“I tell you, although he will not get up and supply him anything because he is his friend, yet because of his shameless persistence and insistence he will get up and give him as much as he needs. So I say to you, Ask and keep on asking and it shall be given you; seek and keep on seeking and you shall find; knock and keep on knocking and the door shall be opened to you. For everyone who asks and keeps on asking receives; and he who seeks and keeps on seeking finds; and to him who knocks and keeps on knocking, the door shall be opened. What father among you, if his son asks for a loaf of bread, will give him a stone; or if he asks for a fish, will instead of a fish give him a serpent? Or if he asks for an egg, will give him a scorpion? If you then, evil as you are, know how to give good gifts [gifts that are to their advantage] to your children, how much more will your heavenly Father give the Holy Spirit to those who ask and continue to ask Him!” (Luke 11:8-13 AMP – emphasis added)
The human mind tends to be lazy. We want to get an initial understanding of something and “get a handle on it.” From that point, it is fixed and we move on to get another theory neatly under our belt. But the wisdom and knowledge of God is infinite. Just about the time we think we have Him figured out, He does the opposite. And how many times I have had the meaning of a verse opened by Him into a greater depth I never saw before!
Imagine the shock that came upon those faithful Jews who administered the daily sacrifices and guarded the temple of God, knowing that what they were doing was necessary for maintaining their covenant with God. Yet, this same God allowed the Babylonians to come down upon them, take them into captivity, destroy the temple, and put an end to their daily sacrifices! The Ark of the Covenant was lost, never to be seen again. The shekinah glory above the mercy seat was gone! Men built more temples, but the glory of God was lost forever. Every time we think we have God in our nice, neat little doctrinal box, He blows up the box with a new and greater revelation of who He is! In this particular case, He was doing away with the Old Covenant to make room for the next one—a new one not based on law-keeping, but rather the mighty power of His grace.
“Behold, the days are coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, my covenant which they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it upon their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And no longer shall each man teach his neighbor and each his brother, saying, ‘Know the LORD,’ for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the LORD; for I will forgive their iniquity, and I will remember their sin no more.” (Jeremiah 31:31-34 RSVA)
Oswald Chambers wrote,
“God cannot reveal anything to us if we have not His Spirit. An obstinate outlook will effectually hinder God from revealing anything to us. If we have made up our minds about a doctrine, the light of God will come no more to us on that line, we cannot get it. This obtuse stage will end immediately [when] His resurrection life has its way with us.”
We try to resist God with our puny human minds–minds that have been infected with the forbidden fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil! For instance, we constantly use our minds to categorize people and things (this is good and that is evil). The way the typical carnal Christian thinking works when we meet another Christian is to start asking questions to find out how they believe and where they go to church. Then we say to ourselves, “Oh, you are one of those,” put that person in a convenient pigeon-hole and don’t listen to them any longer unless they are in the same pigeon-hole with us! Our beliefs are not tried and tested when we pigeon-hole people and shut them off if what they say is a challenge to us.
The Pharisees had a hard time with Jesus. They were constantly trying back Him into a doctrinal blind alley. Nicodemus had his mind blown by Jesus one night when he tired to pigeon-hole Him! So, in typical Pharisaic fashion he said to Jesus, “Rabbi, we know that you are a teacher come from God; for no one can do these signs that you do, unless God is with him…” Jesus stopped him dead cold in his tracks and told him that he was not even in the game, much less on first base. Jesus said, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless one is born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God.” Jesus was speaking of a spiritual rebirth of the New Covenant in which the Spirit of God comes into those who keep seeking and are not content with their religious status quo. But that old man could only relate to a spiritual answer with another carnal question, “How can a man be born when he is old? Can he enter a second time into his mother’s womb and be born?” As Oswald Chamber rightfully wrote, “If we have made up our minds about a doctrine, the light of God will come no more to us on that line, we cannot get it.”
One of the most important aspects of being led and taught by the Spirit of God is spiritual flexibility. Jesus went on to tell that old Jew, “The wind blows where it wills, and you hear the sound of it, but you do not know whence it comes or whither it goes; so it is with every one who is born of the Spirit”(John 3:8 RSVA). You cannot predict the wind. Its very unpredictability is demonstrated in Tornado Alley in the mid-west United States every year. Hundreds die in those storms in spite of their storm cellars and early warning systems. Religious people use their knowledge of the Bible to put God in their doctrinal boxes. They say, “Oh, God would not do that!” Or, “It says this in the Bible so God has to do it!” God laughs at our attempts to control Him with our puny minds so we can be God. Isn’t this the very motive behind so much of our Bible studying? Aren’t we trying to get a handle on God so we can control this unpredictable, wild Lover who swoops into our lives and longs to take us to ever greater heights of intimacy with Him?
