Thursday, June 11, 2009
He's Out
One Saturday morning while I was still in bed thinking about trying to wake up enough to drag myself out of my warm bed … I saw a large wooden crate … a box that had the top taken off with the corner tabs opened up so that all four sides were laying flat on the floor; each side pointing to one of the four directions on a compass. The box was empty.
I saw it in my mind or my spirit, one or both; I'm not real sure how that works … it looked and felt to me like it was real. I wasn't in the picture at all. I didn't think too much about it at the time except one thought came to me along with the picture of this flattened wooden box. I didn't hear anything audible, but yet it was as if the Lord was speaking these words to me …
"There, I've kicked apart … for the last time … that box you keep trying to put me in. Don't put me in it again."
In the past year or so I have told Peggy several times … "Every time I get God in the box where I want Him, He always makes a pile of kindling out of it. He kicks it all to pieces." Three or four times in the past when I had God neatly arranged in my doctrinal box … He would break out of these boxes and leave behind a pile of broken, splintered up wood just laying on the ground. But He didn't do that this last time.
This time He carefully took my box apart and left it laying on the ground because it wasn't big enough for Him; it was only big enough to hold my personal doctrine. By doing so, I don't think God was trying to destroy my doctrine, my box I kept Him in … but rather to show me that He is making more room for a better understanding of His true and living Word which contains … God's Doctrine, not mine.
As I look back over the last few months I remember talking to many people that unknowingly keep God in "a box" for the purpose of legitimatizing their own personal doctrine of faith … "see here's all we want God to do" … sort of thing. When we do that we have it all backwards. We can't make God "fit" our personal doctrine … we should make our personal faith fit God's doctrine.
I am sure at this present time God is showing me that … "He's out" … and He wants to stay that way; out of the small tiny box that I have kept Him in. If the universe can't contain Him; then we are robbing ourselves of the size of His greatness and the ability to do big things for us if we keep Him in a box.
He also wants me to allow Him the freedom to work "His works" in and through me. You see, up to now I would only let Him perform the things that kept me safe inside my box … my comfort zone.
Isn't God good. Isn't He patient and understanding as He waits for us to grow up in Him. How dare anyone, including me, to try and contain God in a box of any size?
I love the writings of Solomon who came to this conclusion about the workings and conduct of God as he looked at life; (the following is my translation) …
"God can and will do whatever He wants, whenever He wants, to whomever He wants and there is nothing anyone can do about it. And even so, all is just as it should be because everything He does is always … just and right."
I think I have come to the conclusion that God doesn't follow any rules.
"Don't put me in it again."
I'm going to remember His words to me this time.
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2 comments:
Wow, what a wonderful teaching, yet again, brother.
I am a visual learner and as I read your post, I saw the box fall open. A piece pointing to the north, another to the south, another to the east, and the fourth to the west. I saw this as the infinite nature of our Lord; His omnipresence. So I searched the Scripture.
2 Chronicles 6:18 states: "But will God really dwell on earth with men? The heavens, even the highest heavens, cannot contain you. How much less this temple I have built!"
But He does dwell on earth, in us. His Spirit resides within us. This is confirmed in the New Testament in 1 Corinthians 6:19: "Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God?"
Scripture is accurate and true by its very nature. So here is the most profound of mysteries: God cannot be contained in a temple but is contained in a temple that He has chosen --- us, His people.
I don't know if I am making any sense to people that may read this. I know that God is uncontainable; I know that He is omnipresent and omniscient, etc.. But as He has chosen to reside with His people, in the temples of His choosing, He is everywhere, because His people are everywhere. His people spread to the north, to the south, to the east and to the west.
Also, if His Spirit is within us, which it is. And if He is uncontainable --- with regards to all aspects of His being --- not only His presence but His attributes --- then aren't we also uncontainable? Not, in our flesh, of course. But, in our Spirit?
I love the way you open my mind to the profound nature of God and His Word.
Hi Sis …
Once again you have caused me to stop and reflect on another of your phrases … "then aren't we also uncontainable?" You are right, God is uncontainable, with regards to all aspects of His being; yet He chooses to dwell within our hearts.
"Aren't we uncontainable?" Yes we are. But it's not so much that we take God with us every place we go; but rather it's where God chooses to take us, if we follow His leading. Then we are absolutely, without question … uncontainable.
I am still amazed that my brothers and sisters in the Lord still want to read the stuff I write about. The Lord just has me share my heart; in fact a few times I have received back a note that says something I shared … came just in time.
Just a side thought … As the worship team was leading worship a couple of weeks ago, the last two words of one of the lines in a song about Jesus has stuck with me. Those two simple words are … YOU ARE. The meaning to me is that everywhere I go, Lord … YOU ARE.
Uncontainable … that's our God.
Blessings …
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