Natural VS Unnatural
© "God Goggles"
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16).
Purpose - We all want Purpose
My whole life I have had deep yearning to be normal or natural and have purpose. My life has been anything but normal from the get-go. After tragedy, I strove to find first a purpose in high school activities to include languages- sports- extracurricular groups- church activities- boyfriend and more, money, always in search of a home, a husband, no try 3 of husbands, boyfriends, kids- 5, a place, Super-mom, step-mom, home-school mom, mom who could fix step-son (NOT), officer, umpteen different careers God led me through, to be everything to everyone... a role that made me feel normal. I've spent countless years trying to get back what was taken from me.
Can you identify with this today? Are you tired? Have you been working for something for years and just never feel like you will get there? I think we all want to be normal and have a place where we belong. We all want a place to call home and a purpose to strive for. Look at how the book the Purpose Driven Life sold 6 million copies for goodness sakes! I think someone is seeking a purpose and normality. I sure did.
In Striving for Normal- It makes you consider, What is Normal or Natural? What is Super-Natural?
I've learned something pretty profound on my journey in trying out everything I could, that was legal. or well, legal according to man's laws.
What is normal? Truly? Isn't that kind of a presumptuous statement? Why is it presumptuous? Well it’s a pretty presumptuous desire for a Christian.
Normal for unbelievers tends to be taking part in whatever religion or non-religion they believe in (they still have morals too, sometimes), living life like we all do, having family, friends, working hard to attain goals like house-car-ability to travel, etc. Normal for regular people every where is the same pretty much. If you look at most Christians, they look the same on the outside as everyone else. I don't see them walking around with a bandana on their arm with a C engraved on it. I see them all striving for the same things pretty much everyone else is. This isn't right though. We should be striving for more. We should be striving to be different, not the same cookie cutter lives everyone else has. You know, Buddhist monks really astound me. They give up just about everything for their religion. We should be the same. Jesus never had a home. He went from home to home. He gave up being near God for us. If I lived in heaven my whole life and had to take on this body with all its infirmities, temptations, etc. and then die on a cross for people, simple people, I'd be kinda ticked. He gave up SO much. He gave up the capacity to be in a place where He never knew anything like what we go through. He was perfect. Man, He was lucky! So, we should be willing to give up everything too. I'm not saying for you to give up your home, goals, or dreams. Give it up in your heart though.
For once we allow God, ie the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, to come into our lives... how could we even ask to ever be normal again?
Normal is a standard that is according to World Standards. We humans put parameters, boundaries, and hidden ideals on others and ourselves. We want our lives to be normal but they are not and especially are not with God in them. Besides that, even if you choose to not believe in a God, unnatural and Super-natural things WILL occur no matter what. We live in a world fraught with supernatural ways. Science is even figuring this out with Quantum Mechanics and Physics.
All of us are spirit bound. We are going to go somewhere after death and well, we can live spirit bound lives now also. For if we love God we are HEAVEN Bound!
We SHOULD stick out like a sore thumb.... it's ok to be different.
Heaven is a place for the un-normal, well, but normal there anyways. I will speak more of this later though... Plainly put, its a paradox.
Pebbles
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ Revelation 2:17
When I was a little girl I used to read those mystery novels where you could choose your own path. Do you remember those? If not, I'll refresh or tell you about them. They are books where at the bottom of each page you would choose what the main character would do next. I read hundreds of these. I loved the way in which you could literally change the future of the character just by choosing something simple. Our lives are just like that. Daily, we walk through life making choices, hundreds per day sometimes. Some of these choices impact us greatly and some not so much. What we fail to realize though is how those same choices are affecting other people as well as the spiritual realm. I believe they effect the spiritual much more than we could have ever imagined....
Pebbles. Have you ever thrown a pebble into the water or a lake and watched the ripples of the energy as it travels through that water, emanating from that one tiny pebble? Those ripples can travel far! I have watched them travel from one side of a lake clear to the other side. In the same way, we know that every action we take, every decision we make, every word we speak, and every person's life we touch can create and DOES create a ripple effect.
I would like to take that concept one step further. Consider life like a game of chess except there are three players: God/ his angels, satan/ his minions, and you. There might even be more players we are unaware of but for now, think of these three. I believe that every single decision or action made, every occurrence that happens, and every happenstance that occurs is represented by a 'move' on that board. Each one of the above is represented by a pebble, or playing piece. Each time a player makes a move his pebble moves, which again is just a representation of a move here in our world.
This means that every single thing that happens originates from either God, satan, or you and you can take it one step further and say that many of your own moves originate from underlying moves made on the account of either God or satan. They are both able to circumvent and subconsciously or consciously lead you to move in certain ways. Also, you use your information given from your past and knowledge of God to decide your own moves. I believe that Each and Every Decision we make in life can be traced back to either God or satan in some means whether by pure motive, need, focus, end means, or by habit.
