“There’s over 40 promises I found in Scripture that are only promised to those that have the healthy fear of God,” Minister John Bevere recently told The Stream in an interview. He wants people to enter into those promises. The Awe of God: The Astounding Way a Healthy Fear of God Transforms Your Life provides a blueprint for recognizing the difference between fear and holy fear, and how people can know God intimately through holy fear. The Awe of God is available anywhere books are sold.

Walking Away From the Faith

“We’ve lost 23 million Americans in the last 23 years,” said Bevere. “Twenty-three million Americans have walked away from the faith. … that is one out of every 14 Americans.” What happened? They did not have holy fear. The Bible says that holy fear endures forever, said Bevere. “It is what gives us the staying power to finish our race well.”

All Fear is Not the Same

Most people lump all fears into one bucket, Bevere explains. We err by doing that. “There’s constructive fears and there’s destructive fears. And all fear produces … a wisdom. Now, destructive fears produce a harmful wisdom, but constructive fears produce a good wisdom. And so the fear of being mauled by a mother grizzly bear will give us the wisdom not to mess with her cubs. Fear of the Lord, the Bible says, is the beginning of wisdom.” 

Believers want a close relationship with the Lord. “Leviticus 10:3 says, ‘By those who come near me, I must be regarded as holy. … Psalm 89:7 says, ‘God is to be held in reverence by all those who surround Him.’ So, if you look at God, He will never, ever come into an atmosphere where He is not held with the utmost of respect. … His love for us is so great, but what’s revealed about Him in Scripture, first of all, is not His love, but it’s His blazing holiness. … So, in order to approach Him, we must respect Him. We must approach Him with that reverence. Then we experience that love.”

Obeying God

As Bevere learned about holy fear and began putting it in action, he experienced gladness, peace and contentment like he had never experienced before. “The fear of God isn’t to be scared and run away, it is to tremble and draw near. … We as human beings will serve who we fear. If we fear God, we’ll serve and obey God. If we fear man, we’ll end up pleasing, serving and obeying man’s desires.” But if we delight in the fear of the Lord, we’re going to obey God, whether it means we suffer or not. “If you look at Esther, she was willing to go before the King, even if it meant her head would come off. She obeyed God even when she didn’t see a benefit.”

In addition, David, in Psalm 119, said “I will hurry to obey your commands.” “It means we’re going to obey God even if we don’t see a benefit. It means that we’re going to obey God even if it means suffering, if it’s going to hurt, it means we’re going to obey God. Even if it doesn’t make sense.”

Finally, if we have holy fear, we are going to obey God to completion. When we have that kind of a resolve to be obedient to God, we know that God’s will is the best. “The fear of the Lord keeps us in the understanding that God is my creator and God knows what’s best for me. He knows what makes me, He knows what breaks me.”

The Subtle Traps

Proverbs says that the fear of the Lord is a fountain of life that turns us away from the traps of death. “That fountain of life we know is the fountain of instruction of wisdom. So, in essence, what Proverbs is telling us is the fear of the Lord is a continual flowing source of wisdom that protects us from the traps of life.”

Bevere added, “I think it’s so important that we’re walking in a holy fear of God because these traps are going to get more and more subtle and more and more abundant. And I want to see God’s people walk in that continual flow of godly counsel and wisdom, because I don’t want to see any more people falling away from faith as the 23 million people have walked away from the faith in the last 23 years.”

A Lack of Godly Fear 

“And there are going to be many, many people that call Jesus ‘Lord’ that one day He’s going to say, ‘I don’t know who you are.’ And the reason He doesn’t know who they are is because they lived in lawlessness because of their lack of godly fear. Godly fear is what keeps us from living a life of lawlessness. And I just don’t want to see people have an imitation relationship with somebody they really don’t know. I want to see people really come to know Jesus. And I believe godly fear is the beginning of that process.”

Nancy Flory, Ph.D., is a senior editor at The Stream. You can follow her @NancyFlory3, and follow The Stream @Streamdotorg.