Abiding Fellowship, part 10

The truth of the matter is: If all we have is knowledge and theology, then we tend to get involved in discussions and arguments about God that are irrelevant, even if we are correct. So, what if your theology is correct, but you have no intimacy with Him, no doing of His Will? Without intimacy, theology becomes all-consuming. 
 

Would you rather be one of the disciples of Christ or one of the Pharisees? The disciples had a bunch of bad theology, but they also had a longing for abiding fellowship. As they began to do the Will of God, God straightened out their theology. The Pharisees had their theology down pat, but they had no desire to abide with Him. They had no desire to spend time in His presence or to do His Will. 
 

“Don’t refuse Him who is speaking to you.” The word refuse is often associated with intimacy. Don’t refuse Him. Develop a desire to be with Him. Do you have a prayer life? Do you have any sense of longing for His presence? 

I have traveled on many short term Mission trips, and have even taught pastor’s conferences in few different places around the world. Being gone from home causes me to think about communication with my family. I used to say, “Suppose God allowed me to invent an apparatus that allowed me to be in my family’s presence without being home. It would be kind of like a time machine, but it’s a presence machine instead. It would be even better than the telephone where you simply hear their voices or even FaceTime where you see them, but don’t really experience their presence. This tool would be free – no usage charges, and my family could literally get a hold of me wherever I am. With this apparatus you could actually experience the presence of the one person. The only problem with this invention is that it is too large to bring with me on an airplane. I don’t fully understand why God could not have helped me to invent this thing a little smaller, but He didn’t. I had to leave it at home.

So here is the dilemma. My family needs to initiate the use of it. I could call them on the phone and prompt them and encourage them to use it. I even left a great owner’s manual they could read and learn all about using it so we could experience each other’s presence. But they just are not interested. They have no desire for abiding fellowship.
 

Pretty soon you would have a situation like the one God has with our prayer lives. God has come up with a way for us to spend time in His presence – it’s called prayer. The problem with prayer is that it must be initiated by us. He prompts us, He draws us, He woos us, but many times we are just not interested. He has left us a great owner’s manual to read, and we often do read it, far too often do we take the time to put it into practice. It would appear that we really have no desire for abiding fellowship. 
 

It would seem that Christians in America have learned how to refuse Him who is speaking, while convincing ourselves that we have a great relationship with Him. We have put justification over sanctification. Subsequently, we have very little spiritual capacity, so we drift off and come back, we drift off, and we come back.
 

Don’t refuse Him who is speaking. Determine to develop a prayer life that consists of a pursuit of Him, not just things from Him, but He Himself.   END