2 Ways How You Can Be Set Apart by God and Set Aside For His Special Attention and Success

Our text

Psalm 31:19-20 (New King James Version)

19 Oh, how great is Your goodness,

Which You have laid up for those who fear You,

Which You have prepared for those who trust in You

In the presence of the sons of men!

20 You shall hide them in the secret place of Your presence

From the plots of man;

You shall keep them secretly in a pavilion

From the strife of tongues.

Okay from the text, we can see the two things we need to do to achieve all the promises in this text. They are:

1. We need to fear the LORD 2. We need to trust the LORD

There is much confusion over these two things, these two requirements. There is much miss-teaching on what these two things are and therefore few Christians that ever seem to reach the place where these promises in this verse are fulfilled in their lives. I think that the pastors and teachers in this world by in large have been taught error and I don't think that they are wolves that are lying to us on purpose. I think that Bible colleges where they are taught can be keeping the flocks of God blind.

Okay when the text says goodness is laid up for people who fear the LORD it means a few things.

If you fear your earthly fathers wrath and he has proven to you that you can be hurt severely from his punishment of your transgressions, you do your level best to do what is right. If your father is a loving man, full of hugs and kisses and is a fair man that only disciplines you when you have done willful sin and not done wrong by mistake, then your fear of him keeps you on the straight and narrow.

The problem with the modern church all around the world is that they preach that we serve a loving God that does not harm or discipline anymore and we are under grace now and not under law. They go as far as to say, we can do anything we like and completely disobey God and Jesus and they are cool with that and that in time they will guide us to the right path through love and understanding. They have no concept of a God that has never changed and a Jesus who says five times in the book of John that you prove your personal love from him only through your obedience to what He taught. One teacher of the Word of God borrows from another teacher and this lie and distortion of the truth of what the real fear of the LORD is, has been almost completely lost to a whole generation.

The Book of proverbs says that the very beginning of wisdom can be found in the true and honest fear of the LORD and as the majority of preachers have no idea what the true fear of the LORD looks like, they remain the blind leading the blind.

If you do not fear hell for unrepentant sin, if you do not believe that you can be in a condition of unrepentant sin and die as a Christian and go to hell, than you will never really learn to fear the LORD enough to stop your addiction to sinful living. Many people in church think they can live in a sinful lifestyle and continue in that way and go to church each week and cry to God to forgive them, find peace again, and go off that week and do the same sin again. People have this mistaken belief that all their sins of the past, present and future have been forgiven by God and therefore with that belief they sin their life away without any fear that their eternal life is at stake.

Now the second rendering or application of true fear of the LORD is the ability to obey the LORD in all that you do. Obeying the Law of God and the commands and teaching of Jesus is real fear of the LORD and not half baked praise and worship each week. If I was the king of your country and had laws that you had to abide in to be a responsible citizen and you continued to break those laws time and time again, it is my right to show you mercy if I choose and accept your case each time on its merits and do what I choose. But if on top of you breaking my laws all the time, each time I walked bye you sang melodies of worship to me in front of all the people that know you are breaking my laws, as a sane King who needs respect from my people, I would have to take action.

Can you see the parable relates to you?

How can you go to church each week and sing the praises of God and Jesus and yet between the meetings break their holy laws? How can you say you love the Lord God with all your heart and mind and soul and yet refuse to willingly submit to Him, repent and turn away from your willful sin? You can't!

In the majority of Christians cases, in the West, in the Lukewarm church, Jesus words ring just as true today as when he spoke them 2000 years ago. "These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me." The average Christian does not know the Word of God, has never read the whole Bible and spends more time watching TV each week then doing the things of God. The average Christian has no fear of the Lord, has no idea what true fear of the Lord is, and therefore lacks the true wisdom of God in their life.

Are you this average Christian? Are my words cutting to you? Do you feel bad now? Do you feel like you are falling short? Please remember that some people that do great healing and great prophecies and save thousands of people will be turned away by Jesus on judgment day, people who have saved thousands more people than you, so who do you think you are?

The modern Christian is taught they are saved by grace and not by works. They are told the law has passed away. They are told obeying Jesus and teaching others that we must obey Jesus is in error and a works doctrine. Essentially the teaching can be reduced to, say the sinner's prayer, go to church each week, sing to God that you love Him, and everything will be perfect for you. They are babies and they are taught baby teaching, they have no idea what the meat of the Word is and 90% of pastors have no idea what the meat of the Word is, let alone preach in each week.

So first of all people. You need to know what the real fear of the LORD is and then pray that God will grant you that true fear. Then you need to go and suffer in a refiners fire so that God can test your devotion to Him and know that you can be trusted with His Glory and His anointing on your life.

2 Trust in the LORD

So many people in this world say that they trust in God but when things do not go to plan and trouble surrounds them they are beating their fists at God and asking why God does not care about them.

So many people run their own life and write their own checks as it where, and want Jesus to sign them on the bottom line and authorize them. So many people spend prayer times asking God for things that they want to make their life happier and more comfortable. So few people are prepared to pray for resources to help other people who are poor and helpless and when God gives them the resources spend their time and money with those hurting people.

So few people know what it is like to walk in the Spirit and would know how to actually do it. Few people, few Christians know how to hear the Holy Spirit's voice let alone take orders and directions off the Holy Spirit each day.

There are very few people indeed in each church who from the time they get up in the morning to the time they go to bed are doing everything the Holy Spirit tells them to do. Even when you work in a secular job, the Holy Spirit always has a better order of how you should do your job, what exact sentences you should say with those you work with and how you should structure your day.

If you do not know how to structure your day God's way and do things God's way, tell me how do you trust God? If you are not doing life God's way, please tell me how you are not doing it your way or man's way?

I guess this article is a hard article to read. To most people it has not been a pleasure to read.

But it does go into detail as to the 2 ways how you can be set apart by God and set aside for His special attention and success.

Now if you do those two things. If you learn what it is to fear God and begin to fear God he will teach you how to hear Him and how to trust Him. When you really fear Him, you are sinning a whole lot less, you are obedient to Him and being led each day by Him, and then God will make you special to Him.

You will be hidden by Him, you will feel his presence in a powerful way, He will give you His anointing and in time after you have been tested and worked enough on the small things He will raise you up in front of the people you know and show His Glory though you.

Let us pray:

Dear Father

I come before you in sorrow. I am not all that I should be. I fall way short of where I should be and I know that I lack a lot of knowledge. With all of my heart I want you to teach me how to fear you, and how to obey you and your Son Jesus. Father teach me in the Way, the Way that leads to life. Start to speak to me with your Holy Spirit from this day. Direct me, lead me to repentance, true repentance so I can be set free of the sin in my life. Make me holy, lead me and show me how to place all my trust in you and be led by the Holy Spirit. Refine me in your holy fire and purge me as Gold so that I might become a vessel in your house that brings you maximum honor in the world. I ask this with all my heart. In Jesus name I pray all these things

Amen

If you have prayed this prayer please do me the honor of replying to this article by posting a comment. It only takes a few minutes. Paul exhorts his readers in Galatians to give their preacher good and honest feedback. You can spend far less time if you like and just vote this article a number of stars out of 5 below. Both these methods will show me how many people prayed the prayer. I will silently agree with your prayer on earth, that it will be answered by God, if you do either of these things.

If you have enjoyed my article you can read the book "The parables of Jesus made simple" for free here in its entirety or just selected parables in chapters at http://www.parables-of-jesus-christ.net/ The book will be published in book form in January 2011