This week we were privileged to
hear from Shay Robbins, the men’s director at Kanakuk K-2. Let me tell you, this man is passionate about
others. He is a truly caring man, who makes
a point to invest in the lives of every person he comes into contact with. It was a real treat to get to hear his heart
over the past three days.
Shay spoke
to us about having an intimate relationship with God. In the Old Testament, God lived in the Temple. Only the priest could enter in to the most inner
place of the temple, the dwelling place of God.
As a precaution, they would tie a rope around his ankle, because, if he
had any un-confessed sin in his life, he would drop dead right then and
there. There was no room for hidden sin
in the presence of God. He would
sprinkle sacrificial blood on the holy of holies- the resting place of God, in
order to atone for the sins of all of Israel.
Now, we
don’t have to worry about GOING to find God.
He no longer dwells in the temple.
We have become the temple. He
dwells within us. As he died on the cross, his final words were “It is
finished.” With this, he ended the
ritual process of sacrifice, and atonement.
He had made the ultimate sacrifice and atoned for all the sins of anyone
ever. All past, present, and future
sins. Paid for. Imagine this as your debt… all of you past
present and future debt- out the window.
Taken care of. Now, imagine this
for every single person to ever live here on earth. Wouldn’t that make life easy?
Because of
this perfect sacrifice and atonement, we are no longer separated from God. We do not need to be righteous to be near to
him. We can have intimacy with him like
Adam and Eve had in the Garden.
Sometimes,
it’s discouraging to hear the stories of the bible, and think about the power
of the presence of god in those situations.
Today, we don’t feel like we experience the power of God. We are Distracted, uncommitted, and lazy. We are separated from God by Darkness. We base religion on knowledge and morality,
not faith. We care too much about
prosperity to truly commit to God, and we are too unwilling to let go of the
sin in our lives. We hide behind our
guilt and shame. Mostly, we are afraid
of what our lives would be if we truly committed to God. To drop all else, and live for the
Lord. This fear eliminates the power of
the believer.
Satan’s
greatest strategy is to remove depth from our lives. This is something that he is becoming more
and more successful with. Years ago,
relationships developed through personal, face-to-face contact. If you had a beef to pick with someone, you
had to go to them, talk to them, see their reactions, hear their voice, think
on your feet, and respond quickly.
Nowadays, our relationships are only as deep as the distance between our
face and the screen in front of us. Our
relationships are becoming more and more shallow. With this lack of depth comes a lack of
intimacy, and with that comes a lack of power.
This power is divided into three categories- spiritual power (faith and
trust), supernatural power (prayer and understanding), and the power to love
well (love your neighbor as yourself). Without this power, we can not serve to
our full potential as Christians.
We enter
into God through Jesus (John 14:6), but we communicate with God through the
Holy Spirit. The Spirit has developed
some what of a bad reputation amongst churches.
It is often overlooked, or pushed out of view. It’s kind of the redheaded-stepchild of the
Trinity. I believe that this is because
it is not very well understood. The Holy
Spirit dwells within every believer. It
is what speaks to us, and how we speak to God.
The power
of God exceeds any understanding we have of power here on Earth. Blows it out of the water. But it is important to make things right
before God before asking him to unleash his power in our lives. It is important to vacate our hearts and
minds of any hidden sin in our lives before coming before God. This is the process of taking an authentic
look at thin junk in our lives, and turning
from it.
Psalm
139:23-24 - Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my
anxious thoughts. See if there is any offensive way in me, and lead me in the
way.
Lamentations 3:39-40 - Why
should any living man complain when punished for his sins? Let us examine our
ways and test them, and let us return to the Lord.
Jeremiah 15:19 - Therefore
this is what the LORD says: “If you repent, I will restore you that you may
serve me; if you utter worthy, not worthless, words, you will.
God speaks
to us in many ways. He is ALWAYS
speaking to us. He does this through
many different methods:
§
Through His word- 2 Timothy 3:16, Hebrews 4:12
§
Through Creation- Genesis 1, Romans 1:20, Psalm
19:1
§
Through God’s People- Proverbs, 1 Thessalonians
5:19-20
§
Through the Holy Spirit
§
Through Dreams and Visions
§
HOWEVER HE WANTS.
Likewise, we receive it in different ways:
§
Revelation, or sudden knowledge
§
Illumination, or a new understanding of
something old
§
Impressions/Nudging, or the ‘voice of God.’
§
Conviction, or letting us know when we have
done, or are
about to do something stupid
Having spiritual discipline will
help to develop a close intimacy with God.
These disciplines include, but are not limited to Solitude, prayer,
meditation, fasting, and study.
Solitude allows us to simplify our
lives, and turn down the noise around us in order to hear God. After all, even Jesus made time to spend
alone with his Father.
Prayer is our way of talking to our
father. Imagine the love a father feels
in his heart when he hears the voice of their child. He loves
to hear from us. However, this is an
intimate part of our relationship with God.
It is not something that is meant to be done in order to show off. God tells us that what we do in secret, he
will repay us for (Matthew 6:18). God
makes it very clear in Matthew how we should pray to him. Many people know this as the Lord’s Prayer.
Hallowed be thy name. Give Him His due Glory. Humble yourself before him. Think about it, if you had a friend that just
told you how great you are all the time, wouldn’t you hang around them all the
time? Duh, yeah. Why wouldn’t you? Why wouldn’t God dwell in the place where he
is adored? Your kingdom come. Jesus is coming. Get pumped.
Your will be done. Submit to his will. Give us this day, our daily bread.
Make requests for things you
NEED, not want. Forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. Repent.
Lead us not into temptation. Help us to live for YOU.
Meditation is a deep contemplation
and asking internal questions. In
Eastern culture, meditation is the detachment from life’s worries. Christian
meditation is the detachment from distraction, confusion, media, anxiety, and
pretty much any thing that takes our eyes off of Christ. Once we are detached from all these things,
we can attach our minds to Godly thoughts, scriptures, and other life
lessons. When we are obedient to God we
will prosper.
Fasting is the practice of depriving
ourselves of a necessity in order to learn how to truly depend on God. It humbles us to the point that we can see
how easy it is to depend on ourselves, but how rewarding it can be to depend on
Christ. In the words of Shay Robbins,
“In our society, the gift of fasting is much more meaningful than the gift of
money.”
Finally, by studying, we can learn
more about the word of God. Shay taught
us to study by using the acronym S.O.A.P.
First, read a scripture. Second,
make an observation. Find a way to apply
it, and pray a prayer of understanding, thanksgiving or application.
Through these methods, we can
develop a more intimate relationship with God.
The more you get to know God, the more you will want to know him. Once we
reach a level of intimacy with our Creator and Savior, we will be able to
experience a new level of peace in our lives.
This is a lesson that everyone
should hear. For myself, it has shown me
just how sweet a relationship with God can be.
However, it is definitely a work in process. It will not just happen overnight. It is something that we must work for in
order to see the rewards that God has in store for us.
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