Most people will tell you this is a bit of an "extreme" idea. I understand we go through life and we have all sorts of decisions to make, things to do, and lives to live. We all have different roles and live in different cultures. We have different backgrounds. We are all busy and believe that we are just living Our lives. I mean, it's our life, right? That is what song after song professes! No, it’s not your life. God breathed life into your for His purpose. When and if you accept God you become a vessel for Him and are to focus on His needs in your chess game. He takes you on as a soldier for his team.
I also understand that most people would say I am an extremist in saying that everything comes from either God or satan but hear me out. If you believe in God, the God of the Bible, then you believe in an extremist God. There are no grey areas where He is concerned. NONE. We have a saying in police work, there's grey and then there's grey. We have laws we go by. Depending on each situation we may not have all we need to lean towards one way or the other, black or white. So, we look to the grey area. There are many shades of grey on this Earth.... BUT, not with God. You are either pure, or not. You are either focused on being more like Him, or not. You are either believing the Whole Bible and not just part, or not. You either make it to Heaven, or not. We can go on and on but you get the picture. God didn't play. Jesus didn't play. He meant business. They mean business. Therefore we should mean business in life too.
We should consciously control our thoughts and decisions, continuously asking ourselves from where do they come, where are they based, and where are they going.
Walking through this life with God is not just believing one day and attending church one day a week. I talk to Him all day long. When I meet people I might quickly say, ok God, anything here? Anything I need to say to this person, tell me Lord. Anything I need to be aware of and watch out for? And so on.... We have to train our minds to watch for the pebbles that come in and out of our lives, are thrown at us, or that we throw back too.
Where are our pebbles going? We have to become like police detectives with our own souls, minds, and bodies. We must take the information coming in by our senses, the knowledge of the Word of God, and the further information from those things and people in our environment and make good decisions, for the Lord, to WIN this game of chess.
We will not always make the right decision. That is a given. We are human. We must always come back to our leader though and make it right with Him. When we fail we must get up again. We must ask forgiveness, learn from the situation and move on. God knows we are going to fail Him and fail ourselves. He expects that. It is like a parent. You know your kids are going to make all kinds of mistakes but you rejoice in their learning through those mistakes. God rejoices with you when you admit your failures and still wanna walk with Him. So don't give up or let satan talk you out of continuing.
Whose pebbles will you choose to wield in this life? Pebbles for God or the alternative. Let's dissect, like law enforcement, our souls, minds, and bodies and get to the heart of the matter with God's Word leading us to focus our God Goggles and create beautiful pebble work.
Recognize God
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).
We humans go through life full force. We have lists of things to do a mile long and not enough hours to get them all done in. I don't know about you but I feel pressure consistently to move, move, move, and get it done, get it done, get it done. In all that activity and hoohah, have you ever stopped to think or wonder where is Jesus in all this? Where is God? How do we experience Him more and recognize when He is around? We can learn all about how to see how he acts and completes prayers, works miracles, and speaks through the Holy Spirit; but what about actually sensing His presence. I mean, Gosh, I want to feel His presence... don't you?
Have you ever thought about the people who do not know Jesus or just downright wicked people. I don't know about you but I can get very discouraged and frustrated at times watching some of them walking through life without a care in the world, neck deep in blessings and fortune. Where is God in all of this too? What does the Bible say about it?
In Proverbs 15 the Lord says: 29 The Lord is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
I have been mulling over how to present what I know in my heart here in the book for weeks now. I needed a way to explain just how it is to know God is near or to recognize when He is working. There have been times in my life when I audibly hear Jesus, feel His presence, have heard or felt the Holy Spirit, seen miraculous things, and just simply enjoyed time in prayer with God. How do I present this though in a way you can all understand? It really is a tall order and one I am convinced I want to make sure is done right. I have been praying it over and well tonight while driving to work I heard Doctor Ralph Stanley preaching on this very subject!
He brought up the verse above in a new light that really hit me. I have seen this verse time and again but it never really meant much to me. Dr. Stanley said to listen carefully to what the verse is saying. It is flat out telling us that God is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous. You know, I had kind of just assumed that God was close to everyone in life sense He has been so darn cuddling of me since childhood! This new concept really hit me between the eyes, squarely. God cannot be near the wicked because He cannot be near sin. I reckon you could think of it as being like a 'sin' allergy. God's got it big-time. He truly is an all or nothing being.
So just how do we experience the Lord's presence, spiritual presence? When we become Christians, accepting the Lord as our Saviour, God sends the Holy Spirit immediately. So, He is always with us. It is a given! We can know just by faith that He is always there. There are times though when He needs to be close to let us know of things to come, to warn us of danger, to coddle us in sad or stressful times, to teach us, or to just encourage us in our journeys. Dr. Stanley expressed it by saying that when God is near we are simply "aware" of it. All this time I have been trying to think of some beautiful word to explain this miraculous phenomena of God being near us and just knowing it and here Dr. Stanley simply says, you are just aware of it. I so agree with him. God's being near doesn't come with a full blown orchestral movement or soldiers announcing his entry. It is a quiet, subtle, washing of holiness that surrounds you and tingles your heart. There have been times when I knew He was close by a feeling of something like I got from my parents when they were proud of me. I could just sense pride coming from them. It is the same with God. I get this feeling of His being happy with me at that moment. Sometimes it is a feeling of just nearness, completeness, and peace. Dr. Stanley said that he usually cries when He feels the Lord's presence and I would have to agree as well. When the Lord is near to us you just know it and the tears flow like a river, a cleansing river.
