At the beginning of this year I knew that the one thing I wanted out of 2011 was: to get to know God. I have been following him for quite some time now (almost 10 years in fact) and although I know a lot about Him, have lead others to Him, and have preached and taught many Bible studies on Him, I have come to realize that I don’t think I know Him very well. And that is what I’m going to do this year- get to know my Father, Creator, and Savior as He desires to be known and wills that I know Him. The funny part is- I’m not even sure what knowing Him will look like, feel like, or produce but all I really care about is that I know Him even just a speck as much as I am known by Him and I’m hoping that these 21 days of prayer and fasting will only be the inception of the glory that is to come.
I can easily get caught up in the logistics of things- what will I read, when will I pray, for how long, should I be silent?, should I sing?, what should I pray about?, should I read good books or just the Bible?, what book of the Bible should I read?, should I journal?, and the list goes on and on. I’m not getting caught up in these things this time because my goal isn’t to be well-rounded, to cover all the bases, and most certainly not to be perfect- it’s just to know him.
I began reading A.W. Tozer’s The Pursuit of God today- it is so thick of truth I haven’t been able to get past the first three pages…of the preface! I need a way to fully think through what Tozer is saying (and what the Spirit is saying to me about what he is saying), and so… I write.
On page 7 Tozer writes: “Current evangelicalism has laid the altar and divided the sacrifices into parts, but now seems satisfied to count the stones and rearrange the pieces with never a care that there is not a sign of fire upon the top of lofty Carmel. God be thanked that there are a few who care. They are those who, while they love the altar and delight in the sacrifice, are yet unable to reconcile themselves to the continued absence of fire. They desire God above all.”
How easy it is to, in an effort to advance the kingdom, work tirelessly developing programs, church structures, and events, building better buildings and churches, desiring excellence in sound and aesthetic, only to completely neglect the very PURPOSE of the kingdom- of the Church- which is to provide an avenue for people to encounter God Almighty. And sadly, as Tozer points out, we have gone on for so long with being pre-occupied by building the organization of the church and working within the “program” that we haven’t even noticed there is no fire- no manifest presence. Why, oh why are we okay with this? Why does this not bother us?
Upon reading this I became so deeply thankful that we ARE experiencing God’s presence at my church (LifeStone), we DO desire God above all else, and that we continue to desire MORE. We are by no means a perfect church, but God is there because He is alive and well in us. But I cannot pretend that this is not what most churches are experiencing on a weekly basis or that it is what most Christians experience on a daily basis- I know, because even I have become satisfied with the flickering spark of what should be an all-consuming flaming fire burning in my soul for God.
Tozer goes on to say: “It is a solemn thing, and no small scandal in the kingdome, to see God’s children starving while actually seated at the Father’s table.”
I’m wondering when it became normal to stop experiencing and expecting to experience God in a tangible, real way both corporately on Sunday morning (and any other time believers meet) and individually? Why have we become satisfied with SO little of God when He is SO great? Don’t we realize that we will NEVER get to a point where we don’t DESPERATELY need more and more of Him? I am afraid that our lack of desperation and desire for Him either reveals that we don’t think we really need Him to meet our needs and satisfy our souls, that He is unable to, or that we just don’t find Him all that desireable. Perhaps this is why we so easily run to other things and people to fill the void that we all, no doubt feel.
We must come to a place where we refuse to be satisfied with ANYTHING other than God, we must take the religious limits that we have seen placed on our God and have been told to not expect anything more than off of Him and let Him reveal Himself as I believe He so desires to. But He will not be revealed to a people who do not expect Him or desire Him, and will not set themselves apart in anticipation of Him, because He cannot inhabit them.
The final excerpt I would like to quote from Tozer is one I simply cannot move past (page 9): “For it is not mere words that nourish the soul, but God Himself, and unless and until the hearers find God in personal experience they are not the better for having heard the truth. The Bible is not an end in itself, but a means to bring men to an intimate and satisfying knowledge of God, that they may enter into Him, that they may delight in His presence, may taste and know the inner sweetness of the veryGod Himself in the core and center of their hearts.”
If people are simply being TAUGHT the truth from God’s word but never EXPERIENCING God for themselves, it is no wonder there are so many weak, disfunctional, malnourished believers (particularly in America)! It is our responsibility as the church to allow the Spirit of God to be so alive in us that when we interact w/ others they are physically experiencing God themselves- and the only reason that seems to be unrealistic is because we don’t want to be pushed to have the faith it requires to live this kind of life.
If Biblical truth is not lived out it is nothing more than a philosophy or story that someone may choose or not choose to believe. As Spirit-filled believers we should be FULLY expecting to and experiencing God in a real, tangible, life-altering way EVERY DAY and if this is not happening in our lives than something has gone drastically wrong. I have a hard time believing that God would sent Jesus to die for a philosophy or religion or so that people could get together once a week, sing some songs, talk about the same things over and over and be able to sleep well at night. There has got to be more…there IS more.
It is both our responsibility and joy to not only teach the truths of scripture but to create an enviornment where the Spirit of God is welcomed and moves among His people so that people can have that genuine experience with God and not just have to settle to adhereing to a set of ideological principles.
God desires to be known by us; He desires to move, to heal, and to radically restore what has been broken, but we have got to wake up and realize that the fire may have gone out from our altars and we must refuse to live under the illusion that says it’s burning bright enough and should never expect anything more for another second.
