His Nature: Relationship

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“Draw near to God, and He will draw near to you.” -James 4:8a

In order to properly explain why this is an aspect of God’s character, first I need to briefly highlight a couple of other attributes. Those attributes are His eternal nature and that He is triune, which means He is a Trinity. Lets first look at the eternal nature. God has always been. He has no beginning or end. There is nothing that came before Him and nothing that will come after. Anything else that has ever existed came after Him and came into being because of Him. God has always existed. This means that the characteristics of God have always existed. The Power, The Love, The Wisdom… are all eternal.

That brings us to the Trinity. It’s common knowledge amongst the Church that God is a trinity. It’s also common knowledge that most of us struggle with explaining what that means. My understanding of the trinity is there is one God who is made up of three persons. The three persons: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit are individual while all making up one God. By individual I mean that there are things about each that distinguish them from one another. But they are all God and are all the same God. God is the type of Being. Just as we are a human being, God is a… well, a God Being I guess. If you disagree with my take on it, that’s cool. You’re entitled to your own opinion and I’m not claiming to be an expert.

So, that brings us to the relational aspect of God. If God is three Persons in One and each is able to interact with each other, and are not merely different forms of one Person as some think of the trinity, than that means the Three have relationship with one another. And if They have always existed and if They have always been as They are now (see my previous article about His unchanging nature) then the concept of relationship has always existed. Relationships were not created when God made Adam. In fact, relationships weren’t created at all. They always have been because The Father, Son and Holy Ghost have always been communicating, trusting, creating, and loving with one another.

So what does that say about loneliness? In short: it’s a lie. Even if God had never made Eve, Adam would still have had God with him. This is true today for each and every one of us. God is with us always. And we always have access to Him thanks to the sacrifice that Jesus made for us. As it says in 2 Corinthians 5:18 “All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to Himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation;“. So anytime we find ourselves feeling lonely we need to stop and recognize that something is amiss. Sure, our circumstances may be that we don’t have good relationships with others or that we don’t have any friends. But you always have God, and if you doubt the truth of that then you have bought a lie of the enemy.

I’d like to go back to Adam though. Every time God made something He said it was good. And this makes sense, because He is good and perfect. It stands to reason then that everything He makes is good and perfect. So why then does He make Adam only to say “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”(Genesis 2:18) This seems a bit odd. Did God mess up when He made man? No. He made him just right. So why did He not make Eve at the same time? Could it be that God wanted to get our attention so that He might express an extremely important truth to us? God is a relational being. God made man in His image. Therefore man is a relational being. Isolate yourself too long and bad things tend to happen. Succumb to loneliness and you will live a sad and depressing existence. Even in the prison system, prisoners are punished with solitary confinement. People have literally become mentally unstable as a result of not having healthy interactions with the rest of humanity. This isn’t just a statement about husbands and wives but about the human experience in general. Don’t neglect relationships, with God or with man. These are of the utmost importance. After all, is it not when we engage in relationship with others, showing them the true love of Christ that we truly make an impact on those whom we meet? Have you ever heard of someone encountering the love of God from a Christian who was too busy running away from them, shouting “Stay away” as they ran in the opposite direction? I sure haven’t.

One last point that I would like to make is the significance of personality. We mostly think of our own personality as that which makes us unique. It’s what makes you who you are. And that is true. But there is another aspect of personality that I believe most of us miss out on. That aspect is this: our unique personality, designed by God, is for the benefit of others. If God had made Adam and chose to be distant with him, not having a relationship with him and then He never made Eve either, what would be the point of Adam’s personality? Would the trees and animals really care if he were an intellectual? Or if he were humorous? Who would be affected by his individuality? No one. Your personality is a gift to humanity. Only you can be you, no one else can correctly mimic who you have been made to be. That is why the enemy attempts to create conformity through fear. “Follow the trends so you’ll fit in” the enemy says to the insecure. No. Be yourself. God made your identity and it is walking in relationship with God that keeps your identity secure. Abiding in Christ results in the development of your true personality. God made our personalities but He didn’t actually create personality itself. Personality flows from Him. He is the source of identity. The first Identity and Personality. Our identities and relationships are inseparable.

By being who we are truly meant to be as we walk with God we show the world the creativity of our God. Even when we look to the gospels and observe how God expressed Himself in the form of a man we see individuality. The Son came to earth in the form of a baby, grew up and walked as a man. What ever He said and did, He did because He saw Father doing it (John 5:19). And whatever He accomplished He did so through the power of the Holy Spirit. The Trinity walks in relationship together.

The walk of Enoch is a lifestyle of living in relationship with God. A life of constant communication with the Divine. It’s a continuous process of experiencing the identity of God and discovering your identity in Him. God is relational and desires relationship with you. He is always with you. So be with Him. Now and always.

His Nature: Unchanging

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God never changes. He is who He is. Always. This is a key truth that every Christian who seeks to walk with God must accept. No matter what other characteristic of His nature you’re looking at, this is the one that says “You can trust God to stay that way”. I want to start off 2018 by exploring the nature of God. And what better place to begin then with this trait?

