Friday, November 10, 2017

Getting To Know God Better 25

Has your hope and expectation of how God is working on your behalf started to wane?

Our relationships with mankind and our relationship with God are not meant to be on the same plane/understanding. Our relationships with mankind are based on personal, physical and emotional contact. Our relationship with God is based solely on spiritual connections. They are not the same nor do they work on the same basis, nor is one interchangeable with the other. There is very little contact with mankind that you can use in your relationship with God. I'm mentioning this because as I grow in faith I hear from so many people that many people of faith that they are having to work harder to hear God than they used to, or that they feel like God expects them to do it all on their own initiative, or that God has abandoned them or that God really isn't there.

All of these responses are from emotions driving the mind and creating feelings. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is not all there is to it. God is working on your behalf all the time, whether you emotionally feel it, understand it or even acknowledge it. If you feel anything at all it is because your inner man has distributed answers, understanding, wisdom to you via inspiration from the Holy spirit. But feeling is not the indicator that God is communicating with you, working on your behalf, answering prayer, moving mountains, changing situations, healing you, etc.

Any and all true recognition that God is doing anything at all is through faith only. Faith is the only spiritual receptor. Faith is the only way to God and the only way to know that God is working on your behalf. Faith is when your inner man and your mind have come to agreement to accept what God has done and what God is doing. Faith is the substance that interchanges personal, physical or emotional proof/recognition/understanding with spiritual insight/intuition/inspiration. Faith is tangible currency in the economy of God. 

If you really want to know if God is working on your behalf and what there is to hope for, then you will have to apply your faith. In this case I will call faith your raw expectation that despite the outcome, God has weaved His will in your situation and at some point your mind will be able to comprehend what your inner man has come to trust and know for certainty. Faith believes God and doesn't judge circumstances as having any power or authority over God's permissible will. True faith doesn't deny the outcome if it is not what you thought it should be or if it measurably negative. Faith is supernatural and measures outcomes spiritually. 

Note: I know that in many denominations there is never to be a negative thought or that somehow if you do this or do that the outcome of whatever is always good even if the reality of it is that it was not good. That is false teaching by well-meaning pastors, teachers, leaders. Of course bad things happen to good people, everyone gets sick and all die. These things have nothing to do with faith. Faith can move mountains, but it can't turn time backwards nor does it deny reality.  Faith is only about trusting God and has nothing to do with you getting a warm and fuzzy feeling that everything is going to be OK. 

Just one  more note: Anytime you pay someone, an organization, a church, ministry or any other entity in hopes that a prayer will be answered, (seed faith, seed money) you have wasted your money, not benefited the work of the Holy Spirit and proven that your faith is still in its infancy. There is no pay to play with God.