The Greatest Truth of the Ages - God never changes; He is Immutable.
And this may be the most difficult thing for us to understand because humans are in a constant cycle of change throughout our lives.
In the weeks and months since my healing, I have struggled with many issues.
I have joked about the fact when a person is dying, people are much nicer and friendlier toward them. Well, the friendliness and niceties have pretty much ceased and an unfortunate thing has happened - life returned to normal.
Another issue I have had is that when I woke up and knew that I had been healed and would live for many more years - I awoke with a new vigor, a renewed sense of purpose; a reignited fire for God.
Sadly, not everyone shares my enthusiasm; in fact, the once raging fire is becoming smoldering embers very quickly.
It is as if - 'Well, its over now so we can all go back to living and doing what we were doing before.'
And if this is the case, the entire purpose behind the healing hand of God is gone and forgotten. It breaks a grown man's heart to think that a spiritual experience with God by so many has been ended because the goal has been achieved.
Maybe I should feel lucky and blessed; most stop growing in their experience with the Lord immediately after the day they're baptized.
God's work in redemption and in physical healing is to simply undo what man has done. If He chooses to redeem or to heal and restore anew - a person must ask what the purpose behind such an event is from God's perspective.
I have seen and read books about healing, books about salvation, books about preaching, books about the Bible, books about God, books about Christianity and books about every moral/ethical issue that exists - all from the 'Christian' perspective.
And I have come to one conclusion about it all - We have too many scribes.
Yes, we have too many people writing about experience and knowledge of God and not enough people teaching what it means to have an experience with God and experiencing God themselves. Very few have heard of the truisms of saints of old, such as the explanatory purpose of our existence from Augustine of Hippo:
'Thou hast formed us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless till they find rest in Thee.'
That's right - God has formed us for Himself, for His pleasure, for His usage and for His service among His Body in His Creation.
In the modern church today, many have claimed to have knowledge of God, but His presence is lacking from their lives. God's presence in our lives is not a mystical, emotional feeling. God's presence is a conscious experience which occurs through the power of the Holy Spirit and the Truth of His Holy Word.
And the truth is that our world is perishing while the Church is famished for want of His presence.
No, today we survive on junk food in the Body of Christ.
We make meals on the sugar highs of want 'feels good' to our senses or desires; moving from fad to fad, like drunks in a fog not knowing where we are going next.
We feast on the overloaded carbohydrates of 'programs' which make our church pews swell like our mid-section, but does little to nourish the spirit.
We dine at the table of greed - constantly wanting more and more; while we are gluttonous for things, objects and image - we have very little to show for what Christ has already given us.
Yes, today we are perishing, starving to death because we do not have the Bread of Life in our presence and we are dying for our lack of knowledge of God.
One of the greatest images from the Old Testament with implications toward the New Testament and Christ is the fact that God was behind a veil in the Temple. When Christ died, the curtain which separated the Most Holy Place from the rest of the Temple, split from top to bottom.
This was a sign from God that the His presence was now open to all people who would come to Him by faith in His Son.
Despite this fact, a tragedy of the modern church is that we have covered God again, placing Him behind a veil and keeping Him hidden.
Whether by legalism or by stupidity and ignorance; to many who claim Jesus as their Savior, He is a hidden, not a revealed, Lord.
No longer do we hear sermons about the doctrine of suffering, or teachings on humility.
Instead, we let self-righteousness be promoted, while self-sufficiency is glorified as faith.
We see an overwhelming measure of self-confidence and self-love all too common in the spirit and actions of church and denominational leaders.
These things are generally promoted under the guise of presenting Christ as a 'regular guy.'
And it has become so common to become involved in such sacrilege, no one notices because many have never really seen a person with or had themselves an experience with the Living God.
I pray as you read these words, from wherever in the world you may be, you do not see this through anger or despair, but as a call to a return to the holiness and passion for our Living Lord.
What has happened in our age is that we have neglected righteousness in Christ, we have ignored His deliverance and have opted to veil the real for what is only real in the moment.
This veil can only be removed by a spiritual experience with God.
Friend, there are many today who say morality changes and that we shouldn't 'judge' those who believe differently even if they are trying to destroy the Christian faith - but I beg to differ. Recently, I lost a friend over the false issue of 'Marriage Equality,' being told that this person just knew it was right because it felt right.
It didn't matter what God had said in His Word, only a personal thought by a human mattered as to the authority of the issue.
We are either with the Lord or we stand opposed to the Lord; there can be no gray areas or questionable morality/integrity in the Kingdom.
Yet, our self-righteousness is but one veil which hides the living God, His eternal moral Law and His Son from our presence.
You see, God is immutable - He never changes.
To change a person would need to go from better to worse OR from worse to better. God cannot do either of these because He is PERFECT in every way.
If it would be possible for God to change, He would be less than God. In fact, He would be no better than humanity who is constantly changing.
Therefore, if God does not change, neither can His Word - for it too is eternal.
Regardless of what our personal issue is in our lives - homosexual issues, divorce, stifled faith, hypocritical challenges toward you, gossip or something much worse - there is only way to remove these veils that cover God from your life.
That One way is to have a personal, real, true experience with Christ; it has always been this way.
What split the veil of the Temple so many years ago is the same thing that must be used to split the veils that cover God in our lives and allow sin and ourselves to rule. It is the power of Christ's death and also His resurrecting power.
Without Question - the Cross is as rough as it is deadly; but the Cross is also effective in what it does. To have an experience with Christ, we must go to the Cross and at the Cross someone must die. In effect, we must die daily, giving over the worst of who we are and allowing Him to come to life within us.
This is possible because on the Cross, the victim doesn't stay there forever.
There is a time, a time after death when a resurrection must take place; and when it does, the pain is forgotten of losing what we once were and is replaced by an unspeakable joy.
Remember, the cure to any spiritual problem is a true experience with the Lord Jesus Christ who lives within us; He is immutable but He will change your life if you let Him.
Until next time, try to win one for the good guys.
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