Chapter 6
Introduction
Have you ever really considered the power you possess inside you to accomplish those things you desire. Most of us have been taught to look for power from an outside source alone, never thinking about what may have already been placed in us. In fact, the only time we ever really look at self is to place blame or discover what is wrong. However, there is so much right with you as an individual, but you may have been trained to look up and look around before looking within to discover what you are capable of accomplishing. This week I am going to challenge you to flip the script.
Communion With God
Last Week
In our discussion last week, we discovered that God created everything with a purpose and with the chemical, molecular, or physiological machinery to accomplish its purpose. In each of us there is much to be discovered. Yet, often, we look outside of ourselves for what has already been placed within. This may cause us to pray to God for things He has given us the talent to get ourselves. It may also cause us to have very low expectations when we pray.
Confidence in the Unknown
Romans 8:26
Likewise, the Spirit helps us in our weaknesses, for we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words
Hebrews 4:16
Let us then come with confidence to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need.
Mark 11:24
Therefore I say to you, whatever things you ask when you pray, believe that you will receive them, and you will have them.
Lessons Learned
The God we serve is far beyond our capacity to understand. Our language seems too inadequate to communicate or even describe Him. However, these realities do not hinder communication with Him. According to Romans 8:26, though our words are inadequate and our understanding quite limited, the Spirit translates what we communicate into what we really need and want. The omniscient quality of God we do not understand works in our favor. God knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows what we need far more than we do. Many of us may go before God worried about the limitations of our words and our understanding. There is no limitation when the God you serve understands what you desire of Him better than you do.
Paul challenges us to come before God with confidence. The Bible seems to reveal that we can come with confidence, not in our ability, but in God's. We may not be able to articulate our needs eloquently. God understands our pain even when we cannot express it. He knows our needs even when we are unaware of them. He knows our dreams even when they are hidden from us in the depths of our subconscious. Many of us reach out to God only when we feel confident that we are aware of what is going on in our lives. However, we are challenged to reach out to God when we don't know, when we can't articulate, and when we are unable to express. We can do this when our confidence lies in Him and not in ourselves.
It is easier to believe when you accept the fact that God knows what you need far more than you do. It is easier to ask and believe you will receive that which you asked when you understand that God has a perspective, regarding your place in the universe, that you don't have.
BE HONEST WITH YOURSELF
1. What are you constantly asking God to give you, which you don't honestly believe you will receive?
2. What about what you are asking for fuels your disbelief?
Communing With the Unknown
Ecclesiastes 5:1 - 2
Guard your steps when you enter the house of God, and draw near to listen rather than to offer the sacrifice of fools, for they do not know that they are doing evil. 2 Do not be quick to speak with your mouth, nor let your heart be hasty to utter a word before God. For God is in heaven, and you are on the earth; therefore may your words be few.
Psalms 19:14
Let the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be acceptable in your sight, O Lord, my rock and my redeemer.
Philippians 4:6
Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God.
Lessons Learned
Solomon cautions us to be careful as we approach the Almighty. I do not believe the motivation for this caution is fear. I believe it is respect for the power with which you are about to surround yourself. I believe the Creator is both known and unknown to us. He is known to us because of our personal experiences with Him. However, as we stated in the first section of this lesson, the attributes that make Him God make the magnitude of His power and existence unknown to us.
It can be tempting to paint the Creator with the brush of our culture, education, or experience. It can be tempting to create our own idea of God and use that idea to self-medicate spiritually. It is easy to stop searching for the true God and simply create the version with which we are comfortable. For these reasons Solomon told us to be careful as we enter the Creator's presence. We are told not to be quick to talk or think using the foolishness of our education or the limitations of our experience.
The Psalmists asserts that he sought constant alignment with the Creator. He desired that his words and thoughts be acceptable to God. This alignment of thoughts, words, and actions can only be achieved through constant interaction or communion with God. Paul tells us that in this this context, though we are cautious, we are not to be anxious about anything. We are not to worry. This is a safe space to make everything known to God. This is an intriguing combination of reverence and comfort that each of us are challenged to discover.
THINK ABOUT IT
1. How can you show reverence in the way you approach the Creator? (I mean mentally, not through physical gestures.)
2. How can you create a habit of bringing your daily thoughts, words, and actions in alignment with the Creator?
3. Are there situations where you have made god to fit your design rather than you seeking to fit God's design?
Reaching Out to the Unknown
Psalms 8:4
what is man that You are mindful of him, and the son of man that You attend to him?
Job 11:7
"Can you discover the depths of God? Can you discover the limits of the Almighty?
Isaiah 55:8 -9
8 For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways, says the Lord.
9 For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, and My thoughts than your thoughts.
Lessons Learned
The God with whom I seek to communicate is beyond my comprehension and my imagination. The Bible says that this God is a spirit that is not confined by time or space. This God's power cannot be contained nor can this God's knowledge be limited. This Being is the source and sustainer of all that exists. I am just a speck of a speck living on the edge of a small galaxy in an insignificant corner of this God's universe.
I find it difficult to even address this Being. There is no noun that exists that could possibly label the Creator. Even when Moses asked, "Whom shall I say sent me?" The Creator responded with, "I am that I am". That is not a name but an idea. It is difficult to use a verb to describe this God's actions. I cannot say that God is walking, running, moving or going. Any verb that denotes movement would be inadequate because where does a Being who is everywhere have to go? I cannot use verb tense Because a being that lives in the past, present and future, a being who is in all time at the same time is not subject to tense. Everything from our perspective that God will do or has done, from God’s perspective, He is doing. God does not wish or hope to do anything so the subjunctive mood does not pertain to him. With no action, no tense and no mood, what verb can I use?
I cannot find an adjective or adverb to describe one who determines to be whatever He wants to be. I cannot use the superlative. I cannot say that God is better or even the best because that implies I am comparing this Being to something else and with God there is no logical or even possible comparison. Pronoun use is just as limiting. The Creator has no gender so unless I rely on the sexism inherent in male dominated societies no pronoun is appropriate. Though, through habit, I may use one, the use of he, she or it does not adequately rename the Creator.
Conjunctions are inadequate. God has no equal so I cannot use "and". There is no other choice, so I cannot us "or". God's omnipresence nullifies the use of prepositions. God is everywhere, so there is no difference in His relation to anything that exists, so the prepositions in, into, with, between, beside, and every other one are useless. Every interjection falls short. There is no expression strong to serve as a response to what God has done for me? I can say "amen"," hallelujah", "praises", or "thank you", but no words can match an indescribable God who became a man and snatched me from the clutches of eternal damnation.
When it comes to thinking about the Creator of the universe, my imagination is grossly inadequate. When it comes to communicating about the Creator, my language is severely limited. When it comes to existing in the cosmos created by this Being, my size and impact is insignificant. How can I commune with such a Being?
THINK ABOUT IT
1. In what ways can you communicate with God?
2. Being so seemingly insignificant in the cosmos, what makes you feel important to God?