Those Who Seek Him Find Him

An often quoted and well known promise taught in Scripture is that those who seek God find Him. Sometimes the phrase "with all your hearts" is added to the seeking side of the statement.

This Is a Conditional Statement

One of the places we find this promise is found in 2Chronicles 15:2: "If you seek Him, He will be found by you." Now, that is a conditional statement right?: If A, then B (as a logician would put it). If the condition in the "if" clause is met, the result in the "then" will occur. For example, if you drop a bowling ball on your toe, then it will hurt. In this case the "if" clause is about dropping a bowling ball on your toe. If that condition is met, then the result will occur: "it will hurt."

Okay, silly example, but you get the point. In the same way that gravity guarantees the outcome in the conditional statement about the bowling ball and the toe, God guarantees the outcome in the conditional statement about seeking Him; namely, that we would find Him. I trust we would agree with that.

Let's also be clear that God is sometimes found by those who aren't seeking Him at all! One obvious example is Paul on the road to Damascus. Sometimes God may simply surprise us and 'show up' when we're not expecting (looking for) Him at all. These are delightful surprises! And I trust that we understand that when this happens, it does not negate the conditional statement any more than my toe hurting, when a bowling ball was not involved negates that other statement.

As an aside, We have another promise that if we confess, He forgives (1John 1:9). This is a promise. But it does not mean that He only forgives, if we confess, anymore than my toe would only hurt, if I dropped a bowling ball on it! God, in His grace through Jesus, forgives us completely, even of sins we are not aware of, or forget we even committed. Who could ever be sure you didn't miss one! Thank God for His grace! Amen?

So, What Is the Promise?

Let me begin to answer this question, by saying what is not being promised here. We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find information about Him (though we will). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find salvation (though that's likely). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find some vague, spiritual experience (as if that would mean something). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find an assurance of His love (though we will). We are not promised that if we seek Him, we will find some sort of personal, ethical and spiritual transformation (though that's very probable too).

What we are promised is that if we seek Him, we will find Him. That is, if we seek God, we will find God Himself. We are promised a direct experience and encounter with the living God!

Don't ever believe anyone who tells you that experience isn't important, or doesn't matter in the Christian life. The Bible promises us many experiences, including this one; An experience of God Himself, if we go looking for Him.

We Only Seek What We Expect to Find

I have not spent any time today looking for uranium deposits in the bottom of my shoes. I don't expect to find uranium there, or anywhere around here. It's possible I might find uranium someday, but to find it would require a Geiger-counter, or something like that, since I wouldn't know how to find it any other way.

I did not go looking for gold to fall from the sky in the last rain storm either. Theoretically, it may be possible (if there were a massive volcanic eruption nearby, and other unlikely circumstances conspired together in exactly the right way), but I doubt it. I probably won't go looking after the next rainfall either.

If we don't expect to find God, we won't go looking for Him. If all we expect to find is information about Him (from the Bible, for instance), or salvation, or some vague, spiritual experience, or some assurance of His love, or some sort of ethical and spiritual transformation, that's what we can expect to find. If we somehow believe that it is as likely to find God Himself as it is to find uranium in my shoes, or gold falling from the sky, then we wouldn't consider looking for Him - even if we used the words that suggested that we were seeking Him.

In the same way, if we only believe that we can experience God after we die, or after the Lord returns, we won't look for Him before then, nor expect to find Him while we're still breathing. Is it possible to find God? Is it possible that God Himself could be found by us, if we go looking for Him? Is it possible to find Him before we get to heaven?

Want to know the Bible's answer to that question? The answer is "Yes!" In fact, in 2Chronicles 15:15 we read this about the people of Judah: "They sought God eagerly, and He was found by them." In fact, in the Hebrew language "was found" is in the imperfect tense, meaning that this was not a one-time event. It kept on happening. They kept on finding Him!

Not Like Instant Coffee in the Microwave

One final note about this promise, we are not promised that we will find Him as soon as we begin seeking. In our culture, we don't like to wait. We tap our toes impatiently waiting for the microwave to heat up our instant coffee! We get frustrated at the grocery store, if the line is longer than 3 people. And on and on. We don't like to wait. We want and expect instant answers, instant results.

But seeking is an action that takes time. It is not "glance for Him, and there He'll be" (though sometimes it really can be that easy!). That's not the promise. To seek something or someone is to go searching, like the shepherd for the lost sheep (Luke 15:4), or the woman for the lost coin (Luke 15:8). It takes both time and effort. There is a period of time between beginning to search and finding (usually).

