 And blessed is your hand, Jesus is mine He's with my fourth man in the fire Time after time and born of his spirit And washed in his blood Oh and what he did for me on Calvary is more I'm trusting God and my Savior is my store This is my song Today is the day to be holy He's gentle enough to tend to our broken hearts and breathe life back into us This is Hope Today We're so glad that you're with us on this Friday I'm Anna and I'm here with Sydney and Matt You know, not only is God mighty enough to move mountains but he is mighty enough to bring life out of the devastation of a wildfire We know that many of you have seen the smoke all over the area and we're thinking about those who are most affected by the wildfires and knowing that God's presence goes before all devastation and he is ready to bring life out of that and so we're just excited that God is here and even as this goes out over the airwaves today that it is penetrating through all fog, all smoke, all devastation and so Matt, we're just excited about the topic today and upholding God Yeah, it's gonna be so good Listen, have you ever wondered if God hears your prayers? You know, I think that's a question most of us have wrestled with one time or another so come up in just a moment you're gonna hear from an evangelist named Ray Comfort and he's going to share one major key that may be holding you back from your prayer life and experiencing all of God's abundant blessings It's a conversation that you're definitely not going to want to miss It's gonna be really good Yeah, talking about the fear of the Lord and just like, I feel like right now, Ken Blair I know he's our director to play that video again of the smoke and like the wildfires or what we're seeing, I mean just blanketing I mean it's so incredible of like what is happening and what's going on and you know all this week at the presence conference at Covenant Church of Pittsburgh there was actually a prophetic word that came about about the wildfires and the smoke and about what God is doing and so his name is Ron Campbell he's a prophet that's from Scotland was like going into this word about this is very significant of what's happening and even God is just reminding me you remember last year we saw those clouds the Mamatus clouds that happened and then it was the overturn of Roe vs. Wade and then again we're seeing in June this is happening as a prophetic sign of the wildfires of like what God is doing in the season and they were just talking about you know we saw with the Asbury revival earlier this year what was going on that it's actually was a seed planted in the ground of revival and that we are really on the precipice we are really on the cusp of a move of God and we just want to encourage you today I know there's so many people we hear about we're talking about revival we're contending for revival we're praying for revival revival starts first within it starts first with us seeking the face of God it starts with repentance it starts about looking at the idolatry of our lives and really getting before the face of the Lord and asking God to be the wildfire in us like God is a consuming fire let him consume us and as we allow him to consume us as we allow him to get deep down into our bone into our mirror and to pull out and uproot those things we will begin to see transformation in our culture and our cities like never before but we just want to encourage you today with that we truly believe that God is on the move and something William McDowell was ministering last night and something that he said that really stuck out to me is that he was saying that when you see a blade you know when you see like a plant like sprout like a little sprout seedling when you see a blade get excited because that's the sign of the harvest sometimes where I feel like we're all like revival we're going to see mask this and mask that but he said when you start seeing the blade as very was a blade we're seeing different things even you go on tiktok and social media we're seeing moves of God like never before so let's get ready and get excited but it is so important for us to first look at the Lord Tom had a chance to sit down with Ray Comfort earlier take a look at this most people believe that God hears their prayers regardless of their spiritual walk our next guest though says that scripture warns us that living in sin can influence God's attention Ray Comfort joins us now and in his book how to make sure God hears your prayers he shares how answered prayers and obedience to God all begin with fearing the Lord welcome back to hope today Ray thank you Tom good to be with you well let's talk about that I mean we've heard it all our life God hears all our prayers is this really true regardless you know regardless of where we're at with them it's really no big deal about God hearing your prayers unless you're hanging over a thousand foot cliff by your teeth you're upside down and severe turbulence at 20,000 feet then you need to make sure God hears your prayers if you want to talk to the king of England you can't show up in your pajamas there's certain etiquette that takes place exactly the same that applies with God Bible says of Jesus he was heard in that he feared Jesus had a wholesome fear of God a healthy fear of God most people think God hears their prayers but scripture says differently this is what it says if I a regard and equity in my heart the Lord will not hear Isaiah 59 verse 2 says your sins are made of separation between you and your God so he will not hear it's not that God doesn't hear it's just that he doesn't regard or take notice of your prayers if you have said in your heart so it's very very important to cultivate the fear of God in your heart because if you don't fear God you won't depart from sin the Bible says through the fear of the Lord bend apart from evil I don't think there's any doctrine that's sustained as the fear of the Lord in contemporary America or even sometimes within the church but the Bible says the fear of God is the beginning of wisdom in fact Jesus said this he said fear not him who has power to kill your body but fear him who has power to kill your body and cast your soul into