We know God easily, if we do not constrain ourselves to define him.
~Joseph Joubert (1754-1824)
But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For His sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ and be found in Him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which comes through faith in Christ, the righteousness from God that depends on faith—that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and may share His sufferings, becoming like Him in His death, that by any means possible I may attain the resurrection from the dead.
~ paul, The Least of The Apostles, in Philippians 3
Oh beloved, it is true. We are only beginning to know Him. We seem so willing to come to know the Scriptures, but we are unwilling to know the Author and Finisher of this faith in which we walk. However, the word itself leads us to an audacious conclusion. We do need to know His words, but it does seem to this writer that we, rather, need to know Him. And one HUGE caveat is required here. My sense is that this process of coming to know Him is eternal… even so it will happen. However, the closest approximation to what i am thinking right now is the seraphim who dwell in the near Presence and continually proclaim their amazement at new revelations and understandings of His holiness.
Truths like this can and should even go so far as to call us to question the famous proposition of the Westminster Shorter Catechism; that the chief end of man is to glorify God, and enjoy Him forever. This statement is absolutely true. However, it does not go far enough. The chief end of man is to become so one with Him, that we are in union with Him. There will be no ‘separate’ enjoyment of some ‘other’ God with whom we have a very close relationship. Rather, we are to join the Godhead (oh dear reader, do not confuse this statement with anything resembling us becoming Deity Himself – for He alone reigns beyond eternity. All glory and honor and power and praise to Him alone!)…. and even so, it is this infinite miracle of taking sinful man and making him just like Himself which will bring Him even greater glory, and us abundance and joy beyond measure. We are the ‘metachoi’ (partakers) – IF we only believe, and abandon any hope in ourselves or our dead works.
Perhaps, the biggest step towards really and audaciously knowing Him is letting go of the fear. And perhaps again, this is why this is one of the predominant themes of The Word He gives us. Once we realize that He is big enough to handle the questions, and able to answer them IF we will believe (there is the IF again) – and once we flush the ego and pride that says that something has to conform to our beliefs – we are on the way.
There is indeed Truth. And Truth is wonderful. It simply is. What we find though, is that most of it is simply beyond any tiny little goofy theological model we come up with. Theology is like any model – it is a model. And models break down. As long as we are willing to embrace the failure of our models, they can be useful in finding HIM in the midst of them. They are like those landing beacons on aircraft carriers, helping a pilot land his jet on the ‘postage stamp’ of runway in the middle of the ocean. We gotta use them, but many of you pilots know this even better than i do… There are moments where you simply say, “EVERYTHING on my instruments tell me what i should be needing to know right now, AND something is not right, so you seek another solution through other channels in your systems (including intuition).
Now, this is true. There is truth. And truth does not change. Truth is simply reality as defined by God and it reigns free forever in the Light of the council of the ages. Nothing ever changes truth, as it has no viable challengers. So, though a liar mount a great assault on the truth, it matters not how great the liar is. Further, our refusal to accept anything true in no way makes that truth untrue. All things dwell in truth’s light across the æons in the eternal court of ideas.
Said simply. Truth wins.
The truth is that G_d is writing His truth on our hearts through His Spirit. Ezekiel and Jeremiah and Isaiah and John all speak to this wonderful truth. And this was what began to break this fool of a writer free from worrying about completely understanding the texts of many passages.
Rather, He seems to use the words in the text to leverage them as ways to begin teaching us within our spirits – by His Spirit. The words prime the pump and the Spirit goes on from there to teach us the deep things of Himself in a way that is just perfect for us to understand (this helps us understand the concept of the seven Spirits of God in Revelation).
So, the boy who spawned the book “Heaven Is for Real” may be just as right on as another’s more intellectual, or my more mystical model. They all are strokes of exactly the same Story being written on our hearts by the Storyteller Himself. The story is bigger than language can bear my brethren. He often has shown us things so far beyond our ability to describe that it is unlawful for us to even try – for they might lead people into error.
However, here is one example that might be palatable. This is just one axiom i run under.
God does not exist.
Rather, He is the Wellspring of existence. Eternity and Infinity and Existence are simply constructs He has designed for the purpose of interface with creation (that which exists [i.e. comes forth] in Him). This is not just mystical stuff. This helps free the mind to help us see Him as neither constrained by time or space. It helps us see the truth that in Him we live and move and have our being.
And then there are parts of the text so plain that we miss their meaning if we do not stop and listen… This theme is pervasive in His Word, and we miss it.
Ego must die. Self-existence is antithetical to our becoming One with Him (thus, we see even the error in the great statements of documents like the Westminster Shorter Catechism). A Love relationship with Him has absolutely nothing to do with us doing something… It has everything with us yielding to complete possession (notice how demons understand the power of running a person by possession and try to hijack this) by His Spirit.
And then there is the reconciliation of sinners to a Loving G_d. Why? Just to save us from hell? No. DO NOT MISS the point of the reconciliation…
We are to be so integrated into Him as to become the foundation of His throne. We are to become the righteous vessel through which He pours His Love and goodness and right action for eternity. This is so profound as to be nearly unspeakable. We are His, He is ours. We are one with Him. Completely, utterly, totally one with The One. Now, by His Grace, i am one with I AM.
Again, can we see it? That we may know Him is the chief end of all of this. There is no other end. What we are learning is not wrong, it is not even incomplete… it is just that the Truth is infinite, and we must let go and receive this stuff in our spirit to comprehend it.
As He has brought me into friendship with Himself, i am seeing the immense joy He takes in our simple yielding to His teaching. He has to prepare us step-by-step to begin to see His goodness. While Moses had to be hidden in the cleft of the rock, we no longer have that problem… we have already died in our flesh, so we CAN look upon Him and continue to live. There is not going to be any abject moment of terror when we see Him IF we continue in yielding belief to His Loving work in our lives.
What He is showing me is that His Love is so bursting and real and simple and true. He is funny and interesting and wise in such a way that will not in the least bit feel any sense of being alien when we meet. Everything, rather, will simply come into much clearer focus when He is the Light and the Lens we see through.
We are being made the friends of One who does not even need any friends, He is just sharing the infinite wealth of Himself with us. All we have to do is yield to The Truth. For He is The Way and The Life we were ever Designed to have.
This is very good news.
