Taste and See

It’s audio devo day 😊 (Taking a break after this to heal from a shoulder injury… enjoy and I’ll see you again as soon as possible!)

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Encounter with God causes your face to glisten with glory. As you get to know His overwhelming goodness, the fear of Him gets into the core of who you are. Knowing Him this way unlocks His miraculous deliverance and provision! Get ready. Holy Spirit has something very special to pour into you as you listen here:

(Know someone else that needs to hear this today? You can either share today’s blog link with them, or look up my Feeding on Jesus podcast for sharing and subscribing. You’ll find it at these links on iTunes, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, and most other podcast platforms, with episodes identical to these audio devos!)

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Last week we delved into another facet of the fear of the Lord: to be stunned by His goodness. Doesn’t that sound amazing? Would you like to personally drink so deeply of God’s goodness, that you find yourself flabbergasted by it? Would you like to encounter Him in a way that is just so real, that it marks you forever? If so, my friend, then you are longing to enter more deeply into the fear of the Lord.

You see, to fear the Lord, you have to experientially know Him. To truly fear Him in the fullest way, you have to get to know how good He is, deep in the marrow of your bones. And that is exactly what He wants for you. This is why He allures you with these words: “Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord…” (Ps. 34:8-9, NIV). He says to your heart, Come and taste of My goodness for yourself. Come, walk intimately with Me. Taste and you will see. You will find out for yourself just how astonishing My goodness is. And in coming to taste and to see and to know, you will experience the fear of Me in ways you never imagined…

Last week we talked about how Abraham learned this very thing. He walked so closely with the Lord that he developed this kind of intimate knowledge of Him. So when God said to Abraham, “Now I know that you fear Me,” He was saying, “Now I know that you have become so amazed by who I am that you will lay down everything for Me” (Gen. 22:12). He was communicating to His friend Abraham, “You have unquestionably demonstrated how intimately you know Me. You have come to understand that I can be trusted with what is most precious to you.” Abraham’s abandonment to utter trust in the Lord’s goodness stole God’s heart for the rest of eternity. God loves to be deeply known, wholly trusted, and passionately cherished.

Oh, to get to that point in our walk with Him, that we know in the deepest part of our being that He can be fully trusted with what our hearts treasure most! Getting to that place in our spiritual growth means that we have grown up in the fear of the Lord. At that point, our resemblance to our Savior will be markedly evident. As Isaiah prophesied of Him, “The Spirit of the Lord will rest on him— the Spirit of wisdom and of understanding, the Spirit of counsel and of might, the Spirit of the knowledge and fear of the Lord— and he will delight in the fear of the Lord” (Is. 11:2, NIV).

Do you see that? This verse tells us that the knowledge and fear of the Lord go hand-in-hand. So much so that one of Holy Spirit’s names is “the Spirit of knowledge and fear of the Lord.” The more intimately you know God, the more the fear of Him governs your inner reality. This Scripture goes on to describe Jesus with this phrase: “He will delight in the fear of the Lord.” If our Savior delights in the fear of the Lord, then so can you and I! We are to imitate Him, right? We can conclude from this rich passage that the fear of the Lord must be a delightful thing indeed, if it delights Jesus’ heart.

Moses is another model for us who came to understand this truth. That is why he petitioned God with all his heart, “Now show me Your glory” (Gen. 33:18, NIV). What happened then? God immediately responded to his spiritual hunger with these words, “I will make all My goodness pass before your eyes.” (v. 19). That’s exactly what you and I need. When the Father causes His goodness to pass before our eyes, then we learn who He really is. The resulting knowledge of Him radically alters the core of our being forever. This tasting and seeing Him causes the fear of Him to grow exponentially inside of us. We, too, come to delight in the fear of the Lord. His presence becomes what we live for.

Fearing Him is the deepest kind of loving Him. When we come to behold His beauty, we can’t help falling in love with Him, and we can’t help being astonished by Him. Coming to know Him at this kind of level, in turn, unlocks for us doors to supernatural living. Let’s take a closer look at Psalm 34 on this subject, the Scripture where we heard a moment ago the Spirit’s invitation to taste and see. In this same passage, He also beckons us with these words: “Gaze upon him, join your life with his, and joy will come. Your faces will glisten with glory” (v. 5, TPT). That sounds a lot like what Moses did, doesn’t it? Do you know that you, too, can gaze on God? And that you can do so in such a way that causes your face to glisten with His glory?

When you tap into the glorious revelation of God’s goodness this way, it changes everything. The following verse describes: “When I had nothing, desperate and defeated, I cried out to the Lord and he heard me, bringing his miracle-deliverance when I needed it most” (v. 6). This kind of encounter with God’s nature transitions us from abject desperation and defeat, into miracles of deliverance. See what the next verse assures us: “He will do this for everyone who fears God” (v. 7). As we gaze on God, tasting of His goodness, we grow in the fear of Him. Experiencing His miraculous deliverance is a direct result of thus growing in the knowledge of Him.

When you take time out to gaze on God, it unlocks His miracles of rescue. This psalm powerfully declares: “The angel of the Lord encamps around those who fear him, and he delivers them. Taste and see that the Lord is good; blessed is the one who takes refuge in him. Fear the Lord, you his holy people, for those who fear him lack nothing” (Psalms 34:7-9, NIV). They lack nothing! So not only is the fear of the Lord linked to His mighty deliverance, but it’s also directly connected to His provision of everything else we need.

I’ll sum it up this way. Intimate encounter with God causes us to mature in the fear of God. In turn, by personally tasting the revelation of His goodness, we tap into His deliverance and supply. So I’ll ask you, are you in need of God’s provision today in any area of your life? If so, the solution is to gaze on Him. He is wanting to impart to you the revelation of His overwhelming goodness in a deeper way than ever before.

So set aside some time. Find a private place. Shut out the rest of the world for a bit. Just like Moses, boldly ask of God, “Show me Your glory!” He will respond. He will make His goodness pass before your eyes. Do you hear Him beckoning you even now? Taste and SEE! Taste for yourself and see how good He is. Let the fear of Him get into the core of who you are. You will see, my friend. Those who fear the Lord lack nothing!

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Have you encountered God’s goodness in a way that leaves you amazed?