John Bevere and Michael Koulianos "The Fear of the Lord"

hey everybody welcome to another session of Jesus image TV today's show is one of the honors of my life I'm so excited about what God is gonna do I'm with a dear friend but also a prophetic voice to really the world for so many years John Bevere is with us today so I want you to get comfortable pay attention open your heart to the Holy Spirit the Lord is gonna change your life you are in for a great blessing John thank you so much man it's great to be here with you so honored that you're here you know we're good friends we played a lot of golf together yeah you're good - well you are - yeah we we try at least right Golf has a toy humbling you yes it is it's always been a character builder for me in fact that wasn't playing enough and you said I expect you to play more golf that's right that's right because sometimes people in ministry they get so involved in ministry they don't have Sabbath yeah and Sabbath is not in a New Testament I don't believe it's an actual day it's a time where you pull aside and you rest yeah you rest your soul you spend time with God you spend time with your family and make sure you have an activity outside of ministry if more ministers would do that we wouldn't have as many disasters yeah you talked in time with God family and activity outside of say that again spend time with God yeah so important family so important and then having an activity outside of ministry that brings the minister whether man or woman refreshment there's a lady on my board she and her husband pastor great church when she hit 50 she realized she needed this and she started taking flying lessons sewing airplanes she's flying airplanes and she is a woman of God great great great pastor great prayer warrior and excellent board member for Lisa and I well and so I highly any time I find a minister that they're not doing something outside of ministry I I feel like it's my time to bring a little you did that correction you did it yeah so in fact I I every time I hit balls now I think of that yeah that's good I don't says get out there and go hit some balls good and if it doesn't feel good or look too good but you know and I want to say how much we love Lisa she sent us a text message for New Year's just blessing us and you know a lot of people don't know this but you were a youth pastor crying at my wife's father's Church that Pastor Benny's Church yes wife always says there was something special about pastor John and Lisa she always says it and so does the family she loves you guys so much and Lisa sent us both a text message saying happy new year we love you guys and we're so proud of you and Jess well and I always knew that Jess would would walk in the heritage that had been set forth for her she's such a great lady she married a Jim I did I did yeah she's amazing you know I want to talk about later in the interview about finishing right mm-hmm cuz as a young preacher uh I want to finish right and I know other young preachers on obsessed right I know Christians in general want to finish the race that God's called us to so I do want to touch on that I'd love to talk about that because I think it's so important you know I it's not just about how you start but it's finishing faithfully and you well how you finished is more important to how you start yes that's right and you you your reputation that's wrong everywhere I go people honor you I just got back from Greece I was in Greece and Cyprus Rome Germany and in Africa and every time your name comes up there's honor attached to your name and your books your material your teachings are shaking the nation's I mean in Greece I said who who do you guys look to who are you receiving nourishment from whose books have transformed your life in every conversation John Bevere has come up you know I say about those books Mike I was the my names on there cuz I was the first guy to get to read him I'm just the donkey that he chose but let me say I will say this proverbs chapter 4 verses 7 and 8 and the New Living Translation says getting wisdom is the most important thing you can do yeah it's exact quote said love wisdom and she will make you great right God would never tell you his wisdom would make you great if he didn't want you to be great don't ever listen to a religious spirit someone who has false humility because the Bible says it will cheat you of your reward in Christ so religious spirit would come along as a cockeyed wants you great why would God tell you wisdom will make you great if he didn't want you great his wisdom then the next statement says embrace her and she shall bring you honor now what does honor mean it means you become a person of dignity of nobility have you ever noticed that people there are certain people that walk into a room and the whole level of the atmosphere raises sure have you ever noticed there's people walk into a level of a room and the whole atmosphere goes down and then there's a lot of people and this is the bulk of people they walk into a room and nothing happens you okay if you embrace wisdom which the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom if you embrace wisdom you become a person of nobility of dignity and so if everyone in the body of Christ would embrace wisdom but you can't even get wisdom until you have the fear of the Lord they would walk in that kind of Honor that Jesus walked in and Jesus walked into a room the whole atmosphere changed he could go to a Mafia party he could