We learn that God is love but if we believe that God can change, then in our minds God may stop loving us because of our sin. Or perhaps because He’s just in a bad mood. But His unchanging nature, also called immutability, guarantee’s us that He still loves us. As it says in Romans 8:35-39 “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution or famine or nakedness, or danger or sword? As it written, ‘For Your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

These verses show not only that God loves us and nothing can change that. It also shows us some of the circumstances that we may go through such as trials and tribulations, suggesting that the presence of such things is not evidence that God has stopped loving us or that we are being punished. But instead it shows us that He loves us even in those times as well. This is important, for many of us struggle with our faith in Him when everything is going wrong. We think “If God loves us then why do we suffer? Can’t He stop this from happening?” But the reality is that He still loves us but our understanding of it is too shallow. (I could go more in to this subject right now but I want to save that for a later article on love.)

Let’s look at another aspect of His character: His faithfulness. This says that God keeps His word, fulfills the promises He makes, will not let you down and is completely dependable. His faithfulness and His unchanging nature go together perfectly, If God were not unchanging than He could make a promise to man and then change His mind and not follow through with it. With man this is common. I’m sure most of us can recall either not following through with a promise we made or when someone else didn’t come through for us. And living with this great disappointment makes it hard to accept the idea that there is a Being who cannot fail to fulfill His promises. But Numbers 23:19 says “God is not a man, that He should lie, nor a son of man, that He should change His mind. Does He not speak and then act? Does He promise and not fulfill?” If God’s going to do a thing, no one can stop Him. So He will always be faithful and this too will never change. If you ever feel like God has failed you, He hasn’t. Your perspective is flawed and you need to approach Him with this and ask Him to show you the truth of the matter. Most likely the only thing God failed to do is to meet your expectations that you formed on your own.

Just remember the words of Isaiah 14:27 “For the LORD Almighty has purposed, and who can thwart Him? His hand is stretched out, and who can turn it back?”

This immutability affects every other aspect of His character as well. His sovereignty, power, goodness and so on. It serves to enable us to have faith in God. His immutability serves as a foundation that our understanding of His character can rest upon. God is love and that can’t change, so trust in His love. God is good and that can’t change, so trust in His goodness. God is all-powerful and that can’t change, so trust in His power. God is faithful and that can’t change, so trust in His faithfulness. God can’t change. So stop worrying and trust Him.

Spotting God’s Nature

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“Ears that hear and eyes that see – the Lord has made them both.” Psalm 20:12

Many times I ask fellow Christians about their thoughts on the nature of God and most often they either respond by saying their not sure what I mean or they completely misunderstand me. The scriptures are pretty clear about the unchanging truths and characteristics of God and if we are to walk with God like Enoch did than we must learn how to have faith in God for who He says He is and not just faith that He exists. Yet somehow many of us miss the significance of these truths about our God and instead worship a false version of Him. For example throughout the bible we read that God is merciful. But then many of us believe that God is upset with us every time we screw up, even after we ask Him to forgive us. If we believe He is going to stay mad and punish us than we clearly don’t believe that He is very merciful. None the less, we can spot His nature through both the scriptures as well as our encounters with Him in our relationship. That is, if we are actually looking.

Recently I was reading through the book of Daniel and noticed something interesting about the story of Nebuchadnezzar. Nebuchadnezzar was the king of Babylon and he worshipped many god’s. He had surrounded himself with many enchanters and magicians and yet when he has a troubling dream he behaves in a very unusual way. Instead of telling the magicians the dream he demands them to tell him his own dream and interpret it! A closer examination of the scriptures reveals that Nebuchadnezzar wants the truth and these enchanters and magicians have been deceiving him (Dan 2:8-9). He even goes as far as threatening to have them dismembered if they can’t interpret it. I’m assuming many Christians know this story so I’m not going to go through every detail. If you haven’t read it then I recommend you go ahead and do that now.

Today there are many people who claim to be able to interpret dreams. There is no end to the books and websites of various psychics and spiritualist claiming to know what your dream symbols mean. But when it comes to having a dream from God, He can and often will speak to us in a way that is either very specific to us or in a way that no one can understand without Him giving us the interpretation. Hence why we have the gift of dream interpretation. It seems that Nebuchadnezzar had been dealing with a similar situation with his magicians, enchanters, and sorcerers.

The First Encounter

So Nebuchadnezzar was tired of the deception and wanted the truth about this dream. Daniel receives both the dream and interpretation from the Lord and gives them to the king. But what I found interesting was how the king responded. He says “Truly, your God is God of god’s and Lord of kings, and a revealer of mysteries, for you have been able to reveal this mystery.” (Dan 2:47)

The king in this moment recognized not only that the God of Israel was real but also spoke out a specific characteristic of His. He is a “Revealer of mysteries”. If Nebuchadnezzar had never gotten tired of his so called wisemen then Daniel may have never had this opportunity. He wanted the truth, and he got more than he probably expected. The king learned something about this God of the Jews and praised him as God of god’s and Lord of kings.

