Mike Bickle emphasizes the necessity of praying for the fear of God, drawing from Jeremiah 32 and 33, where God promises to instill this fear in the hearts of those who seek it. He encourages the congregation to contend for this divine gift, especially as they prepare for an upcoming conference with thousands of young people, believing that such prayer can lead to significant spiritual breakthroughs. Bickle highlights that the fear of God is not only a choice but also a gift and a character trait that can be cultivated through prayer and community. He warns against the dangers of spiritual complacency and the importance of recognizing God's watchfulness and the real consequences of our actions. Ultimately, he calls for a collective effort to seek the fear of God in their lives and ministries.

A couple weeks ago, I gave a direction for prayer from Jeremiah 32 that we're going to be praying for the conference, and I want to take that same direction and apply it to us. And it's the promise in Jeremiah 32 that God would put the fear of God into the hearts of the people who cried out for it. And in Jeremiah 33, verse 3, he talks about, call out for great and mighty things, things which you would not even have guessed. And actually, he was talking in its context, primarily about the release of the fear of the Lord and the blessings that flow out of that. And so God has put before us the promise of the fear of God, but he's told us to contend for it, which means to seek it, to war for it, to diligently go after it because it can be attained if pursued. And as we have this 15,000, mostly young people, gathering to this conference next week, our prayer, and I believe by the Holy Spirit, we've been, have that little sense of divine direction that he wants to release the spirit of the fear of the Lord upon them. He'll do many things, but that will be the primary thing he's wanted us to cry out for. So in this next eight or nine days before the conference, I would like us to pray this prayer based on a prophetic promise from the scriptures because the prophetic promises are meant to be turned into intercession. They're the promises of God in the Bible are released into the natural realm through obedience and through prayer, through faith and obedience and waiting and patience. The scripture says, and patience, the promises we inherit, the promises, Hebrew six, 12 through, uh, through faith and through waiting and through endurance through patients. I can't forget to put that part in, but the burden on my heart has been that we're going to ask the Lord to give that, which he would not have given. If we would not have asked, he may give a measure three or four if we don't ask, but he'll give a five or six measure. If we do ask, it says in James chapter four, verse two, you have not because you ask not there's a realm that we don't get. If we don't ask for it, you have not because you don't ask James four, two. It's one of the classic foundational principles in the prayer ministry. And so what we're going to do in this next eight or 10 to eight or nine days, we're going to ask for the dimension of Holy spirit activity. We would not have had, if we wouldn't have asked and he'll give us more, he actually will. But, but then again, uh, this evening, my heart is, is more focused, not just on praying for that group, but we can turn this prayer focus upon our own lives and families and friends and ministries. So it's kind of a twofold application for the conference prayer for the next eight or nine days. And then for ourselves, I'm going to give a little review because not all were here and not all would re would remember this introduction in Jeremiah 32 verse one and two, what's happening is Jeremiah is in prison in verse two. And the reason he's in prison is because the, uh, Babylonian army led by Nebuchadnezzar it's 588 BC. The Babylonian army has surrounded the city of Jerusalem. It says in verse two, uh, it talks about besieging Jerusalem. Now the problem is Jeremiah was saying, thus says the Lord Babylon's going to win short term. That was really disrupting the, uh, the nation. They said, what you're the most credible prophetic voice in the land. And you're telling the people Babylon's going to win. The enemy is going to win short term. He said, it's true in terms of military, uh, definitions, they're going to win short term. We're going into prison into Babylonian prisons as a nation. Oh boy, they did not like that at all. So they locked up Jeremiah. They thought if they put him in prison, they could stay out of prison. It doesn't work that way because the word of God cannot be captivated, cannot be held captive by man. And so he's crying out and, uh, and he's saying, oh Lord, oh Lord, I'm in prison. Look at this. And, and, and the Lord gives him a Jeremiah 32 and 33. It's what these chapters are about promises that after a short time of discipline, 70 years, of course, when you're God and a day is like a thousand years, it's only a minute. He said, it'll be a brief time of discipline. It'll be 70 years. Then I will bring you out and I will fully restore the nation. So Jeremiah 32 and 33 is talking about Israel, God's people in a time of discipline, a time of crisis, but God is putting before them promises of restoration. However, those promises have to be prayed into being those promises have to be asked for. And the reason the Lord sets up his kingdom this way, it's one of the reasons is that he, he puts in front of us a promise. He allures us with a promise. Oh, we want it. He says, I asked for it in the very asking for the promise, our heart gets connected to the Lord. And then in the, in the breakthrough of the promise, we have intimacy with God in the process. And so people say, well, Lord, let's just skip the asking part. Just give us the promise. And the Lord says, no, because I'm giving you the promise to enhance our intimacy together, our relationship. So I'll tell you what I'll starve you off of the lazy bed until you pray and ask me. And as long as you can go, as long as it doesn't bother you not to have the request, then don't bother praying for it. But there's a time when God's people say, I can't take it any longer. Then they rise up and a spirit of prayer comes on the people of God. They begin to contend. They begin to fight for, they begin to ask for in prayer and fasting and obedience to things God's