My last blog I talked about being in a relationship with God that goes beyond the elementary things of acceptance and forgiveness.
Heb 6:1
So let us stop going over the basics of Christianity again and again. Let us go on, instead, and become mature in our understanding. Surely we don’t need to start all over again with the importance of turning away from evil deeds and placing our faith in God.
Far too often, non-believers are convicted of their rebellion to God and His purposes, and are ready to deal with their guilt over past sin and rebellion. They come to Christ as their Savior, to be forgiven an embraced as an adopted child, but there is so much more that God has in mind for this new relationship which Christ paid for.
God’s end game with Jesus as the sacrifice for our sin was not only meant to remove our judgment, but more importantly, the barrier to a deep and lasting relationship with our Creator. This new relationship was meant to set us up for our inheritance. Let me walk us through the progression of relationship that God wants each of us to grow into, first through the example of our own relational development with our parents.
When we are infants and toddlers, we look at our parents almost as gods. They seem to be able to do anything and nothing was to hard from them. When we experience a shift in our relationship in pre-adolescents and adolescents, our relationship changes in a dramatic way. We still value and hopefully respect our parents, but now they are more human than God like. They still have great power, but we know they are not superhuman anymore and thus relate to them differently. When we become teenagers, we begin to over-estimate our own importance and judgement. We begin to shift again in our relationship, and at times, seem to be breaking away and almost destroy the very thing we have valued more than any other relationship. Then there is the period of becoming adults ourselves. We come to understand we are not as smart as we thought, and the world is harder than we imagine. Our view of our parents changes once again. Hopefully, we are now valuing them differently. Hopefully, with understanding and tenderness, but from a whole different vantage point. If we are blessed with good parenting in our early years and gained sound wisdom, we now move into a friendship that is different from all others. There is a bonding that we often call “Blood” which transcends reason or logic. From this vantage point, let’s look at how Jesus was helping the disciples to understand how they were meant to transition in their relationship to Him and our Heavenly Father.
First Jesus called people to follow Him and experience God up close and personally, maybe for the first time. Remember the Jewish people had known God primarily through rule keeping, hoping to be blessed by obedience, not so much personal relationship.
John 1:43
The next day He purposed to go into Galilee, and He found Philip. And Jesus said to him, “Follow Me.”
Peter was one of the men that followed, and after spending time following Jesus, asked him to use his boat to teach. Jesus told Peter to throw his net out even though they caught nothing all night. When the ship almost sank from the overload of fish, Peter realized Jesus was truly someone different, and felt the exposure of his sin. The relationship was changing from a casual follower to a disciple.
Luke 5:8-10
But when Simon Peter saw that, he fell down at Jesus’ feet, saying, “Go away from me Lord, for I am a sinful man, O Lord!” For amazement had seized him and all his companions because of the catch of fish which they had taken; and so also were James and John, sons of Zebedee, who were partners with Simon. And Jesus said to Simon, “Do not fear, from now on you will be catching men.”
For three and a half years Jesus trained his disciples to minister with Him in the power of the Holy Spirit as disciples. They learned to heal the sick, cast out demons and preach the good news. They were on mission with Jesus. They were moving into a new relationship with God that was more than serving in ministry.
John 15:13-15
“Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends.
“You are My friends if you do what I command you. “No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.
The disciples had gone from being curious, to following, to serving and now to friendship. This new level of relationship was not the end though. They were being positioned to a new level of relationship that would be so deep they could never return to their old lives nor would they want to. Jesus was giving them the Holy Spirit, not just as a power broker, but as an intimate friend, that would be with them wherever they went. When people think of the Holy Spirit, they mostly focus on Pentecost and power, but if you read the gospel of John, you discover the Holy Spirit was meant to be an intimate partner our whole lives not just when power was needed.
John 14:16-18
“I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Helper, that He may be with you forever; that is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it does not see Him or know Him, but you know Him because He abides with you and will be in you. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you.
The Holy Spirit was abiding with them, but would be “IN” them. Talk to natural orphans and they often will describe a whole in their souls, that is a longing to be connected. It’s not a physical connection so much as a relational one that goes way beyond proximity.
The last portion of scripture I want to encourage you to read is John 17:22 about “Oneness”.
John 17:22-23
“The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one; I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
Questions:
- Are you longing for a deeper walk with God that goes beyond respect and gratitude? It’s available!
- Will you trust the Holy Spirit to take you into a love affair with your Heavenly Father? It’s available!
Let’s cultivate our love for God that moves beyond the elementary (make sure you read part 3)
Pastor Dale
I am still amazed by the scripture where we are called his friends. How astounding. And now he calls me beyond that to oneness or to a lover! I do not understand this. But I must lean in, and trust.
Hi Jeff
All the time Jesus is with his disciples he is trying to communicate the Father’s heart towards humanity. Towards the end of his time on this earth, Jesus reveals the depth of relationship that the Father is after and I agree it’s pretty profound. that a god who made the heavens and earth is not just willing to be close to me he expects it if we are to have the kind of relationship Adam once had and of which he now makes available to us. May the Holy Spirit give us willingness to be comforted to the image of God in Jesus Christ!