Our Perception Of God Determines Our Fellowship With God
My heart, O God, is drawn in ways beyond my comprehension. The more I know Thee, the more I love Thee; and the more I love Thee, the more I desire Thee. Create in me a pure heart, and make my heart the dwelling place of Thy presence, and let me never drift away from that aspect of my fellowship with Thee.
Draw me nearer, O God; draw me nearer to Thyself in the perfection of Thy revelation. Amen.
As I begin to understand the perfection of God and how He manifests it in my life, it brings me to the point of experiencing the manifest presence of God. This is the basis of my fellowship with God. God’s presence is all around us, but it is the manifest presence of God, that mysterium tremendum, that is the basis of my fellowship with Him.
“Search me, O God,” David the psalmist wrote, “and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24).
Read and Learn More Things That Delight The Heart Of God
Whatever the cause, David wanted to be led by God “in the way everlasting.” In order to do that, some major changes had to take place in the heart of David, and David was willing to make those changes.
I talked about hell. Hell, basically, is for those who are unlike God. Moral dissimilarity creates hell, a moral dissimilarity to God. It is the supreme purpose of God to bring us into alignment with His character.
After all, we were created in the image of God, and whatever that means, there is something in us that relates to something in God, and our fellowship depends upon discovering that “something.”
Whatever in my life is unlike God and contrary to the holiness of God must be eliminated from my life. That is why David said, “Search me, O God, and know my heart.” David understood that he could not know his own heart, and if he could not know his own heart, how much less can people like you and me?
This is the work of God and must be unhindered by our lack of knowledge of what God is doing. The person who needs to know everything and understand everything will prohibit God from doing what only God can do.
Where does our fellowship with God begin? That question needs to be answered. It is all boiled down into one theological word: reconciliation. Because of our being out of sorts with God, we need to be reconciled with God on His terms.
We do not set the terms for this reconciliation. Many people like to set their own terms, hoping that God will meet them halfway. The problem is God will never meet us halfway. It is God’s way or no way.
And God’s way is personified for us in the Lord Jesus Christ. Our reconciliation through Jesus Christ is based upon three acts. These are acts that God has laid down to bring us into full reconciliation with Him.
Atonement is the first act. This was what Jesus Christ did on the cross for us. It was a work that only He could do, and the work that He did for us. Atonement was fully made there on the cross when Jesus died for us.
The second act would be justification. Again, Jesus Christ accomplished this on the cross. Some look at this as the legal aspect of our atonement. Jesus brought to us a finished work fully acceptable to God. Our responsibility is to accept it for ourselves
The last act would be regeneration. This is where we come into the picture. All that Jesus Christ did on the cross would have been of no use, no value unless it had an impact upon man’s nature.
What Jesus Christ did on the cross, which brought about our regeneration, was the only thing that could bring us back into full fellowship with God. This regeneration brings into us the divine nature.
The only thing that God can accept in us is His Son. And through the work of reconciliation, God has brought man to that point where he can have fellowship with God. Apart from this work, fellowship with God is not possible.
Often in a prayer meeting, someone will pray for God to “come near to us.” So many Christians have a serious problem along this line, believing that God is far away. Somehow, through some kind of means, they think we need to get God’s attention and draw Him to us. If we pray long enough, if we get enough people to pray, then we entice God to draw near to us.
This is to misunderstand the whole concept of the nearness of God. God is as close to you right now as He ever was and ever will be. This is, of course, one of the attributes of God, omnipresence, which simply means that God is present everywhere.
There is no place where God is not. God is as close to one thing as He is to another. And this is something hard for us to comprehend. We are trying to understand God and His attributes through our limited abilities. God has no limitation whatsoever about anything.
Keep in mind that no matter where you are or what you are doing, God is near. He does not have to be enticed or bribed to come near to us. He is already closer than we could ever imagine.
This problem of God’s nearness is especially true for those Christians who have a sense of what I will call “divine remote¬ness.” Somehow, they do not believe that God is where they are. Somehow or other, God is far removed from where they are.
Because they cannot feel the connection with God, they do not believe God is near. Therefore, they have to yell and scream and try to get God’s attention, as though He were off somewhere doing something else. For many who call themselves Christians, a sense of emptiness in their hearts dominates.
With Elijah in the Old Testament, it was only after all the other noise had spent itself that he was able to hear that still, small, most mighty voice of God speaking to him. Our trouble today is we cannot get still enough to hear that still, small voice.
In order to have fellowship with this God, that fellowship has to be on His terms and not ours. God has already outlined the terms of fellowship with Him, and none of these terms is negotiable. He is the One who puts down the principles for this fellowship, not us.
How many Christians are attempting to keep up a relationship with God that is not actually established upon the character and nature of God? For some reason, they have taken the relationships that they have with one another and projected them onto God. This will never do.
My relationship and fellowship with another brother or sister in the Lord depend upon my physical being there. It depends upon my actually seeing them and they’re seeing me, and my hearing them talk and they’re hearing me talk.
When they are not around, I do not know what they are saying, and they do not know what I am saying. In some ways, we have projected this onto God. If we cannot see God, then God cannot see us. If we cannot feel Him here, then He is not here.
And if He is not here, then He does not know or understand what my situation is. How many times have we tried to explain to God the difficulties we are in and how He can help us out?
How frustrating it is to try to get hold of God, and nothing seems to work. My prayer life seems to be empty. The heavens seem to have a brass ceiling that nothing can penetrate. This describes many Christians today whose perception of God is not really based upon what God has revealed to us about himself.
We have based our Christianity upon a misunderstanding of the Bible’s truth. We have head knowledge, but no heart knowledge, of what Christianity is all about. We can explain Christianity, but we are not able, to live it from our hearts.
