When I wrote the post Revelation I mentioned how I would post something about the rest of what was revealed to us that night about God and His love. Well, here it is.
God gives us relationships and experiences to help us understand His love and draw closer in intimacy to Him. Fathers are there to show us the fatherly side of God; brothers and sisters to show us the family side; best friends and friends in general to show us His comradeship with us; significant others (boyfriend/girlfriend) to show us the lover that He is; spouses to show us the bridegroom that He is and the way He loves the church as a whole and individually as a husband to it. God is like a huge water tank with millions of line/pipes coming out of it. We have one large pipe that connects us directly to Him when He becomes our Savior. As life with Him progresses, our experiences with relationships add lines from us to God. Until we have each relationship experience (in the way God intended them), we won't truly understand and be connected to God in that way. You won't truly know the lover Jesus is until you have a lover. We can theorize and understand the concept, but we won't truly understand and connect with Him that way until we have that godly relationship with a physical person. That is why God created marriage and families, so that we could understand Him more and be way more intimate with Him than if we were single our whole lives. So as we go through life, we not only gain lines toward God, but we help build lines for others. You may not be the person that connects someone's line to God, but you will be part of the process in getting their pipe to reach the water tank. We have control over how much outpouring of God we allow in our lives. There is a valve on our lines/pipes that only we can turn on. We can turn it off to keep God from our lives or we can open it just enough for a slow drip. Or we can have a continuous steady flow of God's living water in our lives all the time. You get to decide, He won't force you to want the water of life. Satan will try to stop the flow by putting objects in the lines or cutting off your lines somehow. When that happens, you need to locate where the problem is and remove it. It could be an act of sin, or trial that helps us to grow, in either thing we must overcome so that the water of life keeps flowing and overflowing.
The part about relationships really changed my thinking. Before, always wanted...desired to be married out of fear of being alone. But now I desire to be married so that I can be closer to God and understand Him more. I want to know the true lover Jesus is.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Saturday, September 18, 2010
Thursday Nights is Where its At
God has shown up so much every Thursday night Heather and I meet up to study Revelations. This past Thursday was incredible; we did something neither of us has done before. But I'll talk about that later. It's funny, even though we're (supposed) to be studying Revelations, which we do, we always end up reading/ studying something else than Revelations every time. We pretty much let God have the reigns and take us wherever He wants to show us whatever He wants us to see.
This past Thursday Heather brought up Psalm 45. There's a key word in verse 12 that puts a certain picture or definition in our minds.
"And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; the rich among the people will seek your favor."
When someone tells you to seek something, what action comes to mind? Or how do you think you should act? When someone tells me that I need to seek for something I have always felt that I need to strive to find that something. That somehow it's hiding and I need to seek it out. (See how I used the word? ;-]) Well guess what, God showed us the real meaning of seeking. Psalm 45:12 reminded us of Jeremiah 29:13 - "And you seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart". After looking up the definition of the Hebrew word seek, we found something interesting. Seek doesn't mean to look for and find. The literal translation of seek is "to make oneself sick with longing for Him". This translation is from the Greek and Hebrew. So when Jeremiah says that when we seek God we will find Him, he doesn't mean to go looking for God. Jesus is right in front of you and all around you. He is ever present and literally right in front of your face. So when we are told to seek God and we will find Him, we're being told to make ourselves sick with desire for Him; to long for Him with every fiber of our being and nothing less than everything, and we will find Him. It's voluntary love. He's not hiding, our eyes and heart are just under a veil so we can't see. As we draw closer to Him and grow in our relationship with Him, He reveals more and more of Himself to us; He takes the cover off our eyes so that we may see more of who He is. His wanting us to desire Him goes back to things I talked about in my post Revelations. Seek after the Lord, desire Him with everything in you and He will show Himself to you.
Another thing we talked about was the Seraphim talked about in Revelations 4. The Seraphim are the highest ranking angels in heaven. Just a one verse in this chapter reveal so much about the four Seraphim in Heaven and how they show a true example of seeking God. Verse 8 in chapter 4 says, "The four living creatures (the Seraphim), each having six wings were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'". First I want to point out how it says these angels are covered with eyes "around and within". It's hard to picture, but what an image it brings. The Seraphim have millions of eyes and they always see a different side of God. Second thing I wanted to point out is how the Bible says they don't rest day or night. Why would that be written unless they have the choice to rest? Unless they have the choice to leave God's throne? They are the highest ranking angels in Heaven, I have a feeling they can go pretty much wherever they want. But they don't. The Seraphim, highest honored angels, constantly sit at the feet of God worshiping Him. Their love for God is voluntary and incredibly strong. They desire to be near God so much, and just want to be in His presence that they forgo rest. They give their all to Him. A true example of how to seek.
