In this Q&A video, Pastor Bill discusses the connection between the reverence of God and intimacy with Him. It’s important that we embrace the tension between experiencing God as an intimate father while also embracing the fear of the Lord.

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one of the folks was asking just that

tension that uh

we we have this relationship with god as

daddy as abba you know in the aramaic

how do you balance that reverence you

know first as our daddy but still

maintain that reverence

for who god is and how does that

function in your world

true encounters with god that’s never an

issue

it it uh because they’re chock full of

their own reverence

oh goodness yeah

yeah i mean real encounters with the

lord i mean yeah

he is he is always good yeah

but even his goodness is going to bring

a fear of the lord in the last days

according to hosea 3

5 that people will fear god because of

his goodness so there’s this

even his goodness is overwhelming it

brings about a sobriety that

that is is hard to explain

you know it’s it’s we’re not dealing

with concepts that make us feel good

about life we’re dealing about it we’re

dealing with a person

who is overwhelmingly good but he’s

still overwhelming

and and that connection you know this is

where i would just say you know what

just continue to

just see deeper encounters with the lord

read his word i mean

yeah i mean in revelation you got you

got saints falling on their faces before

another saint

because they think it’s the lord and he

goes hey it’s yeah i’m not jesus you

know

yeah it’s my own language but it’s you

know stand up because

so there’s that there’s there’s that

reverence

just for another person

that lives in that realm how much more

to god himself so

you know you just have to be smart you

have to stay in the word

you know you open revelation 1 you know

john who the last time you saw jesus he

had his head on his chest and

was was saying am i the one and then he

has this encounter in revelation

chapter one where he sees eyes of fire

and feet of burnished bronze and

suddenly it’s not the same it’s the same

but it’s not the same

and there’s there’s this there’s this

incredible reverence

with jesus the son of god who’s also

called the everlasting father in isaiah

so there’s that fatherhood thing that is

also overwhelmingly

good sobering

you know it’s it’s uh psalms 2 says

rejoice with trembling which is a

it’s that’s the biblical tension to me

is you’ve got the joy

and the fear doing both at the same time

yeah figure that one out you’ll do fine

yeah

you know but but that’s it and the fear

of god is to remain i

get a little bit nervous about people

that say well the fear isn’t an issue

anymore that’s old testament

no look at somebody who saw him yeah

absolutely yeah

it wasn’t just reverence it was yeah

absolutely yeah well

jesus pretty clearly said hey don’t let

me tell you don’t be afraid of people

that can kill your body be afraid of uh

the guy who can kill your body and your

soul yeah this is

these are the words of gentle jesus you

know you’re like good points wow

that’s gonna happen to you that’s yeah

that’s good to know absolutely

that’s excellent we have you know within

the within the context of

the jewish religion which had done um

you know

reverence it was kind of a form of

reverence sometimes you know we’ll

sacrifice but it’s not the sacrifice of

the hearts the

the form of reverence was there you had

jesus coming and saying

hey yahweh is abba you know

you know yahweh is daddy right

incredibly powerful because the context

was we do reverence really well

right or at least we think we do

reverence

and so it’s really really helpful but

sometimes we get

in the context now is we do familiarity

and nobody’s bigger than anybody and

everybody’s the same and why do i have

to listen to you

and uh you know people disrespecting the

president because they don’t agree with

them

you know i’m thinking it’s my right to

do and we have kind of in our culture

where we’re constantly

like clawing everybody down to the

lowest common denominator

it’s like we know you think this about

george washington but let us tell you

what he’s really like

yeah we’re just going to call everybody

down yeah

in that context it feels like some ways

we need the the reverence messages

when you read the scripture you get the

reverence it’s clearly it’s clearly

there

yeah that’s right you know and um and

and your point is that

in genuine encounters the daddy and

the holy daddy yeah exactly is

definitely there

yeah real real encounters and real

examination of scripture

is there’ll be no question yeah yeah

bobby connor you probably remember the

statement he says we’ve become way too

familiar with the god we hardly know

it’s a sobering statement but i think i

think it’s true yeah

yeah absolutely yeah

the um

you know along those lines in some ways

there’s that uh c.s lewis that they did

the movies of his books you know

and i think they they moved the line

they put it in the wrong place it was i

didn’t like that part they’re like oh

what are you doing dude

you’re a wrong one of the characters

susan found out he was a lion this aslan

they’d been waiting for was a lion

yeah oh she was freaked out you know

like lions are not you know

and she her question was is he safe and

he’s like safe he’s a lion

but he’s good i tell you and he’s the

king and so in some ways that

holding that thing he’s he’s good but

he’s a lion yeah

yeah i think probably there’s a ben

in my time past from people there’s a

bet some folks get the fathering thing

and they need to embrace the reverence

and the holiness a little bit more and i

think some folks are they come out of

that reverence and holiness but they

really need to know his daddy

and so in some ways there needs to be a

coming to get holding on to those

two absolutely true things yeah that

he’s yahweh

i am that i am and he’s abba yeah

it’s true got to happen both yeah it’s

not either or

yeah and do you feel like you know

you’re saying in encounters that he

you experienced from this rabbit is

there a time though when when there’s a

reverent encounter and then there’s this

an intimacy father encounter

and that they’re um oh i

i don’t actually have a story about it

but it seems sometimes some of the

prophetic pictures people give are

just full of daddy there’s not a hint of

reverence in them and then there are but

there are other times when it’s just

i was we were on our face and we escaped

the room

because of this exactly do you have it

in yours that both have to

be in every encounter or can it just be

one or the other you know i

i mean i i guess it can be one or the

other i mean we don’t dictate to him how

he shows up

however most of the time where you see

the overwhelming trembling

fear i think

you would see it end with great deep

personal encounter

more of the affection thing yeah i don’t

know if it’s a good example jesus walks

into the room after he’s resurrected the

disciples are hiding they’re scared to

death

and he says don’t be afraid it’s me

well they missed that completely because

they’re still scared to death so he

shows him his hands and his

scars and then they were able to then

they were thankful they saw the lord

so the point was they had an encounter

that brought fear but it ended with

great peace because his intention was

always to bring them into a place of

tenderness and peace into personal deep

encounter

it started that you know anytime he

shows up it you know if he really shows

up in any sense of magnitude

it’s going to be a fear and trembling

encounter yeah but he he doesn’t

he doesn’t do that to impress us i mean

you know he can certainly do more than

that if he wanted us to tremble

absolutely that’s not the issue the

issue is all right i am

this who is this to you and he

he ends up saying no i meant it peace to

you

you know receive the holy spirit and he

comes and brings them into this deep

personal encounter

and in this moment we’ve got guys that

are afraid

of anything that will now die for

you know through this next series of

days encounters came that were

overwhelming were profound but they so

impacted them

that they became the world changers and

so i

if i generally speak i think when the

lord gives the overwhelming

you know fear and trembling encounter

it’s always to take us

into all right this one who is so

overwhelming

is so tender and so good and he takes us

into this now receive the holy spirit

thank you i appreciate you taking the

time and folks on the

internet the world wide web they

appreciate it too and i’m glad that’s a

pleasure thanks so much

we want to thank you for uh sharing

these moments with us and

look forward to seeing you again next

time on revival chats

until then thanks

yeah absolutely