Maybe some give up, or change their theology, because they sought God for a day, a week, or a season, didn't find Him, and concluded He can't be found - at least not in this life. There are those who have searched for lost loved ones for years, and didn't give up and eventually found them. If the promise is sure (and I believe it is), and doesn't require us to reinterpret what it says to fit our experience so far (and I don't believe it does), then one thing we can be sure of: if we keep seeking, we will surely find Him. If it takes minutes, hours, days, or years, if we seek Him, we will find Him.

What Do We Expect to See?

Maybe our Father in heaven does like to play "hide-and-seek" with His children. Sometimes I really think He does. God wants us to find Him in places we haven't thought to look before.

But for those who have never found Him, is that a satisfying answer? Probably not. For those who have not yet found God Himself--had a direct experience of Him--God wants to be found. In this case, we can only find Him, if we take off whatever blinders, or filters we have. If we believe a lie about Who God is, or how He may be found, or what it would be like to find Him, etc., we don't know it's a lie, until the lie is exposed as a lie. Those lies will blind us to what is right in front of us, or filter out those things that would expose the lie as a lie. 

I'm convinced many people don't find God, because they don't see Him when He actually is present. 

I remember driving down a road in the Dominican Republic that I had driven on dozens of times before. But on this day, a tree was in full bloom, with brilliant red flowers. It was a very large tree. I had driven that road many times, but had never noticed something that was always there. One day I didn't see it, the next I did. After I saw it, I wondered how I had ever missed such a large tree - especially because it was in the middle of a field with nothing else around it. Once I saw it, I noticed it every time I drove that road.

In the same way, many people don't see God when He is present, even if they want to, because they aren't looking for Him the way He actually comes. He doesn't always come with brilliant red flowers, like that tree. He sometimes comes in the way Elijah recognized Him: as a gentle as a whisper (1Kings 19:12). He may come with a smile to those who expect Him to be stern. He may come with a laugh for those who expect Him to be angry. He may come with open arms, to those who expect Him to comes with arms folded and toe tapping impatiently. He may come as a dad, to those looking for regal, kingly, awesome, breath-taking brilliance.

If we seek Him, we will find Him, but we may need to have the eyes of our hearts enlightened (Ephesians 1:18) in order to be able to see Him and all He has for us. In our seeking, we should also pray for eyes to see, what we cannot yet see. And we should pray believing that Jesus still opens the eyes of the blind.

David Anointed -- Yet Waiting

David: a Lesson in Preparation and Struggle

The Man of God's Choosing

David is anointed king in place of Saul in 1Samuel 16:13. He is chosen because God had rejected Saul as king and had chosen a man after his own heart and appointed him leader of his people (from 1Samuel 13:14). Saul had failed many tests of faithfulness to God, the failure in 1Samuel 13 is just one of many. The final straw comes in 1Samuel 15, when Samuel fails to carry out God's explicit instructions because (as he says) I was afraid of the people and so I gave in to them (from 1Samuel 15:24). There's another lesson about there, but I'll pass that one by for now and return to David.

David is the man God chooses (1Samuel 16:1, 12), in fulfillment of Samuel's statement that God would choose a man after his own heart (1Sam 16:13, see also Acts 13:22). There's an interesting question here: what does it mean that David is a man after God's own heart? There are two possibilities:* 1) God chooses David because God is in David's heart. 2) God chooses David because David is in God's heart.

It is very, very difficult to decide on one interpretation to the exclusion of the other. There is a hint in 1Samuel 16:7, when God says to Samuel Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart. And certainly David exhibited over and over again, his devotion to the Lord the rest of his life. On the other hand David, at times, really, really messes up, even to the point of getting another man's wife pregnant and then killing him to cover it up (2Samuel 11).

Maybe the answer is both. David is in God's heart and God is in David's. God both knows David's character, and God, by the power of His Spirit shapes his character. It's the old Calvinist/Arminian debate all over again: Does God choose us because we choose Him, or do we choose Him because He first chose us? Why don't we answer the mystery by simply saying "Yes." (I better stop there, before I get in some real trouble with my Calvinist friends - and my Arminian friends!)

