Read Jesus--Name Above All Names: Releasing His Anointing in Your Life for Free Online

comfortable relationship with Him. But some time ago He spoke to my heart that we need to be careful about getting Him on the “buddy system” so that we think of Him as just our “buddy” without realizing how great and awesome He is.
    Reverence Provokes Obedience
    Children, obey your parents in the Lord [as His representatives], for this is just and right.
    Honor (esteem and value as precious) your father and your mother—this is the first commandment with a promise.
    Ephesians 6:1,2
    I believe if we were more reverent, we would be more obedient because reverence provokes obedience.
    When children have reverence and respect for their parents, they don't argue with them or rebel against them.
    I believe the reason many children don't respect and revere their parents as they should is that their parents have lost respect and reverence for spiritual things, spiritual leaders and authority figures in general. As a result, the lack of respect and reverence is passed down from parents to children so that they talk back, argue and rebel. If a parent openly displays disrespect toward their employer, they are teaching their children to be disrespectful also.
    It is not at all uncommon these days to be in a public place like a store and see a two-year-old having a temper tantrum and actually hitting or kicking his mother. If we are not careful, that is the way our children will end up acting toward us and our heavenly Father. In other words, they will lose reverence and respect for us and for the Lord, as well as for all others in authority.
    We must understand that this is what Satan tries to do. He causes things like disrespect and irreverence in the world, hoping they will creep their way into the church, because he knows that when they do, we become disobedient. Disobedience causes us to lose the power of God in our life.
    One thing we must guard against to keep that from happening is familiarity.
    Familiarity Breeds a Lack of Reverence
    And when they came to Nacon's threshing floor, Uzzah put out his hand to the ark of God and took hold of it, for the oxen stumbled and shook it.
    And the anger of the Lord was kindled against Uzzah; and God smote him there for touching the ark, and he died there by the ark of God.
    2 Samuel 6:6,7
    In this passage from the Old Testament, we see that David and his men were bringing the ark of the covenant back to Bethlehem. As they approached a certain place, the oxen that were pulling the cart with the ark in it stumbled, and the ark began to shake. Uzzah, a young man who was driving the cart, reached out to steady the ark…
and God struck him down there for his irreverence
…(v. 7 NASB), and he died instantly. (We read in Numbers chapters 3 and 4 that the Lord had given Moses specific directions about who could handle the ark and how it was to be transported.)
    Verse 8 goes on to say that David was grieved and offended by Uzzah's death. He didn't understand why Uzzah had to die just for reaching out and touching the ark.
    Earlier, in 1 Samuel 7, we read that when the ark was first returned to Israel by the Philistines, it was kept at the home of Abinadab, Uzzah's father, possibly for a number of years.
    I believe it was because the ark had sat in his home for so long that it had become a commonplace thing to Uzzah so that he did not regard it with esteem. That's why he was not afraid to reach out and touch it—familiarity with the ark had bred a lack of reverence for it in him, and it cost him his life. 2
    Familiarity Limits Power
    But Jesus said to them, A prophet is not without honor (deference, reverence) except in his [own] country and among [his] relatives and in his [own] house.
    And He was not able to do even one work of power there, except that He laid His hands on a few sickly people [and] cured them.
    And He marveled because of their unbelief….
    Mark 6:4-6
    We have to be very careful about becoming overly familiar with things. Once we become too familiar with them, then we no