The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord — Zac Poonen

Growing in Wisdom Through Scripture

Our subject for this conference has been growing in heavenly wisdom. I want to show you a verse in 1 Corinthians and chapter 14. The word of God is like a well in which the water never runs dry. The more you read, the more you get out of it.

If you read a newspaper or a book after two or three readings, there's nothing more you can get from it. But the word of God is different. I don't know how many hundreds of times I have read so many verses in this book in the last fifty-seven years, but I'm always finding something new.

You can't read any book in the world for fifty-seven years. You can't read the newspaper for more than one day. So this is the proof that the Bible is the word of God. If you don't read it and study it, you're missing the most important thing in life.

There's no way to grow in wisdom without knowing the word of God. In 1 Corinthians 14 it says, verse 20, in the same verse it says, don't be children but be children. Don't be children in your thinking.

In your mind, you must not be a child. You must be like a man. But in your heart, you must be like a child. So, both these things are true and they should be true in our life that in our mind we become, we grow more and more to maturity and in our heart we become more and more like a child.

So, just see that picture there. Can you show that video camera over here? Video camera over here, so that everybody can see it. Then, those who are in the live stream can see that. See, it's true that in our mind we must grow from a child to an adult man.

But in our heart, we have to go the other way. From the strong, powerful man we are to a weak child dependent upon God. So, that is growing in heavenly wisdom, both ways. Thank you. So, both are in this verse.

To be like men in our thinking, but to be like a little baby in our heart. So, that is why I said that we must study God's word if we want to grow up in our thinking and get wisdom. Second Timothy on chapter 3, it says here that verse 16, oh sorry, verse 15.

Paul tells Timothy, you have known the sacred writings which is the word of God which is able to give you wisdom. And so, from childhood his mother taught him the scripture which could give Timothy wisdom.

Why did Paul choose Timothy when he was a young 20 year old man? And say, hey, you must be my co-worker. Would God choose your son at the age of 20 to be Paul's co-worker? Paul was a very shrewd, discerning man of God.

He wouldn't just select anybody. But he observed Timothy, spoke to him and said, this is a very unusual 20 year old young man. He is so wise. Where did he get it from? Where does a 20 year old become wise?

How does a 20 year old become wise? Because his mother taught him the sacred writings of God's word. And that scripture, it says in verse 16, taught him, reproved him, corrected him, taught him in righteousness.

And so he became a man of God who was thoroughly equipped to do every good work. The same thing can happen to you if you study God's word carefully. And say, Lord, give me revelation on your word. That is, in our mind we become mature.

And then we will be able to discern what is right and what is wrong. We will not be fooled by unspiritual people. All of you young people must grow in wisdom. And it is only by studying the word of God.

And that will protect you from so many evils. Jesus said man must live by every word of God. And here also in verse 16 it says all scripture, not just one or two verses. And Jesus said man must live by every word of God, not just one or two favorite verses or chapters.

So we must say, Lord, please teach me and give me wisdom. And you are a young person, you must pray that. So as you read the scriptures, something must develop in you through the Holy Spirit. I told you we must look at Jesus as our example.

Jesus Growing in Wisdom and Grace

It says in Luke's gospel chapter 2 about Jesus when he was a little child. Luke chapter 2, twice it says in this chapter that Jesus grew in wisdom. Luke 2 verse 40. The child continued to grow and become strong, increasing in wisdom.

How did he get that? Because it says the grace of God was upon him. Let me tell you something. In the entire Old Testament, grace was an unknown word. John 1 .17 says the law came through Moses but grace came through Jesus Christ.

So John 1 .17 makes it clear there was no grace before Jesus Christ came. So nobody could overcome sin because grace has to be upon you to overcome sin. Romans 6 .14 says when you are under grace, sin will not overcome you.

That's why in the Old Testament, nobody could overcome sin. Because the grace of God never came till Jesus came to the earth. And when Jesus came to the earth, the first person upon whom that grace was, was Jesus himself.

It says here the grace of God was upon him. As a child. And when you are under grace, Romans 6 .14 says sin cannot rule over you. It's like saying if a roof is over your head, the rain cannot fall on you.

