts, she wouldn’t cast her ownership over him – “now you are mine” – and that is slavery of love, that is the dark side, which is not God’s love. That is what some people want when they get married – to make a slave for themselves, start to manipulate. This grasp of ownership is so much alien to the heavenly understanding. But true love lifts you up and makes you wholesome, it is honor and respect are the signs and testimonies of that you really love selflessly and purely, and love yourself through him. But you love Him for what He is, not for your sake but for His.
Do you understand? And so she lets him go to be like a gazelle, like a young stag. Even if I don’t run with you – it’s no problem, You run.
You know, these are not earthly things. It is hard to find this on earth. But it happens.
Some of us have spoiled a lot. But it’s never late to work on it. These are serious things. The culture that we establish outside is the culture that we have inside, this is our world. I like high things. When you begin to suspect, doubt, be jealous – it means you have fallen from heaven, things have been ruined as you let it into your heart that he has betrayed. How then are you going to have love, if in your heart he is likely to betray and lie and so begin uncountable troubles.
Love is wonderful! And it is dangerous. Therefore, do not try to drink each other to the bottom. Leave place for the person to be oneself. Let it be there for God. Do not touch the person’s relationship with God. Let it belong to God and not to you. Do not touch what is not yours, you will lose, lose your life, lose this person, who can’t either respect or love you after you have taken hold of the major thing – freedom.
Therefore, love and fear of God is a wonderful combination. Love and fear of God are one. Fear with no love is no fear of God, and love with no fear of God is not God’s love. Jesus loved the Father more than any other, and He was filled with the fear of God. Jesus feared the Father.
“Who is the man that fears the Lord? Him shall He teach in the way He chooses.
He himself shall dwell in prosperity, and his descendants shall inherit the earth.
The secret of the Lord is with those who fear Him, and He will show them His covenant”. (Ps.25:12-14)
That is, he is a man who knows the way, his soul is surrounded by prosperity and he has the knowledge of the mystery of the Covenant.
“Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, who delights greatly in His commandments. His descendants will be mighty on earth; the generation of the upright will be blessed. Wealth and riches will be in his house, and his righteousness endures forever”. (Psalm 112: 1-3)
Brothers and sisters, these are all promises, not just words of a psalm! This is am axiom, a law, it is impossible to change anything here. If you attain the status of a God-fearing man, you are blessed.
His righteousness endures forever. Sometimes people don’t accept righteousness. There are people who are beyond the limits of “normal”, but it is those people who change history. Compared to ordinary people they have a diagnosis, they are not normal, but they change history. They shift the common structure of week development or degradation.
So, often people don’t accept your righteousness, but then this righteousness arises, often after the person’s death, and it endures forever. It is not God’s righteousness, but that of the man who fears God, his righteousness. That is, his life shall be justified, because God has justified it.
“Blessed is every one who fears the Lord, who walks in His ways. When you eat the labor of your hands, You shall be happy, and it shall be well with you”.(Psalm128:1-2)
Every one is you and me! And it is a good position when you eat the labor of your hands.
“Then Peter opened his mouth and said: “In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality.But in every nation whoever fears Him and works righteousness is accepted by Him” (Acts 10: 34-35).
How to discern if a person has the fear of God? There are signs. And I’ll quote some Scriptures:
“The fear of the Lord is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way And the perverse mouth I hate.” (Proverbs 8:13)
This is a sign – to hate evil. Man who fears the Lord hates evil as much as God does. He can’t love evil, he can’t love what God hates. And it is a key to victory over sin – receive the heart of the Lord. You don’t have to fight sin anymore, because you love what He loves and hate what He hates.
“Knowing, therefore, the terror of the Lord, we persuade men; but we are well known to God, and I also trust are well known in your consciences”. (2 Cor.5:11) –
That is, we can’t persuade men if we don’t know the fear of the Lord. What can you give to a man, if you don’t know the fear of the Lord?
“‘Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and to depart from evil is understanding.” (Job. 28:28)
“The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom; a good understanding have all those who do His commandments” (Psalm 111:10) –
Fear and wisdom go together. Fear is first stair, wisdom is the second.