hell fear him I ask most people what their image of God is and it's not one of a fearsome figure in the sense that they see him as the old man in the sky sitting in a cloud wearing a pink nightie playing touch fingers with Adam God is nothing like that and so as Christians we don't we're not terrified of God we don't have that fear that has torment but we have a healthy fear of God a deep awe and a reverence for God to a point we will certainly obey him you know Ray I think about my own father how there was fear and there was love in the same place you know and it's kind of like the the old song you know amazing grace grace that taught my heart to fear grace my fears relieved there's both sides of that for sure but let me ask you about what are the characteristics of a God fearing person well you'll keep your heart free from sin let me share with you something that that really has helped me understand the whole thing what Jesus was saying about fearing God and fearing him who can cast your soul into hell I'm originally from New Zealand you could probably tell by a slight accent that I've got in New Zealand 35 years ago the police didn't have guns if a criminal was naughty they would hit him with a stick and same with England that they now have guns because things have changed so when I came to the United States and began opening a preaching I had one advantage over most Christians when a police officer walked up to me I'd say to myself he has a gun that's all I'd see this gun inside in a holster and I think to myself this man can kill me legally if I move too quickly if he thinks his life is in danger he wants to get home tonight he can shoot me and it's all over my life is over and he can do it legally so I had more than a healthy fear of the police it's a fear of what he can do to me and that's the sort of fear the unsaved people should have fear not him who has power to kill your body and afterwards do no more but fear him who has power to kill your body and cast your soul into hell let me share something that's very personal 16, 6 years before I became a Christian I found myself at the back of a dance hall at night in long grass with a gorgeous 16 year old female and believe me my intentions were not honourable but as we lay there she said 6 words that put the fear of God in me she just said this you know what God's watching us and I thought and it was like a bucket of ice fell on me and just he arose and I said hey let's go back into the dance hall the fear of the Lord caused me to depart from evil I could have got a pregnant I could have shamed my parents could have instigated an abortion I don't know but I look back and I say thank God for a healthy fear of God that caused me to depart from sin and that's the sort of fear I cultivate in my life it's the fear of the Lord that stops me looking at the pleasure of pornography or listening to gossip the fear of the Lord will keep you on a straight and narrow because you not only know what God can do to sinners but you know what he did through the cross that cross should make us tremble that God went to such extreme because he so loves justice and truth and righteousness that he had inhabited a human being Jesus was expressed image of invisible God and then his wrath would come upon him so that we could be saved to have everlasting life that should make us fear absolutely you know that that love that had him take the weight of all of our sin on there yes we should fear God let me ask you about a chapter in this book you it's called guilty not condemned that really stood out to me that title of one of the chapters could you explain what you mean by that title I find it very very profitable to share with an anti person who has no sobriety about sin what death actually is according to the Bible I said you know what death is according to the Bible they say no a little bit arrogant so well it's wages the Bible says the wages of sinners death in other words God is paying you in death for your sins like a judge looks at a heinous criminal who's laughing because he has killed three or four women the judge says this is deadly series this is no it's not judge they were just the scum of the earth I was doing society a favor the judge says I'm going to show you how serious this is we're paying you in the death sentence this is your wages this is what's due to you this is what you've earned and then I look at the center and say sin is so serious to a holy God he's given you the death sentence you're on death row capital punishment your death will be evidence that God is deadly serious about sin but when you're a Christian you're paying the wages through Christ the law was satisfied with what Jesus did on the cross that's why he cried out it is finished just before he died he was saying the debt has been paid we broke God's law Jesus paid the fine and just as in court if you've got speeding fines a judge can let you go if somebody else pays you'll say you're guilty but you can go because someone paid you're fine and we are guilty before God we're not condemned because Jesus paid our fine that's called grace God's unmerited favor is mercy that's what John Newton spoke of amazing grace how sweet the sound that saved a wretch like me yeah that word wretch I've noticed some people don't like the word wretch but you know what we're wretches we're wretches without the glorious gospel let me ask you about another character we see in Scripture Judas you comment about Judas and about how he had a seared conscience how is Judas a warning to us as believers we can learn a lot from Judas we can learn about the power of money Judas was there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead he was there when Jesus walked on water he was there when he came to the storm fed the multitudes with the loaves and fishes meaningless to him because of his love for money you hold a one penny up to your eye you cannot see anything it'll just cover everything and that's what the love of money does and so you and I have got to be very careful remember those three warnings for the preacher God, girls and glory gold girls and glory sorry gold girls and glory we should be so careful when it comes to