What's Wrong With This Picture?
What’s wrong with This Picture?
One of the most amazing
things about the way we were created, is how sensitive we are to the world
around us. For instance, we have the ability to see a single photon! The eye is
so sensitive it requires a neural filter, so we do not get over loaded by all
the input our eyes are able to detect. We can feel ridges through our
fingertips as small as 13 nanometers, it is said that if our fingertips were as
large as the earth, they could detect the difference between a house and a car.
We can recognize over one trillion smells, and in our ears, sense the
differences in atmospheric pressure as small as one billionth of one atmosphere.
This is all pretty amazing when you think about it, but what is more amazing,
is that the God who created us with such sensitivity, could come to dwell in us
bodily, as through His Spirit, and most appear completely unaffected! The truth
is, most who attend church and call themselves Christians, live a spiritual
life that is completely subjective, in other words, they really aren’t sure of
anything at all, and to them, that is what faith is for.
In Scripture, the sending
of the Holy Spirit was meant to remove the subjectivity from the Christian life.
It is completely illogical for Jesus to say that He sent Him so we would not be
left alone as orphans, so as to comfort and direct our lives, and then us be
left to wonder if He is really with us at all. Most will not define their
experience that way, but it is obvious, Christ has little effect on most who
say they know Him. Is it possible that we could be so sensitive to everything
else, and yet so insensitive to the indwelling and presence of our creator? The
question we need to ask is not, is what I see in most who say they know Christ
today normal, but rather, is it possible that the very God of heaven could
invade my life and Him actually have so little effect? You see in the Old Testament
God shouted from the mountain, in the Gospels He spoke from the lips of Jesus,
and now He reveals Himself as boldly in our inner man, as His Spirit comes to bear
witness with ours. The power of God to reveal Himself on the mountain is
actually meant to be no less tame, now in the spirit of man. The problem with
most is very simple, they have yet to be born again, and they have yet to experience
the presence of God! The presence of God in us was meant to be a transforming,
transfiguring event, not a subtle ripple through our conscience. In the New
Testament, the filling with the Spirit was a life shattering moment! The New
Testament gives us a picture of what a genuine encounter with Christ produces, something
far different from the counterfeit most have come to accept. Satan would have
you to believe that His presence, is
not really “His presence,” the same
way he did when he said, “you will not
surely die!”
Everyone who says they
know Christ needs to ask themselves a couple sobering questions. First should
be, is what I see in Scripture the exception or the rule, for all those who
encounter the living God? And secondly, is it logical or even possible, for the
God who created me so sensitive to everything else, to live within me, and me
be affected so little? If we say we have been saved, and we are not at the same
time overwhelmed continually by His presence, we are lying to ourselves, for
such is the true nature of being born again!
Rev. Joel M McDuffie Jr.
2/13/2017
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