Sunday, August 18, 2024

CLOSENESS TO GOD DEPENDS ON YOU

There is spooky-like communication between God and His people, “The Lord is close to all of them that call upon Him, to all that call upon Him in truth” (Psalm 145:18).

What is truth? Truth (‘emet in the Hebrew) is certainty. Truth is that a thesis agrees with reality; that what the person thinks agrees with what is actual.

God communicates with anyone who believes THAT He exists enough to communicate with Him. Why does prayer fail so often? Only because God is not real enough to them; they have doubts that God exists.

There is an eerie communication between Christians and God. Those who are not Christians fail to understand communication with the Divine Being.

“Faithful is He that calls you, who will also do it” (1 Thes 5:24).

The faithfulness of God is the certainty that He will do what he says He will do. His Word is not to be questioned because God will always come through for those who trust that He is real. God is always reality, in fact the very “Existence.” He is Everything as all things come from Him (John 1:3).

God calls every one of US, and He responds to those who hear Him by doing something. There is a spooky action, even at a distance, because “The Lord is close to all of them that call upon Him.”

The kingdom of God is in another realm that is not far away, but as close to the person as the person is close to God, meaning that those the closest to God know Him better than those who are far away from God. Those who are all the way distant to God, He chooses not to hear, “We know that God hears not sinners: but if any man be a worshipper of God, and does His will, him he hears” (John 9:31).

Just as God responds by His actions, believers must respond to God by their actions. Hence, soon communication is cut from God. It is like an impedance on the invisible line of communication. Any faith at all allows some communication, but the more faith, the better the communication.

Jesus once questioned, “O you of little faith why do you doubt?” (Mat 14:31). That was a mathematical related query. Doubt is the reciprocal of faith. Also, the absence of faith is doubt. Perfect faith is that God who knows for certain that He is God. Anyone else only believes it to be true but since we are not God, we doubt. The more certain we are that God is who He says He is, the better the communication. In that God is always God, if there seems to be no communication, the impedance lies with us.

Now think of an old-time telephonic line. We cranked the arm on the side of the telephone; it sent a signal to all those on the same line.

Early phones were party lines wherein all got the call, but they understood to whom it was intended by the code within the ringing. (Ours was two shorts and a long ring). Every so often others, or even everyone on the same line, answered but some eavesdropped on the conversation because the message was not intended for them.

God calls us all in the same manner. He calls and the believer answers. His signal, like the code in the ring, is for certain individuals. He calls everyone but only those who believe it is Him on the other end, respond. If others eavesdrop, they do not understand because they do not believe it is God on the line of communication.

Many pray, for instance, but all they get is silence. God has called them, but they fail to understand that the message is for them as well as one of the “whosoever” in John 3:16. He calls all, but few here the ring let alone the message. That is not God’s fault but the impedance in the line of communication. There is indeed a “silver cord” between you and God and Solomon wrote about it. It is a line of communication for only those who know God is on the other end.

The impedance on our direct line to God is doubt. Many fail to believe that God calls or that there even is a God. How can anyone communicate with God unless they trust that it is Him who calls? It is not that God does not hear the prayers of sinners, but ignores them because they are not His people, or that His people have drifted so far away that they do not heed Him. They are mere interlopers who try to get God to do things when everything else fails!

Many Christians do not heed God because of impedance. Sin is so dominant in their minds that they fail to even think of God. Nobody can commune with Satan and put him on “hold” as they futilely try to commune with God. God knows just who is on “hold” as the Christian hurried communicates with Him, as if the person cannot wait any longer to get back to communion with Satan. In a sense, God hangs up because of the silence on the other end from those Christians who are so distant and vain to hurriedly commune with Him.

Most people know that there is a Satan because he is always there in action. He speaks through other devices that are always handy. His speech is limited, and since it is, Satan uses the things of the world to commune with mankind: things like movies, television, music, books, magazines, and recreations of all sorts. He mimics God who also communes through His actions.

The actions of Satan are enjoyable, even thrilling. The actions of God are always peace and joy. Joy is not an emotional leaping, but contentment when a Christian is at peace with God.

The test for truth with God is our actions as well, not that we are to act like Christians but that our thoughts and behaviors are like Christ’s.

Of course, we cannot walk on water because, like Peter who sank, all Christians have some doubt despite what they say.

Those who say they “know that they know that they know” imply that they are God because only God is certain of His Identity. People like that are lying to you, to God, and to themselves. The “faith of God” (Rom 3:3) is that God is certain of who He is. You may say that you are certain, but each sin is an expression of doubt.

Adam’s woman sinned because she doubted God. She had God in her but that was not enough. The fruit was more pleasant to her than having God within. She traded her soul for things. That was the birth of sin, and to this day, many Christians trade their rebirth for some stronghold of sin. Whatever that stronghold is chokes off communication with God and His actions are limited. Not that God gets weaker, but you do. Your actions are the impedance on good and clear communication with God. His actions are only limited by your actions and actions are the dynamics of divine communication.

God is always on the “line” to everyone who belong to Him — those who are paired, entangled, or engendered with Him (“born again;” John 3:7). If we seem distant from God, it is us who are distant. Impedance increases with distance on any telephonic line and God’s “silver cord” is no different. God is always nearby but sin distances Christians more so with each sin until they are so far away that God is no longer real to them. Soon, they fall all the way away (Heb 6:6), not because God abandoned them, but they distanced themselves from God a little at a time until the line of communication was “loosed” as Solomon wrote it (Ecc 12:6). That according to Solomon is “death.”

Death is not the cessation of physical life but the loss of communion with God. Sometimes death comes quickly because all are stillborn in the manner of David (Psalm 51:5) who was “shapen in inequity.” If even a Christian dallies with Satan long enough, God doesn’t hang up; “leave nor forsake you” (Heb 13:5), but it may be you that gets so distant from Him that He is no longer real to you. God does limit His actions to them that get far away from Him. We don’t know how far away is too far, but be sure it is when God gets no time in the lives of Christians.

Sometimes I pray hurriedly as if I have no time for God. Oftentimes, when I have temptations, I pray even more hurriedly, or even cease to pray at all because I know that I do not deserve for my prayers to be answered. I know that God is always close to me, but with each sin, I get further away from Him. I know how far I have drifted when God ceases being dynamic in my life. Answers to prayer is how I know how close I am to God.

If we do not communicate with God does not mean that He is gone, but we have drifted too far, so far that we do not hear Him.

Sometimes God does something to get our attentions. For the Jews, several times, he allowed their enemies to destroy most of them; and they were humbled. Perhaps when bad things happen to us, it is God’s actions to get our attention. Perhaps my encounter with catastrophe this very week was to wake me up and to strengthen my own communication with the Word, and here I am… in the Word!

All we need to do is to get a better line; for us to get closer to God and that is heeding His Word from the Bible.


 Picture credit Alamy

 

 

 

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