David is just a boy when Samuel anoints him and he is empowered by the Spirit - probably about 14 or 15 years old (a guess based on other chronologies in 1Samuel). Unlike Joshua, also empowered by the Spirit to lead following Moses (Deut. 34:9), David has no prior experience leading anything but sheep (as far as we know). David was not commander of the army, as Joshua was. He was not an aid to any leader, as Joshua was with Moses. As far as we know, unlike Joshua, he did not spend extended time at the tent of meeting (the Tabernacle). He's just a shepherd boy who really hasn't done anything to earn this. He is unqualified to lead.

Yet God tells Samuel to anoint him anyway, and when he does from that day on the Spirit of the LORD came upon David in power (from 1Sam 16:13). This coming in power can mean that the Spirit came on David in a way that was powerful enough for others to notice. In fact, this would be a reasonable assumption, since someone would have had to have noticed that it was on this day that this all began for David. But it probably means something more like that the Spirit came and empowered David. Whenever the Spirit comes upon someone in power in the Old Testament, the result is always empowered action (for example: Judges 15:14; 1Samuel 10:10; 11:6).

Empowered to Worship

So what does David do, when the Spirit comes on him in power? We don't know. What we do know is that after some intervening period, David becomes known as a skilled musician (1Samuel 16:18). It's very likely that something happened after David, perhaps still dripping with the oil of his anointing, went back to tend the sheep.

At some point in David's life, he begins to write the Psalms we have in our Bible. Though I can't point to a specific Scripture reference that ties this together with the empowerment by the Spirit that happened when Samuel anointed him, the recognition of his musical gifting in the verses immediately following this event strongly suggest it.

David, who may have played the harp long before Samuel ever shows up on the scene, and perhaps even composed some songs of praise to the Lord, as he played and sang on the hillsides with the sheep, becomes known by at least one person living 8 to 9 miles away (the rough distance from Bethlehem to Gibeah) as a musician worthy to play in the king's court.

What I do know is this: anointed worshipers are recognized as gifted by others. Even if they are only or merely attracted to the music. There's something special that happens when the Spirit inspires someone as they compose and sing praise to God. I believe the human spirit recognizes something there that resonates inside - at least that's been my experience.

Regardless of that one of Saul's servants says this about David: the Lord is with him (1Sam 16:18). Besides knowing how to play the harp, being brave, tactful, and good-looking, the servant recognizes that the Lord is with him. Already, David is known for God's presence in his life. For now (at least) Saul likes him very much (1Sam 16:21).

The wonderful thing about what happens next is that we find out that David's music has spiritual power. Whenever Saul was tormented by an evil spirit David played his harp and the evil spirit would leave Saul (1Sam 16:23). This is remarkable! As far as I know, this is the only time an evil spirit is cast out in the Old Testament and it happens by David playing his harp (and singing?). Later (probably) David would write in Psalm 8:2 From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise because of your enemies, to silence the foe and the avenger. Praise is a powerful spiritual force!

Empowered to Rule

The most obvious and explicit result of David's anointing is that he is anointed to be king. This is why Samuel went to him in the first place.

So David receives his anointing by Samuel, the Spirit comes upon him in power and . . . And what? David isn't king. At least not yet. There is a long period of waiting between his anointing and being released into the purpose of his anointing. For David it's 14-15 years.

What he will not do is use his anointing as an reason to usurp the throne. He refuses to understand his own anointing apart from Saul's anointing. Saul was anointed king. And even though God had already said that he would take the kingdom of Israel from him, David did not understand that to mean it was David's job to make that happen.

Let me speak to my charismatic and Pentecostal friends here for a moment. When God gives His anointing and empowers by the Spirit, He may not be in the same breath releasing us into the ministry He anoints and empowers us for. It may take a long, long time for the purpose of our anointing to be realized. It is not our job to rush God, or rush circumstances, in order to help God's anointing along (I'm not talking about not doing something God clearly tells you to do, that is confirmed by other Spirit-filled believers.)  

Further (still speaking to my charismatic and Pentecostal friends), your anointing doesn't negate nor usurp anyone else's anointing - even if God has clearly said they have disqualified themselves! Honor the anointing, even if the person holding it isn't worthy of it. This is what David did, over and over again with Saul - even when Saul was actively trying to kill him. Don't usurp authority. Don't. Just don't.

David's anointing and empowerment here seems to be in large part preparatory. As I said before, as far as we know, unlike Joshua, David had no experience leading anything but sheep. God would not thrust him into a position he was unprepared for. His character would be shaped and strengthened through the next 14-15 years.