The Second Encounter

After this encounter however the king continued in his idolatry. He knew God was real, yet still didn’t worship Him alone. Daniel 3:1 tells us that the king then set up a golden image and required everyone involved in his kingdoms administration to bow before it. The scripture doesn’t tell us what exactly this image was of but the dream he had from God had depicted him as the golden part of the statue and the next thing he does is erect a golden statue. Perhaps the image was of himself, or at least what he had seen in his dream.

He commands all of his officials to bow to the statue or they will immediately be thrown into the fiery furnace. He then says “and who is the god that will deliver you out of my hands?”(Dan 3:15). Nebuchadnezzar thought too highly of his own power. After having Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego thrown into the fire for not worshipping the golden image the king saw what looked like a “son of the gods” in the fire with the three men. His second encounter comes when God shows up and delivers Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego from the fiery furnace.  Nebuchadnezzar responds “Blessed be the God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who has sent His angel and delivered His servants, who trusted in Him, and set aside the kings command, and yielded up their bodies rather than serve and worship any god except their own.” The king went from thinking no one could deliver from his hand to recognizing God as the Deliverer. Whether the statue was of himself or not, this encounter showed Nebuchadnezzar who the God was that could deliver from his hand.

The Third Encounter

Nebuchadnezzar’s third encounter is when he speaks haughtily of himself and is driven from the kingdom and lives with the beast. When his reason is finally restored to him, he lifts up his eyes to heaven and blesses God. His words are “I blessed the Most High, and praised and honored Him who lives forever, for His dominion is an everlasting dominion, and His kingdom endures from generation to generation; all the inhabitants of the earth are accounted as nothing, and He does according to His will among the host of heaven and among the inhabitants of the earth; and none can stay His hand or say to Him “What have you done?”

And again he says “Now I praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, for all His works are right and His ways are just, and those who walk in pride He is able to humble.” This is a beautiful expression of praise for who God is. And this came in response to the king being driven mad and sent out into the field with the animals! I hate to have to say it but Nebuchadnezzar responded to this discipline a lot better than many Christians do today. Many of us want to get upset with God when something bad happens. Nebuchadnezzar praised God and recognized Him for who He was. In these final words he expresses God as eternal, Sovereign over all of heaven and earth, that He obeys no one but His own will and that He is all powerful with no one to stay His hand. Then he points out that His works are right and His ways are just and He humbles the proud.

My prayer for all of us is that God will open our eyes to see, our ears to hear, and our minds to recognize who He is. Through miraculous encounters and discipline alike we learn more about Him and proclaim praise of Him in response. And that like Nebuchadnezzar we grow in our appreciation of our God and His beautiful nature. Walking away from each encounter learning something new about God’s character.

The Mysteries of God

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“Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty? It is higher than heaven – what can you do? Deeper than Sheol – what can you know? Its measure is longer than the earth and broader than the sea.” Job 11:7-9

I have always been a lover of mysteries, whether it is in books, movies, or the unsolved events of history. On my bookshelf I have a large volume of the entire Sherlock Holmes stories from Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, which was probably one of the most enjoyable reads I’ve had in a long time. The Aha moments that you get when you’ve figured out the mystery are awesome and exciting but that is just a singular moment that is fleeting. Once you have it, the mystery is done. You cannot relive the experience of finding out the mystery because you have been enlightened to the truth of the situation; you know what is going on.  But for me what really makes me love a mystery is not the Aha moment, but the pursuit of it. The finding, studying and contemplation of the facts, hints, and clues that gradually lead one to a greater understanding of what is going on. The diligent search for answers. To me the longer it takes me to figure out what is happening or who the murderer is, the better the story. When I know what to anticipate I become bored.

“It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.” Proverbs 25:2

One of the attributes of God’s nature is that He is incomprehensible. This means that we cannot fully understand God. No matter how hard one studies the scriptures, no matter how deep one goes in their relationship with Him, even if one were to go to heaven and spend the rest of eternity directly in the Presence of God; they would never reach a full understanding of who God is. Some may mistakenly believe that once they arrive in heaven they will know everything but this is not true, at least not for knowing God. Even then He will still be too great for us to comprehend; due to Him being a greater being than we are. God is God and we will always be the created, not the Creator. We are beings with a finite mind trying to understand an infinite God. He is infinite in power, knowledge, love, and wisdom. And although we can never reach that full understanding of Him, God still desires for us to pursue that knowledge.

“This is how one should regard us, as servants of Christ and stewards of the mysteries of God.” 1 Corinthians 4:1

Some seek to understand God to explain or defend His words and deeds. I have noticed these people tend to struggle with knowing who God is because God will not explain Himself to them, for God is not subject to man that He should have to explain Himself or require one of us to explain Him. I thank God for giving me this love for mystery. This is because in Him I have a mystery so great and deep that I can constantly, for the rest of my life and into eternity, pursue the knowledge of God and actually acquire understanding and those Aha moments without ever fully reaching the end of the mystery. While some frustrate themselves trying to figure God out so they can put Him in a box, I can relax and pursue Him for the pure enjoyment of the pursuit and for the love of whom He is. And I have found that He willingly teaches me about who He is when I have pure intentions in my pursuit. And when I find something that I don’t understand about Him, I don’t worry. I just ask the Lord to tell me about Himself and while I wait for Him I practice my faith by trusting Him for who I already know Him to be. Which is always loving, unchanging, showering us with mercy and grace, slow to anger, and full of compassion, joy and creative power.

