The Faithfulness of God

I dreamed last night of God’s faithfulness. In the dream, I was given an explanation of what his faithfulness looks like: He covers us fully in our life and in our being. He is the fully sufficient God. In certain areas though that will differ over the course of our lives, he will choose to not reveal himself in that area. It is with the intent that we would trust him by faith and not by sight. It is always temporary because he intends to reveal himself to us in that area too.

Here is a practical application of this principle: Identify the area of your life in which it seems as though God has not covered you and in which he has not revealed himself. Then, look over the rest of your life and identify where he has provided for you and revealed his nature. See that he has encircled the exposed area with his faithfulness. He is holding that area tightly. You cannot comprehend what he is doing there at the moment, but he has surrounded that area with his favor and his kindness. Trust him to increase your faith in his nature.

Spoiled Things

One morning this week, I woke up thinking about the people that I need to continue forgiving. I have always had perfectionist standards for myself and for other people. It has led me to be disappointed and angry with myself, God, and many people whom I have walked with in my life. Forgiveness has been a struggle because to forgive meant accepting that things had not worked as I had hoped.

When I got out of bed, I found that our refrigerator door had opened up during the night. The fridge had been full of large dishes, and it could not quite contain its contents. I had to toss some food because it was above a safe temperature. It felt like a lesson from the Lord about forgiveness. God desires to use our daily lives to enable us for heavenly living. He has given us all things needed for life and godliness through the full and intimate knowledge of Jesus Christ.

This particular lesson allowed me to see forgiveness in a new light. In order to forgive, it is necessary to accept an important truth: Life events and relationship that we expected to nourish us and to delight us went bad. They simply spoiled. When I threw out food from the fridge, it was tempting to believe that the food might actually be OK and to keep it for consumption. To do so might have made me and my family sick. When we are unable to forgive, we are holding on to spoiled things because we are determined to keep living off those things. It is a refusal to accept that something went bad and that it is time to just let it go.

Once I disposed of the items that were questionable, it allowed me to move on and to focus on what was still good and what needed to be restocked. Forgiveness allows us to do the same thing. It does not make those things OK, but it allows us to move past what happened. Unforgiveness will make us emotionally sick because we are consuming things that have gone bad. It does not mean that we instantly forget what happened. It does mean that we can begin to replace our memories of what went bad with new things that nourish our hearts.

Grace for Division

Everyone loves the idea of unity. There have been many efforts to unite different parts of the US Church. They have been groups that sought to create coalitions between secular organizations and the Church. They has even been some work done to form common ground between Christianity and other world religions. I suspect that very few people in the US Church would feel comfortable hearing or declaring a message of division and disunity.

In the midst of the attempts to create unity, the focus has been on the superficial. We have tried to find the lowest common denominator so that we could build from there. The time is soon coming when the issues will come to the forefront in a way that forces us to focus on the heart of the disagreements. The result will be a season of intense division and disunity. Many hearts will be pierced by the troubles that are coming.

In Matthew 10, Jesus told us that he had not come to bring peace to the Earth but division. He will not allow our affections for him to be watered down. Anything that runs contrary to a Christ-centered walk is non-negotiable. In the conflict that is coming to the Church, neighbor will fight against neighbor because we can only one First Love. There must be division because unity is the joining of two parties. We cannot be both joined to Christ and joined to the things that break his heart. When the fighting has ceased, it will appear at first that it was the work of the flesh. It is easy to believe that anything that causes division and disunity is of the enemy. Once the final tally has been made though, it will be shown that God gave grace for division in order to bring about greater unity between himself and his bride.

The Agenda of God’s Rest

This week, I dreamed that I was at a public worship event. I sat in a large oval amphitheater. I do not remember anyone singing. It was though everyone present was just sitting in their seats. Suddenly, a fog began to fill the arena. It thickened as it came. Though I have never seen this manifestation in real life, I knew instantly that this was the manifest Presence of God. I closed my eyes and chose to simply rest in this place. Off to one side of me, a man spoke up. He was offering his opinion about what we should do next. He was not prompted by the Holy Spirit. He spoke out of his own earthly wisdom. Immediately, the visible Presence of God lifted, everyone got out their seats, and left the amphitheater. It was very disappointing.