The difference between head knowledge and heart knowledge is that the heart can actually experience God, the presence of God, while the head cannot.
As I think about this subject, one question begs to ask: How many Christians really have experienced God? How many have gotten beyond simply believing that God exists and experienced the presence of God?
It is one thing to know about God, but it is another thing to know God in personal experience. The great delight of our Father, which art in heaven, is for us to experience Him in a way that He deserves.
I am rather passionate about reading the Bible. I firmly believe in the importance of spending time alone with God in the written Word, and I encourage others to spend as much time in the Word of God as possible. I have discovered that when I spend time in the Word of God, I will experience the Living Word.
If I have not experienced the Living Word, I have not really read the Bible. The Bible is not a textbook so I can answer questions on a quiz somewhere. The Bible cannot be compared to any other book in the world.
When I come to the Bible, and when I spend time reading and meditating upon the Scriptures, I am entering a world where God is dominant and desires to reveal himself to the worshiping heart.
As I get into the Word of God, it begins to reveal God to me. And as that divine illumination takes place under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, I then begin to see God for who He really is—not some caricature somebody has drawn to explain God to me.
The great secret of the Christian life is to begin experiencing God as He desires me to experience Him. God’s greatest delight is to bring me into His presence.
I am afraid that for all practical purposes, we have only theological Christians in the church today, not deeply spiritual Christians. We have wonderful head knowledge of the Bible and can give “a reason to everyone who asks us about the hope within us,” but it does not go further than that.
As I get to know God, I begin to experience aspects of God that whet my appetite for more of God. I can never have enough of God. A growing yearning to be near God begins to develop, and I begin to recognize that God is within me, and I want to experience this God who is within me.
I yearn for a manifesta¬tion of the presence of God, a degree of fellowship with Him that goes beyond mere head knowledge. This is not something we can explain. If we could explain it to everybody’s satisfaction, it would not be God.
God is much more than we can explain or boil down to human understanding. God can be experienced only in the heart, which creates an atmosphere of praise worship, and adoration.
The prevailing condition among Christians today, as I see it, is that there is a sense of God’s absence among us. Many believe in God. Many worship God and even sing about Him. But it is almost as if He is not there. This has brought Christianity down below any other religion in the world.
Believe me when I say that Christianity is not like any other religion. Christianity begins with God and envelops the human heart that has been redeemed and comes back once again to the heart of God.
The apostle Paul makes this clear when he writes:
If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God.
Colossians 3:1-3
This is the posture of the Christian. We are seeking those things that are above. We are not being hindered by the world around us, but we are setting our affections on things above. We are looking up for our redemption, which is in Jesus Christ.
The reality of Jesus Christ is the basis of our daily fellowship with God. If we just acknowledge that there is a God somewhere that Jesus Christ died for our sins and that one day when we die, we are going to go to heaven, we have not really grasped the dynamics of fellowship with God.
My fellowship with God is much more than “one day I am going to die and go to heaven.” My fellowship with God is experiencing the manifest presence of God in my day-to-day living—not just a Sunday morning experience that cannot be replicated throughout the week. The dynamics of our worship is an everyday experience, or it is not true worship and we do not understand who God really is.
As our fellowship with God grows day by day, the Holy Spirit unfolds to us the reality of the Christian life. The qualities of Jesus Christ are becoming our qualities. What He is, we are becoming. I am not talking about His deity.
I am talking about the holiness of His perfection. Jesus Christ did not die on the cross merely so that one day we can go to heaven, which certainly is our hope; it is much deeper than that.
Jesus died on the cross, rose from the dead on the third day, ascended into heaven, and sent the Holy Spirit on the Day of Pentecost to give us His character and His nature to be a testimony to the world around us.
Our testimony is not that we have cleaned up our life. Any religion can do that. Our testimony is that we are like Christ, and people around us will begin to experience Jesus Christ as they begin to understand us.
Now, what are those qualities of Jesus? As we peruse the Scriptures, these qualities of His perfection are unveiled to us. These qualities include holiness, unselfishness, love, kindness, forgiveness, zeal, humility, and heavenly-mindedness.
As we study the life of Jesus, we begin to see these qualities, and that these qualities are part of our Christian experience. Day by day, I am becoming more Christ-like in my life.
The more like Jesus Christ I become, the more intimate is my fellowship with Him. Those things in my life that are contrary to Him need to be crucified and put out of my life so that I may go on in the fullness of spiritual perfection.
A great many are disconcerted by the term spiritual perfection. They make excuses for themselves, saying that nobody is perfect. But there is Someone who is perfect. That perfect One is Jesus Christ.
As we pursue Him in daily fellowship and in the perfection of His character and nature, we begin to become more and more like Him. The more we become like Him, the more our fellowship with Him takes on the reality that Jesus Christ desires in all of us.
Out in the world, we cannot find anything that will help us in our fellowship with God. We must decisively turn our backs on the world and walk in the shadow of the cross. Whatever it costs us is worth the fellowship we enjoy this side of glory.
Draw Me Nearer
lam Thirty O Lordy I have heard Thy voice,
And it told Thy love to me;
But I long to rise in the arms of faith
And be closer drawn to Thee.
Refrain:
Draw me nearer; nearer blessed Lordy
To the cross where Thou hast died;
Draw me nearer; nearer; nearer blessed Lord,
To Thy precious bleeding side.
Consecrate me now to Thy service, Lord,
By the power of grace divine;
Let my soul look up with a steadfast hope,
And my will be lost in Thine.
Oh, the pure delight of a single hour
That before Thy throne I spend.
When I kneel in prayer, and with Thee, my God,
I commune as friend with friend!
There are depths of love that L cannot know
Till I cross the narrow sea;
There are heights of joy that I may not reach
Till L rest in peace with Thee. –Frances J. Crosby(1820-1915)