Arden Bevere, youngest son of John and Lisa Bevere, knows he had godly parents. He says they did a wonderful job of raising him and his three brothers, who now partner in the Sons & Daughters movement geared to empower today’s generation to connect with God.
“[My parents] framed out the gifting, and they framed out the inheritance and the identity in us boys from a young age,” Arden tells host Dr. Steve Greene on a recent episode of the Greenelines podcast on the Charisma Podcast Network. Nonetheless, he says, he walked away from God while he was in high school—and it took a revelation from God to bring him back.
“I came through this stage where I thought, Yeah, I know there’s a God. I’ve seen the miracles that have happened at my parents’ meetings. And I’ve seen all this stuff, evidence. I know Jesus was real. I know He died on the cross.
“But at that point in my life, I was like, ‘I really don’t care,'” Arden says. “The party scene, all that stuff was more attractive to me. And it was funny, because as I walked away, all of the things that my parents had spoken over me since I was a little kid, and even through that season, were what led me back in that moment … it wasn’t this big, ‘Hey, I heard an amazing message.’ Actually, my dad was preaching a message that I had heard multiple times.
“And I say it [this way]: The fear of God hit me in that moment,” he says. “Some people say they get saved by the love of God; I got saved by fear of God, which I think is a beautiful thing that I want my generation to grab hold of more, the idea of the fear of God.”
And Arden quotes his dad, John, as he seeks to explain this concept. “He said, ‘The fear of God is not being afraid of God; it’s being afraid of being away from Him.’ And that’s going away from His Word—going away from His truth. It’s standing in awe of Him.”
