Romans 8: 26 NKJV
I remember from my days in the church where every so often one of my friends would approach me on a Sunday morning and tell me with a serious expression that "God has something for me to tell you." I usually approached these situations with caution because when someone said that God had something to tell me it usually meant that I needed to improve some area of my life. That's just how those conversations went. When I look back, I often wonder to myself that if God had such a urgent matter to tell me, why didn't He just avoid the middle man and tell me about it Himself? Well, maybe He did, or maybe He tried and I just wasn't listening at the time. Now, I would never discount the fact that God can and will use other people to show us that which we need to know, but I prefer to be in a relationship conversation with Him. When we look at prayer, isn't that what it is all about in a nutshell? Our own conversations with the Father? I look at the scriptures and I see the prayers of Jesus in the context of conversations. I have no doubt that we communicate with the Father in the same way. I don't need some priest to mumble a few words and spread some smoke around to make me feel as if I'm talking to God. Yet, this is the traditional church view of how we are to communicate with Him. We are supposed to come before the Father with a guilty heart, knowing that we are sinners and that we need to seek forgiveness before we can even speak to Him. Well, I'm not buying the traditional church philosophy. I believe that it makes it easier for us to talk to the Father once we know how it is that God sees us. Does God look upon us as we see ourselves? A sinner who needs His forgiveness? I don't see it that way at all. First of all, we need to recognize that we live in union with the Father. That is, He is in us. The apostle Paul assured us of this when he spoke of Christ Jesus living in him {Galatians 2:20, Romans 6:8}. Therefore, if Jesus is in us, God Himself is in us {John 14:9}. Hence, we are one with the Father. Of course, if we are one with the Father then we indeed can have that heart to heart conversation with Him. But what about our sin? Does God still see sin when He looks upon us? Or, does He see us as we truly are, His precious children? Paul also tells us of how Jesus dealt with the sin issue {Romans 6:6}. We are assured of the fact that Jesus Himself became sin on our behalf {2 Corinthians 5:21}. When we come before the Father asking His forgiveness for our sin, His response will more than likely be "What sin?"
"That they may be one, as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You; that they also may be one in us, that the world may believe that You sent Me. And the glory which You gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one. I in them, and You in Me; that they may be made perfect in one, and that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."
John 17: 21 - 23 NKJV
For the longest time my desire was for my own conversations with God to be not as master and servant, but as Father and child. Of course, back then I followed the church doctrine and never realized the bond which Christ and I shared. I was taught that Jesus was seated at the throne of the Father, removed from my own life. Had I known the Jesus I know now it would have been a whole lot easier. That is my desire for all who come to Jesus, that they would know the true Christ, He who gave Himself for us that He would come to live in all who know Him. This is the personal relationship which I have found in Jesus. When I speak to Him, it is not with a heavy heart of guilt, but the joy of knowing who I am in Him. Our conversations with God are not meant to be a wish list, admission of sin or out of fear of punishment. On the contrary, when we come to Him it is on a personal level because that is now our relationship with Him. It was never meant that we should be in a church or temple as a prerequisite to coming to Him. He is with us wherever we are.
~Scott~
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