This is something the Lord has been revealing to me for a few years now so I have had time to process it. It is important to view this from several perspectives so that is why this is so long. I am convinced He wants His people to understand this because it will transform the way Christians see God, perceive His love, and understand their purpose.
This idea, this concept, and these thoughts were all new to me and challenged my current theology. Some of you may have already seen this in scripture and be aware of it. If so I would love your insights. If this is new to you, I welcome any feedback or questions you may have.
I think one of the main purposes of a prophet is to rightly divide and interpret God’s written word. If a prophet does not embrace this aspect of his calling, I don’t think he will be as accurate as he could be when interpreting and relaying a spoken word. To rightly divide the written word I have found that we must train ourselves to NOT lean too heavily on preconceived ideology or even our learned theology. Every generation should be rising to higher places in the understanding of God’s word. We can’t be afraid to put something out there that goes against current popular beliefs.
Many of my encounters with God have come while reading the Bible because I ask questions and make comments to God as I am reading along. I think it wise to always endeavor to make reading the Bible a conversation, an interaction, not just an exercise in gathering information.
One day I was reading in the book of Proverbs and came to this passage.
Proverbs 25:2-3 It is the glory of God to conceal a matter,
But the glory of kings is to search out a matter.
3 As the heavens for height and the earth for depth,
So the heart of kings is unsearchable.
As I read verse three, I was reminded that Christians are Kings and priests according to scripture. Revelation 1:6, and 5:10, say we are all Kings and Priests unto our God. As I was meditating on this statement, “As the Heavens for height and the Earth for depth, so MY HEART as a king is unsearchable,” I spoke this out loud; “God, I thank You for making my heart unsearchable by everyone but You.”
I wasn’t expecting a response from God, but He immediately spoke up and said, “No, Jack, I have made your heart unsearchable even by Me. This is why it is impossible to please me without faith. It is only through your demonstrated faith in Me that your heart is revealed.”
I had to put down the Bible and chew on that one for a minute. God was saying to me that He purposely lays aside His ability to see my future in favor of engaging me in the mystery of a relationship. This was a huge shock to me!
To understand the Love of God, we need to understand that God loves mystery. Specifically, He loves the mystery of relationships. God creates mystery. We see it throughout scripture.
We need to lay aside the foolish arguments over free will versus predestination and humble ourselves to the fact that God’s thoughts and ways are higher than ours. It is not one or the other, He was showing me that it is both!
God will always choose to lay aside His foreknowledge in favor of a loving relationship.
We are sovereign beings with the right to make choices without any outside influence. Would a holy God make us sovereign if He already knew every choice we would make? What would be the point? Being sovereign may be a new thought for some but consider this: Our ability to say NO to our creator makes us sovereign individuals.
This concept may challenge your understanding of God but when you see the numerous examples throughout scripture, it will make you love Him more and understand Him better.
Proverbs 25:2 It is the glory of God to conceal things, but the glory of kings is to search things out.
It is God’s glory to create a mystery. Jesus Christ is the greatest of God’s mysteries, and it is our great honor to search for it. But God does not ask us to do anything that He hasn’t done or will not do Himself.
Proverbs 25:3 As the heavens for height, and the earth for depth, so the heart of kings is unsearchable.
God purposely makes the king’s heart, our heart, unsearchable. Even for Himself.
When we are born again, we are born of royalty. Within each of our hearts, God deposits His Seed and creates a new mysterious being that never existed before. Within that incorruptible seed, are gifts and graces to help shape and develop us. God is excited about that! He has great expectations of seeing how that seed matures and expresses itself as our unique personalities develop.
While it is our glory to search out the mysteries of God. It is His glory to search out and discover the mystery of who we are in Him and watch it unfold in our lives. He loves the discovery process of our journey. He loves relationships. He loves surprises.
Have you ever considered that you have the ability to surprise God? Many theologians would scoff at the idea. Consider this scripture.
Hebrews 8:12 For I will be merciful to their unrighteousness, and their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.
If God can choose to remember our sins no more, at the very least, we must entertain the possibility that He could choose not to use His foreknowledge.
God loves sharing every milestone of our growth and development and delights in experiencing them with us. He loves every little step we take toward Him. He loves it when we choose life over death. He loves it when we run to Him for help. He loves it when we believe.
Like any good Father, He enjoys the spontaneity and expectation of an intimate relationship. How boring it would be to know in advance every decision His children would ever make. How could He possibly get angry at His children when He knows in advance the decisions they will make?