Now I used the word feeling above to explain the human sense of His presence. There really is not a word to express it though. Feeling is not a true testament to the 'awareness' of it all. You have to experience to understand what I mean. If you are a new Christian or have been one for several years and you have not had the wonderful experience of feeling God's presence, I suggest asking Him to come near to you and let you experience it. He will come. He says knock and the door will be opened so get to knocking! He might not come in that instant. It might be when you least expect it like while taking your shower and mulling over His words, or driving down the road, or even while doing household chores. He comes and goes as He pleases according to His will and when you need Him or He needs you.
When I was a young girl and accepted the Lord I know that He sent me the Holy Spirit. Now, since then it has taken me years to prepare to Want to open my eyes and my God Goggles and it has taken God time to prepare my heart as well. If He opened my eyes to Everything in the spirit realm right when I accepted God, the timing would have been wrong. It might have even scared me away from being a Christian. Not only that but satan was trying to make me see the evil things as well. He wanted to entice me to go that way. If God had given me more at the beginning, I may not have been spiritually mature enough to recognize it was Jesus, and not me. When God grants us a gift of discerning of spirits it is easy to end up being drawn to the occult, like I was. You want to fit in and there really is not much of a place in a conservative church that does not want to talk about such things.... SO, God's timing is always best but we do have one variable nowadays that we did not have twenty or so years ago. TIME. I truly believe there is not much time before Christ will be here. So when you speak to God mention the fact that you know there is not much time and that you would like to Know Him better now. Ask Him for WISDOM. I did this too. He will give it! Tell Him you know if He gives you more sight too quickly there is danger in being pulled away to the other side. Acknowledge this to Him and remind Him to remind you of it as well.
None of us want to wait now do we? Ask Him to speed up your God Goggles focusing in and let you be near Him. Love Him. Adore Him. and Ask Him to be Near to you in a real way that you can sense, smell, feel, and appreciate.
~~~
Lets look at a time when God REALLY showed up in the Bible and consider Moses with the burning bush. Read the verses below and then we will look at it more closely. I highlighted some key points for you to notice. Just to give you a little background here, Moses had been raised in Pharoah's temple and kingship. He had found how his true place in life as an Israelite and had given up his place as royalty. He had gone out to the wilderness to live and to figure out his life.
The Burning Bush Exodus 4
3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
WOWZERS! Now that is one story! Can you imagine walking along, minding your own business, tending a flock of goats or sheep and you see a bush burning but not burning up? I bet Moses was in total shock. He had more shock coming though. Let's analize this deeply.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
Moses Given Powerful Signs
4 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. 16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. 17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
Ok, that deserves another WOWZERS! Can you imagine? Lets see what these passages hold that we can learn from.
LEARNING
There is a lot in there to learn but there are some key points I would like for you to pay attention to and teach you how to recognize God's presence and to listen to Him.
1. PREORDINATION: Moses was preordained and prepositioned to fill this purpose. God was not going to take no for an answer. Moses was preordained for the job. He had been saved and placed in a basket, sent to the Pharoah's wife to be raised, found out he was indeed an Israelites and thus had lived the life of a prince and now lived the life of a slave, and then went into the wilderness to live and figure out life. Even though Moses had some deficiencies in his own eyes, God saw potential. God was going to complete the good work He started in Moses well before he had even been born.
2. GOD CAN GET YOUR ATTENTION: Moses had gone into the wilderness and really had no vision of what was next. I believe he was there fourty years in fact. So, even if you have been in the wilderness for a number of years, God can and will get your attention if needed. Are you paying attention?
3. PAY ATTENTION: In order to know of God's presence we have to be paying attention enough to notice nuances, signals, and differences in the norm. If we are not alert we can miss it. What if Moses had just been daydreaming and not given a care to the burning bush? He might have missed a huge calling.
4. GIVE PROPER CREDIT: Moses Recognized God's presence. He gave Full Glory and Correct Humble Spirit to the Presence of God. Even though he knew that the Israelites or others would question, he knew it was God. He didn't ask for God to prove it to him.
5. INVESTIGATE: Moses stopped to Investigate. He took time. When you feel there might be something different going on, STOP whatever you are doing, and take time to flesh it out.
6. LISTEN & BE OPEN: Moses listened to God. Even though he was afraid he questioned him, he listened and he communicated with God. He was open, honest, and forthright with God.
7. PLAN: If you listen to God, He will unveil His plan for you and lead you.
8. GOD KNOWS YOU: God knew Moses through and through. He knew He has preordained Moses to accomplish this need for Him, to help show the Israelites to the promises land. He knew that Moses was a soft spoken and perhaps slow in speech person. He knew his heart. He knew also that he obviously was a true person, true enough to be able to question the God of all Gods! It takes a Leader to be BOLD. Even though Moses was a soft person in speech he was BOLD in heart. He knew that Moses would think the process through. Moses was already mulling over in his head what would happen, how the people would respond, what questions they would ask and what he would need to have to prove it to them. Moses was capable indeed even though he didn't personally think he was. In the end, God sent help for Moses to help shore up his feeling of insufficiencies and God promised to Teach Moses and Aaron as well as Speak through them. God knew Moses was the man for the job.
