Called by my name...

Recently, God has given me the grace, to do some intense studying of the Old Testament (OT). I am just fascinated with all that I am learning and all that God is revealing to me! And to whoever thinks that the OT is boring and irrelevant, you need to go back, and start looking at all those stories that you think you know-look again! There is so much to learn!

The more I read in the OT, the more I understand the New Testament (NT). You really can’t even begin to comprehend all that goes on in the NT until you’ve got a grip on the OT, there’s so much there! God revealed Himself in so many ways and did such awesome miracles, sign and wonders!

Did you know that God sustained people for 40 days and nights without eating or drinking anything!? (Exodus 34:28, 1 Kings 19:8) That a man called down fire from heaven to kill 100 men? (2 Kings 1:9-12) That a war was loosed in the second heaven to keep an angel from responding to a man’s prayer? (Daniel 10:12-14)

I have barely scratched the surface of the OT, and every day I am astounded by new truths about God, new stories about His provision and power. If you want to be stirred up and have your faith increased, start reading about all the miracles God did for Moses!

I have been just wrecked by one passage in particular Exodus 33:12-23, just one of Moses’ many encounters with the Lord. My heart aches over Moses words, and the cry of his heart; to know God!

“If you are pleased with me, teach me your ways so that I may know you and continue to find favor with you.” (Exodus 33:13)

I am so struck by this specific encounter that he had with the Lord, so in awe of God, and jealous of Moses’ time with God. My heart aches to learn about God, to know His personality and His ways, because I want to find favor in His sight!

“The Lord would speak to Moses face to face, as one speaks to a friend.” (Exodus 33:11)

I want to be a friend of God! That He would speak to me face to face!

I have been praying this passage back to God and seeking His face for encounters like Moses had. Even if Moses got it wrong sometimes, he really got it right here.

“The Moses said to him, “If your Presence does not go with us, do not send us up from here. How will anyone know that you are pleased with me and with your people unless you go with us? What else will distinguish me and your people from all the other people on the face of the earth?”” (Exodus 33:15+16)

Wow! I want this to be my hearts cry too!

‘God! Don’t send me out, unless Your Presence goes with me! I want Your Presence to be what distinguishes me from everyone else!’

Moses had the right heart here. Just like Solomon, he wanted to know God above all else. But not only did he want to know God, he just wanted to be with God.

I can see his anguish as he thinks about having to leave God’s presence, his closest friend. His heart cries out “If you really like me, then stay with me! Don’t leave me alone!”

I can imagine the please smile of the Father who has worked so hard to get to this point. Not just that Moses would rely on Him for miracles, food and leadership, but that they would be friends. That Moses would truly lean on Him from the very depth of his heart, and long for His presence more than anything else.

If there’s one thing I’ve found since being down here, it’s that God’s presence is addicting! I can’t even imagine what it was like for Moses who literally saw and spoke to God face to face as a friend!

“And the Lord said to Moses, “I will do the very thing you have asked, because I am pleased with you and I know you by name.”” (Exodus 33:17)

Wow. My heart turns over in my chest every time I read this. How would you like the God of heaven and earth to speak this over you? To say that He knows you by name, that He is pleased with you?

Well, He does, every day. Every time you glance His way, His heart is stirred by you.

It’s a wonderful thought!

I am grabbing hold of this reality and running with it! God knows me, He cares for me, He wants to be my closest friend and desires to be with me!

And best of all;

He knows me by name.

God incomprehensable, made known....

Somewhere, hidden in the dark recesses of every human being, there is the knowledge that somewhere out there, there is someone who is bigger than them. A higher being.

We try to cover it up with denial, with our theories, with rationalization-but the truth is at the core of every human being, they know there is someone out there who is beyond comprehension. And that fact alone scares us. No one wants to believe that compared to this being, they are completely powerless, that there is someone out there that no amount of studying can ever help us to even begin to understand.

We don’t want to be powerless.

Deep within us is the knowledge that there is someone out there that is worthy of our love, worship and obedience, and that has absolute power over our lives whether we like it or not.

The sad truth is, people would rather believe in Satan, than believe in God.

Why anyone would rather choose to believe that there is an evil lord out there whose only thought is to hurt me rather than an all loving God is beyond me.

No wait, it’s not.

Satan is simple, he can be defined by our natural minds. He is not all powerful, nor omnipresent or omnipotent. Thus, he is easier to understand, and because we can put limits on him and understand him to an extent, we are more comfortable accepting him.

People don’t want to believe in God, because they have wrong paradigms about Him. We don’t understand Him, and thus we are intimidated by Him.

But our poor little minds, cannot even begin to comprehend a God, who is all powerful, created the heavens and the earth, has absolute power and has no beginning. Just consider with me for a second, Genesis 1:1;

“In the beginning God…”

Now I’m going to stop you right there, yes I know that it continues “created the heavens and the earth”, but how often do you stop to just consider those four words.

In the beginning…..GOD.

“But wait!” We say, “who created God!? Where did He come from?”

Our problem with God is that we can’t define Him. Our theories and ideas cannot confine Him. He cannot be measured; He is without beginning and without an end.

Friends, it’s because we are created beings.

We were not meant to comprehend His majesty, it’s part of His mystery.