Yes, He is a wild Lover. He calls us to follow Him, keep seeking Him, keep asking what His will is for us each moment of each day, and keep knocking on His heavenly door until He lets us into His inner chambers where He dwells. Here we abandon ourselves to Him and say as Mary did, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.”
Oh, dear saints, our Father has so much more for each of us to discover and experience– who He is and the depths of His great love for us. Don’t be content with your own shallow understanding and stop there, thinking you have arrived. One of the most damaging things men do is give another man a theology degree that tells him He has arrived and knows all about God. Paul had one of those degrees because he sat at the feet of and learned from that highly regarded Jewish scholar, Gamaliel. Then on one fine day when Paul had God all figured out and was going about to kill all those cult followers of Jesus, He had an encounter with the living God. All of a sudden his fine education and training became so much dung. But Paul did ask the right question in his divine encounter, “Who are you, Lord?”
My dear Christian friends, if we are to ever apprehend this God by whom we have been apprehended, this is the question that we all should ask Him every day and then stand by to have our minds blown.
Who ARE you Lord?
“Like an eagle that stirs up its nest, that flutters over its young, spreading out its wings, catching them, bearing them on its pinions, the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no foreign god with him. He made him ride on the high places of the earth, and he ate the produce of the field; and he made him suck honey out of the Rock, and oil out of the flinty rock.” (Deuteronomy 32:11-13 RSVA – emphasis added)
A Wilderness Voice 
Wow!!! What an awesome article, Michael! ⭐ Indeed, your words made my heart and spirit sing…
Yes, a real Spirit-led Christian is a walking offense to anyone who only knows his carnal mind and reasoning, whether he is a Christian or not. Our God cannot be figured out and loves to surprise us as we both know, don’t we… 😉 Thus everyone who obeys God in all things will surprise those around him/her who thought they had figured him/her out as well. We cannot comprehend God’s guidance and if God leads us, others will not only shake their heads. Even more than that, as Jesus said here.
If the world hates you, know that it has hated me before it hated you.
If you were of the world, the world would love you as its own; but because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, therefore the world hates you.
Remember the word that I said to you: ‘A servant is not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted me, they will also persecute you. If they kept my word, they will also keep yours. (Jn 15:18-20 ESV)
I know these verses are true, my brother, but I also know that God keeps His promises in case we find ourselves attacked BECAUSE OF our walk with Jesus.
Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are you when others revile you and persecute you and utter all kinds of evil against you falsely on my account. Rejoice and be glad, for your reward is great in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you. (Mt 5:10-12 ESV)
Actually, where the world would assume the deepest pain, God in His unfathomable wisdom pours out His divine blessings: joy, peace, and love, even for our enemies so that we can pray for them. What a wonderful God!!! ❤
Also, Michael, I love that! You wrote,
Aren’t we trying to get a handle on God so we can control this unpredictable, wild Lover who swoops into our lives and longs to take us to ever greater heights of intimacy with Him?
Yes, He is a wild Lover. He calls us to follow Him, keep seeking Him, keep asking what His will is for us each moment of each day, and keep knocking on His heavenly door until He lets us into His inner chambers where He dwells. Here we abandon ourselves to Him and say as Mary did, “Behold the handmaid of the Lord; be it unto me according to your word.”
YES!!!! Thank God, HE IS a wild lover! 😀
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes, Susanne, He truly is full of surprises as we dare to follow the Lamb wherever He goes. The biggest surprise of all for me was to start really experiencing what Jesus prayed, “Father, that they might be one even as we are one, I in thee, thou in Me, that they might be one in us.” Oh, what sweet unity our Daddy has been leading us into as we yield our ALL unto Him to do with us as HE wills. First we are made ONE in the Father and the Son and then He even makes us ONE with each other, ever growing more one and in greater depths of understanding and love as we grow more deeply into them. And the fantastic thing about it all is how He keeps pouring more love into our hearts! The love of God is the “stick-em” that keeps us from flying apart as we go through trials and misunderstandings in our horizontal fellowship with one another and also during the trials He puts us through to purify us and cleanse us from our worldly ways and thinking. Knowing our Daddy’s love for us is what keeps us yielding to His mighty hand to do with as He knows best.
What a wonderful adventure being called as the sons and daughters of God has been, right my sister?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yes and amen, my dear brother! 🙂
LikeLiked by 1 person
Yea mike I printed your post and sat down and read it to myself at our Fathers throne room and he told me–yes just look at the human response to me when I came to them..you mean I got to crawl back into my mothers womb? Where are you going to get the bucket to get this living water? I have no one to help me get into the pool..and of course Paul says who are you? Gods answer is mind blowing to us but in the end it’s peace and rest.