The Old Testament speaks volumes about this concept if you are paying attention.
Everything God does is relational. God prefers the joy of relationship over His ability to see our every move and choice. The mystery of who we are is one of His greatest joys. We have the ability to surprise the creator of the universe. We also have the ability to disappoint Him. How can we disappoint someone who already knows the outcome? It is impossible.
He loves the mystery of who we are, and He celebrates our journey toward life and peace in Him. We are in a relationship with Love Himself, so know that He is always thinking and believing the best of us. We have a responsibility in this relationship to request His involvement. To allow His correction and instruction, and to give ourselves whole-heartedly to reading and understanding His written word so we can comprehend His thoughts and intentions toward us.
Why Faith pleases God.
Our hearts can only be revealed to Him through our words and actions. How we interact with Him, acknowledge Him, prefer Him, or even ignore Him tells Him exactly what we think and how we feel about Him. He doesn’t need foreknowledge to understand that any more than we do.
Like any good father. He will challenge us and test us to see how we respond. Living in this fallen and corrupt world brings plenty of challenges already, however he knows the areas we need development in and will purposely put us in situations that will require His involvement.
When our faith is tested, our heart is revealed, and He takes that faith and refines it. Therefore, faith pleases Him, and trials and testing are important.
Jeremiah 17:9-10 The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?
10 “I the Lord search the heart and test the mind, to give every man according to his ways, according to the fruit of his deeds.”
This may seem like a contradiction to Proverbs 25:3 but it isn’t. God searches our hearts by seeing how we respond to testing. Notice that He gives according to our “ways and deeds.” In other words, He gives according to how we respond to the testing.
Why would God search, and test if He already knows the answer? Why did He ask Adam and Eve four questions in the Garden of Eden after they fell? Let’s look at this dialogue.
Genesis 3:8-13 And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 So he said, “I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?”
12 Then the man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.”
13 And the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?”
The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
I have always been taught that God already knew the answers to the questions He was asking. I was taught that He asked them for Adam’s sake. I no longer believe that. There are too many examples throughout the Bible that support the idea that God prefers relationships over His ability to use His foreknowledge.
We see it in the next chapter when God questions Cain about where his brother is and asks him, “What have you done?”
Let’s look at another significant passage that proves God doesn’t always use his foreknowledge.
Genesis 22:10-12 And Abraham stretched out his hand and took the knife to slay his son.
11 But the Angel of the Lord called to him from heaven and said, “Abraham, Abraham!” So he said, “Here I am.”
12 And He said, “Do not lay your hand on the lad, or do anything to him; for now I know that you fear God, since you have not withheld your son, your only son, from Me.”
This is maybe the most significant act of faith demonstrated in the Old Testament. Why did He allow Abraham to go so far into this test? Didn’t God already know what Abraham would do? Why did God stop Abraham from sacrificing Isaac at the very last minute and make the comment, “Now I know that you fear God?”
Because God didn’t know. Because God needed a man to willingly offer up his son as a blood sacrifice to God, giving God the legal, covenant right to send His only begotten Son on our behalf to become the blood sacrifice that saves the world.
Can you imagine the excitement, anticipation, emotions, and joy that God must have been experiencing when Abraham was in the process of passing this test? It changes your perspective on who God is and how He thinks.
God loves walking through the trials, and the fires, the purging and the pruning, the testing, and the valleys. All to see the brightness of our rising, the perfecting of His chosen vessels.
We are the glory of His great mystery. Vessels that are being tested, shaped, and molded. We are no common vessels to be filled with common things, but vessels with a glorious purpose. To house the very presence of the Almighty God.
Understanding this has helped me see God in a completely different light. It has given me a better understanding of the scriptures and of my relationship with the Father.
Everything God does is relational by design. He desires to be involved with us in an intimate relationship during our journey. It is our journey of faith, but as we humble ourselves to embrace His great work, revealing the mystery of who we are and what we believe, we allow Him the honor of sanctifying our journey with His involvement. It is the most magnificent of all relationships.
I have concluded that God loves a mystery. Especially the mystery of our journey back to Him. This is something I have learned through my personal devotion and relationship with Him. I know some are not going to agree with me. I don’t feel the need to prove I am right either. But at this point, it would take an awful lot of convincing to make me believe otherwise.
God bless you all!
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