So as we're sitting in God's evident presence we decide to go out to Wal-mart and pray for people. Even though we were both excited to go and see God move, we both had quite a bit of fear about the idea. Before we went, we spent time in prayer rebuking fear and apprehension and asking God for boldness. We had no idea what God would have in store for us that night. Our time studying God's word and truth had been so fruitful we weren't sure what else could and would happen. On the way we prayed as well, asking God if there was a particular person we needed to find and talk to. God let us know there was a particular girl we needed to talk to and so we walked into Wal-mart on a mission for God. The first lady we asked about whether she would like prayer or not was very short. She said no and walked away. Surprising unhindered by the rejection we had just received, praise the Lord, we moved on. And then we saw her. A young twenty-something aged girl doing her job. We ended up talking with her for about a half hour, just encouraging her and letting her know that God saw her and cares for her more than she can imagine. It was such a blessing to talk with this girl and share with her. Turns out she is a Christian who had a difficult day and was feeling rather discouraged. It was so amazing. God is awesome. =D
After going to the parking lot to leave, God showed up even more so in good ole Vivian (my car) than He had earlier in the night. We literally sat in the parking lot worshiping God and praying for people passing by the car for around an hour, or possibly longer. It may have looked crazy to outsiders, but we didn't care. It was so amazing to just be in His presence.
This past Thursday Heather brought up Psalm 45. There's a key word in verse 12 that puts a certain picture or definition in our minds.
"And the daughter of Tyre will come with a gift; the rich among the people will seek your favor."
When someone tells you to seek something, what action comes to mind? Or how do you think you should act? When someone tells me that I need to seek for something I have always felt that I need to strive to find that something. That somehow it's hiding and I need to seek it out. (See how I used the word? ;-]) Well guess what, God showed us the real meaning of seeking. Psalm 45:12 reminded us of Jeremiah 29:13 - "And you seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart". After looking up the definition of the Hebrew word seek, we found something interesting. Seek doesn't mean to look for and find. The literal translation of seek is "to make oneself sick with longing for Him". This translation is from the Greek and Hebrew. So when Jeremiah says that when we seek God we will find Him, he doesn't mean to go looking for God. Jesus is right in front of you and all around you. He is ever present and literally right in front of your face. So when we are told to seek God and we will find Him, we're being told to make ourselves sick with desire for Him; to long for Him with every fiber of our being and nothing less than everything, and we will find Him. It's voluntary love. He's not hiding, our eyes and heart are just under a veil so we can't see. As we draw closer to Him and grow in our relationship with Him, He reveals more and more of Himself to us; He takes the cover off our eyes so that we may see more of who He is. His wanting us to desire Him goes back to things I talked about in my post Revelations. Seek after the Lord, desire Him with everything in you and He will show Himself to you.
Another thing we talked about was the Seraphim talked about in Revelations 4. The Seraphim are the highest ranking angels in heaven. Just a one verse in this chapter reveal so much about the four Seraphim in Heaven and how they show a true example of seeking God. Verse 8 in chapter 4 says, "The four living creatures (the Seraphim), each having six wings were full of eyes around and within. And they do not rest day or night, saying: Holy, holy, holy, Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come!'". First I want to point out how it says these angels are covered with eyes "around and within". It's hard to picture, but what an image it brings. The Seraphim have millions of eyes and they always see a different side of God. Second thing I wanted to point out is how the Bible says they don't rest day or night. Why would that be written unless they have the choice to rest? Unless they have the choice to leave God's throne? They are the highest ranking angels in Heaven, I have a feeling they can go pretty much wherever they want. But they don't. The Seraphim, highest honored angels, constantly sit at the feet of God worshiping Him. Their love for God is voluntary and incredibly strong. They desire to be near God so much, and just want to be in His presence that they forgo rest. They give their all to Him. A true example of how to seek.
So as we're sitting in God's evident presence we decide to go out to Wal-mart and pray for people. Even though we were both excited to go and see God move, we both had quite a bit of fear about the idea. Before we went, we spent time in prayer rebuking fear and apprehension and asking God for boldness. We had no idea what God would have in store for us that night. Our time studying God's word and truth had been so fruitful we weren't sure what else could and would happen. On the way we prayed as well, asking God if there was a particular person we needed to find and talk to. God let us know there was a particular girl we needed to talk to and so we walked into Wal-mart on a mission for God. The first lady we asked about whether she would like prayer or not was very short. She said no and walked away. Surprising unhindered by the rejection we had just received, praise the Lord, we moved on. And then we saw her. A young twenty-something aged girl doing her job. We ended up talking with her for about a half hour, just encouraging her and letting her know that God saw her and cares for her more than she can imagine. It was such a blessing to talk with this girl and share with her. Turns out she is a Christian who had a difficult day and was feeling rather discouraged. It was so amazing. God is awesome. =D
After going to the parking lot to leave, God showed up even more so in good ole Vivian (my car) than He had earlier in the night. We literally sat in the parking lot worshiping God and praying for people passing by the car for around an hour, or possibly longer. It may have looked crazy to outsiders, but we didn't care. It was so amazing to just be in His presence.
