Scripture teaches there is only one thing in the whole of the universe that we should fear and that is God. Yet, some 75 times in the scriptures God admonishes His people to FEAR NOT! The truth of the matter is that we, His people, are not to fear God with a NEGATIVE FEAR of either worry or fright. Solomon, that marvelous man of wisdom, after he had run the whole gamut of human thought, finally arrived at the end of his wise statements with this:
“Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: fear God and keep His commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.” Ecclesiastes 12:13
The words “fear God” in Old Testament scripture mean more like “reverence God”. This is an outgoing response by us to the awesome power of God coupled with an abhorrence for evil. It arises from an AWESOME AWARENESS of God’s GOODNESS. It is not fearful terror, nor unnamed fright, nor fear of physical consequences, but rather a REVERENCE. Thus in the New Testament:
“In this we know that we are remaining in Him, and He in us, for He has given us of His spirit. And we have gazed upon Him, and are testifying that the Father has dispatched the Son, the Saviour of the world. Whoever should be avowing that Jesus is the Son of God, God is remaining in him, and he in God. And we know and believe the love which God has in us.
God is love, and he who is remaining in love is remaining in God, and God is remaining in him. In this is love perfected with us, that we may have boldness in the day of judging, seeing that, according as He is, so are we also in this world. Fear is not in love, but perfect love is casting out fear, for fear has chastening. Now he who is fearing is not perfected in love.” I John 4:13-18 concordant
God’s spirit will cast out fear in man at every point as reverence for God is established. Certain fears have been promoted by church leaders and teachers like the FEAR OF ERROR, a fear of missing God’s best. Christian preachers seem to constantly be warning us about the dangers of making mistakes, pointing out the false ways of untold number of potential problems. We who have been exposed to those teachings would do well to heed the words of the apostle Paul:
“For ye have not received the spirit of bondage again to fear…” Romans 8:15
The preaching of negative fear has always been one of the most successful captivating tools of religious Babylon. It is no secret that the church of Rome, that infamous mother of harlots and abominations of the earth, keeps her empire together with messages soaked in fear. Fear of eternal hell, fear of excommunication, fear of denunciation keeps her captives in line and has done so ever since its beginning.
This fear of error was so pronounced that people were forbidden attendance of any other church. They could not listen to any outside preaching or read any literature or books not approved by the church hierarchy. Members of the Catholic church weren’t even permitted, for long centuries, to read the scripture.
The Roman church decided which books were to make up the Bible. The Roman church stated only the pope and his priests could correctly interpret the books of the Bible. Her enemy, the Protestant denominations, has become today not so much different. They too, make up an image like the mother system, using fear and ignorance as weapons of warfare to hold the Lord’s people in bondage.
People in general are thrilled when being scared. This is why roller coasters are popular and millions of people pay money to see horror movies.There are vast numbers of preachers who expend a lot of time and energy creating fear among the people of the Lord and making mega bucks, and the people seem to love it! They are scared to death of offending God, scared to death of everything that could go wrong into some kind of devilish thing. They are fearful of heresy and scared that some perversion or temptation would steal their place in heaven so they would end up in hell forever.
This fear should not be in the Lord’s people! These are tormenting ideas working hellish conditions into God's people right here on earth. We can identify them by the fruit produced. Do these fear-based teachings produce the spiritual liberty of full grown sons, or bind us to false ideas and old interpretations of traditional church doctrine? Church systems — catholic and protestant — have been very successful at keeping Christians as spiritual babes. It is obvious that these teachings do not produce the CHARACTER of Christ in those who follow them.
The “spirit of bondage again to fear” is the spirit that now dominates in Mystery Babylon. Babylon holds her subjects in bondage to fear with direful warnings against false doctrines, fearful threatening of excommunication and possible eternal damnation. She has nothing else by which she may hold people within her confines. It is also equally true that it is impossible for anyone to remain within Babylon or to be under her influence and at the same time be free of this spirit of bondage.
The Lord always calls sonship people out of Babylonish heavens to deliver them mightily from Babylon’s captivating influence. He also removes the fear of bondage from our spirit. We are no longer the slavish subjects of religious creeds, nor dead traditions, attendees of empty ceremonies, nor financial supporters of carnal systems made into institutions falsely called the church.
The most real, true church is the church of the firstborn. It is found in a heavenly people, placed within them by the spirit of sonship. The Lord’s spirit is another spirit given to followers. His is the spirit of liberty and great love. His is the spirit of ADOPTION — a spirit of sonship to God as a Father. Those the Lord elects to draw higher into true freedom can no longer be under Babylon’s influence. They are no longer under her fashions and fearfulness, for the Lord is in Zion calling us out to impart to us a NEW SPIRIT:
“…And so fearful was the spectacle, Moses said, Terrified am I, and in a tremor.”