Even if it's pouring rain, we are under the roof, it will not fall on us. So when we are under grace like this, there can be sin and temptation all around us, it will not overpower us. Can we have that when we are little children?

Jesus had it as a child. Why can't the grace of God be upon a child? I've heard of people who were truly born again when they were three years old. I met one godly old sister, she's dead now. I met her when she was more than 70 years old.

She testified that she was a European lady. She said when she was five years, she was born again when she was about three. And when she was five years old, she got a call to go as a missionary to China.

She could go only when she was 35 or something. But she heard the call when she was five. And I could see in her life, a godly humble woman. So the grace of God can be on our little children. So we must instruct them in God's word.

Jesus grew as a child and the grace of God was upon him and he grew in wisdom. And then it says when he was 12 years old, he went to the temple. And then he came back home after that. And when he came home to Nazareth, verse 51, he continued from the age of 12 up to the age of 30 in subjection to his parents, earthly parents.

And what is the result of that? What is the result of a young boy submitting to his earthly parents, even when he is 20 years old, 25 years old? Verse 52, Jesus kept on increasing in wisdom. And he grew in favor with God and with men.

Submission, Honor, and Obedience to Parents

So to walk as Jesus walked, even little children can follow Jesus here. Growing in heavenly wisdom, submitting to authorities God places over you, first it is your parents, elders, people in your place of work.

They may not be more spiritual than you. Do you think Joseph and Mary were more spiritual than Jesus? Joseph and Mary were under the old covenant, defeated by sin. Do you believe Joseph and Mary fought with each other as husband and wife and yelled at each other?

What do you think? Unless you are a Roman Catholic. I believe they fought with each other. Why even new covenant husband and wife fight with each other? The old covenant couple, they must have fought and yelled at each other.

Jesus as a little boy heard that. And what did he do? He did not despise them. He did not say, how can I submit to these people who are so imperfect? He saw their imperfection and submitted because the father said, submit to them.

Children, young people, if God tells you to submit to imperfect parents, submit to them. Don't disobey God's word. If your father tells you to tell a lie, say daddy I can't do that. Or tells you to bow down to an idol, you say no I can't do that.

Because above your father is God and you have to listen to him ultimately. But in all other things when they ask you to do something inconvenient, you do it. Supposing you want to do something and your father and mother say, no go to the market and buy something for me.

Supposing you want to do something and your father and mother say, no go to the market and buy something for me. What will you do? Leave it and submit to your parents. Do you know what will happen? You will grow in wisdom.

At that moment, you are not doing what you are supposed to do. You are obeying God. You are obeying your parents. You don't have to submit to your parents once you leave the house. Jesus left the house only when he was 30.

Then he told his mother in John chapter 2, what have I got to do with you? Don't tell me what to do. Completely opposite. Mary was surprised. What has happened to my son? Till now he would do anything I say.

Now he tells me, don't disturb me, don't tell me what to do. So, when you leave your home and you are setting up your own home, you don't have to listen to your parents then. In fact, it says when you get married, you must leave your earthly parents and cleave to your wife.

But when you are living at home, under the subjection of your parents who are taking care of you, you must submit to them. But honoring them, you must honor them as long as they are alive. You don't have to obey them when you leave your home.

Even in your home, you don't have to obey them if they tell you to do something ungodly or against the world. But you must respect them. Even if your father is a drunkard, non-Christian, he is still your father.

You must respect him. Don't speak evil of him. Pray for him. God will honor you because you respect your father and mother. When you honor your father and mother, God will honor you. If your drunkard father tells you to do something stupid, you don't have to do it.

You have to be wise. But don't despise him. You should never despise your parents for being more foolish than you are. Okay, that's true. But respect your parents. Then you will grow in wisdom. Otherwise, you will only grow in knowledge.

Knowledge, Wisdom, and the Spirit of the Lord

You know what knowledge does? 1 Corinthians chapter 8. It says here in the first verse, the last part, that knowledge only puffs you up and makes you arrogant. It's like a balloon. You pump it and pump it and pump it and it becomes so big.

Knowledge is like that. It looks very big but it's just hot air. You prick it and the whole thing goes off. You can see that. Some of these clever people, you just irritate them a little bit and all their anger comes out.