Friday, September 3, 2010
Revelation
Last night my friend Heather and I were supposed to study chapter one of Revelations. I say "supposed to" because we only read as far as verse 9 and we only went in-depth as far as verse 5. Haha! God had other plans and we just went with it, and I am so glad we did. God totally showed up and revealed so much of Himself and His desire to us. It all started at verse 1 with the word revelation.
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, revelation means an act of revealing or communicating divine truth. In a Bible dictionary Heather had, its definition was laying bear, making naked. Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us; everything about Him; where He's going and what He's doing. He is not ashamed and has no flaws, so He stands before us completely naked revealing everything about Himself in character, desires, and just who He is.
Now what we discovered last night may have a lot of you thinking we're crazy and out of our minds. You may ask how can we believe such things, but I tell you it was ALL of the Lord. As we were talking and God was revealing things to us, we didn't know how we were coming to the conclusions we had and yet everything made sense. It was obvious God was there directing our thoughts and words and prayers; the room was intensely hot with His presence. So let me shock you for a sec - there is no plan.
What does that mean? It means there's no plan; no a,b,c,d to follow. Christians tend to stress that we need to follow the plan God has for us. In our minds a plan means you go from point a to point b and so on. We have this view that there's this twisty tiny path to walk on with no leeway on either side. But guess what? THERE IS NO PLAN!!!!! So many times God asks you what you want to do. Yes, there are times in life where He will tell you you need to do such-and-such. But for the majority of the time, He is not concerned about what you do. Heather described it well. Life is a playground with God. There are boundaries (His commandments and laws) that we need to stay within to protect us from harm, but there is an immense amount of space that we have the freedom to move around however we want. Each persons playground is different because our desires and needs are different. Don't think of a playground as a small park that you take kids to. No, think of it as an enormous field where God has placed every toy you could ever want. And HE JUST WANTS TO PLAY WITH YOU. If you want to go on the seesaw, go on the seesaw. If you want to slide, go on the slide. Swing if that's what you want to do. He just wants to be with you in everything. God is lovesick over you and just wants to be close to you.
We don't have a plan, but we do have a mission and a purpose.Our mission and purpose in life is to LOVE AND BE LOVED. The greatest commandment - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" - is the first part of our mission and purpose. Without His love we cannot love others. And the second greatest commandment - "Love your neighbor as yourself' - is the second part of our mission and purpose. All He wants us to do is love Him, grow closer to Him, glorify Him in everything, and receive the love He has for us. What freedom we have in this. Bloom where you are, play with Him, and enjoy His love.
Our humanly idea of what a plan is generates a fear of what happens when we step off the narrow path.Well since we no longer have to worry about the visual of a twisty narrow path, the fear of what happens when you step off the narrow lane changes as well. Psalm 89:14 says that the foundation of God's throne is righteousness and justice. We focus so much on the justice that we forget the righteousness. And here comes the second biggest revelation of the night - THE JUDGMENT IS NOT NOW! We are not supposed to pray for judgment until the Tribulation begins. There is no judgment now; God has no judgment for us now. Yes He does have anger, but He is slow to anger and it only lasts a moment before His love for us takes over. Anger is different than judgment, though. Right now is His righteousness and love, which will never end but doesn't include judgment yet. We have this view that if we stumble or take one step out of His boundaries that God will and does condemn and judge us. But God has no condemnation for us. We expect judgment and condemnation therefore we see it in everything. If you expect judgment, you will see judgment in everything and you will judge yourself. If you expect condemnation, you see condemnation in everything and condemn yourself. If you expect to be compared to others, you see everything as a comparison to you and you will compare yourself to everything. So it stands to reason that if you expect love, not only will you receive love abounding but you will see love in everything, you will give love to others, and you will love yourself. Brothers and sister I adjure you to have high expectations of love and mercy and grace from your Heavenly Father. In truth that's what He has for you, so expect it. Expect great things and do not let the fear of disappointment stand in your way.
God does not push us to come back to Him if we take a step out of His boundary. Instead, He is crying over us. He sees the harm we put ourselves into and because He loves us so much, He hates to see us hurt by the devil. So He reaches out His hand to us, yearning for us to come back to Him to love and safety. We make the decision to stay with God or leave His safety. We decide how far our relationship with Him goes. He has ultimate power and can make us do anything He wants, but He doesn't. He wants us to chose to love Him and desire to be with Him and grow in Him. He loves us so much and if He forces us to love Him and be with Him, it's no longer true love; it's manipulation. God seeks to love, not manipulate. That's why we have free will. Walk in the freedom of Christ knowing your purpose and mission in life. Run after Him because He wants you!