promised. And then our hearts get connected to the Lord while he's giving the promises he's manifesting him. It's a brilliant way to run a kingdom. Well, Jeremiah prays a prayer in verse 16 to 25, which we're going to skip that prayer verse 16 to 25. It's a very, very, uh, important one, but verse 36 to 44 is the place in Jeremiah 32. And then again, in chapter 33, where he gives the promises. Now, what we're going to do is we're going to take one of those promises because it's for the people of God in the generation, the Lord returns. It's for, it's for the people of God. It's spoken to the nation of Israel, but it's for everybody that will believe in Israel's Messiah. Yeshua, his name is Jesus. His Hebrew name is Yeshua. This promise is for Israel and all that believe in Israel's Messiah through the grace of this, uh, Messiah's death and resurrection, the death of Jesus. So this promise is ours and I'm going to, I'm in verse, uh, 36 to 44 is the promise, but I'm gonna go right to a real focused part of it. Verse 40 says here, I will make an everlasting covenant with them. Look at this and I will not turn away from doing them good. Now he's going to define the good. In essence, he's saying, I will put the fear of God into their hearts. That's the good I'm going to do to them. I'm going to do good to them. I'm going to supernaturally impart that which is foreign to their nature, the fear of God. And when I do this, they will not depart from me. He says in verse 41, yes, because it's, it's almost like the Lord is hearing a, uh, a statement of unbelief or an objection. Like what you're going to put what the fear of God in them. I mean, for supernaturally and the Lord has entered. Yes, yes, exactly. You heard me right. And then he says it's slightly different, but it's brilliant. In verse 41, he goes, I will rejoice over them to do them good. The Lord says, this will delight my heart to do this work of grace in them. I won't do it reluctantly. I will rejoice all the way to the bank, all the way to the breakthrough. The Lord says, I will rejoice to do this goodness. I'm not doing it reluctantly. There's no hesitation in me. There's fountains of gladness in my being that are opened up in doing this to them. Beloved, there is no, uh, there's no promise that God has delight in that more than this issue of giving the fear of God to the people who ask him what an incredible place we have. We have a happy God, delighting, eager to impart the fear of God, promising, rejoicing to do it. If we would ask him for it, he says verse 41. Yes, I will rejoice over them to do them good. I will assuredly plant them in the land and I will do this with all of my heart and all of my soul. It's the only time in the Bible, this phrase, all of my heart and all my soul is attributed to God. God says, I will plant them in goodness with all of my zeal. I will do this goodness to them. And in the midst of the very core concept is releasing the fear of God and his goodness to them. Beloved, we are tapping into something massive and something. Sure. God giving the fear of God, he's happy about it. He's rejoicing to do it. And with all of his heart and all his soul, he will plant his people. Of course, he's talking about planting Israel in the land, but in the land and in the fear of God and God is delighted and has great zeal to actually give them the, the, uh, the geographic land. But it's not only that he wants to give them also the breakthrough in the spirit, which he sums it up as the fear of God. And he knows he'll have to put it into their heart. Now, verse 40, God's definition of doing good is to release the fear of God. It's not the only good that God does, but Oh, beloved, this is absolutely fantastic. This is our inheritance. God calls it good. God rejoices to do it. He's he's very excited. He's very enthusiastic and he'll do with all of his heart. This is your inheritance to have a breakthrough in the fear of God. This is the inheritance for your marriage, your children, your friends, your ministry. This is what is within reach of your life and the grace of God, if you want it, but it doesn't just automatically come. The fear of God just doesn't automatically well up one day. Like we're just kind of walking business as usual, you know, kind of a little bit passive every now and then we get excited about the Lord and just kind of a little bit of compromise, but every now and then a real earnest moment of repentance. No, that's not what he's talking about. It's an earnest going after we're contending. We're, this is what we're, we're going for with all of our heart is the word came forth, uh, uh, by, uh, Gary was sharing this some weeks ago that God says, you're contending for me. I'm contending for you is what's going on. I'm the one that's fighting for you. And this is what God's contending with us for right here. Okay. What is the fear of the Lord? Well, I think, I think Hal said it brilliant last last week. It was, I was so, uh, my spirit was thrilled with that. It says, well, the fear of the Lord is to be afraid of the Lord and we reduce it and we call it respect beloved. It's way more than respect. It's absolutely being terrified of God. I just, it's just exactly what it means. We're not only terrified. We have confidence in love, but we don't get over familiar with this awesome great King. We do not want to get crosswise with him at all. In the name of having confident love, just kind of a laissez faire kind of, well, you're great. You're mighty, but you're so nice. Hey, how you doing, bro? God wants us confident, but he doesn't want us over familiar. He wants us very, very, uh, cautious and terrified about getting crosswise with him. Deliberately just taking his word as a small thing in our lives. And, and that's really the condition of the church in the West right now. Is this the lack of the fear of God? This not, it's not even a confidence in love. I, you know, I wish that that's what we could call it. It's just a real casualness about the word of God and the kingdom of God. It's a mighty God, mighty love. And we don't want to get crosswise with him, not because he has a short temper and he's going to any moment flare up because he is committed to remove everything that hinders love. And he's mighty and he wants us. And he's serious. He's contending for us. I'm going to, uh, give a, just a real kind of practical application