The balloon has become a small little thing. But wisdom is real solid stuff. It's not like a balloon. It says love and wisdom will build you up. So how did Jesus grow in this wisdom? Through the Holy Spirit.

Turn to Isaiah chapter 11 where there is a prophecy about Jesus Christ. Isaiah 11 is speaking about Jesus Christ. It's talking about Jesse, the father of David, like a tree. He was the father. And from that, a branch came.

Humanly speaking, of the seed of David, Jesus was born. And it says here, the Spirit of the Lord will rest on him. You know, in the book of Revelation, the Holy Spirit is called the sevenfold Holy Spirit.

It is actually sevenfold one Holy Spirit. And those seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit mentioned in Revelation are written here. One, is the Spirit of Jehovah, God. Second, is the Spirit of Wisdom.

Third, is the Spirit of Understanding. Fourth, the Spirit of Counsel. And Spirit of Strength. And the Spirit of Knowledge. And seventh, the Spirit of the Lord. Of the fear of the Lord. So these are the seven characteristics of the Holy Spirit.

That's why it's called sevenfold Holy Spirit in Revelation. And out of all these things, it speaks about wisdom in the beginning. Only the Holy Spirit can give you wisdom. And wisdom must come before the knowledge of the word.

Through the word, I must get wisdom first. Mere knowledge will just puff me up. And out of all these seven characteristics, one is picked out by the Holy Spirit. Now remember, this is referring to Jesus Christ.

This sevenfold Spirit, verse 2, will rest upon Him from childhood, from birth. And so He grew in wisdom. But out of those seven characteristics, one is taken out especially. The last one, the Spirit of the fear of the Lord.

The Fear of the Lord as the Beginning of Wisdom

You know the Old Testament verse which says, the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. That is Proverbs 9, verse 10. That is like saying, that is the ABC of wisdom. So when you go to a kindergarten class, a baby, he first learns the ABC.

You can't read a book without knowing ABC. You can't understand physics, science, nothing without ABC. And you must never forget your ABC because then all your education will stop. So ABC is essential for all education till the end of your life.

You can't say after 50 years, okay, okay, I don't need ABC now, I've understood so many things. Your knowledge will stop. You need ABC right until the end, your alphabets. Fear of the Lord is the ABC of wisdom.

So that means till the end of my life, I must know this alphabet which is called the fear of the Lord. So the Spirit of the fear of God was upon Jesus. And that's why He was quick to obey anything that the Father told Him.

And it's because the fear of the Lord is upon Him that He never did what the Father never told Him to do. Even a simple thing like, now you've not eaten for 40 days in the wilderness, you've been fasting.

You're hungry. It's wrong to steal. So don't steal. It's wrong to take somebody else's bread. But if you can make bread yourself, why don't you do it? If God has given you the power to turn stones into bread, use it.

You're not making some ice cream or biryani, just simple bread. But do you know what Jesus said? No, I can't do it. Lord, you can't do it when you're hungry. Use your common sense. No. I will hear the word of my Father.

I know I'm hungry. I may die of hunger. That's okay. But I will not disobey my Father. That means I will not do something if the Father doesn't tell me. I have had no command from my Father right now to use my power to turn stones into bread.

When the Lord called me to full-time Christian work 50 years ago, that is the worst God spoke to me through. First temptation. Don't use the power God has given you to get something for yourself. Jesus used that power to make bread for 5 ,000 people once.

But he would not use it for himself. That is to live under the anointing. The devil says, come on, use your power to get something for yourself. It's not luxury. You need bread. I will not use the anointing power of God even for my need.

I will use it for others. So God had given me a gift to preach God's word even when I left the Navy at the age of 26. From this first temptation, the Lord told me never use your gift to get something for yourself.

Don't use your gift to make money for yourself. A lot of preachers may do it but you are not to do it. I learned that when I was 26. Don't use this gift to get any honor for yourself. A lot of people use their gift to get honor.

To become big in the eyes of others. So what the Lord taught me from the first temptation, I have not anointed you to get something for yourself. Even if you are starving, don't use my anointing to get anything for yourself.

Don't use your gift to get money or honor. Don't use your gift to draw people to yourself. Like Jesus did, use your gift to bless 5000 others. Always to bless other people. I thank God I learned that lesson 50 years ago.