There are so many other things that were revealed to us about God's love last night. So many incredible things. I would write it all down here, but this post is long. Ask God to reveal Himself to you and He will because I know He wants to be closer to you.
In the Merriam-Webster dictionary, revelation means an act of revealing or communicating divine truth. In a Bible dictionary Heather had, its definition was laying bear, making naked. Jesus wants to reveal Himself to us; everything about Him; where He's going and what He's doing. He is not ashamed and has no flaws, so He stands before us completely naked revealing everything about Himself in character, desires, and just who He is.
Now what we discovered last night may have a lot of you thinking we're crazy and out of our minds. You may ask how can we believe such things, but I tell you it was ALL of the Lord. As we were talking and God was revealing things to us, we didn't know how we were coming to the conclusions we had and yet everything made sense. It was obvious God was there directing our thoughts and words and prayers; the room was intensely hot with His presence. So let me shock you for a sec - there is no plan.
What does that mean? It means there's no plan; no a,b,c,d to follow. Christians tend to stress that we need to follow the plan God has for us. In our minds a plan means you go from point a to point b and so on. We have this view that there's this twisty tiny path to walk on with no leeway on either side. But guess what? THERE IS NO PLAN!!!!! So many times God asks you what you want to do. Yes, there are times in life where He will tell you you need to do such-and-such. But for the majority of the time, He is not concerned about what you do. Heather described it well. Life is a playground with God. There are boundaries (His commandments and laws) that we need to stay within to protect us from harm, but there is an immense amount of space that we have the freedom to move around however we want. Each persons playground is different because our desires and needs are different. Don't think of a playground as a small park that you take kids to. No, think of it as an enormous field where God has placed every toy you could ever want. And HE JUST WANTS TO PLAY WITH YOU. If you want to go on the seesaw, go on the seesaw. If you want to slide, go on the slide. Swing if that's what you want to do. He just wants to be with you in everything. God is lovesick over you and just wants to be close to you.
We don't have a plan, but we do have a mission and a purpose.Our mission and purpose in life is to LOVE AND BE LOVED. The greatest commandment - "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength" - is the first part of our mission and purpose. Without His love we cannot love others. And the second greatest commandment - "Love your neighbor as yourself' - is the second part of our mission and purpose. All He wants us to do is love Him, grow closer to Him, glorify Him in everything, and receive the love He has for us. What freedom we have in this. Bloom where you are, play with Him, and enjoy His love.
Our humanly idea of what a plan is generates a fear of what happens when we step off the narrow path.Well since we no longer have to worry about the visual of a twisty narrow path, the fear of what happens when you step off the narrow lane changes as well. Psalm 89:14 says that the foundation of God's throne is righteousness and justice. We focus so much on the justice that we forget the righteousness. And here comes the second biggest revelation of the night - THE JUDGMENT IS NOT NOW! We are not supposed to pray for judgment until the Tribulation begins. There is no judgment now; God has no judgment for us now. Yes He does have anger, but He is slow to anger and it only lasts a moment before His love for us takes over. Anger is different than judgment, though. Right now is His righteousness and love, which will never end but doesn't include judgment yet. We have this view that if we stumble or take one step out of His boundaries that God will and does condemn and judge us. But God has no condemnation for us. We expect judgment and condemnation therefore we see it in everything. If you expect judgment, you will see judgment in everything and you will judge yourself. If you expect condemnation, you see condemnation in everything and condemn yourself. If you expect to be compared to others, you see everything as a comparison to you and you will compare yourself to everything. So it stands to reason that if you expect love, not only will you receive love abounding but you will see love in everything, you will give love to others, and you will love yourself. Brothers and sister I adjure you to have high expectations of love and mercy and grace from your Heavenly Father. In truth that's what He has for you, so expect it. Expect great things and do not let the fear of disappointment stand in your way.
God does not push us to come back to Him if we take a step out of His boundary. Instead, He is crying over us. He sees the harm we put ourselves into and because He loves us so much, He hates to see us hurt by the devil. So He reaches out His hand to us, yearning for us to come back to Him to love and safety. We make the decision to stay with God or leave His safety. We decide how far our relationship with Him goes. He has ultimate power and can make us do anything He wants, but He doesn't. He wants us to chose to love Him and desire to be with Him and grow in Him. He loves us so much and if He forces us to love Him and be with Him, it's no longer true love; it's manipulation. God seeks to love, not manipulate. That's why we have free will. Walk in the freedom of Christ knowing your purpose and mission in life. Run after Him because He wants you!
There are so many other things that were revealed to us about God's love last night. So many incredible things. I would write it all down here, but this post is long. Ask God to reveal Himself to you and He will because I know He wants to be closer to you.
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