Progressive Relationship

 Proverbs 1:2-4

  To know wisdom and instruction, to perceive the words of understanding; To receive the instruction of wisdom, justice, and judgment, and equity, To give subtilty to the simple, to the young man knowledge and discretion.

     Man was created to know God. Man was created to perceive God. Man was created to receive God. Man was created to give unto God. Man was created by God to be his glorified  reflection in the earth. Man was to use his life to worship and glorify God. He was to do it out of a true loving relationship with God and not out of some kind of religious obligation toward God.

     In short and keeping things simple, man is to know, perceive, receive and give God, first to himself, and then to all those around him who he is responsible to influence. Anyone who comes to Christ and receives him, must first be given information about Jesus Christ. This is the beginning of getting to know him.

      They then must perceive the information to the point of awareness realizing and understanding that the information given is true. Once they become aware of Jesus Christ, they must now receive who he is, the way he is, without any alterations. After receiving Jesus Christ, then they give or share what they have received to as many as has ears to hear what they carry.

     What then does it mean to know God? To know God means to develop a personal relationship with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit by meeting and spending time with them. Only through Jesus Christ alone is this possible. Through observation and progressive information a progressive relationship with God through Christ is established and maintained. It is impossible to know everything about God. It is possible to be trained in his revealed ways. The things he has revealed to us through his holy word can bring us progressively closer in relationship with him.

     The bible says " For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways, says the Lord." God makes it clear that the way we thinks is different from the way he think. He made us in his image to operate as he does. He also makes it clear that our ways are not his ways even though we were designed by God to walk in his ways. We were never designed to operate in the ways of the world. We were never created to be trained in the ways of the world.

     When we are exposed to the word of God, we are being presented with the way God thinks about life because his business is life. We are being given through the word of God, the right way to live life. It is nothing less than the operation manual for mankind. This word was conceived in the Spirit to be downloaded into the soul of man. 

     The mind of man is where the information about God is stored until the will of man decides what to do with it. Information about God can also be observed in all his creation. The word of God speaks his mind and the creations of God demonstrates his glory. To know God means to be aware of God through information and observation that leads to progressive relationship on different levels.

     To perceive God means more than just having information about God. You can have information about someone and still not know them at all. To perceive God means that you have become God conscious. You believe that God is real. You have a level of understanding because of your awareness of him. You come to realize that God exists and you want to know and experience more of him.

     To move from information about God into a relationship with God one must receive God on his terms. The word makes it clear that anyone that desires a relationship with God must first receive his son Jesus Christ as their Lord. Jesus was sent by God the Father to reconnect us to the Father after being separated from him by our sins. Jesus gave himself as the payment for our sins. It is only fitting that we must receive him in order to receive God.

     Once we have received God through Jesus Christ, we must then like Jesus begin to give unto God and others what we have received from God. We must learn the ways of Jesus Christ because the ways of Jesus Christ are the ways of God. As we learn the ways of Jesus Christ, we use them to obey God and share the God way of life with others by just simply walking in the ways of God before all those we encounter in our daily walk. It is important to note here that Jesus also came to earth to model before man the ways of God so that we would have a perfect example to follow in the way man was originally created to live life. Therefore, when we walk in the ways of Jesus Christ, we are walking in the ways of true life.

     A good example of the progressive walking in the way of God can be seen  in the life of the prophet Moses. Moses was trained from a child in the ways of the world. He was trained in the ways of Egypt. His stepmother was Pharaoh's daughter. This means he was trained from a child in the highest ways of Egyptian life. This includes all the Egyptian gods that he was trained to serve and worship. 

     There can a time in the life of Moses that he understood he was not an Egyptian by birth but in fact he was born a Hebrew. When he saw the unfair treatment of the Hebrews by the Egyptians, anger boiled over from inside him that caused him to kill an Egyptian. This forced him to leave all he knew up to this point and go hid in the desert for fear of his life. Needless to say, he felt like this was a very low point in his life. The anger inside him caused him to be rejected by both the Egyptians and Hebrews. He had no identity or source to call on to bring him peace. He was just a reject. 

     He hid in the desert for forty years with this attitude. It took forty years for Moses to come to a place in his soul where he could move passed all the stuff that he had put his trust in over the years. He had been trained to accept many gods from his Egyptian instructors, so when he began to hear about the God of the Hebrews, it was just another god on a list of gods that could not help him to change his life. We should note here that only the God of life can transform lives. 

     Moses had forty years of information about the gods of Egypt and forty years to call on them to help him in the desert. At the end of that forty years in the desert, when no help came from the gods of Egypt, is when  the God of the Hebrews called on Moses. He had heard about this God now it was time to meet him and be trained in his ways. It did not come till he no longer trusted the gods of Egypt. I believe this to be true for us all. We all must come to a time when we say the ways of the world can not save us, we need God!

     Moses had information about God but did not perceive God until he saw a bush that was burning but was not being consumed. When he stopped to look closer this is when he heard God speak to him for the first time. This was the first time he heard God and obeyed what he heard God say for him to do. This was the first time of many times that Moses perceived God.

     It was also at the burning bush that Moses received God for the first of many times. This is the place where the earthy relationship between God and Moses came to life. The first thing that God instructed Moses to do was to take off his shoes because he was on holy ground. God let Moses know first where he was before he began to teach Moses who he was and who Moses really was.

     It was at this place that God told Moses what to call him. He told Moses I AM that I AM. He said to call him I AM and to go and tell his people that I AM sent him to them. God began a relationship with Moses and desired Moses to take what he received from God and go give it to others. This pattern of progressive relationship followed Moses his entire walk with God on earth and beyond. Everything God took Moses through was for the purpose of progressing their relationship. Everything that God allowed Moses and the children of Israel to see was to prove to them and to the world that he was the one and only true living God.

     God is still doing the same thing today in our time. He has allowed the world to become what it has so that we can make a clear distinction between the world and what we want, compared to what he actually created us to be. It is his plan for us that will meet and fulfill all our needs and wants as it pertains to life. 

     Therefore just follow the perfect plan that God has given to us. Know God through Jesus Christ. Perceive God through Jesus Christ. Receive God through Jesus Christ and give what you received from Jesus Christ to others. This is the plan of God for us all and it will not fail. So to everyone receiving these words today, keep your eyes open for your burning bush, for this is the place where God desires to reveal more of himself to you for the purpose of increased relationship with you. This is where your true equity, judgement, justice and wisdom will be found so that you may be trained in the way to walk with God. So just keep on walking and I will see you along the way in Jesus name amen.

                                                                                    Apostle Henry

      Please use the following scriptures for bible study. Please address  any comments or questions to oneaccordmin@gmail.com. If you desire to follow this blog, please do so by connecting thru blogger.com. We would love to hear from you. Know that Jesus is Lord and he lives in you! Amen!

       Proverbs 1:2-4                Exodus 3:1-15

We all will one day have our time at the burning bush with God. It is there what we heard about God begins to become real for us. It is here that we begin to trust him and our progressive relationship with him starts.