God created all things. He also created us, and a bridge to Know Him, not understand Him. But you need a building permit, and you can get that from Jesus, by just asking Him, its free. And that bridge’s name is Faith, and the pieces of wood that make up that bridge are called Trust. The nails that hold it all together and keep it all together are called Honesty, and honesty is the only way to build that bridge. And when you and Jesus finally build the bridge of Faith, the only way you will Know in your heart whether that bridge is real or imagined is by taking that one real big step onto it. And that step is called Trust and Surrender.
But how do you find Jesus? Well, many teach you find Him by understanding. The Truth is the only Way to find Him is by faith. Let’s unpack the difference between understanding and faith.
Most of us first look to scripture to find Jesus. Woe to you who bend the meaning and intent of scripture to suite your level of faith. But I encourage you to rather increase your faith to the level that the Truth requires to Know Him. Let me ask the question, can you believe and Trust in a Jesus you do not understand? Does your faith extend up to only that which is known and understood? If you think you have reached the highest level of faith you could ever have, think again. And if I am right (and I am right), how do you get there?
First things first. Forget your agenda, forget your goals, demands for your attention and time, forget your worldly influences, separate from them and listen, read, learn the truth of what God has said to others that have His spirit in them with power and evidence. How can you live a life without knowing why you are here? Why not put all your focus, time, efforts into settling the question, and then live accordingly after that? And if you are old, and are seeing the end of you soon, why not get ready for what is next by the same process. Set aside everything, I mean everything, and settle the question with God. Tell yourself and commit to yourself that you will not take another step in life until God is real, Jesus is all everyone has said he is and could be, and you have an experience that you know comes form God and not from within yourself (imagination or dream), within your own comprehension or power, or some other worldly external force. Let nothing deter you, get in your way, distract you from this one thing. Alternatively, if you are young, you can just go ahead and live it best you can, without meaning or purpose other than simply fulfilling your to do list each day, and serving yourself the best you can, our of self indulgence and greed. If you are old, just let the days pass by until the end, and see what happens? Really? Your life and afterlife is much more valuable than that careless attitude.
Jesus, and the first to receive the baptism in the Holy Spirit, did not bend to anyone, anything, anywhere, for any reason, not politics, not social acceptance, not money, not power, not friends, not family, not temple, not religion, not for any opinion of man or men. The Holy Spirit said say this… He told them say this and they said it, He said write this, and they wrote it, He said do this and they did it, and they had no clue what that would be until after it happened, and even then they didn’t understand most of it, they were just a vessel to be used and then a witness to it.
So many speak, and offer interpretation of scripture, as if a person’s heart is not able to hear the living Word of God on their own, and to Know Jesus without their interpretation, evaluation, authenticity, and judgement. Of which church do you belong, the over 20,000 of them? So over 20,000 times, someone has interpreted the written word of God differently, and said let’s start a church that believes this way, that understands God to be this way, and to be saved you have to do this or be this kind of person. Or, is it all so simple (spoiler alert – yes it is), and did He make it simple so we could all Know Him like Jesus did, and so that that opportunity was open to everyone and anyone, anywhere, anytime who was willing to get right before him and ask.
Do you belong to Christ, and fellowship first and foremost with the Holy Spirit in you? In whom do you trust completely, anyone? It is the Father’s place in your heart alone to be the one you trust, always, completely.
He designed your relationship, and the opportunity for it, to be simple, having to know nothing prior to, and this right and privilege is available in the same fashion and weight to anyone anywhere anytime. Does our pride say, no wait, we have a religion, we have a church, we have a culture, we have laws that all legitimize our belief in God so that others will respect it and therefore all those who belong to it? Or, is it more like the less you “know” and understand the better. Yet so many teachers, theologians, scholars, persuade you with their words, their interpretation of scripture, and in so doing, build blocks upon blocks for you to stumble upon, heaping (as Jesus said the Pharisees and Sadducees did) making it even more difficult for you to reach the goal they proclaim you should seek. For in fact, they should be simply encouraging you to read what has been written for yourselves, and get out of the way between the two of you, that being you and the Holy Spirit. They should tell you, you need no one else, but your heart, and it is far better for you to become one with Him, than to have to depend on others for that relationship in any way. Note: I have found that I have never been able to lead anyone to Christ by persuasion. As if they followed my words and connected my dots, they would find Him. Shame on those who preach in such a way. Each of us must and can only find God in their own way. Reading the written word is good, listening to those who have the Holy Spirit in them and share the Living Word of God is good, all these things draw us close to God (John 6:65-66 – “This is why I told you that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them.”) , but in the end the moment of true salvation is just between you and the Father Himself. For in fact no one can make this happen for you, but you and God alone.
