The Fear of the Lord Is the Beginning of Wisdom
Sam Dunn built this teaching on the oldest piece of wisdom in the Book: the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. But he doesn't leave "fear of the Lord" as a vague religious feeling. He defines it by defining God — three words at a time — because he understood something I've watched play out in a hundred lives: you cannot rightly fear a God you've never actually looked at. And once you do look, the fears that used to run your life start to look very small.
## Three Words for Who God Is
**Omnipotent** — having unlimited power and authority. "By Him all things were created, in heaven and on earth, visible and invisible, whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities — all things were created through Him and for Him" (Colossians 1:16). Every power that could ever come against you was made by the One you serve.
**Omniscient** — knowing everything. "No creature is hidden from His sight, but all are naked and exposed to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account" (Hebrews 4:13). Nothing about your situation is news to God.
**Omnipresent** — everywhere at once. "The eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good" (Proverbs 15:3). David asked it best: "Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence?" (Psalm 139:7).
Sit with all three at the same time and the holy fear arrives on its own. A God that powerful, that all-knowing, that present is not someone to manage casually. That reverence is where wisdom begins.
## The Lie Called "Accident"
Then Sam does something I've never heard another teacher do — he goes after the word accident. The dictionary calls it an unfortunate event that happens unexpectedly and unintentionally. Sam calls it a mindset Satan wants us to live in so that he can spread fear. Because if the universe is just random chance, then anything could befall you at any moment for no reason, and you should live braced and afraid.
But look at who God said He is. "The thief comes only to steal, kill, and destroy; I have come that they may have life more abundantly" (John 10:10). "I kill and I make alive; I wound and I heal; nor is there any who can deliver from My hand" (Deuteronomy 32:39). Even in the book of Job — where God allows Satan to come against a righteous man — He sets the limits and tells Satan exactly how far he may go (Job 1:9–12; 2:4–6). The enemy operates on a leash held by an omnipotent God. There are no true accidents in a world that sovereign.
## No Partiality, No Exceptions
Sam closes with Peter's rooftop vision in Acts 10, where God tells him, "What I have cleansed, you must not call unclean." God was preparing Peter to carry the gospel to the Gentile Cornelius — and Peter ends up at the conclusion that changes everything: "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality" (Acts 10:34). The same all-powerful, all-knowing, ever-present God plays no favorites. The wisdom and the protection available to anyone are available to you.
Sam scrawled his summary at the bottom of the page in his own hand, and it's the whole point: To truly live victoriously, we have to start believing in God and His power. The fear of the Lord isn't being afraid of God. It's being so convinced of who He is that you stop being afraid of everything else.
**If fear has been running your life — fear of the next bad break, the next diagnosis, the next "accident" —** reach out. Let us pray with you and help you fix your eyes on a God too big for any of it to be random.
