Can God be confined to a box???
I believe we all agree with the truth that God's ways are higher than our ways and no mortal can attain a full comprehension of God's ways... But then we are often tempted to think that we can predict God's actions or reactions based on how we saw Him act in the past in a similar situation; So we subconsciously limit God to a pattern based on our limited knowledge of His ways...
However, a look at the life of Jesus Christ Who lived as a revelation of how God Himself would live if He were to be a man on Earth; We find that Jesus did not always follow a predictable pattern in the things He did, especially in the area of working of miracles... He healed sometimes by laying hands, other times by speaking a word, and one time He anointed a blind man with a mixture of saliva and clay; yet all those actions produced same healing result...
Then sometimes He paid tax by taking money from the money-bag, and one time He gets money from a fish's mouth... Then a few times He miraculously multiplied bread and fish to feed His hungry followers, other times He let them go to feed themselves... Then sometimes He takes the boat with the Disciples, and one time He walked on water to meet the Disciples in the boat... Sometimes He would say short prayers, other times He would say long prayers...
So the question is: As the Son of God being as all-powerful as God; Why did He employ different means, when He could simply just follow the same routine and produce the needed result? After-all the miracles happened ultimately because of Who He is, and not necessarily because of the process or steps He followed...
Then the other question is: Why does the believer need a consistent relationship with God and a close fellowship and sensitivity to the Holy Spirit in daily life? If one could simply learn all the possible ways God acts or reacts in every given situation, or learn how God would provide the answer to one's prayer or attend to one's needs...
Recall that even after Jesus returned to Heaven, the Early Apostles saw other dimensions of God they did not experience while Jesus was still with them... For instance, Peter's shadow healing the sick or an Angel breaking Peter out of prison... And I believe they themselves would have been amazed at some of the new manifestations they were seeing, even though Jesus had told them ahead of time that they would do greater works than He did...
Therefore, I am of the view that if our expectations in our dealings with God is based purely on the patterns we've seen Him use in the past, we will likely limit God from revealing some other possibilities in Him which we may be unaware of... Because even when He is the One working, we would likely not recognize it, because He is not speaking in the language we understand from our limited knowledge about His ways...
My point is: As we are often encouraged to think out-of-the-box in our approach to life, we must also learn to take God out of the box of any limiting religious mindsets we may have, so that He can be free to reveal Himself to us in more uncommon and supernatural ways, as we set our hearts to obey His sometimes unusual instructions, so long as we are certain that the leading is from the Holy Spirit and it is in agreement with the Word of God and the nature of God...
On another point; Lets also be reminded that only Jesus Christ had the ability to reveal all of God's nature and possibilities, because He had the Spirit of God without measure; No other man can have such full grasp of all of the multifaceted dimensions of God; because if that were the case, there wouldn't have been a need for the diverse spiritual leadership ministry gifts (that is Pastors, Evangelists, Prophets, Apostles, and Teachers); Just as there are also diverse gifts of the Spirit of which no one man can have them all working all the time; And you can be sure that if such a man ever existed, he would've been called a 'god' and worshipped by many today...
So in essence, I am saying we should not limit God and our spiritual growth by believing that the dimension of God I see in 'my church' or 'my pastor' is all there is about God and His ways, but rather we should also be open to be blessed by other ministry gifts in the Body of Christ too, even though we should remain loyal and dedicated to our various local assemblies and our spiritual leaders...
So in essence, I am saying we should not limit God and our spiritual growth by believing that the dimension of God I see in 'my church' or 'my pastor' is all there is about God and His ways, but rather we should also be open to be blessed by other ministry gifts in the Body of Christ too, even though we should remain loyal and dedicated to our various local assemblies and our spiritual leaders...
Also, it is also important that we be aware that God can speak to us through the Holy Spirit within us at anytime and anywhere... It must not always be in Church or on Sundays only, and it must not always be during our fixed daily devotion time, even though your spirit and mind are more sensitive and open to the voice of God during such focused and dedicated times... But that is what having a relationship with God means; there is no special time-table for communication in any great relationship...
More so, God is a Spirit, and the ways of the Spirit are like the ways of the wind; the ways of God cannot always be predicted nor can He be restricted to one pattern, and that is what makes Him God... Therefore, we should take the limits off, take God out of the box, and make room for flexibility and divine interruptions in our walk with God; As that is part of the recipe for a progressive and exciting spiritual adventure in God...
📖 Isaiah 55:8-9 (NKJV) says:
“For My thoughts are not your thoughts, nor are your ways My ways,” says the LORD. “For as the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways, And My thoughts than your thoughts."
📖 Jeremiah 32:27 (NKJV) says:
“Behold, I am the LORD, the God of all flesh. Is there anything too hard for Me?"
Then 📖 Luke 18:27 (NIV) says:
"Jesus replied, “What is impossible with man is possible with God."
And I pray, may we keep growing in our knowledge of God Who has drawn us to Himself by His love, and desires to reveal His multifaceted and multidimensional ways in and through us, in ways beyond all our thoughts and imaginations; in Jesus name. Amen!!!
Thank you for reading!
#JesusChristIsLORD
#GODisStillinCharge