of the fear of God. This isn't really a definition. You could call it a definition a little bit, but it's more of an application of it. It's the awareness that God sees he's watching everything in your life. It's the awareness of that. That's number one. Number two, it's the awareness that he cares. He really cares about what he observes. It's not passive. He's not passive about the information. He's not watching at a distance as a spectator. He is, he is deeply involved with care about what he observes. You know, you, you could watch an event sports event, and maybe you care a lot. And then the other guy didn't care at all. And they're both watching, but one cares and one doesn't care. God has great energy about what he sees. And number three, there are real consequences, real permanent long-term consequences. The consequences are in time and in eternity. The consequences are real. The consequences are real. So let, let me, uh, kind of say, say this thing again. The fear of the Lord is the awareness. It's the recognition or the awareness. Choose the word you want. The God is watching. He cares and there's real consequences. They count. It's not a practice game. It's for real. Now, one of the, uh, things that people confuse about the mercy of God, they confuse being forgiven for, uh, for their sin with, uh, the idea that because they're forgiven, they will not suffer the penalty of going to hell for their sin. They, they will not lose the breach, lose out in the relationship with God in the sense there's a breach that can't be healed in a person's intimacy with God because of sin. God will forgive us and we'll escape hell and we're restored to a vital relationship. He takes the penalty of our sin and he gets it out of the equation in terms of our relationship to him. Forgiveness does that. But let me tell you what forgiveness does not do. Forgiveness does not look at a 10 year period of time and consider it fruitful when it was unfruitful. That 10 year period is really lost forever. And on the last day when we stand before God, we actually hear about it again. People confuse forgiveness, the removal of the penalty, the negative dimension of the relationship with somehow the lack of fruitfulness, the harvest of righteousness. I'm done in our own heart. I'm going to talk about ministry fruitfulness. I've done about the harvest of righteousness in our own heart. The loss in the harvest of righteousness in that decade is real and it's permanent and nobody can undo it once it's lost. Mercy and grace does not count 10 years of compromise as fruitful. Mercy and grace counts 10 years of compromise. The Lord says, I will not give you the penalty of it in terms of banishing you out of my presence. However, I will not count that barren season as fruitful and there's a loss. The loss is real. I've had many people in the 30 years that I've been a leader in the body of Christ, many people that go on these five, 10 year kind of seasons where they just kind of cool with the Lord. They call it burnout and they, they, more people put more things under the category of burnout. And uh, and it's, it's, and they're hoping that that definition, cause they can get applauded by another quote, burnt out person that that will hold up with the judgment seat of Christ. And it won't at all. It won't at all. We can title it anything that we want to do it, but it's called sin. It's called compromise. It's called, uh, alliances with darkness in the inner man. And maybe things didn't go good at church or the job, or maybe your home group split a couple of times that, that is not, that is not a reason at the judgment seat of Christ. It stands up for living in passivity and compromise in darkness. It just doesn't stand up there. I've heard it for years. I think you don't want to bring that lame answer for your spiritual passivity to the judgment seat. Cause that's where we're all going. We will stand before him one day. That answer will not hold up. And you can get all the guys that voted. Yes. When you gave your excuse and they won't have any vote on that day, that thing will be an absolutely worthless and people will suffer the real loss of a decade of their life in terms of the fruitfulness of the harvest of righteousness. It's real. It's real. So some people have mistaken the forgiveness of the penalty in terms of the relationship with God, that penalty is removed out of the equation. We're established instantly back in fellowship with him, but that is not the same thing as God attributing fruitfulness to that period of compromise. And there's loss. And we really need to know that it's permanent loss. And the reason we want to feel that is hopefully some are listening right now going, Oh man, well that's a little bit of the fear of God in your heart right there. It's like, Whoa, I don't like that feeling. There's nothing you can do to undo that it's lost forever. But the point you do with that knowledge is you go, ouch, that hurts. I'm not going to let that happen to me again in the future by the grace of God. That's what the fear of God that's working in our hearts. But to confuse the forgiveness of the penalty in the context of our relationship was somehow God calling it fruitfulness is an, is a confusion of, of, uh, of a fundamental biblical principles. It's a, it's a great confusion of biblical principles. My biggest fear in life, I have several fears. My biggest fear in life is regret before God on the last day. That is the most painful thing I could imagine in all of my human existence is to have regret when I'm face to face with Jesus at the end, him to look at the, all that he did and the kindness and the way that he kept forgiving me 10,000 times, 10,000. And then he says, why didn't you come after me? I can't forgive you. I forgave you every time. And, and I re instated you. I, I, you know, it's kind of like the computer. We did the restart. We booted it back up and gave you a fresh new vital beginning, a vital heart connect again, again, again, but she didn't do anything with it. Like I wanted you to, those are the words I would fear more than anything to fear regret. And even that, that, that fear of regret, it's very real in my heart. I want it to be more real. That is a manifestation of the fear of the Lord. So what I'm saying is the fear of God is to, is to know that God sees cares and there's consequences. That's the