Fear... but not as we've known it

And the Lord commanded us... to fear the Lord our God, for our good always, that He might preserve us alive... Deut. 6:24

by Lynette Woods

Religion uses fear to control people and make them do what they "should". Religious Christians in particular are some of the most fearful (and consequently the most gullible) people and seem to be very susceptible to being manipulated by fear. Instead of encouraging each other to trust God, they encourage people to fear all sorts of things, including the enemy himself, the "last days", the mark of the beast etc! They are afraid of many things, and make others afraid too. They appear to give more credit to the ability of satan to attack and harm them, than to God's ability to protect them. It seems that they have more trust in the enemy and what he may do, than trust in God Himself and what He already HAS done! Their lives are a glaring contradiction of their own testimony.

Many people also use love to determine what is of God and what is not, and that is just as faulty and open to error as using fear. Idolatry is a form of love and satan will use love just as readily as he will use fear. I have met many religious people who appear to be very "loving"; in fact they can be sickeningly so, but it is a fleshly religious love and not the love of God at all. Presumably this "love as a determining factor" is based on the two verses in the Bible that say that God is Love, and so looking for love is the focus, rather than looking for Christ and His Life.

We can't use fear, love, or any characteristics to "discern" what is God and what is not; He often offends our "rules" and our ways of determining things, like with Peter and the forbidden food in Acts chapter 10. The only way of knowing what is of God, is to know Him. And I don't mean a head knowledge based on what the Bible tells us about Him, but an intimate heart knowledge based on our experience of living in Christ and knowing Him living in us as our Life. Read more here…..