Fear of the Lord and Comfort of the Holy Spirit – EGP Blog post from April 22, 2018

“Oftentimes, the measure of breakthrough and joy in life is directly connected to what we’ve become. The fear of the LORD and comfort of the Holy Spirit: Keep those two ‘gauges’ dialed up and God can trust you with increase, because you’ll know where it came from and you’ll know the purpose.” —Bill Johnson, Bethel Church

“Learning how to maintain PRIORITY and FOCUS in a season of blessing is one of the rarest things in church history. … What has happened—through the early church especially—is they learned how to navigate OPPOSITION so that they got INCREASE. … For many years following that, every wave of OPPOSITION came after that was met with a greater RESOLVE, a greater sense of DEVOTION, greater PURITY, and greater demonstration of POWER. …

The Lord is always TESTING, not for the sake of failure or to mock, but to see what measure of GLORY can I CARRY. What measure can I LIVE with? Because when that glory rests on a SANCTIFIED life, it ESTABLISHES it. But that SAME measure of glory on an UNSANCTIFIED life CRUSHES it. … And so the Lord is VERY careful with what He RELEASES to people in the way of blessing. … Often times the measure of BREAKTHROUGH and JOY in life is DIRECTLY CONNECTED to what we’ve BECOME. …

But what kept [the early church] strong in a place of PEACE? …

Acts 9:31 ()

[31] Then the ‡churches throughout all Judea, Galilee, and Samaria had peace and were edified.§ And walking in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, they were multiplied.

Acts 9:31a church … was
Acts 9:31b built up

The FEAR of the Lord and COMFORT of the Holy Spirit: those two issues were the two ‘gauges on the dashboard’ that they had to make sure were in the right place. …

Comfort of the Holy Spirit is walking with that ABIDING PRESENCE where you are aware of what He’s wanting, not only to LEAD you in, but to bring PEACE and COMFORT to. He comforts because not everything works the way we THINK it should the first time we try. Otherwise, He doesn’t NEED to comfort. …

So I pray that the Lord would release a GRACE over each one of us for the FEAR of God in ways we’ve never known before … When our kids were small and whenever discipline was needed, when discipline is done RIGHT, that child would WANT to sit on my lap the rest of the evening. The fear of God actually ENDEARS us to Him; it doesn’t drive us FROM Him. …

Keep those two ‘gauges’ dialed up and God can TRUST you with increase, because you’ll know WHERE it came from and you’ll know the PURPOSE.”

Key verses

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