sit and talk to children the same man could be in any surrounding and be fine why because Jesus is perfect wisdom yes he is the son of God and so when we follow in his steps and we embrace wisdom we become people of dignity and honor the other thing is is when you walk in God's wisdom you'll never be rival with anyone one of the things that I believe God hates so much is rival rivalry I believe the church is going to come into a place where there's no more rival rival II like when I look at Reinhardt bunkie yeah I jump up and down with joy when I look at these great pastors in America I jump up and down with joy I love them so much Michael his pastors when I look at you and Jess I jump up and down with joy you want to know why because we're all building one kingdom that's what we're doing so it's not like you know I have to do more than somebody out there I just celebrate what God does through all these different giftings because I just think it's magnificent to see the vast creativity and Wonder and wisdom of God through the different gifting sees placing the body of Christ man we need a lot more guys like you we need a lot more people like Reinhardt we a lot more people like these wonderful pastors I get to meet in America so when you when you walk in God's wisdom you'll never be you'll never be competitive you won't be insecure what is that why the wisdom of God breed that heart in somebody because the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord you can't even get God's wisdom until you fear God when you fear God you embrace his heart yeah you no longer are trying to make a name for yourself to be successful you are now looking to lift him to do his work and if there's any success that needs to come any honor that needs to come he just brings it yeah for the purpose for the purpose of enjoying honor or success for the purpose of being more effective you know one of the great cries of my heart this year as we came into this new year the great cry of my heart was God I want to be more efficient in serving you I want your favor so I can serve you better Lee better and serve your people better I think it goes back to what Bruce Wilkerson wrote in his book the prayer of Jabez why is it people are afraid to ask God to bless them because they still don't understand the fear of the Lord and they're still seeking with selfish motives if they really understood that the only way they can serve God more effectively is for him to bless them they would be asking him to bless them that was a wonderful revelation the body of Christ got ahold if we need to walk out what that man was given mm-hmm because God can trust a man with the blessing if he fears if he fears it yes yeah yes yeah absolutely this whole thing is about at the end of the day jesus said in John 17:3 this is eternal life that they may know you the one true God in Jesus some percent the fear of the Lord it is the key to really intimate intimately knowing God absolutely the Bible says in proverbs chapter 1 the fear of the Lord is the beginning of knowledge what knowledge in proverbs chapter 2 verse 5 it says the knowledge of him right so the fear of Lord is the beginning the starting place of intimately knowing God you can't even begin to know him until you fear him okay so what is the fear of the Lord well first of all Michael it is not to be scared of God okay all right you've got to lay that out because first of all God is passionate about having an intimate relationship with us when you look at psalm 139:16 God the Father said or David said if I was to consider the thoughts that you God have about me personally if I was able to number them they would outnumber every grain of sand that's on this planet now think about every grain of sand that's on this planet every beach every desert every golf course that's a lot of sand right yeah now when I think about all the thoughts I've had about Alisa in the last 30 years of our marriage and they've been a lot I wouldn't even have a shoebox full and I'm doing pretty good because do you know what scientists tell us one cubic foot of beach so that's that much Beach yet right has one point eight billion grains of sand word now fishermen exaggerate some preachers exaggerate and golfers exaggerate and some golfers exaggerate right exaggeration is a lie yeah I mean there's just there's no other way of saying it's a lie yeah so God cannot lie because the father of lies is Satan yeah God cannot lie right he doesn't want to lie but he cannot lie so if God says my thoughts about you personally outnumber every grain of sand is on his planet Judas day how much he's thinking about us Wow okay and you don't think a lot about somebody you don't wanna be close to yeah okay I think so much more about Lisa than any human being on the planet why because I really love being close to Lisa Bevere but right God wants to be intimate with us Moses said in Exodus in the New Living Bible he is passionate about his relationship with us so how can we have what God passionately desires an intimate relationship with him if we're scared of him yeah if you look at when Moses delivered Israel out of Egypt when he took them out of Egypt many people think that his destination where he was heading was the promised land that's not true right he was actually taking them to Mount Sinai because he said to Pharaoh thus saith the Lord let my people go that they might worship me in the desert he never said affair with us say at the Lord let my people go there so they