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Stirring The Deep

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God Calls Us Friend

God Calls Us

….Friend

A friend from years back showed me a valuable truth this past week . . .

My friend tells me that I’m among her closest friends. For awhile, she’s been texting me saying she wants to talk and catch up (it’s been months since we talked). She says there are few people she will always pick up the phone for, I’m one. However, the phone hasn’t been picked up in a long time. When it comes down to it, she doesn’t make the time to connect – it’s like our friendship is at the bottom of her to-do list – below cleaning the scum off the tub. sigh

We all have the same amount of time. How we spend that time speaks of our priorities. Her actions have been telling me for awhile where our friendship is placed – painfully low. Now if we didn’t talk between visits (she lives in a different state) and both agreed that would be fine. But, it’s saying one thing and doing another that sets me up with false expectations and that is where the disappointment sets in. Expressing how much I mean to her and her desire to talk becomes meaningless when her actions don’t back up her words. It hurts. It feels like she doesn’t care; like our friendship doesn’t really matter.

In addition, in the past couple of years, when we have gotten together, I’m multitasked in with other activities so that she isn’t with me. She has gotten better as I’ve mentioned it to her. She is a bit more engaged during our few hours spent together each year, but her life is one big multitasked distraction-filled conglomeration with our friendship thrown in the pile.

This reflection has been a good reminder for me. We all get busy and distracted, and we can neglect those things that are most important like our relationships. So, how am I treating those I call friend? Those I profess to love? Am I doing and focusing on what is truly most important?

The other day another incident happened where my expectations where let down once again. In the past month, the Holy Spirit has given me good counsel in regards to her and for relationships in general – about expectations, boundaries, balance, but this occurrence bothered me until I wrote this post. God wanted to show me something through it.

The emotion I felt, the hurt, was to give me a peek into God’s heart and share it with you.

Words are meaningless without the action and heart all working in unison. People tell God all the time they love Him, they long to be near to Him, and to be in His presence. But when it comes down to it, they don’t make the time. Other activities and people come first. Our actions and the state of our heart in those actions reveal the truth of what is important to us. For there to be sincerity there has to be an unison of the three; words, action, heart. When we don’t take time to be with Him, or are always distracted or multitasking when we do take time, what does that really say?

Matthew 15:8 These people draw near to Me with their mouth, And honor Me with their lips, But their heart is far from Me.

God showed me the importance of the connection between our words, actions and heart. It wasn’t to guilt me or anyone else who might read this. He doesn’t guilt His children. Guilt comes from another voice. He was giving me an awareness of our actions and heart and what they reveal, and how they measure up to our words. It was about being real and sincere. It was about what God desires from us, because He loves us. It was about how our relationship with Him is to be as well as our relationship with others.

God desires that we spend time with Him; delight in just being with Him. That’s what you do when you love someone. You want to be near them. It isn’t just when you need something. God desires us to draw near because He is our God, our Friend, our Love.

How am I acting toward God, who calls me His friend, His bride? What is my heart when I’m with Him? What do my actions reveal? Do my words, actions and heart line up? Asking these questions can be very revealing about the true state of our relationship with God.

If you feel these three aren’t adding up, don’t fret, act. God loves you. He longs to be near you. Be real with Him, draw near to Him in truth and spirit. Give your love for Him a chance to grow and develop. Be real about it. If you don’t deeply feel a love for Him, be honest, He knows it anyway. Ask for it. Truth is the starting place to true growth.

Consider how much He loves you and how He wants to make His home in you John 14:23 Draw near to Him in truth. Get to know Him as He is and love will follow until He becomes your first love. Then carry this same awareness to others’ in your life and love them with all sincerity, with a unity of words, actions and heart. But focus on God first. When there is a solid relationship with Him, the rest of your relationships bloom as they should. He comes first.

1 Peter 1:22 Since you have purified your souls in obeying the truth through the Spirit in sincere love of the brethren, love one another fervently with a pure heart,

Luke 10:27 So he answered and said, “‘You shall love the LORD your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind,’ and ‘your neighbor as yourself.'”

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God’s Enduring Faithfulness

God’s Enduring Faithfulness

Promise through the Storm

Another characteristic of God I’ve been focusing on the past couple of weeks is faithfulness.

The promises in the Bible are mind blowing. Yet, for many those promises can seem distant. One reason is because we are too focused on our faithfulness, or better yet faithlessness, instead of God’s faithfulness. As I focused on this characteristic of God, it refreshed my soul more than I would have thought. I realized I really don’t focus on it enough.

