Where We Must Dwell

"There is no way up except to walk with God."

A TEENAGE BOY, videoed by his mother, can tell you the day of the week of any date, any month, of any year, spanning hundreds of years. All he has to do is think, and he knows. Genesis tells us Adam named all creatures, then it makes this inane remark that “there was not an help meet for him (Genesis 2:20).” “Help meet” being two words, “help” a noun and “meet” an adverb. There was not a help (meaning a woman) meet, meaning “over against” him. In other words, it was just Adam. So naming everything came from the immense capability of the human brain of just one human.

Years ago, I saw a video of another young man who would take a flight over London then, when he landed and was back at home, make a wall-sized drawing in intricate detail of what he saw from memory. Not from education or training but from talent within himself. Returning to Adam, we find his son, Cain, lying in order to kill his brother, Abel. From such immense God-created capability in his father, who could name all created beings, we then see self-centered jealousy descending into violence.

There is no way up except to walk with God. What selfish man tries to do in himself will never lift him up to any permanent heights. It will not give him eternity. Our potential is God’s idea alone. Turn now to Israel’s line of kings. Israel begged to have a king so they would look like other nations, when God wanted them to be different. He said they’d rejected Him (1 Samuel 8:7). God wrote the Law, as He did, so that they’d put Him first and walk in obedience, no longer falling into selfish ways. I mean, Moses goes up the mountain to commune with God, and they make a calf out of gold, dub it their salvation, and begin to worship in lewd and disgusting ways (Exodus 32:1). Just that quick, they forgot their Deliverer. And years later, even when the prophet tells them what will happen if they have a king, they still insist on having it their way (1 Samuel 8:19).

So God gives them Saul, who eventually, because of sin, has his kingship removed. He decided to bring the sacrifice to the altar on his own and not wait for the High Priest (1 Samuel 13:10). He chose to keep the spoils of war that God commanded him to destroy (1 Samuel 15:14). God then selects David, and because the anointing is now on him, King Saul loses his mind and plots David’s murder. For 20+ years. Skipping to King David’s heir, Solomon, we find infighting amongst David’s other sons and an attempt at a coup. We see the temple dedicated, and it so filled with God’s glory that people physically couldn’t stand up (1 Kings 8:11) and then read of Solomon’s horde of wives and his worship atop the high places (1 Kings 11:7). The kingdom divided into Israel and Judah, after his reign, just as he’d prophesied it would (1 Kings 3:25).

Without God’s life in us, without His wisdom, we can’t control the abundance of what He gave us. Adam sinned deliberately and then had to work to plant seeds to have them produce fruit. He’d fallen from God’s creativity, there are so very many animals on this earth, to a lot of sweat and tears. In contrast, the Remedy Translation of 2 Timothy 1:9-10 tells us Jesus “in his human brain loved perfectly.” In Luke 4:1, of Him it says, “Jesus, with his human mind filled with the Holy Spirit.” Now, here’s the thing, as I sometimes say. Salvation saves the spirit of man. The Holy Spirit moves in and makes us all brand new (2 Corinthians 5:17). We are filled with eternal life. The healing of the mind, though, any change of our choices and thought patterns, the healing of memories and mental trauma, are held in His care.

“And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God.” (Romans 12:2)

The Scripture calls this the “renewing of the mind”, and many in the church have made this an individual’s own job. As if God is waiting on us to accomplish it. We do have to lean into the process. But the heart of God is for it to be peaceful. God heals the mind so that we are at peace. God heals the brain so that our mind functions as He designed it. And we have such a vast capacity. To love, far beyond our human means. To design, all workmanship is God’s. To lead, Jesus learned to be King by obedience, even to death. This is where we must dwell.

I was thinking today about the three Hebrew boys, friends of the prophet Daniel, who were seen walking with God in the fiery furnace. Do you get that image? They were human, unable to even approach that sort of heat. The guards who tossed them in, died of it (Daniel 3:22). Yet, they emerged not even smelling like smoke. I want my life to reflect what God did in me. I’m not perfect, far from it, but forgiveness I have totally embraced. It’s okay for me to be me. And potential in Him is huge and exceeding anything I could think up. Not necessarily as heights of authority over men or any way they might view me, but of seeing from God’s point-of-view. In that moment of time, was I hearing His standard or succumbing to my own? Were those tears at the love of a father for his adopted son just mine or ours?

I’m done with man’s image of a hateful, angry, judgmental God. If this is who you see, then you are wrong. He died so you would know Him better, so you would come up higher, so there’d be less of you in your vision, perhaps none at all, and all of Him.

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” (John 3:16-17)

Photo by Jukan Tateisi on Unsplash


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