Developing Our Relationship With God-Respond
This is the
last lesson in the series Responding to the Call. In the previous blogs, I have discussed some
keys to unlock a deeper, intimate relationship with God. Remember, I am
providing this information as a guide. Your relationship with God is your
responsibility. I hope to be a tool to
assist you on the path.
Responding
to God's call in our lives requires a relationship. Any valuable, trustworthy relationship
requires ingredients that foster intimacy and trust. I have discussed
communication and submission. Today let us look at responding.
Thoughts
that come to mind when discussing responding is the perspective of the
recipient of Christ's healing. Have you ever wondered about why Christ healed
people? I have come to understand that the healing was a bridge to a relationship.
The act of healing was not to put a band aid on a booboo or cure to a disease,
it provided evidence of the truth of the identity of Christ and His presence on
earth.

The blind
man responded to what Christ called on him to do, to testify of the presence of
the Messiah. What a wonderful call, or wake up call. How are you or I to respond to the call?
Let us look
at the scripture for guidance.
Let us take
a look at the book of John. John was a fisherman. Many critics have looked at
the book of John as lacking credit because the book is written in John's own
words or personal experience. In the
early church, the book was accepted but later received much criticism by
scholars because it lacks "traditional" authority. Well, under who's
authority would John have written? Of
course there will be reflection of man in the midst of the discussion through
Johns experience, but, it should not be held in contempt to the integrity of
the scripture just because of that trait.
John writes
about how the disciples grew closer to Christ and to the understanding of their
call when Christ prepared for His departure from this earth and ascended into
heaven. In John 14:9 John writes about Phillips questioning the presence of the
resurrected Christ. In His dismay, Christ asked Phillip why he needed evidence,
he should recognize Him after all the time they spent together. This leads me
to think, are we so steeped in tradition in the American church that you are I
might asked of Christ, prove yourself?
Should I not have such a relationship with Him that I would recognize
Him with my eyes shut, so sensitive to
His presence that my inner most being would recognize Him immediately without
asking for His credentials first? Of course. Christ explained that not only should
my presence give sufficient evidence of His reality, but the works or fruit
should provide the evidence of His reality, or presence. That is how Christ
identifies His existence in you or I, not by the words we might say, that can
lead to false witnessing, but the fruit that identifies, or gives
overwhelming evidence of His presence in us. I must make myself available to Him. I make myself available by
drawing closer to Him, not tradition of man. John gives explicit description of
Christ warning to His disciples at the time of His departure from earth. In
John 16, that He must go so that the Holy Spirit can come and lead them and
that they learn to communicate with Christ not in the flesh as they have come
accustomed with, but through the Holy Spirit. Can you imagine, when Christ
ascended and went out of sight, the fear that overcame the disciples? Think of it, they are looking up into the sky
and Christ is gone from sight. They look up into the sky in dismay, slowly
bring their focus back to earth, look at each other and say, " Now
what?". Who led the way? Well we
learn later in the gospel that they did see Christ again through the Holy
Spirit.
After Pentecost or descent of the Holy Spirit,
the disciples bore fruit. I must not
lean on my own understanding, but that of the Holy Spirit obtained through a
mature relationship with Christ. In John 15:16 the LORD tells us that we are
chosen by Him to go an bear fruit, lasting fruit that after digesting, provides
proper nutrition quenching the hunger of a lost people sustaining strength not
provided by substituted means but supernatural means. How is your strength
obtained or even sustained?
One
"fruit" if you will is love. Not love defined by man, but defined by
Christ's sacrifice on the cross. In John 13:34, 35, Christ states that Love
would identify His disciples to the rest of the world. Love as He loved us,
unconditionally. This does not mean without accountability, but love not self
serving. Read 1 Peter 3:18.
Responding
to the call requires a release of self will and a surrender to God's will. We
can understand that by following Christ's example and the example provided
through many starting with the first disciples. Let us not put to shame their
work by restricting "godliness" or righteousness to the defining characteristics of tradition
but freedom in lives surrendered in response to the word of God, Christ, and of
the Holy Spirit.
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