The Essence of Belief
Today, I thought I’d expand on the theme of yesterday’s blog, “How Much Does God Have to Do?” The subject in question for today is belief, and more specifically the essence of the knowledge. This is perhaps the heart of the discussion as to whether God can actually be known, and I’ll compare the knowledge of God with that of light-- an appropriate comparison in my humble opinion.
Light is an experiential knowledge. You must allow it access to know it. Or, to phrase it in a more easily understood manner—you must experience light to understand it. Can you understand light without a context of experience? Can the blind man truly understand light through explanation? How would you go about explaining it to the blind? It’s bright? Well, now explain bright to those is constant darkness.
Just because the blind man has no context or knowledge of light doesn’t make it any less real, does it? If the blind man disbelieves the existence of light, does that forfeit your absolute and complete experiential trust in light?
Exactly.
God exists. Those of us who have experienced Him have complete and utter trust in that experiential truth. And our experience with Him came when we let down our guard and came to Him with the smallest of faith that He may reveal Himself. This exchange is acted out for our benefit in the gospel of Mark, chapter 9. We see there a man whose son was afflicted by a demon. He asks the Lord to help him and the Lord responds, questioning his belief. Note in verse 24 the man’s response:
“With tears flowing, the child's father at once cried out, ‘I do believe! Help my unbelief!’"
This is the key to beginning an experience with God. For those of us with just enough faith to ask for more, we will be given the knowledge of Him. It is an experiential knowledge of Him working in our lives, and the very core of our person. If we allow a relationship with Him, we will begin to see the changes in ourselves that we know we could never have worked. We will recognize His thoughts in our heads and His intentions in our hearts.
I’m becoming a better person. And I know myself well enough—my frailties, selfishness, and failures—to know that I could not have made the changes. I was too messed up to even want to.
He’s proving Himself to me every day, in these ways and more. I invite you to approach Him with whatever faith you can muster; even the smallest bit will do. He’ll take it from there.
Blessings…
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The Grand Canyon
Reading your post, a thought came to me that I have pondered often. I have never been to the Grand Canyon and a person who has can tell me all about it, over and over again, and I will try to understand the things that he describes to me. Somethings I might be able to relate to other experiences that I have had but even that will not be the same. But I will never be able to understand his passion about it. I will never be able to understand why he was so overwhelmed with it. But on that day when I am near the Grand Canyon and I begin to walk closer to it I will begin to see its width. The closer I draw near the wider it will get. At some point when its width is believed to be realized it depth will begin to be revealed. As I draw nearer and the depth becomes more known I may become afraid to approach any closer and if I allow that fear to overcome me I will never know it just how deep it truly is. As it's width is realized I will be overwhelmed for my eyes have never beheld anything so wide. As the depth becomes know my breathe will be taken away and my heart will pound harder as my fears and excitement is increased. When I have finally stood at its edge and have experienced its width and depth firsthand I will be overcome with feelings and emotions never before known or experienced in such magnitude. I will be overcome with a desire to do all I can to share this experience with others just as others had desired to do with me. But then I will taken back to those times and realized that despite all their efforts the failed so miserably to describe what I have experienced firsthand. It will become evident to me that no matter how hard I try I will never be able to convey this experience to any other person and that the only possible way they will ever know is to experience it firsthand for themselves.
I have come to realize this same thing concerning the children of God. First off those who are not children have no chance of ever getting to this point, for no man's heart has never known the treasures that God has in store for those who love him. These things are only revealed to man through the Holy Spirit and only those have arrived at the Grand Canyon of God have the ability to experience them. Many will be afraid to approach to closely. Some will approach just enough until the fear overcomes them. And only a remnant will stand at its edge and be overcome with all its splendor and glory.
Grace to you my beloved brother,