In my recent video on my YouTube channel, Living Unshackled, I discussed how our beliefs shape the lives we live. They act as unconscious scripts that run our lives and affect how we interact with others, including God. I also talked about how, in Jesus, we have now been given a new script, and how it’s part of our faith walk to intentionally choose, day to day, to align with it.
Today, I want to talk about the quiet invitation in the word
of God to know Him, which we miss when we have not postured our hearts to hear Him. Our
ability to perceive and receive this invitation is affected by the mental
beliefs we carry from our past.
I had a revelation some time ago that the word of God, the
Bible, is a love letter to humanity. In it, we see God pleading and reaching
out to humanity inexhaustibly. From beginning to end, God weaves a beautiful
love poem for humanity, sharing and revealing Himself so that humanity can
choose Him, just as He chooses them.
This invitation is also available in the difficult passages
we come across; in fact, I love my testimony because I met Jesus in the Old
Testament, in the very hard passages that many struggle with. I heard and saw
His pleading heart to the people He called His own. I met a God who so dearly
desired for humanity to turn and see and know that He was God, that He desired
a hope and a future for them.
Recently, I have been reflecting on
the phrase: "Those with ears to hear, hear." I am beginning to
understand why the lady who was called a dog responded the way she did to Jesus
and why He was amazed by her faith. It is so easy for us to miss Jesus because
we are overwhelmed by biases, hurts, traumas, and busyness. Instead of being
offended, the Lady saw Jesus and responded with faith. Jesus is Lord; she knew
who He was. This helps me understand why Mary chose to sit at the feet of Jesus
and was commended for it.
This has raised so many questions about my willingness to
hear Him, to really hear Him. I recently learned in a YouTube video that
obedience, the kind Jesus requires of us, begins with being able to hear Him.
When we obey, we are hearkening unto His voice. It’s easier to obey when we can first truly hear Him. When Jesus speaks of having ears to
hear, that is a heart posture; it’s a posture that demands so much of us and
costs us. Intimacy is the price. Humility is another. It’s about knowing God and understanding Him. Sometimes God will ask us to do things that make no sense; sometimes He will test us seemingly harshly. But when we choose to really listen and hear Him, we can trust any and all requests from Him, even if they call us to our death or humiliation. Abraham trusted God, which is why he obeyed immediately when he got up to sacrifice his son, his promised son. The Canaanite woman, who was called a dog, didn't get offended but pressed in more deeply. What do you do when God seemingly rejects you? How do you respond when God makes a hard request of you? I notice I respond through the lens of my upbringing, not according to His character. I know that as I walk more with Jesus and grow in the knowledge of God, I will learn to obey Him as a simple extension of knowing Him; it won't be hard work.
There are many passages in the Bible that I have struggled
with, many that I misunderstood, and which, in turn, led to my misunderstanding
of the character of God. One such
passage is Isaiah 55:8-9:
“For my thoughts are not your thoughts,
neither are your ways my ways,”
declares the Lord.
9 “As the heavens are higher than the earth,
so are my ways higher than your ways
and my thoughts than your thoughts.
In these verses, I didn’t meet a Father longing to be
reunited with me, longing to love me, for me to receive His love. I met a father
who was like Matilda’s father in the movie “Matilda”, specifically the scene in
which he says:
Listen, you little wiseacre! I'm smart, you're dumb! I'm
big, you're little! I'm right, you're wrong! And there's nothing you can do
about it!
This misunderstanding caused me to withdraw from Him. I
missed God completely and what He was saying to me. I would weaponize
verses like these by using them as permission to minimize and bully myself into
submission to God. What I heard was that I was insignificant, my thoughts
didn’t matter, and neither did my plans. In response to that misunderstanding,
I would cut out of myself what I thought was too lowly for God. I chose only
His desires, and abandoned my own, “they didn’t matter anyway, I wasn’t God”.
What I heard was God desiring me to be a robot He could control, one that had
no thoughts or feelings and only did what it was told to do.
I filtered God through the lenses of belief already present
in my life. I wasn’t worthy. I didn’t matter. This was the sacrifice He
required of me, but I was wrong.
When shame speaks louder than the voice of God, it’s easy
for us to be offended by who we think God is revealing Himself to be. These lies and beliefs take
up so much space that they leave no space for God to be Who He says He is in
our lives. We only allow versions of God we can understand or accept. We don’t
receive God as He is, but as what we want Him to be. We easily get offended by
who God reveals Himself to be, not because of who He is, but because of our
preconceived notions about Him. I honestly believe that if we truly knew God, it would be
hard to say no to Him.
I think a great example of God’s lovingkindness beyond the
cross is His willingness to endure and walk with us through our great
misunderstandings of Him. To outright accuse Him of being unrighteous, abusive,
a liar, and unholy, and to know that there are many wrong accusations in my
heart towards Him, but He gladly bears them for a chance and hope at a
relationship with me. He willingly takes the time to teach me to know Him and
trust Him. I know of no other love like His.
Where I thought I met condemnation and shame in His word was
an invitation instead. An invitation to know Him, to be curious about who He
is, and what He is trying to communicate with me. To come boldly before the
mercy seat and ask questions, sit and incline ourselves to hear Him truly. To
be willing to pay the price of intimacy. To seek His face to know Him. To
simply receive from Him. Where I heard a father browbeating his daughter into
submission and self-abandonment was a Heavenly Father pleading for His daughter
to come and know Him.
The Gospel can be told in this way as well: that God, in His desire for us to know Him as He knew us, sent His Son to take on our sins and shame, thereby obliterating what made it impossible for us to know Him.
This is the Gospel, that we would gain eternal life, and “Now this is eternal life:
that they know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
John 17:3
The only response to this Gospel is to open our hands and
humbly receive this wonderful, gracious, generous gift. This is the invitation
to come and know God. Everything flows from first knowing Him. Eat His food,
drink His wine, come and sit at His feet and receive from Him!
God, in His great kindness and grace, has helped me understand
that when He declares His ways and His thoughts to be higher, He is giving me
joy and hope. God sees the whole thing and can fully fulfil it in its entirety
to the overflow. Where we only see one dimension, He sees it all. Where we
might try to treat the symptoms, He reaches and fulfils the core of the desire.
Only He can do the impossible, and answer abundantly, above, and beyond what we
think we can ask or think.
It is good to say that God’s ways are higher, because here I
can trust Him to fulfill in full and not tarry, seeing the whole of me as He
does. I rejoice knowing that my God’s ways are higher and thoughts higher, I
rejoice knowing He doesn’t look to give to me just for today, but for eternity.
Blessed be the God who sees us in all our entirety and who
continues to invite us to seek and know Him. To have ears to hear.
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