“But you have come to mount Zion, and the city of the living God, celestial Jerusalem, and to ten thousand messengers, to a universal convocation, and to the ecclesia of the firstborn, ‘registered’ in the heavens, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the just perfected, and to Jesus, the Mediator of a fresh covenant, and to the blood of sprinkling which is speaking better than Abel.” Hebrews 12:21-24 concordant
In Babylon, to “fear again bondage” is presented as fear of wrongdoing and is continually fed at Christian gatherings. But we have FAITH that marks us with assurance that God dwells within our spirit and loves us. This faith that God will deliver and keep His sons and daughters from all error is sadly missing from these teachings. Fear is used as a religious motivation to keep folks bound to their organization.
Where the Lord's spirit is reigning, however, THERE IS LIBERTY, freedom from bondage, a coming together of our spirit with His. He places trust and confidence within us in His ability to teach, guide, and keep us by the Spirit. Jesus himself stated:
"My teaching is not Mine, but His Who sends Me. If anyone should be wanting to be doing His will, he will know concerning the teaching, whether it is of God or I am speaking from Myself. He who is speaking from himself is seeking his own glory, yet He Who is seeking the glory of Him Who sends Him, this One is true, and injustice is not in Him." John 7:16-17 concordant
In going to Christian gatherings today, we are to spiritually judge what is spoken as being before the Lord. Here man is not to speak a teaching expression that is the mixture of flesh and spirit of former days. Something new is determined by Jesus for all who are gathered to Him through it all. We know the spirit of the Lord gives to us all things concerning godliness. Light (understanding) reveals that His will has been restricted by men's teachings among His people. Our ability to know what is determined by the Lord is found in our ability to be INSTRUCTED BY HIS SPIRIT. He has spoken and He has taken us outside the camps of bondage controlled by men.
Sons are drawn to meet a burning bush in the desert. Most Christians are content to remain where it is comfortable until they too are shaken loose from the systematic deceptions found in the forms and creeds handed down by former generations of church leaders. Pentecostal church people are rich in doctrines about Christ, abounding in beliefs and testimony about Him in healings and miracles. Yet they are found being still mixed up with the controlling teachings of FEAR from looking at the things on earth. This does not draw us to perfection, but rather to bondage. Indeed, such a one is not yet really fit for the Kingdom of God:
"You shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." John 8:32
"If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed." John 8:36
The harlot described in the book of Proverbs has the apparel of a harlot. The harlot woman Mystery Babylon has not changed her attire, and she cannot change her garments. The harlot still seeks to bring her “man” to her house so he might be brought down further into death to ultimately destroy him.
Yet, this hour is a peculiar hour. There has never been a time as this! This is the day the apostle saw would be divinely set before us as being NEW:
“Behold, I make all things new.” Revelation 21:5
In the heights of Zion is the revelation of the Lord. He is seen in a new light, differing from former heavens of past generations. We as a people have not walked in the newness of this hour before. This hour is reserved for the coming of the Lord, for it pleases God to give Kingdom newness that will make us become one with Him. He has reserved TRUTH for an end-time supper for all His people to eat.
There is now a new Feast at the table of the Lord. It’s a table of fat things well refined, hidden manna from the throne that has fed us a Feast that creates His Tabernacling within His people. It is certainly not a supper feeding on past teachings of the church age:
“Yahweh of hosts will make for all the peoples on this mountain, a feast of rich foods, a feast of lees, rich foods of marrow,, wine of filtered lees. And He will swallow up on this mountain the presence of the wrap which is wrapped over all the peoples, and the blanket which is blanketing over all the nations. He will swallow up death permanently, and my Lord Yahweh will wipe away every tear from on all faces, and the reproach of His people He shall take away from on the entire earth, for the mouth of Yahweh has spoken.” Isaiah 25:6- Concordant
When we have heard His voice COME OUT OF HER, MY PEOPLE, then we COME UP HITHER, being led to feed on the hidden manna of His Word and Spirit. He comes by the Spirit and we learn to go out to meet Him in our spirit to eat the spiritual bread of heaven’s marriage supper. God Himself is coming to feed us through a great feast which teaches us to tabernacle with Him. We need this hidden manna and may receive some every day.
We are being clothed in white garments, an inner light endued with spiritual understanding that brings liberty. We’re learning how to let God dwell in us, having been judged, sealed, and saved by Christ working within our spirit. If perchance we are successful we shalt surely be perfected just as is Jesus, perfected as members of the church of the firstborn written in heaven. We are RELEASED FROM ALL TORMENTING FEARS just as is Jesus, free from the fear of death, breaking every bondage within and without.
The Lord’s spirit-filled people have been washed divinely, as with the falling of early and latter rain to bring a harvest of sons and daughters of God into liberating waters. These waters refresh the deep well springs planted in His dry and thirsty people in barren places, the desert land that can produce nothing. The impossible task of producing sons into the Kingdom of God is now springing forth. God Life is springing forth as our Father makes us to know what His Firstborn Son, Jesus, knows. We are to know as we are known:
“Yet when I have become a man, I have discarded that which is for minors [babes]. For at present we are observing by means of a mirror, in an enigma, yet then, face to face. At present I know out of an installment, yet then I shall 'recognize' [see] according as I am recognized also.” 1 Corinthians 13:12-13 Concordant