What Are You Looking At?

"We read and see judgment. We should read, instead, and see mercy."

GOD IS THE MOST MISREPRESENTED being in existence. No one else tolerates slander and incorrect representation more without saying anything. Jesus sets this example in the gospels, when He spoke nothing against what was said about Him and was condemned to the cross. Pilate even remarked on His silence.

The truth is, God would rather be silent, and you think wrong about Him for a time than to speak and cause confusion, fear, anxiety, or anger. In fact, He will not cause any of those things.

“Consider the significance of all that Christ has done: The all-powerful Creator permitted his creatures to torture and kill him rather than use his power against them! So don’t get tired, or give up, or lose heart.” (Hebrews 12:3, Remedy)

People ask why He isn’t speaking, and it isn’t always to teach you something. It is never to make you suffer. But it is often to keep us from going further into error. He is still with you, but when He speaks, He speaks knowing you will finally hear Him. There is an ending promised in Scripture where every eye will see Him and know He is real and alive and that the Bible has contained His truth all this time, and some will be surprised and even in denial (which is hard to believe, but it is easier to defend yourself than it is to admit you are wrong sometimes). But until then, He allows many to picture Him as hard and uncaring and label it the fear of God. He allows others to say He made them how they are, when He saved them from all the work of the enemy.

He seeks to reveal Himself to the heart. He desires to be known. Jesus revealed Him in the Word of God, but if we believe wrongly (as is evidenced by there being an estimated 45,000 different Christian denominations), we can’t all be right, then He is patient and longsuffering toward us. We are the reason for His longsuffering. He waits for us to have a heart ready to hear Him, ready to see and understand.

Some seek a sign. They seek an extraordinary happening without having the maturity to treasure it, to see Him in it. There are things revealed to some because they know how to steward (a popular -ism) what they’ve seen. To “steward” means they keep it to themselves and have no hunger for attention or fame because of it.

Not due to personality type. I suspect Jesus was an extrovert, yet He spent great time in prayer alone and didn’t show everything to everyone. He told His disciples that the revelation of the parables was for them specifically because they had eyes to see and ears to hear. He warned Peter, James, and John to not talk of what happened on the Mount of Transfiguration until after He’d risen from the dead. It isn’t about personality. But that what God reveals is meant for those who are ready to hold fast to it.

“Therefore, since we are surrounded with so much evidence of God’s goodness and with so many people who have experienced God’s healing power that comes through trust, let us rid ourselves of everything that obscures our view of God (and of selfishness with its desires that so easily distract and damage) and let us diligently finish the treatment course laid out for us.” (Hebrews 12:1, Remedy)

“…God will finally and fully reveal himself and remove the lies that have misrepresented him, thus purifying all things so that all things in harmony with him will remain.” (Hebrews 12:27, Remedy)

He does not need protection. He is the Almighty. But does the farmer invite the crows to come see the seed? Does he uncover the corn so that any creature can feast on it? Or is a portion left for those who are weary, and God knows just who they are and when to feed them? Can you force-feed a toddler a porterhouse steak? We seek the One who makes the signs, who does the wonder. A rich man doesn’t open his bank account and call for new friends. We desire to be known for who we are. God desires us to know Him as well as we know ourselves. He wants us to have revelation, which we treasure, but we must be mature enough, wise enough, to take care of it when it is received. And until then, He will sometimes say nothing, not to frustrate us, but to save us and to heal our thinking.

We’re waiting on God to drop the hammer. We’re reading the Word of God, seeking for the axe which is about to fall on someone. We read and see judgment. We should read, instead, and see mercy.

How do you go into reading a portion of Scripture? I learned this from reading fiction. Adjust your mindset before you begin. Are you reading to enjoy it? Then determine to overlook minor faults. Are you reading to edit it? Then you must see everything. To read Scripture, we are not there to edit, nor to prove/disprove doctrine. We do not read to correct what’s written. That will cause you to overlook important truths because you will be too busy seeing those faults. Do not read to prove/disprove doctrine. Tell yourself, “Even if this does not agree with what I know, I will listen to the Spirit and learn and not cling tight to what I know.”

I have found that I can learn from those I disagree with. A couple years ago, the Spirit had me listen to a preacher who was not of like beliefs, and though he said some things in other places which I disagreed with, he believed in Jesus as Savior and Lord and in another sermon taught me something which I needed to know. I have had this experience at other times. If I find myself criticizing the speaker instead of listening to the Spirit speak through them to me, and to me about the subject (an inner witness of the Holy Spirit), only when I stop myself and let the issues go which were in the forefront of my thinking, do I begin to truly hear. Those hearing Jesus speak parables were hearing the stories but not the truths behind them. The Beatitude chapters in Matthew, also, are charged with words directed at the religious groups who were criticizing Him with every other breath, and yet, if you read their law (Leviticus 19) it is a mirror image of what Jesus said. Love one another.

Don’t read the Word of God to prove your point or to disprove someone else’s point. Read it to hear God speaking. Jesus said His sheep know His voice. The Word of God is His voice. His life reveals the Father, and the Spirit speaks of Him continually. We read to know them – their character, their nature, how they work. If as we read, we stumble over a portion, we must ask the Holy Spirit to reveal it to us. Ask for revelation (Eph 1:17). Don’t camp there and become frustrated. Frustration solves nothing. Don’t toss out everything you’ve heard just because something wasn’t clear to you. Don’t read looking for what is odd either. There is a difference between seeking understanding and looking for a move of God and the gifts of God to manifest and that moment when you’ve begun to focus on “the weird” and are neglecting the foundations of truth.

All of this comes down to wisdom, and it translates into how we approach and talk to people. Does God criticize that minister who preached something incorrect? Or does He love him and desire for him to pray and call on Him? It is the latter. God hears prayers even if the pray-er is wrong on everything.

“Continue to always be conduits of God’s love and keep on loving each other as brothers and sisters.” (Hebrews 13:1)

Image by mohd fairuz abd rahman from Pixabay


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Suzanne D. Williams, Author
www.suzannedwilliams.com
www.feelgoodromance.com