Does God block out our prayers?

Original Date: 2/2/09

A man once told me that my generation has to come back to the "Fear of the Lord." He had one message for me. If you do anything, teach your generation the fear of the Lord. I think about that and today I had a breakthrough on what he meant by that.

1. Challenge: Go to bible.com and look up "Fear of the Lord." You will be amazed at what all you find. In the old testament, often the "Fear of the Lord" was mentioned in commands to the people and examples before the love of the Lord was.

2. So, why do we learn the fear of the Lord? Well, first of all the "Fear of the Lord" is the beginning of wisdom (Psalm 111:10). So, for us to even start being wise, we have to have a good healthy portion of some God-fear! David and Solomon talk about the "Fear of the Lord" as the "Beginning of wisdom and these 2 men were considered "The Man after God's Own Heart" and "The wisest man on earth." So, we should probably pay attention.

3. Now, what is the "Fear of the Lord?" In Deuteronomy 31:12 it says "fear the LORD your God, and be careful to observe all the words of this law." "The fear of the LORD is to hate evil; Pride and arrogance and the evil way and the perverted mouth, I hate." Unfortunately, we have not trembled in His presnence (Jeremiah 5:22) enough.

4. 2 Chronicles 19:7 says: ""Now then let the fear of the LORD be upon you; be very careful what you do, for the LORD our God will have no part in unrighteousness." If God has no part in unrighteousness, nor should we. Job 28:28 - "And to depart from evil is understanding.'"

5. So, then, what are some reasons for wanting a good healthy dose of fear? Well, of course, He is the God of the universe and not to fear Him would be absolutely retarded. Apart from the obvious, we already said there is wisdom. Also, here are some more:

Psalm 34:9 There is no want!
Psalm 103:13 God has compassion!
Psalm 112:1 God showers His blessings!
Psalm 115:11 God guards you with His shield!
Proverbs 2:5 Know the knowledge of God!
Proverbs 14:26 There is refuge!
Proverbs 22:4 Riches, Honor, and Life!

6. So then, what happens when we don't have a fear of the Lord? I had always heard that God always answers prayers in one of three ways: Yes, No, and Wait. I think that this is bad theology and incongruent with scripture. It's more like, Yes, No, Wait, and I don't hear you.

7. "I don't hear you" is the most dangerous one of all because it means that God can shut off communication with us. This is because we shut off communication with Him. So, then, what happens when we don't have a fear of the Lord and this communication is cut off:

Deuteronomy 28: Famine, Curses, Destruction, Poverty, and you get the idea.

8. What really hit me more than anything is that God can block out our prayers. Lamentations 3:44 says: "You have covered Yourself with a cloud so that no prayer can pass through." Jeremiah calls out to God and asks Him not to hide his ear from his prayer." (Lamentations 3:56)

9. So, then you may be saying in your mind, "What about the new covenant?" After Jesus rose again, God sent us the Holy Spirit. The guys in the old testament didn't have the Holy Spirit. To whom much is given, much is expected.

10. If we have the Holy Spirit living inside us, why don't we start administering the Spirit? We, too often, will quench the Holy Spirit, then we are left to just us and God the Father. Now, when we quench the Spirit, then we often times neglect the fear of the Lord. If the Holy Spirit is our intercessor, then we have again blocked off the communication to God the Father.

11. Acts 9:31 "So the church throughout all Judea and Galilee and Samaria enjoyed peace, being built up; and going on in the fear of the Lord and in the comfort of the Holy Spirit, it continued to increase." Some of us have gotten too comfortable with the Spirit. But this passage says that when we continue in the Fear of the Lord and the comfort of the Spirit, that is where increase happens!