A Big Fear That God Lays To Rest For Us (And gives religion a big boot to the head)
One of our biggest fears as people is that we are missing out on something. We fear that we aren’t getting it all or that there is something out there that we should know or be actively knowing, find out about, look for, reach for. It’s what tempted Eve in the garden when the snake played on this emotion in his suggestion that God had withheld something from her. If she would only reach for that thing, she’d find out something more and ultimately be something more. It’s the temptation for power. To know something more, to obtain a knowledge apart from God and being satisfied in Him.
But how beautiful the full expression of God with these comforting words:
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to represent me, will teach you everything Himself, and cause you to remember everything that I have told you.
But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into the whole truth; for He will not speak on His own authority but will tell (you) what is told Him, and will announce to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, because He will take the things that belong to me and tell them to you.” John 16:13-14
I will never forget reading about a man named Smith Wigglesworth in my childhood. What stuck out to me about his life was that He read nothing but the Bible. In fact, when a dear friend of his arrived at his doorstep one morning with a newspaper under his arm, he demanded his friend get rid of that thing before entering. But never was any person more affected by the Presence of God than those who would come by his home to spend time with God in this man’s house. His own granddaughter shares how, after spending time with her grandfather, she would leave by way of a quiet route so as not to pass by many others and have this presence of God untouched and undisturbed for as long as possible.
In Christ, in fellowship with Him in His Spirit in us, we can now rest from the striving and the fear that religion often nurtures and feeds. It is enough to read God’s Word in fellowship with God and rest in Him and know that He will tell us everything we need to know when He wants it known and that He will show us where to go, when it is time to move or stay or how to pray and lead us into all truth.
Satan tempted Eve with knowledge that she could take for herself. God says that now, He will lead and guide us.....we will be led by the Holy Spirit into the whole truth by Him through revelation. And revelation is so much better than taking knowledge for oneself. One puffs up and the other builds up. Revelation is not an abstract set of idea’s or formula’s we can memorize, it is the embodiment of the Person of God imparted IN us. It’s real and living and fresh and never abstract. God imparts Himself when He reveals and we are never the same. It humbles and softens and makes us whole on the inside. Taking knowledge for oneself can never do that.
What a rest we have in our Beloved Savior. You can know Him and be known and rest in the precious promise that you will never miss out on anything when you are in fellowship with Him. It’s His promise to you as you abide and rest in Him.
Wouldn’t Adam and Eve agree in hindsight that what they had with God before the temptation was SO MUCH BETTER than after? His direct Presence walking with them in the cool of the day was enough for them. There was rest for their souls. It is the same today.
Jesus: “Yet it is nothing but the truth I now tell you, that it is better for you that I should go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come into close fellowship with you, but if I do go away, I will send Him to be in close fellowship with you.” John 16:7
David: “I treasure your word in my heart, so that I won’t sin against you.”
Psalm 119:11
Religion is such a relationship killer in every way!
“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send to represent me, will teach you everything Himself, and cause you to remember everything that I have told you.
But when the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into the whole truth; for He will not speak on His own authority but will tell (you) what is told Him, and will announce to you the things that are to come.
He will glorify me, because He will take the things that belong to me and tell them to you.” John 16:13-14
I will never forget reading about a man named Smith Wigglesworth in my childhood. What stuck out to me about his life was that He read nothing but the Bible. In fact, when a dear friend of his arrived at his doorstep one morning with a newspaper under his arm, he demanded his friend get rid of that thing before entering. But never was any person more affected by the Presence of God than those who would come by his home to spend time with God in this man’s house. His own granddaughter shares how, after spending time with her grandfather, she would leave by way of a quiet route so as not to pass by many others and have this presence of God untouched and undisturbed for as long as possible.
In Christ, in fellowship with Him in His Spirit in us, we can now rest from the striving and the fear that religion often nurtures and feeds. It is enough to read God’s Word in fellowship with God and rest in Him and know that He will tell us everything we need to know when He wants it known and that He will show us where to go, when it is time to move or stay or how to pray and lead us into all truth.
Satan tempted Eve with knowledge that she could take for herself. God says that now, He will lead and guide us.....we will be led by the Holy Spirit into the whole truth by Him through revelation. And revelation is so much better than taking knowledge for oneself. One puffs up and the other builds up. Revelation is not an abstract set of idea’s or formula’s we can memorize, it is the embodiment of the Person of God imparted IN us. It’s real and living and fresh and never abstract. God imparts Himself when He reveals and we are never the same. It humbles and softens and makes us whole on the inside. Taking knowledge for oneself can never do that.
What a rest we have in our Beloved Savior. You can know Him and be known and rest in the precious promise that you will never miss out on anything when you are in fellowship with Him. It’s His promise to you as you abide and rest in Him.
Wouldn’t Adam and Eve agree in hindsight that what they had with God before the temptation was SO MUCH BETTER than after? His direct Presence walking with them in the cool of the day was enough for them. There was rest for their souls. It is the same today.
Jesus: “Yet it is nothing but the truth I now tell you, that it is better for you that I should go away. For if I do not go away, the Helper will not come into close fellowship with you, but if I do go away, I will send Him to be in close fellowship with you.” John 16:7
David: “I treasure your word in my heart, so that I won’t sin against you.”
Psalm 119:11
Religion is such a relationship killer in every way!
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