In this Q&A video, Pastor Bill discusses the connection between the reverence of God and intimacy with Him. It’s important that we embrace the tension between experiencing God as an intimate father while also embracing the fear of the Lord.
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one of the folks was asking just that
tension that uh
we we have this relationship with god as
daddy as abba you know in the aramaic
how do you balance that reverence you
know first as our daddy but still
maintain that reverence
for who god is and how does that
function in your world
true encounters with god that’s never an
issue
it it uh because they’re chock full of
their own reverence
oh goodness yeah
yeah i mean real encounters with the
lord i mean yeah
he is he is always good yeah
but even his goodness is going to bring
a fear of the lord in the last days
according to hosea 3
5 that people will fear god because of
his goodness so there’s this
even his goodness is overwhelming it
brings about a sobriety that
that is is hard to explain
you know it’s it’s we’re not dealing
with concepts that make us feel good
about life we’re dealing about it we’re
dealing with a person
who is overwhelmingly good but he’s
still overwhelming
and and that connection you know this is
where i would just say you know what
just continue to
just see deeper encounters with the lord
read his word i mean
yeah i mean in revelation you got you
got saints falling on their faces before
another saint
because they think it’s the lord and he
goes hey it’s yeah i’m not jesus you
know
yeah it’s my own language but it’s you
know stand up because
so there’s that there’s there’s that
reverence
just for another person
that lives in that realm how much more
to god himself so
you know you just have to be smart you
have to stay in the word
you know you open revelation 1 you know
john who the last time you saw jesus he
had his head on his chest and
was was saying am i the one and then he
has this encounter in revelation
chapter one where he sees eyes of fire
and feet of burnished bronze and
suddenly it’s not the same it’s the same
but it’s not the same
and there’s there’s this there’s this
incredible reverence
with jesus the son of god who’s also
called the everlasting father in isaiah
so there’s that fatherhood thing that is
also overwhelmingly
good sobering
you know it’s it’s uh psalms 2 says
rejoice with trembling which is a
it’s that’s the biblical tension to me
is you’ve got the joy
and the fear doing both at the same time
yeah figure that one out you’ll do fine
yeah
you know but but that’s it and the fear
of god is to remain i
get a little bit nervous about people
that say well the fear isn’t an issue
anymore that’s old testament
no look at somebody who saw him yeah
absolutely yeah
it wasn’t just reverence it was yeah
absolutely yeah well
jesus pretty clearly said hey don’t let
me tell you don’t be afraid of people
that can kill your body be afraid of uh
the guy who can kill your body and your
soul yeah this is
these are the words of gentle jesus you
know you’re like good points wow
that’s gonna happen to you that’s yeah
that’s good to know absolutely
that’s excellent we have you know within
the within the context of
the jewish religion which had done um
you know
reverence it was kind of a form of
reverence sometimes you know we’ll
sacrifice but it’s not the sacrifice of
the hearts the
the form of reverence was there you had
jesus coming and saying
hey yahweh is abba you know
you know yahweh is daddy right
incredibly powerful because the context
was we do reverence really well
right or at least we think we do
reverence
and so it’s really really helpful but
sometimes we get
in the context now is we do familiarity
and nobody’s bigger than anybody and
everybody’s the same and why do i have
to listen to you
and uh you know people disrespecting the
president because they don’t agree with
them
you know i’m thinking it’s my right to
do and we have kind of in our culture
where we’re constantly
like clawing everybody down to the
lowest common denominator
it’s like we know you think this about
george washington but let us tell you
what he’s really like
yeah we’re just going to call everybody
down yeah
in that context it feels like some ways
we need the the reverence messages
when you read the scripture you get the
reverence it’s clearly it’s clearly
there
yeah that’s right you know and um and
and your point is that
in genuine encounters the daddy and
the holy daddy yeah exactly is
definitely there
yeah real real encounters and real
examination of scripture
is there’ll be no question yeah yeah
bobby connor you probably remember the
statement he says we’ve become way too
familiar with the god we hardly know
it’s a sobering statement but i think i
think it’s true yeah
yeah absolutely yeah
the um
you know along those lines in some ways
there’s that uh c.s lewis that they did
the movies of his books you know
and i think they they moved the line
they put it in the wrong place it was i
didn’t like that part they’re like oh
what are you doing dude
you’re a wrong one of the characters
susan found out he was a lion this aslan
they’d been waiting for was a lion
yeah oh she was freaked out you know
like lions are not you know
and she her question was is he safe and
he’s like safe he’s a lion
but he’s good i tell you and he’s the
king and so in some ways that
holding that thing he’s he’s good but
he’s a lion yeah
yeah i think probably there’s a ben
in my time past from people there’s a
bet some folks get the fathering thing
and they need to embrace the reverence
and the holiness a little bit more and i
think some folks are they come out of
that reverence and holiness but they
really need to know his daddy
and so in some ways there needs to be a
coming to get holding on to those
two absolutely true things yeah that
he’s yahweh
i am that i am and he’s abba yeah
it’s true got to happen both yeah it’s
not either or
yeah and do you feel like you know
you’re saying in encounters that he
you experienced from this rabbit is
there a time though when when there’s a
reverent encounter and then there’s this
an intimacy father encounter
and that they’re um oh i
i don’t actually have a story about it
but it seems sometimes some of the
prophetic pictures people give are
just full of daddy there’s not a hint of
reverence in them and then there are but
there are other times when it’s just
i was we were on our face and we escaped
the room
because of this exactly do you have it
in yours that both have to
be in every encounter or can it just be
one or the other you know i
i mean i i guess it can be one or the
other i mean we don’t dictate to him how
he shows up
however most of the time where you see
the overwhelming trembling
fear i think
you would see it end with great deep
personal encounter
more of the affection thing yeah i don’t
know if it’s a good example jesus walks
into the room after he’s resurrected the
disciples are hiding they’re scared to
death
and he says don’t be afraid it’s me
well they missed that completely because
they’re still scared to death so he
shows him his hands and his
scars and then they were able to then
they were thankful they saw the lord
so the point was they had an encounter
that brought fear but it ended with
great peace because his intention was
always to bring them into a place of
tenderness and peace into personal deep
encounter
it started that you know anytime he
shows up it you know if he really shows
up in any sense of magnitude
it’s going to be a fear and trembling
encounter yeah but he he doesn’t
he doesn’t do that to impress us i mean
you know he can certainly do more than
that if he wanted us to tremble
absolutely that’s not the issue the
issue is all right i am
this who is this to you and he
he ends up saying no i meant it peace to
you
you know receive the holy spirit and he
comes and brings them into this deep
personal encounter
and in this moment we’ve got guys that
are afraid
of anything that will now die for
you know through this next series of
days encounters came that were
overwhelming were profound but they so
impacted them
that they became the world changers and
so i
if i generally speak i think when the
lord gives the overwhelming
you know fear and trembling encounter
it’s always to take us
into all right this one who is so
overwhelming
is so tender and so good and he takes us
into this now receive the holy spirit
thank you i appreciate you taking the
time and folks on the
internet the world wide web they
appreciate it too and i’m glad that’s a
pleasure thanks so much
we want to thank you for uh sharing
these moments with us and
look forward to seeing you again next
time on revival chats
until then thanks
yeah absolutely