love of money Jesus said you cannot serve God and men we need to love one and hate the other when it comes to money we can find our security or our God in money we look to our money for the future we look to our money for our peace we look to money for our comfort there are all things that we should give to God God should be our comfort he should be in charge of our future we should find our peace because we love him so it's very important to have a loose hand when it comes to finances so you never get caught up with the love of money as to Judas as a Christian Jesus said one of you is a devil you don't say that about God's children and our churches are filled with goats among the sheep foolish virgins among the wise bad fish among the good and Jesus said they're going to be sorted out on judgment day and the thing that will sort us out before the day of judgment is a good healthy good healthy fear of God to understand that God sees lust as adultery, hatred is murder lying lips are an abomination to him and all liars are at the apartment of God so how can we cultivate the fear of God we could move to Texas see a thunderstorm in Texas that'll put the fear of God in you or you could reach scripture and how God killed Antonias and Sapphire because they told one lie or how he killed user because he steadied the art when God is holy or how he killed a man in Genesis 38 because he didn't like what he did sexually those biblical incidences should help us have a balanced fear of God we love God because of the cross he's proved his love but we fear God because of his holiness and the fear of the Lord will cause us to depart from evil wow I mean that's a strong word but it's in the scriptures it's what's in scripture it's what is true so let's say this you mentioned some promises for those who fear God can you just share one or two of those with us one of the greatest reproaches on human nature I can see in scripture this is Mark 16 verse 15 this is going to sound strange at first go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature shows the shamefulness of her own selfish hearts by that I mean this if a doctor finds a cure to cancer and all around them are cancer patients you should not have to go up to him and say go to all these patients and give them the cure no he shouldn't have to be told he should run to it because he loves people he has compassion for them and he's deeply concerned about their pains and the fact they're going to die and you and I shouldn't have to be told to go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature we should run to it because we love the lost and that's what the disciples did they said we cannot but speak that which we've seen and heard that's right absolutely well the book is called how to make sure God hears your prayers that's a great title and a great subject that's something we need to hear about and that's the fear of the Lord Ray Comfort thank you so much for being with us again on Hope Today you're very welcome well we're going to take a short break and we'll be back with more one of cornerstone television's greatest offerings is our 24-7 prayer line I'm Crystal Tillman CTVN's director of marketing and development Irene wrote to us and shared I called Friday for prayer it was a wonderful prayer we are thankful for dedicated spirit-filled prayer partners and for those of you who support this vital ministry every year we receive tens of thousands of calls that's a lot of lives touched Hope happens here well Hope surely does happen here we're so glad that you're with us here on Hope Today talking about the fear of the Lord we'd love to bring you scripture the truth of God's word today's verse comes from verse 910 and it says the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding and you guys I liked how Ray talked about knowing how holy God is that he does hold life and he holds death and it is us who are responsible to get into Christ to have Christ as our savior to be covered by the blood of Jesus so that we have become the righteousness of Christ on my desk at work I have this little sign that says I saw that and under it says God and so I like how Ray was talking about that a little bit and it's a healthy fear obviously we know we live in a fallen world we're only flesh and bone and we're going to sin and mess up and fall short thank God for his grace one thing is when you understand God helps to motivate you to say okay I can see the temptation but I know God is watching you know what I mean and I want the favor and blessing of God on my life I don't want something that's going to kind of distract me you know pull me away from it Sid and I know you probably feel the same way but I love that you know God's watching at all times but it's a healthy fear to have I was like what was your sign on your desk that says I saw that God I love that because I think when you think about that I mean there's like certain times in my life you get convicted you're just like oh my goodness I can't walk in this way and you know when I love the scripture from Proverbs 9 10 and the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom it's something that I just love that so much a fear means like the reverence the awe of God I don't know about you but there one thing I remember that I experienced having the fear of the Lord is when I had an encounter with him and I remember being in his presence and I just could not get up and I don't know if you've ever had that experience but when he is God and he comes down and I was like oh my goodness like your glory your kebab is on me right now and I can't get up because you are God alone and that is something that we desire for all of you to have is have an encounter and experience with God because one day we know what's happening Jesus it's not saying like oh this might happen no Jesus every knee every tribe every tongue will bow down to Jesus what a fear we're all going to have right now once all of us right now to experience the fear of the Lord because he has so much love for us well we're going to finish up and wrap up the show with Matt he performed a song for us called gratitude take it in and be blessed have a great day God it's shy