The fear of God is connected with judgments. If you fear God, you abide in fear – you participate in judgments, judgment are no threat to you. They are good for you.
“The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul; the fear of the Lord is clean, enduring forever; the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. More to be desired are they than gold, Yea, than much fine gold; sweeter also than honey and the honeycomb. Moreover by them Your servant is warned, And in keeping them there is great reward”. (Psalm 19:7, 9-11)
Yes, Lord, warn and guard me, both with the fear of the Lord and the judgments. And great reward is in keeping them.
The fear of the Lord sets you free from all other fears. If I fear God I do not fear people.
“Do not say, ‘A conspiracy,’ Concerning all that this people call a conspiracy,
Nor be afraid of their threats, nor be troubled. The Lord of hosts, Him you shall hallow; Let Him be your fear, And let Him be your dread”. (Isaiah 8: 12-13)
Do not fear what people fear. Fear God, and you shall be free from fear of men. We fear disasters, wars, dangers – but do you know that God is more terrible than all of that? Why not start fearing Him? But if you don’t fear God, but fear all those things, that’s a trouble. It means that your faith is quite weak.
There is a promise that the fear of the Lord will be your treasure.
“Wisdom and knowledge will be the stability of your times, And the strength of salvation; the fear of the Lord is His treasure.” (Isaiah 33:6)
Lord, make the fear of the Lord my treasure. A treasure is more than an expensive thing. O, how we need to obtain it! Ask that the fear of the Lord may become your treasure.
It is written about Christ:
“There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots. The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him, The Spirit of wisdom and understanding, The Spirit of counsel and might, The Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord. He will be inspired by the fear of the Lord”(Isaiah 11:1-3)
This is all for me. It is enough for me that Jesus was inspire by the fear of God. It means that the way to God is through the fear of God.
Fear of God is in harmony with freedom. Fear of God doesn’t cut our freedom, but keeps it, so that it is preserved, doesn’t get defiled. This pure God’s freedom is kept by the fear of God as chain armor.
Fear of God has its sweetness. When you tremble before Him you receive sweetness, a retribution in your spirit and soul.
Fear of God has to be asked, sought, attained. One should grow in the fear of God. Ask for yourself the fear of God, so that they can say about you: “here is one who fears the Lord”, and not anything opposite, when he insults Holy Spirit and doesn’t even notice that. Only the fear of the Lord can save such a soul.
Fear of God scares back the enemy: “And the fear of the Lord fell on all the kingdoms of the lands that were around Judah” (2Chron.17:10)
One can understand the fear of the Lord:
“Yes, if you cry out for discernment, and lift up your voice for understanding,
If you seek her as silver, and search for her as for hidden treasures; then you will understand the fear of the Lord, and find the knowledge of God”. (Proverbs 2:3-5)
Seek the fear of the Lord! Get clothed, cry out and seek the fear of the Lord!
David feared God, Solomon was wise and he got week. So the one who fears God prevails!
“Fear of the Lord adds life days – if you want to live long, walk in the fear of the Lord. “The fear of the Lord prolongs days, but the years of the wicked will be shortened”. (Proverbs 10:27)
“In the fear of the Lord there is strong confidence, and His children will have a place of refuge. The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, to turn one away from the snares of death”. (Proverbs 14:26-27)
Look how many things does the fear of the Lord!
It takes you away from evil: “In mercy and truth atonement is provided for iniquity; and by the fear of the Lord one departs from evil” (Proverbs 16:6)
Fear of the Lord leads you to the pleasure of life. Not all of us are able to take pleasure in life – they doubt and receive thoughts that trouble their piece.
“The fear of the Lord leads to life, and he who has it will abide in satisfaction” – What a promise! Now I know what I lack if I am dissatisfied – fear of God!
“The reward of humility and the fear of the Lord is riches, honor and life” – that’s good advice – humility goes first.
You know, first church was filled with the fear of God, and that didn’t deprive them of their great joy and freedom. They had the pure fire in them! The fear of God makes our fire pure!