David, empowered by the Spirit becomes a not only a worshiper but also a warrior. He will soon accept Goliath's challenge to a duel - and defeat him. He will lead Saul's army until Saul becomes jealous of him. Then he will lead an army of no-accounts and social rejects and make them into a mighty force for Israel's good. He is going to have a life of struggle and hardship.

Even after he becomes king, he will struggle. During almost his entire reign he'll be in conflict with someone. If it's not the Philistines or other Canaanite people, it's other Israelites, or even his own son, God anointed him and empowered him to be king, but he had to fight his whole life to have what God gave him. 

Chosen to Be the Forebear of Jesus

Among the things God chose him for was probably the most important thing imaginable, and David probably had no idea what it meant.

David, now established in Jerusalem, with a palace of his own, is offended by the fact that he is living in a beautiful palace, while God's presence is still in a tent. He seems offended by the honor gap between what he has and what God has. He decides to do something about it: build a palace for the true king of Israel (the Hebrew word for palace is the same as the word used for temple).

God has another idea:

The Lord declares to you that the Lord himself will establish a house for you: When your days are over and you rest with your fathers, I will raise up your offspring to succeed you, who will come from your own body, and I will establish his kingdom. He is the one who will build a house for my Name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. (2Sam. 7:11b–13)

David wasn't the man to build the temple. It wasn't his anointing. His offspring would to that. His immediate offspring was Solomon. But it's Jesus who is the ultimate fulfillment of God's promise to him.

David's anointing went far beyond his imagination, far beyond his lifetime. His anointing was ultimately inherited by Jesus, the anointed one. And, by the way, the Hebrew word for anointed one is Messiah.

___________________________
* Though we could easily and rightly say that David was after God's heart, in the sense of pursuing or seeking God, this phrase, in the original language, can't be translated that way.

Lessons from the story of Samson

Today, I'm going to expand on a previous Facebook post in which I wrote this:

The story of Samson teaches at least these four lessons:
1)     God protects and rescues the undeserving.
2)     God uses people for His purposes, even if they are moral failures.
3)     Just because God protects, rescues or uses you in mighty and powerful ways, this does not mean He approves of your lifestyle.
4)     Even after our greatest failure, God is not finished with us. 

I'll take them one by one:

God Protects and Rescues the Undeserving

Israel had walked away from God (Judges 2:10-11)

After that whole generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation grew up, who knew neither the Lord nor what he had done for Israel. Then the Israelites did evil in the eyes of the Lord and served the Baals.

As Israel was adjusting from the life of nomads to the life of a landed people, they were surrounded by a world of people experienced successful agricultural practices and technologies. That world had a powerful affect on them (as ours does on us). Without their own experience of God and His power, they drifted into the atmosphere that surrounded them.

But let's face it: it's hard to live on inherited testimony. It's hard to remain faithful to a God, Who, in our experience, seems absent, and distant; Who only exists in the memory of those who have since died.

God handed them over to the people they admired and the protection of gods they followed (Judges 2:14):

In his anger against Israel the Lord handed them over to raiders who plundered them. He sold them to their enemies all around, whom they were no longer able to resist.

They forsook Him and He let them go. But He did not forsake them. When they turned back and cried out to Him He sent deliverers (Judges 2:16):

Then the Lord raised up judges, who saved them out of the hands of these raiders.

They weren't judges in the way we think of them in court rooms where "all rise" when the enter the room. They were leaders sent to administer God's justice on the oppressors of His people.

They didn't deserve to be rescued. They deserved the consequences of their own unfaithfulness. But God in His mercy, and faithfulness to His promises to their forebears, rescued them anyway.

The next time you see a drug addict, a street punk, a thief, murderer, or sex criminal, remember God rescues the undeserving. The next time you look in the mirror and remember something terrible you did, perhaps even hurting someone beyond what anyone (even you) could ever accept, remember: God rescues the undeserving.

God Uses People for His Purposes, Even if They Are Moral Failures.

Samson is known for two things (outside of children's Sunday School lessons, at least!): his physical strength and his moral weakness.

The first thing we are told Samson did after the Spirit began to stir in him (Judges 13:25), is marry to a foreign woman (or at least try to) - a direct and flagrant violation of the law of Moses (Deut. 7:3). How could God possibly be in this!

