TO LOVE GOD AND GODLINESS

The Holy Bible mentions at many places the expression of godliness. In the Old Testament it is heard many times that we must fear God, and we can read that godliness is the beginning of wisdom and it is the fountain of life. Its role and importance is emphasized in many Words.

“And he said to man, the fear of the Lord – that is wisdom and to shun evil is understanding.” Job 28.28

“The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him – the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of power, the Spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the Lord –“Isaiah 11.2

“He who fears the Lord has a secure fortress, and his children it will be a refuge.” Proverbs 14.26

“The fear of the Lord teaches a man wisdom, and humility comes before honour.” Proverbs 15.33

“The fear of the Lord is a fountain of life, turning a man from the snares of death.” Proverbs 14.27

“To fear the Lord is to hate evil, I hate pride and arrogance, evil behaviour and perverse speech.” Proverbs 8.13

These words are addressed to that disposition who adores his God from fear. It is a fear from the consequences of his acts and from the punishment. This fear had a retaining power for this disposition on the way of his development. This fear kept him away from acting sins and if he fell into sin, it turned back his glance to his Creator. This kind of fear was indispensable and it was very useful for the undeveloped dispositions. (Of course using the Past Tense is only rightful if we are over this disposition.)

When God sent Jesus Christ, He manifested His real essence by Him: it is LOVE.

Jesus Christ doesn’t talk about a punitive God but the God of Love. We must adore God not from fear but from spirit.

“For you did not receive a spirit that makes you a slave again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by him we cry, “Abba, Father.” Romans 8.15

“To rescue us from the hand of our enemies, and to enable us to serve him without fear.” Luke 1.74

The difference is huge between these two!

God didn’t change, since there is no sign of change in Him. The picture of God changed and the spirits got chances by the Messiah’s work to get to salvation through Christ with their faith.

Why should people fear of the God of Love?

Since He manifested for us that He is waiting for us, His children, to go home, He doesn’t treat us according to our sins because His compassion and grace are endless.

Our free will is one of the dearest treasures of ours from God. This is such a present that can’t be broken because what is said by Him He can’t change, since it would contradict His own divine being.

God’s Word will subsist for ever because there is not even a shade of change in Him.

 If He gives free will, He can’t change it. He is completely respectful of this.

He warns us and shows the right way but the decision is in our hands. He doesn’t force anything on us since there is no place for force in Him. I can decide freely which way I choose, I have freedom in how I act.

He waits for me to go home but He doesn’t snatch me to Him. He waits for us to go home and waits US to desire it from our spirits. He gives every help for it. What else could He give like His firstborn, Jesus Christ?

God is not a man, He can’t lie! He can’t help keeping His promise and He wants the same from the people who believe in Him. He doesn’t decide instead of us, He doesn’t oblige us. Since we are parts of the Father, there is the desire to Him planted in every created spirit.

“I said, ‘You are “gods”, you are all sons of the Most High’” Psalm 82.6

It depends on my free will whether I cherish this tiny part and it can grow or I give way to the false temptations of the world, to my guilty desires and repress it.

There are many who argue about the free will whether it exits or not. But only those dispute its essence or twist its meaning who doesn’t have a picture of God or whose picture of God is deformed.

It is easy to say everything is predestinated. It doesn’t matter what I do, it will be as God wants, I back out of responsibility and it is much easier like this.

God gave such freedom to the created spirits that can’t be comprehended with human mind. If we choose Christ from our free will WITH FAITH, instead of the opposite, our spirit will experience the endless freedom!

“Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is there is freedom” 2 Corinthians 3.17

We cheat ourselves with having chosen Christ, with having converted, with going to a Christian community and with belonging to a church if we don’t believe in the Lord.

If I feel His essence and His truth and I have desire to Him, then and only then I can have free will and choose Him. Because lacking of it I take His name onto my mouth from correspondence and from brain not from my free will, and I glance at Him as He was a lifeless thing.

A man choose freely those things which he himself considers favourable, he is attracted to through emotions and are advantageous for him. We don’t choose the divine way from fear because the fear’s path and the love’s path don’t have the same way. People who really feel it don’t do guilty things from fear but they simply don’t have desire to them. They find pleasure in acting things which God likes.

“There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love. We love because he first loved us. If anyone says, “I love God, “yet hates his brother, he is a liar. For anyone who does not love his brother, whom he has seen, cannot love God, whom he has not seen.” 1 John 4.18-20

Thus the Old Testament’s godliness doesn’t lead us to salvation while the Words of Christ, which spring from love to God from the spirit, does. However both of their fundament is the faith. Issuing from this very difference, there are very few who believe in the God of Love. Because the majority of the people still have such dispositions that fear, judge and if it could do it condemn.

With an undeveloped spirit, God’s Word will never be living, we will never see the real essence of Jesus Christ or we can’t get into the Fatherly home. We must be complete in love where no fear is.

What is fear?

A man fears of many things. It wouldn’t make any sense to try listing them because not the subject of the fear is the point but the fear itself.

We pre-project a never-happened thing that may never happen to us. Animating past injuries and imagining on them, we will get into this state. Like this, we keep ourselves back from doing our present work and we fear and our spirit is anxious.

Our thoughts have creating power. Thoughts with full of fears attract difficulties into our lives. (We experience this even if we don’t believe that we really have this creating power.)

If we want to sing our fears away, we must know that the fear is in us. This seems to be evident but most people hope their escape from their fears by ending the subjects of their fears. If they achieve this, then they are surprised when their fear finds another subject.

We “are not engaged” in the illness only in the symptoms. Fear is paralysing for the spirit. The more it overcomes on a man, the more it attracts his acts under its direction.

Namely, our fears by the creating power of our thoughts come to life by manifestations in our acts. This can degenerate until a man is obsessed or commits suicide.

When we have confidence in God, our connection is close so these kinds of feelings can’t capture us. We know and experience our Creator’s endless love and power so who could hurt us?

What do we fear of?

Thus we serve the Former of all things, for whom there is nothing impossible.

Should we fear of people or death?

Our lives are in God by His Holy Son. If this FAITH really can strengthen in us, then our fears will be ended. They will never find place in our spirit because love will fill it in fully.

Our fears end only in God by love. We will find balm for it nowhere else.

Let’s serve with humbleness and faith and have confidence in having been given the Spirit of sonship not the fear or slavery.