God is faithful. He does what He says. He is true to His word. He is reliable and dependable. He will finish what He started. We can count on Him. God gave us His promises and He (not us) is the One to manifest them in our lives in the perfect way and perfect timing for each one of us. He will fulfill His words to us, because He is faithful and can’t deny Himself.  2 Timothy 2:13

Seeking, Knowing, Trusting

God is faithful. So, what does He ask of us? The Word is replete with calls for us to seek, know and trust Him and His responses if we do.

Psalm 9:10 And they that know thy name will put their trust in thee: for thou, Lord, hast not forsaken them that seek thee.

These three acts are all connected; one leading to the next. Seeking leads to knowing which produces trust.  Seeking is about learning who God is and moving into a real relationship with Him based on His truth. It’s deepening our personal knowledge or “knowing” of God. It isn’t learning about Him through a third party, but one-on-one, intimate, personal. It’s walking through life’s experiences with Him, and deeply learning He is faithful, we can trust Him.

I’ve found that always going through a third party or middle man (pastor, writer, leader, teacher) dramatically slows down and inhibits the intimacy building process with God. We gain some understanding, true, but it’s drops in the bucket compared to going to Him one-on-one just us, Him and His Word. Jesus removed the middle man by becoming the middle man. We have to be very careful of depending or relying on a third part and their works (leading, teaching, words) because it feels comfortable. There is a place for others; it’s secondary to our relationship with God. Think of a marriage. We are God’s bride. In a marriage, do you always have someone there telling you who your spouse is? What kind of intimacy or lack of would that produce? Or do you go and experience and learn about your spouse yourself?

In an intimate relationship, deep knowledge grows and trust is the fruit. Without this type of a relationship it’s difficult to truly trust because we don’t really know God.  We trust what we know. If you find your trust is lacking, focus on cultivating a real relationship with God for that is where true trust blossoms.

Trust in God’s Mercy

One of the key aspects of God’s instruction is that He asks us to trust in is His mercy. It’s one of the most important qualities we trust in. Especially because we often don’t trust Him in other areas like we should!  The truth and mercy go hand in hand. Psalm 61:7 There is truth about who God is to us, who we are to Him, what He desires of us, and most of us struggle with completely trusting in these areas and others as we are inundated with lies and fears. Learning to let go and trust God is a lifetime journey. So above all we need to trust in His mercy, not that we live or trust perfectly. Confusing? Hope not.

Psalm 6:4 Return, O Lord, deliver my soul: oh save me for thy mercies’ sake.

God is faithful. Faithful to have His grace and mercy abound toward us always, thus to fulfill His promises toward us.  Especially in the midst of a trial, where our trust is being tested and being strengthened (real trust grows from our experiences not our pontificating), it’s important to keep our focus on what is right and true, like God’s faithfulness. During trials more than any other time our internal lies attack and weaken our trust in God and what He has taught us. We aren’t to give these lies a minute of our attention. When we focus our minds on who God is and not the lies, our current frustration, or the future outcome of what we think our circumstances will manifest, then we’re able to stand firm through the difficulties.

God’s faithfulness abounds toward us. Deeply knowing this truth brings peace among the storms in life, (as the rainbow breaks through the storm clouds). It isn’t a wishful thinking, but a very real reality. God wants to show Himself to us in powerful and real ways. In the midst of trials when we have reached our end is where His work becomes most apparent because we know what is done is not of us or anything else.

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The Book

The Book

For several years I worked on a book, Stirring the Deep. As I enquired, what now Lord? God told me, “Rachel, people don’t need another book. They need THE book, the Bible. Lead them to read my Words, the words of life.” Now that may seem disheartening, but it actually wasn’t but exciting.

We’ve all been encouraged and inspired by the words of others. It’s a sweet fellowship to connect to another through their words. But now more than ever, God desires us to come to Him in a very intimate way, not through middle men and women (leaders, pastors, writers, etc). God is calling us to abide in a rich deep union with Him, one-on-one. He is revealing Himself to those who are seeking Him with all their heart, soul and mind in powerful and personal ways. It’s an extraordinary time. It’s time to remove all that hinders and dive in deep into Him.

Books, like teachers and pastors, can often impede the development of our intimacy with God when we lean on them when we should be dependent on God. Books can be encouraging and enlightening. God uses others in our lives in many ways. However, we can easily depend on them when we should be depending on God. That is what happened to me.

Years ago, the majority of books on my bookshelves were self-improvement, Christian and non-Christian. I wanted deliverance, healing and to be the woman I envisioned. I figured the knowledge in those books would take me as they seemed to promise. Reading them was exhilarating, uplifting, and motivating, but it was more of an emotional high then anything substantial happening in me. After I had been reading the Bible for a couple of years, the spirit prompted me to get rid of all those books. For the next couple of years, they were expunged from my life. I didn’t read one. At the time, I didn’t fully know the reasons why or the impact it would have, but I knew it had to do something with learning to abide and trust in God’s Word first and foremost, which it absolutely did and more.

