Thanks God for revelation.
Sometimes our perspective is limited. Even when we get as many opinions and hear out as many points of views as possible, still our perspective is limited.
Revelation comes when our perspective is renewed. Sometimes revelation comes from exactly what we thought it would, and sometimes the Lord brings revelation out of nowhere. Revelation does not mean that what is in front of us has changed. I picture a statue in a museum. As you walk around it you see different parts and it starts to make sense, but the revelation comes when you understand what it is. The statue hasn’t changed at all, only you have.
Sometimes the revelation may seem redundant. Like something that you’ve heard before, and honestly you probably have heard it before. But revelation requires that you let perspective and renewed understanding of who God is alter the eyes that you see the world with. True revelation lines up with scripture and the character of God and actually gives us eyes that see the world in some measure of how God does.
A few weeks ago the Lord gave me revelation about the simplicity of the gospel.
It had been a couple of days of subconsciously asking why am I here? What am I doing? What it really looked like was an endurance mindset: ‘I just have to get through this and then it’ll be over’ or ‘this is temporary, just push through’. The hope, the driving force, wasn’t anything greater than the fact that everything must come to an end. I didn’t have a why, a real purpose for living the life in front of me or walking the path set out for me.
And then without even asking the Lord spoke revelation over me.
He said:
“Maddie, the point is that I want to be with you!”
He then proceeded to show me the whole picture.
Before creation, it was just God. God is whole and complete and lacking nothing, so he wasn’t lonely. But I think God wanted to share his goodness with someone. He wanted to celebrate, to enjoy everything that he could do.
Hence the creation. The start of his plan to fulfill his desire to be with people. But he knew that making little robots who will love him forever wasn’t real love. He knew that he wanted the people who would be with him forever to also WANT to be with HIM forever. So he gave them a choice. He said you can be with me, you can have conversation with me, you can listen to me and be listened to, you can have life at the fullest, or you can choose anything else. You can listen to whatever and whoever, you can leave me if you don’t want me.
Visually, I think of if God created the world to function like straight parallel lines. He said the best way is that each of you continue walking straight but you have the freedom to walk anywhere else.
So what happened? Surprise, surprise. We chose everything else. We listened to Satan and we went in directions that we thought were better for us. The once straight parallel lines are now all over the place- running into each other, creating pain, shame, hurt, sin, etc. The people walking the earth wanted no part of God! The whole point of creation was being lost so quickly! The only way to restore perfection is to stop imperfection- to put sin to death. To put Godlessness to death. If two straight parallel lines are next to each other, the only way to keep one that is astray from messing up the other is to get rid of the astray altogether.
So God sent the flood. None of these people wanted to be with him and they would end up in hell anyway, so may as well course-correct early. Noah wanted to be with God, so God spared him and his family. They would start the straight lines yet again.
Alas, the people again fell away from God. Being your own God is tempting and Satan’s voice sometimes seems as loud as God’s. The cost of sin is death, and this cost was only multiplying daily. The sins that were left unatoned for, the growing debt between us and God, all of it only widening the chasm between us and God. And if the only point was for God to be with us how could he let this price stand between?
So, he sent his son.
His son had no sin, and was also God, and the only sacrifice that could cover the debt of all sins past and present.
The point of Jesus’ coming to earth was to bridge the gap between us and God, to allow more people to be more fully with God. BECAUSE THAT IS THE POINT. TO BE WITH GOD.
Because of Jesus, nothing else has to die in place of our sins, which means we get a second chance, and a third, fourth, fifth, sixth, and seven times seventy more chances to be with God again.
Everything after that is history, and everything we do either stays in line with what God created or it doesn’t. Lines everywhere are crashing into each other, which is why sin and death and pain and hurt still exist. In fact, even as followers of Jesus, as the people who dwell with God, our straight line will continue to be run into by every other human that is not walking with God 100% of the time. We don’t walk with God 100% either, and even if we did we would still be subject to pain and suffering and death because Satan is still in the world, misdirecting and distracting us from our only purpose.
I’m not saying that this concept, that God’s only purpose was to be with us, is the end all be all, it’s just perspective. It’s a different take on the same information. And as I’ve seen with new perspective, things I’ve heard before have renewed meaning. The reason that I get up to have quiet time is no longer something that I have to do or something that I think will better my life and relationship with God. No, now it has so much more depth, more purpose and meaning. To get to spend time with a God that did so much to spend time with me! The reason that I serve is to invite the presence of God to be with more and more people, because God wants to be with us! The reason that I invest in community is to remind me and others how to continue to walk with God and stay present with him when we forget that God just wants to be with us!
Thanks God for eyes to see and ears to hear.
