The Fear of the Lord: The Foundation of All Discernment

Let me start by saying that everything begins with this one thing: the fear of the Lord. It is necessary to start here because this is
where Scripture begins. Let’s read:

The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom: and the knowledge of the holy is understanding. —Proverbs 9:10, KJV

Because the Bible is telling us that wisdom starts here—with the fear of the Lord—then I believe that it should be our starting place as well in this book. Not to mention, the fear of the Lord is also my favorite topic.

Holiness Is Still the Battle Cry of My Heart

This topic is quite personal to me. For the breadth of my whole Christian experience, I have tried to embody this “fear of the Lord” because I have a healthy fear of eternity. Anyone who knows me can attest to the fact that I am one of the few fire-and-brimstone preachers remaining. Why? Because I ain’t going to hell for nobody. I know that’s not proper English or grammar, but its sentiment remains true.

The wisdom that we seek can be found only by first having a healthy fear of the Lord. What is this “fear of the Lord”?

In most Jewish and Christian contexts, the “fear of God” does not primarily mean being terrified of God in the sense that we would be terrified of heights, snakes, or public speaking. Rather, it indicates a deep, reverent awe that leads to humility, trust, and obedience—recognizing God’s holiness, authority, and moral reality.

The fear of God means to have deep reverence and respect. So the beginning of wisdom is an attitude of respect. It all starts with that. When a believer begins to respect God, they are ready to begin receiving His wisdom. There is no impartation of wisdom without this. And without God’s wisdom, our discernment will become unclear, and we will find ourselves in the lap of sin—in compromising situations that dishonor the Lord. If there is one thing I have trained myself not to lose, it is a healthy respect for the Lord. If I think the Lord might not like it, I won’t do it. And yes, there are times when I may have exaggerated this respect by displaying some mild forms of legalism, but my intention has always been to honor the Lord in all my behavior.

The early church in the Book of Acts had a healthy fear of the Lord. Even the people of the greater community had a reverence for God because of the church’s piety toward Him.

Great fear gripped the entire church and everyone else who heard what had happened. —Acts 5:11

With this fear the church understood that God was not playing around. He demanded that the church move in reverence toward Him, especially since the church had just begun. Why did God move like this? Because demons live in the realm of compromise. The church that dabbles in compromise or becomes even slightly tolerant of what heaven deems abominable will open wide the door to the demonic. And they may become unable to discern when demonic activity is taking place. It is my fundamental belief that the early church moved in such great fear of the Lord that there was no room for demons in their midst. This is why we don’t find many recorded incidents of demons being cast out of those within the church body—because the church had zero tolerance for demons. When you have a militant approach against the demonic, you won’t find yourself in the red-light district.

Order Alexander Pagani’s New Book, “Discerning the Demonic” on Amazon.com!

The Red-Light District

What is the red-light district? Every city has a district where there seems to be a little more openness and freedom to express lawlessness than in other parts of the city. These are the areas we were warned never to go to alone or at night because sin is more rampant in these places. When the fear of the Lord is present in the life of the believer, the wisdom of God won’t allow them to be tempted to go to those parts of town—especially not for evangelism purposes. I am amazed at how so many well-meaning believers go to red-light districts to evangelize without taking precautions against the temptations that permeate these areas. Without proper safe-guards and accountability, they can easily end up falling from grace.

The fear of the Lord is your inner alarm. It will start buzzing when you disrespect the Lord by violating it. This is exactly what happened to the sons of Eli. At some point in their lives, they strayed from having respect for the Lord and began pursuing unauthorized behaviors. Once they did, the wisdom of God stopped manifesting in their lives as priests in the temple, and they began disrespecting the Lord’s method of worship there.

Sons of Eli’s Sin

Now the sons of Eli were scoundrels who had no respect for the Lord or for their duties as priests. Whenever anyone offered a sacrifice, Eli’s sons would send over a servant with a three-pronged fork. While the meat of the sacrificed animal was still boiling, the servant would stick the fork into the pot and demand that whatever it brought up be given to Eli’s sons. All the Israelites who came to worship at Shiloh were treated this way. Sometimes the servant would come even before the animal’s fat had been burned on the altar. He would demand raw meat before it had been boiled so that it could be used for roasting. The man offering the sacrifice might reply, “Take as much as you want, but the fat must be burned first.” Then the servant would demand, “No, give it to me now, or I’ll take it by force.” So the sin of these young men was very serious in the Lord’s sight, for they treated the Lord’s offerings with contempt. —1 Samuel 2:12–17

The sons of Eli had lost the fear of the Lord, and this dishonor of their sacred duties soon spread to their father, Eli. As much as Eli tried to warn his sons, his office as high priest was eventually so compromised that he lost credibility with them, and they refused to listen to him. It would take a lot to be so compromised that even your own sons disrespect your office and will not listen to you.

The sins of Eli and his sons were so great before the Lord that heaven determined to cut off Eli from the land of the living by judging his entire bloodline. All this happened because they lost their fear of the Lord. Eventually, God allowed the Philistine army to capture the ark of the covenant and kill Eli’s sons. When Eli heard his sons were dead, he fell and broke his neck. All three died by the judgment of the Lord.

Not walking in the fear of the Lord is deadly. And demons love this. If they can get an influential believer to stray from their God-given assignment and become swallowed up in carnality, then it fosters a breeding ground for demons.

The best way to become completely demon-proof is to walk in the fear of the Lord. If you do not, however, then you will live in the realm of Ichabod. What is “Ichabod”? When Eli and his sons died, the daughter-in-law of Eli was with child, and when the baby was born, she named him “Ichabod,” which means “the glory has departed” (1 Sam. 4:21).