can go get their own land right right why would Moses want to bring him to the promised land before he first brings him to the promised ER at the mountain yeah because if he brings them to the promised land before he first brings them to the promised her they'll make the promised land into a place of idolatry and that's what we did in the 80s and the 90s 1980s and 1990s we preach more of what Jesus would do for us rather than who he is and what we did is we develop disciples that started seeking God for what he can do for me not who he is and that's like a woman marrying a man because he's got a lot of money sure she marries him for love but love for the wrong reasons if you look at Israel you look at Moses it's amazing the contrast Israel is abused by Egypt they have stripes on their back they live in the worst they wear the worst they eat the worst their children are put to death they come out of Egypt and you know what is really saying we want to go back it was better for us in Egypt now here's the key words it was better for us in Egypt if you look at Moses he's raised by the wealthiest man in the whole world Pharaoh's his grandfather so just think he's in the nicest home in the planet right he's got a Maserati he's got a Lamborghini he's got every Harley in the collection he's got all the iPhones anything he wants he eats the best where's the best trained by the best he comes out of Egypt he never once said I want to go back to Egypt it was better for me back in Egypt why because he had one encounter with God at that bush and he wanted Israel to have the same thing that's the ministry that's the work of the ministry yes giving them to that bush bring them to that bush and because because in that bush there are people I actually don't know this that Bush was at Sinai so that's where he wants he wants to bring them to where he met the one we desire so when he brings them to that mountain he goes up and has a chat with God and you know what God said to him it's in Exodus 19 you can read it in your Bible God said I delivered you all out of Egypt on eagle's wings for one purpose to bring you to myself he wanted to have intimacy with them like he did with Moses so he said Moses tell him to get ready I'm going to come down here reduce myself to everybody on the third day and when God comes down introduces himself they all scream and run away they said Moses we can handle this you talked to God tell us whatever he says we'll hear and do it now Moses was devastated because he wanted them to experience what he experienced the intimacy with God so he looks at the people in Exodus 20 20 and he says do not fear he said because God has come to test you and what was the test to see if his fears in you so that you may not sin that sounds like a contradiction but it is not he is contrasting the difference between being scared of God and the fear of the Lord okay there is a difference okay the person who is scared of God has something to hide what does Adam do as soon as he disobeys God he hides from the presence of the Lord the person who fears God has nothing to hide they're scared to be away from God so the initial definition of the fear of the Lord is to be scared well let me go one step further it is to be terrified to be away from God that's so the fear of the Lord think about this the fear of the Lord is to be terrified to be away from God so when we fear God we venerate him now venerate is a huge word what does venerate mean it means to esteem to appreciate it means to reverence it means to respect means to stand in awe of him more than anything or anyone else so that again when we venerate God we esteem him we respect him we stand in awe of him we've we reverence him more than anything or anyone else including ourself yeah okay so what happens is we embrace his heart because when you stand in awe of him more than anyone or anyone else including yourself that means you want is hard so now we love what he loves we hate what he hates what is important to him becomes important to us what it's not so important to him is not so important to us so we were talking about Sabbath a little while ago yeah okay that was one of God's big n-now do you know why people ignore the big that one they pay attention still to all the other ones right sure because it's the only one of the ten that makes enough sense and why is that okay does it make sense to not commit adultery of somebody else's why sure sure so it makes sense not to steal from somebody sure it makes sense not to take a gun and shoot somebody sure is I can keep going right yeah does it make sense to take rest no because when you love God you want to be productive you want to go go go and so what do you do you you you look at taking a rest as wasting time but when you fear God if he says rest is important it now becomes very important to me yeah okay so people don't get it right if you know if God has to have rest on the seventh day when he creates if he tells the children of Israel have rest if Jesus has to have rest I mean they were so busy ministering those disciples the boss said they didn't have time to eat Jesus just ripped him right away from the meeting and took him over I believe if it was now he would have taken him right over to a country club they wouldn't played 18 holes and had lunch Augusta it would have been great and so I love Augusta anyway that so what happens is the fear of the Lord causes you to not just take lightly what he says but you weigh heavily in what he says so