The Sevenfold Holy Spirit: The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord

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The Sevenfold Holy Spirit: The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord | by Jamie Rohrbaugh | FromHisPresence.com

One time, and one time only, I thought I was going to die in the presence of the Lord.

It was during a powerful worship encounter, and I wrote about it here. Obviously, though, I didn’t die … but I did learn something about the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord.

In this article series, we’ve been slowly getting to know the Holy Spirit better. We’ve looked at the fact that He is God, how good and generous He is, and how to get the Holy Spirit. Then we started to learn about His character by studying the sevenfold manifestations of the Holy Spirit prophesied by the prophet Isaiah.

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    Today, we’re going to learn how the Holy Spirit reveals Himself as the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. 

    Getting to Know the Sevenfold Holy Spirit: A 12-Day Devotional Guide

    Get the book and focus on communion with God’s Holy Spirit for 12 days! Remember that He is your Helper, Comforter, and Advocate. You can’t truly know God without knowing His Holy Spirit!

    As a reminder, our text for this series is Isaiah 11:1-5, which says:

    “There shall come forth a Rod from the stem of Jesse,
    and a Branch shall grow out of his roots.

    The Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon Him,
    the Spirit of wisdom and understanding,
    the Spirit of counsel and might,
    the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord.

    His delight is in the fear of the Lord,
    and He shall not judge by the sight of His eyes,
    nor decide by the hearing of His ears;

    but with righteousness He shall judge the poor,
    and decide with equity for the meek of the earth;
    He shall strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,
    and with the breath of His lips He shall slay the wicked.

    Righteousness shall be the belt of His loins,
    and faithfulness the belt of His waist” (Isaiah 11:1-5).

    First, we need to understand what the “fear of the Lord” is NOT.

    There is a certain kind of fear which dominates many people’s lives. Many people suffer from an unholy, demonic fear–the demonic fear that can only be cast out by an infilling of the Father’s love. This unholy fear is the kind of fear that binds you in chains. It keeps you from having relationships or receiving love. It makes you think the hammer of rejection, abandonment, other people’s bad opinions, physical danger, etc is always about to fall.

    If you have this unholy fear in your heart, you need to be healed of it. It is not Papa’s will for your life. First John 4:18 tells us so specifically:

    “There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love.”

    We need to be filled with our Papa’s love in order to be freed from unholy fear.

    But fortunately for us, we can be filled with love. When we made Jesus Christ our Savior, the Father adopted us and made us His own children. Because we have been adopted, now we can live forever in Father’s love because of the blood Jesus shed for us. That’s why 1 John 3:1a says:

    “Behold what manner of love the Father has bestowed on us, that we should be called children of God!”

    So because we dwell in God’s perfect love, we do not have to fear our Father with an unholy, demonic fear.

    We do not have to fear punishment or rejection from Him. We do not have to fear His anger. Of course, if we disobey Him, there are always consequences; but He is a good, good Father who loves us. He shows mercy, forgives us, and teaches us–even when we choose to suffer a few consequences as we learn to become like Him.

    Related: The Solution to Fear: How God Delivered Me from Fear

    But we do need to be filled with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. Here’s why:

    • Our God, Yahweh, is the Creator of the ends of the earth.
    • He sits on a living throne in an eternal Heaven.
    • He has lived since eternity past and He will go on living into eternity future. Time has no bearing on Him.
    • He exists everywhere at once.
    • He is all-knowing and all-seeing.
    • He is great, powerful, the only wise God.
    • His throne is the governmental center of the universe.
    • He is surrounded by creatures and angels which never cease to cry out “Holy!” day and night.
    • His eyes burn with fire and His feet are like burning brass. His hair is white as wool.
    • Millions and millions of angels worship Him and obey His bidding. Just one of those angels was capable of killing 120,000 people in one night in the Bible.

    Our God is awesome. He is terrible. He is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

    And He deserves our holy fear.

    Recommended resource: If you want to grow in the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, I strongly encourage you to read A.W. Tozer’s book The Knowledge of the Holy. This is the one book I have read, other than the Bible, that has changed my life the MOST. It is short, and it will wreck you for God. You can grab a copy of The Knowledge of the Holy here on Amazon (affiliate link).

    The word “fear” in Isaiah 11 means to have a holy fear and reverence for the Lord.

    It means that the Holy Spirit manifests Himself in us by giving us the holy fear and reverence for the Lord that we ought to have. It is a holy awe. It is a knowing of His terrible-ness, but also of His love.

    The Spirit of the Fear of the Lord gives us a holy fear and reverence that brings delight to our hearts, even though we know our Father is so great that someone who is not covered by the blood of Jesus would die in His presence.

    And when we are filled with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, things change in our lives:

    • We find ourselves obeying Him, just because He speaks.
    • We find ourselves seeking Him, because His beauty and holiness inspire such awe in our hearts that we cannot not pursue encounters with this One.
    • We learn to come to Him as students, seeking His instruction and accepting His Word as fact in our lives.