That has protected me from the calamity that I have seen has happened to so many preachers in the world. Where did I learn it? From meditating on that first temptation. You see, it's not written like that there.

No, it is not. But if you meditate on it, God will show you. In the old testament there was a commandment you shall not commit adultery. Jesus meditated on that and realized it also refers to adultery in the heart.

Meditating on Scripture Against Sin

How did he discover it? By meditating on the commandment written in Exodus 20. Those who don't meditate on it, they'll say it only refers to physical adultery. Jesus meditated on it and said it refers also to adultery in the heart.

Anybody else who had meditated on it would also have understood it refers to the heart. Anybody else who had meditated on it would also have found it refers to the heart. If you meditate more on it, it will show you many other aspects of it.

Don't compare your wife with somebody else's wife. Not just physical beauty, but that wife can cook better than your wife. May be true. Don't meditate on that. It can lead you to a form of adultery. You may say it is not there in the word of God.

Many things are not written on the surface. You meditate deeply, it will protect you from sin at the deepest level. That is what the spirit of the fear of the Lord will show you. If you read the word of God without the spirit of the fear of the Lord upon you, you will just read what is written there.

But if the spirit of the fear of the Lord is upon you, almost every time you read, you get something new. In my first Bible, I used to write a lot of notes. Anything God showed me from a verse, I would write it down.

But I was young and I needed to remember. But now, in my Bible, I don't write anything. Because if I write it, I won't get something new that the Lord is trying to say to me from that verse. I'll just be reminded of what I got some years ago.

God can show you something new from all of his word. So the spirit of the fear of the Lord is what makes you grow in wisdom. And it says here in verse 3, out of all these seven things, he picks out fear of the Lord.

And it says here, the Holy Spirit will make Jesus delight in the fear of the Lord. Now, some people think of fear of the Lord as some terrible thing. Like some bitter medicine, okay, give me one spoon, I'll take it.

Or this painful injection, okay, give it to me. That is how some people take fear of the Lord. But Jesus looked at it like ice cream. He delighted in the fear of the Lord. And when the Holy Spirit makes you delight in the fear of the Lord, you will grow in wisdom very quickly.

When you see the fear of the Lord not like painful medicine, but like ice cream. Lord, I want it. I delight in it. That reverence for God. You know, I don't know much about your Tamil songs, but lot of the English songs I hear nowadays being written by people.

They are so shallow, so empty, not like the hymns that were written 100, 200 years ago. Those men had a reverence for God when they wrote their hymns. They didn't write it for money. Today's song writers, singers, all do it for money.

Even Christian books are written for money. Only in CFC, we print books without anybody getting money out of it. I think I'm the only author who gets no money from my books. To me, that is like the money changers in the temple, selling things to get money.

I say, if we sell our books, we use it to print more books, that's all. So many books we give free to people also. Nothing for me. If I preach, it's not for money. If I write books, it's not for money.

If I write a song, it's not for money. But in today's world, it is not like that. All these Christian singers who you see on CDs, you think they are doing it because they love the Lord? No! They are making money.

The more CDs are sold, the more money they get. You think Jesus would ever do that? You think Paul or Peter would ever do that? But you admire these people. They can sing well. But they are doing it for money.

And so, I've seen that today, a lot of English songs that are written, they have no reverence for God. They talk about Jesus like their boyfriend or something. You know, before they were converted, they were writing songs for their girlfriends.

Oh, my darling, I miss you so much. Oh, I long after you. I wish I could see you. Now, they get converted. And they say, Oh, Lord Jesus, I miss you. I wish I could see you. It's the same old thing. There's no reverence there.

Hey, treat Jesus like a friend. Hi, good to see you. I have zero respect for these people. And I'm not surprised they're doing it for money. The reverence of the Lord that the Holy Spirit brings, that's what we need more in the church.

Holy Fear in the Church

Let me show you in Acts of the Apostles. In Acts of the Apostles, we read, in chapter five, we read how Ananias and Sapphira were judged for their sin. And it says here, as a result of that, a great fear came upon everybody.

Acts 5, verse 11. A great fear came upon the whole church. It was a fear of God. A desire to be holy. And people were afraid to join them, verse 13. I want our church to be like that. There's a holy fear that people are afraid to join us.