Yet God was in this. Let the moralists beware! What we read next in the book of Judges, when Samson's parents object to his choice, is not an endorsement of Samson's parents' correctness, but something unexpected (Judges 14:4):

(His parents did not know that this was from the Lord, who was seeking an occasion to confront the Philistines; for at that time they were ruling over Israel.)

God is actually using Samson's weakness for women to accomplish His purposes through Samson. This will not be the last time. In chapter 16, Samson spends half the night with a prostitute, before walking off with the city gate. Then he'll get in real trouble with another foreign woman: Delilah (more on her later).

Though Samson was a moral failure in many ways, God still used him. He still empowered him by His Spirit. God still worked through him, sometimes in spite of, and sometimes because of his moral weakness.

This should set aside every argument that would dismiss the ministry, or writings of any small church pastor, to big-time Christian 'celebrity' who has fallen into sin, or been discovered to have been living a life of sin. God did work through Samson while he was morally weak, while he was living a sinful life. God works through people, despite our moral objections that they should be disqualified from such a distinction. (Thankfully, God does not work only through the qualified.)

Let me suggest that the same could be said of people with bad theology. Just because I believe that someone's theology in a certain area is bad, doesn't mean that God won't use them, or isn't using them. This goes for evangelism, as well as "power ministry." I have some real problems with the theology of some of the people I see on TV, or read about. But that does not give me license to dismiss their ministry, nor the fact that God is working through them. (Just to be clear: I'm not talking about the kind of theological error that puts someone outside the Christian faith.)

Just Because God Protects, Rescues or Uses You in Mighty and Powerful Ways, This Does Not Mean He Approves of Your Lifestyle.

This is the corollary to the previous lesson. If God can (and does) use moral failures, even while they are failing morally, the fact that God is in your life doing great things does not mean He approves of your lifestyle (or your theology!). 

The assumption that God only works through the worthy, relates to those doing ministry as well as those receiving it. So if I have a greedy streak in me, or have a habit of gossip, or tend to be judgmental, or have an addiction to alcohol, or porn, or engage in domestic violence, or like to read certain kinds of literature or watch certain kinds of movies or TV programs, but despite that, God uses me to bring others to Christ, or to heal the sick, cast out demons, cleans the lepers and raise the dead, this doesn't mean God approves of everything in my heart. [Sorry for the really, really long sentence there!]

You and I are not exempt from self-deception. One kind of deception is self-justified sinfulness (who's it going to hurt? what's the big deal? I'm no worse than..., etc.). One of those self-deceptions is right here: if God is using me anyway, it must be okay - at least for me, for now. The devil could be a million miles away, and we could still fall for that one. Our "flesh" doesn't like to submit to God. It will come up with all sorts of excuses to delay or refuse such submission. 

Nor does His work in you or through you means He approves of your theology (understanding of Who God is, and how He works in this world). You could be dead wrong about baptism, or spiritual gifts, or the place of women in church and home, or the church's response to homosexuals, or whether God saves primarily by His choice (Calvinism), or ours (Arminianism). Samson took full credit for killing the 1000 Philistines with the jawbone of a donkey (Judges 15:16), when it was God Who empowered him to do it (Judges 15:14). That's bad theology (and hubris).

When God works in us and through us it is because He is gracious, not because we are deserving. It may have more to do with God's desire to bless others, than anything to do with us.

Even After Our Greatest Failure, God Is Not Finished With Us. 

Samson failed with Delilah. He stupidly disclosed the secret of his strength and suffered a terrible and humiliating defeat. The consequences of all of his dalliances finally caught up with him. On the one hand we feel for him, on the other we shake our heads and wonder why something like this didn't happen sooner. He gets what he deserves: he's taken out; no longer Israel's leader/judge. It's about time.

How many thousands of times since Samson have church or other leaders fallen into sin, or been discovered to have been living a life of sin? How many times has that been the end of their leadership? In the church, especially, we have been quick to judge the sin, but slow to restore the sinner - especially when the sinners are leaders. They have disqualified themselves.

At least, we do that for certain sins. Sins like arrogance, judgmentalism, even greed, go unchecked. But if the leader is found in some sexual sin (as was Samson), then the door becomes forever closed. Even spousal abuse can be forgiven, and a man restored to leadership, after some counselling. But if he is discovered having slept with a woman other than his wife, he cannot.

There is some truth here, in that it takes a lot of time and effort to rebuild trust in a leader, once that trust is broken. I will not dispute that, nor suggest that the process be short-circuited in any way. Doing so would be another violation of trust!

