A Different God?

Philippians 4:6-7 (NIV) “Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”

I have a question. Do any of you feel that you are worshipping, having faith and following a different God than the God Moses, Noah and Abraham followed and listened to? Did they have a ‘different’ relationship than the one you and I have?  Someone said, that Moses and Noah had “Faith and a very personal relationship of actual communication on which to rely.”

This statement befuddled me. ‘Different’? ‘Personal’? ‘Actual communication’? He went on to say, “We have 66 books to search, read, take into our hearts, and ponder. Our Faith in Him may be rock-solid, but we base it on His Word.” But does that mean we have a different God? In no way does it mean that. The God of Abraham is the One and only True LIVING God. In no way shape or form is He different now from way back then!

While the statement of Him being different might be true to those still searching for Him. The readers and believers of the Word, it is not true of me and MY experience with God. For one, we have to trust that man dictated the WORD in its entirety. We have to trust man through many translations in knowing what God Himself was saying. We are left to ponder His Word, not drink it in and bathe in it; there IS a difference.

Well I’m telling you right up front, if you don’t have a very REAL and PERSONAL relationship with GOD, (yes the same God of Noah, Moses, Isaac and Abraham) then you my friend will be tossed about in utter confusion and caught up in every wind of doctrine. God did not always speak to Moses via the burning bush. If you read and believe, you’ll know this to be true.

We humans are extremely limited in our vision, that is that we can only see that which is material. God is not material. To have an up front personal relationship with God, you must embrace the spirit and I don’t just mean the Holy Spirit sent to us in the New Testament, I mean the God Spirit walking with us from the beginning of time!

I very clearly understand that God does not speak to me as He spoke to Adam and Eve, or to Moses (via a burning bush) and the many others He spoke to, but my faith is not built on just the Word of God put forth in scripture. My faith is built on the Word’s of God spoken to ME.

A few months ago, January to be exact our minister who had been serving our church for 14 years left. Why did he leave? He said God placed on his heart to go and tend this other church that was weakening. He was called by God to go and tend that church and try to assist in reviving it.

Is that any different than God telling Noah to build an ark? Moses to free His people? I sincerely don’t feel it is much different, and yesterday’s service physically showed that to me. Pastor Dave had a break and Pastor Tim was told to give a sermon of what God placed on his heart.

When you attend church, you will physically SEE God working in the heart, mind and soul of a follower. If you don’t attend church you more than likely will only see what you want to see, read and believe from the scriptures. 

Pastor Tim made it clear. If you are an intellectual Christian, your faith is based on intellect, knowledge of the Word. Christians the world over have to give themselves completely to God. There is a balance of the will, the mind and the heart that takes place and in that relationship you’ve formed with God, He speaks to you! Yes, the same God of Abraham, Isaac, Noah and Moses. You balance the intellect (head), the Word (will) with God Himself  (heart) and are SHOWN the TRUTH of His Word via Him, placed on your heart, not man’s interpretation of what God places on your heart. (I’ll touch more on the balance later in the week)

Acts 2: 17 And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith God,I will pour out of my Spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams:

From Pastor Ron of the Titus Institute: “We see that man forfeited at the fall, direct communication with God on a personal basis. He then only received direct revelation through intermediaries. God communicated infrequently and only as He deemed necessary to fulfill His redemptive plan.

When we get to heaven we will have direct communication with God again. That is part of the blessing of redemption.

2 Cor.5:8 "absent from the body present with the Lord."
1 Cor.13:12 "For now we see through a glass, darkly; but then face to face: now I know in part; but then I shall know even as also I am known."
Praise the Lord!

Then how does God communicate to His people today?

Through His Word, the Scriptures.”

I understand the ‘personal’ relationship between God and Moses, Jacob, Abraham and Noah and the others. I understand the relationship of the trinity God (OT), Son (NT) and the Holy Spirit (NT), yes, via the scriptures, and with that knowledge I balance my servitude to the Lord and have a whole and entirely DIFFERENT relationship with God than say the intellectual Christian. < (the man who only seeks knowledge of God)

I have a very personal relationship of actual communication on which to rely. Just because mine appears different than theirs, it is essentially no different at all.

Thanks my friend, for stirring my mind and giving me more to ponder. And thank you God, for placing a very meaningful sermon on Pastor Tim’s heart.

More to come later this week…
 

Isa. 43:10 Ye are my witnesses, saith the LORD, and my servant whom I have chosen: that ye may know and believe me, and understand that I am he: before me there was no God formed, neither shall there be after me.