fear. That's the beginning of the fear of Lord. He sees he really is watching. He's really watching. He really cares. He's not a detached observer. He is an enthusiastic, deeply involved with the emotional heart watcher. He's watching. And the consequences are real in this age. And the consequences are real in the age to come when that connects, it's like, Oh my goodness, I want to do this thing. Right. That's a little bit of the fear of the Lord. The fear of the Lord is more than that. Isaiah chapter eight, verse 13. Ooh, man, this is a heavy one. This is a, this is a good one. Isaiah 13. I'm going to give you a bunch of verses just in the next few minutes. So if you've got a pen and you'd like to write them down, Isaiah 13, it says, Isaiah talked about, he says the Lord of hosts, let him be your fear. Let him be your dread. Let him be your dread. Isaiah chapter eight, verse 13. There is a dread. And again, the dread isn't, it isn't a, uh, it isn't like the fear that happens when, when we encounter evil. It's not that kind of fear, but as I do not want to walk crosswise with this mighty God, I do not in the name of love want to get into a carnal familiarity that is false and think there are no consequences to me living passive with him. Beloved, there are serious consequences and they last forever. They last forever. I do not, I do not want a month, a week, a year, a decade of my life lost. And I don't want to lose my relationship with God. I'm talking to the sincere now. I'm talking to the sincere, the ones that are saying, cause I believe you can lose your relationship with the Lord. As Hal said last week, I think very, very clearly. I believe you can do that. You can lose your salvation. I believe you can lose your walk with God. I don't believe it's easy to do because the Lord will come after you in the hounds of heaven. You may be the most miserable person on the planet for a season. I mean, the most miserable man on the planet is the, is the man who is born again, but he's living, living in darkness. He has too much of God to enjoy sin and too much of sin to enjoy God. I mean, before he was born again, he enjoyed his sin a little bit, but now he's miserable. He's there going, Oh, this is so boring. Why am I here? This was, this used to be fun. It's miserable. Cause our, that awfully noisy conscience is screaming. No, this thing didn't used to be alive before Isaiah chapter eight, verse 13. Let the Lord of hosts be your fear. Let him be your dread beloved. You and I will stand before him one day and all he's our bridegroom. He's so loves us. And I do not want to take that love lightly and casually and do the, Hey bro, how you doing? It's me. Oh my goodness. You're mighty. All the angels are bowing down. Every time you walk by they're just, but whoa, you know, uh, hi, whoa, you're intense. Come here, son. Uh, whoa. Everything's quaking inside powerful, mighty God filled with loving kindness and tenderness, but mighty God son, come near me. I gave you life. I gave you forgiveness. I gave you occasion after occasion of goodness. Talk to me. That's the dread of the Lord. Beloved. We want it now. Well, when we see that God, when we understand that God sees, he knows what you're doing at two in the afternoon and two in the evening, two in the morning, I mean, two, the afternoon, two in the morning, he knows what you're doing. He knows what you're doing morning, noon, and night to know that, to know that he really cares that he, uh, and I'm not just thinking of the negative sense of the, of it, of him seeing and caring. I'm thinking of the positive sense. He really cares. If you're giving a cup of cold water to somebody and you get no credit for, and the esteem of men, God, I was telling some of the worship leaders the other day at a meeting talking about the conference. I go, you know, some of you may not have a role, this, that, and the other, you may be completely have left out and neglected and, and, uh, uh, and, uh, that's accidental for the most part. I mean, it's just completely, there's so much going on, but I said, I want you to know this, that the Lord is the great accountant. You can't have any movement of your heart towards him that's good without him registering it. You cannot refuse pride and choose humility even a moment without him registering it. He is the great accountant of all the ages and he pays tenfold. He pays so, not overtime, tenfold overtime. He pays so well for all the little we do. And I said, you know what? You may not be on the stage. You may be on the backs. You know, I said, here's how it's going to work for some of you. You've been faithful. You've been at IHOP and you've been leading worship all night and all day. And, and all of a sudden for some reason, there's, there was an oversight and not only are you not leading worship, you're, uh, you're, you're, uh, one of the ushers and, and, uh, they assigned you to the nosebleed section way up at the top, the 10,000 seat, way out there. So you're up there. And so I said, nobody even knows you're up there. You take the offering, some guy mugs you, they steal the offering, and then we bill you for what we projected the offering was worth. I go, it could be the worst day. I mean, the worst day, drive home and get a flat tire, you know, just, oh man. But I'm gonna say, you know what? It really could happen that way. Well, we won't bill you, but, but the point being, and I said, but you know what? You might lose out in the S on the stage in the light, but they're the great accountant of all the ages is watching. You won't lose one movement of your heart towards him in humility that he will not acknowledge esteem and remember forever. So when I think of God remembering, I don't think of it mostly as bad. I think of God remembering and caring is mostly as good. That's a good thing. We want him to remember because that makes sense of our private sacrifices. That makes sense of our private struggle. When lost is burning in our members, whether sexual or pride or bitterness or covetousness, financial loss, there's desire burning in our members. And we say no to it because of God, God sees it. We want him to see and remember that's our joy. That's our glory. That's what makes life mean, mean so much because he has, he remembers it. He esteems it remembers it. Well, when we have this knowledge that he's watching and remembering and there's real