When a Christian habitually lives in a state of lukewarm unrepentance, the glory of God departs from them. Their discernment becomes clouded, and they fall into a state of delusion, just like the sons of Eli did. Had they known they would die that very day, they would not have gone out with their army. The wisdom and discernment of God would have prompted them to repent before their demise. Sometimes I wonder whether they are in hell right now, awaiting the final judgment.

On a side note, my heart aches for many of my preacher friends who started out in ministry strong but who were lost to the deceitfulness of riches or sexual perversion along the way. Many of them have been exposed recently, and while I tried to talk with them in private about turning from their evil ways, many either sneered at me or genuinely were so deceived that they told me to my face that they were not doing anything wrong. And then, not long after my private correction, they were publicly exposed. Sadly, even after public exposure, many of them have still not repented.

Pure and Clean

The fear of the Lord is beautiful, and it’s clean. That means it is pure and a pleasure to obey. Demons are dirty, and anything demonic—no matter how pure we think it is—will always be inherently unclean. This is why they are called “unclean spirits,” because at their core, they are filthy. The fear of the Lord is the opposite of demons. Let’s read:

The fear of the Lord is clean, enduring for ever: the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether. —Psalm 19:9, KJV

When something is clean, we revere it and treat it with care because we do not want to contaminate it. Whenever my mom cleaned the house, the respect level for me and my little brother was upgraded. We knew that all forms of rebellion and lawlessness needed to be stopped. Well, at least for a short while—but the analogy is there. When something is pure and clean, it causes a change in behavior among those in proximity. I am reminded of when Moses approached the burning bush. The Bible records that Moses was fearful, and God told him, “Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground” (Exod. 3:5, NIV). The same is true when we have a reverential fear of the Lord: Our behavior must match the level of purity we are beholding.

When we are not in His presence or in proximity to the Lord through prayer, then we are not beholding His purity, so our behavior remains unchanged. I know without a doubt that if the ministers who are being exposed were asked what had happened, each of them would say that they lost their quality time with God and thus began entertaining demons. This is why once we acquire the fear of the Lord, we must cultivate it through consistent choices of walking in it. When we do, we will begin to perfect it.

Perfecting Holiness

The Bible says that we are to perfect holiness in the fear of God. What does this mean? We must learn to make all the right choices so that we can grow in our holiness, and so it will become a lifestyle and a culture for us. It is not just walking in fear of the Lord on a surface level that matters; we are to create a culture of the fear of the Lord. Everyone who knows me knows that I walk in a no-nonsense culture. No one in their right mind would dare offer me the opportunity to sin against the Lord. Why? Because I have created a culture of the fear of the Lord in my life that everyone can see, and I continuously perfect it through the help of the
Holy Spirit.

Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. —2 Corinthians 7:1, KJV

This verse tells us of something we must do—and it is not optional. That word perfect means “to mature.” We are to grow up in the fear of the Lord. I am not talking about stifling legalism or obeying a heavy set of rules and regulations. No, I am talking about growing in our reverence of the Lord, which will then cause us to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit. The fear of the Lord is always required. Many times, we may not know whether something honors God, but the fear of the Lord will guard our ignorance when we are not sure—and when we should know better.

Here are some examples of what can contaminate our flesh and spirit:

1. Secular music that does not honor Christ
2. Movies that are questionable
3. Clothing that moves beyond the parameters of modesty
4. Mixture with witchcraft, New Age practices, burning sage,
   horoscopes, and so on
5. Forming an alliance or agreeing with questionable
   ministries
6. An unhealthy view of money, finances, and wealth
7. A preoccupation with titles and influence
8. The abuse of your authority (even if it’s mild)

Yes, these things can corrupt our flesh and our spirit. This is why the apostle Paul encouraged us to cleanse ourselves from these things by maturing in our holiness and departing from these things. Now, what if you are struggling to embrace the list I just wrote? Be honest with yourself about why. Is it because you have not perfected your fear of the Lord? Each of these practices can contaminate the believer, just like Eli’s sons were corrupted. The sons of Eli serve as a sobering reminder that anyone can fall victim to losing the fear of the Lord—even those of us in the house of God.

This article is an excerpt from Alexander Pagani’s new book, “Discerning the Demonic” available on Amazon.com.

Alexander Pagani dropped out of high school in the South Bronx, joined a gang, and served a three-to-nine-year sentence in prison. He came to faith behind bars, earned his GED in a prison program, and entered ministry in 1995, the same year he was released. He planted a church in 2007 with seventeen people meeting in a living room in the Bronx; by 2015, the congregation had grown enough to rebuild an abandoned nightclub into a building. In 2026, he and his wife Ibelize relocated to the Atlanta area to launch Amazing Church Global ― a transition he describes in this book without softening the difficulty of it, which is consistent with how he writes about everything else.

He has conducted more than four hundred documented deliverance sessions, has taught at Princeton University, and has appeared on TBN and The Word Network. His four previous books ― The Secrets to Deliverance, The Secrets to Generational Curses, The Secrets to Maintaining Your Deliverance, and Manipulated: The Ten Toxic Traits of Legalism ― moved progressively from the mechanics of individual deliverance to the conditions that make deliverance necessary. This book is where that progression lands: not how to cast out a demon, but how to build a life that is not structurally vulnerable to the thing that invited it in.

His oldest son, Apollos, is an ordained pastor now running the ministry’s overseas work. His youngest son, Xavier, works in media production for the ministry. The chapter in this book about the power of words in a family was written by someone who made deliberate, daily decisions about the atmosphere in his home and watched those decisions produce something over twenty years that he considers worth writing about.