“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those that by nature are not gods.” Galatians 4:8

And unlike the mysteries of Sherlock Holmes, when I receive the Aha moments the mystery isn’t completely solved. On the contrary, every Aha moment enhances the enjoyment of pursuing Him. No matter how much I learn He is always able to keep me guessing, throwing in all kinds of unexpected plot twists and surprising me with His grace.

And with each revelation concerning His nature, I receive understanding as well as freedom from deception and bondage. Like many others I use to struggle with seeing God as unmoving and unemotional, ready to judge me for my sins. Until I stumbled upon the truth that God is joyous and my view of Him changed radically but it also changed me. Since then I have felt more confident in the truth that I am forgiven and that He loves me, that I am beautifully and wonderfully made and can relax and not take myself so seriously. Knowing that He is joyful has opened up the door for me to be more joyful.

Ultimately I believe that if we are to succeed at walking with God as Enoch did that we must learn to enjoy the walk itself. Instead of wanting to rush ahead to the end of the road, maybe we should just focus our attention on Christ as we walk with Him. We’ll reach the end eventually, so let us get to know Him the best we can along the way. Let’s learn to love the mysteries of God.

“Thus says the LORD: “Let not the wise man boast in his wisdom, let not the mighty man boast in his might, let not the rich man boast in his riches, but let him who boasts boast in this, that he understands and knows Me, that I am the LORD who practices steadfast love, justice, and  righteousness in the earth. For in these things I delight, declares the LORD.” Jeremiah 9:23-24

Unforgiveness: The Deal Breaker

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“For if you forgive men when they sin against you, your heavenly Father will also forgive you. But if you do not forgive men their sins, your Father will not forgive your sins.” Matthew 6:14-15

Forgiveness is probably one of the hardest things to do as a Christian. Yet it is not only a command from God but is required for us to receive forgiveness for ourselves. Its tough to do because we are wronged and yet we can’t get revenge on the one who wronged us or retaliate in anyway. We can say how we feel about another’s actions or words but in the end we are required to let them off the hook. Why? Because Christ does the same for us on a daily basis. He died on the cross to pay for our sins and every time we sin and repent of it He forgives us. To try and receive forgiveness from Jesus only to deny it to somebody else is hypocrisy.

Recently I’ve had yet another incident in which someone wronged me. In fact they wronged me about four times in a week! I felt like Peter did when he asked Jesus “how many times shall I forgive my brother or sister who sins against me? Up to seven times?”(Matt. 18:21). I was angry, really angry but eventually I broke down and gave up my negative thoughts  and emotions and forgave them. It is quite freeing but that doesn’t make it that much easier. But what really gets me about forgiveness is that to refuse to give it causes you to lose it as well. And I’m not interested in allowing anything to come in between me and my God, especially unforgiveness.

The Cost of Unforgiveness

The cost of being unforgiving is loss in the area of relationship. When we withhold forgiveness from others our relationship with them suffers as a result. We behave bitterly towards them, don’t allow them to get close and continually expect them to wrong us again. What’s true in the natural is true in the spiritual. In our relationship with God if we are unforgiving towards others then we struggle to have a healthy relationship with Him. When one fails to grasp God’s love and forgiveness they see God as being only angry and just. When they sin they beat themselves up, living with a downcast soul and expect God to punish them. What we think of God effects how we think of others and ourselves. If we view God as full of wrath and judgement towards our sins then we typically respond the same towards sin in our lives or in the lives of others.

Christ suffered a great amount of pain for our forgiveness, we must not demean His great sacrifice by denying others forgiveness. The cost for our forgiveness was great, so also is the cost of withholding it. Being unforgiving often even prevents someone from receiving physical healing as well as deliverance from the demonic. It’s like a disease that cripples us in many areas of our life: the spiritual, emotional, and physical. Even our personalities are affected. He was wounded for our transgressions and by these stripes we are healed (Isaiah 53:5). The blood He shed cleanses us of our sins (1 John 1:7). Withholding forgiveness causes us to ignore the Cross.

Forgiveness is a part of dying to oneself, the crucifying of our own flesh. Want to gage how well you are at dying to yourself? See how difficult it is for you to forgive. Forgiveness is a basic component of the Christian faith, yet Christians are mostly weak in this area. Too often I hear statements from other Christians such as: “forgive but never forget”. And yet God’s example is that He doesn’t remember our sins. He blots them out, casting them as far as the east is from the west (Psalm 103:12). Obviously He’s not an amnesiac but this means He doesn’t hold it against us. We create a list of the wrongs someone has done to us and this list plagues our view of them, our expectations of them and fuels our negativity. Don’t hold on to your list of wrongs. Follow Christ’s example and allow them a clean slate.

