The 7 Realities Of Experiencing God Part 1: God Is At Work In The Trenches, The Mundane, And On The High Hills
This article series covers a book by Henry T. Blackaby and Claude V. King titled "Experiencing God: How to Live the Full Adventure of Knowing and Doing the Will of God" in which seven individual truths are revealed and discussed that must be taken into account when following God's will. Henry and Claude go on a deep search to see what constitutes "experiencing" communication with God. They have created a list of 7 general realities that we will cover in several articles. I hope this series can help you on your journey with Christ and hearing His voice.
The 7 Realities
God Is At Work Around You
God Pursues A Continuing Love Relationship With You That Is Real And Personal
God Invites You To Be Involved With Him In His Work
God Speaks By The Holy Spirit, The Bible, Circumstances, And The Church
Invitation Always Leads To A Crisis Of Belief That Requires Faith And Action
You Must Make Major Adjustments In Your Life To Join God In What He Is Doing
You Come To Know God By Experience As You Obey Him And He Accomplishes His Work Through You
Each part will focus on one reality at a time (some realities constitute multiple parts), and for today we are honing in on the very first thing that must be realized about the Biblical God before you can communicate with Him. That being that we must first come to know that God Is At Work Around Us.
God Is Working In The Trenches, The Mundane, And On The High Hills
The Bible claims that God created the universe, that is a given. But the Bible also claims that God didn't just create the universe and then ignore it (Deism) but rather is personally and directly involved. Yahweh isn't one of the deadbeat dads you'll find on the streets today, He is and has been involved with His creation since eternity past. Some people use the existence of evil (moral and natural) as a "proof" that God cannot exist or be involved. That is faulty thinking, for if Man has free choice agency then he can choose separately from God, that is the Bible's claim and realities observation. God works with man despite his imperfections, that is where the love is. Despite the fact that man has chosen otherwise from God's absolutely good will, God works to redeem those who will repent. Because of the first sin, humanity has been separated from a righteous relationship with God, but despite this, He has been working in His creation towards the redemption of man; In the low trenches, to the High Hills, and always in the Mundane.
God could do three things after creating the universe, and in three general ways. The first is God could work below humanity, and this would be similar to Deism. God creates the universe and then ignores it: this would be minimal or no involvement with the universe and human affairs. The second way would be working above humanity: or simply offering salvation to all people despite their free choice (this wouldn't even be salvation since there is nothing to be saved from). This would be like the rich stalker who tracks down a girl, kidnaps her, and demands marriage from her. She may be better off financially with the stalker because he is rich, but she doesn't want that, and in this scenario, she has no free choice to actually love him. There would be no involvement of us at all, no relation to us either, just a display of power that is void of free will. Here God creates everything good despite free will, this would contradict any loving connection to humanity (because love requires a free choice, if not it is just force). God would have no care whatsoever with human choice or freedom, only His glory, but there would be nobody to glorify Him: logical stump once again. In these 2 ways, God would contradict His divine Justice and Love natures. The solution is that God is both Just and Loving towards man which leads us to the third way. That being God working alongside humanity: in this, God separated His perfect sustaining presence (of provider of life) and has worked with man, not to forsake free will.
Everything God has been doing (whether one is aware of it or not) has been pointing at the cross. God The Father found satisfaction in Justice and Love through the work of God The Son to atone for man, and through God The Holy Spirit keeps man oriented toward Christ and the Salvation He achieved. All of these have been working since before the universe was created toward the most loving act. In the original version of this article, I used the threefold operation of Electricity to help understand the uniform cooperation between the Trinity and creation. Looking back, it isn't the best analogy. The main point was that without Resistance in material, voltage, and amperes electricity cannot flow. And just like the threefold operation of electricity, God works through us in a threefold nature. All this boils down to the question you should actually be asking. You shouldn't ask "If God is working?" but rather "How and where is God working?" This article series aims to help you answer that exact question. Now, God drawing people to Himself is not selfish. Far too many people say that "since God desires us to worship Him, He must be pretty selfish and have an inflated ego." I believe these people just simply haven't thought about it hard enough.
The nature of Good flows from God, God is Good, and God wills because He is Good. God's nature is moral perfection, and so is His standard. If God in toto is Good, then all Good in a universe that is solely contingent (for mere existence) on His will would originate from God. Therefore if God's desire is for all humans to be drawn into a love relationship with Him, then He has our utmost best interests in mind because we would be involved in the ultimate Good.