Do you remember in school learning in Fire Drill class the saying, "Stop, Drop, and Roll?" I do. Well, for the purpose of donning your God Goggles and learning to see God more and be aware of His presence your first thing to remember is
"Pay Attention, Recognize, Stop, Investigate, Listen, Take Action"
~~~
What if we know Christ but are not walking with Him right now?
Now, in my own life, there have been times when I was walking with the Lord and then there have been times when I flat out walked out on him. I now know that the only reason He was close and provided for me even when I never paid attention to Him was for three reasons. Perhaps He has cared for you as well when you did not care for Him? - Here are the reasons He still provided for me and my family:
REMEMBER: If you want to experience God more, all you need to do is Ask Him.
© "God Goggles"
“But I have raised you up for this very purpose, that I might show you my power and that my name might be proclaimed in all the earth” (Exodus 9:16).
Purpose - We all want Purpose
My whole life I have had deep yearning to be normal or natural and have purpose. My life has been anything but normal from the get-go. After tragedy, I strove to find first a purpose in high school activities to include languages- sports- extracurricular groups- church activities- boyfriend and more, money, always in search of a home, a husband, no try 3 of husbands, boyfriends, kids- 5, a place, Super-mom, step-mom, home-school mom, mom who could fix step-son (NOT), officer, umpteen different careers God led me through, to be everything to everyone... a role that made me feel normal. I've spent countless years trying to get back what was taken from me.
Can you identify with this today? Are you tired? Have you been working for something for years and just never feel like you will get there? I think we all want to be normal and have a place where we belong. We all want a place to call home and a purpose to strive for. Look at how the book the Purpose Driven Life sold 6 million copies for goodness sakes! I think someone is seeking a purpose and normality. I sure did.
In Striving for Normal- It makes you consider, What is Normal or Natural? What is Super-Natural?
I've learned something pretty profound on my journey in trying out everything I could, that was legal. or well, legal according to man's laws.
What is normal? Truly? Isn't that kind of a presumptuous statement? Why is it presumptuous? Well it’s a pretty presumptuous desire for a Christian.
Normal for unbelievers tends to be taking part in whatever religion or non-religion they believe in (they still have morals too, sometimes), living life like we all do, having family, friends, working hard to attain goals like house-car-ability to travel, etc. Normal for regular people every where is the same pretty much. If you look at most Christians, they look the same on the outside as everyone else. I don't see them walking around with a bandana on their arm with a C engraved on it. I see them all striving for the same things pretty much everyone else is. This isn't right though. We should be striving for more. We should be striving to be different, not the same cookie cutter lives everyone else has. You know, Buddhist monks really astound me. They give up just about everything for their religion. We should be the same. Jesus never had a home. He went from home to home. He gave up being near God for us. If I lived in heaven my whole life and had to take on this body with all its infirmities, temptations, etc. and then die on a cross for people, simple people, I'd be kinda ticked. He gave up SO much. He gave up the capacity to be in a place where He never knew anything like what we go through. He was perfect. Man, He was lucky! So, we should be willing to give up everything too. I'm not saying for you to give up your home, goals, or dreams. Give it up in your heart though.
For once we allow God, ie the Holy Spirit, Holy Ghost, to come into our lives... how could we even ask to ever be normal again?
Normal is a standard that is according to World Standards. We humans put parameters, boundaries, and hidden ideals on others and ourselves. We want our lives to be normal but they are not and especially are not with God in them. Besides that, even if you choose to not believe in a God, unnatural and Super-natural things WILL occur no matter what. We live in a world fraught with supernatural ways. Science is even figuring this out with Quantum Mechanics and Physics.
All of us are spirit bound. We are going to go somewhere after death and well, we can live spirit bound lives now also. For if we love God we are HEAVEN Bound!
We SHOULD stick out like a sore thumb.... it's ok to be different.
Heaven is a place for the un-normal, well, but normal there anyways. I will speak more of this later though... Plainly put, its a paradox.
Pebbles
He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches. To the one who conquers I will give some of the hidden manna, and I will give him a white stone, with a new name written on the stone that no one knows except the one who receives it.’ Revelation 2:17
When I was a little girl I used to read those mystery novels where you could choose your own path. Do you remember those? If not, I'll refresh or tell you about them. They are books where at the bottom of each page you would choose what the main character would do next. I read hundreds of these. I loved the way in which you could literally change the future of the character just by choosing something simple. Our lives are just like that. Daily, we walk through life making choices, hundreds per day sometimes. Some of these choices impact us greatly and some not so much. What we fail to realize though is how those same choices are affecting other people as well as the spiritual realm. I believe they effect the spiritual much more than we could have ever imagined....
