The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life

by John Paul Bevere

to give something more valuable for something less valuable. Are you grasping how precious you are to God? How enormous is God’s love for you? Jesus makes the most startling statement in a prayer:

The depth of God’s love and the value He places on you is incomprehensible.

Profession: I will love and value others in the same way God loves and values me.

Aaron’s sons came into the glorious presence of God with irreverence.

So fire blazed forth from the LORD’S presence and burned them up, and they died there before the LORD. (Leviticus 10:2)

They erred in becoming too familiar with God’s holy and glorious presence and consequently acted in a way that brought disaster upon them. Listen to the words Moses straightaway spoke to Aaron after his sons’ deaths:

“This is what the LORD spoke, saying: ‘By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.’” (Leviticus 10:3 NKJV)

What Moses stated is a universal and e...

You can only come into His presence with a heart and attitude of reverence.

So great fear came upon all the church and upon all who heard these things. (Acts 5:11 NKJV)

In Acts 2, when the Spirit of God initially manifested on the day of Pentecost, some of those who stood by concluded the disciples were drunk on wine at nine o’clock in the morning. Stop and ponder how

an inebriated person behaves. It isn’t usually quiet and reserved; rather, most often, it’s a lot of laughter and joy. This describes the atmosphere on that notable day. Our loving God’s presence was refreshing and delightful. But when His awesome, even terrifying, presence manifested for judgment in the midst of the same people, the church was gripped with great fear and awe. This event dramatically increased their awareness of God’s holiness.

They brought the sick out into the streets and laid them on beds and couches, that at least the shadow of Peter passing by might fall on some of them . . . and they were all healed. (Acts 5:15–16 NKJV)

This magnitude of power is found only in the atmosphere of the Lord’s glory.

Their behavior was extremely offensive to God, several degrees more irreverent than Aaron’s sons, yet these men did not instantly die at the same tabernacle. Why? The answer is found in these words: “The word of the LORD was rare in those days; there was no widespread revelation” (1 Samuel 3:1 NKJV). The lack of God’s revealed Word speaks to the absence of His presence; it was nonexistent, no different than the worship service in Brazil. However, in the days of Moses it was fully present.

The greater God’s manifest glory, the greater and swifter the judgment of irreverence. Therefore, delayed judgment is not denied judgment. For this reason, Paul writes: Some men’s sins are clearly evident, preceding them to judgment, but those of some men follow later. (1 Timothy 5:24 NKJV)

It is wise never to permit under any circumstances an irreverent, casual, or familiar attitude toward God. It’s actually more dangerous when His glory is not

manifesting. Why? It’s easier to slip into a state of irreverence from the deceptive belief of being accepted due to the lack of judgment. If this occurs, we can easily slip into the belief that God doesn’t care about our irreverence, as we will see in the next chapter.

“By those who come near Me I must be regarded as holy; and before all the people I must be glorified.” (Leviticus 10:3 NKJV)

Point: The greater God’s manifest glory, the greater and swifter the judgment of irreverence. Therefore, delayed judgment is not denied judgment.

Have I developed a casual attitude in approaching Him? Have I lost sight of the reality that He is not only my Father but also the holy God who is a consuming fire?

Profession: I will revere God no matter how powerfully or softly He manifests His presence.

our holy fear grows proportionally

to our comprehension of God’s glory. The antithesis is also true: we will diminish His greatness, even to the

point of human limitations, the less...

The wicked think, “God isn’t watching us! He has closed his eyes and won’t even see what we do!” (Psalm 10:11)

There are several variations of this errant and dangerous mindset, but it all comes down to considering God’s abilities to be inferior to what they actually are.

Individuals caught in this trap comfort themselves in believing there’s an overabundance of details to track and couple that with lessening God’s ability.

Let’s take it a step further. If someone continues on this slippery path of not just lacking, but shunning, holy fear, they now are threatened with the diabolical belief that God can’t see my motives, words, or actions. It’s one thing to believe God is not watching; it is another level of irreverence to think He’s unable to watch!

It’s possible to hide our words, actions, and motives from other human beings. We can do things in secret—in the dark, even in the shadows—that others won’t notice....

or ways from God Almighty, we are self-deceived. This erroneous assumption, whether conscious or unconscious, resides in any soul dev...

What sorrow awaits those who try to hide their plans from the LORD, who do their evil deeds in the dark! “The LORD can’t see us,” they say. “He does...

Yet the above is specifically

written of professing believers. It’s true, for just prior to this statement we read:

Allow me to modernize this. These people profess to be in relationship with Jesus because they’re saved by His grace. They verbally honor Him, attend Christian conferences, listen to worship music on Spotify—yet a part of their psyche thinks the Lord is not able to see or hear what they think or do. Their state of mind is

worse than many who don’t follow Jesus at all. They believe a lie, and even worse, they’re unaware of their folly.

wealthy Levite from Cyprus brings a very large sum of money received from the sale of his land to give openly before the entire church. What happens next?

This wealthy newcomer joins the church and brings a massive offering that everyone witnesses. His gift creates a reaction on the part of this couple. They immediately sell some property and . . .

He [Ananias] brought part of the money to the apostles, claiming it was the full amount. With his wife’s consent, he kept the rest. (Acts 5:2)

generosity is no exception; it’s celebrated (2 Corinthians 9:12–13). Did this couple enjoy the respect and attention too much? Were their insecurities threatened in being outdone by the new guy? Were all the people celebrating his enormous gift, how it would help their outreaches and care for the poor, causing their focus to shift away from Ananias and his wife? Perhaps the couple coveted the lost attention, so they responded by selling a plot of land—quite possibly their greatest asset.

They reasoned, “This is far too much money to part with. But we want to appear to give it all. So let’s only give a portion, but announce, ‘It’s everything we received.’” This deceptive thinking could have been strengthened by the rationalization that it would encourage others to give large gifts.

Appearance was more important than truth and, thus, led to deception. How could this couple eve...

They premeditated, deliberated, and agreed upon this approach. Believing they could hide their plan from the Lord, they did their evil deed in the dark! And somewhere in their psyche th...

It cost both of them their lives; they were both bur...

How did two professing believers who’d witnessed notable miracles in the previous chapters—the wind of heaven blowing and getting the attention of an entire city, thousands saved in unannounced meetings, a crippled person miraculously walkin...

could hide their motives from God Almighty? Or how could Adam and Eve, who walked with God in the garden, possibly believe they could hid...

How could the people of Israel say, “The LORD does not see!” ...

How often do we foolishly think we are able to hide our distant hearts from the Lord?

In short, all these scenarios have a common root that fosters this gross error: a lack of holy fear.

To the degree we lack it, His abilities are diminished in our psyche, and what is most scary is that we are oblivious to...