consequences, you know what that produces in us a clean spirit. It's a clean spirit, our secret life. When we know he's watching, there's so much we don't do in our secret life in the area of compromises. When we know he's watching and he cares and he, there's consequences. We go, ooh, I don't think I'm going to touch that. That thing's going to go bad. Lord, you're watching. I know I can't see you, but I know I can't even feel you. But I know that I know this matters because it does. And our being might just be just fully alive with wrong desires and whatever the arena, again, whether it's physical or, or, or other appetites or financial or pride or bitterness and slander. You know, you look right, you look left, and you want to slander the guy that's against you. You want to pay him back with your words. Beloved, we fear the Lord. We don't want to do that. We care that he's watching. We care that he cares. That's a clean spirit when we can draw back in our private life because we know it matters to him. And in our responses to one another, somebody may rip you off $5,000 and lie about you all the way, but we answer with blessing. We answer with goodness. Sermon on the mount. We have a place of content. We are content in the lowest place because we know the great accountant is there noting it. I'm not content in the last place. If he doesn't know, I'm in the last place. If I, if I know he knows I'm in the last place, I can find joy in it. If I can't find him in the last place, that last place is horrible. I want the limelight. You want the limelight. Everybody wants the limelight. They all wanted a slightly different way, but if the limelight is the lamb of God staring at me, even if no one else does, that's the limelight, man. That is the limelight to the ultimate degree. If I know he is in the last place watching me, I can do it and I can look up and I can feel his pleasure. Like Eric Little said in Chariots of Fire, when I run, I feel his pleasure. We can be up in the nosebleed section, taking the offering, get the offering ripped off and get billed for it. You get a flat tire on the way home, but we know he's there. He's watching. That's not a prophecy. Oh, what if that just really happened to somebody? That would, no, it won't. If we know he's there, we can have contentment. That's the fear of the Lord, fear of the Lord. It says in Psalm one night, I mean, Psalm 19 verse nine, the fear of the Lord is clean and the fear of the Lord is clean. Meaning it has an impact. It touches us when, when we know he sees cares and, and there's real consequences, it produces a clean spirit. Again, we in the secret place of compromise, we go, nah, I don't think I want to do that. There's a clean spirit when we fear the Lord and our responses to one another, we want to rise up in pride to get the limelight. But when we know we're in the limelight, his limelight, he sees that we can find him there. It gives, it produces a clean spirit in our responses to each other, not just in our private, uh, uh, secret place of, of, of resisting compromise. It says the spirit, it says in Psalm one, uh, Psalm 19 verse nine, the fear of the Lord is clean. And here's, here's the next part. Uh, King David said it endures forever. Not just the fear of God endures forever. The, the impact, the clean, the clean dimension, the cleansing impact endures forever. And, and David didn't mean it just lasts for eternity. It does. I mean, he meant it forever meant forever, but there was another issue. It meant David, when he was 30, when he was 40, when he was 50, when he was 60, and when he was that operation of the fear of God produced a clean spirit in him that could endure all the seasons and the ups and downs of life. It endures every season, including passing through the grave on into eternity. This thing, uh, the fear of God has a sustaining impact that endures every season of life. It endures forever. When I get the fear of God growing in me a little bit, I can say no to all kinds of things in my private life. I can sit in it or I can respond godly in relationships. The fear of God is clean. It produces a clean spirit in you and it endures whatever assaults it. It's powerful. It's got a quality to endure that which assaults it. Well, how long will it endure? You know, hold your breath for a minute and a half. No, it will endure through every season. You'll endure when King David is the King at the height. And when King David's kicked out of the pursuing him at the end of his life at the latter years and he's out on the mountainside, he lost the kingdom. The fear of the Lord can produce cleanness in David in every one of those seasons. It endures. It endures the assault of sin. What a great sentence. The fear of the Lord is clean. David, David wrote it obviously by the Holy Spirit, but he wrote it because he experienced it. He experienced it in the, in the palace and in the dungeon, so to speak, in the cave of Adullam. He experienced the highs and the lows. He knew what it meant to have a clean spirit. Not that he was always like that, but through the seasons, David maintained the fear of the Lord. He had the, having the fear of the Lord in its beginning forms is what we're talking about right now. Doesn't mean you never, it doesn't mean you never stumble. Doesn't mean that you never do wrong. It just means that you recover much, much more quickly. A man or a woman with a fear of God may still yield to the temptation to do it, but they recover their zeal recovers so much quicker when they have the fear of God. You know, they, they step across that line and they go, this is insanity. No Jesus. And all of a sudden their zeal is recovered. Even in that period of that same day, their zeals back on fire again, it endures. It really does endure. The fear of God has enduring capacity. It can weather the storms, even the failures, it can recover causes to recover quickly. Well, the, how is the fear of God experience three dimensions, three dimensions, and it does require a process. There's three dimensions of fear of God. You could lay this out at half a dozen ways. This is just one way for tonight. Number one, the fear of God is a choice. It's a choice. I'm gonna look at each one of these for just a minute or two. Number two, the fear of God is a gift. It's an encounter. It's a, uh, usually a very brief encounter, but it's a supernatural encounter