In my teen years, I wanted two things in life more than anything else. I wanted to know/experience/be intimately connected with God, and I wanted to be used by Him to serve others. Experiencing God’s Presence was such a wonderful treat that I determined inside that I did not qualify for it. To make up for that, I made an internal covenant with myself that I would strenuously serve God outwardly and pray inwardly until I felt deserving. It never worked well. The only time that I could really enjoy God was when I used my spiritual gifts to minister to others. It was in those moments that I become a conduit that I experienced the touch of God flowing through me. Of course, I did so with the knowledge that I was serving others mostly so that I could get a taste of what God was giving them through me. I am not exactly where I was in my teen years. I have been healed enough to see how broken I was then, and how broken I am now. The difference might be that I know that God wants to be with me now, right here in my brokenness.

God will allow his people to slave away for him as the older brother did, but then we are not really working with him. The younger brother who has completely failed and yet been lavished with kindness is the one who rests in Father’s Presence. I believe that we are approaching a time when God will manifest in amazing ways, but there is a price to be paid: Our agendas must die. Our labors must cease. We must be willing to rest in his Presence. There will be a time to be used by him and to labor with him, but we must be willing to become saturated in the atmosphere of his glory first. Heaven will not partner with fleshly effort. God is still looking for those who would worship him in spirit and in truth.

Seek First

Everything that Jesus said and everything written in the Word is subject to the filters that we possess. I was thinking about Matthew 6:33 this morning, “But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you.” This verse requires a contextual understanding and an emotional wholeness to be properly received.

I treasure rules because rules guarantee outcomes. I gravitate toward principles in the Word and in the Christian walk because they help to predict what is coming next. Many books have been sold because they were rich in the study of biblical principles. I cannot speak for others, but much of my love of rules and principles is centered in distrust. Internally, I have used these abstractions to force God to be predictable.

The context of Matthew 6 is that our greater reward is yet to come, and that we are deeply loved right now. Jesus came to set us free from living for the here and now so that we could love God and others without being consumed by our own needs. At this point in my life, this is a hard truth for me. I know that Jesus’ character is being formed in me, and yet, I do not trust God the way that I should. I am growing convinced though I will not accomplish anything of lasting value except that I am willing to die to my way of getting it.

I am still learning how to walk this out. This is a heart thing. It is not a matter of having no desires or no needs. It is not a matter of trading obedience for provision. It is a relational trust that once fully developed will allow me to suffer gracefully and to love those who do not understand me. Such an outcome is daunting to consider, but I draw encouragement from Peter. Over time, God grew Peter from self-sufficiency to become the shepherd that he was called to be. I know that God can do the same for me.

More of Whom?

Growing up in the church, I was fortunate enough to take part in many high energy meetings. Those attending “pressed into God”. We prayed passionately and worshiped intensely. God showed up in many of those meetings. Rich measures of the prophetic were released. There was a sense of God’s presence that would fill the room. What starts with effort must transition into rest. There is a place of abiding, and the enemy of abiding is striving.

The religious spirit will take a passion for God and warp it into a sincere but exhausting performance for God. It says, “You experienced some of God because you exerted effort in spiritual disciplines. You must increase your effort to keep experiencing God”. The resounding cry of “More of God!” seems authentic, but it can move from hunger to desperate hunger to just despair.

A few years ago, the Holy Spirit showed me a truth about what he wanted from me. During a time with him, God told me that there was a room deep inside my heart. He wanted to fill that room, but he could not get into it. I saw the room completely caked over with paper mache that been formed from newspaper. I had no idea what he was talking about. It was not until a time of soaking worship with friends that it came to me. God was telling me that words spoken by others had stuck to me. The reports and opinions of men that formed a hard shell, causing me to become closed off in a deep place of my heart. I would imagine that I am still walking out the application of what God showed me. Just as there was a span of time between revelation and understanding, there is a span of time where healing is taking place.

At a couple of times in the last decade, my prayer life has shifted just slightly. I have found myself moving from “God, give me more of you” to “God, have more of me”. There is a place of intimacy with God. We have to press through the distractions to reach that place. When we have reached a place of being able to hear God’s voice though, the most gracious Person in the universe is waiting for us. God is not moved by our effort. He drew us to himself. It is in that place of intimacy that God wants to experience us and to fill every part of who we are. I believe that the cry of God is that we would let him fill every part of our heart. He wants more of us.