However, permanent disqualification does not seem to be God's response, neither to Samson, nor David, nor Peter. Genuine sorrow for sin, true repentance, and authentic dependence on God's mercy seem to be enough for God to restore someone to their calling.

If you have sinned (ever), then genuine sorrow for sin, true repentance and authentic dependence on God's mercy is what you need to be restored. The same is true for your sister or brother who has sinned publicly, perhaps as a leader. The same is true for you, if you were the one who sinned publicly, or whose private sin became publicly known. Such have not permanently disqualified themselves/ourselves.

The God of grace still has grace greater than our sin.

It takes a transformed life to transform lives.

I haven't written in a while and wanted to take up this blog again. 

It takes a transformed life to transform lives.

The trouble with the status quo (a critique):

We (in the church) spend a great deal of effort on education, training, giving/receiving advice, studying the Bible, etc., that refine our thinking, but don't transform our lives. We worship and pray, but require that in doing so we are not made 'uncomfortable,' rather than demand that God's presence be made manifest. In our lives, if not our theology, we expect God to make our lives easier, rather than  expect that God wants to give us a much, much better life.

I'm speaking from within my own tradition (exaggerating things a bit to make a point), though I've seen the same tendencies among other theological and ecclesiastical traditions.

Where we put our efforts and our dollars demonstrate what we value - or at the very least distract us from our core values. We value the well-studied mind, the well-read man or woman, the one with extensive Bible knowledge. We love to learn stuff: specifically information. It is, at best, interesting. Jewels and nuggest of knowledge tantalize our minds like fine chocolate tantalizes the palate. In the end we divide over subtleties of theological thought, while remaining just as sinful, selfish, and unforgiving as we were before we were so richly informed.

Sometimes, as in the case of the so-called 'worship wars' we demonstrate quite clearly and forcefully that we're not interested in worship - at least not the worship of God. We're interested in our way of singing songs, our preferences for our order of service, our religious traditions, etc. - all arguments couched in theological jargon, but ultimately boiling down to: de gustibus no disputatum est (a Latin saying that roughly means: "when it comes to matters of personal taste, no argument persuades").

In everything from "health and wealth" gospel preaching, to praying for parking spaces, my team to win, and for my stock to come through, our prayers are not merely self-centered, but self-protecting. We want God to help us live our lives and it never occurs to us that God wants us to live the life He has for us. To be crude, we see God as our enabler, in the sense that an addict finds someone to enable him/her to continue to live a destructive life that is doomed to destruction.

Who wants a religion that is merely a mental construct? Who wants a religion of personal preferences? Who wants a god who endorses and encourages a life of emptiness?

If all we have are programs, all we'll get are people who are programmed (to say the right words, do the right things, not do the wrong things, etc.), but ultimately the same as they were before the program started - only more so.

Is it any wonder so many leave the church disillusioned? Is it any wonder so few want in?

The Gospel (a few thoughts):

The Gospel of Jesus is so much more than what an observation of many churches would tend to suggest. The Good News is so much more than merely getting our sins forgiven, and our "Get Out of Hell Free" card. The Gospel is ultimately about reconciliation with God Himself. It's far more than a mere forensic transaction. It is that. I'm not arguing against substitutionary atonement. What I'm suggesting is that the purpose of the atonement is also the Gospel. The word "atonement" means literally "at one-ment." The atonement both forgives and reconciles. The purpose of the atonement is reconciliation with God Himself - that's the Gospel!

But wait there's more!

The Gospel includes and must include the Kingdom of God, which according to Jesus is "within reach" (or "at hand"). This Kingdom is "of God" or "of Heaven." In the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), when the Kingdom comes, healing, deliverance, resurrection comes. This is because in both God and Heaven there is no illness, demonization, nor death.

The Gospel includes the presence of the Spirit within us and upon us. The Spirit dwells within us to transform us into the people God dreams for us to be. The Spirit also comes upon us to empower us to do God's work in this world. The Spirit gives gifts to help us do God's work as a church, and gives them to us in such a way that we need each other to get it done! What a marvel! A Spirit-less Christianity is no Christianity at all. And a Spirit-filled and empowered believer is unstoppable.

The Manifest Presence

What if the great concern and primary project of the Church became seeking, hosting and cultivating the manifest presence of God? (If you haven't heard the term "manifest presence" let me explain: the very presence of God felt, sensed, experienced.)

