Last C.S. Lewis Post “God is on the Move”

It is frustrating sometimes, trying to “feel” God’s presence in your life. I have had my struggles in the past and still do even now through all He has shown me and done for me, I still want to see a miracle or hear a voice or see something “supernatural”. Then then the words ”oh yea of little faith” come to my mind, I try but it feels sometimes that living in this media dominated world, that it is harder and harder to live on a strict diet of faith alone. Then I ground my self in the Word and realize the truths that God has reveled to us, summed up; we are not alone. God has sent the “Great Comforter” who is the Third person of the Trinity, the Holy Spirit. Take this passage from “Mere Christianity” by C.S. Lewis on the “movement of God” and the actions of the Trinity in the life of a Christ follower.

“An ordinary simple Christian kneels down to say his prayers. He is trying to get into touch with God. But if he is a Christian he knows that what is prompting him to pray is also God; God, so to speak, inside him. But he also knows that all his real knowledge of God comes through Christ, the Man who was God, that Christ is standing beside him, helping him to pray, praying for him. You see what is happening. God is the thing to which he is praying, the goal he is trying to reach. God is also the thing inside him which is pushing him on, the motive power. God is also the road or bridge along which he is being pushed to that goal. The whole threefold life of the three-personal Being is actually going on in that ordinary little bedroom where an ordinary man is saying his prayers. The man is being caught up into the higher kind of life.”

Wow that makes me look at my relationship with God in a new way. Do you see what is happening here? God is on the move. He is working in the Christian’s life and moving in it even if he doesn’t “feel” it. Here are two experiences I have had with God in my past.

The first is when I was about fifteen years old when I found myself at an evening church service to prayerfully consider if our church would make my Dad an Elder. There then came a time for members of the church to go up to my dad and pray over him and speak words of encouragement to him. I was taking the time that night very seriously and I humbled myself in prayer to God, asking him to use me in any way he could. Then I felt something I had never felt before and only have felt rarely since then. My heart felt like it was full and ready to burst open, my soul was overwhelmed with this utter feeling to go, go, GO! And somehow I knew that meant to go to my Dad and speak to him. As I walked up to the front of the church I was wondering what in the world I would say to him, what was I doing? A “God thing” happened at that moment and you would think that at such an important point in my life I would remember every word I said but it was like someone else did the speaking for me. I know I said something like, “I am proud of you Dad and you can do this you have what it takes” but I truly believe the words I spoke were from God the Father to my Dad that night.

 The second experience has been an unfolding one. I have been following through with this “Challenge 21″ my pastor put before our church two weeks ago, it is a challenge to go four weeks five days a week in the Word of God studying it daily and getting to know the heart of God. I have drawn closer to God through this challenge and I have developed a dependence upon this time with God to preserver through the day.

So what does this all mean? Well ironically enough as I write this blog entry I had a very similarly related study in the Word today with my “Challenge 21″. I studied Mark 8:1-13 and I want to share this passage from it Mark 8:11-12

“The Pharisees came and began to question Jesus. To test him, they asked him for a sign from heaven. He sighed deeply and said, “Why does this generation ask for a miraculous sign? I tell you the truth; no sign will be given to it.”

From this passage I learned this, don’t test God, just believe in him, and don’t always be looking for signs and miracles. The world displays a “dog eat dog” mentality but that’s not the way of the Kingdom. The world needs proof to believe but the way of God and his Kingdom is faith without sight. Trust in him, that his motives are good. He loves it when you trust in him and have faith in him without sight or signs. We as Kingdom people need to show others that faith is to be valued and faith brings about life change. Faith is based in relationship with the Resurrected Christ.