Being Preemptive Helps

We need to learn to be assertive. Spare yourself some pain by making your boundaries known. Don’t be mean or rude, just let your voice be heard and let them know what you will and won’t tolerate. Many of our problems, many of my problems, are results of a failure to take control of our situations. Some people seek to control, manipulate and steal from us regardless of our response. But I’ve learned that many of the times that I have been hurt and taken advantage of are due to my failure to say no, to take charge over my own life when others attempt to do so. People are more inclined to do something damaging to you if they perceive that you are a timid pushover but they will think twice about doing it to one who has self-control and confidence in themselves. Many of our hurts could be avoided if we would just let our voices be heard. Forgiveness is difficult enough, make it easier for yourself: be assertive. You’re allowed to tell others that you don’t like the way they are treating you.

Final Thought: The Cross

If the events surrounding His suffering and crucifixion are what leads to our healing, forgiveness and access to intimacy with God then the carrying of our own cross should then enable us to forgive others and ourselves, usher in healing into others lives and our relationships and lead us into deeper communion both with others and God as well. So let’s consider what Christ did for us on the cross and truly appreciate what we have received from Him. Then let’s pick up our cross and follow Him, allowing forgiveness to flow from us even as we too are wounded.

Reaching the Enoch Threshold

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“And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?” John 11:26

Once while reading Genesis 5:24 I asked the Lord if it were possible for me to do what Enoch had done and be taken into heaven without dying.  He confirmed to me that it was possible and even showed me in a vision a man being taken up into heaven in a great burst of light. Many  Christians are hoping for the rapture to happen, but hardly any seem to consider that its possible to be taken up individually, as a result of our walk of faith pleasing God. But the question is: how did Enoch live such a life that God decided he could skip death?

The Dark Days of Enoch

Enoch had one advantage in his day that we do not have: long life span. The scriptures say that after having his first son Methuselah he walked with God for 300 years (Gen. 5:22). Sadly we don’t have 300 years to learn the walk well enough to reach the point of God taking us up into heaven. However, Enoch was also at a great disadvantage when it came to walking with God. Enoch lived before the law of Moses, the coming of Christ and the indwelling Presence of the Holy Spirit. In his day there wasn’t a Jewish religion or nation for him to belong to and receive instruction from the spiritual leaders. There weren’t any commandments recorded for him to follow or a group of fellow believers to help him along the way. And as for the rest of society in his day, they were extremely wicked. Scripture says all of man’s thoughts were constantly on evil (Genesis 6:5). Fallen angels were on the earth mating with women, giants are engaging in violence and all the earth was corrupted. The time that he lived in was so bad that God decided to destroy everything on the earth with the flood. Finding another righteous individual seemed very unlikely in his day. Yet he succeeds in walking with God.

There may be a lot of evil in our days but its nowhere near as bad as the days of Enoch. We also have the church, the bible and most importantly we have the Holy Spirit living inside of us; guiding and teaching us. The simple truth is that we are more equipped than ever to reach the level of devotion and relationship with God that Enoch had reached. And we don’t have to live three lifetimes to do it. So why hasn’t one of us succeeded at it yet? Why are the only examples we have of individuals being taken up to heaven two men who lived before the indwelling Presence?

Means to an End?

What I’ve learned in the last few years is that what enabled Enoch to reach this threshold was his love and total focus on God. Many Christians today struggle in their walk because it is not a result of their love of God, but their love of themselves. What many today are really after is self preservation. Their goal is to make it to heaven, not to be with the God that makes heaven worth going to but to escape pain and trouble. This is being selfish. But Gods desire is to put to death our selfishness, not preserve it.

Clearly the Lord desires for all of us to be singularly focused on drawing close to Him as possible. But we must learn that God is not a means to an end. God is the end! And as long as going to heaven to escape our problems is our focus and not being with God, than frankly I have to wonder if such a focus could actually lead one to heaven anyways, regardless of how your time on earth ends. I say this because when I think of how men and women interacted with the idols they worshipped in ancient times I cant help but notice that they did so under the impression that their worship would lead to a blessing. For example they would worship an idol believing it would give them a good harvest.

Therefore there worship was a means to an end. But God deserves worship regardless of whether He is giving us a blessing in response or not. That is what it means when we say “He is worthy” in our prayers and worship songs and when we read scriptures such as Revelations 4:11 and Psalm 145:3. He is worthy because of who He is, in His great and perfect nature. Using God to get what you want is a part of idolatry, not godliness.

To walk as Enoch did we must sacrifice our selfish nature and our desire for self preservation, and love God for who He is, not what He does for us. You cant love God just to get to heaven. God is the Alpha and the Omega, He is the end. Enoch was focused on God and learned to live as a child of light in the midst of the darkness, not allowing his circumstances to draw his mind and heart away from the Lord. He understood that loving God looked like giving attention, affection, and time to God continuously and he trusted God to take care of his needs without needing to worry about it.

Basically, walking with God is a lifestyle in which God is your focus and number one priority. The desire to reach the Enoch threshold is an exciting prospect but even the pursuit itself must continue to be about God and not just having the experience.

