Yet, even now the Spirit is enlivening believers. From the moment of regeneration, when he breathes new life into a soul, the Spirit’s work is to move us from spiritual lethargy to vivaciousness, where we share Christ’s own vitality and delight in the fear of his Father. And that work is precisely all about growth in the fear of the Lord. To fear the Lord is to be more alive; it is for our love, joy, wonder, and worship of God to be more acute and affecting. For when we rejoice in God so intensely that we quake and tremble, then are we being most heavenly.
