Where to Begin

Almost everyone who has toyed with the notion of learning of God has also had a secret desire to have a personal encounter and experience Him in some real way.  This is the essence of religion and the highest pursuit of all human ambition.  Nothing we could ever do or dream of doing can ever compare in importance to our directing our attentions and desires towards the Divine.

All Cristian religions hold to this concept in theory, yet there seems to be a gulf separating us from successfully bridging the gap and entering this wonderful territory.  What a beautiful thing it would be if we could all find that what is lacking and open the secret door to release the Spirit of the Lord over all His followers.  Imagine the joy that would be ours if we were all to be filled right now with that flooding of Spirit which came over the early church as in flames of fire?

So if the desire is indeed there, what can be done to open the floodgates of heaven?  If God desires it too, why do we not all have this sensation every day?

John 17:21 says ¨In order that they may be all one, just as you, Father, are in union with me and I am in union with you, that they also may be in union with us…….. (Reference Bible)

It is possible.  It is correct and good for us to desire this in-dwelling.  We should each aspire to attain what we can of the Divine living inside of each one of us.  But perhaps our problem and our limitations lie in a simple error.

Jesus is at the Father´s side as we speak and they are wrapped in a cloud of unknowing which keeps us from seeing them.  This cloud that covers our eyes is spiritual in nature.  This means that the five senses which we normally use to engage with our environment do not aid us much in bridging this gap.  They are not the tools used for accomplishing the task of communing with the Divine.

For those of us who are sufficiently interested in finding out anything noteworthy about God or our Savior who sits by His side, we would need a little help.  There must be a guide, a counselor or someone who can instruct us to where they are.  And there is just such a guide.

Jesus promised to send us just such a guide and counselor who would show us our Way back to His side and teach us all that we lack in ourselves towards our Goal.

This brings us to the dilemma.  What is it that we lack? Why can we not see our guide and let Him take our hand and lead us to the Promised Land?

If you are truly willing and your heart will let you, you must enter into that cloud too.  The way leads through the mist of understanding where we cannot see and only that friendly hand can help us find our way.  Our journey in one we make with our very soul and core of our being.

We are forever trying to lower God and His entire heavenly realm into our limited imaginations and understandings.  We try to say that if we do these kinds of acts or worship in this way or that, then we will enter that land.  We say that heaven cannot be attained by works, but then our actions or tendencies are to attempt to do just that.

The Bible teaches us that it is impossible for us.  Only by the power of God are we able to attain anything in spiritual terms.  We see many Christians today speaking loud about giving glory to God, but deep inside of their hearts they have not left a door open to the mystical wonder of the great spiritual realm where God reigns supreme.

We need to make a giant effort to fight off this tendency to limit God to what we can see and touch.  Religion for us today needs to include once again a sense of wonder and awe towards someone and something far bigger and better that our rituals and righteous acts could ever pay tribute to.  We need to seek to know in a very real sense, deep inside our hearts and soul, that presence which dwells with in that mysterious cloud.

Jesus call for this kind of seeker when He says to seek Him and His righteousness.  We can experience God but we need to know whether or not what we seek is actually that God who lives above our understanding and reigns in a kingdom not made of hands.  If what we want is a God that we can get our heads around and wrap up in our ideology and moral conduct, then that is the kind of God and religion we will have.

But for those honest seekers, the one of whom Jesus prays for in John 17, that immense wonder and presence can and will become one.  It may not happen in a day, but the serious seeker, the follower who has tasted and said, ¨I will give my all to have that what was offered¨, to this kind of determined soul, the outcome is sure.  There is a guide who was promised and will come to assure success.

Open your heart to Him today, lift up anything you may not understand.  Bow down to your knees and expect to receive in direct relation to what you give up.  Blessed instruction that will follow.  When you direct yourself so unselfishly towards your Creator and Savior in all honesty, He does respond and that wonderful union of souls and entities begins.  All the mightiest powers in the universe begin to work in favor of your soul and you will have the best of all guides to show you the Way.

To Him be the glory

Scott W