The Pursuit of the Presence

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“You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart.”  Jeremiah 29:13

Mistaken Identity

I remember when I was younger learning about the different people in the bible during Sunday school. Samson with his super-strength, the boy David taking down Goliath, Moses parting the Red Sea. I remember when I learned about Joshua how I paid a little extra attention because I knew that this was the man that I was named after. I grew up looking at Joshua as a great warrior and military commander, picturing him as being physically strong and quick thinking on the battle field. This is how I thought of the man and without fully understanding why, I thought of myself as being like him. I felt that my identity needed to be that of a man who was strong, brave and decisive. And yet, most of my young life was spent being anything but those things.

At fourteen I left the faith and became an atheist. By nineteen I was so afraid of conflict and making mistakes that I was practically mute, not wanting to talk to anyone or come out of my room. Fear dominated my life. After returning to Christianity I spent a few years attending church, reading everyday, praying as much as I could and trying my best to be a good Christian. Yet I kept succumbing to sin no matter how hard I resisted and was still very fearful and never did or said what I really wanted to. After about four years of getting nowhere with overcoming the same sins I eventually gave up on trying to not sin. I told God that I didn’t know what to do anymore, instead I needed Him to do something. And He did. I had an encounter with God that brought me out of a performance driven lifestyle and a focus on sin and ushered me into a real living relationship with God. A friend of mine had invited me to go to a place called Potters Place, which was a couple’s private property that they had turned into a place where anyone could come and spend time with the Lord away from all the busyness and noise of life.

Ill never forget that first visit or what the Lord spoke to me that day. At the time I was reading the book of Exodus and as I was reading chapters 32 and 33 I noticed something for the first time. As Moses was coming down the mountain he encountered Joshua. Remember that Moses was on the mountain for forty days and forty nights without food or water, which means that if Joshua was with him then he also didn’t eat or drink for that amount of time. So for forty days Joshua was somewhere on the mountain while Moses was at the top communing with God. And then when Moses set up the tent of meeting it says that Moses would go to the tent and Joshua would follow him but when Moses would finish he would return to the people yet Joshua remained at the tent(Ex. 33:7-11). And then I remembered the story of Joshua’s first day of leading the Israelites into battle (Exod. 17:8-13). The success or failure of Joshua and the Israelites was completely dependent upon Moses’s obedience to Gods command to keep his arms raised. And that’s when it hit me. Joshua wasn’t a great military leader or a warrior. In fact, when he lead Israel into the promised land he was at least 80 years old! His great success depended on something else.

Life in the Presence of God

I felt that the Lord was saying to me that Joshua was able to lead Israel, be victorious against thirty-one kings, defeating five at the same time, and tell the sun and moon to stand still and they did; not because he was such a great man but because he was a man after the Presence of God. Although the scriptures don’t tell us exactly what happened with Joshua while Moses was receiving the commandments, one can imagine that Joshua must of had an amazing time in the manifest Presence of God. Enough so that he didn’t want to leave the Tent of Meeting, the place where he could encounter God regularly! Joshua pursued life in the Presence of God above everything else. This resulted in a lifestyle where he was aware of the Presence even when he was busy.

I remember declaring to the Lord that that’s what I wanted to be: a man after the Presence of God. And in the past couple of years that’s exactly what I have been pursuing. Since then I have actually stopped focusing on my sins and performance and have overcome many of my fears. How? God did it. I dedicate as much free time as I can to just sit in the Presence of God and wait on Him to move or to speak. Sometimes I just praise Him and worship Him, other times I don’t move until He gives direction. Its not about reading more verse or saying more prayers.

The Omnipresence of God

God is omnipresent, which means that He is always present, He is always with us. A relationship is mutual which means that its success is not dependent just on how well you behave. It depends on two people showing up. And in this case God always shows up. Its up to us to search  for Him. “Glory in His holy name; let the hearts of those who seek the LORD rejoice! Seek the LORD and His strength; seek His Presence continually!” 1 Chronicles 16:12-11

His Presence is always with us, this is a truth about Gods nature. This never changes so we can trust Him to always be there. Loneliness is a lie of the enemy, its believing that no one is there with you which is impossible in light of the truth of Gods Presence.

The feats that Joshua performed is a great example of what a life lived in the Presence of God can look like, when a man or a woman lives with a constant awareness of God. What’s even greater still is that Joshua lived in the old testament period and did not have the indwelling of the Spirit. The same God who parted the Red Sea and came down in a pillar of fire and smoke now resides in you and me!

All it takes is for us to begin by taking a few minutes a day searching for Him. An even simpler discipline then reading scripture or praying is just focusing your attention towards Him. Let your mind stay upon Him, not upon your sins or worries. In His Presence is where we find freedom, hope and the truth of who we are as children of God. “For how shall it be known that I have found favor in Your sight, I and Your people? Is it not in Your going with us, so that we are distinct, I and Your people, from every other people on the face of the earth?” Exodus 33:16

The Key to Intimacy

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“It was now about the sixth hour, and there was darkness over the whole land until the ninth hour, while the sun’s light failed. And the curtain of the temple was torn in two.” Luke 23:44-45

The Veil

Upon breathing His last, Christ’ death initiated a rather tumultuous event. The light of the sun failed, leaving the land in darkness, the earth shook and rocks split in two. And within the temple the veil was torn in two, from top to bottom. The veil created a physical separation between the Holy of Holies, the area where only the high priest was allowed to enter and offer sacrifice once a year, and the rest of the temple. This veil is a physical representation of a spiritual separation between the perfect God and fallen man. And the tearing of it in two is the removal of that divide. Just as His death opened the Holy of Holies by tearing the veil, it also enabled us all to have entrance into the Presence of the Holy God.