Pebbles. Have you ever thrown a pebble into the water or a lake and watched the ripples of the energy as it travels through that water, emanating from that one tiny pebble? Those ripples can travel far! I have watched them travel from one side of a lake clear to the other side. In the same way, we know that every action we take, every decision we make, every word we speak, and every person's life we touch can create and DOES create a ripple effect.
I would like to take that concept one step further. Consider life like a game of chess except there are three players: God/ his angels, satan/ his minions, and you. There might even be more players we are unaware of but for now, think of these three. I believe that every single decision or action made, every occurrence that happens, and every happenstance that occurs is represented by a 'move' on that board. Each one of the above is represented by a pebble, or playing piece. Each time a player makes a move his pebble moves, which again is just a representation of a move here in our world.
This means that every single thing that happens originates from either God, satan, or you and you can take it one step further and say that many of your own moves originate from underlying moves made on the account of either God or satan. They are both able to circumvent and subconsciously or consciously lead you to move in certain ways. Also, you use your information given from your past and knowledge of God to decide your own moves. I believe that Each and Every Decision we make in life can be traced back to either God or satan in some means whether by pure motive, need, focus, end means, or by habit.
Most people will tell you this is a bit of an "extreme" idea. I understand we go through life and we have all sorts of decisions to make, things to do, and lives to live. We all have different roles and live in different cultures. We have different backgrounds. We are all busy and believe that we are just living Our lives. I mean, it's our life, right? That is what song after song professes! No, it’s not your life. God breathed life into your for His purpose. When and if you accept God you become a vessel for Him and are to focus on His needs in your chess game. He takes you on as a soldier for his team.
I also understand that most people would say I am an extremist in saying that everything comes from either God or satan but hear me out. If you believe in God, the God of the Bible, then you believe in an extremist God. There are no grey areas where He is concerned. NONE. We have a saying in police work, there's grey and then there's grey. We have laws we go by. Depending on each situation we may not have all we need to lean towards one way or the other, black or white. So, we look to the grey area. There are many shades of grey on this Earth.... BUT, not with God. You are either pure, or not. You are either focused on being more like Him, or not. You are either believing the Whole Bible and not just part, or not. You either make it to Heaven, or not. We can go on and on but you get the picture. God didn't play. Jesus didn't play. He meant business. They mean business. Therefore we should mean business in life too.
We should consciously control our thoughts and decisions, continuously asking ourselves from where do they come, where are they based, and where are they going.
Walking through this life with God is not just believing one day and attending church one day a week. I talk to Him all day long. When I meet people I might quickly say, ok God, anything here? Anything I need to say to this person, tell me Lord. Anything I need to be aware of and watch out for? And so on.... We have to train our minds to watch for the pebbles that come in and out of our lives, are thrown at us, or that we throw back too.
Where are our pebbles going? We have to become like police detectives with our own souls, minds, and bodies. We must take the information coming in by our senses, the knowledge of the Word of God, and the further information from those things and people in our environment and make good decisions, for the Lord, to WIN this game of chess.
We will not always make the right decision. That is a given. We are human. We must always come back to our leader though and make it right with Him. When we fail we must get up again. We must ask forgiveness, learn from the situation and move on. God knows we are going to fail Him and fail ourselves. He expects that. It is like a parent. You know your kids are going to make all kinds of mistakes but you rejoice in their learning through those mistakes. God rejoices with you when you admit your failures and still wanna walk with Him. So don't give up or let satan talk you out of continuing.
Whose pebbles will you choose to wield in this life? Pebbles for God or the alternative. Let's dissect, like law enforcement, our souls, minds, and bodies and get to the heart of the matter with God's Word leading us to focus our God Goggles and create beautiful pebble work.
Recognize God
“Many are the plans in a person’s heart, but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails” (Proverbs 19:21).
We humans go through life full force. We have lists of things to do a mile long and not enough hours to get them all done in. I don't know about you but I feel pressure consistently to move, move, move, and get it done, get it done, get it done. In all that activity and hoohah, have you ever stopped to think or wonder where is Jesus in all this? Where is God? How do we experience Him more and recognize when He is around? We can learn all about how to see how he acts and completes prayers, works miracles, and speaks through the Holy Spirit; but what about actually sensing His presence. I mean, Gosh, I want to feel His presence... don't you?
Have you ever thought about the people who do not know Jesus or just downright wicked people. I don't know about you but I can get very discouraged and frustrated at times watching some of them walking through life without a care in the world, neck deep in blessings and fortune. Where is God in all of this too? What does the Bible say about it?
In Proverbs 15 the Lord says: 29 The Lord is far from the wicked,
but he hears the prayer of the righteous.
I have been mulling over how to present what I know in my heart here in the book for weeks now. I needed a way to explain just how it is to know God is near or to recognize when He is working. There have been times in my life when I audibly hear Jesus, feel His presence, have heard or felt the Holy Spirit, seen miraculous things, and just simply enjoyed time in prayer with God. How do I present this though in a way you can all understand? It really is a tall order and one I am convinced I want to make sure is done right. I have been praying it over and well tonight while driving to work I heard Doctor Ralph Stanley preaching on this very subject!
