Words are powerful. Back in the day, the chorus in a song went something like this, they’re only words, but words are all I have to take your heart away. I am not certain why the words burned themselves so deeply into my mind, but they did.
I posted a new page, https://www.churchsimplified.org/capture-or-be-captured/ , that deals with the importance of words, and how the enemy uses them to capture the Christ-follower. After all, they are only words.
If we are not careful, we entertain words that have the potential to kill us. I find it amazing that after walking with God my entire life, I am just now beginning to see some of these simple truths.
The basis of Church Simplified is a simplistic approach to knowing God—what I have been calling the godhead, God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit. Draw me close to you, is the cry of my heart. The Old Testament King and Psalmist, David, penned it this way, “Create in me a clean heart O God, and renew a right spirit within me.” I find this interesting given the fact that God himself reveals to his prophet, that David, the Son of Jesse, is a man after my own heart.
Wow! Such an accolade, and yet David cries out to that same God saying, create a clean heart in me. Perhaps the lesson to be learned is the constant dependence on the godhead and not our ability.
The thing I am finding most remarkable about this journey to a close personal relationship with God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit, is just how simple it is. It isn’t about “doing” but being—honest, open, and candid with God.
It isn’t about pretense—doing, saying, or being what I think He wants me to do or say or be; it about simply being who God has made me be.
It isn’t about checking off a list of “things” I have completed, but rather checking in by being quiet in his presence.
A close personal relationship with the godhead is simply being present, being real, and being open to whatever God has in store.
In the New Testament, Jesus teaches the disciples to pray, “Our Father in heaven, your name is holy, your kingdom come, your will be done.” For years I prayed that prayer thinking it meant that God would lavish me with good things, comfort, and an easy life—in Christ.
Here is the reality, it does not work that way. God the Father is focused on your eternity with him, not your momentary comfort or convenience. If the focus of your life is here and now, you are going to be most miserable as a Christ-follower. In the New Testament, the Apostle Paul was told how greatly he would suffer for the cause of Christ. The Apostle Peter was told how he would die to honor Christ.
A close personal relationship with the godhead is learning how to shift your focus from temporal to eternal.