as well. It's different than a choice. And number three, the fear of God is a spirit, the spirit of the fear of Lord. It's it's a, it's a, it's a, uh, uh, uh, character trait. It's a character trait. The fear of God is, and that's the ultimate is where it's deeply rooted in our character. Fear of God is toxic. There's several in the, in the, uh, particularly the old Testament. It says they feared the Lord. And of course, uh, uh, around the, uh, thrown on the last day will be the great and the small, those who fear his name. The, one of the great characteristics of the end time church, the bride will be the enter the bride in intimacy who fears the Lord. I'll have the character. So it's a choice. Number one, number two, it's a gift or an encounter, typically a very brief encounter, but it matters. And I mean, it really changes us. And number three, it's a character trait. It's a, uh, established part of our character and our emotions. And that's the ultimate place is to have the spirit of the fear of the Lord is in our character. Let's look at these for each one of these for a moment here. The fear of God is a choice Proverbs chapter one, verse 29, Solomon was, was, uh, uh, speaking a negative about unbelief. I mean, about, uh, those that rebelled against God. He said they did not choose the fear of God. Proverbs one 29, the fear of God is a choice. It can be chosen without any feelings at all. You don't feel it at all. You're like, I don't feel it, but it's that awareness that God sees. He really cares. And the consequences are real. And the guy goes, Hmm. You know, I don't feel a lot of zeal and I don't feel those kind of red hot emotions. Like I have an anointed worship service, but you know what? I think I'm going to say, no, I just, I don't think it's worth it. The fear of God is a choice. It's fundamental. Our fundamental initial experience of the fear of God is at the choice level. Now, uh, God will not make that choice for you. The Lord will help you, uh, by the experiences we're gonna talk about in a minute. He will release experiences, but he won't make you choose the fear of God. It is a choice. That's Proverbs one 29. And of course the choice, it says, uh, Proverbs eight, verse 13, one of the classics on the fear of God, the choice. It says the fear of God is to hate evil, to hate evil. I remember, uh, uh, in the, uh, seventies, I was, uh, uh, had a, a youth group in the mid seventies and our number one verse was Proverbs eight 13. We, I preached on that so many times. It was my main verse. I didn't know anything about intimacy with God. It talk about grace, much Charles Finney, Leonard Ravenhill, the fear of God. Those were all, you know, the, uh, those kinds of guys. And, and I remember that we all, uh, Proverbs eight 13, we talked about the fear of God to hate evil and the, and the banner. We used to, uh, we said this phrase all the time. It's kind of our little, uh, bumper sticker. We never got it as a bumper sticker, but it's kind of was, it became almost like cute phrase that lost its meaning. But we used to talk about love. God hates sin. Love. God hates sin and became cute instead of real, but we kind of lost its flavor, but, but that's really, it started off well. Love. God hates sin. It's a choice. The fear of God is to choose to hate evil. It's a choice. It's long before the emotions are there. It's a choice to hate evil, to break our alliances with darkness. When nobody's looking to break our alliances with dark darkness, when no one's looking, I made, I made a choice. I hope this doesn't condemn anybody, but I made a choice. I said, Lord, I am not going to see one vile thing on the internet one time in my whole life on the planet. Not once it might happen accidentally sometime, but so far I've never seen one negative image on the internet. One time I hope to go to the judgment seat of Christ when the earth is polluted with this. I don't know if it will work that way. Cause you know, the way things are, they trick you, this slips up and that slips out. I don't know how it works, but it's a choice I made. I said, I want to, I want to see Lord, if I can, by the fear of God, end my days, having never seen one wrong image on the internet. And so because of that choice, you know, they say, well, this and that popped up. I'm probably a little paranoid. I said, I won't even go anywhere else. I have my email and you know, the Bible program, you know, and, and, uh, and probably I'm a little too paranoid about it. Cause I want that. I want to face the Lord with that choice. And I hope that doesn't spend out people in condemnation. And if you say, Oh my goodness, I've been so trapped in that. You know what? Make the choice now say, you know, push, delete, let's start over. It's 2005 coming up here. Let's just see for now to the end. I never want to see one negative image ever on the internet. One, not one time. It's a choice. The fear of God is to hate evil. It's to say, I'm not, I'm not going to, it's to break our alliances with darkness in the window, in the secret place where other people can't see King David, going back to him again, he said in Psalm chapter two, verse 11, serve the Lord with fear and rejoice before the Lord with trembling. We serve the Lord with fear, with trembling. Now here's how we serve the Lord with fear and trembling. We serve the Lord knowing we serve him knowing he's watching us and the consequences will be forever. The consequences was some of them are not all of them are forever, but consequences are real. That's what I meant to say in time and in eternity, the consequences are real. Many people serve the Lord, just blinded by ambition and self-promotion, just almost unashamed and ambition. Others serve the Lord with all kinds of mixture. David said, serve the Lord with trembling, serve the Lord with a trembling spirit, knowing God's watching, knowing that he's the one, he's the great accountant. What a great sentence. Serve the Lord with fear and trembling. It's not just that he's going to scare us, it's an attitude of which we serve the Lord with a trembling spirit. He's watching. I go to prayer meetings. I don't do it all right. I give money. I say things and not say things. I go places and not go things, go places, because I know he's watching. I don't do it to the degree that I want to do it, but it's because it's serving the Lord with trembling spirit, knowing