He brought up the verse above in a new light that really hit me. I have seen this verse time and again but it never really meant much to me. Dr. Stanley said to listen carefully to what the verse is saying. It is flat out telling us that God is far from the wicked but he hears the prayer of the righteous. You know, I had kind of just assumed that God was close to everyone in life sense He has been so darn cuddling of me since childhood! This new concept really hit me between the eyes, squarely. God cannot be near the wicked because He cannot be near sin. I reckon you could think of it as being like a 'sin' allergy. God's got it big-time. He truly is an all or nothing being.
So just how do we experience the Lord's presence, spiritual presence? When we become Christians, accepting the Lord as our Saviour, God sends the Holy Spirit immediately. So, He is always with us. It is a given! We can know just by faith that He is always there. There are times though when He needs to be close to let us know of things to come, to warn us of danger, to coddle us in sad or stressful times, to teach us, or to just encourage us in our journeys. Dr. Stanley expressed it by saying that when God is near we are simply "aware" of it. All this time I have been trying to think of some beautiful word to explain this miraculous phenomena of God being near us and just knowing it and here Dr. Stanley simply says, you are just aware of it. I so agree with him. God's being near doesn't come with a full blown orchestral movement or soldiers announcing his entry. It is a quiet, subtle, washing of holiness that surrounds you and tingles your heart. There have been times when I knew He was close by a feeling of something like I got from my parents when they were proud of me. I could just sense pride coming from them. It is the same with God. I get this feeling of His being happy with me at that moment. Sometimes it is a feeling of just nearness, completeness, and peace. Dr. Stanley said that he usually cries when He feels the Lord's presence and I would have to agree as well. When the Lord is near to us you just know it and the tears flow like a river, a cleansing river.
Now I used the word feeling above to explain the human sense of His presence. There really is not a word to express it though. Feeling is not a true testament to the 'awareness' of it all. You have to experience to understand what I mean. If you are a new Christian or have been one for several years and you have not had the wonderful experience of feeling God's presence, I suggest asking Him to come near to you and let you experience it. He will come. He says knock and the door will be opened so get to knocking! He might not come in that instant. It might be when you least expect it like while taking your shower and mulling over His words, or driving down the road, or even while doing household chores. He comes and goes as He pleases according to His will and when you need Him or He needs you.
When I was a young girl and accepted the Lord I know that He sent me the Holy Spirit. Now, since then it has taken me years to prepare to Want to open my eyes and my God Goggles and it has taken God time to prepare my heart as well. If He opened my eyes to Everything in the spirit realm right when I accepted God, the timing would have been wrong. It might have even scared me away from being a Christian. Not only that but satan was trying to make me see the evil things as well. He wanted to entice me to go that way. If God had given me more at the beginning, I may not have been spiritually mature enough to recognize it was Jesus, and not me. When God grants us a gift of discerning of spirits it is easy to end up being drawn to the occult, like I was. You want to fit in and there really is not much of a place in a conservative church that does not want to talk about such things.... SO, God's timing is always best but we do have one variable nowadays that we did not have twenty or so years ago. TIME. I truly believe there is not much time before Christ will be here. So when you speak to God mention the fact that you know there is not much time and that you would like to Know Him better now. Ask Him for WISDOM. I did this too. He will give it! Tell Him you know if He gives you more sight too quickly there is danger in being pulled away to the other side. Acknowledge this to Him and remind Him to remind you of it as well.
None of us want to wait now do we? Ask Him to speed up your God Goggles focusing in and let you be near Him. Love Him. Adore Him. and Ask Him to be Near to you in a real way that you can sense, smell, feel, and appreciate.
~~~
Lets look at a time when God REALLY showed up in the Bible and consider Moses with the burning bush. Read the verses below and then we will look at it more closely. I highlighted some key points for you to notice. Just to give you a little background here, Moses had been raised in Pharoah's temple and kingship. He had found how his true place in life as an Israelite and had given up his place as royalty. He had gone out to the wilderness to live and to figure out his life.
The Burning Bush Exodus 4
3 Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. 2 And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. 3 And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” 4 When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.” 5 Then he said, “Do not come near; take your sandals off your feet, for the place on which you are standing is holy ground.” 6 And he said, “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.” And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look at God.
WOWZERS! Now that is one story! Can you imagine walking along, minding your own business, tending a flock of goats or sheep and you see a bush burning but not burning up? I bet Moses was in total shock. He had more shock coming though. Let's analize this deeply.
- So, Moses even though he was busy with his daily duties “Decided” to check this phenomena out. Quotes mine, He decided to pay attention.
- God sent the call.
- Then, God saw that Moses had Noticed and 'turned aside to see'. Why do you think the Bible states the story that way? ~ Because, God likes it when we notice 1. How He works, 2. the Fact that He is There, and 3. When We Take the Time to Stop to whatever we are doing and Investigate. ONLY when Moses did these things it says God spoke to him.
