I’m borrowing heavily here from a number of different sources, namely Plato’s cave analogy and some comments by Tozer, but I’ve been meditating on this a lot this week. So I thought I’d share.
Let’s assume a man born blind, who had never seen color. How would you describe the color red to him? You would, by limitation of the subject, have to use other senses to attempt it. You couldn’t give objects that are red, by the same limitation. You would have to relate it somehow to sound or smell or touch. To say the least, it would be difficult.
There is the great old t parable about the blind men who all come upon an elephant. One touches the hide, one a leg, another the trunk and another a tail and so on. Bound by their experience and limited by their perception, they each give a different definition of an elephant, which is not an elephant at all.
But what is needed to truly understand the color red or the elephant, is a completely different sense altogether. The blind men in these analogies need to SEE.
God is the only uncreated being that exists. And since our only experience is with other created things, we by nature have a faulty definition of God. We are material and “fleshly”, while God is Spirit, not immaterial necessarily, but made of a different material altogether. And the only way to have a true understanding of God is to have relationship and experience with Him by that different material … the Spirit.
This is why many people of all theological and political camps serve a very worldly God. They can only relate to Him through worldly things and therefore can only define and see Him as such. This ultimately becomes a “work of their own hands” and idolatry since the God they are worshiping is not really God at all.
Even Jesus came up against this limitation. How often He said, “the Kingdom of Heaven is like …” But the Kingdom of Heaven is not a pearl or a field or a servant or whatever. While some teach that Jesus taught in parables to help people understand, the scripture tells a very different story … He told parables as a type of obstacle to see who truly wanted to know God. Because while the parables related some truth, they were still by nature worldly and must be gotten past to get to the root of truth, a spiritual truth.
We can read the Bible and go to theological schools or what have you, but all that is learning ABOUT him. That’s like me reading all I could get my hands on to read about my wife, looking at nice portraits of her that others have done, all the while she sits in the room with me. I could look her in the eye, touch her face, know her intimately. And yet someone has made me believe that reading books and looking at pictures is actually having a relationship with a PERSON.
If I could trace the problem with Christianity back to one thing, it is this. We’ve been convinced, and have passed this on to generations, that knowing about God is the same as KNOWING Him. It’s not. And yet we settle for something less, arguments about doctrine and theology, as if taking sides on predestination or the sinners prayer means you actually know God.
So how do you have this experience, this relationship with God? it is reserved for the select few (it is difficult and therefore a narrow way) that will seek after Him with their whole heart. It is simple, but some people want to live their own lives way too much to truly seek after Him with their WHOLE HEART.
And through the grace and faith available through Jesus, we are given the indwelling Holy Spirit. This is completely necessary, because what we’ve been given at that point is a new nature, the scripture calls it the “new creation”, and it is a new creation because we have been given the ability to see on a whole new level. With the Holy Spirit, we are given the uncreated nature to properly commune with the uncreated God.
Jesus told the woman at the well, “God is spirit and must be worshiped in spirit-truth.” The Greek word there is actually “spirit-truth”, not spirit and truth, as if you could separate the two. Seeing the whole elephant makes certain arguments unfruitful. Experiencing God in Spirit gives the proper perspective.
One of the most mis-quoted scriptures is in 1 Corinthians where Paul says, “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, nor has entered into the mind of man the things that God has prepared for those who love Him.” And then we stop there, throwing up our hands and quit (usually as a license to live our own lives the way we want). That isn’t the end of the thought, though. It is only the setup. The next thought is “but God has revealed it to us by His Spirit, and the Spirit searches ALL THINGS, even the deep things of God.”
This isn’t to completely throw all theology out the window. You can call a monkey an elephant, but it isn’t actually an elephant. God does have aspects of Himself that are true and unchangeable, no matter what our modern sensibilities might think archaic or progressive.
It might surprise you, but God doesn’t really care what we or celebrities or philosophers think of Him. He is. Take Him or leave Him (I would strongly suggest the taking part, as difficult as it is … way cooler in the long run), but He’s not changing, nor is he in need of enlightenment or a modern makeover to be relevant.
But we make the mistake of taking those theologies and doctrines, some of them very true and central, and using them as a substitute for actually knowing Him deeply and intimately. And by such substitutes, we must rely upon modern day priests to mediate for the laity. Doctrines are passed down but not what truly matters: do you hear God talk to you? Do you obey when He speaks? Communing with God gives life to truth, otherwise you’re parroting words.
You have to see God by the Spirit to truly follow Him. Otherwise you’re just following another man’s walk, if you’re that lucky. He might be only describing God’s butt, and then writing books and starting a whole denomination based on his experience with God’s butt.
As a leader, I have for some time focused my concern not on doctrine alone (yes, important), but more importantly on whether or not people know God. Really know Him. Why? I completely trust the Spirit to do exactly what is necessary. I believe that God wants people to follow Him more than I do, and He woos and calls. I try to be very sensitive to whether people are following the call to Christ Himself or to me or my teaching. There is a difference.
Unfortunately, many other leaders I talk to see this as leading to chaos. I think God can be way more in control than we or our organizations can be, and it will look much cooler and be so much more genuine when we let Him be the Shepherd He wants to be. And I also heartily believe that the world will see an expression of Christ through His people not seen since the first couple centuries. Maybe even greater than that.
But I’m pretty weird sometimes.
So in conclusion, I encourage you (and myself … this journey isn’t done for any of us!) to get to the place where you hear from God and obey the Spirit when He speaks to you. Let me warn you though. This is not for the faint of heart. You will probably say “woe is me” a few times and feel like you’re dying to what you want a lot of the way. But you’re being built into a habitation for Him to dwell in and express Himself through, if you’re willing. You’re basically trading your life for His life. You can’t have both. But in the end you don’t get to keep yours anyway, so it’s a pretty good deal.
Peace.
This post was much-needed.
And the “denomination based on God’s butt” line made me laugh out loud.
Thanks for sharing this.