he's paying attention and that he cares. He really cares. He cares if we keep our word. He really cares if we keep our word. Paul the apostle quoted King David and sure he experienced it in Philippians 2.12. One is Psalm 2.12 and the other one, well Psalm 2.11 and then Philippians 2.12. It's almost, Paul was maybe a little off there, but I guess it really didn't work that way. He said the same thing. He said, work out your salvation with trembling. Work out your salvation with trembling. What does it mean to work out your salvation with trembling? To work out your salvation means to figure it out and walk it out. Work out your salvation. We open the Bible, it takes time to do this. It takes time to work your salvation. You're trying to figure out how does grace work and holiness work and oh man, it seems confusing. We're working it out. We're figuring it out and then we're walking out, but it's more than just an intellectual thing. It's more than intellectual. You figure out what situations, you figure out what events, what relationships, what places, what kind of schedule, which ones excite your appetites this way and which ones excite your appetites that way. You work out your salvation. You figure out how to walk in this life to spend money, save money, give money, talk, be silent, read this, don't read this, read that, don't read that, too much of this, too much of that. We work out our salvation with fear, with trembling, knowing God's watching and the consequences are real. That's how we work out our salvation. I used to think, you know, how do I do this? You know, maybe read the Bible out in the cold without a coat on, you know. I was trying to figure out how to work it out with trembling. I should be out there just freezing. I got it, Lord, quick, quick. I can only do this for 10 minutes. When I was younger, I couldn't ever figure out how to do verse Philippians 2, 12. I was perplexed by this. I said, how can I make fear and trembling happen? How can I just like, will a trembling spirit? And then it became clear to me all the time, over time, is that these kind of experiences, this kind of literature, this kind of time expenditure, this kind of money expenditure, excites holy passion and this kind excites carnal passion. Work it out, knowing God's watching. That's what it means. There's an experiment. You know, we go over here and, oh, no, I always get that slimy feeling. I'm getting out of that one. The Lord says, you're working out your salvation with a trembling spirit. You know, it matters to God. That was one of the hardest verses in my 20s to try to figure out. I used to, that was a challenge. I go, how? Because it worked, you know, linked with that Proverbs 8, 13 that we all talked about back in those days. And I didn't have a clue how that was supposed to happen, but I understand it a little bit now. It's like beloved. There are certain relationships, get out of them, work, figure it out. They excite the wrong things. Certain amount of certain places you go, it excites the wrong things. Certain other places you go excites the right things. Go there more, go there more, work out your salvation with a spirit of trembling on your heart. It says in second Corinthians chapter seven, verse one, second Corinthians seven one. It's one of the great ones. Cleanse yourself, cleanse yourself. It didn't say have God cleanse you cleanse yourself because this is, it's at the, it's at the, uh, decision-making dimension is what Paul is pointing at. Cleanse yourself from all filthiness of flesh and all filthiness of spirit. Perfect holiness in the fear of God. What an amazing statement. I mean, that has to be one of Paul's all-time great, you know, one-liners. I mean, that's one sentence. My goodness, look at that. Second Corinthians seven one. Cleanse yourself. That's the same as work your salvation, meaning know what messes you up and gets things going the wrong way and know what gets things going in you the right way and do the right ones and get out of the wrong ones. Figure it out. That's how you cleanse yourself. It says cleanse yourself from all filthiness of flesh. That's the sexual, that's the alcohol, that's the substance that excites your being out of the will of God. That's, that's a filthiness of flesh, but it's more than cleanse yourself from filthiness of flesh. Cleanse yourself from filthiness of spirit. That's attitudes, bitterness, ambition. They don't give me the honor I deserve. I'm gonna go in there and get it. Cleanse yourself of filthiness of spirit. Well, how do you do it? And he goes, if you do this, you'll perfect holiness. Now, perfect holiness means to holiness will become mature. Instead of the word perfect, that might trip you, put the word mature. Holiness matures, but there it is again. You do this in the fear of God. What do you mean? How do you cleanse yourself from fleshly defilements and spiritual or attitude defilements? How do you do this? By knowing God's watching. It's in the fear of God, knowing God's watching and the consequences are real. That's how you do it. It's not a mysterious exhortation. I mean, the language is kind of like so colorful. It's like, wow, what does that mean? It just means knowing that God really cares about what you decide in those issues and he watches you and the consequences are real and that, that what we do on the, you know, again up in the nosebleed section, completely left out. You know, they didn't pick us on the stage and here we are up there and nobody knows and nobody cares that it all goes bad, but God's watching and he esteems and remembers it. And so we're up there totally out of the way and the shadows and the darks and the worst position. And yet we know God's watching. We know that we were in the limelight. He's looking at the movements of our heart. We're in the fear of God. We know that he cares and that he esteems it, but love it. That's how we, then, then all of a sudden the filthiness of spirit, which is pride and other things like that, bitterness, pride promotion in a wrong way, we can cleanse ourself in that spirit from, from those things. It's fantastic. Now, just for fun, some of you guys will be up there, you know, you'll, it'll be Thursday night. You'll be hit way up there and say, Hey, here we are, man, we made it high five each other. And some of the others won't know what you're doing. If brother Fred was here, he