Praise Him that He designed it so, so that no counterfeit, no imposter, no well-meaning teacher, no deceiver of the arts, no counsel of man, no false prophet, no church would have to persuade you or anyone, and even say it is so. Persuasion is a man thing. God does not persuade us to do anything. He is God and is The I Am, not subject to us in any way. And He certainly would never complicate with knowledge, such a decision of the will and heart to trust Him and Him alone, completely. There is no church that has got it right, for they all cannot save you, only Jesus. If you trust a teaching it cannot save you. If you follow a holy man, he cannot save you. If you fast, and obey the laws of God, though you will draw near to him, that alone will not cause Him to enter into you as Jesus said He would. You must trust only one person, and nothing else, but the man, the person Jesus. Jesus wants and waits for you to tell Him you trust Him in the way only you know how to express it. Speak it so that your own heart hears it, in a way that convinces both of you in total honesty, surrender, and release.
Why do teachers, preachers, make something so simple, so complicated? Why do they have to own you, and speak in way that you cannot think for yourselves. A true teacher of the Way, should be encouraging your independence from them, and to fellowship with the Holy Spirit directly, who lives in you, if you have experienced receiving Him. Learn to hear His living Word above the noise, separate from the crowd, so that you do not just walk in the Way by faith, but have an understanding given directly to you by the Holy Spirit, in ways designed just for you. With the ultimate goal of preparing you to become a teacher yourself, so that you can go forth and boldly speak the gospel, by the power of the Holy Spirit, that Jesus is the Christ, He is alive, and He is king of kings, and He heals and forgives, loves the unlovable and the lost, and is coming again one day soon. Jesus said! I must go, but because I do this for you, and for all those who will believe, the Father will send the Holy Spirit to be with you forever. I do this so that you can be one with the Father, just as He and I are one. Read that again… so that you and the Father of all things can be one! Just as Jesus and He are one!
The hard fact is, you must read not just parts of the 27 letters, you must read them all. When you do, you will see his total plan. You will see you must be born again, in the same experience that the first believers had. You will see how that happened then, and that it happens now, for we have the same God and His plan back then is the same now. The difference is us. We’ve complicated it, to avoid submitting to its powerful simplicity. We’ve denied miracles, saying knowledge is enough, so that we could choose the easier way, the more comfortable way, the more socially acceptable way. We’ve dumbed down The Faith required to Know Him, and receive the promised baptism in the Holy Spirit, for convenience, and numbers, the business of church. We’ve widened the narrow Way, to suite ourselves, and our understanding. We have fooled ourselves into thinking we’ve done enough to Know Him as Jesus did. Jesus did not receive His Father’s Holy Spirit until just before he sent out into the desert to try that power on. How then can we deceive ourselves into thinking (fooling) ourselves into heaven. Some teach, get water baptized and even if you do not have the Holy wind and fire experience, the Holy Spirit is in you anyways because you submersed your body underwater. We’ve made the Way wide, believe and your done, and all there is to it. The demons believe in Jesus and they shudder.
Do NOT listen to anyone who tries to say this isn’t so, and tries to dumb down your faith so that it is more comfortable, make you feel better about yourself, or so that you have a faith that does not go beyond what you understand and takes you out of your comfort zone. It fills the pews but does not change hearts. For faith will always and forever be that part or piece or bit of God you do NOT understand. For who can ever know the mind of God! Trust not your own understanding, and if you find you have created an image of God for yourself that lives within that understanding, then you have no God, and you are your own god, since you understand and have declared God to be that which makes sense to you. We receive God’s living Word, His Truths, via the Holy Spirit, which you must have faith and only faith to receive. If you say you understand, then you do not!
God’s bridge to know Him certainly will hold you, better than anything or anyone else. All your senses, all your knowledge, all your learning to date in your life will prompt you NOT to take that step unto what you don’t know for sure is even real. It’s only when you take the step and place your entire body weight onto that first board of that bridge, when you will Know in your spirit He is real, He is there for you, He loves you, He forgives you, He is the creator of all this world and the next, and He will never fail you or leave you. His bridge has the strongest foundation, it has the best design, its construction is true, it spans over the greatest troubles and evil, and it has an end that no other bridge or structure has, and that is heaven and the presence of God, in which you will live in eternity with Him.
