Posted on 08/10/2019 6:09:31 AM PDT by metmom
“But when the crowds saw this, they were awestruck, and glorified God, who had given such authority to men” (Matthew 9:8).
The word rendered “awestruck,” although often translated “fear,” most commonly refers to reverential awe in the New Testament. It is how someone feels who is in the presence of another, infinitely superior person.
“Awestruck” describes the reaction to numerous significant events we read about in the gospels and Acts: the shepherds hearing of Jesus’ birth (Luke 2:9), the apostles when their Lord walked on water (Matt. 14:26), the guards at the tomb when the angels rolled away the stone (Matt. 28:2–4), the people in the early church right after Pentecost (Acts 2:43), and the reaction to the deaths of Ananias and Sapphira (Acts 5:5, 11).
Reverential awe of God is an essential part of the genuine Christian life (see 2 Cor. 7:1, 10–11; Phil. 2:12; 1 Peter 3:2). This attitude must undergird all important aspects of worship, ministry, love, respect, and even biblical church discipline (see 2 Cor. 5:11; Eph. 5:21; 1 Tim. 5:20).
The awe-filled response by most of the people in the crowd as they witnessed what Jesus did for the paralytic was certainly the right one, especially since it resulted in their giving glory to God. Such an attitude should never be far from us as we strive to faithfully worship and serve the Lord (cf. Acts 9:31).
Ask Yourself
How magnificent of a revelation does it take for you to be “awestruck” at God’s splendor and glory? What simple, basic, everyday things are ready examples of His greatness, though disguised as something ordinary and insignificant?
Studying God’s Word ping
The word “fear” should not be used to describe the experience of God. Fear is the exact opposite as God’s Love casts out all fear. It is bliss beyond words of description. I speak from actual experience on this.
Fear and God’s Love cannot exist in the same place. They are two different frequencies of existance.
The great fear is what a person experiences when they are full of themselves and are in the process of dying daily, letting go, and losing control. The emptiness of self necessary to make room for God’s Love is deeper than any depression. It truly is a Dark Night of the Soul. But then God arrives, and just like the newborn baby bringing bliss quickly causes a woman to forget birthing pain, the joy far exceeds the pain.
Fear is your own perception, afraid of communing with Jesus. Remember Jesus’ words when He exited the wilderness... “My Father and I are one.”
Read John 14, where Jesus states that if He is in us, Our Father that is in Him is also in us.
These words are true.
Your fear is what you fill yourself with that blocks God’s Love.
If you want to test what I say, Pray to God to send the Holy Spirit into you. When you have tasted God fully, nothing can ever remove your desire to experience it always.
Our goal as humans is to to “perceive God.”
When true communion happens and the Holy Spirit is in us, we lose our individual self identity and become One with the Holy SSpirit.
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