by using another distraction, toy or relationship to make things better. Yet they’re almost out of hose and will soon have to make a decision—come up out of their humanism and depend on the Spirit of God or drown in their sin. That is why He is tells us “Be still and know that I am God.” Even the ocean, in its great splendor, will pause four times each and every day. God wants us all to have some type of “slack tide,” moments of silence, in our day in order to hear His voice.
Chapter Four: “Have a Seat. We need to talk.”
“God doesn’t want to dominate our lives. He wants to direct our lives.”
My wife and I have three amazing boys. I have found that when I give them direction or correction, they don’t hear what I am saying to them unless they are still and attentive. They have to put down whatever they are doing and have a seat. Then they have to look me in the eyes so I know I have their attention. Even then, with my youngest, I know I only have a few seconds of time to communicate my point before he is off thinking about something else. That’s okay for me as long as I know he heard and understood me.
It is the same with our Heavenly Father. God doesn’t want to dominate our lives. He wants to direct our lives. He wants us to stop, have a seat and truly communicate with Him. Religion is about manipulation and control and maintains that we as individuals are too ignorant to be governed by the Spirit of God, so therefore man must step in and make rules for our lives. This type of antichrist approach takes the choice out of our hands. It tries to take away from us the very gift God instilled in mankind from the beginning—our free moral will.
Many religious circles teach that God wants to control our lives through rules and a code-of-ethics. This is why many people have been “turned off” by church. They have been disillusioned by religion, someone’s perspective of a god, not the true God, but someone’s imagination of what they believe God should be. They view God as mean and violent, seeking to run us into the ground. They walk away from God not wanting anything to do with that kind of a god. I must agree with them. My God is about relationship, not rules. God understands that the letter of the law would frustrate man. So He sent His Spirit to bring life and freedom—a sharp contrast to religion. Religion preaches man’s rules and not God’s heart. This is nothing more than the meat of humanism squeezed between the buns of religious ideology. Following a list of rules or ideals is not what gives us eternal life. Knowing God is what gives us eternal life. Jesus said it in John 17:3, “And this is eternal life, that they know you the only true God and Jesus Christ whom you have sent…”
Notice He didn’t say that eternal life is going to church, paying your tithes, memorizing Bible verses, living a moral life or just doing your best. No, He said that eternal life is knowing God. The Word “know” in the Greek is gnosco, which means to be so aware of God that you can feel Him and to feel involves the heart. Knowing God is heart knowledge which is much different than head knowledge. Head knowledge is a mental response that acknowledges information to be true. It says, “Oh, I know Jesus is the Son of God. I know Jesus died on the cross for my sins. I know Jesus is the way, the truth and light.” Just like knowing you can super size your order at the drive through window. It’s just knowledge and information. We can know all the facts and figures about God, but if we don’t know God, there is no salvation and eternal life.
A clearer picture of knowing God means to be involved in an intimate and growing relationship with Him. That’s right, knowing God involves intimacy. Just like a healthy marriage requires intimacy. In the Greek, gnosco can be used for the same Word in Hebrew –yadaw. Yadaw is used in Genesis 4:1 in this context—Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived, and bare Cain… You cannot get more intimate than that. Taking this verse at face value, it literally means that Adam was inside Eve, and he planted something within her that brought life. That is why this act is referred to as intercourse. There is no intercourse without the “in.” Without making time for intercourse, there won’t be any little ones running around. In a marriage, intercourse doesn’t just happen, you have to set aside time for it and protect it. With the busyness of life, stress of work, lack of sleep and the interruption of the kids, a married couple must make time for their moments of intimacy, or it will soon become their last priority, and if something doesn’t change, this will be the beginning of the end of the marriage. Intimacy in a marriage cannot be cultured without silence and time alone. It is very difficult to enjoy one another’s presence if the children are fighting, screaming or crying, if the phone is ringing off the hook or the door bell is ringing. Maybe you forgot to lock the door and one of the kids barges into your room unannounced. The opportunity for intimacy was just deflated. I often say that children are the best birth control methods available. It wasn’t until I was married with children that I understood why my parents would kick all five of us kids out of our house during their Sunday afternoon nap. We have to make room in our lives to nurture intimacy with our spouse.
There are other potential distractions that can destroy a marriage. When we allow other things into the marriage, it can breed division. That is why God tells us to keep the marriage bed pure. To defile something means to make it unclean. There are those that have allowed pornography or a third person to steal their heart away from their spouse. At this point they are no longer finding any enjoyment with their spouse and no longer making intimacy a priority. They will make every excuse not to be with their spouse, but they will risk all and sacrifice everything to have intimacy with their sin.
This is why God is trying to awaken the Church. The Church has prostituted its heart to the world and has not made time for God. It is Christian humanism that embraces polygamy of the heart.
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