Examples Of God Working In the Trenches, High Hills, And The Mundane
Now let me get something said before we continue. God's work is and will seem strange to us after all, we cannot understand His complete nature and desire. What we do know is that whatever it is, it will be good because God's nature is Good.
Moses and Abraham: In The Trenches
Let's take Moses for example. His mother had to get rid of him, he was then found and raised by the Pharoah's Daughter. He was exiled for killing a man (just to have the very people he was defending by it dismiss his deed), and wandering in the wilderness when God met him in a burning bush to send him back to the very place he was banished from. Or what about Abraham who at the ripe age of 70 had God tell him to abandon his family and travel to a far land for his descendants to flourish in, not even himself? Despite the troubles these men faced, God worked towards redemption. By allowing these men to go through struggles, God was able to teach them valuable lessons. In fact, God letting tribulation for Christians is not selfish or lazy! He uses some struggle to reap a desirable character. Ruthlessly spending your money will have you broke for a bit, maybe low on food and gas, or personal interests until your next paycheck. Through the stress and struggle of getting by with little, you would have learned how to control yourself when handling money. Despite the bad in the situation, you learned a good from it, and if you hadn't gone through the struggle, you would never have known the value of good money-keeping.
Despite the bad, God always fishes out Good from it, and thats powerful. This is God working in the trenches with man.
Ruth and Boaz: In The Mundane
In the book of Ruth, we see God working within the mundane to get two people together for His messianic bloodline to continue. Here is a summary of the Book of Ruth (Read it for yourself, it's a Good and Short read); A Man named Elimelech and his wife Naomi traveled to Moab with their 2 sons, Elimelech died, so his sons took Moabite women as their wives. The 2 wives' names were Orpah and Ruth, a decade after living in Moab, the 2 sons died as well. Naomi and her 2 in-laws returned to their home as widows. Naomi was going to sell her land to help with finances, but one of Elimelech’s family members moved in nearby. In this Book, God uses Ruth and this family member Boaz to continue the bloodline. Boaz is described as a man of great wealth (Ruth 2:1) and Ruth gained favor in his sight, and numerous times this book says that The Lord did this (Ruth 1:9 2:4; 12; 20).
God worked within the hearts of this circle of people to secure Ruth in the bloodline with Boaz purely by His grace because she was not an Israelite. No matter where you are, what you're feeling, and what you've done; despite all of your imperfections, God still works where you can't see Him. Despite what your current state looks like, God's state is always Good, so you can trust Him. Whenever you do, your entire life changes with "Peace that surpasses all Understanding (Philippians 4:7)."
God: Working On The High Hills
We have seen how God works with us in our most troubling moments: The Trenches; and how God works in everyday life: The Mundane; but we have yet to know what the High Hills are. I think there is only one example of this, and that is Jesus. God did what no man could. Here is an analogy. There is a hill, a very steep hill that has the answer to humanity's fall at it's peak. There are and have been plenty of men who have tried to climb it, but it's too steep for any man to do alone, so God has done it for us. Looking down on the hill, God sees how steep it is and that no man is able to climb it on his own merits. God has descended and climbed the mountain himself, building a ladder behind him.
God came as a Human being to bear flesh and to struggle and die for the separation Man has made for himself. God came in the man of Jesus Christ who revealed to us the real God of the universe, and what has become of His universe under man's dominion. Then, just like climbing the hill, Jesus lived a perfect and sinless life; and leaving behind a ladder for the failed climbers, Jesus leaves behind His perfect sacrifice to pay the debt of anyone who calls upon His name in genuine faith of His work on the Cross.
Conclusion
In Part 1 we covered the first reality of experiencing God, that is to recognize that God is at work all around you. The next parts of this series will go through each reality to discover how we can hear and see God's work around us, and to join Him in His active work in the world.
If you would, take a moment to reflect on times past when God has aided you in the norm. Personally, I can look back at times before I was even saved and can definitely spot where things worked out too well, or times when God was screaming "Jason, I am here, Hear Me!" But I was too caught up in my own interest and life to hear those humble words. I pray that you too will enable yourself to look for Where God is and to Go where God is to join Him in His work. Amen
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