- The next point we will look at in another chapter on the Holiness or the Evility of places closely but I cannot just dismiss it. God told Moses to not come near and to take off his sandals. He wanted Moses to take off his nasty, sheep herding, worn sandals because the place had become Holy Ground- because God was present.
- God then told Him Who He was and Moses was afraid. Moses gave the correct response to God's presence and calling. He was humble. Lets take note of that and remember to be humble when the Lord comes near.
- Lets keep looking. It is a long passage but there is a key issue to pay attention to here. Do not miss it.
7 Then the Lord said, “I have surely seen the affliction of my people who are in Egypt and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters. I know their sufferings, 8 and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. 9 And now, behold, the cry of the people of Israel has come to me, and I have also seen the oppression with which the Egyptians oppress them. 10 Come, I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring my people, the children of Israel, out of Egypt.” 11 But Moses said to God, “Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the children of Israel out of Egypt?” 12 He said, “But I will be with you, and this shall be the sign for you, that I have sent you: when you have brought the people out of Egypt, you shall serve God on this mountain.”
13 Then Moses said to God, “If I come to the people of Israel and say to them, ‘The God of your fathers has sent me to you,’ and they ask me, ‘What is his name?’ what shall I say to them?”14 God said to Moses, “I am who I am.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘I am has sent me to you.’” 15 God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations.16 Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The Lord, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, 17 and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ 18 And they will listen to your voice, and you and the elders of Israel shall go to the king of Egypt and say to him, ‘The Lord, the God of the Hebrews, has met with us; and now, please let us go a three days' journey into the wilderness, that we may sacrifice to the Lord our God.’ 19 But I know that the king of Egypt will not let you go unless compelled by a mighty hand.20 So I will stretch out my hand and strike Egypt with all the wonders that I will do in it; after that he will let you go. 21 And I will give this people favor in the sight of the Egyptians; and when you go, you shall not go empty, 22 but each woman shall ask of her neighbor, and any woman who lives in her house, for silver and gold jewelry, and for clothing. You shall put them on your sons and on your daughters. So you shall plunder the Egyptians.”
Moses Given Powerful Signs
4 Then Moses answered, “But behold, they will not believe me or listen to my voice, for they will say, ‘The Lord did not appear to you.’” 2 The Lord said to him, “What is that in your hand?” He said, “A staff.” 3 And he said, “Throw it on the ground.” So he threw it on the ground, and it became a serpent, and Moses ran from it. 4 But the Lord said to Moses, “Put out your hand and catch it by the tail”—so he put out his hand and caught it, and it became a staff in his hand— 5 “that they may believe that the Lord, the God of their fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has appeared to you.” 6 Again, the Lord said to him, “Put your hand inside your cloak.” And he put his hand inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, his hand was leprous like snow. 7 Then God said, “Put your hand back inside your cloak.” So he put his hand back inside his cloak, and when he took it out, behold, it was restored like the rest of his flesh. 8 “If they will not believe you,” God said, “or listen to the first sign, they may believe the latter sign. 9 If they will not believe even these two signs or listen to your voice, you shall take some water from the Nile and pour it on the dry ground, and the water that you shall take from the Nile will become blood on the dry ground.”
10 But Moses said to the Lord, “Oh, my Lord, I am not eloquent, either in the past or since you have spoken to your servant, but I am slow of speech and of tongue.” 11 Then the Lord said to him, “Who has made man's mouth? Who makes him mute, or deaf, or seeing, or blind? Is it not I, the Lord? 12 Now therefore go, and I will be with your mouth and teach you what you shall speak.” 13 But he said, “Oh, my Lord, please send someone else.” 14 Then the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses and he said, “Is there not Aaron, your brother, the Levite? I know that he can speak well. Behold, he is coming out to meet you, and when he sees you, he will be glad in his heart. 15 You shall speak to him and put the words in his mouth, and I will be with your mouth and with his mouth and will teach you both what to do. 16 He shall speak for you to the people, and he shall be your mouth, and you shall be as God to him. 17 And take in your hand this staff, with which you shall do the signs.”
Ok, that deserves another WOWZERS! Can you imagine? Lets see what these passages hold that we can learn from.
- God states his reason for being there and that he has heard the call of the people and their sufferings.
- God tells Moses what His plans are for Moses to go and rescue the people.
- Moses questions his own ability to do this task for God. Moses had a Humble heart and thought little of himself to be able to get the job done.
- Then God gives Moses a promise that when He does this He will lead the people on that very mountain.
- Moses questions God again and pretty much says, Look, these people are going to want to know Who You Are that is telling me this so what's your name so I can prove it to them.
- So, God gives him a Longer explanation telling him His name and what all to tell them, who to tell, the people of Israel, and for them to remember Him and His name for generations, the elders specifically also to tell them of his promise. Then he and the elders are to state to the officials of Egypt that they have met with God and request for a three day stay to go and worship their Lord in the wilderness.
- God already knew Pharoah would protest and told Moses all He would do to the Egyptians to force His Hand to let them go. Then He states they will plunder Egypt and Egypt will think more of the Israelites.