He puts questions in our hearts that we would draw closer to Him in search of those questions.

His servant Job said this; “He spreads the northern skies over empty space; he suspends the earth over nothing. He wraps up the waters in his clouds, yet the clouds do not burst under the weight. He covers the face of the full moon, spreading his clouds over it. He marks out the horizon on the face of the waters, for a boundary between light and darkness. And these are but the outer fringe of his works; how faint the whisper we hear of him! We then can understand the thunder of his power?” (Job 26:7-10,14)

His majesty, and awesome splendor is beyond anything we can understand, but because we know we can’t fully comprehend Him, we’d rather dismiss Him all together than grapple with the deep things of God.

The worst part is, because we’re scared to get lost in the depths of God, we’ve robbed ourselves of the joy of trembling before Him.

We’d rather keep our views that He is a lofty far away being who only shows up to force us into submission with His will, than consider someone our minds cannot comprehend.

But I’m here to tell you, He will reveal Himself to you! He already has!

Through Christ Jesus, His son, He revealed Himself to us. He revealed His heart of love to us, that He would go as far, as to sacrifice the one He loved the most, just so we, could be with Him for eternity.

God longs for you to know Him, to truly know Him, His personality and how He longs for you.

If we really begin to take into consideration someone, who holds all power, but who willingly allows us to choose Him or not, it begins to unnerve us. No one is used to that kind of love. And then we take it a step further, not only does He lovingly allow us our own rights to choose Him or not, He sent His son to die on the cross. Jesus died for us, for all our sins, yet He Himself was sinless. Our minds know the injustice of the sacrifice that was made on our behalf, and yet we choose to scorn Him.

This sacrifice, because we do not understand the weightiness of it, does nothing to move our hearts and help us understand His love for us.

But this is not a story! This was a real man, with real emotions and feelings! He had a body, and suffered beyond description just so that we could know and love the Father the way He does.

Beloved, I think that is what unnerves us truly the most.

Why would a God so incomprehensible humble Himself to the point of dying for His very creation?

Because, He loves you.

Desperately.

Beyond anything you can understand.

Our weak views of love, are nothing compared to the way He feels for us.

And yet we’re so scared of that love. Love that transcends all boundaries. Love that’s so complete it shakes you to your very core.

Do you know that God?

Do you know that God who is so awesome in power that He spoke the world into being? But who is so humble in love He died for the very ones He created?

First, we need to study His majesty. And embrace a real perspective of a incompressible God.

And then study His love in light of His majesty so our hearts are blown away by His sacrifice.

And then it’s a simple choice.

Who wouldn’t love someone who loved them to the point of death?

Because He loved me first…

I love him.

Things that confound the Wise

Oh the great mysteries of God!

Everyday i am shocked by a new facet of His beauty!

Truly ladies and gentlemen, if you are bored with God-you need revival! You need to Holy Spirit to break in a liven things up, because there is never a dull moment with God! And if you think you have God all figured out, you had better head back to Genesis, for who can know the Eternal One?

Recently i have been stuck in 1 Corinthians 2. I never realized how much i was missing by neglecting the Holy Spirit in me! He is our power cord to God! Our direct link.

Truly, we cannot even begin to understand God with out the help of the Holy Spirit inside of us. The "wisdom" of man never can and never will comprehend God eternal, the one who was there before time, who has no beginning and no end.

My poor little brain can hardly even handle thinking about someone that big!

But God will reveal His great mysteries to us by His Spirit (1 Cor 2:10) if we only ask Him (James 1:5)

The problem is, that we come at God with our limited understanding, and try to apply what we know to Him, thus putting His character in a box that is far too small for Him. We cannot understand by the ways of this world or our human "wisdom".

Let's put aside our humanistic thinking and study the deep things of God!

"We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God's wisdom, a mystery that had been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understand it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory." -1 Corinthians 2:6-8

Are you guys reading what i am!?

Let's put it simply;

All the people of this age, who think they are so smart with their philosophies and sensible words, really are deceived. It doesn't matter how good they sound, or if the think they can rationalize away the reality of God's existence, their wisdom will -and is- coming to nothing.

But all of God's glory, His wisdom, is accessible to us! We who have His Spirit within us have the opportunity to know the deep things of God!

"For who knows a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit within? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not recieved the spirit of the world, but the spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us." -1 Corinthians 2:11+12

Did you catch that? God's Spirit is the only One who knows His thoughts, and He freely gave us His Spirit that we might understand. I don't know about you, but i serve a good God!

It's sad to me, that even many Christians remain in the dark about His character because they don't take the time to learn about His personality and ask the Spirit to reveal the deep things of God to them. The Bible is easy to misunderstand and write off as nonsense if we don't have the Spirit of God within in us to help us to understand the deep things He wants to reveal about Himself.

Even just in these last two months, i can't emphasize enough how huge this had been in my spiritual life. Just simply asking God to reveal Himself to me and communing with the Holy Spirit has helped me to grow by leaps and bounds. The Holy Spirit wants to talk to us, we just have to take the time to listen.

I am beginning to understand more and more why the deep things of God scare and confound even the wisest of men. Those with human knowledge think they understand, but they cannot know God without His help.

No one can know God without His help.

Thank you Lord for sending us the Helper! (John 14:26)