In this blog, I talk a lot about the Kingdom of God, and with little snippets here and there and somewhat out of context, I know I probably leave a lot of people confused or even maybe defensive, which is not my intent. I hope to address more in the weeks to come to give a more solid picture. One thing I know is that knowing God and having a relationship with Him is what it's all about. Nothing else can fully satisfy the spirit of man. That's what this post is about...
"Hey, wait a minute, wait a minute, Mommy. Please. I'm talking to Yahweh. (Pause) Oh, yeah, yeah, that's good, Yahweh! Mommy, He said that he does want me to save some for Daddy."
Levi's four. The one thing I want him to learn from me beyond anything else is that Yahweh talks and wants a relationship with us, that we can learn to hear His voice and follow His personal direction to us even beyond what we know from the Bible. The Bible won't tell Levi his purpose in life, whom to marry, or when a business deal could turn out badly (God is so practical--I love it.). If we know anything from the Bible, it's that the good book is chock full of stories about people who heard God.
Isn't there such a huge difference between knowing about someone versus knowing them?
I know Jed. No one can deny that. He's my husband. I have experienced him and continue to do so. I didn't just read his biography somewhere. If that were the case, our relationship would be missing a vital element. I wouldn't really know him...at all. But I do, and it would be absurd for someone to suggest to me that Jed doesn't exist.
It would be just as absurd if someone tried to tell me that God doesn't exist.
The reason I know, rather than just believe, is because I got really agitated in my youth about just believing. At some point, I became passionate about understanding Him and understanding my faith, and I knew that I'd heard His voice. Then I started hearing Him even more. He would answer specific questions through dreams, through random encounters with people (what I call divine appointments), through Bible verses, through anything He wanted.
It's His voice that has most shaped my adult life. When I read the Bible, it's not just the words, wisdom, and stories that I love. It's His voice reading to me between the lines. He tells me the pertinent revelation there and how it applies to my current situation, or I'll get entirely new understanding about a story I've read a million times or a Bible verse I'd memorized in childhood and thought I knew. I know many of you reading this can attest to the same thing in your lives, even if it's not been through the Bible. He created us, after all, to know Him, and I know many who have no faith but who've had an experience with something they can't attribute to anything else but His voice.
I'm so "over" hardened religion, or even just rote religion. I know that there are still habits that creep into my thinking, but I'm over it. I was over it 15 years ago, but the more I understand the Kingdom of God versus the philosophy of Christianity, I become more and more "over it" all over again.
He is what I want. Relationship was central to the Garden of Eden experience. That's what He wants, too. If I'm going to church and teaching good stories to my kids but not demonstrating a relationship with the real Person of our God, I'm doing them a disservice. I'm actually missing the point altogether and giving them a bunch of peripherals without their core. I'm giving them just one other option that they cerebrally can either choose to believe or choose not to believe.
But if I can teach them to hear His voice and truly experience His love and direction, that's something they can never deny.
So even when I know Levi is making up a conversation with Yahweh for some four-year-old reasons of his own, I couldn't be more pleased with his willingness to practice it, to be open in his little spirit to it, and for the times I've already seen that it wasn't made up.
Popular culture might raise its eyebrows at a little boy who "hears God." I chuckle inside and know that, one day, a generation who hears God is going to give popular culture a rather jolting kick in the butt. You better believe Levi's going to be one of them..."until the kingdoms of this world have become the Kingdom of our God and of His Christ." And what is the Kindgom, after all, but sons (and daughters) of God who know His voice? And something He wants to arrive "on earth, as it is in heaven?"
It might sound revolutionary, or maybe crazy? Until you go back to the beginning and realize it was the original idea. His idea. How'd we get so far away from it? We've created hundreds, if not thousands, of denominations that focus on a few core verses or doctrines, created division in the church, hit the mute button on the Creator of all things, and sufficiently tidied everything up into pleasant programs and plenty of quality entertainment in our services to make the message palatable to our culture. Not all of us, of course. But look around, Church. Are we happy with what we see?
How can we fix it? I know Someone who just might have the answer. And who's aching to tell us. We should ask Him. He still talks, you know.
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