Matt Rawlins - Fear of the Lord

In order to reach our destiny God is going to put us into situations we cannot accomplish. God will purposely put us into situations that without HIM we cannot complete. God does this so we can realize our weaknesses as a human. God will begin to reveal that we truly are not as powerful, accomplished, strong, spiritual and mighty as we might think. God purposely puts a desire into our hearts to do things that we cannot, to reach for the impossible. He did this so that we as humans will have to rely on Him for our strength and power. A lot of times we have to hit rock bottom to really expose our faith. It is also very easy to feel like we are really spiritual in our Churches and even here at YWAM. We feel like "wow" we are spiritual, but in reality we are just floating down river on a current of others spirituality. It is really easy to be a stand strong as Christians to other Christians. However we are about to sink, because we are using others spirituality to keep us afloat. The challenge for us is to work from the outside, not inside out. Isn't that what Jesus did? He went to the sick, the poor, the murderers first. It is much easier to go with the crowd because you don’t have to face the giants.

Get to the real root of things.

God will work with us he is BIGGER than our choices – But he will never override our choices. God will allow us to make our own choices, but we will have to reap the consequences, benefits and in-betweens. We are given free will for a reason.

When the pain of a situation is too much, that is not of him. That is called injustice. If the pain is unbearable it goes against God’s character. God’s will, does not take us where his grace will not protect us.

His love for us will grow us up.

I loved this post by Katie(Compassion DTS Student), and I wanted to share a part of it with you.

"This past week I found the missing ingredient to becoming more intimate with Jesus- reverence. Fear of God is a topic I never grasped with clarity, however, now I can say that I fear the Lord. I am in awe of my Creator- who “knows each star by name and holds them into place,” who would sacrifice himself for love and relationship, and who is the giver of good gifts. Our first step to an intimate relationship with the Living God is to recognize him for who he was, who he is and who he will be. Once we grasp who God is we can have the intimate relationship we long for. My friend, John, said “Yeah, the people I respect are those who I love the most.” When we respond to the greatness of an individual, we can love and respect them accordingly. The degree of Gods Kingdom is dependent on our revelation of his greatness and goodness. So often we believe lies about Gods nature and character, but despite our circumstances, despite our perspective, God is sovereign."