UNBLOCKING THE WELL OF THE LIVING WORD

Each daily devotional below begins with an excerpt from a transcript of Duncan Campbell telling the story of how the 1949 Hebridean revival began. (1)

Duncan Campbell said:-

“I was at that time in the midst of a very gracious movement on the Island of Skye; it wasn’t revival, but men and women were coming to Christ and God was glorified in the number of prominent men who found a saviour at that time… but it wasn’t revival.I imagine that in Canada or America they would refer to it as a big revival but it was definitely a move of God. So I received that invitation to come to Lewis for 10 days and I wrote back to say that it wasn’t possible for me to do that, because I was involved in a holiday convention on this island and speakers were arranged and accommodation arranged in the different hotels for the people who were coming from all over Britain. I cannot take time to tell you how that convention happened to be cancelled, largely because the tourist board took three hotels over my head for a special “Skye week” that they were going to have, so I had to cancel everything. However, the minister received the letter and he went to the old lady with it and he read the letter to her and she said, “Mr Mackay, that is what man is saying, but God has said something else and he will be here within a fortnight”. I tell you the convention wasn’t cancelled then, but she knew… Oh my people, the secret of the Lord is with them that fear him! And she knew God’s secret. Well, I was on the island within 10 days, to spend 10 days among the people. I was met at the pier by the minister and two of his office bearers. Just as I stepped off the boat, an old elder came up to me and faced me with this question, ‘Mr Campbell may I ask you this question, “Are you walking with God?”’ Oh, here were men who meant business, men who were afraid that a strange hand would touch the ark. “Are you walking with God?” I was glad to be able to say “I think I can say this, I fear God”. The dear man looked at me and said to me “Well if you fear God that will do”.

God said that our hearts are wellsprings of life…and that we should guard them. Proverbs 4:23. We are to keep our hearts with all diligence for it is from our hearts that the springs of life flow. If revival is to break out in our lives, we need to diigently, deal with sin and hate evil, and this is why the fear of the Lord is important because the fear of the Lord is the hatred of evil. Proverbs 8:13

The fear of the Lord is seeing sin the way God sees sin. He loves us but he hates sin. Because it pollutes us, separates us from Him and puts us in bondage. The penalty is ultimately death. There is nothing in that that God could tolerate. He hates sin. The fear of the Lord is coming into alignment with how He sees sin. Joy Dawson describes how we need to hate sin with a vivid illustration.” I go the local farmer and I dump a big truck in here… a big lot of cow manure. What are you going to do? Are you going to say, ”Cow manure! I love this”, and jump in it? “This is great have some!” No, you are going to say, “Aargh let’s get out of here”, right? It stinks because it is cow manure. But you know what the Devil does? He takes some of that cow manure and he wraps it up in a shiny wrapper. He says, “Oh here, have some. You are really going to like this. It is going to satisfy. Don’t worry about the bible”. Then we are deceived into thinking that that cow manure is good. It looks good on the outside but inside is death. The fear of the Lord cuts right through this. It shows us that it is cow poo. It is death, it is cancerous. The fear of the Lord is loving what God loves and hating what God hates.(2)

Connie Taylor says “The second thing the fear of the Lord is: Having a deep respect and reverence and awe, standing in awe of who God is. We grow in our revelation of Him, we grow in our reverential fear of Him, because He is holy, because He is pure, because He is beautiful as we come to understand His holiness. In the counsel of His holy ones, God is greatly feared. Psalm 33:8 ‘Let all the earth fear the Lord Let the whole world revere him.’ Did you know that in Revelation 14:7, that there is an angel who proclaims the gospel? He flies around preaching the Gospel. Do you know what he says? “Fear God and give him glory.” That is what He is saying to the earth, “Fear God and give Him glory.” God is the Holy Spirit. God’s Spirit is Holy. He is not known as the Good Spirit. He is not known as the Nice Spirit or the Loving Spirit or the Kind Spirit. He is known as the Holy Spirit, because, that is the most important aspect of the character of God. Everything flows from the holiness of God. His power is holy. He only uses his power to demonstrate his Holy love. What are judgements? They are God’s way of removing every obstacle to the love of God. That is why He expresses His judgement. God is love and He is Holy. His power is holy, His love is Holy”.(3)

Teach me the fear of the Lord, that I might hate evil.

References

(1) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MXIZOSWvXaE

(2) C.Taylor referencing J. Dawson Intimate friendship with God

(3) C.Taylor referencing J. Bevere Fear of the Lord