Are people afraid to join your church? Or do they say, hey, there's a great singing over here, we'd like to join this church and sing again. I'll tell you what I've prayed for CFC churches. Lord, we don't want anybody to join our church because our singing is good.

I'm not saying our singing should be bad. I think your Tamil Nadu singing here is excellent. Very good. But we don't want anybody to join the church because they like singing. We don't want anybody to come to this church, oh, there are 2000 people here so we can come.

No, we don't want anybody to come because it's a large church, or good singing, or a nice building. No! We want people to sense that Jesus is here. That's why we want to come, not even to listen to the preaching.

But that Jesus, we come and we meet with Jesus before we go home. That should be our prayer. I've prayed that many times. Lord, I don't want anybody to come to our church to hear me preach. Yeah, some people may come.

I can't stop them. But I want them, when they go away, they must sense that they met with Jesus Christ. They heard Jesus Christ. Maybe through a man but they heard Jesus Christ. And so, here is one very important characteristic, if you fear God.

Righteous Judgment Without Partiality

Isaiah 11, verse 3. If you really fear God, here is a test to find out whether you fear God or not. This is a very, very important characteristic of all who fear God. Verse 3. He will not judge by what his eyes see or his ears hear.

You know how we have a tendency to believe everything we hear. It's not actually a gunam, it's actually a bad habit. That everything we hear, we believe it. We should not do that if you are Christians.

You hear it. And then it says, with righteousness, verse 4, you must judge, decide. That means, you heard something and you say, Lord, I don't know whether it's true or not. He told me, he's not a liar.

But he also may have heard it from somebody. How do we know it's true? This is a very bad habit among Christians. We hear something bad about somebody, we believe it immediately. We hear something good, we are very reluctant to believe it.

Somebody says something good about someone, I heard this. Then, we say, yeah, but you know, actually he has got some other problems also. Our hearts are so evil. We are not like children. Because the fear of the Lord is not there.

We judge by what our ears have heard. We may say, okay, I didn't hear it, I saw it. You can't even believe what you see. We had an experience of that in one conference in Bangalore once. You know, after the night meeting, this is many years ago, some young people were sitting together in the dark.

It was dark. And there was some young 10-year-old boy walking by from our church only. And he saw some smoke coming there. Hey, CFC young people are smoking cigarettes. He went and told his mummy. Mummy, I saw some CFC young people smoking cigarettes.

And she was a foolish woman. She went around and told other women also. So finally, all these things finally will come to my ears. I said, I've never heard a CFC young person smoking cigarettes in a meeting.

So, I went and asked some of the young people who were there. He said, what is this? Some smoke was coming up. He said, we were sitting outside, there were so many mosquitoes were there. So we had one of these mosquito coils and we were burning it to keep the mosquitoes away.

That is the smoke that was going up. You can say, I saw with my own eyes. That boy said, I saw with my own eyes. The smoke. Don't believe it. If you fear God, you will not even judge by what your eyes see.

Take it before the Lord. Say, Lord, there may be another reason for it. That smoke may not have been coming from a cigarette. So don't believe what your ears hear or your eyes see until you investigate it.

That is the proof that you fear God. And I'll tell you something. Even though we say we are believers and spirit filled and all that, I have noticed something in CFC people. Even among CFC elders. We have some favorites.

If that favorite of ours, we hear something bad, we won't believe it. And especially if it is our children, we won't believe it. But if it is somebody else in the church whom we don't like, and we heard something about that person, we believe it.

We don't investigate it. We say, this is the problem with our church. There are people like this. That elder does not have the spirit of the fear of the Lord. He has got partiality. And where there is partiality, there will be every evil thing.

James chapter three says, the wisdom from above, there is no partiality. You know, if you really want to grow spiritually, cleanse yourself not only from sexual lust, cleanse yourself from partiality.

All brothers and sisters, there is partiality as part of the flesh. And we have to cleanse it away. We must say, I want to see everybody as Jesus sees them. I may not like that person, but that does not mean I should believe everything evil I hear about him.

And I may like somebody very much and then I hear something wrong he did and I won't believe it because I like him so much. If you want to spoil your children, listen to me. Do you want to spoil your children?

