REFERENCE & DEFERENCE - PART 1

MONDAY 07 JULY 2025

One of the manifold benefits which I highly appreciate about God's Word is that it always comes alive with fresh grace and renewed empowering impact, whenever we study or listen to it over and over again. Therefore, by the special grace of God, I want to share a wonderful and familiar topic, namely reverence and deference, with the purpose of refreshing our memory with the embedded insight, which is designed to provide us with a detailed infallible perception for our personal upliftment and bettered advancement in serving the Lord rightly, as well as ensuring our godly improvement, in an amazing way. More below!

Reference: Hebrews 12:28 English Standard Version (ESV)

"Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe."

In Christ, we have received a Kingdom that can never be shaken. As a result, let us be thankful, and so worship God acceptably with reverence and awe. According to our topic, reverence and deference are the earnest, grateful, and acceptable means of honouring and serving God faithfully (that is, in spirit and in truth). The definitions are below!

Reverence (Definition & Connotative power):

Reverence implies profound respect mingled with love, devotion, and awe. It is an expression of deep honour or worship toward a person or thing, which has spiritual connotation. It is an absolute requirement for joyous encounters with God. It perfects the human spirit, because it glorifies God and reflects the nature of Christ in us, who always honoured His heavenly Father with holy fear.

Deference (Definition & Connotative power):

Deference implies a yielding or submitting to another's authority in a polite manner or a preference out of respect, and from the standpoint of reverence. For instance, the Bible tells us to submit to God. The Scripture actually says, "So submit to [the authority of] God. Resist the devil [stand firm against him] and he will flee from you (James 4:7 AMP)." This submission is evocative and emblematic of a manner that denotes deference, thereby acknowledging the authority or will of God, rather than ours. It is to accept or yield to Supreme heavenly Father, a Deity that typifies the most superior force that exists and created all things, both seen and unseen.

When you submit to God's authority, and resist the devil, he will flee from you, meaning that your application of reverence and deference to God will make you a supreme master over satanic forces. Someone might ask, "How can you see God and submit to His authority"? When the Word of God comes to you, which is God's messenger, and you acknowledge, receive and act on it, you are honouring God and submitting to His authority. If you submit to the Word by obedient response, you'll never be shaken because such action is deferential honour towards God, which in turn, keeps the devil far from you. It is an attitudinal lifestyle usually inspired by sincere love for God, precisely because you function with the right sense of dignified awe, with regard to God choosing you as His beloved.

Every knee in heaven, on earth and under the earth, bows to Jesus with great reverence, which entails - to honour, worship and adore Him profoundly - with reverential wonder (Philippians 2:9-11 NIV). Why? It was on account of His obedience to God and submission to His perfect will, irrespective of His own human will. When you are full of reverence and deference towards God, your worship becomes fully acceptable to God, and therefore, you are joyfully pleased to always offer such spiritual sacrifices, full of grace and passionate wonder, thereby leading to an increasing depth of intimacy with God in your Christian walk, because you're growing deeper in fellowship and relationship with Him.

As the revelation of reverence and deference becomes clearly demonstrated in your faith walk, the active power of God will increasingly become evident in your life such that the devil cannot comprehend or survive it, meaning that he has no choice than to flee from you at will. Stay tuned for part 2, for the exposition of the term, godly reverence. Shalom!

Scripture Reading - Deuteronomy 6:24; Proverbs 14:26; Luke 12:5; Acts 9:31.

Guided Prayer:

Dear Father in heaven, I want you to know that I treasure and cherish you greatly in my heart, and I show this by expressing honour and adoration to you, today and oftentimes. Having received a Kingdom that can never be shaken,  which is far superior to the kingdom of darkness, I acknowledge that you have made me supreme wonder and a peculiar generation. Thank you Lord for abundance of your goodness and mercies operating in full force in my life, by which I'm signally favoured to function in absolute dominion over the devil and his minions, in Jesus' Name, Amen!