During that time of solitary focus, I developed a solid foundation with God and on His Word. It became my source of truth. It opened me up to a powerful communion between me and God. It imploded truth into my life. As the years passed of abiding in His Word getting to know God, the deliverance I sought (often in those books) started to come. I wasn’t abiding in God’s Word to be healed, but that is exactly what happened. I wanted to get to know, draw close to Him. But the healing came and it wasn’t just the healing, but abiding in His Word started to affect EVERYTHING in my life. That difference fueled my passion in writing a book about it. I wanted to share what I discovered with others.

Removing those books from my life revealed my dependency on them. I realized how much I was seeking deliverance from those human writers. I believed reading their words was a sufficient replacement for reading the Word. I thought truth was truth. But reading God’s Word isn’t just about gathering knowledge it’s about cultivating a relationship, a relationship with God. In that relationship your life truly changes; not because of your efforts but because of His presence and promises at work in your life. Nothing can replace that dynamic.

At first it was hard (though I knew those books weren’t “working”), because those books were easier to read and more straight forward. And I was so use to thinking that is what you do. But they are the words of man. Though they may have been expressing God’s truth, they weren’t God’s words. They lacked the power of what dwelling in His pure Word trusting His Spirit to teach you imparts.

A couple years later, I picked up my first Christian book. I couldn’t believe the contrast! It had good content that back in the day I would have been reveling in. The writer spoke truths of God that He had taught me early that year. It was incredible. But what stood out to me is how the author’s words paled in comparison to what I received from the Word – which was powerful beyond my expectations. To fully understand the difference, you have to experience it. The gap between abiding in God’s Word verses someone else’s is enormous. Why would we settle for human words when we have His?

It’s easy to become dependent on others, whether authors, preachers, teachers, and/or leaders, when we should be on God. But this dependency makes them into an idol. And often we don’t realize our dependency until they are removed from our lives. If we don’t have a dependency, then we can live without them and God is more than enough.

Putting away those books was one of the best actions I took for my relationship with God. Previously, it was like I in a marriage with my husband and everyone else and often spending much more time with everyone else. When it is just you and God, the intimacy gained is astounding. This is why abiding in the Word of God alone during your quiet time is so critical. Give sole attention to God, and read those other books at another time. Give Him all of your attention, the attention He deserves. You may feel you get more from the other books so that you need them, but that is because you truly haven’t experienced a deep intimacy with God that is far greater. Allow time for that intimacy to develop. It isn’t instant. Though it may be tough at first because you are use to those other voices, if you can stick with it – it will reap tremendous benefits. Then when you do read another’s book, it’s a sweet fellowship, not dependency.

I’ve been reading, So You Don’t Want to Go to Church Anymore by Wayne Jacobsen and Dave Coleman. It’s a good book. It resonates with much of what God has taught me over the past couple of years. I enjoy the way the writers state aspects of God’s truth. But reading the truths these two men have learned doesn’t replace me learning those truths from God. When we learn from Him, He changes us and it becomes our truth. We don’t want to exchange the intimacy we could be gaining with God by being reliant on others’ experiences of God – it’s a grave loss.

As for my book, it was a tremendous time of healing, renewal, learning and growing. God used my writing to focus my mind on the truths He was teaching me in His Word. It laid the foundation for what I do today and probably will do in the future. It laid the foundation for passion I have in helping others cultivate a real relationship with God. I wouldn’t change those years spent writing for anything.

My passion isn’t for people to read my book, but to read God’s book for it’s a fountain of life. And not to read it like a text book, but to dive into its pages as you would spend time with a loved one to cultivate a deep relationship. I’ve learned the difference between man’s words verses God’s Word – I want you to have the very best and to abide in His for there is where the power lies.

We only obtain a relationship with God if we start talking and listening to Him ourselves; not from reading about another’s journey with God but living our own.

Psalm 138:2 I will worship toward thy holy temple, and praise thy name for thy lovingkindness and for thy truth: for thou hast magnified thy word above all thy name.

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Unity of LOVE – Why Jesus?

Unity of LOVE – Why Jesus?

There are many who don’t believe in Jesus but believe in a universal force, a “god”, that is love and that love is fundamental in our lives and we should be connecting with it. But as you will see if you believe in love, there is a need for Jesus Christ. For you can’t abide in true love without Him.