Do you want to bring them up for the devil? Then when you hear something bad about them, defend them and say, no, no, no, it's not true. I remember when my children were small, they were not spiritual when they were small, they were not born again, and they do naughty things just like all children.

They used to go to Sunday school in our CFC and I told them one thing. If any of your Sunday school teachers come and tell me that you are not behaving properly, I will not defend you, I told my children.

That is a brother in the church who is teaching you Sunday school. He is the Sunday school teacher. You respect him and if he says something and you say you don't do it, you didn't do it, I will believe him.

I will not believe you. I taught my children thereby to respect their Sunday school teachers and to respect the young brothers. I was willing to listen to my children but I know that children tell lies to defend themselves and my children were small, they were not spiritual.

Today I can believe my children, those days I could not. So don't just blindly believe your children. I tell you, if you are like that you will destroy them. They will become wayward, they will say daddy and mummy will always take my side.

My children knew that I will not take their side. I will take the side of righteousness and if they are wrong, they are wrong. If the teacher in the school said that they were misbehaving, I would go and ask the teacher, tell me what did they do?

You know their children are small, they do stupid things. I remember once one of my children were 5 years old and like children he was playing with the neighbour child and they fought with each other.

So they were hitting each other. So I called him, my son, I said why did you hit him? You know the story. He hit me first. Always the story is like that. Okay, maybe it's true. But I said you are a Christian.

We are a Christian family. We don't hit back even if he hits us. So now I am going to take you to the neighbour's house and you must say sorry to that 5 year old boy. So my son says will he say sorry to me also?

I am not interested. You have to say to him. So I took my boy to the neighbour's house and I knocked at the door. I said my son has to say something to your son. So my son I am sorry. The other boy said okay, thank you.

We came away. And my son said he never said sorry to me. I am not interested. I am not his father. I have no responsibility for him. I have responsibility for you. Today I know what my son has become.

And the other boy I don't know what's happened to him. But if his father allowed him to grow up like that I am sure he is wayward today. Be free from partiality towards your children. Be free from partiality to the special friends you have in your church.

Don't judge by what your eyes see or your ears hear. That spirit of the fear of the Lord was upon Jesus. That is how Jesus grew in wisdom. And you and I can grow in wisdom too. I tell you from my experience it's a tremendous battle to fight against partiality.

Some of the best elders in CFC have not got rid of partiality in their lives. I can see it. I don't judge them because they don't see it themselves. My dear brothers especially elders because you have responsibility in your church it's very easy to be partial.

I must not even be partial to the righteous person because sometimes the righteous person can be wrong. I must not be partial to a poor person. Some people say oh I'll always be against the rich people.

That is partiality. Who told you to be partial against rich people? See this verse in the Old Testament in Exodus and chapter 23 Exodus 23. Exodus 23 verse 2. You shall not follow a multitude in doing evil.

Many people in your church say something don't just agree with them. They may be wrong and you shall not testify in a dispute to turn aside a multitude to prevent justice. And listen to this you shall not be partial to a poor person in his dispute.

That's a funny law. It's a very peculiar type of law. In a court they take bribes from the rich. You have to tell the judge don't be partial to the rich. But here it says don't be partial to the poor.

No. Because we have understood spiritual values. God cares for the poor. So if the poor person says something and the rich person says something I'm going to believe the poor person. You are sinning. You are showing partiality to the poor.

It's very difficult to be free from partiality. We have a tendency to be partial towards the one who is weak. But sometimes the weak person can be wrong. And we must not take the side just because he is weak.

Your big brother and small little brother are having a fight. Why do you take the side of the little brother? Two children. Why do you take the side of the smaller child? Because you say he is weak. You are partial.

Your little child may be wrong. I'm giving you some examples to show you how partiality is so deeply rooted in us. Your wife has a problem with some other sister. Can you be impartial? Very difficult.

Is it possible that your wife could be wrong? Or do you feel my wife can never be wrong? She is like the angel Gabriel, can never be wrong. Don't be foolish. I'm not saying you should have a fight with your wife.

And I'm not saying that you should not help her. And I'm not saying you should accuse her. But don't be partial. I'm just trying to tell you it is very difficult to be free from partiality. It is easier to be free from dirty thoughts than to be free from partiality.