But  it was not the resurrection of Christ from the dead that caused this but the death itself.  It was the sacrifice of His life on the cross as payment for our sins that led to such a great blessing in being able to draw near. His death earned us the gift of salvation, but the event of the tearing of the veil showed that He also intended for us to approach Him in relationship. Christ set for us an example in everything that He did on earth; in His life, His suffering, His death and resurrection. His death and the tearing of the veil, shows us that sacrifice is the key to intimacy. His death and subsequent tearing of the veil initiated the intimacy and allows us to respond similarly. Many Christians accept the salvation that His death bought us yet still fail to enter into real relationship with Jesus. If we want to draw close then it will require sacrifice. Jesus tells us this in Matthew 16:24-25 when He says “If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for my sake will find it.”

I believe that if there was one reason why we are so devoid of personal relationships with Christ it is because we wont sacrifice. Beginning with our failure to sacrifice a small amount of time to spend with Him. I remember a few years ago when I had enlisted in the army and was going through basic training. We were woke up extremely early in the mornings and would train all day. When we finally got to turn in for the night we were exhausted and had just enough time to shower and maybe write a letter to home. It was during this time that I decided to spend some time just to read a chapter of the bible and pray for about ten minutes before I went to bed. After showering and maybe writing a letter, prayer and reading had to take place often after the lights were already off. And if you have never been in the military than let me just say that sleep was a precious commodity. But I gave some of it up just to draw close to God and it paid off. Despite sleep deprivation, physical pain and emotional and mental strain I knew that God was always present despite the circumstances and the fact that I couldn’t “feel” His Presence. It built up my faith and helped me get through the whole ordeal.

This is when I learned that we all have plenty of time to spend with the Holy Spirit. If I could find time in boot camp for God then we can find time in civilian life. So what is our problem? The culture we live in says we must be busy and productive and when we have free time we find ourselves spending it on our own entertainment or relaxation. I believe that rest is extremely important, even a command of the Lord but the way we are “resting” is not good. We drink, party, go to friends, play video games, watch television or get on social media. We fill our lives with distractions and feel bad about failing to spend time with the Lord. We fail to recognize that in the Presence we find rest and sustenance. These other things only satisfy temporarily and leave us empty. They simply distract us from our work obsessed culture and when it is time to return to work we are still reluctant to go back and our rest is immediately disturbed. If we could just be bold enough to sacrifice one thing to open up some time for the Lord in our schedules we would find Him and find the rest He has for us. We would discover that it wasn’t just His sacrifice that lead to intimacy but our own as well. God enjoys partnering with us and after all a relationship takes two people to work, not just one.

He opened the door, but the choice to walk through it is up to us. Developing a relationship with God is actually not as difficult as we think. In addition to tearing the veil, His death also took our sins away. With the penalty paid and our old self dying on the cross with Him, we are able to enter into relationship right now! He took care of everything else. We just have to make the choice and as He tells us in Matthew 6:24 “No one can serve two masters , for either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other”. Ask the Holy Spirit to show you an area in your life where you could surrender it to Him and in its place interact with Jesus. Sacrifice a distraction, give up an idol that is holding you hostage to religion without relationship and experience the blessing of knowing God personally.

The Fork in the Road

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“God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13

We have a promise in this verse that God will not allow us to face temptation without providing a way of escape. Christ tells us that He is the Way, the Truth, and the Life (John 14:6). Christ is the Way. I know that this also refers to Christ as being the only way to heaven and salvation but right now I want to talk about being guided away from sin. Every time we are being tempted we often think of it as a decision between sinning and not sinning. This is because the enemy likes to appeal to our desires and that which is pleasurable to us; making it hard for us to resist. We think that its up to our ability to recognize the temptation and to resist it with our own strength. When we think this way we are pitting our strength against demons; and as much as I hate to admit it demons are very slick. They are tricky and will wear you out. They’ll get you to focus so much on one sin that you become blind to all the other areas that they are attacking you in.

The truth is that it is not a decision between sinning and not sinning. Its a decision between following a way that leads to sin or following a way that leads to Christ. Each time we are tempted by the enemy, God counters it by providing us with an opportunity to be blessed by Him. The alternative to sin is being in the Presence. Its showing our obedience to Jesus instead of following the enemy. Its as if the enemy recognizes when the Lord is wanting to draw us close and he comes in and plants his destructive alternative. So really instead of choosing between the sin and its pleasure and no pleasure, the choice is really between the pleasure of Gods blessing and the satisfying of the flesh.