there are so many people you know when they pray it's kind of like do you really focused on God right now when you hear his word are you really taking it seriously are you taking it lightly that's a lack of the fear of the Lord so so you love what he loves and you hate what he hates now here's what causes people to run from the fear of the Lord because they've met legalistic mean-spirited religious religious people that have made it an ugly thing well I fear God that's why I hate those people over there that do drugs and have all this sexual perversion yeah no no wait a minute you hate those people over there you were hating what God loves yeah God loves those people right that man's hating what God loves now God hates the sin that brings them into bondage but he loves those people for God so loved the world world isn't that everybody yeah okay so God so loved the whole world how can any human being hate anyone I don't care if they're sexually perverted I don't care where they are you love them but you hate was bringing them into bondage that's the way God is he hates what's bringing them into bondage so they perverted the fear of the Lord that's what people run from it they talk about it we're New Testament Christians we don't have to fear God I mean that's what happened to me I preach a little bit on the fear of the Lord in this church back in the mid 1990s and I really didn't understand it like I did now and I was doing three nights of services this was a very well-known church a internationally known evangelist had just done four weeks of meetings there they were like riding on a cloud and I came in and I preached a little bit on the fear of the Lord and the next night I got it before I got up to speak the pastor of this church got up and he said we don't have to fear God we're New Testament Christians perfected love casts out fear and he started correcting everything I said the night before and then he introduced me oh you were sitting there for that I was sitting there okay wonderful introduction and I got up and I I mean it's the heart of one of the hardest times I've ever had a minister in my entire life and I remember I went out the next day and I cried out I said god I hurt your church I'm so sorry I'm so sorry and the Lord I didn't feel the correction of the Lord I felt the pleasure of the Lord in the for I never drive I I went out to a construction place where I could scream as loud as I wanted and nobody'd hear me drove to a construction yes inside in this city yeah and and I said god I'm so sorry I was just so way down and I mean cuz actually the pastor's wife looked at us after the service that night and looked at my wife and said you're welcome here anytime but wouldn't look at me and I was like whoo boy and I could tell they were very upset with me for speaking about the fear of the Lord when we're New Testament Christians and we don't have perfected love casts out fear we don't have to fear yeah what she did is can she confused the spirit of fear with the fear of the Lord she didn't understand Moses differentiating between the two do not fear people don't don't have the spirit of fear he said gods come to test you to see if as fears in you don't run from ya don't run from so I remember I I found myself crying out God I want to know the fear of the Lord I felt the pleasure of God the pleasure of God and you know it's interesting that church doesn't even exist anymore the pastor's not even in the ministry and yeah I mean it was like one of the premiere churches of the whole city and I'm telling you the fear of the Lord is so important because you see the the road to life is a narrow road every ditch every road has two ditches on both sides well the road to life has two ditches on both sides one ditch is called legalism now the church was in a legalistic ditch back in the 60s remember women where they're helping a Bundy you know remember these days yeah when I saw these people they had their hair up in a bun they had their dresses down to their ankles they wouldn't cut their hair they had no makeup on no jewelry and we were in a real legalistic ditch I mean a woman can have a make no makeup no jewelry her hair it's never been cut her dress is down to her ankles and she can still have a seducing spirit up their eyeballs that's not holiness okay that's perverted so we're in this legalistic ditch and God raises up this man named Oral Roberts who had a great revelation you know the revelation was God is a good god yeah and something Goods gonna happen to you right and then the charismatic moved again we found out our daddy loved us so the love of God delivered us from the ditch of legalism but then what the church did is we went to the other side of the road and fell into the other ditch which is called lawlessness and the fear of the Lord is what keeps it keeps us from lawlessness you see that's why proverbs chapter 8 says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil okay so and the fear of the Lord stood apart from evil right okay it says to hate evil and to depart from evil in the book of Proverbs so when you fear God odd you depart from evil I remember there was a very famous evangelist in jail I mean if I said his name everybody would know ma say his name he's in my book and describes it in one of the his powerful story his name was Jim Baker and Jim Baker was in prison and read one of the books that I've written and it so impacted his life he called his secretary and said would you contact John Bevere and