- Then Moses Questions God AGAIN! He doesn't think they will believe him.
- God Gives Moses 3 ways to prove to the Israelites that God sent him.
- Again, Moses Questions God and his own ability in even speaking out what is needed.
- So, God says He will be with Moses and be His mouth.
- Then, Moses has the guts to SAY NO TO THAT AND ASK FOR SOMEONE ELSE? This is the 5th. time he is questioning GOD.
- WOWZERS.
- God gets angry. Wouldn't you? I think God was thinking, You are telling me you are not eloquent enough to speak for me but you have the gall to question me? Any man with enough guts to question me surely can speak for himself. Moses, you might be a soft spoken person or slow of tongue. Maybe you are an introvert. Maybe you are lots of things but man, you just had the guts to stand up to me, God, and make excuses! That right there tells me I have the right man for the job. WOW. Now, I say I will go with you and you ask for someone else?
- So God finally says ok, I'll send you Aaron who I will also teach and together we will do this. God summed it up. He nipped it in the bud. He wouldn't take no for an answer. No matter what Moses said, this is what was going to happen.
LEARNING
There is a lot in there to learn but there are some key points I would like for you to pay attention to and teach you how to recognize God's presence and to listen to Him.
1. PREORDINATION: Moses was preordained and prepositioned to fill this purpose. God was not going to take no for an answer. Moses was preordained for the job. He had been saved and placed in a basket, sent to the Pharoah's wife to be raised, found out he was indeed an Israelites and thus had lived the life of a prince and now lived the life of a slave, and then went into the wilderness to live and figure out life. Even though Moses had some deficiencies in his own eyes, God saw potential. God was going to complete the good work He started in Moses well before he had even been born.
2. GOD CAN GET YOUR ATTENTION: Moses had gone into the wilderness and really had no vision of what was next. I believe he was there fourty years in fact. So, even if you have been in the wilderness for a number of years, God can and will get your attention if needed. Are you paying attention?
3. PAY ATTENTION: In order to know of God's presence we have to be paying attention enough to notice nuances, signals, and differences in the norm. If we are not alert we can miss it. What if Moses had just been daydreaming and not given a care to the burning bush? He might have missed a huge calling.
4. GIVE PROPER CREDIT: Moses Recognized God's presence. He gave Full Glory and Correct Humble Spirit to the Presence of God. Even though he knew that the Israelites or others would question, he knew it was God. He didn't ask for God to prove it to him.
5. INVESTIGATE: Moses stopped to Investigate. He took time. When you feel there might be something different going on, STOP whatever you are doing, and take time to flesh it out.
6. LISTEN & BE OPEN: Moses listened to God. Even though he was afraid he questioned him, he listened and he communicated with God. He was open, honest, and forthright with God.
7. PLAN: If you listen to God, He will unveil His plan for you and lead you.
8. GOD KNOWS YOU: God knew Moses through and through. He knew He has preordained Moses to accomplish this need for Him, to help show the Israelites to the promises land. He knew that Moses was a soft spoken and perhaps slow in speech person. He knew his heart. He knew also that he obviously was a true person, true enough to be able to question the God of all Gods! It takes a Leader to be BOLD. Even though Moses was a soft person in speech he was BOLD in heart. He knew that Moses would think the process through. Moses was already mulling over in his head what would happen, how the people would respond, what questions they would ask and what he would need to have to prove it to them. Moses was capable indeed even though he didn't personally think he was. In the end, God sent help for Moses to help shore up his feeling of insufficiencies and God promised to Teach Moses and Aaron as well as Speak through them. God knew Moses was the man for the job.
Do you remember in school learning in Fire Drill class the saying, "Stop, Drop, and Roll?" I do. Well, for the purpose of donning your God Goggles and learning to see God more and be aware of His presence your first thing to remember is
"Pay Attention, Recognize, Stop, Investigate, Listen, Take Action"
~~~
What if we know Christ but are not walking with Him right now?
Now, in my own life, there have been times when I was walking with the Lord and then there have been times when I flat out walked out on him. I now know that the only reason He was close and provided for me even when I never paid attention to Him was for three reasons. Perhaps He has cared for you as well when you did not care for Him? - Here are the reasons He still provided for me and my family:
- Number one, I did know Him. The seed had been planted early in life so even though I was walking in mud up to my neck, He saw me as righteous or clean.
- Number two, I was an orphan and God states He is close to the Fatherless. He made a promise in the Bible to do so and so even when we do not keep up with our end of the bargain, He sure keeps up with His.
- Number three, He says He will complete the good work He started in us. Even when we are not paying attention He is silently working things out in such a way to bring us back.
- Last, some of the the time in which I was not following Him I had two little ones who had a father who was not paying attention to them as well. I believe God even considered my little one's situation in being 'fatherless' and was making sure at the very least even if He needed to "spank" or discipline me for being naughty, He cared and provided for my children. I can thank my lucky stars for these things above because if I had not known Christ, things could have turned out much different for me, many times as you will see as the project goes along.
REMEMBER: If you want to experience God more, all you need to do is Ask Him.