Let's stop making "experience" a bad word, and make it an expectation. A gospel that has no experience in it is not the Gospel, it's no more than words and ideas (and who needs more of that!). The message of Scripture is clear: those who seek Him find Him (not merely truths about Him). How do you find something without seeing it, touching it, or experiencing it in some way. If we found God, how would we know, if there was no experience associated with it. 

One thing we Reformed can learn from charismatic and Pentecostal circles is that the manifest presence of God is often the center, focus and purpose of everything.* Often in Reformed circles, it's not that we're opposed to such a thing, we just think it's exceptional, rare - wonderful but not something to count on regularly. But if the Greek word for know (ginosko) means what the lexicons say it means, then we should expect that the "knowledge of the Lord" would be much more than knowledge (or opinions!) about the Lord. [For Spanish speakers conocer has it's etymology in the Greek word ginosko - if that helps.] No, we should expect to know and experience Him often, daily, whenever we turn our hearts toward Him.

The Apostles devoted themselves to prayer and the ministry of the word (Acts 6:4). Prayer is (most broadly speaking) encounter with God, and it is the prerequisite for ministering God's word (IMHO). Those who have the title "Minister of the Word" (the official name for what we call "Pastor" in my denomination), must then also be those who seek God through prayer. What would happen if in our preparation for Sunday's service(s), we spent more time with God (in prayer) than with commentaries?

We owe them (church and world) an encounter with God

What we all need is God Himself. What we settle for are imitations or substitutes. My theological training seemed to me to be primarily interested in communicating theological truth. That's a substitute for an encounter with God, or (at best) treading the spiritual waters until the encounter with God comes. It's something to do, along with singing some songs, while we're "Waiting for Godot." Though Moses would not go without the Presence of God (Exodus 33:15,ff), too often we do.

Instead of that spiritual poverty, where God is beyond experience, Jesus teaches the Kingdom of God is within reach. God in fact is present everywhere. We know this and believe this. It is also possible to actually experience this--experience Him. How wonderful, sweet, precious, beautiful, amazing, and more! 

John says whoever doesn't love doesn't know God, because God is love (1Jn 4:8). That's not about having an intellectual apprehension of God's love, but a transforming experience of it. Having encountered a loving God, we become loving. 

It is impossible to have an experience of God and remain unchanged. God's manifest presence transforms us.

The objection I most often hear about Christianity is not that it's not true, but that it doesn't make any difference. Christians look and act like everyone else. Sadly, this is often both a valid observation, and conclusion!

The solution is, I'm convinced, to seek, host, and cultivate experiences of God's presence. This transforms people in ways mere teaching can rarely do. While teaching can correct, guide, point, suggest, open and close doors, it cannot transform. Only God can do that. He can do it in subtle and long ways through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, but He can and does do it in powerful and sometimes instantaneous ways through a direct encounter with Him.

Seek the Lord while He may be found, the Bible says (Isaiah 55:6). To seek means to go looking, often in places you haven't yet looked. (It's sort of crazy to keep looking for something in the same places you haven't found it!) Look through soaking or listening prayer, with other seekers, in other churches/denominations, among Christian people you disagree with about other things. "Seek" means "go looking" (not wait), so go somewhere!

He promised that whoever seeks Him finds Him (Deut. 4:29; Jer.29:13; Matt. 7:7-8, e.g.), so keep seeking until you do, because He has already promised us success!

It's the transformed life that is the best agent of transformation for others.

If God doesn't make us better people, if He has no positive influence on who we are, then Christianity has no more power than pop psychology.

If, however, God gives hope to the hopeless, rescues slaves from their masters, sets people free, makes the unloving love, the unforgiving forgive, heals the hurting and broken, restores relationships, makes us joyful, happy, expecting good (even when things don't look good), if He makes the selfish selfless, the greedy generous, the anxious peaceful, then God is good and others will want what we have.

If you and I are examples of what God does, we become magnets for those seeking what we have. Let our lives be sign-posts of God's transforming power. As we ourselves are transformed into the likeness of Jesus (cf., Rom. 8:29), we become better agents of God's offer of reconciling and transforming love to those around us.

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*Yes, I know Pentecostals and charistmatics get distracted too, and not all those who call themselves charismatic or Pentecostal pursue this equally. In fact, some who are Pentecostal in name, are 'uncomfortable' with 'that sort of thing,' and some charismatics will cut off part of a program when God's manifest presence is there, to get on with the 'order of the day.'