Our Creator is a God of love and desires to be in a bond of love with us – that is why we were created. It’s our eternal purpose that will never change. With each one of us, as we are united to Him His love expands. Love entails unity and oneness. It also requires truth and honesty because love doesn’t exist without these; otherwise the relationship is a product of the imagination.

What is Needed for a Unity of Love

Our Creator designed relationships to teach us how to relate to Him. In any relationship, there are certain characteristics that are required for there to be unity and oneness. When those characteristics are present the relationship flourishes, and all parties benefit. Fundamentally, there needs to be truth, trust, and love, and each one needs to be and live as they were created. In a relationship with God, we are to be united to Him in truth and REAL love (not our warped interpretations that are really contrary to love). Further, we have to let God be God in our relationship and all that entails. If we don’t honor or try to do His role the relationship breaks down. It’s like a man trying to be the woman in a relationship it doesn’t work. He was created a man and that is all he can be.

What is Broken

When God isn’t OUR God and we aren’t abiding in truth and love, then we are severed from Him. A lack these characteristics is a sign of a broken relationship. All of us have acted exceedingly contrary on these points; therefore all of us have been severed from God. As in a relationship between a man and woman, we have been unfaithful or “cheated” on God because we’ve not been faithful in these areas. Therefore, everyone needs reconciling.

The Way Back to Love

The only way to be reconciled is if the one “cheated” on offers forgiveness, meaning they humble themselves and lay down their hurt, pain and a part of themselves (the respect, loyalty, honor, and love they deserved) for the cheater. If that happens then reconciliation is initiated.

God initiates this act of reconciliation for us. He humbles Himself and lays down His life (perfect love as He is perfect) and forgives us so that we may be reconciled to Him. To abide in unity thus love there has to be forgiveness.

God shows us the act of reconciliation that is occurring on a spiritual level in the physical life of Jesus Christ. God came to earth taking on the human form, far different from His own, to show us that He laid down His life and forgave us of all our rebellion that we might be reconciled to Him. It is difficult for us to fully understand what this act meant – for a perfect being to lay down a life for a being far less perfect, broken, and undeserving – because when we forgive others we are very similar to them in our wretchedness. But with God it was perfection laying down His life for corruption – a MUCH bigger cost and a MUCH greater love. And with a perfect holy God forgiveness can’t be based on works (how good we act) because no one could live up to the perfection required. It has to be all Him, all grace, to achieve complete unity. The way of Jesus Christ was the only way without works and is the only way to complete unity.

Imagine, it you were the god of the ants, who you loved very much and their purpose was to abide in love with you. Imagine they went their own way doing their own thing and weren’t abiding in the bond of love, but were doing the opposite in destroying themselves and each other with their rebellion. You could kill them and start over. Or, in the ultimate act of love you could humble yourself and go to them as one of them. You could tell them and show them what you did because you love them. You could even go a bit farther by giving them part of your divine spirit to dwell within them to lead and guide them in the ways of truth and love. Now in that new awareness and oneness they would understand how they went their own way and rebelled against you, and reenter into a bond of love with you. In a similar way, this is what God did for us. Jesus Christ, God taking on human form, came to lay down His life, so that we could be reconciled back to Him in truth and love.

What is Our Part

Now, ONLY if the cheater recognizes what is happening 1. he cheated or rebelled 2. he needs forgiveness 3. he accepts that act of forgiveness of the one cheated and 4. he begins to act in a way that fosters unity can the reconciliation take place. Otherwise the separation remains. When we accept Jesus Christ, we are acknowledging that we have rebelled, reconciliation is needed, God is giving us forgiveness, we accept it, and we seek to be rightly related to Him in every way. Otherwise, we don’t understand our rebellion or that only God could reconcile us. We can’t do the reconciling because He has to lay down his life in the act of forgiveness.

If we don’t understand and accept these points there is no reconciliation. Just as if you are in a relationship and someone cheats on you and they don’t understand what they did and you don’t truly forgive – then there is no true unity and love is blocked. Further, when we reunite ourselves back to another we fully understand our error, and with all our hearts desire to be in a relationship upholding the characteristics that foster unity. And with God that means we abide in truth and love, and He is OUR God. We can’t truly have this understanding of what He did and what it meant and God not be LORD of our life. If He isn’t LORD or moving into that place in our lives, it’s similar to your spouse forgaving you for cheating, but you continue to cheat. You aren’t really reconciled.

It’s the ultimate act of love to lay down your life for someone – especially for someone who didn’t earn or deserve it. God laid it down for us though we didn’t deserve it because of His love. His act of reconciliation was so extensive and complete that every thought and act of rebellion is completely forgiven – so He keeps no record of wrongs. In other words, we are pure in His eyes. Do you know of any other relationship where someone is wiling to do that? I don’t. Because God’s love is so much greater than any other we know.