had signed up for that position. I mean, he would say, I want that position. Okay. The fear of God's more than a choice. The fear of God, of course, that's the one I spent most of my time on the fear of God is a gift. It's an encounter. You get the fear of God, but those encounters are brief, but they matter. And I talked about this more, uh, two weeks ago. It's the dream, the vision. It's the situation where they, God breaks into our circumstances, where we know that he did it. And we go, Oh my, this is really the Lord. And there's even encounters in congregational settings, like in the book of acts, where the fear of God broke in, like in acts chapter two, they are in acts chapter two, uh, verse one to four, like a mighty rushing win. Here it is. He's this young youth group who's had 10 days of prayer in acts one. Now they're in acts two and the mighty rushing wind fire descends on a beloved that those are experiences of the fear of God, but it doesn't, it doesn't just the fear of God just doesn't hit the 120 in the upper room in verse 43, the fear of God fell upon the 3000 converts. These are converts that are only been saved hours. And the fear of God fell on them as an experience. That's what we're asking in prayer to happen in the conference. That's what we're asking the Lord to do in your families. That's what you're praying for yourself, your spouse, your children, your friends, that there's those catalytic experiences where the Lord breaks in with the dream, with the mighty rushing wind, with the all of God, those momentary experiences that enhance our choice of the fear of God. And another guy who hasn't chosen the fear of God, when he experiences those, he's much, much more likely to choose the fear of God after that experience. So we have these 15,000 people coming, we're praying this, this, this next week, eight or nine days, we're praying verse Jeremiah 32, verse 40, Lord, put the fear of God in there. Give us those few moments, a couple times in four days where you break in and everybody's spirits tremble. Now those experiences aren't in them in themselves, the whole, the fear of God, but those are catalytic experiences that really make a difference. It changes the whole atmosphere of that person's heart for the next couple of months. And those that have chosen the fear of God, they will be more resolved in it. Those that have not chosen the fear of fear of God, make it converted over to and go, you know what? I want to live that way. So we're praying above it. This isn't something we just pray for conferences. This is something you pray for your heart. Jeremiah 32, 40 is for you. God says, I'll put the fear of God in you. And I said, Oh Lord, put the fear of God in me. Put the fear of God. One of the famous prayers is a Psalm 86 verse 11. Unite my heart to fear your name. And that's one of the classic prayers for the fear of God. Connect my heart. Unite my heart to your heart. That's the idea. Unite my heart to this awareness that you're watching me and that it matters. Unite my heart to your heart and this awareness you're watching. So I fear you. Beloved, you can pray that. You know what? If you pray that, the fear of God will increase in your life. You pray that for your friends and family members. The fear of God will actually increase in their life. They still have to choose it, but it's like the oils on them. It's a lot easier for them to choose it under the influence of the grace of God, wooing them with supernatural experiences. You can pray that. Say, Lord, you promise. Jeremiah 32 verse 40. I will put the fear of God in your heart. Well, in that case, I'm praying for it. Look at Jeremiah 33 verse 3. Call to me and I will answer you. It's in the same experience. He gets a second installment. He's still in prison. He gets a second prophetic encounter and the Lord stands in front of him and says, call to me and I will answer. I will show you great mighty things, things which you do not know. He's talking about call to me. Turn these promises into prayers and I will actually give you the mighty things. But the mighty things are about the fear of God. Beloved, if we call out to God, Jeremiah 33, the famous prayer, and we, we do it in context because in context is for the promise of God to do good and release the fear of God. Beloved, God will give the fear of God. He is going, I was talking to someone today. I said, God will give more of the fear of God these four days, simply because we've devoted several weeks to asking. He will give more because we asked. I assure you he will. But don't content yourself with the conference. Pray it for your family. Pray for your children. This is a very, very powerful thing. You have to choose it, but you got to pray for it. The fear of God comes upon people. I'm going to give you a couple of verses, acts two 43. I already said it. The fear of God came upon them on 3000 people. I mean, they're all brand new converts, but the fear of God came upon them for a few moments. Acts four 31 acts four 31 to 34. They prayed. The place was shaken. Great power comes on them. Grace comes on them. That's the fear of God. The power of God comes on them. There's thousands of them. Whoa, something's up. And I tell you when that, when the encounters of the fear of the Lord dreams, visions, experiences in God, those things enhance the fear of God. Acts five verse 11, great fear came up on the church. Great fear came upon the church. Those are short-term experiences, but they really matter. Acts nine 31. The churches throughout all Judea, acts nine 31, Galilee and Samaria were walking in the fear of God churches in the whole region. Those regions of Judea, Galilee, and Samaria multitudes of churches were walking under this awareness that God was watching them. Beloved. This is fantastic. So I'll just conclude with this. Have our worship leader come up. How do you get this thing? Choose it. Number one, pray for it. Number two, Psalm 86 11. Pray God, unite my heart. And number three, get with people. Get with people who love the fear of God. Uh, join yourself with people pursuing the fear of God. Beloved, it matters that you're with people of like mind going after this together because your whole spirit of fellowship and the whole spirit of your relationship will push you into that direction, not away from it. Amen. Let's stand. So we have eight, eight or nine more days.