Today I want to touch on a delusion, before proceeding to something amazing. It’s a brief stop and it’s something I have alluded to in my past posts. I just want to address it again because I think it’s not as uncommon as I would hope it to be. It’s a relational error that leaves souls in disillusionment and despair. I wish I could say I never tromped through these woods, but I can’t.
So all the countless days of my seeking to be loved by God simply increased my frustration. It’s one thing to be a young believer and look for proof of His love, but it’s quite another to be a mature Christian and stay in that position! I was trying to lead in my relationship with God. Then I started looking from this perspective: I’ll seek to love Jesus and let Him deal with His side of the relationship.
Well quite frankly, if God had let me have my way, I would’ve been ruined. If I were to be the focus of God’s and my relationship, I would be the GOD. Oops! This would’ve been my undoing and a complete disservice to me. Yes, “We love Him because He first loved us.” (1 Jn. 4:19), but if God had bowed to my demands to be the centrality, it would have destroyed me, because I was created to love and worship Him.
I believe there are countless souls looking for Christ to enter a soulish relationship with them. Yet intimacy with Christ is different than simple human fantasies of romance, and its certainly not ME-centered. So then I look at how Christ had intimacy with His Father. Clearly, He had the most intimate relationship with God of any person ever to walk this earth. Jesus gave free access for the Father to live His life and will through Him. This is so much higher than a spooning snuggle before bed. And they had unhindered communion in the will of the Father, not mere mental assent through human reasoning and study. In saying this, I am not inferring that relationship with the Father is in any way cold or calculated. I believe the reality is anything but clinical. It’s just higher than simple earthly stakes.
I thought, “But Jesus was God, of course He was close to the Father!” And amazingly, we have been given the indwelling Spirit to have the chance to be in that same union. Christ came to earth to be our Solution for the separation we created, and then He left the Spirit to make us one, as He and the Father are one (Ephesians 2:18). We can have intimacy with the Father through the Holy Spirit who lives in our bodies, counsels our actions and reveals our hearts. Intimacy is union, holiness, surrender, yielding, and commonality. Not that the Father doesn’t touch our physical bodies, but because that was my idol and focus, I believe He withheld it from me. His Spirit has touched me many times and in many ways, comforting at times and frightening on others, but it’s all been by His initiation. He’s the lead in our dance and must always be.
MY DELICIOUS BRETHEREN,WHAT BEAUTIFUL WORDS OF WISDOM, IT HAS BLESSED ME TO THE CORE OF MY SPIRIT. YES I AM LOVED, I TREASURE THAT TRUTH. YOU HAVE SO BROUGHT IT TO LIFE. THANK YOU MY DEAREST BROTHER. IN CHRIST LOVE.
To Eve…your desire will be for your Husband, and He will rule over you. I believe this is a prophetic verse for the Bride of Jesus. The Eve Bridal anointing is to bring forth life. Jesus is my betrothed Husband and He now rules over me in my heart. This is the Kingdom. Not my will. Your will be done. This is only learned by the humble, the broken, those who have crucified the flesh and walk by the Spirit.
He’s the lead in our dance and must always be”. That speaks a world of revelation to me. Thank you, John.
John, this is something else! I was just reading Ephesians last night and was led to ponder chapter 2. From vs. 1-6 we read everything that Christ has done for us: “…But God, being rich in mercy, because of the great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in our trespasses, made us alive together with Christ–by grace you have been saved–and raised us up with Him and seated us with Him in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Why did He do all this for us? Maybe not so much that WE would love Him… Read more »
Bless you!!
Gen. 1:1 “In the beginning God…”
That IS the beginning! It is our beginning too – not the fall or our sin, but we think so…
After reading this, my vision was corrected… I understood that Jesus was “my” bridge back to God because of the separation my sin created. But the truth is that JESUS ALONE in me is the connection back to God.
A slight adjustment to the angle makes a world of difference between “me”, and GOD.
“It’s just higher than simple earthly stakes.” “For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways says The Lord. For as the heavens are higher than the earth so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.” Isaiah 55:8-9 NKJ “…God is Love…” 1 John 4:16 b God IS Love…therefore once we have accepted God as God we have accepted Love. However our uninformed, self-decided, definition of love may not line up with the TRUTH of Love. He tells us our ways are not His ways…my thoughts (understanding) are not His… Read more »
Wow John! Amazing insights. Last Thursday I wrote in my journal, “Lord, I need to be loved by You.” Within moments The Holy Spirit revealed to me: “You don’t need to be loved, you are the beloved – just act like the beloved.” So these past few days I have been pondering how one who is the beloved would act, and now I read your post. The one who is the beloved loves The Lover and let’s Him lead. “This is so much higher than a spooning snuggle before bed.” Yes, so much higher!
“The one who is the beloved loves The Lover and let’s Him lead.” That is good, Irene.