When we are reconciled back to God then we can truly experience all of Him and be united to Him in every way. Then, we can know REAL love. When you realize what God has done for us – His love overwhelms you. In this act, we didn’t do anything – He did it all. We only acknowledge what He did for us to be reconnected to Him in the relationship of true love and faithfulness – a relationship we were always meant to be in. That act is real love expressed to the fullest. And if we are truly reconciled, our lives will show it, and it has nothing to do with “religion” but a relationship.

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Temporary Reign of Our Self Will

Temporary Reign of Our Self Will

 

I was thinking how this world is saturated with “evil”; philosophies, ideas and beliefs full of deception that cause all kinds of pain, destruction, horrific acts, and death to our spirits. The extent of evil became overwhelming, but then I realized, most of the world is going to be evil because for the time being God has put Satan, the personification of our self-will, in charge of this world. 1 John 5:19, Ephesians 2:2 I think for two main reasons; to show us that following self doesn’t work and the power of God’s love to redeem us out of this world into His Kingdom.

Satan, our self-will, doesn’t submit to God therefore he can’t bring about anything that is truly good, pure and of love because only God’s ways produce these things. As prince of this earth, our self-will governs all the major powerhouses; politics, education, business, media, and religion. (Here I am defining religion as the man-made system and doctrine supposedly established on truth which creates a belief structure dictating certain behaviors.) Most of us don’t think about our religion, our safe haven, as overrun by evil, but if you open your eyes you will see it is one of the worst as the Bible states repeatedly.

For example, in the man-made system that blankets true Christianity lies bondage, legalism, focus on self, and customs that separate us from God – the formula of religion, which reads: if you were a good Christian you would be in church, tithe, baptized with the right amount of water, walk the aisle, honor this day, don’t drink that, and so on. Evil, anything contrary to true goodness, disguised as good is the worst form of evil – because people are easily led astray. Any belief system that goes against God’s truth is evil.

Evil in religion is most damaging because people put their trust in it. It forms the foundation of people’s beliefs and views about them, others and God. When it is full of lies and deception it is incredibly destructive leading to spiritual decay and death.

We are here in these bodies to learn that following self or man’s will, in religion and everywhere else, doesn’t work. For creatures with a free will, we have to learn whose will to follow. We are all seeing the ramifications of the reign of self in our lives and the lives of others and it isn’t a pretty picture. God created us to be united to Him, dependent on Him and for Him to be in charge not us. Any other way destroys life, physically and spiritually.

So what do we do to avoid being consumed by the evil around us particularly in religion?

1. Cultivate a relationship with God not with religion. Many of us have spent more time nurturing a relationship with the church and ministries than with God. This flip flop leads to one thing, spiritual death. God called us out of religion and into a relationship, because religion, man’s list of should do’s and have to’s, is easily corrupted.

2. Develop a relationship with God so we can submit to His will. We can’t submit to someone we aren’t personally acquainted with. Without intimacy, there is no true knowledge or trust and therefore no submission.

3. Abide in the truth, the Word of God. Self-will, the cornerstone of evil, is built on a foundation of lies because it promises things it can never deliver because only God can; truth, freedom, peace, rest, joy and love. Therefore the only way to come out of it is by countering it with the truth. The truth sets us free. Without reading and meditating on the Words of God on a daily basis, we won’t know the truth to be able to discern what is true and what isn’t. When we do abide, we gain discernment in all areas including religion.

God’s people are the ones He called out to show those lost in deception that His ways lead to true life, joy and love – everything we desire. However, without the Word as the cornerstone of our lives, our self-wills will reign and our spirits will be overtaken by the world and we won’t stand out. Without the Word there isn’t truth and without truth we remain in bondage to our self-will. We will continue to live in fears, afflictions, lies, depravity and lack of love manifesting our own evil.

The result of Satan’s governance in religion is churches have put our life source, the Word of God, at the bottom of the priority list. It has been tossed aside, interpreted instead of read, and is no longer the priority. Why? Because it has power, life, and transforms lives – the one thing Satan doesn’t want. Most churches are bypassing the requirement for our lives that Christ is our Lord. People have tunnel vision about what the Word says about Christ’s Lordship. Because they are listening to their leaders and not in the Word themselves, they believe the gospel is about a ticket to heaven and that is a lie that causes death to our spirits. Going to heaven is a result of His Lordship in our lives. We need to examine what it means for Him to be Lord. When He is Lord of our lives, then the Word is at the center of our days because He is the Word, and we stand outside of evil as a beacon of light, truth, hope and love.