asked if he'd come visit me so 1990 94 I went into that prison and I visited him and this is all in the same time period when God was teaching me and so when I walked into the prison he grabs me and he holds me he hugs me and he hugs me he won't let me go she grabs me by the shoulders and he said did you write this book or ghostwriter I said no I wrote it I said I mean I've gone it was my first book I wrote called victory in the wilderness I said I've gone through a wilderness but not near like you've gone through and he said we have so much to talk about so he sits down and he begins to talk to me yeah and the first thing he said to me Michael is he said this prison was not God's judgment on my life it was his mercy he said John if I would have kept living the way living I would have ended up in hell forever he said God had mercy on me I'm like oh my goodness honor I realized I am withing a broken man of God that I need to listen to you so when I got to a place after about an hour of listening to him I said can I ask you some questions he said sure first question I asked was when did you fall out of love with Jesus yeah cuz Jim I love this was pastoring in ski ghen Michigan I was raised in white Helen Michigan fifteen minutes away and I know what kind of fireball he was and I said when did you fall out out of love with Jesus and he said I didn't I said Jim you committed adultery with Jessica Hahn Jim you did mail fraud you're in jail yeah we mean you didn't fall in love with Jesus and he sees I'm totally confused right he looks at me he said I didn't fear God and he said there's millions of Americans just like me they love Jesus but they don't fear God and so you can see what happened was he loved Jesus but he went over to that ditch and this is what's happened with so many other Americans the fear Lord is a New Testament you know Paul says work out your salvation with fear and trembling the Paul says cleanse yourself right in all filthiness of the flesh and spirit perfecting holiness in the fear of God we see the fear of the Lord all over the New Testament in the book of exit the church walked in the fear of the Lord so we have to understand what it is and we're just opening it up right now you know I grew up as an altar boy in the Greek Orthodox Church and I have cousin to our Archbishop's and if you walk into that altar and you know the Orthodox Church would claim to be the representation of the early church and there's so much beauty in those streams Catholic Church Orthodox all the dominations I love them all and I when you walk into the altar it says this enter with the fear of the Lord so that was a staple message a staple revelation in the early church was to even to enter into worship with the fear of the Lord pastor you know I'm so grateful you not only teach the fear of the Lord but you carry the fear of the Lord my friend says some people can speak about things other can dispense it because they carry it so there's people watching who want to to walk in the fear of the Lord would you look at them pray with them pray that God would release the fear of the Lord in their lives I'd love to you think I'd be honored to let me just say this to you that it's watching in Isaiah chapter 11 it says the Spirit of the Lord would be upon Jesus the spirit of wisdom the spirit of counsel the spirit of might the spirit of understanding the spirit of knowledge and the spirit of the fear of the Lord so the sphere of the Lord is one of the seven manifestations of the Holy Spirit and by the way Isaiah chapter 11 verse 3 says that Jesus delighted in the fear of the Lord so his delight should be our delight and that's why the New Testament says that Jesus was heard because of his godly fear so Jesus made this statement if you ask your father for the Holy Spirit he'll give him to you if you're watching today and you'd say you know what I've been a little casual the way I've treated the Word of God have been a little casual the way I talked to God and my walk with God if you just sit there and say God I'm so sorry and I'm gonna lead you in a prayer right now and I'm asking you to fill me baptize me with the Holy Spirit of the fear of the Lord he will do that for you and it's one of the greatest things you can ask him for so let's pray together now just say this me say father in heaven in Jesus names forgive me for not having the fear of the Lord in my personal walk with you I repent I ask you to cleanse me with the blood of Jesus for the times I've taken your word with the casual attitude I've taken your presence so casually but from this day forward I purpose to embrace the sphere of the Lord and so father in the name of Jesus let me pray for you now I pray for every person that is listening every person I see people kneeling I see people sitting in reverence I people see people even in hospital rooms right now laying in their beds just waiting father I pray for them now in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ of Nazareth I'm asking that you would pour your holy spirit of fear upon them even now in Jesus name be filled with the precious holy fear of God in Jesus name I bless you I thank you for what you've done now father in Jesus mighty name amen you

Channel: Jesus Image

Views: 50,856

Rating: 4.8734694 out of 5

Keywords: Michael Koulianos, Jessica Koulianos, Jesus Image, Bethel, kanye west, Todd White, Jesus is king, Bill Johnson, Upper Room

Id: h6bcHltNc9M

Length: 28min 30sec (1710 seconds)

Published: Wed Jul 30 2014