Have you ever wondered why the enemy tries so often to tempt us? Obviously the enemy wants to cause us to fall away from God and go to hell along with him. But when we are saved and we don’t fall away, why does the enemy try so often? Could it be to rob us of as many blessings as possible? Or to try to make our faith and depth of relationship with Christ to be as shallow as possible? What if there was so much more that we could receive from the Lord but our failure to recognize the temptation and more importantly, the Way that is Christ, causes us to miss out. How sad it is that we miss so many chances to walk with God because the enemy masks the moments with his filth!

We move through life so fast that these moments pass us by. We don’t realize what happened until the sin has been done and we are asking ourselves “How did I get into this place?”. We’ve got to slow ourselves down and I’ve never found a better way to do that then to spend time alone with God. Not more time reading or saying more prayers, just abiding in His Presence. Resting in His Spirit and lifting up praise to Him, contemplating on His greatness and listening for Him to speak. I find that the more time I spend with Him the more life seems to slowdown, allowing me to recognize the fork in the road moments where I can clearly see the right Way to go.

The Nature of God

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“Formerly, when you did not know God, you were enslaved to those who by their nature are not gods.” Galatians 4:8

If we want to walk with God and avoid the constant tricks and lies of the enemy then it is imperative that we learn to understand the nature of God. So many Christians today are confused about who God is. Some believe that our God and gods of other faiths are one and the same because they fail to understand the difference. Calling something god, whether a spirit or the idols they hide behind, does not automatically make it equal to the one true God. Our God is unique, He is One and their is no other.

So what is Gods nature exactly? When I say nature what I mean are characteristics or attributes that are an innate part of something’s being. For example we have a human nature which means we have characteristics that are specific to a human being and we cannot be a dog or a bird, even though we often act like animals. They have their own nature and we have ours. So the nature of God, because He is the only true God, is unique to Him. These characteristics are things that are true about the way God acts or speaks and they are unchanging. They are automatically expressed when He moves. Scripture tells us that God is love which means that when God acts or speaks He does so out of love. He never reacts to us in hatred. God is good so He never makes or does anything that is bad. God is perfect and when He acts or speaks it is always perfect, making mistakes is something God never does. These are just a few examples of Gods character.

God made us in His image yet we have been corrupted because of sin. Some of Gods characteristics we can also express, while others we cannot. But when we do we only express them on a smaller scale and often imperfectly because we are changing while God is unchanging. And because we do not have certain attributes of His nature, namely His perfection and immutability(unchanging), we must make the choice to express love, mercy, etc. while God does so naturally.

Discernment

“Folly is joy to him that lacks sense, but a man of understanding walks straight.” Proverbs 15:21

Scripture tells us to discern between the spirits as well as to test everything, even the teachings from leaders that we trust (1 John 4:1). In order for us to do this we need to be able to recognize what is God and what is not. The devil does his best to mimic God yet because he does not have Gods nature he always speaks or acts in a way that is in line with his own nature. John 8:44 points out that the devil was a murderer from the beginning and the father of lies; his nature is opposed to God and he needs to disguise himself to trick us into believing him. We know that he wants our enslavement and destruction so even if he speaks something that seems to be true it will always be to lead us into sin and destruction.

He quoted scripture to Jesus in the wilderness yet Christ made it clear that he was wrong, not because he spoke the scriptures incorrectly but because he spoke them with the intention of leading Christ into sin. God hates sin and will never tempt us. When God speaks or acts we can recognize that it is Him by seeing if it is rooted in His character or the enemies. If something is said and we recognize that it is meant to inspire fear, doubt, selfishness or some other sinful behavior then we can assume that it is not of God. Sadly, many in the church, instead of engaging in discernment, would rather throw out everything that is said and claim that God doesn’t speak to us anymore because they fear getting it wrong. When we accept the belief that God no longer has anything to say to us anymore than the enemy has already scored a victory in our lives. I would also like to point out that the enemy used scripture against Jesus. Even our reading and understanding of scripture can be hijacked by the enemy. Just look at how many divisions we have in the church resulting from disagreements on interpreting scripture or someone developing heretical doctrines. Scripture points us to Christ and so even our reading of it must be done with Gods nature in mind.

Godliness

We also need to know His nature so that we know how to act. In the beginning God made man in His image. After the fall He sent His Son to show us the Way and to give us access to the Truth, while the Holy Spirit works within us to purify us. As Romans 8:28 points out we are to be conformed into the image of Christ. This is godliness, to be like God. Understanding Gods nature is necessary for us to recognize whether we are walking as Christ did or being misled. Many in the church suffer from self-righteousness and judgmentalism because they think themselves godly when they are in fact acting in a manner that is opposed to God. This is because they accept there own ideas of what is right as truth instead of what God has said is truth. Christ is the Truth, therefore He is the standard by which our ideas, words, and actions are to be measured. By knowing Gods character we can then have a better idea of how to act in our everyday life.

How can we walk with God if we cant recognize whether it is Him we are walking with? His nature should be the foundation of our entire understanding. There is no better role model for ourselves then Christ.