    In short, the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord gives us the reverence toward God that will keep us on the straight and narrow path. When the Holy Spirit teaches us the terrible fear of the Lord, we reverence Him, stand in awe of Him, fear Him in a holy way–and delight in Him, all at the same time.

    Do you need to be filled with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord today? Pray this with me:

    Heavenly Father God, in Jesus’ name, I thank You for Your Holy Spirit who lives in my heart.

    Father God, please let the Holy Spirit manifest Himself to me as the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord today. Fill me with the holy awe and reverence for You that I should have. Help me to hold a holy fear of You in my heart–the kind of loving fear that causes me to obey You, cherish You, and bow to You in all things.

    Father God, I am Yours completely. Please let the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord, do such a work in my life today that I never again hold You lightly or in low esteem. Let me never again disrespect or disobey You, but always yield to Your sovereignty and kingship. Thank You, Papa God. I love You. In Jesus’ name, amen.

    Does this message resonate in your heart? Do you need to be filled with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord today? If so, please leave a comment below! I’d love to hear from you.

    Read the other posts in this series:

    The Amazon links above are my affiliate links. This means that, if you purchase a resource on Amazon using my link, Amazon will pay me a small commission (at no additional cost to you of course). If you love to read legal mumbo-jumbo, you can delight yourself in my disclosure policy here.

    13 Comments

    1. Rebecca L Jones says:

      I’m glad you are clearing this up because so many people think God is out to get you. They really don’t understand fear and reverence. I believe the level of demonic fear can be corresponding with your calling, so if you have a lot, God has big plans, it’s better to learn ” Perfect love, God’s love ” early on, but there”s a way if someone has been being torment, because fear has torment.

      1. I agree many of us don’t get it yet. I never did, until I read The Knowledge of the Holy. And then, as I read that, I realized that if I walk in total, holy fear of the Lord, I might never again sin. Obviously I’m not there yet, but I sure desire to be!

    2. Oh my gosh, Jamie.

      I read this about a week ago, and God let me have it on Saturday. I thought I was going to die at a stop light.

      I was worshiping with this voice He’s gifted me, in awe and wonder of Him. Suddenly, I was keenly, terrifyingly aware of how imperfect I am, and how utterly pure and holy He is. I was almost afraid I might sin unintentionally in such a holy moment and be wiped out. All I could manage was the same thing you did:

      “Please don’t kill me.”

      And immediately, He released peace. I was speechless and emotional for the rest of my drive.

      It was incredible.

      1. Kelsey, that’s amazing. Thank you so much for sharing this. What an incredible privilege, to look upon His holiness and live.
        Thank You, Jesus, for Your grace and the blood that You shed to cover us. <3

    3. I wish the fear of the lord could be embraced, and be taught to believers. To have experienced his presence in this way is life changing, and is freedom: freedom from unhealthy fears. The fear that comes from the enemy holds no comparison to the terror in the presence of the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. Knowing this difference will allow the believe freedom to stand unwavering in the presence of any other fear. It also is the catalyst to obedience to God’s voice and direction.

      Thank you for sharing truth!

    4. Chioma Itodo says:

      I have been so blessed by this post on the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. I have always known that there was something missing in my relationship with the Father and I took out time by the leading of the Holy Spirit to search it out. And He revealed it as not having been baptised with the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord. I therefore went on a search for what the Spirit of the Fear of the Lord is and I stumbled unto your blog. And your post did it for me in a very simple language. Thank you so much for taking the time to post these. God bless you.

    5. Marlene Hope says:

      Hi
      Can you tell me what you mean when you said, “Our God is awesome. He is terrible. He is Wonderful, Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.

      I understand everything but the “He is terrible.”

      1. Hi Marlene,
        “Terrible” is not a bad word here. Two things for you to treasure-hunt about this:
        1) Check out the dictionary.com definition of the word “terrible,” specifically definitions 3 and 4.
        Then:
        2) Check out this list of some of the occasions where God is described as “terrible” in the Scriptures.
        https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/terrible/
        The “terribleness” of God is a thrilling aspect of God’s nature that we should all meditate on!
        Thanks for asking a great question! Blessings,
        Jamie

    6. Deborah Merklin says:

      Your teaching on The seven-fold Holy Spirit is like a pure crystal-clear waterfall pouring all over and inside of me.
      Thank you, Jamie. Bless the LORD.

    7. I have been filled with fear (unholy) and pride all my life and know with all my heart that I need to be filled with the Spirit of the fear of the Lord to save my life, I’m desperate for the Spirit of the fear of the Lord. I’ve been so disobedient involved in occult and just a very sorry excuse for a person and I know I need the fear of the Lord so desperately.

    8. Nathaniel says:

      Hey Jamie. Learning about the Seven expressions of the same spirit has been so enlightening. God bless you for all you do.

    9. This is great I really didnt have a good understanding of the fear of the Lord thankyou Jamie my eyes have been opened God bless

    10. Thank you for being obedient and allowing the Holy Spirit to use your vessel to administer this word. Many Blessings!

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