LikeLiked by 2 people
As for the lame man at the pool, his answer to Jesus’ question, “Would you be made WHOLE?”, is very instructive. “I have no MAN.” This looking to men for our needs is what keeps us lame as Christians and not able to walk in the fulness of Christ which comes to us from the hands of our Father alone. Yes, Kenneth, God answers are mind blowing and so are His questions very soul searching!
Love you, my brother!
LikeLiked by 1 person
As for the lame man at the pool, his answer to Jesus’ question, “Would you be made WHOLE?”, is very instructive. “I have no MAN.” This looking to men for our needs is what keeps us lame as Christians and not able to walk in the fulness of Christ which comes to us from the hands of our Father alone.
Amen, Michael. The Lord has spoken here.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for your confirmation, Susanne. I really value your input. ⭐
LikeLiked by 1 person
Having drunk deeply of The River of Life, how then can anyone return to drink from, “the dead sea,” or water from stagnant cisterns, (pastors, teachers, etc.)? I find vs.2 quite the antithesis of what Jesus said about, “blind leaders of the blind and both fall into the ditch.” Until you explained this to me I never knew that the literal meaning of ditch is that it is a sewer ditch full of unimaginable filth.
We have no idea what kind of incredible adventures await us when we decide to follow hard after this wildly loving alien being who hides himself in liquid love that can only be accessed by becoming one with him.
Revelation 22:1-5
1″Then the angel[a] showed me the river of the water of life, bright as crystal, flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb 2 through the middle of the street of the city; also, on either side of the river, the tree of life[b] with its twelve kinds of fruit, yielding its fruit each month. The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 No longer will there be anything accursed, but the throne of God and of the Lamb will be in it, and his servants[c] will worship him. 4 They will see his face, and his name will be on their foreheads. 5 And night will be no more. They will need no light of lamp or sun, for the Lord God will be their light, and they will reign forever and ever.”
Oh glorious and wondrous Father. May we ever ascend higher into you, and descend deeper into the wonders of who you are as you reveal things that we cannot imagine with our finite and carnal minds. May we be ever grateful for your faithfulness and goodness to all. For you Oh Lord are worthy of all the glory, honor and praise. Amen
LikeLiked by 2 people
Ken, what a wonderful reply, my brother! The River of Life that Ezekiel saw ran from the temple of God into the Dead sea and it brought life wherever it flowed, but there was one exception that the prophet reported, “And it shall come to pass, that everything that lives, which moves, wherever the rivers shall come, shall live: and there shall be a very great multitude of fish, because these waters shall come there: for they shall be healed; and everything shall live where the river comes… But its swamps and its marshes shall not be healed; they shall be given over to salt.” (Ezekiel 47:9-11 KJ2000).
In order to have the life in us that flows from the throne of God we have to be in the flow of His river. The backwaters and swampy marshes will not know this river’s healing love. We can’t just warm a pew all of our lives and expect to ever know the depths of the love of God. We have to listen to the voice of the Spirit and get into the flow of what our Father is doing and learn from THE Teacher who desires to lead us INTO ALL truth, the Holy Spirit of God.
And as for your prayer at the end of your comment, I say AMEN!!!
Thanks for sharing your Spirit led insights, my brother.
Love you a bunch!
LikeLiked by 1 person
Thank you for the article. I have read it a few times. It is rich food indeed. When we know who Jesus is, like Paul we begin to know what He would have us do. In Acts chapter 9.we read that Paul heard a voice speaking to him. He responded with ” Who are You , Lord?”. The Lord answered, not only revealing Who He is, but what Paul was to do. Some of the instructions where delayed a few days, because the Lord sent Ananias to deliver His message, etc.
I believe that the more we know ‘who He is’, the more we will know ‘who we are’. A part of denying one’s self is confessing (knowing) Who He is.
Love in Him,
Pat Orr
LikeLiked by 2 people
Dear Pat, you are welcome. You brought up and interesting point. “The more we know who Jesus is, the more we will know who we are.” And you are right, a part of denying ourselves is confessing in reality that Jesus Christ is come in the flesh (Christ in dwelling in us, our flesh, the hope of glory). Thank you for your wonderful insight, dear sister.
Love you in Him, too,
Michael
LikeLiked by 1 person
Michael pure dynamite! I love that line of Paul who thought he knew the LORD ‘Who are you LORD?’ ……. Oh Michael pure dynamite just brilliant. jacqui x
LikeLiked by 2 people
You are welcome, Jacqui. It is good to see you back. I am glad that our Jesus touched your heart with what He had me share.
Bless you,
Michael
LikeLiked by 2 people
Reblogged this on Touching the King and commented:
Pure dynamite! love it great read!
LikeLiked by 2 people